A May Mini-moon in the Making

[DisneyCoasters]

Hello DISers!

I've been a lurker here for awhile, but I've finally decided it's time for me to start my own PTR. I'm really looking forward to my next trip and excited to share the planning with folks who are as excited as I am about Disney!

First some introductions. My name is Nicole. Here's a photo from my most recent trip:

Me and my good buddy Ursula!

Disney Favorites
Favorite Park: Animal Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror or Everest
Favorite Movie: The Little Mermaid or Frozen (seriously obsessed right now!)
Favorite Character: Ursula
Favorite Song: Be Prepared or Let it Go

I live in Boston with my two roommates and my amazing partner Melsen. Here's Melsen and I on our recent trip:

Mel's first view of the castle!

Disney Favorites
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror or Rockin' Roller Coaster
Favorite Movie: Mary Poppins
Favorite Character: Merida
Favorite Song: Tale as Old as Time

I convinced Mel to take his first Disney trip in October/November of 2013 (it wasn't that hard) and he discovered he loves Disney as much as I do. We're getting married on May 7, 2014&and we've decided to take a "mini moon" (short honey moon) to WDW that week to celebrate!

I'll update here as we plan. I've already got some updates to include, but it took me a really long time to figure out how to size down my photos, so that will have to wait!

Excited to share with you all!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Looking out my living room window and watching the snow pile up as I contemplate writing my next post. Nothing says "time for vacation" like a blizzard! My good friend actually just flew to Orlando this morning and was lucky enough to get out before they shut down the airport. Looking forward to texting with her so I can live vicariously through her Disney trip this week. I hear it's raining there this afternoon...but a rainy day at Disney is better than most days anywhere else!

Now, for some more background about your Disney travelers!

Mel and I have been dating for a little over three and a half years. We met via an online dating site, but after we'd dated for a few months we realized that we'd crossed paths multiple times and just missed meeting each other. Then we found out that my dad and Mel's uncle were good friends and roommates in college. Clearly we were meant to get together...funny that we had to go online to find each other!

In December of 2012, he planned a wonderful proposal for me. He whisked me off to a surprise date night in a private dining room at the top of an old lighthouse. We got to eat dinner and slow dance and look out at all of the town's Christmas decorations from up in the top of the lighthouse. Very romantic and perfect for me (a person who does NOT want to be the center of attention...I told him if he proposed to me on a jumbo tron at a sporting event I would say no!).

In August of 2013, I proposed back to him. I set up a very elaborate scavenger hunt around the city which took him to a bunch of our favorite spots. Friends met us along the way and gave him clues, we ate some great food, did some fun shopping, and got to play together for the whole day. The proposal culminated in the presentation of a photo book with pictures from our relationship. The last few pages included photos of our friends/family holding letter signs that spelled out "WE HOPE YOU SAY YES!"

With proposals like that you'd think we might be planning a huge elaborate wedding, but we're actually not. We're going to do a very small elopement type situation here in Boston (with just our officiant, our roommates, and another 4 or 5 people). We'll do a larger party for our friends later, but for the actual ceremony we want to keep it small and intimate. Our goal is to have the ceremony on May 7th (our four year dating anniversary), but we're waiting to confirm that all of our VIPs can make it that day. It's a Wednesday, which is kind of strange, but that's one benefit of doing such a small affair...no need to stick to weekends because the guest list is so short!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Now that you've got some background, I can catch you up with the planning!

Knowing our goal wedding date of 5/7/14, I decided to get to work on planning our mini-moon. I was searching through my email to see if I'd received anything about free dining or general resort discounts, and came across an email with a PIN CODE.

What?!?

The pin was for either free dining or up to 35% off a resort stay. I usually prefer to stick to value resorts because when I'm at Disney I spend so much time in the parks and so little time in the hotel. Since this is a honeymoon, though, Mel and I were thinking we wanted to try a deluxe. I figured I might be able to get the full 35% discount at a deluxe, so I decided to give a call and price out some options.

So, on 12/16 I got on the phone with a lovely and helpful cast member. I gave her my pin number, and she asked to verify my name and address. There was a problem...even though the pin came to my personal email, it was not for me!

She explained that it was registered for someone else with my last name, and I asked her if it was my dad Russell. For some bizarre reason, it was! The only time my dad has been to WDW was once in 1993. 1993...as in long before email was in common use! I explained this to the cast member and also explained that my dad is completely blind and really doesn't travel (also true). She sympathized, but told me that company policy says that only the person whose name is registered with the pin code can book a trip, and that the person must actually be travelling! I tend toward the dramatic side, and I immediately started to panic. The cast member told me she could check with guest services, though, and put me on hold.

When she came back a few minutes later, she had good news! They would be able to honor the code for me!

