Disneymoon 10/8-10/18 w/pics *UPDATED 2/7* Days 10 and 11 - Final day!!!

[Stallion]

This is my first attempt at a trip report, so please bear with me! We booked a 10 night stay at the Beach Club.

Day - 1 - 10/08/06

My wife and I got married 10/7 in New Jersey and were flying out of Newark at 2pm the following day. We got to the airport and were sent to three different security gates before finally getting to our gate. We left about a half an hour later but the flight was smooth and uneventful(I HATE flying) and we landed early around 4:30. I was worried that the plane would clog my ears like it normally does, but fortunatly that didn't happen. On the way to baggage claim, Happy Limo called to check our status(I thought a limo would be a great start for the honeymoon.) I told her we arrived at baggage claim and were waiting for our luggage. And waiting. And waiting.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Newark forgot to load 3 carts of luggage and they will be on the next flight which should arrive in a half an hour."

Wonderful. I call Happy Limo to tell them our situation and she tells me that if I intend to keep the limo, she has to start charging me $1 for every minute until we call back. I tell her to let me check with the wife. Well as soon as I start explaining everything, she(Tracy) immediately gets angry and I have to walk away so the woman on the phone doesn't hear what she has to say. I remember going "Oh my God she's mad." I hang up and try to calm the wife down and tell her it's ok. I call the Happy Limo woman and tell her that it's ok, I want to keep the limo, so start charging me. She said she'll waive the charge if we tip the driver well. She gives me the drivers number to call when we finally get our stuff.

We eventually take a seat on the ground along with several other angry people and try to calm down. So far it's not a great start to the honeymoon, but we've got 10 days! The next plane finally arrives and our luggage shows up and I call the driver and he meets us right out front.

The limo was amazing. I haven't ridden in many limos before but this one was just awesome. He had Finding Nemo in the DVD player for us

We were finally on our way to the World and start our Disneymoon!

Traffic was pretty rough but we didn't mind, we were finally relaxing and watching Nemo. We had an 8pm ADR for Portobello Yacht Club so we figured we'd just be able to make it. I tried to take a picture of the Welcome to DisneyWorld sign, but at my angle and lighting it didn't really turn out.

Next: Day 1 part 2

 

[T-i-double-g-err]

DW Speaking:

I can't wait to read this one. T-i- and I are leaving in a few weeks for our anniversary trip. It should be fun to read an "adult" TR before going.

 

[happybratpack]

Great start, I can't wait to read all about it!

 

[Stallion]

Day 1 - Part 2

We arrived at the Beach Club shortly after 6. I tipped the driver $35 and we were on our way to check in! This is were things turned sour once again.

There was no line so we went right up to the desk and greeted by a cheery CM. I gave her my name and she saw it was our honeymoon and congratulated us and gave us cool "Just Married" pins.

She looked at the computer for a minute and then said she'd be right back. At first I'm thinking she has to tell the people to put the stuff I ordered from Disney Florist. A balloon with chocolate, half a dozen roses and two bags of rose pedals. 5 minutes later she returns and says that they're offering a free one night stay at the Contemporary. We look at each other and mull it over and decide it would be easier to stay at just one resort, so we decline.

"Just give me another minute."

And she's gone again. My smile is slowing going away. We have no idea what is happening. 5 minutes later she returns again.

"If you don't take the Contemporary offer, you'll be in a double on the first floor with no option to change rooms."

"Are you overbooked?" I asked.

"We're encouraging our guests to stay at the Contempory. But when you come back tomorrow, you'll have a king room on the concierge for the entire rest of your stay."
We agree(reluctantly) to the offer. We basically had to, we didn't want to spend our honeymoon crammed into a double bed.

"So, how do we get there?" I ask.
"Give me another minute." And she's gone AGAIN. But this time not for long. She comes back to say that they've arranged for transportation free of charge to the Contemporary.

"So how do we get back here?
"You can use Disney transportation and have your luggage sent over." We weren't really thrilled with that because we had our dress clothes packed away and we had Victoria and Alberts chefs table the next night.

So we get bell services(the first of many tips for luggage). The car is right out front and the nice girl drives us over. We're a little down at this point but at the same time we're a little excited because our first park is Magic Kingdom and we can take the monorail for the opening.

We give our luggage to the bellman and go to check-in and wait. The line wasn't long, just slow. We finally get to desk and tell the girl our situation. She leaves. Where do these people go?? She comes back and tells us we have a king room for the night on the 11th floor. Then she holds up a calculator.
"This is the difference you'll have to pay."
"What? I have to pay? We were told it was free."
She's gone again. A few minutes later she comes back and says everything is taken care of. At this point we realize that we're going to miss our 8pm dinner, so I walk over to guest services and request a later time.
She prints our room keys and Tracy gets her new name on it. We go upstairs to check out the room and it's really nice.
And we get a surprise, a congratulations card from Mickey and Minnie with balloons!

