A Very "Married" Christmas with pics! 7day DDP honeymoon trip

[luckybug618]

We got married August 8th at a zoo, but due to my teaching job we couldn't celebrate, so 6 weeks ago we decided to book our Christmas Disney Trip. Crazy us... only 6 weeks in advance...busy day of the whole year!!

Hubby- 26, Only his 4th time to Disney, trip was his idea
Me- 22, AP holder from age of 3 until 15. Love Disney, but not obsessed.

Here is how it started.... We tried booking online with no luck, everytime we clicked book it would have an error message. So we called and were told all resorts were booked for our dates, Dec 21-27. We were going for value or one step up from that, POR. NO luck on the phone, so I kept trying online and
after about 15 mins... MAGIC..... my reservation went through while the lady on the phone couldn't even book anything except GF. So we book ALL star movies with the premium dining plan. Woo Hooo!

I then began making ADRs for tours and dining. Here is what we settled on and a bit of our daily activites...
Dec 21- Arrive by 11:30am.
Head straight for MK.
QS lunch.
Yachtsmans 9pm

22- UnDISCOVERed Future World tour
Tokyo Dining 2pm
Cali Grill 9:45pm

23- Crystal Palace 8am- Pretty empty MK!!
Parasailing 10am
Brown Derby for lunch
Planet Hollywood and Cirque at 9pm

24- BOMA for a delicious breakfast
Backstage Safari 12:45
Rainforest Cafe 4:30
Fantasmic 8pm
Carriage Ride at FW

25- FW Segway FUN!!
Horsebackriding
Whispering Canyon- no ADR but we got a seat
Poly Luau for an untraditional Christmas Dinner 8pm

26- AK Wild by Design Tour 8am
Yak & Yeti Lunch
Rose and Crown 8:40pm for Illuminations
MK for EMH until 3am

27- Finally sleep in until 9am!!
Behind the Seeds Tour 11:30
Italian TS walk-up for lunch
Minigolf- SUmmerland near Blizzard Beach
DTD- Wolfgang Puck dinner
8pm drive home


Each day had bit of extra unexpected magic....although we had a few sour apple CMs but didn't let it ruin our trip. The hotel was nice, but of course you get what you pay for. The premium plan was OUTSTANDING!!! We ate so many different foods and mmm those desserts.

 

[skhermsmeyer]

I can't wait to hear more! Hope you had fun on your trip. We were there for the 1st time Dec 13-20. We had the best time!

 

[luckybug618]

We arrived at ASMo at about 11:45am. Suprisngliy right on schedule. I was prepared with 4 suitcases full of dresses, winter and summer weather clothes. We also packed a small 1ft Christmas Tree, scented candles , and a poinsettia plant. my bro gave us the bride and groom ears, which I did eventually wear although I was embarrassed.

Upon check-in I was delighted to get in the Fantasia building with a King sized bed and it was ready right away. We thought it was neat to be in bldg. 8 since we got married on 8-8-08. Everything was clean, no funky stains anywhere, and very Disney! We unpacked quickly, decorated for the holidays, and rushed off quickly to MK with our Just Married button proudly displayed.

I was starving and DH couldn't wait to get a Turkey leg We went straight for Frontierland where we used our first DDP credit. He got a turkey leg, bottled coke, and chips with 1 credit. I went across the way and got a veggie burger, large diet coke, fries, and carrot cake. THe neatest part about ordering was using the computer screen and not having to wait in line. I highly recc. using this feature, it is kind of hidden behind the registers and with the crowd we almost didn't see it. I took a bite into the burger and actually saw real chunks of corn, carrots, and broccoli. Best veggie burger ever! Maybe it was the Disney magic overcoming me, but it was awesome. I also got the cheese on my fries with lettuce, tomatoes, trying to make the Figaro I read about on here. I didn't succeed. It was pretty gross whatever I created, but I still ate it all. I couldn't eat the carrot cake, it looked like it would be hard and the icing was too perfect for me, so we gifted it to a nice family sitting nearby.

We went to thunder mountain to get FP. I put my card in, fine. Dh put his in the the CM printed him out 4. Silly DH turned around and gave 3 to the family behind us. We didn't even think to go on the ride twice in a row. Oops, but the family was glad they didn't have to use their FP allowance right there.

Rode haunted mansion, DH favorite. Not sure whhat else we did as I was just soo happy to be there. I know we went on a long search at about 3 for a Dole Whip. Can you believe we asked 5 Cms and nobody had any idea what we were talking about?!!!! Well we finally found a guest who knew and off we went. We aited almost 15 mins to get our floats. MMMMM Totally worth it. Walked to Swiss Family to drink and keep moving the calories off. Then to Tiki Room. A first for DH. Made us giggle and was a good place to rest our feet. Here we are in our "ears" after our 1st MK married experience. Note the silly pose, we alwasy see otehr married couples doing so we were practicing for our free 5x7 photopass picture.

