Dec 16-23:Fun while wedding planning UPDATED on 2/11 Day 5 w/pics

[Namsupak]

A little background…. This trip was just my DF and I for our first Christmastime at the World! At first it was suppose to be a short 4 day trip just to go check out the different resorts, possible sites for our Disney Wedding, and meet with a wedding coordinator. DF is a 3rd year med student and I am a 3rd year dental student. After much deliberation we decided we deserved a nice long break from our busy lives and suddenly our trip was for 8 days/ 7 nights with some fun tours and dinners planned. We even got the DDP. I kept joking that it was like we were taking the honeymoon to plan the wedding.


Day 1

We began our day by waking up at 4:30 AM to make it to Yeager Airport in Charleston, WV. Neither of us are morning people but I knew DF would sleep on the plane and for me it was like waking up on Christmas morning to open presents. I couldn’t sleep if I tried. We had to fly to Detroit to catch a connecting flight. After they switched our gate 3 times we finally got to board our plane at 9:40 AM. Wahoo finally on our way to Disney…. Or so I thought. We got sat next to a really nice family from Michigan… not sure if they were Dissers or not though. After 30 min we hear the flight attendant page a doctor to row 15…after another 20 min they determine that we need to turn the plane around. Turns out a guy had a stroke on the plane. The EMS came and picked him up on the plane. Hopefully everything was okay with him but they never gave us an update. He did look alert when they took him off the plane so that’s gotta be a good sign. After another 20 min we got turned around and back in the air. A little disappointing because we had taken this flight so we could be early and now we were arriving the same time the people on the next flight would.

We got to Disney’s Pop Century resort at 3PM and got to check into our room. We made a stop at the concierge desk to get a print out of our ADRs and confirmation numbers. When they asked me to check it I said everything looked ok…then my DF says “Aren’t there some things missing?” Guess I wasn’t as awake as I thought I was. There were 3 reservations missing. We made the ADRs that needed to be made but there was still a tour missing. After the CM tells us someone will call our room later and let us know what happened we head for the room. We get to the room expecting to throw our stuff down onto our King size bed…but when we open the door we find 2 double beds. DF asks if I want to go back to the front desk… I say after the way this day has gone so far let’s just be happy we have beds. We take a look around the room and it’s the normal value resort. After freshening up a little bit we head out for Downtown Disney!

We arrive at Downtown Disney on the West side and take a look around. DF was really excited about the magic shop because on our last trip they were doing all sorts of demonstrations. This time there were no demonstrations though, so we decided to head over to Planet Hollywood for our dinner. We got there at 5:30 and beat the crowds. DF had a burger and I had a chicken sandwich. Both were delicious especially since we hadn’t had any lunch. Then off for more shopping. We made sure to hit the Lego Store then the World of Disney. DF had been dying to do the make-your-own light saber thing. After he had all the pieces gathered up and semi-assembled he had to ask a CM for help to get it all the way together. It was a little crowded and confusing but he was so happy once it was all built. A really great deal for $19.95. Then we both headed over to the Potato Head parts and each filled a box. Of course we packed the box until it was about to bust. After having tons of fun picking out various Disney parts for our Potato Heads we decided to head over to the Disney Christmas Store. It was so crowded we could barely move. Next we went to Goofy’s Candy Company for the first time. After reading about all the snacks here on the Dis there’s no way we could resist! I just had to make my own pretzel rods after hearing about how good they were. I decided to go for them dipped in milk chocolate with Butterfinger coating and caramel drizzle. DF got a gingerbread man covered in dark chocolate with caramel drizzle. Once we had a great sugar buzz we decided to head back to the resort to get rest for our big day at Magic Kingdom.

 

[Namsupak]

On Sunday December 17th we got up and headed over to the Contemporary for a fun breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. We made our ADRs for 10:30 so we would miss the crowd. It was our first character breakfast and we had a blast! The mickey waffles were delicious and the characters made it so much fun. There weren’t that many people so we got to take pics with all the characters in no time at all. Then it was time to make our way to the Magic Kingdom.

