A Wedding, a cruise, & WDW with my main squeeze :) 4/7-4/16/10

[Ashbiez]

Hello! Welcome to my FIRST ever PTR! I tried one already, but then realized I did it completely wrong - sorry, I'm a newbie

Just to clarify so no one gets too excited - its not MY wedding, and its not a Disney wedding! The mutual friend that introduced Bob and I is getting married on a Carnival Cruise. Which was the inspiration for this whole trip! Trust me, if it were mine & a disney wedding, I'd be exploding with excitement right now.

Okay - so I guess I should introduce the "cast" of this trip! How fun! All these pictures are from our last trip to WDW in 2007. I figured it was only fitting...

Well, there's moi (obviously!). I'm Ash, 26, and I'm the manager of an educational toy store.

Then we have Bob. He's the best, really. He's 24 and does IT work for a car dealership. He's as much of an overgrown kid as me!

We've been together for 3 years and just got engaged! Woohoo! We're going to be celebrating that during our Disney trip, and will make sure everyone knows it

Other characters....
Mike - the one getting married on the Cruise. The reason Bob and I met. Pretty good guy!
Danielle - Mike's soon-to-be wife. She hates me. But honestly, I don't think she likes much...
Jacob - Best bud to Me, Bob, Mike and pretty much everyone. He's awesome - we'll probably be hanging with him a lot on the ship!
Adam - Best bud of Bob and Mike. He and his GF might be joining us for our first day of WDW since he's never been.

I think that covers the major players!

Oh wait! There might be a guest star in this adventure! My baby nephew, Ryan! (okay, he's 20, so not at all a baby... but he'll always be a baby to me since he was my first nephew). He's currently in Basic Training for the Air Force - I'm such a proud auntie! End of this month he gets moved to Florida, but we aren't sure where yet. If he ends up at Patrick AFB then we are going to visit him the day before the cruise! How exciting is that??

I'll post our planned itinerary in a little bit - Bob's nagging me to do some laundry and get off the DIS (like that's possible... haha)

 

[emmysmommy]

I want to hear more please!!!

I'm a cruise fanatic but I'm here doing a PTR as well since I got outvoted for a vacation this year. Now that I'm hooked I'm sticking around.

Sounds like a great group of people (well, except the hater) and hope you keep us updated!

 

[Ashbiez]

I want to hear more please!!!

I'm a cruise fanatic but I'm here doing a PTR as well since I got outvoted for a vacation this year. Now that I'm hooked I'm sticking around.

Sounds like a great group of people (well, except the hater) and hope you keep us updated!

Aren't cruises the best?! Perfect way to travel IMO. Luckily Bob likes cruises too - so hopefully more of those will be in our future - maybe DCL

I'm excited to have my first reader! yay

 

[Ashbiez]

Okay I'll be honest - we didn't actually start planning this vacation out until about a month ago. We knew months and months and months ago that we would be going on the cruise, but we're procrastinators so here we are doing it all last minute!!

Here's the itinerary - or at least today's version of it...

4/7 - Departure
We leave Chicago @ 7am and get into MCO at 12:45. I wanted to be able to have a full day to get into "vacation mode" after the hustle & bustle of traveling. Still don't have a hotel booked, as we're waiting to see if our group can get a special price for that night - nothing like waiting until the last minute!!
~~This is the day I may or may not get to see my nephew. Unfortunately, I won't know for sure until last minute - but fingers and toes are crossed!
4/8 - Wedding day and Embarkation
Apparently we need to be at the cruise terminal with our luggage and in our wedding garb by 9am. Which seems insanely early for a wedding to me, but what do I know...
The ship takes to the sea at 4pm. By the way, we'll be on the Carnival Sensation:

I fully intend on having a drink in hand at every waking moment from the end of the wedding until we return to Florida
4/9 - Nassau, Bahamas
We haven't decided if we are doing any excursions through the cruise yet. Mostly because we want to save our money for Disney after. I know there's a lot of fun places and shops to walk through right outside the dock from previous trips. We'll probably just play this by ear.
4/10 - "Fun Day at Sea"
Oh Carnival, aren't you cute with your names?
Sea days are my favorite days on Cruises, though, truth be told. There's always some dorky cruise director getting old ladies & non-English speaking tourists to do the Electric Slide. Don't worry, I'm usually up there too - representing the young folk Plus Electric Sliding is about the only dance I can do...
This is also our last night with the whole group - So I'm hoping for some debauchery to take place... hehe. I'm pretty sure its the "formal dining" as well, and I have a killer dress to wear. squeal!
4/11 - DisEmbarkation - off to the WORLD
Sad day - the cruise is over...
By this point we will probably both be about 5-10 lbs heavier and ready for a few days of hiking around to burn off all those extra millions of calories we just took in. Good thing we're headed to the perfect place for just that...

