COMPLETED - We're Visiting Our Laughing Place - Trip Report

[izzie-wizzie]

We were in MK that morning - it was a bit mad wasn't it? We left at around 11-ish I think but we went back in the evening for the fireworks.

It was craziness. Don't think we stayed in MK much later than you.

We were going to go back for the fireworks...but that didn't happen haha! Were they good?

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Loving your report so far, Izzie!

What a wonderful place for a proposal, I got all teary reading it!
And planning a Disney wedding, just magical.

We visited WDW just after getting engaged, and wore the buttons too, some of the CM's were just lovely about us being engaged. Makes it so special.
We're getting married in April (doing the Scottish Castle thing!) but it's not costing anywhere near as much as what you estimated, but then we're only having 30 guests
Then off to WDW for our Disneymoon in September!

Looking forward to your next instalment! And hearing all about your Disney wedding plans when you start a thread about that!

Sorry I never did get back to your post!!

Thanks for your lovely comments and HUGE Congratulations on your wedding - it's so soon!! You must be so excited

The CMs really did make a fuss and it helped make it even more special - we were a bit disapointed when we got home and didn't hear 'congratulations' from every passer-by on the street!

 

[Linda67]

Lovely updates

Looks like your waterpark/Citricos day was blissful

Did you enjoy SSR? we are staying there in May

How was the Paddock Pool as that is the area that we requested

 

[Sarah28]

Another fab update sounds like you had a lovely romantic time together

How are the wedding plans coming along? I bought a copy of the Passporters Guide to Disney Weddings and I thoroughly recommend it

 

[wickesy]

It was craziness. Don't think we stayed in MK much later than you.

We were going to go back for the fireworks...but that didn't happen haha! Were they good?

Yeah they were good. It was the Wishes show but with a lot of perimeter fireworks as well. There are photos of the fireworks in my trip report - Day 11

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Lovely updates

Looks like your waterpark/Citricos day was blissful

Did you enjoy SSR? we are staying there in May

How was the Paddock Pool as that is the area that we requested

It really was a lovely day, and a nice change of pace from the theme parks.

SSR was an amazing resort - and apart from a little accident one morning of the trip - I could not fault the transportation there either, there was always plenty of busses to and from the theme parks. We requested the Congress Park area so that we could walk to DTD which was really handy.

The Paddock Pool was great too - quieter than the main pool, but plenty of activities going on and with the waterslide as well.

Another fab update sounds like you had a lovely romantic time together

How are the wedding plans coming along? I bought a copy of the Passporters Guide to Disney Weddings and I thoroughly recommend it

Hi Sarah, the wedding plans are great - I bought that guide pretty much the day I started considering the whole Disney Wedding thing - and it is definately a good read, your right

I think we're at a stage that we know pretty much what we want from Disney - but playing the waiting game til we can call. I've read that you can call from 24 months out to start things going but can't pencil things in from between 8months - 16months? A lot of the information seems to change about so I might give them a call at 24 months just to see what they say.

I also want to ask a good time for us to go over to Florida for a planning session / venue visit / menu tasting. We are hoping to go across some point between March - May 2013, but we just want to ask if this is suitable before we start looking to book anything.

How are your plans going? Do you have a PJ yet?

Yeah they were good. It was the Wishes show but with a lot of perimeter fireworks as well. There are photos of the fireworks in my trip report - Day 11

Ahhh cool - that would be amazing and really add to it! Cool fireworks pictures!

 

[Sarah28]

Hi Sarah, the wedding plans are great - I bought that guide pretty much the day I started considering the whole Disney Wedding thing - and it is definately a good read, your right

I think we're at a stage that we know pretty much what we want from Disney - but playing the waiting game til we can call. I've read that you can call from 24 months out to start things going but can't pencil things in from between 8months - 16months? A lot of the information seems to change about so I might give them a call at 24 months just to see what they say.

I also want to ask a good time for us to go over to Florida for a planning session / venue visit / menu tasting. We are hoping to go across some point between March - May 2013, but we just want to ask if this is suitable before we start looking to book anything.

How are your plans going? Do you have a PJ yet?

Ooh all sounds exciting! We're not at the point of being ready to call them yet, it's been put on the back burner for a while until we move house but I'm always thinking about it! I've got things in mind but it's all a very rough plan at the minute. There is the another issue for us as Andy is a teacher so it looks like we'd have to do it in school holidays in late August / early September (busy, hot and expensive!) so trying to work around that also!

