Getting ready to attend a Disney wedding! August 2013 - rental car

[librarygeek]

Hello everyone, and welcome! I am currently in the middle of planning 3 different Disney trips! It's a little overwhelming, to be honest, so I'm trying to make a few PTR to keep all of my thoughts and plans straight. I had planned to go twice in 2013 (I'll be going in February and April). Then we got invited to a friend's wedding there in August and I couldn't pass up the chance to go to a Disney wedding and be there to support my friend! It will be a shorter trip, from Wed. 7/31 to Sunday 8/4. The wedding is on the 3rd.

It will be just me and my husband on this trip. I'm 24 years old (will be 25 by this trip), and just finished grad school with a masters degree in library science. I currently work as a tutor and drama teacher but I'm hoping to find a library job soon! My love for Disney has grown every year. The last time I went was for our honeymoon in September 2011. I also write for a Disney blog and am on a Disney podcast called Come Home to Disney - all about ways to bring Disney into your home and your every day life!

DH is not as much of a Disney fan as I am, but he still enjoys the trips. He likes to do anything new and different. He is 23 (24 by the trip) and works as a computer software engineer. In his free time he likes to play video games and also design and develop his own video games/apps!

Here we are on our honeymoon trip, when we stayed at POR:

More info to come in the next post!

 

[librarygeek]

I haven't really thought much about this trip with two others before it, to be honest, but with our 180 day dining reservation coming up Feb. 1st I decided it was time to start thinking!

Where we're staying: We'll be at POP Century. It will be our first time there and I'm excited for it! We got a pretty good deal with the room block for the wedding. We'll have 4 nights there. I requested the 80's section since the I like the Pac-man decorations and think DH might appreciate that!

Our plans: This is all really up in the air right now! We know two things for certain:
* Saturday 8/3 we'll be doing wedding stuff for the majority of the day
* Friday 8/4 we are having an anniversary photo shoot at the art of animation resort

I'm super excited about the photo shoot! We hired Orlando area photographers David and Vicki Arndt and they seem super sweet so far! I'm excited to get some cool pictures there. That will take place from about 6-7pm Friday night.

But what to do with the rest of our time? I will have an annual pass but DH doesn't, so we're not going to go into the parks too much. Here's the possibilities so far:

Wednesday: arrival day. Depending on the time we could maybe go to a water park. The bride and groom are having an informal, pay your own way welcome dinner at Earl of Sandwich, so we could head to DTD for the evening (though we were thinking about doing that on Friday, so maybe we'd go somewhere else for dinner? It would be nice to see our friends though!)

Thursday: I think the bride and groom are having their "bachelorette/bachelor parties" this day, though it's really just a girls day and boys day. She's going with the girls into MK and he's going with the guys into Epcot. I'm going to join the girls for the MK day. I'm not sure about DH yet. He's deciding if he wants to spend the money for a one day ticket. He's also fine just staying in the room on his laptop. I don't know if he'd want to do anything else on his own. He does like to golf but it's going to be so gosh darn hot in August. I'm not sure yet if we're doing a full day including dinner with the bachelorette party or not... once I find that out we'll decide on dinner plans. If DH does decide to go to Epcot I'll probably hop over there and join him for dinner somewhere!

Friday: This is our most "open" day. We have the photo shoot from 6-7 but that's it. Our options for the day are pretty much either a water park or DTD. Or maybe mini golf. I've never done Disney Quest and it sounds like the sort of thing that DH would really enjoy. We also want to check out Splitsville - not 100% sure on the bowling yet but we both love sushi and want to try that! I also really want to dine at one of the Animal Kingdom Lodge restaurants (maybe Sanaa). If we did dinner after our anniversary shoot we probably couldn't get there til 8 or 8:30. Is it going to be too dark by then to see the animals? Is there much lighting? We might also consider lunch there.

Saturday: Pretty much wedding stuff for the majority of the day! Ceremony is at noon and reception at 1:30. Then there's the dessert party at Epcot at 8. It seems like we'll have a break in between there but I'm not sure what to do with it. After the dessert party if we're up for it we might head to Jellyrolls.

