A Grand Dream of a Honeymoon - June 2011

[Mindy5767]

I never got to the Haunted Mansion on my 10 day trip if you can believe that!! We were so busy during our AEP (agent education program) and then during our family trip, my DD9 refused to go near it!! She HAS been on it, but she is so scared of it still. Maybe next time I'll get to see the new "scenic" route.

 

[Tracy161]

Yes, we absolutely went to Stone Henge... so amazing!!! We packed so much into that trip, it was incredible. I wore a pedometer and the record high was 16 miles of walking in one day!!!

 

[Plaid Sheep]

Flew through your report so far and have enjoyed it all.
What an amazing trip you had... ahh ...the romance of it !!

Congrats on your marriage, you two are adorable!

 

[lilwitch646]

Hello again! Just caught up on everything, it all looks so exquisite! It's funny that you both tried to surprise each other on the same day, that GF florist must have been busy that day!

I love Nine Dragons. It is my all time favorite Chinese restaurant, of all the Chinese restaurants I've been to. Did you do a dining plan? I saw you mentioned the desert was included.

It's amazing the travel agent sent you a gift. That was really thoughtful of her. And nothing with nuts!

That's one of the best things about Disney, they're very conscious of food allergies. They go to a lot of pains to prepare delicious food that their customers can eat. I'm a bit surprised that V&A didn't exchange the bread for something withou nuts though. That seems a bit unusual to me. But the food there looked so delicious!

 

[dreamerchic33]

Emma!

Such amazing updates!
I am sorry i haven't been able to follow along more closely, but i am so ahppy to have gotten caught up!!!
xo Christina

 

[klacey1]

What a special dinner, Emma! I love the bag they gave you for the menus/pastries, even though it is quite a shame that you couldn't eat them!

 

[disneybarbie]

What a fantastic TR! Thank you so much for sharing!

I can't wait for the rest.

Congrats on your marriage, you make a beautiful couple.

Lisa

Hi! Thank you for reading along - I can't believe our wedding and honeymoon were nearly 3 months ago already.. weeks have flown by! More updates to come soon

I never got to the Haunted Mansion on my 10 day trip if you can believe that!! We were so busy during our AEP (agent education program) and then during our family trip, my DD9 refused to go near it!! She HAS been on it, but she is so scared of it still. Maybe next time I'll get to see the new "scenic" route.

Hi Mindy! Thank you for reading.. hope you get to do the Haunted Mansion on your next trip because of the slower pace of our honeymoon there did seem to be a lot of attractions Steve and I missed out.. I'm already excited to go again and do all of those!

Yes, we absolutely went to Stone Henge... so amazing!!! We packed so much into that trip, it was incredible. I wore a pedometer and the record high was 16 miles of walking in one day!!!

Wow that's a lot of walking!! I always say we should get a pedometer for Disney.. must easily do 5-10 miles a day around the parks

Flew through your report so far and have enjoyed it all.
What an amazing trip you had... ahh ...the romance of it !!

Congrats on your marriage, you two are adorable!

Hi! Thank you so much for reading and for your comments .. more updates to come soon, I'm so glad I can share our trip with other Disney fans.. it's making the vacation last longer?!

Hello again! Just caught up on everything, it all looks so exquisite! It's funny that you both tried to surprise each other on the same day, that GF florist must have been busy that day!

I love Nine Dragons. It is my all time favorite Chinese restaurant, of all the Chinese restaurants I've been to. Did you do a dining plan? I saw you mentioned the desert was included.

It's amazing the travel agent sent you a gift. That was really thoughtful of her. And nothing with nuts!

That's one of the best things about Disney, they're very conscious of food allergies. They go to a lot of pains to prepare delicious food that their customers can eat. I'm a bit surprised that V&A didn't exchange the bread for something withou nuts though. That seems a bit unusual to me. But the food there looked so delicious!

Hi! We like Nine Dragons too, it has nice dishes & I love the theming of the China Pavilion - we weren't on a dining plan but they do have a three course set menu there which we had - so we got to try the icecreams! We did have a Tables In Wonderland card with our annual passes, which worked out to be great value for us with our trips in December 2010 and then honeymoon

I was so surprised to get such a lovely gift from our travel agent! She had already had a parcel delivered to us at Kidani Village which had a lanyard, card holder & small rucksack in it as well as all the latest park maps

V&A's was incredible, I was so impressed that they rang us the day before to find out if we had any allergies, and then adapted our menus accordingly! It did seem strange that the gift was a chocolate nut bread, but I was glad that we got to give it to the concierge staff the next day, a little gift for them!

