A Grand Dream of a Honeymoon - June 2011

[shippedtosea]

Wow great pictures! looks like you had a great time on the cruise! Remy looks so good. makes me even more excited for our cruise. Can't wait for more.

 

[DisneygirlTeacher]

Hi Emma, I have been following along and have to say this is one of the best trip reports ever! You are a wonderful writer and I have enjoyed every minute reading about your trip! Can't wait to hear about Disney World, my favorite place on earth!

 

[lilsqueakrr]

Amazing, amazing, amazing update Emma! It all just looks and sounds so fabulous!

I hope one day I can convince Dave to go on the cruise, but it's highly unlikely because he gets seasick. =[

I can't wait to hear about my favorite place on earth, Disney World! Woohoo!

 

[mickey2minnie1]

Emma, your report is fabulous. I just do not want it to end. I felt like I was a part of the cruise. The pics at Remy's were so yummy.

 

[Leshaface]

Lol you can see my brother in the picture of you at Castaway Cay when you're lounging with your stingray! Too funny!

Also, DH says he remembers seeing you at CC He's like, "Oh yeah, I definitely remember her!"


I'm so glad you enjoyed Remy! It was definitely the highlight of our trip. The truffles in the room really made it memorable.

 

[Stefy]

Great update, Remy food looks delicious. Love that your bag got its own seat too

So what did you think of Pink then? I glanced at the menu and I love the look of the cocktails, sound really yummy

 

[pinkfairy1684]

Emma, I have just read your entire TR. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful pictures! We are doing a 3-day cruise on the Dream at the end of our honeymoon. While I was reading about your trip, I kept having DF run upstairs to look at your pictures.

 

[Missyrose]

What a wonderful last meal at Remy! And that thank you note and box of truffles was such a lovely touch.

Can't wait to hear about your adventures back on dry land!

 

[disneybarbie]

Woops, I missed the last update somehow!

Your cruise sounded perfect! I'm so glad you guys had such a great time on the Dream and I can't wait to hear about WDW!

thanks Nikki - we loved the cruise so much, I really didn't know what we'd make of it (hence why we did it before WDW, in case we didn't like it!) but have agreed we'd definitely go on another one in the future

Fantastic update!

That meal looks amazing!

Thank you! Remy was incredible, probably the best meal either of us have ever had

Sounds like a wonderful meal/experience at Remy's. Every honeymoon needs a memorable meal like that! I love that they sent you a thank you card and truffles too.

Thanks, yes it was the best! Great way to end our cruise too

Wow great pictures! looks like you had a great time on the cruise! Remy looks so good. makes me even more excited for our cruise. Can't wait for more.

Thank you! Steve thought I was funny taking photos of all the dishes at Remy, but I just had to - everything was so beautifully presented! .. more updates coming over the weekend hopefully

Hi Emma, I have been following along and have to say this is one of the best trip reports ever! You are a wonderful writer and I have enjoyed every minute reading about your trip! Can't wait to hear about Disney World, my favorite place on earth!

Hi! Thank you for reading so far, I'm really glad people are enjoying reading this report, I love writing about it all .. WDW updates coming in soon!

Amazing, amazing, amazing update Emma! It all just looks and sounds so fabulous!

I hope one day I can convince Dave to go on the cruise, but it's highly unlikely because he gets seasick. =[

I can't wait to hear about my favorite place on earth, Disney World! Woohoo!

Thanks Jenifer! if it convinces Dave at all.. we hardly felt any movement while on the cruise ship, I was prepared with sea-sickness tablets and wristbands, but we didn't need them - I noticed quite a few guests with those patches behind their ears for motion sickness, but it's such a big ship we hardly felt the waves
on our way to WDW soon!

Emma, your report is fabulous. I just do not want it to end. I felt like I was a part of the cruise. The pics at Remy's were so yummy.

Thank you so much still another week at WDW to come!

Lol you can see my brother in the picture of you at Castaway Cay when you're lounging with your stingray! Too funny!

Also, DH says he remembers seeing you at CC He's like, "Oh yeah, I definitely remember her!"


