Chicago526
<font color=red>Any dream will do...<br><font colo
- Joined
- May 6, 2003
- Messages
- 11,024
Hi! My name is Chicago526 and I'm a WDW over-planner! 
Here's how it all started....
DFi and I decided to get married in October of 2004. We had already planned a very nice 8 night trip to WDW for December of 2004 (Poly Lagoon View). At the time (Oct.) we hadn't thought too much about the honeymoon, other than "warm with a beach". I figured either Hawaii or the Caribbean.
Then we went on our trip in December 2004. It was DFi's first trip to WDW, and his first vacation EVER. DFi grew up poor, at times his family didn't have enough to eat, let alone take any type of trip. DFi said that "he didn't think people like 'him' could even go to a place like WDW"
"WDW is for everyone, honey" I told him. I'm still not sure what "people like him" even means!
Anyway, he also said "we'll go once now, and one more time when we have kids, and that's it!!"
"Okay" I said. "Even if you don't want to go a lot, my Mom and I can always go, just the two of us. And once we have kids, I can take them without you if I want to go more often than you do."
Well, we get there. We get there late on our arrival day, so we don't go to a park. We go to MK our first full day, then Epcot our 2nd day, and our 3rd day is a "park free" day, we just do what we want all day, no parks. This is the amazing part, since we hadn't even seen the other two parks, most of the other resorts, DTD/PI and I hadn't surprised DFi with the Richard Petty Experiance yet. On the 3rd day, while taking the boat from Poly to Ft. Wilderness (we booked a horse back ride, it was fun!) he turns to me and says...
"We should come back in June for a long weekend!"
YES!!!! I've converted him! He belongs to the Dark Side now! Together, we will rule the Disney Galaxy as husband and wife!!!
ahem. sorry...
Anyway, I reply "Well, this trip is costing us a bit of $$$, and we do have the wedding to pay for too. I don't think June will work. What do you think about coming back for our honeymoon?"
"Sure, that sounds fine. Whatever you want!"
What EVER I want??? Okay, you asked for it!
I had GF Conceirge booked by the first week of January.
We'll be staying Oct. 16-23, 7 glorious days at the resort I've been dying to stay at since I first saw it on a trip in '98 (my first trip back to WDW since I was a kid). Thank heaven for my travel agent discount, we couldn't afford it any other way!
You know what's really, really nice about staying Conceirge level? The itinerary planners. Between my job, selling my condo, buying a house, and planing a wedding, my itineary planer was worth her weight in GOLD. All I had to do was e-mail her what I wanted and POOF
it was done! She even got us in to Kona Cafe when it was booked solid for our dinner before going to MNSSHP. She got us AWSOME seats (dead center, top to bottom and left to right) to Cirque. She was prompt in all her replies, and the only thing she couldn't book was the Segway tour at Epcot (sold out by the time I asked her about it). She saved me SO much time during a period in my life that I really needed the help!
Anyway, here is our plan. I will report back when we are home from our Honeymoon and let you know how it all worked out!
Oct. 15 = Wedding Day! After we get hitched, we take the limo to a hotel near the airport. We booked a room at an All-Suite hotel just 5 minutes away from O'Hare, and the rate includes a bottle of sparkling wine and room service breakfast the next day. I'm sure we'll just go right to sleep after such a long day!!!
Oct. 16. Take the shuttle to O'Hare for our flight on United (Ted actually, which ticks me off because I can't use my miles to upgrade to 1st, they HAVE no 1st on Ted flights
) Our flight is at 1:15 PM, we will land about 5 PM. Our stretch limo (Tiffany Town Car) will wisk us away to the Grand Floridian, we should be there no later that 6 PM. After checking in and seeing our room (with our pre-ordered bride/groom ears and Pal Mickey waiting for us!), we will head to our 8 PM PS at Narcoossee's, where we plan on (hopefully) seeing the fireworks from that nights MNSSHP while eating desert.
Oct. 17. Magic Kingdom. We will start the day with a pre-open (8:05 AM) breakfast at Crystal Palace. If it works out like it did last year, we should be finished just in time for the rope drop. We also have dinner planed at Tony's at 5:45 PM. Originaly, we thought that the park would close at 8, with no Wishes or Spectro (based on historical park hours), but it turns out it's open until 9 with a showing of both. Depending on how tired we are, we may stay or go. They run them later in the week and we have time set aside to view them so if we want to turn in early, it's no biggie.
Oct. 18. Epcot. After breakfast in the concerige lounge, we will head to Epcot for opening. Run to Soarin' (I rode it in DL and loved it!) then run to Mision Space (DFi is dying for a re-ride! We only did it once last visit because 1 ride was enough for me...I loved it but I think if I did it twice, I would have had to go back to the room for the rest of the day) and then just wander around. Normally, I'd have made a lunch PS in WS, but the F&W fest is going on, so I though we'd graze around the World. We do have a PS at Les Chefs de France (we tried for the other, more deluxe French restaurant but it was closed for a private party. I asked my itinerary planner if we could get invited to the private party, but she said there was a limit to what magic she could work!
