While we were doing the Disney College Program at Disneyworld, Joe told me he had a surprise for me for our 2 year anniversary which he will plan little surprises for me every so often so it was nothing that out of the ordinary.  Late that afternoon he took me to the Grand Floridian and said we would do our presents there so I brought out his gift which was a Mickey Christmas sweater and a Santa hat (pretty lame I know, but that’s what he said he wanted). He genuinely seemed to love it so I was feeling pretty good since we are competitive with gifts (and really everything else). I sat expectingly waiting for mine but he told me I wouldn’t be getting mine yet. So of course I gave him a hard time about telling me it was gift time and then leaving me hanging.

Now, I’ve literally begged Joe to go dancing with me since we started dating and so he told me that since it was our two year he would go dancing with me! I got very excited and then I saw a Fairy Godmother looking woman announce from the balcony that Cinderella and Prince Charming would be coming down the Grand staircase to join us for a royal event. They came down and we ended up waltzing with them to A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes. I also discovered that I’m actually pretty terrible when it comes to slow dancing so I’m going to have to work on that before the wedding. Anyways, I was already feeling bad about my lame gift I got him when he told me he got fast passes to our favorite ride at Magic Kingdom. From there we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I felt a little self conscious about being so dressed up in the park but always up for riding Peter Pan without a wait. After flying over Neverland, we rode a couple more rides with short waits and I really wanted a pretzel but Joe said he had dinner reservations somewhere nice at which I was like “okay you need to stop I literally got you a Christmas sweater!!” So at sunset we rode The Launch back to the Grand and Joe refused to tell me where we were eating until we finally got there and he pointed to the windows at the top of the Grand and said we were eating at Citricos! Which every time we have visited the Grand, I’ve always envied all the fancy people up in the windows eating there. So at this point I’m thinking something is going on because of how unbelievable our date is. We eat there and I have the best meal I have ever had in my entire life and I’m pretty sure I was annoying the waiter telling him how good it was over and over. During dinner I had “gone to the bathroom” twice but I really was just fixing my hair because you just never know what may happen???

But when dinner was over, I was wondering if I had totally misjudged the whole thing. He seemed really calm and didn’t act like he was preparing for any kneeling of any kind. After dinner, we walked outside to the water and he said he had one last surprise for me and pointed to the boat out on the water. A man introduced himself as our captain for our private fireworks cruise and another woman who would be shadowing him for the evening. I’m in complete disbelief at this point as we board our boat together that has blankets and drinks and snacks all laid out and cruise around the water and islands. We got to see all kinds of cool abandoned Disney property and the electric water parade up close. It was incredible. After that, the captain pulled the boat right in front of the train station with a perfect view of the castle to watch the fireworks and turned on the music to Wishes. We watched the first few go off and then he turned to me, got on one knee and said nice things that I honestly can’t remember at all because I was a complete mess of tears. The so-called “captain’s shadow” starts taking all kinds of pictures and I manage to say “yes!” As he slides the ring on my finger, I burst into uncontrollable laughter. It was a happiness I can’t even begin to describe.

We hold each other as the rest of the fireworks continue to go off.

After the fireworks were over we came back to family and friends standing on the dock waiting and cheering for us. Joe gave me a book of pictures from the past year and we all enjoyed sparkling cider and cake together on the balcony at the Grand.

August 17th 2017 in San Diego

San Diego is our space. It’s always beautiful and peaceful and its our favorite place to escape the madness of life.