I'm so glad you enjoyed Remy! It was definitely the highlight of our trip. The truffles in the room really made it memorable.

Hi Alesha! OMG that was your brother I spoke to then!! When I ordered the drinks on the beach, he heard my accent and asked if we were from the UK.. we got chatting about the cruise (they went on a Disney Cruise last year?) and about the weather, he was surprised when we said that most days of summer in England were only in the 50s/60s degrees!
He was drinking a purple cocktail, and his partner (your DSIL?) said to him "umm... what is that your drinking?!"

"It's a Small World.."

I have kept the truffle box from Remy! thought it was such a lovely touch.

Great update, Remy food looks delicious. Love that your bag got its own seat too

So what did you think of Pink then? I glanced at the menu and I love the look of the cocktails, sound really yummy

Thanks Stefy.. yes as we sat down, the waiter said "let me get you a stool for your purse madame".. loved it!

We really enjoyed pink, I was surprised how quiet it was (a lot of people walked in and straight out again while we were there, as they only serve the champagne cocktails) - the theming is beautiful and having the exclusive champagne was very luxurious! I hope you and Dave love your cruise next month!

Emma, I have just read your entire TR. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful pictures! We are doing a 3-day cruise on the Dream at the end of our honeymoon. While I was reading about your trip, I kept having DF run upstairs to look at your pictures.

Thank you for reading so far! Not long until your cruise and wedding now, I will have to read your PJ

What a wonderful last meal at Remy! And that thank you note and box of truffles was such a lovely touch.

Can't wait to hear about your adventures back on dry land!

Thank you! I plan to write up some days at WDW this weekend


Emma x

 

[OhMari]

I so enjoyed your cruise report. I don't get many on my boards, not to many people do the Land/Sea trip. I'm glad you included it with your TR. I did a RCCL when Leesa (Disney Dreamer) did one with her mom and I can see why Disney is a little more expensive, but well worth it.

Congradulations on your wedding.

 

[dolfinjuls]

I can't believe I didn't see your TR before! Your honeymoon so far sounds amazing! I really want to do a Disney cruise one day! I would definitely have to include the dolphin excursion, they are my fav! Everything about the cruise sounds like it was perfect! Can't wait to hear about the DW portion!!!

 

[disneybarbie]

I so enjoyed your cruise report. I don't get many on my boards, not to many people do the Land/Sea trip. I'm glad you included it with your TR. I did a RCCL when Leesa (Disney Dreamer) did one with her mom and I can see why Disney is a little more expensive, but well worth it.

Congradulations on your wedding.

Thank you very much for your comments - heading to WDW in the next update!

I can't believe I didn't see your TR before! Your honeymoon so far sounds amazing! I really want to do a Disney cruise one day! I would definitely have to include the dolphin excursion, they are my fav! Everything about the cruise sounds like it was perfect! Can't wait to hear about the DW portion!!!

Hi! Glad you found my TR we loved the cruise so much.. and still a week at WDW to come hehe


Emma x

 

[disneybarbie]

Sunday 26th June 2011

Leaving the ship and heading to Walt Disney World

We woke up about 6.30am and were already docked at Port Canaveral, and the Freedom of the Seas ship was next to us..

The plan had been to go to breakfast at the Enchanted Garden, but we decided it was too early to eat and we were still quite full up from dinner at Remy!

So we showered and packed up our hand luggage, filled in our comments cards and customs forms (these are the same as the ones we do for immigration into the USA so didn’t take us long to complete).
We kept the tv channel on the ‘how to disembark’ programme that was showing, just to make sure we understood what was going to happen!

Our bill was placed outside our door, so I checked through it and I noticed that the snorkelling equipment had been charged to our account three times (they had had a problem with the tills that morning so I was sort of expecting it) – we headed down to guest services to sort out the overcharge and hand our comments card in. The atrium was fairly busy as people were starting to line up ready to leave the ship.

Around 7.45am, the doors were opened and debarkation began.. we were quite sad to be leaving the Dream – but knew we had a great week ahead of us!

As we left the ship I could see a crane and workmen trying to fix the lifeboat that had malfunctioned during our cruise, apparently the next sailing went out without the boat at all!