Yeah the waiting game doesn't sound like much fun for a very impatient person like me, please let us know how you get on when you do call!

When is your 24 month date? Are you going for the Wishes collection? No PJ for us just yet, but would love to read yours when / if you've set it up

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Ooh all sounds exciting! We're not at the point of being ready to call them yet, it's been put on the back burner for a while until we move house but I'm always thinking about it! I've got things in mind but it's all a very rough plan at the minute. There is the another issue for us as Andy is a teacher so it looks like we'd have to do it in school holidays in late August / early September (busy, hot and expensive!) so trying to work around that also!

Yeah the waiting game doesn't sound like much fun for a very impatient person like me, please let us know how you get on when you do call!

When is your 24 month date? Are you going for the Wishes collection? No PJ for us just yet, but would love to read yours when / if you've set it up

That's the same as us as we're being very sensible and hoping to move into a house this year before we can start paying for a wedding. Wedding planning is much more fun than mortgage hunting though, don't you think? Hehe.

We are aiming to get married on Wednesday 12 March 2014 which means that if we go by the whole 24 month thing, we can call in a couple of weeks!!

We're hoping to go with the Wishes collection, but we need to see if we can do this with less people (even though we are happy to pay supplementary costs and essential pay as if there was the minimum number of guests). So fingers crossed - otherwise we will just go escape but add in and customise literally everything included which might be more of a headache for Disney than anything.

No PJ yet either - probably will try and resist until the end of this year!!

 

[Ciorsdah]

I've just read this TR and its soooooo lovely!!! I'm from Aberdeen orginally (living in Edinburgh now) small world heehee.

Congratulations on your engagement, sounds so perfect and romantic A Disney wedding would be amazing.

I'm heading to WDW in September with my DBF and can only wish he would do that.... lol!

 

[Tinkerbell1989]

Some more lovely days Izzie Looks like you had a great time!

I love the dress you're wearing on the 1st too... I have a similar one in black but the cream one is beautiful!

xxx

PS: Oh also, love reading about your wedding plans! Looking forward to mooching around Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavillion. Purely for research purposes you understand hehe!

 

[izzie-wizzie]

I've just read this TR and its soooooo lovely!!! I'm from Aberdeen orginally (living in Edinburgh now) small world heehee.

Congratulations on your engagement, sounds so perfect and romantic A Disney wedding would be amazing.

I'm heading to WDW in September with my DBF and can only wish he would do that.... lol!

Ooh wow someone from this neck of the woods *waves!*

Thanks for your congratulations, it was the most perfect proposal I could have wished for Your September trip will come around so, so quickly!! I loved being there in September - nice and quiet. Have fun planning - I always find that is half the fun of a WDW trip

Some more lovely days Izzie Looks like you had a great time!

I love the dress you're wearing on the 1st too... I have a similar one in black but the cream one is beautiful!

xxx

PS: Oh also, love reading about your wedding plans! Looking forward to mooching around Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavillion. Purely for research purposes you understand hehe!

Awww thank you

Hehe, I actually laughed out loud at the "purely for research purposes" - The lobby in the Grand Floridian is just breathtaking, I've not a mooch around the Pavillion though - I can't wait to see it in up-close / real life!

 

[stephensmum]

You look a lovely couple, enjoying your report.

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Oh dear - how embarrassing I never did finish this

I had made such a promise to myself that I would as well!! But don't despair - I have finished it all and will post the rest of the trip now (and managed to do it all in under a year !!).

I tried to remember as much as I could from pictures etc, but it might be a bit vague, but I hope you enjoy it anyway

It really was the most fabulous trip - of course getting engaged made it even more special!!

Anyway...without further adieu...

Day 10 - Monday 3 October 2011 - Universal Studios / Islands of Adventures / City Walk

After a great, but late night at the duelling piano bar the night before, we knew we would need to sleep in a bit later today. So we had booked the shuttle to pick us up to go to Universal Studios for about 10.30am.

Before we were picked up we had breakfast at The Artists Palette at our hotel. I had a ham and cheese omelette and Scott had a Breakfast Croissant Sandwich.