I was afraid that if I called back at a different time I might get a different answer, and since Disney has such a generous cancellation policy, I decided to go ahead and book. (Without talking to Mel. Oops? ) I booked us for five nights (Wed 5/7 - Sun 5/11) at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I knew Mel would be supportive, and on the off chance he wanted to do something different, we could make a change!

 

[deedee2177]

My DH and I honeymooned in Disney in 2011. We had four days at the parks and we stayed off-site. Unfortunately, my DH cracked his tooth so he was in a lot of pain most of the time so we are planning a Honeymoon Re-do in 2015.

Congrats to you and Mel, and I will be following along with your PTR!

 

[deedee2177]

Just had to add that my DH and I met online as well e

Oh and I love your picture from AoA. DH and I took the kids November 2012 and we stayed in the LM rooms during free dining...thanks to a little pin code that came our way! We loved it there! The rooms were so cute.

Ok I have hogged your thread long enough

 

[DisneyCoasters]

My DH and I honeymooned in Disney in 2011. We had four days at the parks and we stayed off-site. Unfortunately, my DH cracked his tooth so he was in a lot of pain most of the time so we are planning a Honeymoon Re-do in 2015.

Congrats to you and Mel, and I will be following along with your PTR!

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're here! And how funny that we both chose Disney honeymoons after meeting our husband/husband to be online. (Maybe that's what we looked like reading all the online dating profiles? )

Sorry to hear that your husband had bad luck around your original honeymoon, but glad you get a do-over! I'll look forward to reading your PTR for that trip.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

J

Oh and I love your picture from AoA. DH and I took the kids November 2012 and we stayed in the LM rooms during free dining...thanks to a little pin code that came our way! We loved it there! The rooms were so cute.

October was my first time to see AoA and it was totally beautiful! We were in the farthest room of the farthest building, so it felt like a bit of a hike, but it was totally made more entertaining by all of the awesome decor.

Since this PTR is pretty text heavy, here's some more fun AoA pics!

The view from the elevator bank at our building. (This looks so dreamy to me as I look out my window and think about all the snow shoveling I have to do!)

Mel joins the fish conga line

King Triton!

Mel and Sebastian

Mel as Prince Eric...so princely!

Hanging out with the dinglehopper...

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Following along!

Thanks for joining!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Hello DISers!

I spent more than two and half hours shoveling snow today. It's super cold here in Boston (feels like -8 right now) and this all has me dreaming of our May honeymoon!


At the end of my last update, I'd booked us for five nights at AKL without talking to Mel. When he came home, I was a little sheepish about it, but he was 100% on board. Clearly I am marrying the right person!

As we talked about the specific resort, though, we realized that we were a little nervous about how far away from the other parks it is. I reached out for advice from my friend who is a Disney lover and a regular guest at WDW's deluxe resorts.

In the meantime, Mel and I spent an evening doing our own research, looking at photos of all the deluxes and reading all the resort posts on the Dis. We would have loved to stay at the Poly, but decided against it because of the construction. We visited the GF last trip and while it was beautiful, we felt it was a little too stuffy for our tastes. The Wilderness Lodge isn't our favorite aesthetic, so we decided that the Contemporary was our top choice for a monorail hotel.

As for the Epcot area, all of the resorts looked really nice. I've already stayed at the Dolphin and didn't find it to be as 100% Disney as other resorts. We felt open to YC, BC, or BW but ultimately decided that BW seemed like it had the most exciting theming.

When I heard back from my friend, he ended up recommending the same two hotels that we'd picked! With that extra boost of confidence, I called back to price out our options. It turned out that the Contemporary only had upgraded ($$) rooms available for that time period, so we decided happily on the Boardwalk! Unfortunately no water view rooms were available, but I am sure we will be happy with whatever room we get.

Since this update was all about deluxe resorts, here are a few pictures from my recent visit to the Grand Floridian. We went with some friends to a dinner at Narcoossee's on the last night of the trip. The food and the service was incredible, and we got to watch Wishes and the nighttime water show from the porch at the restaurant. If you're looking for a fancy addition to your trip, I would HIGHLY recommend Narcoossee's!

Now THIS is a lobby! Mel is a pianist and he was very tempted to try to go play the piano...

Mesmerized by the chandelier

Mel's dinner: House-Made Roasted Buttercup and Kabocha Pumpkin Ravioli - heirloom pink lady apples, black kale, rhubarb, gruyere cheese, toasted pistachios, and Ace Joker hard cider buerre noisette ($33)

My dinner: Grilled Filet Mignon - roasted potatoes, grilled spring onions, cultivated mushrooms, and french green beans with herbed cabernet-oxtail sauce and smoked white truffle oil ($44)

 

[Teetah]

Following along! Your stories and pics are all so cute!!!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Following along! Your stories and pics are all so cute!!!

