The End
It’s so hard to believe it’s been close to a year since our wedding. The first year of marriage has been pretty low-key for us, consisting of job transitions for us with hopefully more to come this year. The most exciting thing has been a trip back to the World in December. Unfortunately, our first Christmas together as a married couple was marred by the fact that I was sick as a dog. I seriously had Sprite and saltines on Christmas Eve!
I really intended to do a full TR of our trip in December, but I didn’t really take many notes and two months have passed already. I would still like to do a dining review, though, because we were on the deluxe dining plan and ate like gluttons the entire time. (Yachtsman is one of my new faves!) So, I figured I’ll do a brief recap here as somewhat of an epilogue.
We ended up doing a triple split stay between Kidani Village, Beach Club Villas, and the Yacht Club. Originally, we were supposed to leave a day earlier, but when news came out about the Star Wars opening night event, we decided to extend our trip so that we could attend. For the extra night, we booked club level at the YC since we got a decent passholder discount on the room. It was very nice! This trip was partly an early birthday present for me, too.
Birthday cake Josh ordered for me our first day at Sanaa!
It was almond cake with amaretto mousse, the same flavors as our wedding cake.
We saw the big tree in Jambo and had a disappointing meal at Jiko. (Note – our service was very good, and the actual quality of food was as well. The food just wasn’t really our cup of tea, which really surprised me.) Afterward, we proceeded to check out Disney Springs where I spent too much time and money in Basin.
The next morning, we saw one of my new favorite shows – Flights of Wonder.
That night, we went to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and got completely soaked. I was furious because we left the dollar store ponchos we brought back in the room, so I still ended up buying one of their crazy expensive Disney ponchos. The worst part was that we camped out for the parade and fireworks (we did get a really good spot!), and so our pants just got soaked and stiff from sitting the entire time. However, this was my first time seeing Holiday Wishes… it is awesome!
Sadly, this is the only picture we got with the castle lights. It was almost midnight and Josh was done at that point. And somehow, we never made it back to MK this trip.
You can see the rain drops in this picture. It actually looks pretty neat.
The next day, we went to the DVC members’ holiday mixer.
The line for Mickey and Minnie were too long to get both, but obviously this one was my priority anyway.
Meredith Vieira was the narrator for the Candlelight Processional this night. She did a nice job, and we had pretty good seats.
The next day, we moved to the Beach Club. It was really warm during our trip, but the grounds looked beautiful and festive.
Not the view from our room, sadly.
That night, we said good-bye to these beautiful lights. We splurged on the dessert party, and it was worth every penny to me. The desserts were great (they had Mickey ice cream bars!), AND they had jungle juice and a mixed drink I really enjoyed. My favorite was the Jack Frost (coconut rum and pineapple juice).
The only snow I want to bask in.
We spent a half-day resort hopping to see decorations. Some day I will get to stay at the Grand during Christmastime…
We ate at Chef Mickey’s and lived to tell. (We did go for breakfast, but I really didn’t think it was that bad.)
We did the Illuminations dessert party, too. The holiday finale is AMAZING! Makes me wish we had gotten married in December.
I’m sure it would add even more stunning detail to photos.
The next day, we moved to Yacht Club and had a stressful morning. We had to queue up for the Star Wars event, and we were told that we needed to return by 2:30 pm for our 7:15 show or else we might not get to sit together. Um… no. I don't get why they didn't do assigned seating.
Thankfully it all worked out, and when we arrived around 5:30, there were plenty of open seats, but we had missed the majority of the red carpet hoopla.
We had breakfast at Garden Grill, which is one of my new favorites.
We had the last seating, so the characters walked in a sequence to our table one after the other. LOL
The private after-party at Hollywood Studios was a lot of fun.
They had a BB-8 there!
I was proud of us. We actually made it that night until after 1 a.m., even in our “old” age.
The Symphony in the Stars fireworks are
AWESOME. Maybe my favorite fireworks show in Disney at the moment… but that probably changes depending on when you ask me. LOL. I hope they’re still having the special dessert party when we go in May, because I will be all over that.
Duffy and ShellieMay enjoyed turn down service in our room.
Not that in can compare in any way to Disney, but here was our Christmas tree at home. The train has Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. It came from Avon and is super cute.
Sorry for the image heavy post. Maybe I should have just done an entire TR, haha. We have an anniversary trip scheduled in May, and will hopefully be going again in December. That trip would probably be with Josh’s mom. And... just like that, we’ve reached the end of this journey.
I’m actually getting a little teary-eyed officially wrapping up what has been the focus of so much time, energy, and love over the past two years. I will still follow PJs and TRs here, but it’s not quite the same now that I’m no longer a bride. But I will still be happy to answer any questions future brides may have for me here.
Thank you all for joining along for the ride. I loved sharing the journey with you!
I will post those soon.
I have loving following along especially because we were both May brides 
! Your first Christmas looks awesome and I love the feature! 
