A Trip of Firsts: How the Farrell’s do a Disneymoon!

[dizziedupbaby0127]

First let me say this is my first trip report and its starting a little late but it will be worth it!

Introduction: The Who, What, Why, Where and When.

What: Our DISNEYMOON, a Land/Sea adventure

Where: Disney’s AllStar Music resort, Disney’s Polynesian resort, Disney’s The Wonder Ship

When: December 12th 2008- December 21st 2008, December 22nd 2008.

Who:
Me: 22, Newlywed, Bank teller, recent graduate, loves Disney, especially old Disney classics. And Obsessive planner! I love making lists and plans.
Previous trips to Disney- May 2007 with DH and his family.
DH: 21, Newlywed, Computer Programmer, recent graduate, fond of Disney. (I am creating his addiction!) He is the grounded one. He keeps me calm and tries to sway away from too much planning.
Previous trips to Disney- Age 3, Unsure of dates, with his family, and May 2007 with
family and girlfriend at the time (ME)!

Why: Long story short, DH and I started as high school sweethearts, dated five years, then became engaged for Christmas in 2007. We Planned a December wedding, locally and started planning our Honeymoon. Well last time we left Disney we loved it so much, but felt as if we missed so much and wanted to go back. We promised each other that we would return again before we have children so we can explore on our own. Well we were thinking about locations for our honeymoon, I suggested Disney. DH was excited but waited a bit more. Hmmm what would be Disney but some great add-ons???? Well I being the planner I am, started exploring the DIS and the Disney website. After some extensive research I suggest a Land/Sea vacation. With 3 or 4 nights at Disney and 3 or 4 nights on a Disney Cruise. Cruise? That was it DH was set, it was the Land/Sea for us.

How it all started: I wanted the 4 nights on land so we would have more park time and less cruise time, since neither one of us had cruised before. DH agreed. We started looking at dates and our resort options and ship stateroom options. We knew right away that we wanted to spend the money to have a full veranda on the ship. The fresh air, the open sea and the views! Next up, which resort? After making my own comparison chart in Excel we decided that we wanted to do a category 4 room on the ship. The list of resort choices were: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club Resort, Polynesian Resort, Saratoga Springs Resort, Swan or Dolphin Hotel. Each hotel had different positives and negatives about them, but we decided on the Poly. Well we went to book and the Poly was not available for those dates. WHAT!!!! What now? So we emailed different travel sites to see if there was anything available, NOPE! So we decided to wait a week after the wedding to go, best choice we ever made, we were so busy with wedding planning that week gave us some time to rest and pack before the honeymoon.




Here's just a few wedding photos to kick this TR off with.

This is our Disney moment!

 

[MaleDisneyBeliever]

Looking forward to this! We too are childhood sweethearts and still together. Maybe we'll finish up like you guys one day!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Looking forward to this! We too are childhood sweethearts and still together. Maybe we'll finish up like you guys one day!

Welcome!

That's great about you two also being high school sweethearts! We are planning to prove all the skeptics wrong about starting out young and lasting forever! So welcome to the club!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I should have the first entry up later tonight or early tomorrow morning, but just to give you a little taste for this trip here a few spoiler moments:

1-“OMG it’s the Dream Squad”
2-“Eeyore come back please!!!”
3-I made Minnie jealous and got Mickey in trouble
4-“What the heck is Goofy doing?”
5-“Sure we can take a bus to Epcot then a bus to the Ploy”
6-I almost made out with Donald
7-After 7 calls to the front desk and Mousekeeping we just got rid of
it ourselves.
8-“I think we are being taken over by lizards!”



And here are a few questions we got answered on this trip:

1- Does Dramine really work for Sea sickness????
2- How bad is the mousekeeping at the resorts?
3- Is the Tonga Toast as good as it looks? And how is the Presspot?
4- Just how many parks can we HOP to in a day?
5- How does the whole “Buy now, and ship to your resort” work?
6- Just how good is the resort front desk staff?
7-Just how many times can our flight get delay?
8-How long can a plane stay in a holding pattern before needed to land?

I truly hope this trip report will not only be fun and exciting for you all to enjoy but also offer up some incite on things that many first or second timers may not know about Disney!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

So after all the wedding rushing and craziness, we returned to our apartment and started packing. Between working, getting ready for Christmas, and picking up after the wedding, we were left with hardly any time to pack. The night before we left I was stuck working until 5pm and DH doesn’t get home until 6, well by the time he got home our apartment was trashed; I had suitcases everywhere along with clothes. In my planning I had picked up a few packing tips: 1-pack clothing in sets 2-mix his and her clothing in each checked luggage. This is just in case any of the luggage pieces are lost. So after hours of packing and some pizza we retired for the night. In less than 12 hours we would be on our first flight to Orlando for our Honeymoon!