Service for breakfast was really slow - even though it was really quiet. We didn't get to finish it all as we had to rush and get our shuttle. But the actual food was tasty

Again, the shuttle was very smooth and easy. I can very much recommend the Mears Shuttle for a couple wanting to get from Disney - Universal. It's just a case of a quick phone call the day before. But I think if you were traveling as part of a a bigger group, it would be worth considering the price difference to just get a taxi

The plan for today was to start at Universal and then finish at Islands of Adventure. Especially leaving enough time to really explore Harry Potter.

Here we are when we first arrived, only problem of travelling as a two - it's a bit more difficult getting 'couple' pictures with things!!

There were soooo many characters out as we arrived at Universal Studios, so we decided to stop and take some fun pictures. We even saw 'Doc Brown' by the Back to the Future Delorian which Scott thought was amazing!

We then saw Marley from Marley and Me and the little pug dog that was in Men in Black - soooo cute!

We finished our character meeting with a trip to chat to Donkey. Donkey was amazing and made a big fuss that we just got engaged - it was sooo hillarious, such a highlight of the trip and we still talk about it today.

We obviously went on a few rides - from what I remember we just stuck to The Simpsons, The Mummy and Rip Ride and Rockit.. and one more ride on The Simpsons before leaving the park - we did some shopping at Kwik-e-Mart too and got some cool 'Duff' drinks glasses - I thought the Marge wigs were hillarious haha.

So we then headed to Islands of Adventure and to Harry Potter section. We got our frozen Butterbeers - which we had decided not to do the first time we were here so it was something to look forward to when we came back - it reminded me on honeycomb flavoured Mackies Ice Cream

We enjoyed these in the looooong queue to see the little show in Ollivanders - cute to see once, but not something to repeat.

We then decided to get some lunch - hot dog for me and turkey leg for scott. We then went to Hogs Head Pub in Hogsmeade and had a pint of cider each. It was actually pretty quiet and nice to just take a break for a bit.

We went on the HP and the Forbidden Journey - queue was pretty big, so we decided to just to do single rider. Wow we completely lucked out and walked straight on and on the same carriage! So we decided to go on again single rider - and ended up getting on our own vehicle with nobody else?! Considering it was such a long wait to get on we were soooo lucky and don't quite know how that happened!

We then wondered round Hogsmeade one last time before heading round to Spiderman, Doctor Doom (which I was rediculously scared of but went on - yey!) and then rode The Hulk repeatedly until the park was pretty much closing!

Once we were done in the park and was going to have a drink at the Margaritaville drinks stand. However we were ID'd and the server wouldn't accept our Driving Licenses (the cards with the pictures) - never experienced this anywhere else, but he said it was policy to only accept passports (which we don't feel comfortable carrying with us to theme parks).

Anyway we had a wonder around City Walk before going for dinner in the Latin Quarter - the food is soo good here which is why we decided to go back (we had went here on our last trip). I just really wish there was more of an atmosphere. It was so quiet and although the service was good (no waits etc) - our waiter seemed a bit 'off' - we had a few cocktails over dinner, and they had a really extensive mojito list which was great - but when Scott asked if he could have his made with Dark Rum as that's how he likes it, the server was beyond rude and made it seem like it was the most rediculous request someone could have made?! Anyway when the drinks came they were lovely and we both had lovely coconut prawns to start and fajitas for mains which were amazing.

After dinner we continued our cocktail drinking at the bar at Pat O'Briens which was nice. And after a few cocktails, we called up the shuttle and arranged to back to the hotel.

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Day 11 - Tuesday 4 October 2011 - Animal Kingdom

Another sleep in day today (well we were on holiday!), and we decided to go to Wolfgang Pucks in DTD for a tasty breakfast. A definate perk staying at the Saratoga Springs Resort is that we could just walk here.

Scott had the breakfast pizza and a coffee and I had the cornflake french toast and chocolate milk - both were really, really good.

We went into the Christmas Shop at Downtown Disney to chose our Christmas Bauble - as we wanted to get one personalised - we had done this the previous trip to Disney and thought it would be a nice thing to try and make a tradition of. We ordered the bauble, and had it engraved with "Izzie and Scott, Engagement Trip 2011" and would pick it up in a couple of days (along with an whole lot more Christmas things!!)

