Anz and Andy Visit Mickey - Pre Trip Report

MsPennieLane

<font color=660099>Self-confessed Disney addict<br
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Messages
904
Who's going:

Annabel (Me!) - Age 31 - Disneyaholic, 3rd trip this year
Andy (Hubby) - Age 34 - converted Disneyaholic, 2nd trip this year

Dates: 23 September to 7 October

Hotels: 12 nights at Pop Century followed by 2 nights at the Contemporary Resort, 14th floor concierge no less

Background:

This trip came about when Hubby decided he wanted to quit his job and relocate to London from Wales. I was born in London but moved to Wales in 2001 to move in with him. All my close family are in London so I wasn't about to argue with him ;) While we were getting ready to put our house up for sale, Hubby devised a plan to sneak in a fortnight's trip to Disney World - even though we had already arranged and paid to go in December! He was going to book and sort everything out himself but as it turned out, he can't keep a secret and his secret plan lasted ohhh a mere week :grin: As if he had to ask me if I wanted to go to Disney World - like I'm going to turn that down! We both know that we won't have another year like this, where we can afford to go so much so while you have the means to do it then why not I say.

We planned where we were going to stay and when we were going to go but stopped short of booking it unti we knew the house was definitely sold. Once we accepted an offer on our house, we continued with our plans. I decided to get a quote from Dreams Unlimited just to see what the price would be up against booking through the UK Disney site. It was cheaper using Dreams Unlimited for the same room so we decided to go with them. I was reading through my Passporter and showed Hubby the info on the Contemporary Resort and I mentioned how much I would love to stay there one day and how great it would be to get a Magic Kingdom view to see Wishes from your balcony. Next morning, Hubby announced that he wanted to stay at the Contemporary and said I should obtain a quote - after all, we might not get another chance to stay there. I obtained another quote from DU for 14th floor concierge and we decided to push the boat out. So now it was 2 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel, 10 nights at Pop Century and the last 2 nights at the Contemporary. In the end we decided that even though we had APs for Universal Studios, we wouldn't stay onsite at the Hard Rock Hotel and would leave it for another time so we booked an extra 2 nights at Pop Century instead.

We found out that DU had a concierge-style service so once we'd booked our accommodation through them, they dealt with all the PS's, tour bookings etc which was most helpful.

It got to about August time and we'd paid for a night's deposit at each hotel when they announced the AP rates for the resorts. We contacted DU and they immediately applied the codes. We were pleased to find that we would be saving a fair bit of money on our 12 nights, which obviously would go towards staying at the Contemporary.

A few weeks back I posted that I was looking to hopefully share someone's Illuminations Cruise with them and within a few hours, I had an email from a woman called Jennifer who was offering us space on her cruise!! There are 8 couples going so it should be really wonderful and I'm so looking forward to it.

Coming up: our itinerary so far - will Hubby be exhausted just reading what I've got planned for him?

Anz :earsgirl:
 
Hooray! I have the honor of being the first in line to say "Thanks, Anz and yippee, 'cause here you (we) go again." Thinking that you and Andy will be on your way in just a day and a half--it gives me goosebumps. Susan
 
Have a fabulous time :bounce:

Can't wait to hear all about it and lots of pictures please....
 
Part 2 - How exhausted is Hubby from reading what I have planned for us :scared1:

Our basic itinerary looks something like this:

Day 1 - Thurs 23rd Sept
Take off from Gatwick Airport @ 10.30am
Arrive Sanford Airport @ 3pm
Stop at Chilis near the Airport - Hubby's request ;)
Check in at Pop Century
Pick up Hubby's AP and head to Magic Kingdom :cool1:

Day 2 - Friday 24th
Our usual first morning tradition - wake up early, head to Denny's for breakfast then off to Walmart to spend a small fortune!
Then off to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios

Day 3 - Sat 25th
EMH @ MGM Studios
Afternoon break
Out to dinner - Logan's Roadhouse or Bahama Breeze?
Old Town for Saturday night car fun

Day 4 - Sun 26th
Breakfast - Golden Corral
Shopping day - Festival Bay, Florida Mall or Premium Outlets
Lunch - Fuddruckers or Chilis
Back to Pop Century for a break
PM - Epcot, possibly to see Off Kilter :worship:
Dinner - Yorkshire County Fish Shop
Illuminations!

Day 5 - Mon 27th
Off to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios again to take advantage of our APs
breakfast - Cinnabon
Lunch - Mythos?
Afternoon break
Off to Magic Kingdom, take monorail to Contemporary Resort
Dinner at Chef Mickey's @ 7pm

Day 6 - Tues 28th
Animal Kingdom
afternoon break
MGM Studios - Fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood & Vine @ 4.30pm

Day 7 - Weds 29th
Epcot!
Lunch - Le Cellier
afternoon break
Back to Epcot - PS at the Garden Grill and rehitching ceremony @ 6.10pm

Day 8 - Thurs 30th
Lazy morning of resort hopping, ending up at Boardwalk
Early lunch - Beaches & Cream
afternoon break
Off to Grand Floridian Resort for 4.30pm PS @ the Garden View Lounge for afternoon tea
Evening - open

Day 9 - Fri 1st Oct
MGM Studios
switch mid morning to Magic Kingdom
lunch - Casey's Corner
afternoon break
Back to Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern @ 6pm, followed by Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Day 10 - Sat 2nd
Free day!

