Disney, a wedding, & DVC. . . OH MY!

[littleaussie]

Greetings fellow Disney addicts! I was not sure about the appropriate place to put my trip adventures, as it has several parts. I will probably cross-reference the various areas into the appropriate areas as needed.

To begin this adventure, I must report with the players:

Myself - 36, Disney addict. I have been going to WDW area since I was a baby. It never grows old for me.

SO - who became my DH on this trip - 37, self-employed workaholic. Before meeting me, DH has never traveled. We have been together 2 years and this is the 3rd Florida trip for him, not bad huh? I'm sure Disney reps would be impressed with my selling skills.

DD10 - My daughter from a previous marriage. She is a Disney expert and has several trips under her belt.

DD7 - My daughter from the previous marriage. She does not have as many trips as DD10, but that is only because she is 3 years younger

Other supporting players include: My parents - mid 60s, the ones who truly started me on this terrible Disney addiction. They are not hard-core like me, but they started it! They have an off-site time share, which we stayed at this time - more on that later; niece8 & nephew10 - my sister could not come on this trip but my parents offered to take the grandkids; niece17 and her friend17 - a Senior trip for these 2 girls. Friend17 has never been.

The Agenda: Our original plan (organized by yours truly) was:
Sept 17th - fly in, arrive like ghosts in the night
Sept 18th - Magic Kingdom
Sept 19th - DH and I eloping to the Gulf Coast for a beach wedding
Sept 20th - Disney Hollywood Studios
Sept 21st - MNSSHP
Sept 22nd - Shopping
Sept 23rd - transfer to Hard Rock Hotel and have a 2 day P2P pass for Universal
Sept 24th - Morning Universal, fly out afternoon.

Even the best laid plans get waylaid by life events. . . a murder you say? Stay tuned for more on this special broadcast of: <insert clever wording here>

Until next time, I leave you with a photo of us last summer:

 

[littleaussie]

Table of Contents:

Preplanning
Departure Day
Our First Night - What the Heck is that???
Day 2 - A Magical memory of rain
Day 3 - Wedding Preparation!
Day 3 - Ceremony
Day 4 - DHS & DVC tour
Day 5 - Magic Kingdom and DVC

 

[appleorchard]

Sounds like fun!

 

[missx0xdelaney]

I'm intrigued! Sounds like a fun and eventful trip!

 

[luckylady]

Sounds good to me.Can't wait to hear about the wedding. Congrats on that.

 

[littleaussie]

Thank you everyone!

All good trips have a detailed plan, right?

My parents approached me about 6 weeks before we left with an offer: they had 2 weeks of their time share that was up and coming and suggested we book 2 condos for 1 week to use it up. Their time share was at Oak Plantation Resort.

The grounds and pool area of the resort are very nice. I especially like the peacocks that roam the grounds.

The rooms, well. . . they leave a little to be desired. More on that later.

We decided it would be a great last minute trip to take. I found a steal of a deal on airfare with Allegiant out of our local airport to SFB. Alamo was much, much too expensive for a full sized car but I went on hotwire one day to compare and found another great deal for a car rental. $150+ for a week. I was awarded Hertz, not bad out of SFB, I thought.

Everything was organized. I bought Universal tickets from UT. Usually I buy Disney tickets in advance too but this time, for some reason, I didn't. This served me well later when our plans went awry!

DH approaches me 3 weeks before we leave and casually suggests we get married while we are down there. We had been talking about going to the courthouse for ages, but this sounded more fun! Our parents had been pushing us to get married in a big wedding but we both have done that before and wanted something more meaningful. We decided to elope, neither set of parents knew our plans.

I contacted a wedding planning company based in Florida and they set us up. I went to David's bridal 9 days before we were set to leave to see if I could find a dress. The dress I wanted, was 1 size too small. So I ordered it and hoped it would rush deliver before we left. Here's the link to the one I liked:

http://www.davidsbridal.com/Product...Detail-SPK472_Bridal-Gowns-Features-All-Gowns

It may sound very unorganized and stressful to plan something big this way. But when it comes to Disney trips, I usually plan 6-8 weeks out. I like the last minute chaos, it helps time go fast. So when we decided to get married, I researched until I found a company who would take us on last minute. But if I hadn't found a company that was available, I knew both of us would've been ok with getting married at the courthouse in Kissimmee. It was something different, better than getting married at the courthouse in FarmTown, USA. Same with the dress, I ordered it with the knowledge that if it didn't arrive in time, I could return it (and I had a backup idea in case I didn't have a dress) Did it arrive in time? We shall see. . .

 

[luckylady]

Holding my breath to see if dress came in on time.

 

[missx0xdelaney]

Holding my breath to see if dress came in on time.

Me too! It's beautiful, I hope it worked out!

 

[littleaussie]

The day we were waiting for finally came. Kids went to school, adults went to work. Yours truly dutifully got off work and packed the kids' suitcases and the wedding dress that actually came before we left in the adult suitcase. I received a call about 1 hour before we were set to leave from DH. "Could you pack my stuff too? I am running late."

To be a good future wife, I packed his stuff too. Checked and double-checked everything and came to realize the Universal Tickets are no where to be found!!! I searched high and low and tore apart the cleaned house looking but never did discover their hiding place. Due to taking so much time to search, I ended up throwing a bunch of DH's clothes up in the air and catching them in the suitcase. Well that's what you get for asking me to pack for you!

**About a week after we returned, I found the tickets in my girls' school portrait package envelopes. Don't ask me how they got there!