We then headed to Animal Kingdom - although the journey to get there seemed to take us forever - we went a really weird way!! Once we got to the park we started off at Dinosaur, then we walked up to get a fast pass for the Kilamjaro Safaris and then did a walking trail to see the Monkeys. Shortly after this we went on Expedition Everest and then had some lunch - back to the Yak and Yeti for more Honey Chicken and Rice - it's soo good!!

We then spent the afternoon watching Finding Nemo again, It's Tough to be a Bug and a good few more runs on Expedition Everest. We finished the day by using our Fastpass at the Kilamjaro Safari's.

Here are some photo pass pictures we got that day:

We left Animal Kingdom and headed to the Beach Club Resort, as we had reservations at the Cape May Cafe for Dinner. Before dinner, we went out on to the beach and sat on a lounge chair and admired the lovely view of the boardwalk at sunset. It was so pretty - so calm and peaceful.

We noticed they were roasting marshmallows by a campfire on the beach also - and we joined in the fun. I had never roasted a marshmallow before but turns out I had quite a nack for it!!

Feeling smug at my marshmallow-roasting abilities, we headed for dinner. There was a great selection of food at the buffet - although I don't have any pictures of what we had. But our waiter did bring us out a congratulations desert which was so sweet and made us feel very special

After dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney and ended the evening at Disney Quest - we only got to do a couple of things as we got there late, but it was still quite fun just to see it. We designed our own roller coaster which was great, and we also liked the Pirates of the Carribean Ride.

I had no understanding of what I was doing in the Aladdin's Carpets or the Mighty Ducks Pinball though (but I won pinball - yey!)

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Day 12 - Wednesday 5 October 2012 - Sea World and Epcot

This morning we got up quite early and went to Sea World. If I'm honest I didn't really want to go to Sea World. Apart from feeding the sea lions and riding Manta - I kind of feel it's the sort of park if you've seen it once, you've seen it enough and nothing would have been different from our previous visit in 2009. Either way - we got free tickets with our admission to Discovery Cove and Scott really wanted to go - so off we went.

We got the resort bus to Magic Kingdom, and then a local bus from there to Sea World.

The first thing we did was ride Manta - but had about a 45 minute wait, which put me in a little bit of (I-admit-it) selfish mood - as I wanted to be in Disney not queing for a ride in sea world. Haha sounds soo selfish I know - I'll blame the heat!! Haha but I did really enjoy Manta once I was on it, it is a fab ride

We then went to feed the sea lions, see the penguins and ride Kraken. Then really, we were done in Sea World and got a taxi back to Disney and got dropped off at Epcot (yey!).

We arrived at Epcot at lunch time and were both really hungry, we weren't quite sure what to have - we tried to get something in The Land but nothing took our fancy - so we just ended up at the Electric Umbrella for Burgers and Fries. We shared the strawberry desert and cookie. Nothing exciting but it was tasty and just what we were after

We spent the afternoon really taking in future world, going on Test Track, The Seas and Turtle Talk with Crush and a good few rides on Mission Space (love this ride!). We also met the characters at the Character Stop.

We had a late dinner reservation at Via Napoli. Although we had totally lost track of time and ended up rushing there so as not to be late. We made it on time and were shortly shown to our table.

I had a lovely glass of Rose Wine and Scott had a beer as we chose our food. I had the Chicken Parmigan, and Scott had a pizza - both were really tasty.

For dessert I had the Ricotta Cheese Fritters and Scott had some sort of sundae thing. He did not like his dessert so we split the Ricotta Fritters which were delish!!

After dinner, as we were full and had already experienced most of the F+W festival a few days before, we headed back to future world and did more rides til about 11.30pm when we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Sorry not many pictures today - we really didn't take many!!

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Day 13 - Thursday 6 October 2012 - Hollywood Studios

Today we were back at Hollywood Studios, and it felt like we had not spent nearly enough time here at this point - especially as it is one of our favourite parks!

As we arrived a little after rope drop the queue for Toy Story Mania was already really busy, so we just picked up some fast passes and then went over to the Tram Tour.

We were excited to watch the show they do at the start with guests at the park - as the last time we went to Disney World with Scott's sister and brother-in-law we had been the 'stars' of that show!

However, the group of guys who were picked were fooling about and one of the guys dropped his baseball cap in the water (where there are fire / water effects). Needless to say the show was cut short without any of the effects or anything, and we were moved along -hmph!!