...to be continued...

 

[Ashbiez]

4/11 - DisEmbarkation - off to the WORLD pt2
Happy day - the mouse adventure begins...
At this point we have ZERO ideas of how we are getting from Port Canaveral to CBR - so please offer advice!!
We'll check into CBR (our first time there) maybe grab a quick snack there, and then head to Magic Kingdom! We might have company on our first day, which I'm torn about - I normally do MK very commando style - running from one mountain to the next and hitting everything in between - but this year I really want to take it all in and notice the details. I'm worried since Adam & Meghan will only have one day in MK that they'll want to try to squeeze in as much as possible. But who knows - it could be fun having them to chat with in line!
Magic Kingdom has EMH until 2am - Bob and I intend on staying as late as we can to take advantage of it. It will be our first time ever getting to use EMHs!
4/12 - Character Breakfast!
That's right, we're having a character breakfast! My dad doesn't understand why I'd want to put myself through it. He clearly isn't where I got the love of Disney from
We'll be dining with Minnie, Goofy and Co. at Cape May Cafe @ 9:00am. This was originally set for 8am, but I shifted it back an hour once I realized how long it would take to travel from our resort to the BC! After breakfast we'll probably tool around the BW area a little bit and then hop a boat to DHS and take advantage of their EMH until 10pm. Unfortunately Fantasmic! will not be showing except for our last night, when we have an ADR in the middle of it. poo!
4/13 - Drinking around the World
Yup - its EPCOT day! There's EMH @ 8am, so we'll try to be there for that (Bob might require more sleep by now). Do everything we want in FW until WS opens up. And by "everything" I mean, everything except Soarin'. We waited hours upon hours to go on that last trip (2007) and we were both so let down. We aren't even going to LOOK at Soarin' this year!!
Anywayyyyssss...
I've always rushed through WS, taken a picture or two in half the countries and that's it. This time we wanted to spend more time exploring, so we thought drinking around the world would help us do that! Since we aren't big drinkers (and will probably still be hungover from that cruise!) we'll probably just share drinks. I want to get one of the Epcot passports I used to get as a kid (do they still sell those??) and have the CM sign it with what we are drinking!
Then of course, we'll camp out for Illuminations so long as we are still able to see straight
4/14 - Animal Kingdom / Freebie Day
Okay, we aren't huge fans of AK - but we're going to give it a full shot this year. 1st time I went was right after it opened, so there wasn't much to do yet. Then in 2007 it downpoured the whole time we were there, so we left. So we haven't been fair in judging it. We do not plan on spending the whole day there, however - just hitting highlights:
EE, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids, KS and we're both dying to see Tough to be a Bug (we're suckers for 3D)
After hitting those and stalking around to find Flik (thanks to the pictures I've seen here on DIS) we'll head wherever we want. Be it back to the resort, back to a different park, who knows.
4/15 - Last Day Blues...
Last day - so sad! I hate the last day of any vacation - I always feel like I missed something
MK has EMH @ 8am, so I think we'll go for that. Hit the highlights one last time. Especially the Mountains, of course!!
We have dinner at 7:45pm @ Germany's Biergarten in Epcot. I'm excited for this, and so is Bob. He's a pretty picky eater but German food is right up his alley. It sounds like such a fun atmosphere, too. I figure it'd be a great last night's meal for us! Then hopefully we'll get to catch at least some of Illuminations after dinner before waddling back to CBR.
4/16 - One last hurrah!!
I specifically planned our flights to give us bonus days on our travel days. Going-home-day is no exception. Our flight home isn't until 6pm, so we have the morning to play still! Right now we're planning on going to DTD to buy lots of useless trinkets to take home. We also want to play in the Lego store and I'm sure we'll take a million pictures since we'll feel like we didn't get enough the rest of the trip!
We're taking ME back to the airport - and I'm excited for that. I haven't been on one of those buses before!

