Wow this was a fun weekend!    There were all kinds of events going on all over the parks!   Frist of all one of my favorite yearly events, Food and Wine Festival,  kicked off this weekend.    It was too crowded for me to stop by the booths, but I will get back there soon and let you know how it was.   I did pop my head into the Bocuse d’ Or USA inside the World Showplace. 

This was a competition for some of the top chefs in the USA to find who would represent USA in the International competition France 2009.

The WDW Celebrations guys were having World Wide Weekend in which there were events in the parks, one was a scavenger hunt around World Showcase.   

After checking that out I headed over to Animal Kingdom which was going to be host of the 1st Expedition Everest Challenge that night.    I am not athletic so that was not my thing, and after seeing the cargo net they would have to climb I am glad i didnt give it a second thought.   There were some brave souls from disneyworldtriva.com that were meeting for lunch at Flame Tree prior to getting ready for the challenge.   I grabbed a snack and joined them.   It was great getting to meet some new people!    

Finally onto my faovirte event of the weekend!    I signed up for the AP event to preview the Tinkerbell movie in Magic Kingdom on Sunday.   Tink is my favorite character so I was very excited when I read about this event.   Ok so the movie was a little too sweet for me.   I prefer my tink to be a pixe with attitiude and this was more fairy sweetness targeted to the younger market.   The movie was not the only thing we got to do though.    Disney had brought the movie’s producer, director, and screenwriter to meet us. 

They talked a bit about the movie and how this one was about Spring and there would be 3 more, one for each season.   They hung around and gave out autographs.   That still wasn’t all though.  We then heard all about the new Fairy photo location to open up in Toontown in Oct.   Then all of the new characters came out and we got to get our photos with them!   Ok yes this was the highlight for me - finally getting a photo with tink!  Although I have to admit I am still not that crazy about this idea of we are the ones that shrink and that is how we can meet them LOL!  

Wow this was a fun weekend!    There were all kinds of events going on all over the parks!   Frist of all one of my favorite yearly events, Food and Wine Festival,  kicked off this weekend. < more... >

ARRHHHH!     It was pirate night and we had lots of guests come out to our pirate costume contest in Studio Sea.  Everyone looked great!

 After dinner we headed up to deck 10 for the pirate deck party which were surrpised to find the firworks were still inlcuded!   After the party a few us grabbed lounge chairs to watch The Curse of the Black Pearl on the big screen!   Ok so I didnt make it through the whole thing but it was still fun.

Next was our day at sea.   I was able to join our lucky winners for Brunch in Palo.  After stuffing myself I pretty much relaxed the rest of the day.    Then it was time to get all drressed up for formal night.  Everyone looked fabulous in thier formal attire.   It’s not often that I get to get dressed up so I enjoyed formal night, of course getting to eat dessert twice helped too.    Annette and I dined with our table at Main Dining and then stopped by the Second dining as well.    

Our next stop was suposed to be our second visit to Castaway Cay.   Captian Tom gave it his best effort but Hanna was just too close.  The waves were high and the winds were strong so the boat was rocking a bit overnight and early in the morning.   As we moved away from the storm the day got better and we all enjoyed another day at sea.  Today was filled with more surprises, mostly for Deb.   Since it was out last full day onboard we had a few events set up to wrap things up.   Steve gave a power point with a lot of the hidden Mickeys found during the cruise.    After that it would be time for our farewell party.  We were also making the farewell party a surprise birthday party for Deb.  In order to keep Deb from arriving at the party early Beci and Annette worked out a very special surprise and Deb was able to blow the ship’s horn prior to the party.   She was so excited she held the button long enough for the horn to blow twice.  She was then very surprised when we all sang Happy Birthday as she walked into the farewell party.

The party was then topped off with a very special guest who just had to stop by and give Deb a birthday hug!

Mickey stayed around for photos with everyone.   Then it was time to give out the prizes for our door decorating contest.   I have to say there were lots of amazing doors.    Many of the guests took the Hidden Mickey theme very seriously and even made thier door decorations into a Hidden Mickey hunt.  

It was a magical cruise full of lots of surprises and new friends!  I can’t wait to do it again!    I won’t be joining the Deb and Steve Adventure by Disney in 2009 (which is already sold out) but I am looking forward to hearing what’s next!

ARRHHHH!     It was pirate night and we had lots of guests come out to our pirate costume contest in Studio Sea.  Everyone looked great! < more... >

I can’t believe it all started just 1 week ago!   Last Sunday we kicked everything off with a wonderful meal in the American Adventure rotunda in Epcot.    Dinner was then followed by dessert and a super view of Illuminations (minus the globe which was strange).   Early the next morning we piled into our cars, limos, Disney bus, etc and headed to Port Canaveral for our special 5 night cruise!    The Disney Magic was just returning from the Panama Canal crossing so things were less than normal for our boarding.    We finally got onboard and were starting to wonder if this would be the Deb, Steve, and Hanna cruise.   Everyone was guessing where we would go and what would happen.   We started calling it the Magical Mystery Cruise.   Personally I would have been happy even if we didn’t go anywhere, just being onboard was fine enough for me.   In the end we did end up with pretty much our original itinerary with the expection of our second visit to Castaway Cay, even though the Captian tried really hard to get us there.  We did have a lot of magical surprises throughout the cruise though.

The sailaway party was a blast but I was on Main Dining this cruise so I had to run from the party back to my room to get ready for dinner.    Our first night’s dinner was in Lumiere’s.   The first surprise came from Steve’s friends Rob and Rita when they presented him with a very special Mickey.    In case you really can’t see it in the photo it is a Dr Mickey holding a Hidden Mickey book.

The next morning we happily awoke in Castaway Cay.     It was a beautiful day (you would never have guessed that Hanna was even out there)   Ok so all of the shore excusions were cancelled on the island except the Stingray one, but besides that it was a great day!   We were all hunting for Hidden Mickey’s and then a Hidden Steve LOL!    Yes he was hiding and if you found him you did get a reward.    Vickie and I found him and I even found a new Hidden Mickey.     Next time you are on Castaway make a stop at the Konked Out Bar and look up in the rafters to the left. 

Day 2 - We made it to Nassau!   Today was nice but very windy so we knew Hanna was getting closer.    Masayo, our Japanese buddy, had invited everyone to join her for lunch in Lumiere’s today.    Here was another wonderful surpise - Masayo arrived and was dressed in a traditional Japanese outift (looked like a Kimono but had a differant name that I can’t remember right now)   Anyway next thing we know there is a parade of special guests all dressed alike!  

Masayo was so sweet and actually brought all of these as gifts for her friends.   Even Steve recieved a male version of the outfit but I am sorry to say I didn’t get that photo.   I am guessing Steve is grateful for that but it was priceless with the socks!   Lunch was wonderful and soon enough it was time for everyone to don new costumes since it was pirate night!   I will continue with Pirate Night and the rest of the cruise in part 2…

I can’t believe it all started just 1 week ago!   Last Sunday we kicked everything off with a wonderful meal in the American Adventure rotunda in Epcot.    Dinner was then followed by dessert and a super view of Illuminations (minus the globe which was strange). < more... >