A Whole New World - A Disneymoon PreTrip - June 2009 - *TR IS STARTED!*

[Cinderella16]

Hi all! Welcome to my Pre Trip Report, PTR, Pre TR Pre Trippie, or whatever you want to call the thing you write before you leave for a Disney vacation.

Let us begin with the basics...

The Cast

Julianne – Me - 24 Years Old – The over packer and the over planner. I will be getting married to the love of my life on June 19! Planning a Disney trip is almost as much fun as the actual trip for me. I love planning anything, our wedding included. I collect anything Cinderella, and love all things Disney. I teach fourth grade, am a little too obsessed with the Chicago Bulls (Go Bulls!), and love to scrapbook (when time allows).

Justin – DF – 26 Years Old – The calm one. Lover of Disney (just in a more low key way, unlike his insane fiancé). He loves Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion, and Soarin. He has been incredibly helpful in planning our wedding, but has really left most of the Disneymoon planning up to me (what was he thinking?).

The Happy Cast!

When?
June 23 – July 1 for our Honeymoon!

Where?:
The Grand Floridian – Garden View

Details?:
We are doing the Magic Your Way package with Park Hopping plus Dining.

Why Disney?:
HA! Like I need to explain it to you. I’ve had to explain it to my many family members who think I’m joking when they ask where we are honeymooning. They just don’t “get” it, you my DIS friends, do “get” it.

A Little Background:
Justin and I have been on 3 Disney trips together along with his family since 2004 (his family “gets” it), we would usually travel in a group of 10. Each time, since we had such a large group of people, we rented a vacation home off property, and still had a magical time. Each trip we have taken is special in it’s own little way, but the most magical of the three trips came in 2007 when Justin proposed at the Magic Kingdom. Details about that trip can be found in my signature where I have linked my trip report.

We always knew that we would honeymoon with the mouse, we just never really thought about where or when (okay, I thought about this all the time, but he didn’t). Anyways, the day after the proposal we took a stroll to the Grand Floridian. The minute we entered the GF, we both looked at each other in awe as if saying to each other, “THIS is where we will stay for our Honeymoon.” Something else about Justin and I: when we want something, we have to have it. We saw the GF, wanted it, and now we have it.

This will be our first trip alone, just the two of us with no group to corral around the parks. (I do love his family though and hope for many more family trips with them, just not this one ) Neither of us has ever stayed on property before and we cannot wait to see what this trip has in store for us.

We will be arriving in 90 Days (and yes, I did make all our ADR’s today, more on that in a later post). It is so surreal that what started 2 years ago is all about to happen in a mere 90 days. I simply cannot wait, and hope you will join me as I share our plans!

 

[MomLC]

I just read your pretrip honeymoon report and it is really nice. I wish you and your DF all the happiness in the world. I have been married for 15yrs but have been with my DH for 22yrs total. We did not go to WDW on our honeymoon but if I had to do it all over again I would definately choose the mouse over anywhere. I always tell my DD(7) that she will have her wedding in WDW and she is fine with that. I look forwarded to reading your upcoming plans. Take care and good luck with everything.

 

[khertz]

Congratulations! My DH and I also celebrated our honeymoon in Disney World, and could not be any happier about that decision. Have a great time planning, I'm joining in for the ride. I look forward to reading more about your trip.

 

[Cinderella16]

I just read your pretrip honeymoon report and it is really nice. I wish you and your DF all the happiness in the world. I have been married for 15yrs but have been with my DH for 22yrs total. We did not go to WDW on our honeymoon but if I had to do it all over again I would definately choose the mouse over anywhere. I always tell my DD(7) that she will have her wedding in WDW and she is fine with that. I look forwarded to reading your upcoming plans. Take care and good luck with everything.

Hi & thanks for reading! What nice mom you are to tell your daughter she will have her wedding in WDW--how fun!

Congratulations! My DH and I also celebrated our honeymoon in Disney World, and could not be any happier about that decision. Have a great time planning, I'm joining in for the ride. I look forward to reading more about your trip.