Emma!

Such amazing updates!
I am sorry i haven't been able to follow along more closely, but i am so ahppy to have gotten caught up!!!
xo Christina

Hi Christina, thank you for reading! More updates this weekend I hope!

What a special dinner, Emma! I love the bag they gave you for the menus/pastries, even though it is quite a shame that you couldn't eat them!

Thank you! I loved that we got to leave the restaurant with a rose and gift bag.. must have been obvious to other guests and cast members where we'd just been!




Been very busy at work this week everyone & going to a family christening tomorrow.. but hope to get next update done this weekend.. thank you for being patient!



Emma x

 

[disneybarbie]

Wednesday 29th June 2011

Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Fantasia Gardens, Portrait Session and dinner at California Grill

Today we were heading for Steve’s favourite Disney park.. Hollywood Studios! We’d agreed before our trip that this was the one park we’d need to get to for rope drop, in order to ride the ‘big three’ – Toy Story Midway Mania, Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

We skipped breakfast from the lounge and made coffee in our room while we got ready, then headed out to the bus stop – as DHS wasn’t the extra-magic hour park today, the bus wasn’t too busy, and very soon we were on our way into the park.

(I’ve noticed looking back through our photos how often Steve wore his Saints vest! I had had it cleaned though lol)

It felt really busy, but the opening ceremony hadn’t taken place yet so there was a large crowd forming on Hollywood Boulevard.

The show was a bit shorter than one we’ve seen before, and very soon we were walking quickly towards the sorcerer’s hat with all the other guests making there way to Pixar Place!

We skipped the Fast Pass line that was quickly forming, and got straight in the stand-by line.. by now the crowd had lessened and there were only about 50 people in front of us, we walked right around the line and were on one of the first rides of the day.

Had a great game on TSMM, I even won by a few points!

Next we headed to Sunset Boulevard..

To the right-hand side, I saw Mickey Mouse in his Sorcerer’s Costume! Never seen him do a meet & greet there before, and as we got closer, I noticed cameras & a film crew along with a lot of Cast Members forming a barrier so that guests couldn’t walk through the set! Mickey was skipping along with a young girl wearing Mouse-ears.. I guess it was for an advert or promo video.. quite exciting to see something like that being filmed!


And picked up Fast Passes for Tower of Terror, and then went to see an Aerosmith Concert..

Photo of the Hollywood Tower Hotel from the queue..

The line for this was only about 15 minutes, while I love this roller coaster the initial launch always makes me scream sooo loudly!

We still had a little bit of time until our fast pass window, so we got an orange juice and sat on Sunset Boulevard for a while, watching the world go by.

Soon it was time to ride Tower of Terror – this was fantastic, as always! As we got out of the elevator at the end of the ride, the bell-hop was particularly creepy and in character – he spotted my ‘Just Married’ button and said to us “I trust you stayed in the honeymoon suite?!”

It was just about 10.15am by this time, we’d achieved our three e-ticket attractions in just over an hour! Decided to get some breakfast from the Writer’s Stop – usually we go to Starring Rolls so it was nice to try somewhere different.

I like how this shop is themed like it’s a movie set, with lights & cameras hanging on the ceiling!
I had an iced latte & bagel, Steve had an apple Danish & a Sprite, there are only a few tables in the Writer’s Stop so we sat outside near the Sci Fi Dine In.

Next we checked the line for Star Tours, but it was about 40 minutes so we got Fast Passes, and went to visit the Muppets!

We’d just missed a show, which was fine with us because it meant we got to see the entire pre-show.. we both quote from this attraction all the time, definitely one of our favourites!

I love all the details in the pre-show area, photos came out a bit dark..

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[disneybarbie]

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We rode Star Tours, our ride went to a number of different locations which was good – I really like this attraction in its new format!

The sky was starting to look a bit dark and stormy – so we headed to the Animation Courtyard, Steve’s not keen on the show (with Mushu) so we walked through the shop and into the character/display areas.

