Natasha submitted this sweet proposal story and I love all of the little details – so much planning went into this one! Congrats on the engagement!!
Photos: Natasha, Disney’s PhotoPass
We woke up really early due to the jet lag (about 3am) and stayed in bed until about 4. We were too excited to go back to sleep, so I packed the bags for the park and we had a morning stroll around our resort: Coronado Springs. We had a drink and then got ready for our day ahead. I was given complete control over this day, warning Kim that it was going to be a long day.
She knew we had reservations at Be Our Guest for breakfast at 8am, everything else was going to be a surprise for her. Little did she know I had been planning this day for over a year, preparing every last detail, whilst Kim was getting ready I left a clue to a task she had to complete with a Pandora bracelet beside the bed. She was really excited and curious to what I was up to but before she had much time to think about it we were on the bus to the Magic Kingdom. The first task she had to complete was to get a photo on the journey.
As this was my first time to Disney World entering through into Magic Kingdom, around the corner to see Cinderella’s Castle was a breath-taking experience. As Kim had completed her first round of clues her next task was to find a famous mouse and a Disney brother on the way to breakfast. Here we found the Partners Statue and grabbed a picture there. She was also given a Mickey/Minnie Mouse safety chain for the bracelet.
Now on to breakfast: we pre-ordered our food before we left the UK and this was a huge success. It cut the queuing time massively and we did it again with less success later in the trip. I had the Croissant Doughnut. It is very sweet but light and went very nicely with the fruit, but if you are having this and the pastries it makes for a very sweet breakfast. Kim had the Open-Face Bacon and Egg Sandwich with poached eggs, applewood bacon, and brie cheese on a toasted baguette.
Kim really enjoyed the breakfast her only complaint was that I made it a little rushed. Which I guess is true, as her next clue was to get a picture with Beasts enchanted Rose. She also received a Yellow “Belle” Charm for her bracelet.
Straight from this clue was an instruction to ride Seven Dwaves Mine Train. It was about 08;45 by now and the park was yet to open, but Disney still opens the fastpass queue for anyone out of breakfast early. We got off the ride at 08:55 where the queue for mine train had already started forming. Ee went to Enchanted Tales with Belle, the task here was to get a picture with Maurice’s cottage, but my hope was that Kim would get a picture with Belle. Here she received the Belle rose charm for her bracelet.
The next clue was to find Prince Eric’s castle and ride Journey of the Little Mermaid. Here Kim was given a turquoise Ariel pandora bead. After this we went to meet Ariel at her Grotto. This got me sightly tense due to being on my projected timings to do every clue. A 10 minute wait time was posted. I had estimated a 35 minute wait but it ended up being 45 minutes. When Kim met Ariel she was given a shell charm for her bracelet.
Our next point of call was to watch the 10:40 Dream along with Mickey show. We made it at 10:41, but the show was delayed in starting for 8 minutes or so, which gave me time for her next charm, a spotty Mickey bead. The show was wonderful, so if you get a chance I would really recommend going to see it. Kim may have even had a tear or two during.
Keeping along the mouse theme, meeting Minnie was up next. She is at story book circus in new fantasyland, along with Daisy. Then you can also queue for Donald and Goofy separately. We were ahead of schedule now with our next stop was a fastpass for Dumbo. So we also saw Donald and Goofy, with Donald telling me he is number one and Goofy hiding my pen and then managing to live up to his name by accidentally throwing the pen across the room. Here Kim was given the Anna bead for the bracelet. It’s a pink charm and I thought it fit in well with the overall bracelet.
The wait time was 40 minutes for Dumbo which made me feel I had done a good job of selecting fastpasses. It was so easy to use the system and we had great success over the holiday. We then headed to Adventures of Winnie the Pooh with a wait time of 25 minutes which had gone down from earlier (we were still ahead of my projected times). It was now about 12:00 with only this planned until our lunch reservation at 13:00. Here Kim had to find Eeyore’s gloomy place in the queue which she walked right past so I had to stop to point it out to her. At this point she received a Eeyore charm for the bracelet.
We had finished on the ride by about 12:35 so tried to see if we could get into lunch early. It was back to Be Our Guest where we had again pre-ordered our food. They let us in 20 minutes before our reservation time, so the timing for the morning was on point. (Pats self on the back.) With a slightly less intense (Kim may not agree) afternoon planned I was feeling more confident with the schedule. There was no charm here but still a clue and I filled the gift bag with confetti that I had made with minnie, mickeys and hearts to cover the table. I had the Braised Pork, which was great, and Kim had the carved turkey sandwich, which she loved. We sat in the West Wing as our hope was that we would sit in all the rooms over the holiday. We halved each of our cupcakes so we could try some of each. We opted for the masters cupcake and lemon meringue cupcake. They were nice but the selection is a little limited.
The next stop was to Prince Charming’s Royal Carousel where a blue Cinderella bead was waiting for her. She had to choose her favourite horse on the ride. From here we went onto use our second fastpass for the Cinderella and Rapunzel meet and greet (a slipper charm was presented). We then found a spot at the top of main street to watch the festival of fantasy parade. We had 45 minutes until this began, so I went and got Kim a mint chocolate chip ice cream from plaza Ice Cream parlour. This was two scoops and huge, but it only cost one snack credit and we could share it.
The parade was fantastic we really enjoyed all the segments, and music. From here we headed straight to our final fastpass with Mickey Mouse, who talks, this was a great experience. Mickey did a magic trick with Kimberley which involved him picking a card and guessing which card.
The final charm/clue was to find Tinkerbell. She was in Town Square, like Mickey only in a different section for queuing. It was a 5 minute wait. This was another really good meet and greet. She loved Kim’s bracelet calling it her lost things and her tattoo calling them her Neverland stars. We got a picture with Minnie and Roy, then a drink from main street bakery (Starbucks). I had an smoothie and Kim had an sweetened ice tea. I then gave Kim a final clue, to head to the hub grass, the move it shake it dance party parade was on so we sat with our drinks watched and waited.
During this time some clouds were starting to form. I was worried about timing having done really well throughout the rest of the day. I felt the setting was perfect I started to pour my heart out and, well, in florida fashion it poured down. We ran for cover in Casey’s Corner, and had a look around the shops hoping the rain would quickly clear. It didn’t.
The time was now 18:40 and Kim wanted to look around the Polynesian before our 20:00 reservation at ‘Ohana. It was still raining so we headed quickly to the monorail. We got to the Polynesian and the rain stopped, how typical! So I convinced Kim that we should go and see if we could find a spot to take some pictures of the castle/Grand Flordian. We ended up on the boat dock after finding the sand very wet and sat down on a bench.
The sun had started to set. It was very romantic (I didn’t think it was quite as good as my original plan but a nice place nonetheless.) I presented Kim with a box that looks like a fairytale book with her ring inside and I proposed.
She said yes!! I was relieved and incredibly happy, I also gave her a happily ever after pin that I had got earlier in the day from guest services. We took some photos, texted our friends and family, and then headed to our reservation at ‘Ohana, with a definite spring in our step.
The food at ‘Ohana was so good. I really enjoyed the dumplings (pot stickers) and salad. b\By the time we got to the noodles and meat we were both stuffed! This could have been a due to tiredness also, but we did manage to have over half of the bread pudding which was amazing! As a celebration for our engagement we were given leis.
Our day was fantastic – a magical Disney day.