I realize that the card says "Stephens" but that's ok

We call our parents and let them know we're ok and give them a rundown of the hotel debacle. We get changed and head out to the bus stop to wait for a bus to Downtown Disney. Seemed like forever but it finally showed up and we head to downtown. I had months to memorize all the maps but when we showed up, I went the wrong way and had to take the long way to Portobello. We check in and no more than 10 minutes go by and get seated. We were finally able to relax again and spent the dinner reminiscing about the wedding and all that had happened the day before. It hadn't yet sunk in that we were in Disney, but we knew that would change.
The food is very good, we went last year and loved it so we decided to go back. We had to pay OOP for this one, but that's ok. We started with a calamari appetizer which was a little bland. Tracy ordered the Farfalle with Chicken and I had the Frutti de Mare, which were both very good. I highly recommend the Frutti de Mare if you like pasta and seafood together. We passed on dessert because we were both really full.
After dinner we walk to the World of Disney store and buy are bride and groom ears. (The hat is cheaper than the bride ears) We see another honeymoon couple doing the same thing, but we didn't talk. This was the first of MANY Disneymooners we saw during our trip. We head back the bus stop and arrive back at the Contemporary late. I took this picture of Chef Mickey's that I think's pretty cool.

I had trouble all trip taking pictures at night and in the dark but this one showed up pretty good.

At the room, I received a message from the Beach Club, asking if they wanted to bring over my gifts for Tracy. I had completely forgot about them! By this time it was too late so I called and said don't worry about it. We'll be back at the BC tomorrow. I arranged a wake up call for 7am and we fell asleep.

Up next, Day 2 - more hotel problems.

 

[Julieh22]

Loving your story!

 

[meloneyb21]

Love it! Can't wait for more .

 

[IkeandMike]

Congratulations!!!!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[happybratpack]

Great pics! What's up w/ the Contemporary night?! I hadn't heard anything about that.

 

[mlill]

First of all, Congratulations! Nothing better than a Disneymoon! Sorry you had trouble with the BC on your first night. Did you like the Contemporary at all? We just stayed there for a week and thought it was great! Looking foward to reading more...

-Michelle

P.S. How was your dinner at Portobello? We've never been there...

 

[Mouse511]

Congratulations! Can't wait to hear more

 

[dixiedizfan]

Congrats and thanks; so far you're doing great. Love the pictures ... don't forget to give food reviews, too!

 

[BlakeNJ]

This is a great trip report! I hope to hear everything turns out ok with the hotel...

 

[Lauralee131]

You ARE going to throw us all a bone at some point and sneak in a wedding picture, right???

Looking forward to reading more...sorry about your hotel problems so far...that's discouraging, but at least you guys are at Disney! Great choice for a honeymoon!!

 

[Stallion]

Day 2 - 10/9

I wake up bright and early, around 6:30am. At this point I get excited and realize that we're in Disney! I didn't wake the wife, waited for the wake up call and was surprised to hear Mickey and Stitch! This of course woke Tracy up and I told her we had to get up, we're in Disney!! I felt like a kid again. Since we didn't unpack, we showered and picked out our outfits for the day and called bell services to store our luggage. Here are some morning shots from the room.

We put on our pins and bride and groom ears and made our way to the monorail.

On the way down, I question whether or not our park tickets are on the cards. So we head down to guest services and I explain our situation and the CM says that everything is on the card, not to worry. I should have had him check, but I took his word for it.
We board the monorail and take a trip around Seven Seas Lagoon before ending up at the Magic Kingdom about 20 minutes before it opened. We walk to the turnstiles and place the card in and it kicks out immediately. We try again. It spit it out again. "This our your room cards" says the angry CM.
"So what do we do?" She points us over to Guest Relations were we explain our situation to him. He calls someone(he doesn't leave!) and says that when we transferred over to the Contemporary, they didn't transfer our park tickets so he printed a one day park hopper for us and when we get back to the BC tell them to fix it. So we thank him and go to the front gate and it works! We're now crammed just past the turnstile waiting for the opening and it was cute. I started filming it but my batteries died! I thought we just changed them! After they opened the park we ran into a lovely CM who gave us a big hug and congratulated us and talked to us for a couple minutes. I told her I needed new batteries so she walks us into the Kodak store and grabs some Energizer Lithiums. "These last a very long time", she says(foreshadowing) We thank her and I pay the $15 for 4 batteries.
We walk onto Main Street and take in the sight of the castle for the first time on our honeymoon. All the HCOE decor was gone so it was weird to see it plain, but I like it better without it. There was a crane behind it but it didn't matter.