This is what happens when dogs aren't on a leash


We couldn’t wait to try out the Photopass. We saw a photopass CM and got in line. During the whole trip we found that you never had to wait to get a photopass pic for more than a couple min. A lot of the time they were just standing around waiting for someone to ask for a picture. As you’ll find out we made good use of the photopass. One thing we wish we would have done is ask for them to take a pic with a different view than the usual. We did that once in MGM and got a pic in front of Villains in Vogue. It turned out really cute.

One of our first photopass pics. Unfortunately they still had the crane up. Luckilly for us they took it down that day.

We headed over to Tomorrowland and rode the Buzz Lightyear ride. It was so much fun. I even beat DF’s score…of course that’s because he was taking pics. After we got off the ride we saw Buzz was in front of the carousel of progress. DF absolutely loves Toy Story so of course we had to get a pic with him. Another great thing about the photopass was that they were with almost all the characters so DF and I could be in the pics together and they looked great. After buzz we went and met Scrooge McDuck.

We basically spent the day making our way to as many of the rides as we could. Luckily for us we hit the rides at the right time and never had to wait in lines very long. The longest wait was 40 min for Big Thunder Mountain. We of course met tons more characters throughout the day.

My new friends Chip and Dale and Daisy. We met them at Mickey's Toontown.

At 8:30 we had reservations for Cinderella’s Royal Table. While waiting for our table we got our pic taken with Cinderella. She was so pretty! We had requested a seat next to the windows and they delivered. Our waiter was so much fun. He had tons of jokes…even if they were corny he definitely was amusing. While we were eating they dimmed the lights so we could watch Wishes. It was extra spectacular because we were right under them and so close. They even piped in the music. After the fireworks DF and I were getting ready to leave when we heard some fun music start playing. We had totally forgotten that it was a character dinner! So we sat back down and got to meet Cinderella’s mice. Unfortunately not Gus…. He was always my favorite. We even got to meet the Fairy Godmother.

Here's our great seats at Cinderella's Royal Table.

That night it was EMH at Magic Kingdom so we got our wristbands and did the most logical thing one can do after dinner. Headed straight for the Teacups. I had no idea that the cup could spin that fast but DF made sure it spun as fast as possible. Thank goodness we still have strong stomachs. Before heading out that night we decided to check out the Tiki Birds because we wanted to see exactly what it was like. We were not expecting it to be as crazy as it was. I don’t think we’ll be seeing that again. Between the lights and extreme volume of the speakers it definitely ended our night. We headed back to the room and crashed.

 

[Becky521]

We were at MK the same day!

What a fun idea to go to WDW to plan your wedding. I guess I did the wedding thing all wrong We did honeymoon there, though.

We had a great trip that week - hope you did too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[swild19]

My husband and I were at Magic Kingdom that day too!!

 

[mlill]

I'm loving your report so far! You two are such a cute couple! Congratulations on your upcoming Disney wedding! I can't wait to read about the wedding planning part of your trip. We are thinking of doing a vow renewal in a couple of years, so I'm very interested in getting some tips!

I just love the picture of you and Pluto - that's too funny! You had an awesome table at Cinderella's! We sat there years ago and saw the fireworks. It's really cool! How did you like the food there? We haven't been back since the change a year or so ago.

I'm really looking forward to reading more!

-Michelle

 

[Cinderella16]

What a cute couple! I love your TR and all your pictures, they turned out great! Congrats on your upcoming wedding! That sounds like so much fun to plan! Cant wait to hear more!

 

[Namsupak]

Becky521 and swild19 - That's so funny. I knew there had to be some Disser's at MK that day cause it seemed like everyone in the world was there. Last time we went was in early March and it was pretty dead so that day was a big shock for us!