) By the time we are done with dinner, it should be time to find a spot for Illuminations.
Oct. 19. Resort day and DTD. The only thing we have planed for the day is a late breakfast at GF Cafe. I figure it will be a pool day. That night, we have a PS for Fulton's (ate there last trip, loved it!), after which, we will head over to see Cirque. I've only seen it on t.v. and DFi has NO idea what it's all about. I can't wait! Then, if we aren't tired, we will head to PI and have some more fun, if we are tired, then we will just head back "home".
Oct. 20. MGM. Eat breakfast at the lounge, then head to MGM for opening. Fantasmic dinner package at Brown Derby, then ride a few rides until it's time to line up for our special seating. We did this last year and it worked out great (except instead of rides before the show, we saw the Osborne Lights).
Oct 21. Animal Kingdom. Eat breakfast in the lounge, the head to AK. We don't need to be there for the rope drop, since we booked the Concierge Guest Only Wildlife Discovery Excursion tour for 10 AM. This means we don't have to race to the normal Safari ride so our arrival time is more flexible. Last year, we were done by 2 PM and I figure we'll be done by the same time this year (or maybe by 3 since we'll be getting there a bit later in the morning and doing the tour). We will then head back to GF to change, then to Kona Cafe at the Poly for dinner (we LOVED Kona when we stayed at the Poly last year) before heading to MNSSHP. We went to MVMCP last year, so we are really looking forward to it's spooky cousin. I really want to see the Ride of the Headless Horseman, that sounds SO cool!
Oct. 22. Free day. If the weather is hot enough, we may do a water park. If too cool, we'll pick a park to go to for re-rides. We will then hop to MK for our 6:35 PS at CRT, then find spots for Spectro and Wishes for our last night in the World!
Oct. 23. This is up in the air. DFi originaly had to work this night (he works overnight) so we were going to leave first thing in the morning. But his schedule changed and he now doesn't have to work. Our flights can be changed for no penalty (ah, the benifits of being a travel agent!) so we may change our flight to later and squeeze in one more park, or just lounge around the GF and relax before our flight.
I'm so excited, I can't wait! I may even be more excited about the honeymoon than the wedding reception!!!! We'll, maybe not MORE excited, but it's neck and neck!!!
Wish us luck!!!
Here's how it all started....
DFi and I decided to get married in October of 2004. We had already planned a very nice 8 night trip to WDW for December of 2004 (Poly Lagoon View). At the time (Oct.) we hadn't thought too much about the honeymoon, other than "warm with a beach". I figured either Hawaii or the Caribbean.
Then we went on our trip in December 2004. It was DFi's first trip to WDW, and his first vacation EVER. DFi grew up poor, at times his family didn't have enough to eat, let alone take any type of trip. DFi said that "he didn't think people like 'him' could even go to a place like WDW"
"WDW is for everyone, honey" I told him. I'm still not sure what "people like him" even means!
Anyway, he also said "we'll go once now, and one more time when we have kids, and that's it!!"
"Okay" I said. "Even if you don't want to go a lot, my Mom and I can always go, just the two of us. And once we have kids, I can take them without you if I want to go more often than you do."
Well, we get there. We get there late on our arrival day, so we don't go to a park. We go to MK our first full day, then Epcot our 2nd day, and our 3rd day is a "park free" day, we just do what we want all day, no parks. This is the amazing part, since we hadn't even seen the other two parks, most of the other resorts, DTD/PI and I hadn't surprised DFi with the Richard Petty Experiance yet. On the 3rd day, while taking the boat from Poly to Ft. Wilderness (we booked a horse back ride, it was fun!) he turns to me and says...
"We should come back in June for a long weekend!"
YES!!!! I've converted him! He belongs to the Dark Side now! Together, we will rule the Disney Galaxy as husband and wife!!!
ahem. sorry...
Anyway, I reply "Well, this trip is costing us a bit of $$$, and we do have the wedding to pay for too. I don't think June will work. What do you think about coming back for our honeymoon?"
"Sure, that sounds fine. Whatever you want!"
What EVER I want??? Okay, you asked for it!
I had GF Conceirge booked by the first week of January.
