Disneymoon for two... A land/sea adventure! My Pre-Trip report

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Hi Everyone!

This is my first trip report. and I am still learning so bare with me. I began reading TR’s when we started thinking about a Disneymoon to get any ideas I could and I somehow became obsessed with TR’s. So I decided I would start a Pre-TR and then do a TR for our Honeymoon and hopefully you all will enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed many others.

I would have done a TR for my first trip last may but I didn't even know about TR's then. If anyone wants to know more about that trip I can post what I remember!

Introductions:
Me: 21- about to graduate from college with my bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology, basically Family and Consumer Science without the Teaching ability. I have only been to Disney once in 2007 with my DF and his family.
DF: 20- About to graduate with his associates in Information Systems. He has been to Disney twice, once when he was very little and doesn’t remember it, and again with me and his family in 2007.

DF and I have been together for about 5 years. We met at work when I was a senior in high school and have been together ever since. I actually moved in with him while going to a 2 year college, and then I transferred to a 4 year school to finish my degree. When we got engaged just after Christmas this year, we both decided we wanted to go back to Disney for our Honeymoon. We figured that since we did not get to do a lot at Disney the year before since his family has 7 people in it and no one besides us wakes up before noon, we wanted a chance to really experience Disney.

The Where:
While DF likes Disney, and begins to like it more and more, as I won’t stop talking about it, he still wanted something more traditional for our Honeymoon, so we decided on a Land/Sea vacation. We will be spending 4 days at the parks then following up with a 3 day cruise. Neither of us has ever been on a cruise before, but we both have worked on boats before and love the water.

Our wedding date is set for December 5th 2008. We are getting married in a local town with only about 40 people. We have to wait a week for our Honeymoon for two reasons. One is that we will have a lot of Out-of-town guests that we don’t want to “take-off” on and second we really wanted to stay at the POLY and it was totally booked that week after the wedding. So we will fly out of Albany, NY the 14th and spend the next week completely Disney.

Since we are still so far out, all of our trip plans are tentative. Disney still hasn’t released the park hours yet so once they do I will update our plans. I should mention that we included the Dining Plan with our trip, because we wanted to be able to enjoy some of the more expensive restaurants without worrying about money.

I have been playing around with different ideas for schedules and different things we want to do while we are there. DF really wants to do the Segway tour at Epcot. I want to go to MVMCP and see the Osborne Lights and Fantasmic, since we didn’t get to see this before. I wanted to surprise DF with the Honeymoon photoshoot at MK however I can’t seem to find any information on it. If anyone knows anything about this, I’d love to hear about it!

Oh and I can't figure out how to post pictures so any help with that would be great! Thanks!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

So after much consideration and talking with DF, we decided that since we are Honeymoon in December and there’s no guarantee about the weather that we want to fly out the day before our honeymoon. That way if we get delayed, we won’t be wasting an entire day of our trip. So we would be flying out on Saturday the 13th and will stay at All-Star Music. This will also give us a nice relaxing day and night and give us a fresh start in the morning. I talked to DCL and they said that we can just book that room separately from our honeymoon and ask the front desk at Music to get us a taxi in the morning when we check out and move to the POLY.

So this plan ends up giving me like 100 more different options for our itinerary, which I have over planned already. Being so far out and not having any park hours yet is annoying; doesn’t Disney know that we DISers like to plan ahead? Anyways I have yet to post an itinerary yet since I have like 5 already and we keep changing our minds… so Hopefully soon!!!

 

[joelp]

The MVMCP dates have been announced:

http://allearsnet.com/tp/hol_mk.htm

That might help ...

If you have the "Unoffical Guide" - you can go to the associated web site and find the "best parks" to visit and "parks to avoid" during your stay. With only 4 days in the parks and the MVMCP ("to do or not to do"?) - the planning - at least which park to hit on which day - may be simplified ...

We'll be down there the week before you ... (and I'm a bit concerned about the weather, too ... so think travel insurance ...

The DW and I had a 1 week break between our wedding and 'moon (London - not WDW ... )... it worked out great and I think was less stressful/busy than if we had taken off the next day ...

Enjoy!!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

JoelP- Thanks for the website. I had seen the "anticipated" dates for the MVMCP, but not the finalized ones. We did purchase the travel insurance with our Land/Sea package. Im not a 100% sure what it will do, but we figured it was a good idea.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I haven't done an update in a while since my laptop crashed and is currently being sent out to be fixed by Best Buy, piece of advice NEVER get a warranty with BB. They suck!