Thanks for joining! I couldn't think of a better place for a honeymoon! It always shocks people how many people actually do go to Disney just as 2 adults, but honestly, I appreciate it all so much more now than I did when I was a kid.

 

[creativeamanda]

I'm here from my PTR! A Disneymoon! How exciting! Looking forward to sharing the trip planning with you. I assume you already have your ADRs?

 

[khertz]

I also just finished reading your PTR and TR from your engagement trip, so suffice to say, I'm now even more excited to see how this one unfolds!

 

[Cinderella16]

I'm here from my PTR! A Disneymoon! How exciting! Looking forward to sharing the trip planning with you. I assume you already have your ADRs?

Hi thanks for reading along!! I did make my ADR's earlier this week. I will be posting them soon!

I also just finished reading your PTR and TR from your engagement trip, so suffice to say, I'm now even more excited to see how this one unfolds!

Guess what? I just re-read my TR from 2007 too , it makes me even more excited for this trip!

 

[Cinderella16]

I wish Disney would switch it back to 180 days for ADR's -- poor DF called on Christmas Day (what would have been our 180 days) only for them to tell him it is now 90 days (we were at least trying to get Chef Mickey's, but it was only if you were going up to June 19, and well, we are going to be a little busy that day getting married.

Anyways, once the shock of the 90 day change wore off, we picked some new resturants we wanted to eat at. We are really excited for all of them, I told DF we should start looking at menus to figure out what we will eat. He gave me the "you are nuts" look. I seem to get that look a lot lately.

Anyways, enough of my blabbing...here are our ADR's! ONLY 87 DAYS TO GO!

June 24 - 50's Prime Time Cafe (4:05)
June 25 - Le Cellier (6:50)
June 26 - Chef Mickey's (7:00 AM)
June 27 - California Grill (8:05)
June 28 - Boma (6:25)
June 29 - O'hana (5:10)
June 30 - Tony's Town Square (5:30)

More details for each day coming up! Thanks for reading!

 

[creativeamanda]

OOOO. . .I am excited for you that you are going to Cali Grill. It looks like you are going to have a great trip! So excited about reading more.

 

[katiebelle21]

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Your ADRs look great; I can't wait for more details!

BTW

I teach fourth grade, am a little too obsessed with the Chicago Bulls (Go Bulls!)

I teach fifth grade and am a little too obsessed with the Chicago Cubs (GO CUBS GO!)!

 

[IluvXU]

I am in again! Glad you got your ADRs! I think it is fantastic you are staying at the GF--- we honeymooned in WDW/Disney Cruise and it was so wonderful!

 

[Cinderella16]

OOOO. . .I am excited for you that you are going to Cali Grill. It looks like you are going to have a great trip! So excited about reading more.

We were on the fence about Cali Grill since it is 2 table service credits, but then we figured, Hey it's our honeymoon!

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! Your ADRs look great; I can't wait for more details!

BTW


I teach fifth grade and am a little too obsessed with the Chicago Cubs (GO CUBS GO!)!

Thanks for joining in! I am glad you said you are a Cubbies fan and not a White Sox fan...Cubs are way better in my opinion! Glad you are here!

I am in again! Glad you got your ADRs! I think it is fantastic you are staying at the GF--- we honeymooned in WDW/Disney Cruise and it was so wonderful!

Yay a returning reader! I see you are planning an upcoming trip also. Thanks for finding me!

 

[DISNEYmooner2008]

I'm on board!! Sounds super fun! We honeymooned @ WDW in January last year - stayed at AKL. We found out we were expecting in April and our first little princess was born in December. We took her on her first Disney adventure just a few weeks ago and we are headed back next February! Can't wait to read along!!!

 

[Cinderella16]

I woke up this morning to 7 inches of SNOW...in SPRING! Not that I am all that surprised living in the Chicago area. The next few days are going to be in the 50's...go figure. Anyways, looking out the window, I really really really want to go to the happiest place in the world right about now. Unfortunately, I have to wait 86 days....

On with THE PLAN!

We promised ourselves that we would relax a little bit on this trip...we’ll see.