Mlill- Thanks so much. DF tried to work on his smile toward the end of the trip. The pics turned out best when I tickled his side to get him to laugh. The seats at Cinderella's castle were amazing and I was so excited that we saw the fireworks so close. No matter how old I get I can never get enough fireworks. The food was pretty good. It wasn't spectacular and of course the best part of the meal was dessert. I had salmon w/ risotto and didn't really care for the risotto. The salmon was cooked very well though but it was nothing compared to the salmon I had on day 7.

Cinderella16- I remember seeing your sig on the wedding boards I think. They're so cute. We were so happy with how our pics turned out. The digital and photopass pics are almost the same quality so we were so excited.

 

[Namsupak]

Day 3
Monday December 18th

We got up and headed straight for Epcot. We went to ride soarin and it was so neat. The scents were so real and it really felt like we were flying. We also went to check out Turtle Talk with Crush. It was fun to hear Crush interacting with the audience. After crush it was off to Guest Services where we would meet our tour guide for Seas Aqua Tour! We met out front and got to go backstage and see the tank’s filtration system. DF and I are huge saltwater tank fans. We have 4 tanks at home, the biggest one being 90 gal, so this was one of the most exciting things for us. It was even better because most of the people that signed up didn’t come. There ended up being only 3 of us on the tour. So it was like we had the whole tank to ourselves! We got a brief tour of the aquarium backstage and then got trained on how to use our equipment. Then we got to spend 30 min swimming in the tank. One of the sea turtles even decided he wanted to be my friend and kept brushing me with his flipper. Apparently I’m pretty attractive in the turtle world because he just kept swimming with me.

DF and I in our wetsuits. We had to walk out on the observation deck to get backstage from the locker room. It was a little embarassing.

There was even a photopass cm outside the living seas for this cute pic.

After that we went and rode the new Nemo ride. It was fun and relaxing. After seeing some more sights we went to dinner at the Coral Reef. While we were there we saw some people trying to get a table for dinner and they were told there were no more seats. Thank goodness we made ADRs for every thing we wanted to do! While we were eating we saw our tour guide from earlier diving in the tank. He shined his flashlight on us and tried to get everyone to congratulate us on our engagement but the waitress didn’t really get it. The one thing that really stands out in my mind was the crab claws. They were so delicious.

Here's us at the Coral Reef Restaraunt.

Then we went to get in line for the Candlelight Processional. Even though we had the dinner package the line had already started at 7 for the 8:15 show. Maybe I haven’t mentioned this yet but DF loves to make new friends in line. Now I enjoy this too but I’m not as good at it as DF is. We met a really nice family from Georgia. On hearing they were from Georgia DF proceeds to tell them “Yeah she had everything planned out for our trip months ago. It was like an attack on the Magic Kingdom. More planning goes into a trip to Disney than the battle of Antietam.” I’m not sure they found it amusing but at least he makes me laugh.

That night Neil Patrick Harris was the narrator. He was awesome! I’m such a big NPH fan. The choir was so good it was such a good show. It really put us in the Christmas spirit. After it was all over we took lots of more pics and made our way out of the park.

I loved the way these lights looked in the background! There were so many great photopass opportunities.

 

[swild19]

Where's the rest???

 

[Namsupak]

Sorry it took me so long to get this up, but there are tons of pics so hopefully it was worth the wait. I just got swamped at school with patients and my research project. I'll try to get Day 5 up tomorrow.


Day 4: December 19th

We decided we were actually going to try breakfast at the food court this morning. What the heck were we thinking?!? It was packed to the max. Luckily we grabbed up a table as a family was getting up from one. After wiping all the stickyness off the table we filled out tummies with pancakes and eggs. We then headed for our favorite park… Epcot, which was
having morning EMH that day.

Once we got there we of course stopped for a photo.

We ran and got a FP for Test Track. We had a little while so we went to check out Innoventions. Even though it’s geared towards little kids there was tons of little things to check out for us. Since we were both biology majors in undergrad we had to check out all the scientific stuff they have.

This helmet crash test was so loud... but so much fun at the same time!