Our luggage tags had been green with Tinkerbell on them..

So when we got to the luggage collection area of the terminal, we headed to the green Tinkerbell zone and easily found our suitcases! It was so well organised, there were several cast members around too to assist us.

Once again there was a separate queue for ‘non-US citizens’ for customs, so we had no wait at all to get through customs and out of a terminal – a cast member was directing people one way for Disney transportation and the other for private transfers/car parks.

Most people appeared to be heading to MCO rather than WDW – there were many DCL buses lined up waiting to collect people, but when we said we were going to the Grand Floridian (the CM said “oooh, very nice!), we were led to a Mears taxi rather than a bus! It was just us and two other families who were staying at Port Orleans Riverside.

The drive back to Orlando took just under an hour, I was excited to be heading under that magical gateway once again!

We stopped at POR first – so we then had a private taxi ride to the Grand Floridian…

As soon as we arrived, a porter came over and offered to take our luggage – he asked for my surname, and another CM nearby overheard – she looked down at her clipboard and walked right over and said “Emma & Stephen? … welcome! Let me take you guys to your room”

She walked us into the lobby, and quickly called up to the concierge level to check our room was ready… and it was! It was only 9am so I was really surprised – the porter said “congratulations Mr & Mrs..” but used my maiden name, so we laughed and told him what our married surname was. He was called Jerry and we saw him several times during our stay at the hotel, he was a really nice guy and so helpful.

We hadn’t planned to stay concierge level, originally we booked a theme park view room at the Grand Floridian – which we were already very excited about! Then a few months before our honeymoon, our travel agent emailed me to say that Disney had released some special rates for summer – and we could either take 30% off what we’d already paid for our room, or pay $200 less and upgrade to the concierge level in the main building!
We had immediately agreed to take the upgrade, it seemed like the perfect place to stay for our honeymoon.

So we were taken up in the exclusive lift to the concierge level. Our room was on the third floor, above Citricos and Victoria & Alberts, room 4319.

It had it’s own entrance hall!

And the room was huge!

Apparently when the hotel was built, Disney could either have split the turret areas into three smaller rooms, or two huge rooms – so they chose the latter.

Few more pics of the room…

.......

 

[disneybarbie]

....

Amazing views from the balcony…

Although it wasn’t technically a theme park view room.. we could just about see the top of Thunder Mountain at the Magic Kingdom!

And it was easy to hear the steam train and ferries throughout the day.

(video)


The cast member completed all of the check-in process with us in our room, we didn’t have to do anything at the reception desk.
She talked us through the concierge lounge, recreation and amenities at the resort, all of our dining reservations and activities were printed out in our file, and our Key to the World cards were yellow/gold!

Jerry arrived with our luggage – when I gave him his tip envelope he looked so surprised, and said “I’ve worked here years and never seen anything like that, thank you so much!”

We decided to go explore the lounge on the fourth floor – and get some breakfast! The CM had said that the concierge food wouldn’t replace a meal, it was just snacks… but there was plenty there for us for breakfast – cereals, pastries, muffins, toast, porridge, fruit bagels.. juice, tea and coffee!

We took some food back to our room and ate it on the balcony, then I unpacked. I decided to be very ‘extravagant’ as it was our honeymoon, and used the laundry service in the hotel! I put some tshirts, smalls and swimwear in the laundry bag – it was a little expensive altogether but nice to have all the clothes come back the next day clean & pressed.

We couldn’t reset the safe in the wardrobe so called the front desk to help, within minutes a CM arrived to fix it for us.

We stopped at the concierge desk to ask if there was anywhere on property that sold camera batteries or chargers (I had accidentally packed the one for my old camera and had had to use Steve’s small camera for most of the cruise!) – the Cast Member didn’t say a word to us, but turned around and opened a cupboard.. and produced a box of every phone and camera charger imaginable! She asked what camera I had, and with a smile handed me the charger I needed, and said “just bring it back before you leave” … I was amazed, I really thought they’d say ‘there’s a camera shop in the Studios that might sell them’ – not just give me one to use!
So I popped back to the room to put the camera on charge, and we headed out of the hotel to the bus stop.

