Winter Wanderland Day 3 - December 26

Today was the day - time for the proposal.

But first, we had a day of Disney World to attend to. We got up relatively early and set off for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, our hotel for the evening. We got settled into our room and quickly headed to the extremely crowded Magic Kingdom. We made our way through the park to ride Snow White's Scary Adventure or something along those lines and then It's a Small World. From there, we had lunch at the noodle shop on the edge of Tomorrowland and Main Street USA.

After lunch, we boarded the monorail to spend the afternoon at Epcot. There we waded through more crowds to make our way to World Showcase. We took in some performers along the way: a fusion rock band in Morocco, a Kwanzaa storyteller at the American Experience, taiko drumming in Japan. We picked up a Fastpass for the ride in Norway and then bought a couple of beers in Germany and sat on a nice bench for awhile. Fastpass got us to the front of the long Norway ride, which was fun. After that, we made our way back into Future World and the Innovations center, but that turned out to be a bust. It was getting late into the afternoon so we took the bus back to our hotel so we could get ready for our dinner reservations.

I took a short nap at the hotel while Ali showered. I had been feeling a little sick since the morning and it was catching up with me. We got dressed nice to head to dinner and left nice and early so we would have time to take the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the Monorail to the Grand Floridian for our 7:20 reservation at Citrico's. Of course, I wanted to get there early so there would be time to ask Ali to marry me, but she did not know that at the time.

We got to the Grand Floridian at about 6:40, enjoyed the big band playing in the lobby, saw the impressive gingerbread house, and then went outside to find a good spot to have somebody take our photograph. That spot turned out to be along the Seven Seas Lagoon at the resort's boat launch to the Magic Kingdom and the Polynesian Resort.

I found a guy sitting by himself on the bench and asked him to take our photograph. He agreed and we did so. Then I took a look to check for quality and everything; at the same time his family showed up to tell him it was time for them to go. Luckily, he heeded my plea to take one more picture. I turned to Ali, took her arms with both hands, and told her: "I love you. I want to be together forever." Then, I knelt and said, "Will you marry me?" She made some affirmative sounds through tears and then said yes. By this time, the man's family was in on the action and applauded for us while their little girl asked, "What happened?" They explained it to her quickly and she also gave her approval.

Engagement photos can be found here.

We made some quick phone calls to our parents and then headed into Citrico's for a great engagement dinner. We, of course, opted for the wine pairings throughout the meal. We shared a tuna carpaccio appetizer, then I had potato truffle soup while Ali had goat cheese salad for a second course. For our main entrees, I had bass and Ali had duck confit.

After dinner, we sat and talked for awhile over our last glass of wine before realizing that the 9pm Magic Kingdom fireworks we meant to go see were about to begin. We hustled back to the scene of the engagement just as the fireworks began. We boarded a ferry and moved across Seven Seas Lagoon toward the Magic Kingdom with fireworks in the sky. It was a great night!

When we got to the Magic Kingdom, we passed by the leaving crowds and made our way to Frontier Land with the intent of riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Instead, we wound up on Pirates of the Caribbean and then enjoyed Spectral Magic before heading back to the hotel.

We had a great night all around and began excitedly talking about what comes next.