We sent our free e-postcards to all of our family. I love how we used so many of the little tidbits we found here on the Dis. It made our trip so much more fun! We even had time to check out The Wonders of Life pavilion.

So we got our pic with the DNA which is one of our required pics. We even had time to do Body Wars because there was no wait. It was extra fun because we had the cutest little British boy behind us who kept commenting on the ride. At one point he said “Dad did you see the size of that splinter”. Someday we hope to have cute little kids like that… unfortunately without the British accent.

Finally time for Test Track! Now this was the first time I got to ride after 3 trips. The first time I went the year it opened and some little girl wondered off and got lost on the ride somehow… so they shut it down to look for her. The second time it was closed during our whole trip. So finally I would get to ride it… and it was a blast! Just wish it had lasted longer.

Then we went to the Cool Station and tried all sorts of Coke. It was really neat because I’ve been to the coke factory in Atlanta and they had different flavors here at epcot. Although we weren’t planning on it we walked by Mission Space and the line was only 20 min so we thought what the heck and got in line. We of course went on the more intense version. I knew I would have no problem with the intensity but then we got assigned our ranks. Now I am an extremely anxious person… the type that walks into a room and tries not to be noticed… so this made me nervous that I was now “responsible” for our mission. I tried to relax and remember that this was Disney for goodness sakes. The ride couldn’t be solely in my hands. Luckily once I got into the ride they said they would tell me when to push my button. Whew! Danger averted. I wouldn’t be failing any missions this time.

So by now it’s about 11:20. Yeah we did all that since 8:30. I was shocked too! We had somewhere to be at 1:30… remember this because it will come into play later.

Now I’m a bear if I don’t get fed all the time… so we decided to have lunch. The UK wasn’t far from where we were so after hearing so many great things about the fish and chips we went there. On the way we saw Lumberjack Santa in Canada giving his Christmas time speech.

It was 70 outside and here this poor man is in flannel. So we watched for a few minutes. It was really cute. We finally made our way to the fish and chips stand around 11:40. There was already a line but only about 10 people long. Unfortunately tables were scarce…so when we saw one free up in the garden across from the stand I ran and staked our claim.

About 12:05 James finally came with our meal and it was delicious. NOte how long the line is now and it was even longer after we got done eating. We both love fish and chips and of course the tons of vinegar you are required to eat it with.

So at 12:30 we begin making our way to the monorail. We are fast walkers and got to the monorail at about 12:40 right as the train was leaving. It felt like forever until the next one came. Now here’s why it was important to be on time for our 1:30 appointment. At that time we were going to meet with our wedding sales manager for our site visit. We hate being late and I definitely didn’t want to be late for this. We’ve been together for 6 years and engaged for 2 of those years so I don’t want to lose any time planning our perfect day. Neither of us had ever been to the GF much less to Franck’s bridal studio. By the time we pulled into the Grand Floridian it was 1:23. We only had 7 min before we were officially late! Well we got off the monorail to learn that it drops you off to the inside of the GF. After finding our way through the tons of people there to see the tree and gingerbread house we made it to the outside. Thank goodness but we only had 1 or 2 min to find Franck’s. Walking extremely briskly we opened the door at exactly 1:30.

We finally got to meet Pam our sales manager. She was super sweet. Now for any of you thinking about a Disney Wedding or vow renewal here’s what we did. She brought us into her office and discussed with us how many guests we wanted and what was important to us. She asked us about locations we were considering and what our budget was. We explained to her that we are all about fun. The only important flowers to me are the ones for my bouquet. When we told her we wanted our reception at the Living Seas she said “Let’s go take a look.” We got to go backstage and use that entrance. We took a look around and it was exactly what we wanted.