After this we had a wonder around the park and ended up going on Star Tours, seeing the Muppets and ending up at One Mans Dream. We had a really good wander around, and it's always so interesting looking at everything in here.

We then had an early lunch at Sunset Ranch Market - I just had chicken nuggets, fries and a carrot cake, Scott had a burger and fries and a chocolate dessert. Both were good

We then quewed to meet Woody and Buzz , before going up to Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster for a couple of rides on both. We then wondered around a few gift shops before it was our FP return time for Toy Story Mania - we went on and again it was lots of fun

Some Photo Pass Pics of the Day:

After Hollywood Studios we headed to Polynesian as we had dinner reservations at Kona.

Our food was really good here - I don't quite remember the reason now - but I remember being really shocked at the servers attitude as he seemed to just completely ignore me and only talk to Scott.

Anyway....I had the Shrimp and Scallops

Scot had the Teriyaki Strip.

For dessert Scott had a chocolate pudding and I had fruit with a chocolate fondue.

We considered staying at Polynesian to watch the fireworks, but we decided to head to Downtown Disney instead and get our shopping from the Christmas Shop! We got heaps of baubles, Mickey and Minnie Santa Hats, a Santa Cookies and Milk Set and I got a Pluto Pillow

We then headed to TRex for a couple of Cotton-tinis.

 

[izzie-wizzie]

Day 14 - Friday 7 October 2012

Our last full day at Disney - SAD!!!

We were up quite early and went down to take some pictures of Down Town Disney from outside our room.

We spent today at Magic Kingdom, having warm Cinamon buns for breakfast - num!!

We pretty much spent the day going on all of the rides and soaking up the atmosphere - stopping for lunch at Caseys for a hot dog meal which we shared

However the rain was on-and-off all day, and when it was on it was very heavy - so we spent a lot of time hiding out from the rain in gift shops, which is fine by me as I love shopping! Although it did mean for not many pictures that day.

In the evening we headed to Downtown Disney and explored more of the West Side - as we usually stick to East Side. However it was sooo wet that we quickly took cover. We had reservations at Raglan Road - which was amazing!!! The menu is great - I could probably have ate here every night of the holiday, it was that good!!

Scott had some Guinness and I had a cocktail (shock!)

For mains I had the Heavenly Ham and Scott had the mixed grill.

It was dessert that won it though - the bread and butter pudding... WOW this is something soooo amazing tasty - easily one of my favourite dessert that I have ever had!

The entertainment and atmosphere was also great

We then took the walk back to the hotel and packed

Day 15 - Saturday 8 October 2012 - Home Time

Home time

Our last day and the weather really was awful. It was thrashing it down with rain from the minute we were awake to the minute we took off on our plane.

We were both soaked the whole time we were out that day - so no pics at all from here.

We had a couple of hours spare in the morning, so we got to Hollywood Studios for rope drop, rode Toy Story and got a fast pass. In between times we ran to Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster before going back to Toy Story. We then went to 50s Prime Time - and the bar that was there for a few drinks. It was a safe haven from the rain and it's such a cool little place.

We then got the bus back to the hotel, had lunch at the hotel and got picked up from the magical express - is there anything more depressing than waiting to be picked up outside your hotel to go home??!

Then that was it!! We got our flight to Amsterdam, and then back home!

Thanks so much for reading my trip report - sorry it's taken an age to finish!!

We're currently planning things for the next two years.

Next year we're heading to the West Side of America and seeing Las Vegas, Hollywood and of course Disneyland!!

Then the year after we have now set a date for our wedding

We are getting married March 2014! The date is set and we are so, so excited. Have managed to get our venue, caterer, band and photographer. We are getting married at a place called 'Fasque House' if anybody wants to see it

We did seriously consider getting married at WDW - however as a serial planner I didn't like that we couldn't book things til closer to the time and also we sat with a number of guests that made everything a bit awkward. We were a bit big for an escape wedding but a bit too small for a wishes wedding.

 

[VailaTigger]

Loved catching up on the rest of your report!

And all the very best for your wedding you must let us know your plans, and how it's all going!

So... will there be a Disneymoon then?

 

[LORNA ANN]

Really enjoyed reading your trippie. Congratulations on your engagment.

 

[tbucket15]

I'm in already!