We drove the 2 hours to the airport, just in time to check in and hear final boarding call for our flight

Made it on the plane just in time and realized because we were not early, Allegiant gave our paid for seat assignments to someone else. We had to sit wherever. Can't really blame Allegiant for that one, although I have to point out that the flight that arrived to our town had arrived 45 minutes early. Hence, Allegiant decided our flight returning to Florida would leave early too. Great. . .

Arrived into Sanford around 10:45 p.m., checked into Hertz and got our car. It took about 1 hour to drive to Oak Plantation Resort. But our fun had just begun and we would not get to sleep for 3 more hours because. . .To be Continued.

 

[angelbear425]

I just subscribed to this thread. I am so anxious and curious to see what happens.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Hi joining in. The dress you ordered is so beautiful. Can't wait to read along and see how this all unfolds.

 

[luckylady]

Because.. beacuse...you left me hanging in the air! OKay I will wait until you post again. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the resort.

 

[littleaussie]

So we arrived at Oak plantation just before Midnight. After we unloaded 3,000 pieces of luggage into our 2 condos, my dad and I decided to do what normal people do at Midnight: shop at Wal-mart! DH was exhausted, so he stayed with my girls. Dad and I had our own adventure at Wal-mart, stocking up for an early departure to MK the next morning.:

While we were gone my mom called. . . 6 times! Houston, we seem to have a problem with our rooms! It seems we were not the first occupants of the rooms. Others were there before us:

Dad and I quick checked out and blew off the man in the parking lot who said he was not a free-loader or asking for money but could we just give him $17 for his car repair to add to the $50 he already had??? We get back to the condos and meet an irate DH and an irate mom. So back to the front desk to get another set of rooms.

Now I don't know about you guys but I have never seen a roach before. They would not last well in our cold ND winters. They were the size of small mice, I kid you not! Our condo was upstairs so we only had a few but my parents had them EVERYWHERE!!!

So gross!!! I freaked out and panicked about our luggage being infected.

They had told us at check-in that our rooms in the 1600 building were the only 2-bedrooms that were side by side (available). All the others were full. Guess what? Magically, 2 more 2-bedrooms in another building appeared after our roach problem!!! I am amazed by magic tricks, like this one.

I am happy to report that we did not have roaches in the second set of rooms. The layout of the rooms was the master bed/bath on one side, the living area/kitchen in the middle and the 2nd bedroom with 2 queens on the other side:

It was probably close to 3 a.m. when we got everything moved and unpacked the groceries and went to bed. Unfortunately, we opted not to do the MK the next day, thanks to Mr. Roach and his buddies. But, we had an unexpected pre-wedding memory, that will stay with us forever, that happened the next day. . .

 

[Aulika]

I want to know the rest of the story.

 

[ShortStuff]

Wow, you had a whirlwind trip arrangement and a whirlwind wedding to plan! I am truly impressed!!! Your girls are gorgeous!! I am so happy your gown arrived in time. It is so beautiful!!

Boo to the roaches!!

Looking forward to more of your adventures!!

 

[Deemarch]

Great report! Waiting for more!!

And CONGRATULATIONS!!

 

[missx0xdelaney]

Love the report so far. Ick to the roaches though! :/ Can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

More please more! Great start so far.

 

[VowRenewal13]

Stumbled over your thread. Cannot wait to read more!!

 

[littleaussie]

Thank you everyone! I am awed and humbled that you would respond to my trip report. The best is yet to come though.

So Tuesday morning we woke up late. We decided to do what normal people do who wake up late: go to Wal-mart again! The clientele is markedly different at 11 a.m. as opposed to 1 a.m.

We came back and decided to take the girls swimming, since we didn't go to the Magic Kingdom. The sky was looking overcast but since we had bathing suits, it didn't matter. I must say, despite the subpar rooms, Oak Plantation has a beautifully landscaped pool, a lovely lake to walk around and the grounds were meticulous:

Although some people don't like them, there are cats that reside in the area. We found a cute kitten who would come to our door almost every morning to have breakfast with us. He even came inside and made himself at home.

Then there are the resident ducks and peacocks. They appreciated our stale bread:

DH and I decided that we would apply for our wedding license that afternoon instead of the next morning when we had it planned. We left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa at the pool and headed over to the courthouse in Kissimmee.

It began to rain, just as we pulled into a parking spot. Very Hard. We got drenched in the walk to the courthouse steps. Once inside, we found the floor for marriage licenses. The procedure is very simple for obtaining a license in Florida. The worker who took our application said we could get married right then and there if we wanted to. We looked at each other, with our hair dripping and wet tank tops and flip flops and almost said yes. But then we realized we had our beach wedding organized, couldn't pass it up. It was a special memory for us, thinking how we could've tied the knot looking like drowned rats with maybe a blurry cell phone picture or two as a witness!

We ended the day with a few beers in the hot tub. DH opened his mouth (maybe it was the alcohol that opened his mouth?) and invited niece17 and friend17 with us the next day . OK no one is supposed to know but whatever. . .

Side Note: It continued to rain most of the afternoon, quite hard. I realize it might not have been raining in the MK much but it did make me feel better that our plans were changed.

Our next installment: Wedding Day! Did my parents find out? Did the makeup/hair artist that was scheduled to come bump into my parents? Did it rain the whole day, as the forecast was 80% showers on and off for the Gulf coast? Or maybe we didn't find the perfect beach?

Coming soon to a trip report near you. . .