We head to the Main Street bakery and wait in the long line for breakfast. We didn’t even make it to the counter and the woman asked us what we wanted and we had no clue what else was there so we ordered the first things we saw. I got a cherry Danish and orange juice and Tracy had coffee cake with apple juice, both yummy. We used our snack credits for these. (I forgot to mention that we were on the dining plan for the trip)
After breakfast we decide that our first ride is going to be Pirates, so we head over there and walk right on.

While I miss the old Pirates, the new one was really cool with the addition of Johnny Depp. His AA was so lifelike! Next was another fav in the Haunted Mansion. Another walk on. Man mornings are great!

Liberty Square was very empty, so we decided to head towards Small World and Peter Pan.

Look, another honeymoon couple!
Next up was Mickey’s Philharmagic.

If you’ve never done this before it’s a must. This was also a walk on so early but it definitely gets packed mid-day. It was a little visually overstimulating for some small children as we heard many cry and parents had to take them out.
We decide to head towards TomorrowLand and see what else we can walk on.
Look, Tigger!

While on the way, we ran into the walking, talking trash can!

I had heard and read about it but finally got to see it! The operator was just off to the side talking into his little mic and entertaining the children. Never try and bother him though, I saw a man walk up to say something to him and he ignored him and walked away.
By the time we hit Tomorrowland, a lot of the ride times were up but we decided to hit Space Mountain anyway since it was only 25 minutes. It’s a lot rougher than it looks, but still a very fun ride.
We then hit the TTA, which is a nice relaxing ride. On the way up, the CM put her hand out to tell us to wait a second before hitting the moving platform, but Tracy didn’t hear her and the CM tried to get her to stop but Tracy was already moving. Second time she’s gotten in trouble on the TTA

We did hear the announcer say “Metroliner” and we swear we have never heard that before. Is that new or did we not pay attention before?
Some shots from the TTA

Next up – Day 2, Part 2

 

[Stallion]

First of all, Congratulations! Nothing better than a Disneymoon! Sorry you had trouble with the BC on your first night. Did you like the Contemporary at all? We just stayed there for a week and thought it was great! Looking foward to reading more...

-Michelle

P.S. How was your dinner at Portobello? We've never been there...

The dinner itself was really good, we enjoy eating there a lot. I added a small portion to the first part about what we had to eat.

Thanks for reading!
Steve

 

[Stallion]

Day 2 Part 2

It was pretty close to lunch time so we head to Casey’s Corner and get some hot dogs, fries and dessert. With the dining plan, you get a dessert for free. We didn’t eat them and even tried to give them away but we wound up just tossing them. It was pushing 2 o’clock by this point and we were a little sleepy but we had to head back to the BC to get our room(hopefully). We have to go back to the Contemporary to get our luggage so instead of relying on them to send our bags to the BC, we get a cab over. Like I mentioned before it was our Victoria and Albert’s Chef’s table evening and we had to make sure my suit and her dress were with us.
A few shots of Magic Kingdom

Notice the crane is already down.

Year of A Million Dreams
On the way out we stop by one of the stores because I need a tie for dinner. I don’t know how to tie a tie and I left my pre-tied ones at home. I found a really cool red tie with black Mickey outlines on it. I told the woman I’d buy it if someone would tie it for me and sure enough they did!
Head back to the Contemporary by monorail and request our luggage and call a cab.
20 minutes and $20 later we’re back at the BC for try number 2 at check in. “Take two” we laugh to ourselves. A different girl says they have a room for us, but it’s on the first floor. I say that’s fine(foolishly thinking it’s a king). I see the girl who had sent us over to the Contemporary before and ask her about concierge and she said it was all taken care of. This is finally going our way!
We get our room keys and head to the room, open the door and guess what, a double bed. I leave her in the room and run back down and tell the girl she gave us a double.
“We don’t have any kings.”
“None at all? None tomorrow?”
So she checks through her system and comes up with a king room on the second floor for tomorrow.
“Now you’re positive that I’ll get this room tomorrow?”
She says they’ll call us tomorrow morning and ask if we want to confirm the room change. I go back to the room and tell the wife who is not too happy about it but I promised her that we’ll be in a king room tomorrow.
The bellhop arrives with our luggage and he is the nicest man ever. He was telling places to see and visit. I think his name After he leaves, he comes back 10 minutes later with gifts! I forgot about them again! The roses, rose pedals, chocolate and balloon and a gift basket from Tracy’s coworkers. You can’t really do a heart on double bed and have it be romantic so we put them in the fridge for later.