It’s so beautiful! After taking tons of pics we went back to Franck’s. Pam brought us a book of different photographers work and let us look through. We found a pic with scuba mickey at a Living Seas Reception. We of course decided that we must have him there since we were in that tank the day before. It would mean so much more to us now. Pam then brought us a book of cakes. Now what I’m about to say will probably shock many women and even cause some to have mild heart attacks, but we had to inform Pam that we don’t want a wedding cake. It’s one of those things that’s pretty to look at but it costs a fortune to have something that pretty. So instead we want a little dessert table with a sugar sculpture. In the middle of the sugar sculpture we are getting a cake topper made that looks like us. We aren’t sure how much it will cost but we want a simple one so hopefully not that much. Pam didn’t seem shocked at all. After answering a few more questions about what style of wedding we wanted our site visit was over. All the big planning stuff will be done later once we sign our contract and are assigned to a wedding planner.

We took a look around the GF. They even had a photopass CM for the tree and one for the gingerbread house.

We then went back to epcot and took a look around. We met Belle in France.

Then we made our way to Japan. The site of our wedding ceremony!

Our ceremony will be on the bridge and our guests will be in front of the koi pond.

We took a couple more pics as we exited.
DF got this awesome action shot of the fountain to the music.

Then we went to MK to grab the boat to Fort Wilderness for the Hoop Dee Doo Review. We made reservations for the latest showing so we would have plenty of time at Epcot. We made our reservations so early that we got seats right at the stage.

Our table was actually touching it! It was so much fun. One of the characters said I was checking out his rear and another character flirted with my DF until her husband made her stop. After that we headed home for some much needed rest!

 

[deide71]

What a fun trippie! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Namsupak]

Day 5: December 20th

We woke up early and headed to the buses so we could make it to epcot by 8:30. Today we were going on the Around the World Segway Tour. This is one of the tours that caused all the confusion in the beginning of our trip. Apparently there are multiple segway tours that are different. We finally got it reserved and unfortunately the only time they had left was the one for 8:30
AM. DF is really into technology so this was what he was looking forward to the most. We got to guest relations and were escorted over to Innoventions. We started off with a short video and demo by our instructor. Then we got to head out to the obstacle course and pick out our segway. Of course they had to lower the handle bar for me since I’m only 5’2”. It was a little rough at first. DF handled it much better than I did but after going forward and backwards a few times I got the hang of it. A little advice…when the instructor says do not go backwards…he means it. Some guy on our tour didn’t listen and fell off. After we all were pretty comfortable with the segways it was off to the world showcase. If you ever get a chance to take a tour of the world showcase before it opens I highly recommend it! It was beautiful… absolutely stunning. We went to each country and learned a little bit about it. We even took a break in the middle to take some pics.

I know it looks like I'm falling over but really I'm just turning. It was so neat!

We finished up about 11:30 and headed off for our day at MGM. We got the obligatory entrance photos.

Then we headed to the Rockin Roller Coaster to get our fastpasses. They even had a photopass CM in front of the guitar.

While waiting for our return time we grabbed a snack. It was at the little sandwich place near Rockin Roller Coaster. I got a chicken sandwich with pesto and it was delicious. The meal plan was one of the best decisions we made! We went and rode the Rockin Roller Coaster which was just as much fun as we remembered. We ran over and got fastpasses for Tower of Terror then we went to Sounds Dangerous. This was not as good as we expected. I think it would be more fun for kids.

Then it was time for our meal at 50’s Prime Time Café. Now I had been looking forward to this forever! I had heard such good things about it and had wanted to go last trip but we didn’t have time.

DF watching one of the many televisions.