Thanks, Teetah! I'm having so much fun both with the PTR and getting a little bit of regular old trip report action in through the photos of my last trip!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

In a truly backwards move, we were able to finalize our wedding date after I booked our honeymoon. In late December, we asked our friend to be our officiant, and he happily agreed! We also checked with our small party to make sure everyone is available on the day of the 7th, and they are all in! Now I could feel free to start making more detailed plans for the Disney trip!

When I started reading the Dis boards a few months ago, I started a google doc of things to do on future Disney trips. The first thing on that list was to go to dinner at Ohana. The food looks delicious, I really want to get a big drink in a pineapple, and I would love to watch Wishes from the beach at the Poly! So, I logged into My Disney Experience and got to work with the dining reservation system. I was able to get an 8:30 reservation for the last full day of our trip…I think it will be a perfect time for a relaxing and romantic dinner and fireworks date! MK is also supposed to be open until midnight that day, so we'll plan on heading back for a few more rides after dinner and Wishes.

We're not interested in doing a huge number of ADRs because we tend to prefer spending as much time as possible with rides and shows and just soaking up the joy of the parks. That said, I did want to try for another one or two. I did some thinking and realized that Mel would absolutely love to go to BOG for dinner…Beauty and the Beast is one of his all time favorite movies! Via MDE I was able to get a late dinner reservation on the second day of our trip (Thursday). Since we're doing just a few ADRs, I thought it would be nice to be able to spread them through the week. I told Mel about the restaurant and his face lit up like a Christmas tree…I knew he would love it!

Another thing that I've read about that sounds really fun (but more extravagant that I generally am) is the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. I told Mel a bit about it and he was in. We want to see the tunnels under MK!! I called the tour and event booking line and was able to get two spots for 8:30 Wednesday morning…so we'll get to enter the park before it opens! How cool will that be?

And related to getting into the park before opening, we also decided that we wanted to add the Memory Maker package for this trip. I've never done a photo pass package in the past, but this seems like a really good excuse. Plus, since it will just be the two of us, it will be really helpful to have someone else to take photos of us. We will DEFINITELY plan to go into the park early to try to get a photo pass shot of us in front of the castle with no crowds. I know I've seen it happen on other trip reports, so here's hoping!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

How about some more photos, just because?! I'll do one from each park, because why not?!

Mel's first look at MK and the castle we all love so much!

Eating lunch at Flame Tree BBQ at AK. We just happened upon this magical view…I don't know that I will ever eat elsewhere at this park from now on!

Our first ride on TSM!

On our way to Food & Wine!

 

[Teetah]

Another thing that I've read about that sounds really fun (but more extravagant that I generally am) is the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. I told Mel a bit about it and he was in. We want to see the tunnels under MK!! I called the tour and event booking line and was able to get two spots for 8:30 Wednesday morning…so we'll get to enter the park before it opens! How cool will that be?

DO IT!!!! This is on our list of to-dos for our next trip and I am SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!! I can't wait to hear about your experience!!!!

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Hello friends!

It's been awhile since my last update, but I've still been busy planning both the wedding and the mini-moon! We've got almost all of the details for our wedding sorted, but we're still working on the ceremony and both need to find our outfits. I've tried a ton of dresses but haven't found the right one yet. Mel has yet to go shopping...

For our mini-moon, I've managed to book all of our FP+s and several more dining reservations. (I know I said we don't want to do a ton, and that's still true! But I figured it might be really nice to have at least one table service option on our super long park days. I suppose we can always cancel over the next few weeks if we decide to.)

One thing I've been thinking a lot about is our BOG dinner ressie. I was only able to get a very late reservation (9:10), and the way the rest of our schedule is working out it's on an evening where I'd prefer to be at a different park. I've heard rumors that some folks have been able to get fast passes to BOG lunch, but when I tried using the link I found on the Dis it didn't work for me. Possibly they're all booked? But I've heard of some folks getting them a month or less out, so maybe I'll keep trying. . If anyone has any tips I would be very appreciative!

Our schedule so far:

Wed 5/7:

• GET MARRIED
• Fly to Orlando
• Go straight to bed to prep for our Disney adventures!

Thurs 5/8:

• AK in the morning with FP+s for Safari, Nemo, & Everest (wondering if we should actually rethink this and use our FP+s in the afternoon, probably at a different park? If we get to AK early enough we should be able to do these rides without too much of a wait...)
• Evening is up in the air. Right now we have our late BOG dinner ressie, but hoping to figure out a different way to work that into our trip (or maybe just scrap it this time). If so, maybe afternoon/evening will be spent in Epcot checking out F&G!