We'll be staying Oct. 16-23, 7 glorious days at the resort I've been dying to stay at since I first saw it on a trip in '98 (my first trip back to WDW since I was a kid). Thank heaven for my travel agent discount, we couldn't afford it any other way!You know what's really, really nice about staying Conceirge level? The itinerary planners. Between my job, selling my condo, buying a house, and planing a wedding, my itineary planer was worth her weight in GOLD. All I had to do was e-mail her what I wanted and POOF
it was done! She even got us in to Kona Cafe when it was booked solid for our dinner before going to MNSSHP. She got us AWSOME seats (dead center, top to bottom and left to right) to Cirque. She was prompt in all her replies, and the only thing she couldn't book was the Segway tour at Epcot (sold out by the time I asked her about it). She saved me SO much time during a period in my life that I really needed the help!Anyway, here is our plan. I will report back when we are home from our Honeymoon and let you know how it all worked out!
Oct. 15 = Wedding Day! After we get hitched, we take the limo to a hotel near the airport. We booked a room at an All-Suite hotel just 5 minutes away from O'Hare, and the rate includes a bottle of sparkling wine and room service breakfast the next day. I'm sure we'll just go right to sleep after such a long day!!!
Oct. 16. Take the shuttle to O'Hare for our flight on United (Ted actually, which ticks me off because I can't use my miles to upgrade to 1st, they HAVE no 1st on Ted flights
) Our flight is at 1:15 PM, we will land about 5 PM. Our stretch limo (Tiffany Town Car) will wisk us away to the Grand Floridian, we should be there no later that 6 PM. After checking in and seeing our room (with our pre-ordered bride/groom ears and Pal Mickey waiting for us!), we will head to our 8 PM PS at Narcoossee's, where we plan on (hopefully) seeing the fireworks from that nights MNSSHP while eating desert.Oct. 17. Magic Kingdom. We will start the day with a pre-open (8:05 AM) breakfast at Crystal Palace. If it works out like it did last year, we should be finished just in time for the rope drop. We also have dinner planed at Tony's at 5:45 PM. Originaly, we thought that the park would close at 8, with no Wishes or Spectro (based on historical park hours), but it turns out it's open until 9 with a showing of both. Depending on how tired we are, we may stay or go. They run them later in the week and we have time set aside to view them so if we want to turn in early, it's no biggie.
Oct. 18. Epcot. After breakfast in the concerige lounge, we will head to Epcot for opening. Run to Soarin' (I rode it in DL and loved it!) then run to Mision Space (DFi is dying for a re-ride! We only did it once last visit because 1 ride was enough for me...I loved it but I think if I did it twice, I would have had to go back to the room for the rest of the day) and then just wander around. Normally, I'd have made a lunch PS in WS, but the F&W fest is going on, so I though we'd graze around the World. We do have a PS at Les Chefs de France (we tried for the other, more deluxe French restaurant but it was closed for a private party. I asked my itinerary planner if we could get invited to the private party, but she said there was a limit to what magic she could work!
) By the time we are done with dinner, it should be time to find a spot for Illuminations.Oct. 19. Resort day and DTD. The only thing we have planed for the day is a late breakfast at GF Cafe. I figure it will be a pool day. That night, we have a PS for Fulton's (ate there last trip, loved it!), after which, we will head over to see Cirque. I've only seen it on t.v. and DFi has NO idea what it's all about. I can't wait! Then, if we aren't tired, we will head to PI and have some more fun, if we are tired, then we will just head back "home".
Oct. 20. MGM. Eat breakfast at the lounge, then head to MGM for opening. Fantasmic dinner package at Brown Derby, then ride a few rides until it's time to line up for our special seating. We did this last year and it worked out great (except instead of rides before the show, we saw the Osborne Lights).
Oct 21. Animal Kingdom. Eat breakfast in the lounge, the head to AK. We don't need to be there for the rope drop, since we booked the Concierge Guest Only Wildlife Discovery Excursion tour for 10 AM. This means we don't have to race to the normal Safari ride so our arrival time is more flexible. Last year, we were done by 2 PM and I figure we'll be done by the same time this year (or maybe by 3 since we'll be getting there a bit later in the morning and doing the tour). We will then head back to GF to change, then to Kona Cafe at the Poly for dinner (we LOVED Kona when we stayed at the Poly last year) before heading to MNSSHP. We went to MVMCP last year, so we are really looking forward to it's spooky cousin. I really want to see the Ride of the Headless Horseman, that sounds SO cool!
Oct. 22. Free day. If the weather is hot enough, we may do a water park. If too cool, we'll pick a park to go to for re-rides. We will then hop to MK for our 6:35 PS at CRT, then find spots for Spectro and Wishes for our last night in the World!
Oct. 23. This is up in the air. DFi originaly had to work this night (he works overnight) so we were going to leave first thing in the morning. But his schedule changed and he now doesn't have to work. Our flights can be changed for no penalty (ah, the benifits of being a travel agent!) so we may change our flight to later and squeeze in one more park, or just lounge around the GF and relax before our flight.
I'm so excited, I can't wait! I may even be more excited about the honeymoon than the wedding reception!!!! We'll, maybe not MORE excited, but it's neck and neck!!!
Wish us luck!!!