In the past, we have 7 Disney days (2 Magic Kingdom, 1 Epcot, 1 MGM, 1 Animal Kingdom, and 2 Water Park days) All jam packed days, no relaxing time, we would just go, go, go! It was complete and total commando style.

This year we are staying 8 nights and foregoing the water parks simply because we will use the GF’s pool area. We decided to have 2 break days where we don’t do a park in full force. After much planning, turns out our break days are almost as jammed packed as our park days—there is just so much we want to do.

We got the 8 day park hopper which gives us flexibility if we absolutely NEED to go to a park for whatever reason. (We just like having the option, just in case)

Relaxation? You decide.

Here is the PLAN! (yay!)

We are driving down—not straight through this year, thank goodness. I just hope we aren’t completely wiped from the wedding, we are leaving 2 days after.

Tuesday, June 23 – Arrival: A Big Question Mark

We aren’t quite sure what time we will be arriving since it varies depending on traffic, but we will probably stop at a grocery store to buy breakfast food (granola bars, cereal, milk, etc) since we plan on grabbing a quick bite before we head out for the day. (Our counter service credits will mostly be used for lunch).

I am thinking when we arrive, we will explore the GF, possibly take a dip in the pool (this is a tradition whenever we go on vacation to go for a swim the first day, only because here in Illinois we don’t have very many chances to use a pool).

DF says we will be too tired to do anything else, anything else meaning monorail over the Magic Kingdom. I beg to differ, I get such a surge of energy when I see those gates, but who knows, we may just go to bed early so we rested for our first full park day.

Another idea I had was to go to Ft. Wilderness or Port Orleans for a carriage ride. This is something we always wanted to do, but I guess it will depend what time we actually get to check in and how tired we are, but I think it would be a fun and romantic way to kick off the honeymoon.

Of course, somewhere in there we will need to find something to eat. We will play this day by ear and see what happens.

Wednesday, June 24 – MGM (Sorry, Disney Hollywood Studios)

*WARNING* Off Topic:What is it with all the name changes? I’m sorry, but the Sears tower will never be the Willis Tower to me. Just had to get that off my chest.

Sorry, that was quite random...

Back to our MGM day...I am hoping to be well rested and get to the park at opening, or at least close to it (ha, DF doesn’t know this part). I know that Disney has their busses, but we will have our car and we like the freedom of our own transportation, and since parking is free for resort guests, we will be driving (except for the places we can get to with the monorail).

We have a 4:05 ADR for the 50’s Prime Time Café.

We will also be staying for evening EMH that night. (Our first one ever!)

I was kind of bummed that there will no Fantasmic, but we will be returning later on our trip to watch it.

Thursday, June 25 – Epcot (Future World mainly)

We will monorail over. I want to get here as early as possible because in 2007, we failed miserably at Epcot because we got there so late.
We will probably eat lunch at Sunshine Seasons (we always do).

6:50 ADR at Le Cellier

Evening EMH at Epcot tonight, we won’t be watching Illuminations on this night either to take advantage of the EMH.

Friday, June 26 – Magic Kingdom (BRING IT ON!)

Early early early morning breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey’s 7:00 AM

After breakfast we will monorail over to MK. We want to get to MK to see rope drop, we have never seen it!


We will do counter service for dinner – probably Cosmic Rays because their portions are generously sized.

We need to head back to the fountain where DF proposed and make our annual wishes sometime today too.

Wishes and Spectromagic are a MUST – and we will be staying for PM EMH tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen this will be ONE loonng day, but we are young, and can do it!


Saturday, June 27 – “Break” Day

We will sleep in today!

11:00 AM – Parasailing at the Contemporary

All this in between time may be pool time, DTD for some shopping, or possibly a Grand Floridian photopass session. Still ironing out the details, of course, we may just go back to our room and nap!

8:05 PM – ADR’s Cali Grill.

There are PM EMH at MK again tonight... We will see how we feel.

Sunday, June 28 – Animal Kingdom

We will get there early, hopefully by opening since we would like to be done early.

We will probably leave around 5:00 PM to get ready for our ADR.

6:25 – Dinner ADR at Boma

We will then hop on over to MGM for Fantasmic at 9:00 and call it a night.