Sunday: We leave! Don't know what time yet. They're having a farewell breakfast at Whispering Canyon so we'll probably join for that. Don't know what we'll do if we're leaving later in the day - probably one of the things we didn't get to before (water park, mini golf, Disney Quest, or something!).

I almost never spend time outside the 4 parks so this is all pretty new to me! Any other good suggestions? We're also trying not to spend a fortune (otherwise I would've been interested in doing one of the backstage tours that didn't require park admission!)

 

[librarygeek]

No major updates. I can't believe I'm only about three weeks from ADRs and I have no idea what I'm doing yet!

I talked to DH and he's pretty sure he'd like to go to Epcot the day that I'm going to MK with the girls, so that takes care of him for that day. I'll probably hop over to have dinner with him. Not sure where yet, we'll have to to talk about it. I might try to snag Le Cellier, since we've never tried it. However we're also intrigued by the Moroccan restaurant. And Tutto Italia. And Japan, since Japanese food is probably his favorite (loves both sushi and hibachi). I just love the options in the world showcase!

 

[librarygeek]

Still waiting to hear about what else might be going on while we're down there concerning the wedding, but one definite thing that we decided is that for our Epcot dinner we'll do Tokyo dining. DH loves Japanese food and I don't love the new menu at Le Cellier. Right now here is what I'm contemplating:

Wednesday (arrival day):
Dinner: Earl of Sandwich (for wedding welcome party)

Thursday:
Lunch: MK with girls for me, Epcot with guys for DH
Dinner: Tokyo dining

Friday:
Lunch: Sanaa
Dinner: Splitsville

Saturday: Wedding
The ceremony starts at noon. I'm thinking we'll want to do a breakfast/brunch somewhere. But we've already done 1900 Park Fare at the GF, which is where the wedding ceremony is. I'm thinking about perhaps Ohana or Kona, and then we could hop over on the monorail. Or we'll just be lazy and sleep in before grabbing breakfast at Pop.
Late lunch/early dinner at wedding reception
Dessert party that night
I don't know if we'll be hungry enough to get dinner... I want to save room for the dessert party! I'll talk to my friend, and if we do decide dinner is a good idea, we'll be at the boardwalk anyway. So either Kouzzina (which we did on our honeymoon and loved) or Flying Fish.

Sunday:
Breakfast: Whispering Canyon cafe
I don't know what time we're leaving, so any other meals are still up in the air

 

[happybelle]

A Disney wedding sounds fun, looking forward to reading more.

 

[librarygeek]

A Disney wedding sounds fun, looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for following along! I'm really excited about getting to see a Disney wedding

 

[Sarah6456]

Hey there, just curious, we're going to a disney wedding in August 2013 as well but were told by disney we are only eligible for the room discount not the dining plan? Just wondering if you encountered any issues while booking? And if so how did u resolve them? Thanks

 

[librarygeek]

Hey there, just curious, we're going to a disney wedding in August 2013 as well but were told by disney we are only eligible for the room discount not the dining plan? Just wondering if you encountered any issues while booking? And if so how did u resolve them? Thanks

Yeah, from everything I've heard the room block discount is for when you are booking a room only, not a package (and you need a package to be able to purchase the dining plan). I have an annual pass anyway so we only needed the room.

Unfortunately, I think if you really want the dining plan you can't book with the discount, you'd just have to do it normally on your own However, if it helps at all I've found that the dining plan isn't really all that great for getting your money's worth, especially with the latest price increase. I'd do some research to see if it's worth it to you, but I'm guessing the savings you'd get on your room would be better in the long run. Good luck!

 

[librarygeek]

Booked our dining reservations!

Here's what we've got:

Thursday, 6:50pm - dinner at Tokyo Dining
Friday, 12:10pm - lunch at Sanaa
Saturday, 10:00am - breakfast at Kona Cafe
Sunday, 8:30am - breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe

Other meals we will just sort of wing it! I think we'll do Earl of Sandwich when we arrive on Wednesday, lunch in Thursday will be something in MK, dinner Friday will probably be Splitsville to try the sushi, or maybe Wolfgang Puck Express, Saturday we will have a late lunch/early dinner at the wedding and a dessert party, and I don't know yet what time we'll leave on Sunday so no idea if we'll need lunch or dinner! It seems like the plan is slowly coming together

 

[wiigirl]

You guys are so cute together! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[librarygeek]

You guys are so cute together! Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks, and thanks for reading!

