Chelsea, where are Parts One and Two?
Well funny story, I can’t publish them yet! So while you will get to read them, I have no idea when that will be. Rather than leaving everyone hanging, I figured we’d just skip to Part Three for the time being. When you eventually get to read them, I’ll explain why I couldn’t post them yet.
We left Trattoria al Forno and headed for the Village Green area at the Boardwalk to meet our friends for the Celebration.
The Village Green is really just Hub Grass, but at the Boardwalk.
We sat down under a tree, and I got out our guest book I purchased on Etsy, for the Celebration. The life preserver was just for the ship. I had something a little more traditional for this. I posted a picture of where we were, and what we were wearing on the Facebook event, so we’d be a little easier to spot.
We wound up having to relocate to the other end of the Village Green, because apparently we managed to set up exactly where they put the movie screen for their outdoor movies. Whoops!
As expected, a lot of people who said they were coming didn’t end up coming, but I feel like that always happens with large groups. I did get to see a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in a very long time, so that was awesome. One of my friends could only stay for about fifteen minutes, and it still meant so much to me that he came. Morgan was successful in her final secret mission for the wedding, and she surprised Jay by bringing our husky Fiona with her. The Yacht Club is dog friendly so I thought we’d get away with it, but it was her first and probably last visit to Disney. This did backfire slightly, because it meant we had to stay outside, rather than being able to go in anywhere, but Jay was so happy to see his puppy, that I didn’t care.
We had so many people there, that it was kind of overwhelming trying to get to talk to everyone, especially since everyone kind of cliqued off, and there was a clear divide between my coworkers and Jay’s coworkers. There were also so many coworkers of his that I didn’t know, and several of them didn’t bother to introduce themselves. So, while I was walking around, trying to get to talk to everybody, Jay was sitting with Fiona and nobody was really talking to him, so that kind of sucked.
I knew my friend Alexis was going to be eating at Beaches and Cream beforehand, and I’d asked her to bring me one of their alcoholic milkshakes when she walked over. Well, thank God I did because that was the only drink anyone bought either of us all night. Not that I really expected anyone to buy us drinks, but I also didn’t feel like either of us could step away to go to the bar. Plenty of people went over to the bars, but no one asked if we wanted anything. (I did send Patrick to get me water at one point because I was dying from all the talking.)
I mention this because when I told Alexis that was the only drink anyone got us all night, she apologized to Jay for not bringing him one too.
I had lost all track of time, so I was grateful when Matt and Sammi, the same Sammi who made my wedding dress, came up to point out we should probably relocate to the bridge, if we were going to be able to see Epcot Forever. So, we migrated down to the bridge slowly in our large group with our overly excited dog.
There’s an ongoing joke about the fact that Sammi wants a cat and Matt hasn’t gotten her one. Anything Matt posts on Facebook, someone (about half the time it’s me) comments asking if Sammi has a cat yet. I got my mother to walk up to Matt and say, “Hi, I’m Chelsea’s mom, we haven’t met before, but I’m supposed to ask you if you’ve gotten Sammi a cat yet.”
I wish I had the whole thing on video, because the death glare he gave me was great.
Epcot Forever is definitely not as good from the Boardwalk area, as it is in the parks, because you can’t hear the music, and you can’t see the kites from the jet skis, but it was still a great ending to the night. I also didn’t realize how short it is, but this was only my second time watching it, and I’m more used to Happily Ever After and Fantastmic.
Once the fireworks were over, someone (it might have been Matt, actually) suggested a group picture and I wish I’d thought to take one sooner because a lot of people had left already.
After the picture, we dispersed and people headed off to their cars. I expected Fiona to be more upset that she was leaving without Jay, but I think she was too tired to care, from all the adventure. There was still a small group with us by the time we got to the Yacht Club, and we said good night and headed off to the room, to go to bed for another early alarm for our Animal Kingdom photos.
At least this alarm was 3:30 am instead of 2:15 am!
Presents from Alexis and her husband Anthony!