Fri 5/9:

• Keys to the Kingdom tour (which includes lunch and lasts until 1:30)
• FP+s in the mid-late afternoon at Thunder, Peter Pan, and Splash (final ride, so we can go home and change!)
• Probably back to the hotel for a rest
• Over to Epcot for the evening where we have a newly added dinner ressie at La Hacienda for 15 minutes before Illuminations begins. I've seen several TRs where folks have had great views of the fireworks over their meals!

Sat 5/10:

• HS all day! Hoping to arrive early for EMH in the AM. Priority #1 is Rockin Rollercoaster since it's one of Mel's favorites!
• Lunch ressie for 50's Prime Time. I've heard the food is pretty good here, but I'm a little nervous about the server being fake mean to us. For that reason we may cancel...am I being too worried over nothing?
• FP+s in the mid-late afternoon for Tower, Lights Motor, and TSM
• Possibly staying for Fantasmic, but we'll see how we're feeling. We both like it, but it's not a must-do for us. Plus, we've got a few days planning at DLR in September, and I've heard Fantasmic there is better!

Sun 5/11:

• AK in the morning
• In my dreams, this would be when we get a BOG lunch ressie
• Early evening FP+s at MK for Thunder, Barnstormer, and Space. Fingers crossed that the Mine Train will be open and offering FP+s so I can swap out a Thunder!
• Dinner at Ohana
• Wishes from the Poly beach
• Probably back to MK since it's open util 1am this night and it's our last full park day!

Mon 5/12:

• Epcot morning FP+s for Soarin, Spaceship Earth, and Figment
• Last gasp of Disney enjoyment, hopefully with some snacks at F&G
• Sadly, headed home this day. Our flight is around 3:15pm

It should be an amazing trip! I'd love to hear other suggestions if folks have them!

 

[Teetah]

SUCH awesome plans!!!!!

And it is getting SOOOO close!!!!!

Man, I really can't wait for your TR!!! On the lunch ressie FP+ for BOG - I have seen the same thing. Iheartduck did that on her TR - you might check it out and ask! I would imagine they are all booked up, but I would keep trying! We are planning for KTTK tour, as well, so I am STOKED to hear about your experience!!

This is going to be a flat-out amazing trip! AHHHHH SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!

 

[JNPants]

Hello DISers!

I've been a lurker here for awhile, but I've finally decided it's time for me to start my own PTR. I'm really looking forward to my next trip and excited to share the planning with folks who are as excited as I am about Disney!

First some introductions. My name is Nicole. Here's a photo from my most recent trip:

Me and my good buddy Ursula!

Disney Favorites
Favorite Park: Animal Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror or Everest
Favorite Movie: The Little Mermaid or Frozen (seriously obsessed right now!)
Favorite Character: Ursula
Favorite Song: Be Prepared or Let it Go

I live in Boston with my two roommates and my amazing partner Melsen. Here's Melsen and I on our recent trip:

Mel's first view of the castle!

Disney Favorites
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror or Rockin' Roller Coaster
Favorite Movie: Mary Poppins
Favorite Character: Merida
Favorite Song: Tale as Old as Time

I convinced Mel to take his first Disney trip in October/November of 2013 (it wasn't that hard) and he discovered he loves Disney as much as I do. We're getting married on May 7, 2014&and we've decided to take a "mini moon" (short honey moon) to WDW that week to celebrate!

I'll update here as we plan. I've already got some updates to include, but it took me a really long time to figure out how to size down my photos, so that will have to wait!

Excited to share with you all!

Now stalking your PTR! Just had to say what a wonderful photo of the two of you this is in front of the castle.

 

[DisneyCoasters]

SUCH awesome plans!!!!!

And it is getting SOOOO close!!!!!

Man, I really can't wait for your TR!!! On the lunch ressie FP+ for BOG - I have seen the same thing. Iheartduck did that on her TR - you might check it out and ask! I would imagine they are all booked up, but I would keep trying! We are planning for KTTK tour, as well, so I am STOKED to hear about your experience!!

This is going to be a flat-out amazing trip! AHHHHH SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!

Thanks, Teetah! We are getting SO excited. We are obviously thrilled to be getting married, but we spend just as much time saying "It's almost time for Disney!" as we do saying "We're almost married!" We are big Disney nerds...I know folks here can appreciate it!

As for BOG, I've done some reading over the last few days and it looks like recently, people who haven't gotten the invitation to make the FP reservation are no longer able to use the link. Maybe Disney figured out that people are sharing the code and put a stop to it? Too bad. Hopefully I will get an invite, but if not, it will be something to look forward to next time.

 

[DisneyCoasters]

Now stalking your PTR! Just had to say what a wonderful photo of the two of you this is in front of the castle.

Yay, stalk away! And thanks, T! This was taken on our first day at Disney and it was Mel's first time seeing the castle. I love how excited he looks! This is actually my desktop background at work because it makes me so happy.