Day 11 - Sun 3rd
Magic Kingdom for the Keys to the Kingdom Tour
PM - easy afternoon and evening

Day 12 - Mon 4th
Magic Kingdom
break
MGM Studios

Day 13 - Tues 5th
Check out of Pop Century
Check into Contemporary Resort
Explore the hotel and relax by the pool
Shopping!
Magic Kingdom - Spectromagic @ 8pm, then back to Contemporary to catch Wishes from our balcony

Day 14 - Weds 6th
Back to Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios
afternoon break
Dinner - Beaches and Cream
8.30pm meet at the Boardwalk to join the Illuminations Cruise
Jellyrolls!

Day 15 - Thurs 7th
homeward bound :(

So that's our itinerary so far - subject to change in places as I'm not sure if I've scheduled enough rest ;) According to hubby, I haven't :earboy2:

We're off tomorrow and I finally finished packing this afternoon! Well, our clothes that is - our Pop Century mugs, Pal Mickey etc have all been packed for a few weeks now :earsgirl: Hubby bought me a laptop at the weekend so I won't be able to lose any photos this time! I shall be putting the photos onto the PC and putting them straight to CD at the end of each evening so I can't lose a thing. I can't promise live trip reports but if I do find a connection then I shall definitely try and post and say hello.

See you in 2 weeks :wave:

Anz :earsgirl:
 

Anz you are certainly going to fit a lot in if you stick to that itinerary!!!

Is there not room for grits and gravy on your schedule, though?? ;) ;)
 
Hi all, just wanted to say that we're home already. We had to cut our trip short by 4 days as Andy's grandmother died last week :( She died on the Weds and we got the call on Saturday, so Andy took the decision to fly home in case the funeral happened straight away. Luckily our travel insurance paid for everything and got us back on a flight on the Sunday night with Virgin. Thankfully we didn't lose any money as we were due to stay at the Contemporary 14th floor concierge for 2 nights. Both Marks & Spencers insurance and Disney were wonderful. We're going up to Wales on Thursday for the funeral so I'll get round to posting the report soon. I also have hundreds and hundreds of photos to sift through :D And I'm glad to report that none got lost this time!

Anz :earsgirl:
 
Sorry to hear about Andy's Grandmother... glad the insurance took care of things for you so you at least didn't have to worry about that.

I have one question about your trip that I am hoping that you could answer for me. I noticed in your itinerary that you had scheduled a re-hitching ceremony (and I think it was to be before you had to unexpectedly return home). Did you actually get to do the ceremony and, if so, what did it consist of? There have been a number of posts recently saying that this is no longer offered.

Thank much,
dirkus
 
Annabel,
So sorry to hear about the loss of Andy's grandmother. What difficult news to receive when so far from home.
We won't worry about your having to cut your fabulous fall trip short as the two of you will no doubt make up for lost time when you return in December.
Looking forward to reading your reports and seeing your pictures. Best Wishes,
Susan
 
Sad news Anz :(

I am really sorry for your loss.:grouphug:

Best wishes,

Karen
 
I love reading your reports and have been waiting for you get home...but not under such sad circumstances. I'm really sorry and you guys are in my thoughts.
 
I want to say welcome home but thats not quite right under these circumstances. Please pass on our sympathies to Andy and hope that you find comfort in each other at this time. We will look forward to your trip report in good time and hope that your trip was a happy successful one full of pixie dust memories.
Much love and pixie dust,
Claire
 
Thanks for your kind comments, they're much appreciated by both myself and Andy :D It's been a busy week as you can imagine. The funeral was on Friday and went as smoothly as could be. We arrived back from Wales this morning and I slept a fair bit, hence me being posting at this hour.

I have one question about your trip that I am hoping that you could answer for me. I noticed in your itinerary that you had scheduled a re-hitching ceremony (and I think it was to be before you had to unexpectedly return home). Did you actually get to do the ceremony and, if so, what did it consist of? There have been a number of posts recently saying that this is no longer offered.

Hi Dirkus :wave: We did go thru with the rehitching ceremony but it nearly didn't happen. We mentioned when we checked in for our PS and nothing was said about it. Andy then asked one of the CMs and she said they'd stopped doing them because somebody got upset :confused: She said there might be a cake in the kitchen and she'd go find out and she never came back! However, she must have spoken to our server as he came back and performed the ceremony as such and we had Mickey and Chip there too. All it consisted of was our server announcing to the restaurant that we were celebrating our wedding anniversary and everyone clapped. We were then told to kiss and presented with a certificate and a gorgeous cake. I think if you're keen on having one then they'll go thru with your request. Nobody actually said before hand that they'd stopped them but we were glad we got the ceremony anyways. Hope this answers your question :D

Anz :earsgirl:
 
Anz -

Once again, my sincerest sympathy for your loss.

I want to thank you for posting an answer to my question so quickly under the circumstances. I'm glad you were able to have your ceremony! I have heard that they aren't doing the kiss to the count of 100 anymore (for some reason). If that is true, go get hubby and we'll all count for you here:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100!!!!! :Pinkbounc :bounce: :Pinkbounc

Thanks again and best wishes! :earsboy:
 















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