Our friends, Peter & Paula Barnett came into town. We took them to our house before heading back to the Grande Vista to visit and relax. We then had dinner at Cooper’s Hawk.

Now that we live in Orlando and all the girls work for Disney, we certainly won’t have many specific trips to visit the World. This year, though, was an exception. We planned our 30th Anniversary a year ago to be with friends and family and originally we were going to St. Kitts. It turned out that flights were outrageous, and then we got busy selling our home and eventually moving to Orlando, and so we lost out on good options to St. Kitts. We just decided to stay in a nice Marriott Vacation Club resort here and it would be easier for friends and family to visit.

2/25/16-3/4/16—Our 30th Anniversary

We started our vacation with a night at Magic Kingdom for DVC’s 25 and Beyond Bash. We ran into Dusty from our cruise in May, and on a chilly night we enjoyed a few rides, some unique character greets, and some special fireworks.

We checked into our home for the week… the Marriott Grande Vista. We had a nice 3-bedroom suite. We then met up with Dana at Animal Kingdom for a little dinner. The reservation was for 15 minutes before the park closed, so we encountered a very empty theme park when we left.

Sunday we went to Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s, where the drag queens and other artists entertained us. We then spent some relaxing time at the pool. At the end of the day, we had a hibachi dinner at a special dessert.

This day was full. We began in the morning going on Dana’s Keys to the Kingdom Tour, with Deb and Richard. Afterwards we played at the Magic Kingdom for a while before taking the monorail over to Epcot. Bay Lake was very still, which gave us the cool reflection of the Grand Floridian below. At Epcot, we had dinner at the Rose & Crown.

Tuesday was our actual anniversary. Madeline wanted to show Peter and Paula her place of work, so after opening a couple of presents, we went off to Epcot. At the Coral Reef Restaurant, I gave Madeline a wedding ring that she can wear while working. They brought us a special dessert, and then we strolled through the countries and took a few pictures with some special friends.

 

For dinner, the girls took us to Mellow Mushroom, which is the place that the two of us had our first date. They gave us a special pizza.

After two very busy days, we took a day off and just chilled out at the resort and pool.

On our last day, Alicia took us to her place of work, the Grand Floridian Café. We had brunch and then played mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens. We ended the day and the vacation with the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness. It was a fun week for all.