Monday, June 29 – “Break” Day – World Showcase
We will sleep in and then monorail over to Epcot’s World Showcase by 11:00 AM. I have never taken the time to really enjoy the WS and I am excited to see all the different countries and really appreciate each one. We will be taking lots of pictures, doing some shopping, and definitely riding Maelstrom!

At 5:10 we have an ADR at O’hana so we will monorail over to the Poly for dinner. After dinner, we will monorail back to Epcot to do some more exploring and get a good seat for Illuminations at 9:00. We will call it a night after Illuminations.

Tuesday, June 20 – Magic Kingdom – Our Last Full Disney Day (I get sad just typing it)

Morning EMH (our first one ever!)

5:30 ADR’s at Tony’s Town Square

And Wishes to end the night.

Pretty relaxing, huh?

 

[Cinderella16]

I'm on board!! Sounds super fun! We honeymooned @ WDW in January last year - stayed at AKL. We found out we were expecting in April and our first little princess was born in December. We took her on her first Disney adventure just a few weeks ago and we are headed back next February! Can't wait to read along!!!

Hi & welcome! Aww how sweet your little princess got to go visit Mickey for the first time. That must have been so much fun for your new family! I cannot wait to make those memories with a family of my own one day in the *distant* future!

 

[creativeamanda]

I woke up this morning to 7 inches of SNOW...in SPRING! Not that I am all that surprised living in the Chicago area. The next few days are going to be in the 50's...go figure. Anyways, looking out the window, I really really really want to go to the happiest place in the world right about now. Unfortunately, I have to wait 86 days....

Yeah, when I read comments like that, I thank goodness I live in the Southeast. Of course, we were out of school this year for 2 snow days--something that is unheard of, but there you have it!

On with THE PLAN!

We promised ourselves that we would relax a little bit on this trip...we’ll see.

In the past, we have 7 Disney days (2 Magic Kingdom, 1 Epcot, 1 MGM, 1 Animal Kingdom, and 2 Water Park days) All jam packed days, no relaxing time, we would just go, go, go! It was complete and total commando style.

This year we are staying 8 nights and foregoing the water parks simply because we will use the GF’s pool area. We decided to have 2 break days where we don’t do a park in full force. After much planning, turns out our break days are almost as jammed packed as our park days—there is just so much we want to do.

We got the 8 day park hopper which gives us flexibility if we absolutely NEED to go to a park for whatever reason. (We just like having the option, just in case)

Relaxation? You decide.

This is exactly why I convinced my children we don't need the water park add on--all we need is to get 1 WP day ticket and decide which one. We have never been to Disney at a time when it was warm enough to use the pool.

Here is the PLAN! (yay!)

We are driving down—not straight through this year, thank goodness. I just hope we aren’t completely wiped from the wedding, we are leaving 2 days after.

I wondered about that. I can only imagine having been worn out from the wedding and not enjoying the honeymoon. DH and I were so tired, even though we only drove 2 hours away, we slept for 10 hours when we got to Asheville!

Tuesday, June 23 – Arrival: A Big Question Mark

We aren’t quite sure what time we will be arriving since it varies depending on traffic, but we will probably stop at a grocery store to buy breakfast food (granola bars, cereal, milk, etc) since we plan on grabbing a quick bite before we head out for the day. (Our counter service credits will mostly be used for lunch).

I am thinking when we arrive, we will explore the GF, possibly take a dip in the pool (this is a tradition whenever we go on vacation to go for a swim the first day, only because here in Illinois we don’t have very many chances to use a pool).

DF says we will be too tired to do anything else, anything else meaning monorail over the Magic Kingdom. I beg to differ, I get such a surge of energy when I see those gates, but who knows, we may just go to bed early so we rested for our first full park day.

Another idea I had was to go to Ft. Wilderness or Port Orleans for a carriage ride. This is something we always wanted to do, but I guess it will depend what time we actually get to check in and how tired we are, but I think it would be a fun and romantic way to kick off the honeymoon.

Of course, somewhere in there we will need to find something to eat. We will play this day by ear and see what happens.