We got back to the shop and noticed it was raining really heavily, so we spent some time looking around – I really like the animation/art shops anyway!

The rain eased off a little, and we decided to go and see an attraction we’d never seen before…

American Idol Experience!

A lot of people had had the same idea as us I think as the show was packed – trying to escape the rain shower.

We were really impressed by the show and both enjoyed it – the presenter/warm-up guy was particularly funny!

All three contestants were great singers – there was a 15 year old girl who sang “This Is Me” from Camp Rock, an English guy who sang “Walking in Memphis” and another who sang a Motown song (we voted for him, and he won!).

After a fun show, we decided to go and get some lunch from somewhere we’d not tried before, the Backlot Express.
The Cast Member that served us said congratulations and was asking all about our honeymoon! She’d asked us where we were staying, what restaurants we were going to.. it was very sweet, but I think the other guests in the line behind us were getting a bit impatient!

I had a Southwest Chicken Salad and Steve had a cheese burger.

I noticed the Toon Patrol car from the Roger Rabbit movie was here

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[disneybarbie]

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After lunch, we’d decided to head out of the park and walk over to Fantasia Gardens for a round of mini golf.

On our way past the Swan, I saw this cute little bunny!

We played the Fairways course, which is much harder – to me it’s more like playing real golf!

The game was going quite well.. but the clouds were getting darker and darker as we played, and unfortunately on the 15th hole, I lost my ball into the lake!

Steve continued to play the last few holes.. although by now the rain had started..

And by the 17th hole.. the thunder & lightening had started, so we had to abandon the game!

Most people on the course had also stopped playing and we all ran for cover in the shop/arcade area – some people (mostly British!) tried to keep playing, but they soon ran in, completely soaked through!

We must have sat there for nearly 30 minutes, it was a really bad storm.

The claps of thunder were getting louder and louder.. when suddenly, everything in front of us went completely white and we heard the loudest boom I’ve ever heard, and everything shook … afterwards, everyone looked at each other in panic & amazement… what had just happened?

Turned out.. the building had been hit by lightening!

The Reedy Creek Fire Brigade were there within minutes, checking the whole building for damage, but everything seemed to be ok – one lady asked a fireman if her husband might have been hit by lightening because he had been near a puddle & now had a fuzzy taste in his mouth… the fireman said to her “ma’am, what I consider to be a lightening strike, your husband wouldn’t be standing up right now if he had been hit” … it was quite funny.

The rain and storm were starting to ease off a bit, it was nearly 3pm and we needed to be getting back to the Grand Floridian soon.. so we put on our ponchos and walked back to the Swan and Dolphin to get a bus, it was quite nice to walk through the Swan – sneak peak in another resort!

We hopped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom, thinking from there we could get the boat or monorail back to our resort.. unfortunately, this bus then had to stop at the Dolphin, Yacht Club, Beach Club and Boardwalk before the park! I also noticed there were Epcot buses at these resorts, they must have had to stop the Friend-ships because of the storm.
At the Boardwalk, we decided just to get off the bus and get a taxi directly back to the Grand Floridian!


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[ronnmel]

Looks like you were able to accomplish quite a bit before the storm hit. And what a storm it was! I love lightning, so it would have been pretty exciting for me to be in the building while it's struck by lightning. Yeah, I'm crazy, I know.

I love when bell hoppers are creepy. We too had one talk to us about the honeymoon suite.

I have started my TR, I hope to see you there.

 

[disneybarbie]

Looks like you were able to accomplish quite a bit before the storm hit. And what a storm it was! I love lightning, so it would have been pretty exciting for me to be in the building while it's struck by lightning. Yeah, I'm crazy, I know.

I love when bell hoppers are creepy. We too had one talk to us about the honeymoon suite.

I have started my TR, I hope to see you there.

Thanks Mel I've caught up with your TR

It was a great morning at the Studios! ... and I did find the storm quite exciting, if a little scary when it hit the building! lol

Steve says that his dream job at WDW would be a bell-hop at ToT or work at the Haunted Mansion.. getting to act a bit spooky & really get into character!


more to come....