We got seated at a table for 2 between 2 tables for 4. Normally I would be fine with this… but this time there was a little restless kid sitting next to me. I love kids and have worked with them for years. In fact I’ve had multiple pedo patients in my dental chair giving them shots and I’ve never encountered a kid as bad as this one. Now we were all on one long booth and as soon as I sat down he started kicking the booth and throwing himself around. He looked like he was maybe 5 or 6. Now that I could handle… kids get restless and try to show off sometimes but what happened next really irked me. He hauled off and kicked me in my hip! Then wiped his shoes all over the sleeve of my hoody. All of this I would have even been ok with… except his mother saw the whole thing and didn’t say anything! If she would have made him apologize or even if she would have apologized it wouldn’t have upset me so bad. But my goodness how can you watch your child kick someone and not even apologize?!? What made it an even worse experience was that this kid and his brother had stressed our waitress out so much she didn’t even want to come wait on us. I heard other waitresses playing with their tables and having fun but ours took our order and left… she didn’t even bring out the food and we didn’t see her again until it was check time. So my meal that I had been looking forward to for months was pretty much ruined. On the other side however there were 2 children about the same age who were angels. I’ve never seen kids so good and polite. After the loud kids left we started talking to the other family near us since we could hear again. We told them what extremely well-behaved kids they had and they must be really good parents. I had to resist my urge to be like “Are you all Dissers?” I resisted the urge the whole trip because I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I would get.

We left the Prime Time and ran back over to Sounds Dangerous to wait in front for Lightening and Mater from Cars. It was so neat to see them, but we couldn’t get through all the people wanting to take pics. So this is as good as we got.

After seeing them we headed over to Tower of Terror. Of course a blast as always. I couldn’t believe I was the only person to scream on the ride. I can’t help it whenever it would open and drop I had to scream. It gave everyone a good chuckle at least.

We walked around a little more and did some shopping. Then we ran over to the Great Movie Ride where I found my namesake’s handprints.

After that it was time for our meal at Mama Melrose’s where we had the Fantasmic Dinner Package. The food was so good. I got a pizza and it was really good. Everything was delicious. As we left we saw a green army man! It was really neat to watch him walk.

We then went and did The Chronicles of Narnia which was not very fun. They basically played a preview of the movie and you were standing in with some trees and the snow on a set. Then you walked out. It was disappointing that we waited 20 min for it.

As we walked over to Fantasmic we decided to take more pics. We were sick of the same ones so we decided to ask the photopass cm if we could take one in front of some stores or something. Apparently there are certain things that aren’t allowed in the pics so she told us we could try but it might not end up on our pass. So we got one taken in front of villains in vogue.

Then we went to sit and wait for Fantasmic to start. While waiting we decided let’s call and see how the house is. Now here’s some more background. His family owns some businesses in WV. His parents run the one’s in Charleston and we run the one in Morgantown. His 19 yo sister lives with us because she’s going to WVU. While we were on vacation his mom came and stayed with his sister to watch the business. So we call them to see how everything is going… only to find out that our hot tub has leaked in the new sunroom and they had to drain it. Now they are like 2 kids staying in our house so they couldn’t explain where the leak was coming from or how much it leaked. They didn’t even know if they had shut the electric off! Luckily DF’s friend had come by for dinner that night and so we knew that he had taken care of everything. We decided it wouldn’t do us any good to worry about it because there was nothing we could do until we got home. So by now the show was starting and we relaxed and watched. It was so neat. I’m really glad we did the package because we got to go in pretty late and get great seats. It was such a neat show with all the lights and stuff. After the show we ran over to The Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights. It was so amazing and they even had it snowing! It really put us in the Christmas spirit. And of course we got our pic taken by the photopass cm.

It was around 8:05 and MGM was closed. I kind of wanted to go back to the hotel and rest because we had just had 5 very full days. However DF wanted to go to Animal Kingdom because they were having EMH that night so they weren’t closing until 10 pm. We walked right in and got our wristbands. We decided to check out the wait for Everest and to our surprise it was only 20 min! We couldn’t believe it because we had heard the horror stories about 90 min waits. It wasn’t even the full 20 min by the time we got on the ride. It was so much fun that we got right back in line afterwards and rode again. We couldn’t believe our luck. Riding Everest twice in about 45 minutes. Then we headed over to Primeval Whirl. We’d never been on that either. As we went through the entrance it was very trippy like an old carnival. It was so much fun though that we rode it a second time too. Then we headed over to Dinosaur and rode it. Just as we got done the park closed so we made our way to the buses. Back to Pop Century to get some sleep.