........

 

[TanzUnited99]

Wow I loved reading about your snorkelling experience and then the meal at Remys! That is soo nice of them to send a thank you card and box of truffles - you def don't get many restaurants doing that!

I read on to see that you had posted about your journey to GF resort! What a lovely greet and that room looks amaazing! It was also nice to read about all the help the CMs were providing esp the camera charger being given to you. What a magical way to start your stay at Disney World!

 

[disneybarbie]

……..

It was about 11am by this time, so rather than go to a park we decided to go to Downtown Disney for some lunch and shopping.


On our first Disney bus of the trip!

When we got to the marketplace, I knew there was only one place Steve would consider for lunch…

The Earl of Sandwich!

I had a Mediterranean tuna salad and Steve had a beef sandwich, we found a table outside and ate our delicious lunch.

Next we walked over to Pleasure Island and the West Side.

We got the boat back over to the marketplace….

And then we did some shopping at the World of Disney and in the Days of Christmas Shop. It was nice to use our honeymoon gift card! We bought some kitchen items, photo album, frames, candies and a few gifts for our families.


We got the bus back to the Grand Floridian.

It was quite a slow journey as we stopped at the West Side, Typhoon Lagoon and the Wilderness Lodge before we got back to our hotel, but we weren’t in a rush.

Once back in our room, Steve had a nap (which, on reflection, I wish I had too.. because of something that happened later that day!!)

I sat on the balcony and wrote some more of my trip diary. There was a couple on the balcony above us having an awful argument – they were so loud! I think they sorted out whatever was wrong, surely no one can stay mad in the happiest place on earth?

Once Steve woke up, we got changed and went for a wander around the resort.

There were giant checkers & chess tables on the concierge floor!

Our room was the one on the third floor, right hand side..

At the marina..

......

 

[disneybarbie]

......

We decided to spend some time by the pool – there was some kind of dance contest going on by the main pool and it was quite noisy, so we found some loungers by the courtyard pool. We swam and relaxed for a couple of hours.

Some ducks were also cooling off in the pool!

One duckling got separated from his mother and was calling for her, some kids in the pool kept splashing the poor duck and it was clearly distressed! Then the mother duck came flying down and was reunited with her baby… it was like a Disney movie there were a lot of people around the pool watching it all happen!

About 5pm we headed back inside the hotel, stopping by the shop to buy some stamps and postcards, and I also got a Grand Floridian pin for my collection. The Cast Member who served us noticed our honeymoon gift card, and asked us how long we were staying – so we said we’d just arrived but had been on the Dream ship which had been amazing!

We popped back up to the lounge, between 5 – 7pm they serve canapés, some hot items, cakes, beers, wine and even champagne!

View of the lobby from the lounge…

We got a few canapés, Steve got a beer and I poured a glass of champagne – couldn’t believe this was all complimentary!

We got ready for our first dinner of the week… Citricos.

We hadn’t been here before but wanted to try out some of the Grand Floridian restaurants while we were staying here!

When we checked in, the Cast Member said ‘congratulations’ and asked us to wait just a few minutes for our table. Steve walked over to Victoria & Alberts to look at the menu, we noticed some of the dishes were the same as Remy as they share the same chef – it was funny to think we’d just eaten there the night before but were now in WDW!

We had a fantastic table right by the window, overlooking the marina.

Our menus were especially for newlyweds and we got to keep them..

Our server was called Javier and was a lovely guy, he took our drink order – but then returned with two glasses of champagne too! He said they were “from Mickey” and winked at us.

The food here was excellent, I had Berkshire pork two ways; Steve had red snapper paella.

We declined dessert, even though the choices looked delicious, as we were going to the Wishes dessert party at the Magic Kingdom later!

........

 

[wishspirit]

Wow! Your room looks stunning! I can't believe they had all those spare chargers! That's a great thing to know about, and so considerate!

I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

[mamaboogie]

What an amazing room! The view is beautiful.

Citricos looked wonderful - I've never been there but we may have to rethink

 

[onelilspark]

I can't get over the size of that room! How lovely!