 

[librarygeek]

I leave for Disney World tomorrow!! This will be my first time there in about a year and a half and I've missed it. It's a bit of a girls weekend, as I'm meeting up with friends down there and leaving DH at home. Not sure yet if I'll do a TR from the weekend, but even if not I'll share a few pics here.

Once I return I'll get more into the planning of this trip (and my April one). I'm a lucky girl indeed to be able to go three times this year

 

[librarymouse]

Hi!! Just had to say hello from a fellow librarian! I am a teen librarian at a public library. What type of librarian job are you interested in?

3 trips sounds fantastic! Hope you have fun!

 

[happybelle]

Looking forward to hearing how this first trip went. So much excitement.

 

[librarygeek]

Hi!! Just had to say hello from a fellow librarian! I am a teen librarian at a public library. What type of librarian job are you interested in?

3 trips sounds fantastic! Hope you have fun!

Hi! You basically have my dream job, I would love to be a teen librarian at a public library! I'm certified to do school library media, but I would actually prefer to do children's or young adult public library stuff. Any advice on how to find a job or interview?

Looking forward to hearing how this first trip went. So much excitement.

Thanks! I'm hoping to get a trip report up soon, though I think I'm going to wait to get our photopass disc first!

 

[librarygeek]

I just started my TR from my latest trip! If you're interested in reading about it (I think it will be pretty unique, as it was a girls trip with about 15 of us!), you can find the link here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3071662

Now in news for our August trip - is it bad that I've already planned out what I'm going to wear for almost every day? To be fair, two of my outfits are important since we'll be doing our anniversary photos as well as attending a wedding.

Here's the dress I think I'm going to wear for the anniversary shoot at AoA:

I'm not quite sure what to put DH in to go with it?

And then for the wedding I'm thinking about this one:

I'm going to look for a black shrug or shawl or something to go over it. And yes, I am very white Unfortunately that never changes, I don't really get tan!

For the other few days it will be casual so just fun Disney t-shirts and stuff, I have a bit of time to decide exactly which ones from my closet will be coming!

 

[librarygeek]

I haven't updated in awhile - life has been very busy! My husband and I just bought a condo, so we've been doing home inspections and mortgage meetings and all that sort of thing, and soon we'll have to think about packing up the apartment.

In terms of this trip, not too much has been happening since a lot is already set and aside from that I have my April trip coming up in less than a month. But there is some rumblings of something that might pan out for us. I don't want to get my hopes up too much, but DH has a family member with DVC that mentioned they had some points they didn't think they would use this year. We have to find out the details (how many points and they weren't clear on if we could just use them or if they wanted some sort of compensation, and if so how much), but it's kind of exciting. Their home is Old Key West, though if we had enough points to stay elsewhere I've been really interested in Animal Kingdom Lodge, Wilderness Lodge, or the Boardwalk. I don't know any of the details yet so we shall see!

 

[librarygeek]

Big News!!

We will no longer be staying at Pop Century! Instead, we'll be staying here...

Animal Kingdom lodge! I'm so excited! It's my dream place to stay. Jason's uncle booked us there with his DVC points, and he's generous enough that he's not even asking us to pay anything for it. I am incredibly grateful. No idea if it's savannah view or not (I'm guessing just standard), but I'm happy for whatever it is. I've never stayed deluxe aside from Old Key West. I may end up playing around with our dining reservations now too!

One other thing is that we'll probably rent a car for this trip now. Since we're not staying at a hotel in the wedding room block, we can't use the transportation that they were providing to guests like we originally planned. Since a lot of our travels will involve going from resort to resort, renting a car really makes a lot of sense - especially since we now don't have the expense of accommodations, we can certainly afford the car rental!

 

[Jamcgee410]

I love the blue dress for your pictures! My hubby and I stayed at AKL when I graduated college it is amazing! You're gonna love it!

 

[librarygeek]

I love the blue dress for your pictures! My hubby and I stayed at AKL when I graduated college it is amazing! You're gonna love it!

Thank you! And I'm so excited for AKL!!