Hey, maybe we'll meet up at the grocery stroe, because this is close to what we will be doing on our travel day. Of course, I think we are going to organize the room and then go to the Boardwalk and have a couple of No Way Jose's at Beaches and Cream. Who could pass up a first Disney meal of ice cream? I think I will deserve it, after 80 days of hard core dieting beforehand. . .

Wednesday, June 24 – MGM (Sorry, Disney Hollywood Studios)

*WARNING* Off Topic:What is it with all the name changes? I’m sorry, but the Sears tower will never be the Willis Tower to me. Just had to get that off my chest.

Sorry, that was quite random...

Back to our MGM day...I am hoping to be well rested and get to the park at opening, or at least close to it (ha, DF doesn’t know this part). I know that Disney has their busses, but we will have our car and we like the freedom of our own transportation, and since parking is free for resort guests, we will be driving (except for the places we can get to with the monorail).

We have a 4:05 ADR for the 50’s Prime Time Café.

We will also be staying for evening EMH that night. (Our first one ever!)

I was kind of bummed that there will no Fantasmic, but we will be returning later on our trip to watch it.

Funny, I was only at Disney once before they did the name change, and I still call it MGM. Just seems easier.

Thursday, June 25 – Epcot (Future World mainly)

We will monorail over. I want to get here as early as possible because in 2007, we failed miserably at Epcot because we got there so late.
We will probably eat lunch at Sunshine Seasons (we always do).

6:50 ADR at Le Cellier

Evening EMH at Epcot tonight, we won’t be watching Illuminations on this night either to take advantage of the EMH.

This is our MGM day. I absolutely think you should get there early--we got so much done before 10am in October that we could take the rest of the day slowly.

Friday, June 26 – Magic Kingdom (BRING IT ON!)

Early early early morning breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey’s 7:00 AM

After breakfast we will monorail over to MK. We want to get to MK to see rope drop, we have never seen it!


We will do counter service for dinner – probably Cosmic Rays because their portions are generously sized.

We need to head back to the fountain where DF proposed and make our annual wishes sometime today too.

Wishes and Spectromagic are a MUST – and we will be staying for PM EMH tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen this will be ONE loonng day, but we are young, and can do it!

Ahh. . .this is my kind of day--Aren't Cosmic Ray's dinners crazy huge?!? Our favorite CS at MK, though. Love it!

Saturday, June 27 – “Break” Day

We will sleep in today!

11:00 AM – Parasailing at the Contemporary

All this in between time may be pool time, DTD for some shopping, or possibly a Grand Floridian photopass session. Still ironing out the details, of course, we may just go back to our room and nap!

8:05 PM – ADR’s Cali Grill.

There are PM EMH at MK again tonight... We will see how we feel.

Yeah--I don't see the break thing too much in there,

Sunday, June 28 – Animal Kingdom

We will get there early, hopefully by opening since we would like to be done early.

We will probably leave around 5:00 PM to get ready for our ADR.

6:25 – Dinner ADR at Boma

We will then hop on over to MGM for Fantasmic at 9:00 and call it a night.

Have you ever eaten at Boma before? I've always wondered about it. Dh says he would like to stay at AKL someday. I'd like to move into POR permanantly. We may concede and stay a week at the Beach Club one day. . .or the Grand Floridian.

Monday, June 29 – “Break” Day – World Showcase
We will sleep in and then monorail over to Epcot’s World Showcase by 11:00 AM. I have never taken the time to really enjoy the WS and I am excited to see all the different countries and really appreciate each one. We will be taking lots of pictures, doing some shopping, and definitely riding Maelstrom!

At 5:10 we have an ADR at O’hana so we will monorail over to the Poly for dinner. After dinner, we will monorail back to Epcot to do some more exploring and get a good seat for Illuminations at 9:00. We will call it a night after Illuminations.

I love touring the World Showcase and shopping in the shops. Just do me a favor and watch your dh in the French perfume shop. My husband and his brother got into a perfume fight there and came out smelling like they had been in a brothel.