 

[dischic89]

Subscribing! Great teasers and can't wait for more...

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Subscribing! Great teasers and can't wait for more...

Welcome! and thank you!

Today started out slow at work so I figured I would get some DISing in!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

December 12th: Our alarms were set for 8:00am we had a 12:30 flight out of Albany. We awoke promptly and I hit the shower with DH to follow. We already had our clothing laid out, we dressed and I rushed to finishing packing. We had planned to leave by 9:30am for the hour drive to the airport. Well the weather did not agree with us. It was snowing pretty bad. Around 9 when DH was dressed he headed down to the car to start shoveling. When DH was finished we began hauling our 6 suitcases and 2 bags down the stairs, out the door, through the snow and into the car. It was a tight fit but by then my parents had arrived to drive with us. We loaded 2 of the suitcases into their car and said we would meet them at Dunkin Donuts to get coffee for the ride. A few minutes later we driving down the road this was how bad it was outside.

And this is the time we finally got on the road.

So finally we arrive at Dunkin Donuts, grab some coffee and muffins; my parents say they need to stop for some excedrine for the ride down, by this time we were running very late so we headed on without them, planning to meet them at the airport. We hit the northway and find that part of it closed down due to the snow. Luckly DH works right around that area and he knew his was to the highway around the northway. We made it past the closed roads and back to the northway but lost about 15 to 20 minutes of time.

Finally we make it to the parking lot at the airport it was about 11:30. We tear the luggage out of the car and start wheeling it in. We get in the Southwest line, which is HUGE. We keeping checking the boards but no delay. I start in panic mode since my parents aren’t there yet and we have no way to contact them since they left their cell phone at home. The line was moving so slow. After about 20 minutes we see my parents out the window and DH runs to tell them where we are. Mean while the line seems to be moving quicker, except for this one girl trying to move 6 suitcases and a few bags around by herself…Oh yea that was me!

Finally DH comes back and we retrieve the last suitcase from my parents, say goodbye to them, and continue our way through the line. In line we meet quite a few other people on our flight. When we finally reached the luggage counter it was 2 minutes past noon. We placed our luggage on the scale ( I already made DH check the weights of the suitcases before we left on our bathroom scale) and thankfully none were over the 50lbs allotted. But all of a sudden the machine made this awful noise. The lady said it was just telling us our luggage MAY NOT make it on our flight since it was checking less than 30 minutes prior. Needless to say I was a bit annoyed but also knew we were using the Magical Express who would retrieve our bags so we really didn’t have to worry about them.

So we grabbed our carry-on’s two small suitcases and a duffle bag and were on our way. Across the airport, up the escalator, around the barriers and through the line to the security checkpoint we went. We check-in with the first guard who tells us which line to enter and proceed as directed. We start to place all our junk (yes junk, keys, change, jewelry and such) into the bin and “Oh crap” I forgot to wear socks with my shoes. So I had to walk barefoot through the airport! We finished with security and headed to our gate. We relaxed for a few minutes and DH went to get me a bottle or water to take on the plane with me.

This is us waiting for our plane and DH being silly!

CONT...

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

CONT...

This is our plane looking out the window of the airport.

We were lucky enough to get A boarding passes for Southwest. So we had our pick of seats. I took a window seat and DH took the middle. This was our very first flight. I was much more nervous then I needed to be and once we leveled off in the air it was smooth sailing. I loved looking out at the shore line as we flew over head.

We had a peanut allergy so we got ritz chips instead. After about 3 hours we were landing in Orlando. We had survived our first flight.

We hopped off the plane and made our way through the gates onto the shuttle and into the main section of the airport. We were so excited! I remembered reading to cross to side B before going down stairs to get to the Magical Express, so we did just that. When we got to the ME line, the lady said only one of us should check in, so DH took the bags and sat while I went through the line. There actually wasn’t a line, it was quite empty. The guy working was not as friendly as expected. He kept asking me if I had the packet they sent with our info in it and I tried to explain that I did not have it, I only removed the tickets we needed from it. He seemed annoyed at this and smugly took my information as told me we were all set and to get in line 3 (I am guessing because I don’t remember) but it was the line for the AllStar resorts. I grabbed DH and we proceeded straight onto a bus. There wasn’t much of a wait then we departed. We did end up on a Mears cruise line bus, BUT it did have the Disney Video.