But really there hasn't been any thing new, so here are some things I am looking forward to....

I have 40 days till graduation and I am about to send out my resume for a job!!! I have been looking forward to this for so long! Once schools over its just work and planning for the wedding! Everyone tells me the wedding is so far away but I just want it to be here!

I have already picked out my dress; we just have to order it. I am talking to a friend about making our cake to save some money! We want as much money as we can to spend at Disney, there’s just so much we want to be able to do there!

I am hoping that the times schedule will come out soon so I can plan more. I get to buy our MVMCP tickets in May I believe. But I can't do ADR's till June. I also am looking forward to seeing if they release a discount for December, since we might go a day early due to weather!

 

[michellem1118]

I wanted to surprise DF with the Honeymoon photoshoot at MK however I can’t seem to find any information on it. If anyone knows anything about this, I’d love to hear about it!

We're doing this on our honeymoon in August. PM me if you want the contact person's email address. It's ~$300, for a one-hour photoshoot at the park or resort of your choice, and an album with 20 prints of their choice (not yours). I was told by someone on the board that you also get proofs of all the images, but thats not listed on any of the paperwork I received.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

So since we can’t do any official planning, I decided that we needed to look at some restaurants and see what we would be interested eating.

Since we are doing the Disney Dinning Plan all of the restaurants are from there.

These are the restaurants that we are definitely going to:
Chef Mickey’s
Coral Reef (DF’s choice)
Kona
Pizzafari (they have the best breadsticks I’ve ever had!!!)

Most likely we will pay out of pocket for Kona, since it is the cheapest place and we would be eating breakfast there on the morning we check out of the hotel and head to DCL.

We want to do the Fantasmic Dinner Package since neither one of us has ever seen Fantasmic before. But we can’t decide between Hollywood and Vine or Mama Melrose’s. I am very picky about my food and I tend to like plain things, all that fancy sauce and vegetables are not really my style.

We are also toying with the idea of eating breakfast at the Crystal Palace and dinner at Tony’s Town Square. We aren’t sure if this will be too much food for one day especially for the day we attend MVMCP.

 

[joelp]

I can't help you with any of your listed choices (we're gonna eat at Chef Mickey's and the Coral Reef for the first time next December ...)

The ears-to-ears web site I sent you earlier also has menus and restuarant reviews - you just need to a little ...

However, we have eaten at Hollywood and Vine (lunch) and Mama Melrose's (Fantasmic! dinner ...) H&V is a buffet - with surprisingly good, but limited choices - and is really geared to smaller kids (so if you want a "relaxing" meal - go somewhere else!!). MM is Italian - and also good.

We did an early breakfast at CP (8:15 am ADR) - and there is nothing quite like walking down an empty Main Street before the park opens - so I would give that We ate so much that we didn't have lunch that day - just grazed a bit ... (Oh yeah - if you do have breakfast at CP, you may not want to ride Space Mtn or Big Thunder RR too soon after eating ...

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

So DF and I have been talking, ok more me talking him listening, and we decided that we do want to go to CP for breakfast on the morning we do MK. Once I told him about being in the park practically alone and seeing Main Street almost empty, he was in. But since we already our four sit-down meals on the DDP we have to pay for CP out-of-pocket. It’s only 18.99 a person so not too bad. So on Tuesday the 16th, we will have breakfast at CP, do some small rides and walk around. Then we will probably go back to the POLY for a nap then return to MK for the MVMCP. I am so excited! And I can’t wait to be done with school so I can plan, plan, plan! Oh and I can’t wait for the hours to be posted for the parks!!!!

 

[joelp]

You won't regret the early breakfast at The Crystal Palace ...

Try to take the time to check out the little details along Main Street, USA ... and - btw - there's a Goofy statue on the right side of the "square" inside the MK entrance; if you sit down next to him, you might get a surprise ...

[No - it will not be me jumping out from behind the railing to scare you ..!!)

Your BIG decision that morning will be who gets to run up Main Street towards Cindy's Castle while the other shoots the video ...

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Since I don't have any actual updates, I figured I could post a few pics from mine and Df's first trip to Disney last year. This was the middle of may, just after finals. We went with Df's family, for the ease Im going to call them MIL, FIL, SIL1, SIL2, and SIL1 BF even though we aren't married yet. Since there was 7 of us, we decided to drive down. Bad Idea!!! It took us 2 full days and we were all so tired from the drive, we didnt really get to enjoy too much.