Emma x

 

[disneybarbie]

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Back in the room, we got showered and changed – ready for our portrait session around the resort! Steve wasn’t too keen on doing this, he hadn’t minded when I’d booked it, but the day before he’d said he didn’t really want to do it because people would be staring at us! But when it came to it, I think he relaxed and actually quite enjoyed it. I wanted to do one of these sessions so we’d get some nice photos of the two of us, hoping to get a good one to use on our thank-you cards too because most of our wedding guests had given us money towards the honeymoon.

Our photographer rang our room about half an hour before our session to check we still wanted to do it, it was still a bit rainy outside so we’d have to do most of the pictures indoors, that was fine with us though.

At 5pm we headed to the lobby – there was a little bit of confusion as I thought we were meeting the photographer at the front desk, but she was actually on the floor above near the Photo Pass desk! Several bell hops & cast members asked if we were waiting for someone (including Jerry, who’d taken care of our bags when we checked in), and they went searching all around the lobby for us! I just happened to glance up to the next floor, and saw two cast members looking down, scanning the lobby.. looking for us! So up we went.. the photographer, Beth, said she guessed it was Steve & I she was meeting and we looked so nicely dressed lol.

We wandered around the lobby together, Beth picking out nice spots to take pictures.

It was quite funny to be asked to sit on the floor/tables/window ledges!

A lot of other guests would stare at us as they walked by, maybe hoping to see a celebrity having a photoshoot done, not just two newlyweds!

Several times Beth asked us to put our foreheads together, she said it would feel weird but looked cute… it made Steve & I giggle though, it was like we were squaring up for a fight!

Some more around the lobby…

Beth suggested we went outside, it wasn’t raining too much and there’s a lot of covered areas outside the resort.

We stopped by the old-fashioned cars at the entrance and she took this photo of us..

Which we used for our thank you cards! There was actually a car parked behind us, but she said that she’d photo-shop it out, I think it turned out really well.


We went to the fenced pathway that leads to the bus stop next..

You can tell it was humid and wet outside as my hair started to get bigger!

I felt a little unsafe sitting up on the fence for these shots! ..

The last few were taken between the convention centre and the bus stop

Again.. we started giggling!

Which made the kissing shots look quite funny!

The photo shoot took about thirty minutes, Beth was friendly & very professional – I’d actually expected a Photo Pass photographer to be taking these pictures, but she worked for the Fairytale Weddings photography department.
Beth told us we’d be able to pick up our cd of photos from the Photo Pass desk later that evening or the next day – its only open for a few hours each day (I think 10am – 12pm and 5pm – 7pm), so we left it until the next day.

I was really pleased we did this, there are some nice photos of us and it’s a nice souvenir to remember our stay at the Grand Floridian! The cd has just over 50 photos on it and they’re really good quality to print out.

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[disneybarbie]

.......

We had a couple of hours until dinner, so we went up to the concierge lounge to have a drink and listen to the band playing.

We picked out some canapés from the buffet too, there were some duck spring rolls which were delicious!

I had a glass of rose and Steve had a beer.. I noticed a lady on another table had taken a whole bottle of wine off the drinks display!

There were some beautiful views of the resort and nearby parks and resorts from the lounge..

After an hour, we went to catch the monorail around to the Contemporary Resort.

One of the cast members there noticed I was holding my camera and offered to take our photo..

Soon we were at the Contemporary

We had a wander around the resort, I didn’t quite know where we had to go to get to the California Grill – but ended up finding the check-in desk by chance!

It was only about 7pm, our reservation wasn’t until 7.50, but the cast members were happy to check us in – again they knew we were on honeymoon and congratulated us!

We were handed a buzzer and invited into an elevator up to the top floor.

We’d never been to this restaurant before, and excited to try one of the signature restaurants.

We found a table at the bar, and were about to order drinks while we waited.. when our buzzer went off!

We were led to a table by the window, on the side furthest from the Magic Kingdom but close to the open kitchen.. I loved being able to watch all the chefs busy at work.

There was Mickey confetti sprinkled on our table…

Steve used his zoom lense and could see Epcot..

Animal Kingdom..

Downtown Disney…

The Swan & Dolphin..

and Hollywood Studios..

We ordered drinks and read the menu – so much to choose from! We decided to share some sushi for our appetiser – we almost ordered two platters, but our server said one would probably be enough.. she was right!

We had Yoshie’s deluxe sushi platter..

