Most of you know that I worked at Disney for 10 years. I lived in Orlando, Florida for 6 of those years and I worked part-time at Disney for 5 of those years. Disney has always been a big part of my life. My fiance and I decided to go and visit my friends and fiance's family in Orlando during my Spring Break. As it turns out, it was most of my friends, who are also teachers, Spring Break as well. When I told my friend and Bridesmaid Nydia that I was coming down to visit, she decided to throw me and one of my other bridesmaids, Jennifer, a Bridal Shower in honor of our weddings coming up (we are getting married 2 months apart). There was no question of where we wanted to do it: Disney one way or another.
Nydia did all of the planning for this special occasion. She decided that we needed to get a hotel room at Disney and make it a weekend to remember, just like we have done during other vacations. The plan was to stay at a hotel, go eat at different Disney restaurants and go to the parks. Now, you may think that sounds boring and childish, but I always have fun at Disney no matter what I do and where I go. And to tell you the truth, Jennifer and I wanted a low key Bridal shower with our friends and family.
So the plan took effect. From Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 30 we would stay at Disney's Pop Century Resort. We would eat dinner at O'hana one night, get mani/pedi's, relax, have our dinner at Whispering Canon and then on Saturday meet our fiances and got enjoy a full day at the parks.
On Thursday, Jennifer, Nydia and I woke up early and went bridesmaid dress shopping, followed by a low key afternoon at our hotel. Since, the Pop Century hotel is now next to the new Disney Resort Art of Animation, I decided to go for an exploratory run through the resorts. These two hotels are a fantastic place to get in a run. The hotels connect in every corner, so I had no problem getting from one hotel to the next. Both hotels had awesome things to look at so I found it a little distracting during my run, because I hadn't visited Art of Animation before. After my little run, another one of my bridesmaids, Yari, came over to visit and hang out before we went to our dinner at O'hana at the Polynesian Resort near Magic Kingdom. It was great being reunited with 3 of my long lost sisters and talk about the upcoming months...
Our dinner at O'hana was late, so we decided to get to the restaurant a little early so we can have a drink at the bar, where we all had pina coladas. If you have never had dinner at O'hana before, I highly recommend. it. They sat us right as the Magic Kingdom fireworks were starting so that was a treat. O'hana is an all you care to eat restaurant, with a hawaiian theming. Their buffet includes the best pineapple bread in the world, skuer chicken, pork, steak and shrimp and bread pudding with ice cream as a dessert to die for. We don't know if it was the time of the night ( we ate a 10pm) or if they had changed the spices, but the only thing that we ate was the bread, steak, and bread pudding. My favorite part of the meal was the bread pudding, I reallly like bread pudding and this one was to die for.
The next day, I woke up and went for another run so I could get in more miles, since I was lacking them, and to finish exploring the resorts. After that, Nydia, Jen and I went to get mani/pedis to be ready for the actual bridal dinner that night and we got a little shopping in as well. That afternoon, we took a liasurely stroll through the hotels and then proceded to get ready for what would be a great night.
Our Bridal Shower Dinner took place at the Whispering Canon at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. Not all the people that was invited came, but must people showed up. My fiance's mom and sister, my friend Carla, and my bridesmaids, Caro, Yari and of course the other bride, Jennifer and the host, Nydia were the people that attended. This was my first time at the restaurant, so I was pretty excited. We got seated and promptly started to get the vibe of the restaurant, lots of food and lots of fun. This restaurant is also all you care to eat, and it consisted of chicken, steak, fish and pork. Since it was Good Friday, a lot of people ordered fish. The chef found out about this and sent us two different kinds of fish, which was great.
The night was really low key, but fun. We told stories about how we all met and about our other friends weddings. It was really nice having some the people that mean the most to me and Jen being there and sharing this special moment in our lives. After dinner, we were all going to go out, but decided against it. We adjourned ourselves to the lobby and continued talking and having a great time. Don't get me wrong, I love to party, but sometimes the best times are the one's when you are just sitting and having a great conversation among friends.
I was so happy that my dear friends did this for me. I think I am biased, but I think I have the most amazing group of friends and family ever.
I hope you guys enjoyed this post. Keep those feet traveling.
Until Next Time,
Nats