We arrived on a Sunday, we stayed off property in a rental house. The house was nice, except mine and df's room. We had major bugs, I dont know what kinda they were like ant things all over the bathroom, we had to go to walmart to get Raid. The other thing was the towels were all stained. I know that these houses are cleaned by a company but the owners should be checking them out, it was just gross!! It did have a nice pool though and was really close to Disney.

Monday was our first day at the parks. We went to AK, it was a beautiful day. We rode Everst, I actually liked it. We walked around a bit more then headed to the safari, and did the jungle trek and Kali.

Thats us, minus MIL, after Kali. We really didn't think we would get wet, we were soaked all day!

After that we split to eat, df and I went to Pizzafari and the rest went to Flame tree. We all enjoyed our food. I loved the Pizzafari breadsticks and the cornbread from Flame tree. We wandered to the tree of life and saw a bugs life, very cute! then caught the end of the parade then decided to leave.

We were supposed to go to MGM but decided we were too tired and ended up back at the house to swim and rest, then later headed to DTD.

When we got to DTD, we were starving so we wanted to eat at Rainforest. We didnt have ADR's, but we got in with in 40 minutes. We had an amazing waitress, very nice and joked around with us alot. By far she was the best service we had the whole trip. However the food was not. I can't remember what we all ordered. I know df and FIL got some kind of seafood, SIL2 and I got the alfredo pasta without the pesto and I can't remember the rest. We thought was food was edible but far from good especially for what it cost.
After dinner, we walked around till about 1ish. Df and I got Ghirardelli, it was good, not great. After that we went back to the house.

Tomorrow: Blizzard Beach and MGM... "Will the food get any better?"

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Day number 2 at Disney:
I think we finally leave the house around 11am and drive to BB. They are already open when we get there and DF and I are starving so we run off to get food. I think we stopped at the first place we saw and I got chicken fingers and fries and Im guessing DF got a burger and fries, I can't remember. After we ate, me met back up with his family in the main store at the entrance. There we went and got lockers and wanted to start with the family slide. I thought I was going to DIE walking up those stairs. After the family ride everyone wanted to do the body slides, so I went to the lazy river to float. I refuse to do body slides, I'm terrified that my skin will catch and like rip off, so I only do regular slides. After about 2 hours floating by myself, I get out to look for DF and his family, I can't find them! After looking everywhere, I was so hungry AGAIN, I decided to get a cookie. Thank god I had some money in my shorts, since everything else was in the locker and the key with DF's family. I get in line to get the cookie and I hear my name, look over and finally DF and his family are walking up. I guess they actually waited 2 hours to do that huge body slide. Needless to say i was pissed DF waited that long and didnt bother to come and tell me where they were, 2 hours it down right nuts for a 15 second ride!!!! After that DF and I rode some couples slides and met back up with his family around 3pm. We got our stuff and left. We went back to the house to shower and change, then head to MGM.

To Be Continued...

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

After showering and changing we headed over to MGM. We headed straight for ToT and RocknRoller Coaster. DF ran and got FPs for the family and we got in line for RRC since it was only 15 minutes. I had a friend warn me about keeping my head back when you get it because it takes off so fast, and Im so glad I did. Loved the ride though, deffinitely one of my favorites. After that I think we walked around till we could use the TOT passes. When it was time, I chickened out! My stomach was kinda blah that day and I didnt think bouncing would help. So me and MIL went into a few shops and found a nice seat to relax on while waiting for them to get off. About 45 mins later they all find us and DF decides he wants a frozen Banana, well once he had one he was addicted. I think he ended up getting like 8 this trip.

This is us kids sitting, while DF eats his banana! And no that kid is NOT ours! It kind of looked it though, haha.

This is me and DF walking to RNRC when we first get into the park.

And this is all of us "kids" when we got off RNRC

We walked around more and did some of the imagineer stuff, it was getting late so all of the shows were over with for the day. We decided to stay for dinner and all wanted to try the Sci-Fi, even though we have a drive-in movie theater in town at home. Again we didn't have ADRs so FIL went to see if they had room and the only time they had left was 9ish, I can't remember but it was late and we wouldnt be able to see fantasmic. When we got there we waited about an hour. We were the second to last people they in before closing. Since there was 7 of us, we were split into 2 cars. DF Me and SIL2 in one and MIL, FIL, SIL1 and SIL1 BF in another. I know we ended up ordering 2 ceasar salads and a couple of burgers. I barely touched the salad. I thought the dressing was disgusting!!!!! DF and SIL2 got those Captin Hook, TinkerBell glow cup things and they were really cute. I like the resturant itself but the food, not so much. So we continue on with the not-so-great food.