(Sorry for my husband’s funny expression in this one! I think it was a combination of being all smiled out from our photo session, and that I insisted on taking photos of all our food this trip!!)

The sushi was delicious, some of the best we’ve had – each piece had a little wasabi in it, which surprised Steve because he never eats this, whereas I love it!

The restaurant looked very different to how I imagined it would.. much lighter and modern..

For mains, I had halibut and Steve had beef..

These were both tasty, and for dessert we ordered a chocolate & strawberry cake to share..

A minute after bringing the cake out, our server brought out a small plate with a gift from the chefs

(I think they’d meant to put this on the chocolate cake!)


During our meal I’d been trying to scan the room for Courtney & Miguel, also on their honeymoon & married the same day as us! (southerntinkerbelle on the boards) but I didn’t see them – I know their ADR was a little earlier than ours.


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[disneybarbie]

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After a delicious meal, we headed outside to the viewing deck – the sun was setting and everything looked so beautiful!

Video..


We went down to the lobby.. Steve noticed a model of the Disney Dream … ‘our’ ship!

We had a look around the shops, I noticed a lot of the 40th Anniversary merchandise – really liked the design of it, also the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean nail polishes, which I now wish I’d bought!


Our server had told us we could come back up to California Grill to watch Wishes from the balcony (just needed to show our receipt at the check-in desk), but there were still a few hours to go until the fireworks – and I wondered how crowded it might be up there?
So we decided to leave the Contemporary and got the monorail back home.

Back at the Grand Floridian – it looked beautiful as ever!

We popped back to our room – and I could hear a very quiet noise coming from the bathroom, which turned out to be a red heat lamp in the ceiling! When the maid had come in to turn the bed down each night, she must have turned on the heat lamps to dry the towels we’d used that day (I had wondered what the timer switchers on the wall did!).


We headed out to the marina, and got a hot chocolate & lemonade from Gasparilla Grill to drink outside.

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[disneybarbie]

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We could see Cinderella Castle lit up, and thought about sitting there to watch the fireworks, but we were quite far away from the park.. plus there was a group of children near us who were being really noisy! So we walked to the boat launch near Narcoossee’s and found a bench to sit on.. it was a great spot…

(The sky was still alight behind the Polynesian from Illuminations at Epcot..)

Some other families were standing there too.. one little boy was desperate to get the boat over to the park.. I think it was their first night at Disney, his Dad was trying to explain that there wasn’t time to get to the Magic Kingdom and they’d see it from there another time… but the little boy said “No Dad, I want to see the fireworks in real life, not from here!” .. it was a pretty good view though, and we could just about hear the soundtrack from Narcoosee’s too.

From this view it was interesting to see how far behind the park the fireworks are set off..

I don’t think I could ever get bored of watching Wishes.. it’s such an incredible show!

We wandered back to our room – it had been a fun & eventful day.



Coming up tomorrow… Typhoon Lagoon, Disney Quest and Yachtman Steak House


Emma x

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Aww, it sounds like you two had an amazing day! I'm so glad you mentioned getting some breakfast at the Writer's Shop. I always seem to be hungry in the morning at DHS (no time for breakfast since we're rushing to get to TSM!), but none of the breakfasts that I've tried there have been very good. A bagel sounds like it would be though. I will have to keep that in mind for the future.

The photographer got some great shots of the two of you! I love the dress you chose to wear. I would have been like Steve - nervous about people looking at me! I especially love the one that you used in your thank you cards.

All of your pictures from the Cali Grill are amazing! I love how you captured all of the different parts of Disney. How sweet of you two look for Miguel and I! Our final evening ended up changing a bit. I'll be sure to tell all about it in my TR!

 

[Self_resqing_princz]

Love the pictures from the photo session! Was it expensive?

Also, for some reason, the video you posted won't play.

I've never been to the California Grill, but the views look amazing! Maybe we'll go next time.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

What a great day Emma! Loved how much you got done at DHS in the morning. And what an experience to be by the building that got hit by lightening!!

Your pictures from the photo session came out so great! I would've hated those forehead-together poses too! On our honeymoon, a few photopass photogs had us touch noses and do stuff like that. Just so weird! Haha!!

 

[mickey2minnie1]

Wonderful update! You got some beautiful shots with your photographer. I love you and your DH with the old car, just perfect.