We watch the video and then after about 45 minutes we see this……

Welcome to WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!! We made it!





Up next: Our check-in to ASM, what we did first and "man we are hungry" all we had were muffins…..

 

[dischic89]

CONT...

We watch the video and then after about 45 minutes we see this……

Welcome to WALT DISNEY WORLD!!!! We made it!





Up next: Our check-in to ASM, what we did first and "man we are hungry" all we had were muffins…..

Don't you just love that sign! Ready for more!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Day1: cont ...Our check-in at ASMu

After a few short minutes we pass through the security gates and enter the AllStar properties. First up is Sports.
Here’s a few quick glimpses of the resort.

Next was us! Allstar Music resort.

The entrance was all decorated for Christmas.

We got off the bus, retrieved our carry-on luggage, tipped the driver (yes I know this is a very controversial topic but this is my philosophy on it. I do not believe you HAVE to tip the driver, nor I do I feel it should be done because you “feel sorry for them” but I feel that a nice tip before or after good service is a “thank-you” and if you encounter that driver or person later your stuff is much more likely to be treated with respect) and walked in.
To our right was the Registration line and to the right was the concierge line. We walked to the check-in area and were responded to immediately. The lady (I wish I got her name) was very friendly and welcoming. I told her my name and gave her my driver’s license. She asked if we wanted to place a CC on our account for charging privileges and we said yes and gave her DH’s CC. Then she said “Congratulations on your marriage” and told us to hang on one moment. She walked over and asked another CM for a rose and brought it back and gave it to me. This was our very first Pixie Dust! She then gave us our “Just Married” buttons and handed us our check-in packet. She told us we were in room 3435. It was a first floor room in the 3rd building, Rock Inn. We followed our map to our room and opened the door. This is the first thing DH did…

We set down our luggage and I snapped a few photos of the room.

The carpet in the room.

The bathroom

These are of the resort, we took the next day but they flow better here:

The characters in the pool!

The second smaller (aka quite) pool

One of the buildings

Main walkway

DH wishing the car was his!

Our building! I love the bright colors!!!

The resort at night! Beautiful!


I flipped through the packet they had given us we included transportation suggestions, park maps and resort guides, including recreation activities list and guest services information. Then DH decided we were extremely hungry, we had only ate a muffin all day long. So we debated where to go and ended up deciding on the food court. We walked back to Melody Hall, the main building and entered the food court. They have a variety of options, sandwiches, pizza and pasta, salad and so much more. DH and I both ended up getting the Chicken Quesadillas with sour cream and sodas. Yummy!!!! We payed for this meal OOP (out of pocket) it cost $19.01 (13.18 for 2 Quesadillas and $4.58 for 2 soda’s.) We would rate this meal at a 7.5 on a 1-10 scale.

This was the Holiday cups, They were adorible!!!!

And the napkins!


After dinner, we decided to stop in the store, Maestro Mickeys. All of the Christmas decorations were 50% off. We browsed around but decided to wait to make our purchases. We then decided to hit DTD (Down Town Disney) so we walked outside and hopped on the bus. Now let me say that I LOVE that Disney provides you with transportation but no one ever said its FAST transportation. The ride from the AllStars to DTD was about 45 minutes. Once we arrived at DTD, we decided to walk around a bit. We did some shopping and decided to grab Ghiradelli for dessert. DH and I both ordered the same thing the Brownie Sundae, but mine had Dark Chocolate Hot fudge and his had regular hot fudge. Each sundae was $8.50, so our total OOP cost for this meal was $18.11. This was our second time here and we remembered why last time we said we would not eat there again… Both DH and myself had stomach aches the rest of the night. We decided to return to our room, so we walked back to the bus and rode the 45 minutes to ASMu and when we entered our room we found this…

It was an autographed photo of Mickey and Minnie in wedding attire, saying Congratulations! And a purple wedding bells balloon! This was our second Pixie Dust moment! We decided to get to bed since we had a full day ahead of us tomorrow…



Next Up: Our trip to Fantasia Gardens, some more DTD, some pool time and Our review of our stay at ASMu. (Note I leave the review for last because I think you need to fully experience the resort before you can pass judgment on it.)

 

[kimmylaj]

great update
we were there in nov 07 and i dont remember cool napkins.
love the pic of mickey and minnie in wedding attire. very cute

 

[KittyKat08]

I'm in.

Can't wait to read more, I love hearing about people's Disneymoons.