So that's the grand plan for our whole exciting 10 day trip to Florida and beyond!! I welcome any and all suggestions, comments and ideas from any of the more experienced DISers.

In the coming updates I'll discuss our food-plan and our Disney histories

Until then...

 

[Ashbiez]

Hello again!
Here I'm going to talk about our food/dining options for the trip. We really aren't huge planners so we only have 2 ADRs; and since we leave in a month, its not likely that we'll get any more!

So, we will be coming off a cruise with unlimited food surrounding us. One of two things will happen:
a) we will still be so overstuffed that the though of food will make us want to die. or
b) our tummies will be so stretched out that we'll be constantly hungry!
Knowing us and the amount of walking we'll be doing in the parks, I'm assuming we'll be option B!

On Friday (or over the weekend) I'm calling to add the QSDP to our reservation. This will give us each 2 CS meals and 2 snacks per day. Based on tips I've heard around the DIS we will use snack credits for breakfast items (muffin type things) and then use the CS meals for lunch and dinner. I don't really fore-see any problems with this - especially if we share an occasional meal here and there. We will be paying OOP for our TS meals - but we used the gift card special offer, so we'll use that and it'll be a meal on Disney This is also why we only have two real meals planned.

Our ADRs are for one character breakfast at Cape May Cafe on our 1st full day. I figured this would be a great way to really get us in the Disney spirit for the next 4 days! Plus its a chance for me to see Goofy, who I may or may not be completely in love with.
The other ADR is for Biergarten on our last night. Its for 7:45 and I think it will be a great way to end the trip. I threw around the idea of Cali Grill or the Luau @ Poly... but I think we'd both prefer if we could just stay in the parks as much as possible since it is our last day.

I've read some PTRs where people plan out which CS restaurant they'll be visiting on which day. First of all, I'm impressed at how organized those people are! Wow! Second of all, I could never live that way - I can't plan down to the minute where and when I will want to eat every day for a week that's a month away! We will most likely just get food at the closest place when we get hungry!!

I do want to try and take advantage of all the great food that Disney does offer on this trip, though. We may not be doing so through ADRs, but I refuse to eat a cheeseburger every single day (which is what we've done in the past). After all the different and weird things on the cruise buffets we'll need to keep the food experimentation going!!

Man, I'm getting hungry just thinking about this...

 

[Ashbiez]

Okay time for an update, since we leave in TEN days!

I've been home sick with a flu the past few days (ugh) which meant lots of computer time between naps. Which meant lots of DIS lurking and gathering information.

We now have a list of the counter service places in each park that came with the most recommendations from DIS members to carry with us. They're pretty much across the parks, so we should be by one whenever we get hungry! Here's our choices for each park:

MK - Cosmic Ray's; Columbia Harbor House; Pecos Bill's
Epcot - Sunshine Seasons; Electric Umbrella; Tangerine Cafe; or if we can find Sushi CS in Japan
DHS - Backlot Express; ABC Commissary
AK - Flame Tree BBQ; Pizzafari

I'm also excited that we have a plan for Drinking ARound the World @ Epcot on Day 3. My idea was that we would share a drink in each country - but Bob seems to think that's ridiculous. Haha - we'll see what he says when he sees how expensive they all are Here's our ideas for drinks in each country (unless something else strikes us as we wander through, of course):

Canada - Le Fin De Monde Beer
UK - Guinness
France - Grey Goose/Grand Mariner Slushies
Morocco - Sultan's Colada
Japan - Sake
USA - give our livers a break!!
Italy - Bellini/Limoncello
Germany - mmm Beer
China - Canto Loopy
Norway - no clue yet - open to suggestions!!
Mexico - Sampler @ Tequila Bar

Now, I look at this list and start to get the spins just thinking about all these drinks. Neither of us are big drinkers, so I think it will hit us a heck of a lot more than Bob seems to think - so we'll just see how this goes. It might be staggering around the world!!