This is DF and I and SIL2 before we got our food

After dinner, we headed back to the house. We decided that since we missed so much at MGM we would go there again tomorrow morning then head over to Epcot.


Next up: Will the food get ANY better, will we see any of the shows and why Epcot is my favorite park...



On a quick side note, I think I have some lurkers out there, so PLEASE say HI!!!! I love comments and any ideas!!!!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Wednesday morning
We arrive at MGM around 11am. We get a show schedule and decide to start off with a ride on RnR and ToT. After those, we headed to the Indiana Jones show. I liked this show, but I was slightly disappointed in it. After watching this show on the TV show FULL HOUSE for many years, I was really excited to see the whole bolder chase after the guy and it just didn't seem as good as I hoped. After the show DF and I decided to get a Mickey bar and a frozen banana. YUM! After meeting back up with MIL, who went shopping while we saw the show we decided to head to Epcot. I suggested taking the ferry, and just as we got to the dock it was boarding, SWEET! We took the ferry to Epcot and on the way enjoyed viewing, the yacht club and the Boardwalk and the swan and dolphin.

Me and Df on the ferry

When we arrived at Epcot, we entered through the International Gateway. We had missed the big ball thing, and we never did get to see it up-close this trip, BOO! I MUST see it on our honeymoon, its not even an option. As soon as we walked in who did we see?

Chip and Dale!

This is us with Chip

We decided to head over to future world and check out the TT and Mission Space. We got fastpass for TT and DF, SIL2 and SIL1 BF went on Mission space. Me and SIL1 were afraid we would get motion sick. I can't handle rides that shoot you up into the air, the going down is fine, but up makes me really sick. So when the 3 of them got back and explained the ride to me and SIL1, we decided to try it. The green one, NOT the orange. So we all went on it. The original 3 riders decided to try the orange one, while me and SIL1 continued to go on the green about 2 more times since there was NO wait! Then we headed over to TT and rode twice. I think that TT is my favorite ride, Space Mt would take a very close second. After those rides we decide to split up for a while. Df and I leave the rest and walk towards the Innovations stuff. We were both pretty hungry so we grabbed food at the Electric Umbrella. I don't remember what we got but it wasn't bad at all. We would definitely eat there again. After we ate we played in some of the future things, I can't remember, then walked some more.

This is us at the fountain just outside EU

Ok the funny thing about this picture is that the whole time I wanted to find that Drink station from around the world. Well I didn’t know where it was, and I had never heard of the Cool Club before, well for this upcoming trip I started looking for it to see if we could find it, and I noticed it was near innovations. DF said something about "how funny would it be if it was in the picture we had from the fountain there" well we looked and yup it is! Its’ in the back right corner! You can see the awning on the Cool Club! I'm so mad; we are definitely going there for our honeymoon too!

We then headed over to The Land and met up with SIL1 & 2 and SIL1 BF and did that boat ride thing.

Us on the boat

After that it was time to meet back up with the rest of the family near the World Showcase. We took some more pics and walked around. We didn't end up getting to go into like any of the countries. FIL decided we should eat dinner since it was about 730 and Illuminations started at 9. No one could decided what they wanted so he told us that we were going to the American Adventure place, no if ands or buts about it. We followed. I got a grilled chicken sandwich, which I thought was rather dry even with mayo on it. I can't remember what else we ate. SIL1,2 and SIL1 bf decided they wanted to go back to Sorin. We tried to explain to them that they would end up missed Illuminations, they wouldn’t listen. Df and I wanted to try some French dessert so we went in and got Chocolate Mousse, and some kind of chocolate cake. Then we headed to the bridge to get a spot for the show. We kept trying to call SIL1 and let them know the show was starting but they wouldn’t answer. We sat for a while on the bridge while we dug into the desserts. I hated one and loved the other one, I just can’t remember which was which. At this point we noticed a lot of people were standing in front of us, so we stood up too. The show was about to start. We saw a small spot on the railing to the bridge and moved up. We had a perfect view. We LOVED the show. Df and I both agreed the best fireworks and show we have seen. (and we have seen ALOT of fireworks before). During the fireworks, then was a breeze and DF ended up getting some ashes in his eye. I felt so bad and his eyes hurt for the next two days. But we still loved the show. Just after it ended we get a call from SIL1 saying they missed the whole thing!!! I TOLD THEM SO!!!!! They were so mad, we couldn't even mention Illuminations for 2 weeks after that without them yelling at us. It wasn't our fault. We wait a few minutes till the crowds clear then head to the ferry. We waited about 20 minutes for the ferry, then took it back to MGM then went back to the house.