Went back to get ready for dinner. Made it to Yatchsmans on time only for DH to be harassed by the hostess about his age. He looks really young and they kept making fun if was able to drink legally. Not the best way to start a romantic dinner. We were seated at a table not looking out the window even though almost every table was empty in the restaurant and Wishes was just about to start. Oh well. I got a cheese plate. YUMMMMMMMMM. Goat Cheese with candied nuts, a brie chese that is apparently soaked in wine with an accompaniment of cherries and some other cheese I've never tasted before with a wine/liqueur accomp. Our server was a grump, but we were surprised with personalized menus. DH had Wagyu beef. He was so happy with his meal and wine. It was cooked perfect and there is no way to even describe this taste. I had a NY strip. Not as good as Wagyu but I'm not a meat eater so we really got it to compare the flavors. I don't think DH will eat steak from our grill again. He didn't even the whole 8oz. He said the flavor was so full bodied you almost got sick of the beef flavor after a few bites. I did have truffled white cheese potatoes gratin under the steak, it was very creamy and the flavor exploded in your mouth. I ate all of this even though I was almost full already. Very good again. We ordered our desserts and out came with it an additional personalized Congratulations raspberry thing. We didn't have the camera so no pictures, but it was a rasberry tart with chocolate congratulations . Server was rude and didn't deserve a tip but Dh still tipped 20%. Our bill came to 140!!! Thank goodness we were on DDP.

Arriving at the hotel we were on only to find the fan in the bathroom had fallen and make a terrible loud sound when it was on. We also could hear the neighbors and their kids playing. Not very romantic, but we were tired anyways so it was bearable.

 

[ilovefh]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[NTDreams]

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Hillary12.8.07]

I'm in!!! We were there the 13-21st! We also went on our honeymoon last December so I love reading other TRs! Great picture, yall are so cute!

 

[MiaBella05]

 

[MEK]

Lovely start to your disneymoon. You were so lucky to get a room and you have some lovely ADR's. Awesome!

 

[N10CJT]

Married at a zoo, how unique! What zoo, if you don't mind me asking?
I mis-spelled Yacht for the longest time. And, well, I'm a professor of English....
And they gave my girlfriend a hard time about looking young at Yachtsman as well! It was all in good fun, but then we were with a large group. I can see how it might be annoying when you're, um, celebrating your honeymoon!!!
California Grill is our favorite, by far, hope you had some more romance there. Our new preference is actually to come late and sit in the lounge, on our recent trip that night was wonderful!

Well I'm in. Particularly interested to hear about horseback riding and the Segway and Land tours.....

 

[luckybug618]

So I just added up all our receipts from dining, snacks, tours, etc... Basically everything that was included in the Premium Plan. I didn't add in OOP stuff such as tips and alcohol.

We actually saved money!!! Before we booked our plan we picked every restaurant we wanted to eat at, every snack we may buy, and all the tours we knew we just had to do. After estimating the cost we decided we'd either break even or be ahead with DDP. This took a ton of planning and hours on the DIS.

So we spent..... are you ready?....... I may have a heart attack!!!





$2241.28!!!!!
And that is underestimating our meal at Cali Grill since we can only remember it being at least 98 and don't have the pre plan receipt. Instead of adding in 12.95 for the refill mugs I just added up each time we filled our mug, so it was about 8 dollars in the end per person. But we have a cute mug souvenir.

The plan costs 150 per person per night. That is cost to us of $1908 for six nights. I highly recommend using this option if you are even thinking of eating at TS places and doing tours. Yes we spent 201.36 OOP on tips and alcohol, but we knew that going into it. I had a hard time finding anyone on here that said they saved a percentage doing the Premium Plan and when in Disney it was like nobody had ever heard of it, so we had to be very knowledgeable when looking at menus with what was included.



Now for pictures of a King sized room at ASMo. Yet another issue we had when planning was finding reviews of these rooms and pictures. Here are some for those interested...

The Bed, semi-comfy. Not squeaky, firm, but not so firm that you couldn't lay on your side. Pillows were awesome. We brought out own, however theirs were clean(no drool stains on the pillow under the cover) and nice and shapeable. We had 5 pillows in the room when we arrived.

The bed..

My DH thought I was nuts, but I really wanted a surprise tree or wreath towel creature. No such luck the entire trip. The rooms on either side of us got them...
I look ridiculous in this one, but you can at least see the rest of the room.

The building from the great parking lot....this building was right outside the pool and about a 30 second walk to the lobby. Maybe 1 minute to buses.

Bathroom was boring, no disney stuff in there.... THe only weird part was the door had about a .5in clearance from the toilet when closing. My DH took a picture of me peeing with the door open... long story but I had to go really really bad....anyways you could see my knees hitting the door. I won't shame myself with that pic online



Next, I'll post all about Day 2 with our Epcot backstage tour, CG dining, and some food porn from Tokyo Dining.

 

[luckybug618]

BTW Chris we were married at the Jacksonville Zoo at the Range of the Jaguar. We have awesome pics of us eating with the Jaguars playing right behind us. We had the aviary, indoor snakes/little monkeys, and jaguar exhibit to ourselves after hours. We heard siaming howling monkeys during our vows...it was hilarious.

You know how us newlywed women are...we love to share our wedding photos....so let me know if you want the shutterfly link hehehe

 

[MEK]

I like the building you were in - it looks very private! Can't wait to read more and I'm bumping you to the first page.

 

[OhMari]

I was wondering if you are coming back, or is this it.

 

[luckybug618]

Yes I am, but figured nobody was interested so I haven't posted the rest. Guess I should do it for me soon. Then I'll have something neat to read and remember

 

[Mommyto2boys]

I'm reading...and waiting...lol...

 

[ilovefh]

Me too!

 

[misscmac]

I am reading as well!

 

[acejka]

I'm reading, and I'd love to see wedding pictures! I love wedding pictures!

 

[DWFan4Life]

Looks both of you really had a great time. Looking forward in reading more from you.

Have a nice day.

 

[alltvseries]

I wanna read the rest!.....and see wedding pics