We're also going to do the Kim Possible mission, too. Bob's trying to act all macho I'm -too-cool about it - but he'll totally get into it.

Oh! The other new thing we're going to try this time is the Animation Academy at DHS! I looooooo-oooo-oooove drawing (in fact, its a big part of my job) so I'm stoked to learn how to draw a disney friend!

So - huuuuge thanks to all the DISers that helped me compile these lists, plans and ideas. I cannot WAIT to put them into action!

10 days until our vacation starts - 2 weeks until DISNEY! eeee!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

HEY!! I'm joining in...can't wait to hear more!!

 

[Ashbiez]

HEY!! I'm joining in...can't wait to hear more!!

Hi! Thanks!!

 

[Ashbiez]

Good morning! We are officially at the less-than-a-week mark for our vacation! woohoo!

Unfortunately the bride is turning into a little bridezilla - and bringing her future hubby along with her. ugh.
Pretty much everyone going is on Facebook - and its worked out well to coordinate travel plans since not everyone is coming from the same place. ...until now. A few people have started putting up countdowns in their statuses - myself included (but neither the bride or groom are friends on mine on facebook, due to fun drama from the first post). The bride decided to flip out and comment on these countdowns saying it was disrespectful to be calling their wedding a vacation.

ummm.... last time I checked... regardless of the reason... A cruise to the BAHAMAS is a VACATION. Unless you are being dragged against your will with a gun to your head, maybe...

So then the groom started posting similar messages saying it was hurtful that everyone wasn't counting down to their wedding which was the only reason for the trip. Which just seems selfish and silly to me.

Yes, their wedding is the reason for the TIMING of this vacation for us. Yes, their wedding is happening during this vacation for us. Yes, we would have taken a vacation to Florida this year anyways, regardless of if/when/where they got married.

Maybe I'm inconsiderate or something... but their wedding is on the morning of the first day of our vacation. Then its over. We still have NINE days after that which isn't related to their wedding AT ALL. Except for the fact that for 3 days after the wedding day we will be on the same ship as them.

*which, by the way, they purposely booked their room on the complete opposite side of the ship from the block they had reserved for everyone. and Bob got scolded when he wanted to book a better room because then we wouldn't be by the whole group*

I just have a feeling this Facebook outburst is a preview of the fun that is to come for the first part of the trip. I'm really not good with this kind of "poop". Mostly because I like to push people's buttons - I like to try to make them realize how ridiculous they are being - which normally isn't so well received haha.

Why are they expecting people to count down excitedly to their wedding? One of my best friends got married in the fall and I was excited, but I didn't count down to it - that would just seem silly. They're the ones that picked this whole destination wedding idea, I think people considering it a vacation is part of that, right?

Ugh. Why can't they just enjoy that people are spending A LOT of money to go to their wedding and travelling very far for it. Ugh.

Sorry for the rant. I just have to get it off my chest. Bob just laughs about it all. Which I do, too, but it'll be harder to laugh when they're in front of me flipping out about something!!

 

[Ashbiez]

Good morning!! We just got home last night from our amazing vacation
I have to say, it feels pretty good to be back home - even though I miss vacation so much already. There's just nothing better than the smell and feel of your own bed. mmmm

I have mountains (literally, rivaling space, splash and thunder ) of laundry to do today, on top of cleaning the whole house since I was too busy frantically finishing packing and way too excited to get it done before we left. Ugh.
But after that, I get to sort through all my pictures and the stuff I snagged for scrapbooking (unused fastpasses, maps, etc) hooray! Then I get to start telling you all about our trip - eeeee!

It was definitely one to remember! Here's just some snippets of whats to come...

• Setting the alarm for every day on "vacation"
• Never cruising on Carnival again
• Never staying at CBR again
• Bob probably lost his celebration button 15 times
• Walking on to almost every single ride
• Convincing a first timer that no, Disney World is NOT just like six flags
• Hunting for Hidden Mickeys kept us busy in the few lines we did have to wait in - I'm pretty sure we tied

Bob also said he could definitely go back every year! Eeee! Now we just have to decide what to do for vacation next year: a 7 day caribbean cruise, a Disney trip, or a land/sea Disney world/cruise combo! decisions decisions.