Tuesday, June 20 – Magic Kingdom – Our Last Full Disney Day (I get sad just typing it)

Morning EMH (our first one ever!)

5:30 ADR’s at Tony’s Town Square

And Wishes to end the night.

Pretty relaxing, huh?

[/QUOTE]

This is my daughter's birthday. For all of our previous trips, we did Animal Kingdom last, but this year, we're gonna do EMH at Epcot. Hopefully the park won't be too packed!

 

[teddygurl28]

I have been reading your Wedding PJ so i thought i would hop over here and see the honeymoon pretrip report..."relaxing" hahaha you seem like me when it comes to disney! there is no way you will be able to keep yourself away from the parks!!! congrats on everything! you are going to have a beautiful day and a fantastic trip!

 

[Cinderella16]

I wondered about that. I can only imagine having been worn out from the wedding and not enjoying the honeymoon. DH and I were so tired, even though we only drove 2 hours away, we slept for 10 hours when we got to Asheville!



Hey, maybe we'll meet up at the grocery stroe, because this is close to what we will be doing on our travel day. Of course, I think we are going to organize the room and then go to the Boardwalk and have a couple of No Way Jose's at Beaches and Cream. Who could pass up a first Disney meal of ice cream? I think I will deserve it, after 80 days of hard core dieting beforehand. . .

OOo I never thought of Beaches & Cream...good thinkink





Have you ever eaten at Boma before? I've always wondered about it. Dh says he would like to stay at AKL someday. I'd like to move into POR permanantly. We may concede and stay a week at the Beach Club one day. . .or the Grand Floridian.

Never eaten at Boma, but always heard good things about it...we are curious.



I love touring the World Showcase and shopping in the shops. Just do me a favor and watch your dh in the French perfume shop. My husband and his brother got into a perfume fight there and came out smelling like they had been in a brothel.
I don't have to worry too much about DF getting in a perfume fight, it makes his nose tingle..in fact, we will probably have to steer clear of that shop.

I have been reading your Wedding PJ so i thought i would hop over here and see the honeymoon pretrip report..."relaxing" hahaha you seem like me when it comes to disney! there is no way you will be able to keep yourself away from the parks!!! congrats on everything! you are going to have a beautiful day and a fantastic trip!

Hi there! I know I won't be able to resist the parks, hence, the 8 day park hopper pass, just in case! Thanks for reading along with both my ptr and wedding pj!!

 

[Cinderella16]

I hope everyone had a terrific April Fools day!

My class played a good one on me. I assigned them to new seats on Tuesday, which they were very excited about. Well, on Wednesday, April Fool's Day, they all came into the room after apparently conversing in the hallway, and sat in their old seats. It took me a minute to figure out what was happening since I was so used to them in those old seats anyways. They were very creative.

Then after school, the staff at the school I work at threw myself and another future bride a surprise bridal shower! it was so unexpected!

Anyways, I was so excited when I came home from work today to find a package from Walt Disney World in my kitchen!!!

Our bridal ears came!!!

Of course, my dad made fun of me, and just didn't understand why a grown woman about to get married was getting very giddy about a white headband with two circles attached at the top and veiling. He also didn't understand the top hat. I will post pictures soon.

I also have to post pictures of all my new clothing for the trip, which is like best part of going on a vacation!

Pictures soon, I promise!

 

[tinkgurl]

Hey! We'll be there the same time as you! We get there the 22nd and are leaving July 1st. Here's where we're eating compared to yours. (Mine's in pink)

June 24 - 50's Prime Time Cafe (4:05): We'll be at DHS too eating at Mama Melrose at 4!
June 25 - Le Cellier (6:50): We'll be at Chef Mickey's
June 26 - Chef Mickey's (7:00 AM): We'll be at CRT for dinner
June 27 - California Grill (8:05): We'll be at the late Luau at the Poly at 8!
June 28 - Boma (6:25): We'll be at 1900 PF at 6:25 too!
June 29 - O'hana (5:10): We'll be at Olivia's
June 30 - Tony's Town Square (5:30): Oh my gosh! We'll be at Tony's that night too! Only our ADR is for 6:30!