Our dinner isn’t until 6:30 so the wife takes a nap and I watch some TV.

I had to kill a lizard that was hiding in our closet. It was small and I had to get rid of it before the wife saw it and freaked out that it was in our room. Be warned if you’re on the first floor of the BC or YC, you may get lizards!
We shower and get dressed and take a cab over to the Grand Floridian. We figured it would be easier since we were in our nice clothes and wouldn’t have to worry what time the buses would show up. We thought about the monorail but we’d have to walk through Epcot and transfer.

We arrive at the GF and the CM knows exactly where we’re going and directs us to V & A’s. We’re early but head to check in and the nice woman tells us that it’ll be a few minutes so take a seat and she’ll come over when they’re ready. Now we have no idea what we’re in for, neither of us and even eaten here and we’re pretty excited to get the Chef’s table. I had to get up 6:45am EXACTLY 180 days from today to get this so I was hoping this would be a dinner to remember. The desk woman comes over and I notice she’s from Baltimore, where I’m from. We show her my watch (which has the Ravens on it) and we’re talking football and turns out she’s from the same neighborhood that I grew up! She said she’d try and give me score updates, it was Monday Night Football, Ravens and Broncos.
We’re met by the Maitre d' who walks us through the restaurant all the way into the kitchen to this nice little area.

There were two chefs that night, one was Scott Hunnel and the other was a woman who’s name I can’t remember nor is it on the menu but we met with her and she was very nice. She said they have 10 courses at the chef’s table, as opposed to 7 in the dining room. We decided not to do the wine pairings so it was just food and diet soda.
The first course consisted of Smoked Salmon Custard, Deviled Quail Egg with Ostera Caviar and Tasting of Roasted Butternut Squash Cream, which were all fantastic. The Butternut Squash Cream was unbelievable.

Unfortunately this was only picture of the food we took. We decided that we were going to take a picture of all the courses, but forgot about it after the first one and when we remembered it was too late so we didn’t bother.
We each had some different things, I would have one thing and Tracy would have another. Some courses were the same but we made sure to try everything. It was really neat to see the kitchen go to work to prepare everything, everyone had their own job and made sure everything was perfect. They got really busy at one point, and the chef didn’t have time to go over what we were about to eat but the waiter told us what everything was. We were starting to get full after the 7th course, but forced ourselves to eat all we could. There was a Foie Gras course that was in two preparations, one cooked and the other not. Well the not cooked one was awful, we both didn’t like it at all. But I had watched the chef prepare this one and they did something special for it so I felt bad if I didn’t eat it, so I forced it down, along with Tracy’s. I had water and a diet Coke and they were both gone right after that. There was a pre-dessert course which, to me, was actually better than the dessert itself. The main dessert was Carmelized Banana Gateau and Poached Pear with Cassis Mousse and Spiced Cake. I’m allergic to bananas so I had to switch with Tracy. We had to leave some leftover, we were too full to eat anymore. 3 hours later, our dinner was over. It was a once and a lifetime experience that we’ll always remember! We got our own personalized menu congratulating us and Tracy got a rose.

If anyone wants to see the full menu, I can scan it or just type it out. I saw one similar to the one we have over at allearsnet.com.
After dinner, the woman at the desk grabbed me and walked me over to a bar where the game was being shown, which was tied at the moment. She was very sweet!
We browsed the gift shop and took the monorail over to the MK and grabbed the bus back to the BC where got changed and I turned the game on and Tracy fell asleep. I made another wake up call for 7am and eventually fell asleep.

Next up – Day 3, Epcot!

 

[KarlaG4Kids]

You both sure clean up well! I'm really looking forward to reading about your evening at Victoria & Alberts and the rest of your Disneymoon.

 

[TyNicJen]

HEY CONGRATS!!!!!!
Haven't been on the boards in a while. This is a great way to get back. I may have missed it but what day were you married? My husband and I were married on Halloween. This past year was lucky # 13. I think we should visit The Dis for an anniversary! Great report! The pics make it fun.

 

[dvc at last !]

Congrats !

We were at WDW that same time
- celebrating our 30th anniversary !

Our Anniversary was October 10th.

Your report is very interesting - waiting to hear more.

 

[Hendoendo]

Hey thanks for including me and my wife in your trip report. That was us on IASW. I had to get her out of bed to show and we both had a good laugh. We had an awesome week also. We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside and had a nice relaxing stay. It must be a disney curse on batteries as ours died quickly and we also bought the Lithium Batteries in that same Kodak Store on Main Street. I am anxiously looking forward to reading the rest of your report. I guess I need to post mine soon also