This really was a great day, even though we missed a lot, Illuminations just made it worth it!

Up Next, MK, our last day at Disney and quite possibly one of the saddest days ever....

 

[DISNEYmooner2008]

Hopping along for the ride!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

DISNEYmooner2008 thanks for joining!!! and Congratulations on the baby!


I'm so excited that the MVMCP tickets go on sale tomorrow!!!!!!! I am going to be on the phone as soon as I wake up!!!

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

I am the happiest girl ever!!!!! DF just ordered our MVMCP tickets!!!!!! We are going December 16th!!!!! the CM said we should get them in about a week!!!! I can't wait!!!!!

 

[joelp]

Bought our MVMCP tix for Dec 9!!

(and the funny thing is - I can't stand the taste of bananas!! )

Have you joined the new "official" Dec 2008 thread??

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

So yesterday I offically graduated college!!!!!!

Now its time to look for a job and plan plan plan!!!!!

I've been checking and Disney still hasnt updated the November hours and I'm starting to get worried they might do this with the December hours.

Tomorrow I plan to call DCL and find out about adding pre-nights to our vacation and how that would effect our DDP.

My plans for this week are:
Call DCL
Get measurments and order Bridesmaid dresses and Tux's
Order Wedding dress and possibly veil
Talk to bakerys about cakes
Go apply for Passports

A full week ahead and I want to work on figureing out our itinerary for the parks a bit.

 

[dizziedupbaby0127]

Finally the back to the old trip replay:
I can’t remember what time we arrived at MK, I think around 11ish. We all were in Awe when we saw the castle, amazing!!!! We headed to Tomorrowland and got right on Space Mt. I was worried at first to go on, while we were waiting in line, apparently the ride had some sort of problem and they shut it down, I talked the family into waiting for a little bit and since so many people left we ended up not waiting long after it was fixed. I think we waited 30 mins total, Not bad.


After Space Mt. we headed past Mickey’s toontown and over to the haunted mansion. I was so excited to go on this ride and it met my expectations. I had heard spoilers before about the “surprise guest” but DF was surprised and loved it!

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j93/dizziedupbaby0127/Magic Kingdom/33cf.jpg

After HM, we wanted to ride the Liberty Boat, it was on a trip so we sat and waited while DSIL1-BF ran to get FPs for Splash Mt. We rode the boat and enjoyed sitting for a bit and resting.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j93/dizziedupbaby0127/Magic Kingdom/c7db.jpg

When we got off, I wanted to go in the Hall of Presidents, but everyone else wanted to head straight to BTMR. So we went to BTMR while DFIL and DMIL went to TS Island.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j93/dizziedupbaby0127/Magic Kingdom/23eb.jpg

DFIL and DMIL were supposed to meet us in 40 minutes at the exit to BTMR, but when we got they weren’t there. We waited for 20 minutes then tried calling their cell phones, no answer. We decided to get those Minute Maid frozen Lemonades and OMG they are amazing!!!!! We sat down in the shade and ate, we waited over an hour and 30 minutes for them before they showed up. We were angry, worried, and hungry. After giving them a lecture on how if any of us did that, we’d be in more trouble than we could imagin, we headed to Pecos Bill’s to grad lunch. I had a wrap, which was ok and DF had the Bacon double Cheeseburger, he believes he liked it. While eating we heard the parade start so we ran outside and we perfectly placed to see the beginning of the parade. After a few minutes we kept getting pushed out of the way by little kids, some who were taller than me, being only 5’4’’. Since I wasn’t a huge parade person, we let them and went back in to rest in the shade. After lunch we headed to Pirates. Amazing ride, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Johnny Depp!

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j93/dizziedupbaby0127/Magic Kingdom/b2a4.jpg

TBC...