Great pics by the way.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I'm in.

Can't wait to read more, I love hearing about people's Disneymoons.

Great pics by the way.

Thanks! I do have alot of pics on the way!

great update
we were there in nov 07 and i dont remember cool napkins.
love the pic of mickey and minnie in wedding attire. very cute

I really do love "into" the holidays or occasions Disney gets, Like I always say "Nobody does it like Disney does"!






I will have another update either tomorrow evening or early sunday! Tomorrow we are going to test drive a car and picking up our new couch we boughht so it will be a busy day, but I hope to have time to do another update, hopefully from our new couch!

 

[katiebelle21]

Congratulations! I can't wait to read more.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Sorry for the delay but it is going to take a bit longer to post the next section. Our internet is currently down and verizon claims that we need a new router so they are shipping us one, but intil then we wont have internet so hopefully we will be back up and running by wednesday at the latest! But I still plan on gettting the sections done, just not able to post them, But I will do my best!

On a side note, we did get our couch yesterday so I am happy, but the deal on the car fell through. The dealer apparently thought we were stupid and tried to pull a couple things over on us, but we weren't having it, so we walked on the deal!

Be back soon!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Day 2: Saturday December 13th 2008

Today was our first day to sleep in at Disney, but of course we were too excited to sleep too late. We woke at about 9am, which really is sleeping in for DH and I, we get up at 6 every day to go to work. We threw some clothes on and walked to the food court to get breakfast. After looking at all the options we both decided on the Mickey Waffles with bacon and strawberries. The total cost was about $16.77. DH and I would rate this meal about a 9.

After breakfast we headed back to our room and got ready for our day. Today we had plans to hit Disney’s Fantasia Mini Golf, explore some resorts, check out the pool and maybe more shopping at DTD. So we headed to the bus stop and took the DTD bus, since it was the first to come.

We had to catch a connection at DTD to the Swan/Dolphin hotels. When we arrived at the Swan/Dolphin hotel, we had to walk across the street to get to the Mini-Golf course.

It was pretty busy today. So we read the difference between the courses and I wanted to play the harder course…… We paid (total was 25.03) for two adult players, but they also give you a discount on a second round either there or at Blizzard Beach and you get a free golf ball (per person), ours had Stitch on it. They told us our wait was about 30 minutes, we could also play a second round for ½ price, and that the course we had pick was a bit challenging so if we decided it was too hard to come back and tell them and they would start us on the other course. While we waited we decided to hit the mini arcade and play a few games. Our time was up, our names were called and we started. It was truly like real golf and not what I had expected. So DH and I decided to go back and try the other course. We had to wait about 20 more minutes but they we started. Here are a few pictures from the course,

The xylophone was my favorite, it actually played notes.

This was where my ball got stuck! What luck!

After the mini golf we were pretty hungry, so we decided to head back to DTD and grab a bite to eat. It was about 3:30 so we walked around trying to decide and ended up going into McDonalds. DH had the 2 cheeseburger meal, not to be mistake with the Double Cheeseburger meal! He refuses to eat the double burger, while I had a Fish Filet and a Oreo McFlurry, oh and Dh had a soda. The total cost was $12.09 . After we finished eating, we walked around some more. We had planned to check out Disney Quest, but after seeing the price was $45 a person, we decided not to. Here are a few of our DTD photos:

So after doing some more shopping we ended up back at the hotel, we stopped by the Arcade on the way in and played a few games, grabbed some soda’s in Maestro Mickey’s and decided to hit the pool. When we returned to our room we found this bag on the door.

It was from Mousekeeping, since we had left the “Privacy Please” sign on the door, the Mousekeeping left us some clean towels and toiletries in this bag. What a magical and great idea! Disney gets an A+ on this service!

It had cooled down this night, but when we reached the pool the water was steaming. We jumped in and enjoyed being the only ones in the pool. DH was playing around and realized if he lifted himself out of the pool then jumped back in the water was so warm it was like a hot tub. By this time it was about midnight, the pool was closing and we had an early morning ahead of us. We returned to our room, and went to bed.



Next Up: Checking out and moving to the Poly, My review of Allstar Music, our day at Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Sorry for the delay, we finally got our internet back up and running so I posted what I had gotten done this week. I am going to try and do another update this weekend, atleast to finish up ASMu. It has just been a crazy week!

 

[seasideteacher]

You guys are so cute together! Love your posting! Keep it going!

 

[dischic89]

This was where my ball got stuck! What luck!

What are the chances??

I've never seen this before... definitely good to know this service exists!