Engaged in the Castle, Now Back for the Honeymoon! Sep '11 - 1/25 Upd! 3 Videos!

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[jecskc]

I'm in!!! I love a good Disneymoon.

 

[Johndough]

I MUST try the frozen custard! That sounds heavenly. Ps. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your amazing trip.

 

[heaven2dc]

Congratulations on your wedding! I loved how your hubby surprised you with the engagement You are a beautiful couple and will have many magical years together!

I would be so disappointed if I were on my honeymoon and didn't get an upgrade - they could at least have given you a king bed! But sometimes that extra bed is nice to put stuff on - and you're in Disney, right? Nothing could be more magical

Wish I could go see the Night of Joy concert some time - I love Christian music especially Jeremy Camp, TobyMac and Kutlass. Can't wait to read more!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Count me in!!!

Great! Thanks for joining!

I'm in!!! I love a good Disneymoon.

Me, too!

Congratulations on your wedding! I loved how your hubby surprised you with the engagement You are a beautiful couple and will have many magical years together!

I would be so disappointed if I were on my honeymoon and didn't get an upgrade - they could at least have given you a king bed! But sometimes that extra bed is nice to put stuff on - and you're in Disney, right? Nothing could be more magical

Wish I could go see the Night of Joy concert some time - I love Christian music especially Jeremy Camp, TobyMac and Kutlass. Can't wait to read more!

Thank you for all the kind words!

I was hoping for an upgrade but setting myself up to be fine if we didn't get one. I read countless times on the boards that you should book the view you would be happy with and not expect an upgrade, so I knew we'd be fine with standard. It was nice that they acknowledged our honeymoon, congratulated us, and gave us the pins. Can't wait to try Club Level one day!

Night of Joy was a blast! Love those artists, too!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

As I mentioned in my last post, our ADR at the WCC wasn't until 7:50, which was about an hour and a half away. I had been going back and forth on making the ADR at WCC, given that I knew it would be loud and I was hearing mixed reviews on the food...but I decided to go with it anyway just to give it a chance.

Dave and I decided to check out some more of the resort to kill some time.

Dave took a picture of the lighting fixtures in the lobby...neat!

Here I am on that bridge with a couple of kiddos behind me!

We then checked out the menu at Artist Point. The hostess said they could seat us in about 30 minutes. Mmm...the menu looked so good and I had heard great things about it, but we didn't want to blow our food budget the first night of the trip! We decided to pass.

I then tried to talk Dave into getting some flatbreads at Roaring Forks and eating outside, but after checking the place out we decided against it. They didn't have a huge selection of hot food. I'd heard good things about the flatbreads, but we were really looking to unwind at a TS dinner.

Then we decided to get a drink at the Territory Lounge. The place was hopping! We got the last open table near one of the walls. When we sat down we noticed that some people were eating food--chicken wings and also skillets from the WCC. Dave and I love to eat at bars at home, so we decided that maybe we could just eat there!

We didn't end up doing that because we didn't have a very good experience there. As I mentioned, the place was PACKED. But...there were only two ladies working there--one waitress and one bartender. It took us FOR-EV-ER (imagine me saying that just like the chubby kid in the Sandlot) for the waitress to get to our table. She was very short with us when we asked her for drink recommendations. I ended up ordering some type of flavored mojito and Dave ordered an agave margarita after I told him I had heard a good review of it on the boards. It took a very, very long time for Dave and I to get our drinks.

They tasted good, but we were anxious to get out of there because we didn't feel very welcomed by the waitress...it's one thing to be treated rudely by a waitress in any restaurant...but let alone Disney! I have to imagine that there must have been a staffing error or mix up that night and that the woman was just stressed. Our first experience with Disney resort dining was not a good one, but I was hoping it would be a fluke!

It was about 7:15 and we checked in at WCC...we were hoping to get seated early. Didn't end up happening because the place was packed! So we sat in some of the comfy chairs in the lobby and just relaxed for a while.

We were seated and ended up having a really fun waitress. She didn't get too wild and crazy since it was just the two of us and we didn't have any kids, but she was fun. I ordered the smoked pork spring roll app as an entrée and Dave ordered the skillet.

They brought out the cornbread and salad for the skillet and they were really good. I had some. Is that against the skillet law since I didn't order the skillet? Oops. As we waited for our food we saw the kids run around on the wooden horses and saw people yelling for the ketchup--all very funny. We decided our future kids would love it there one day.

We were pleased with what we ordered. I'd heard mixed reviews on the skillet (all you care to eat pork ribs, pulled pork, oven-roasted chicken, beef brisket, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob and coleslaw.

Dave was starved and he ate the entire thing. I think he even asked for some more brisket. I had a few tastes of the meats and they were all pretty good. Doesn't he look excited to eat here? I had to stand really far away since we still had this really zoomed-out lens on the camera.

Dave schmeared some BBQ sauce on my face and took a picture. Neat!

When we were finished, the waitress brought us some complimentary champagne with strawberries to celebrate our honeymoon! Aw! Then she proceeded to shout to the whole restaurant that it was our honeymoon and had them congratulate us. Good thing we aren't too shy!

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Overall, we enjoyed eating at the WCC. I don't think I'd go out of my way to seek it out until I had kids or unless I was staying at the WL again, though.

When we got back to the room, we discovered a unique perk of our electrical box/smoke house view from our balcony...I began to hear fireworks outside...and I could see Wishes outside! I couldn't see the castle or hear the music, but there were the Wishes fireworks. Magical!

Next up: MK Day - Breakfast at Crystal Palace

 

[kimbo0569]

I'm in! Loved seeing the pics and hearing the story of your surprise engagement! Can't wait to read more!
Dh and I honeymooned in Disney as well! And 12 years, 2 beautiful daughters and lots of memories, laughter and tears later, we still are the best of friends and he likes Disney just as much as I do, even if he won't admit it...

 

[MickeyLover20]

Your wedding sounds like it was a lot of fun! Love the cake! I can't believe that you got engaged in the castle...that is awesome! Loving your TR so far and can't wait to read more!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

I MUST try the frozen custard! That sounds heavenly. Ps. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your amazing trip.

Frozen custard....soooo good. It's like ice cream but creamier and richer. Here in Wisconsin there are lots of places to buy it. Culver's is a big chain in the midwest that has good fast-food and good custard. I swear you would be a millionaire if you could open one up in Kissimmee!

I'm in! Loved seeing the pics and hearing the story of your surprise engagement! Can't wait to read more!
Dh and I honeymooned in Disney as well! And 12 years, 2 beautiful daughters and lots of memories, laughter and tears later, we still are the best of friends and he likes Disney just as much as I do, even if he won't admit it...

Sounds like a great life! I'm glad you have a DH who enjoys Disney...I couldn't imagine if Dave hated it. I'm hoping for my little Disney princess one day, but I just have a feeling that I'll be taking two little Princes there one day!

Your wedding sounds like it was a lot of fun! Love the cake! I can't believe that you got engaged in the castle...that is awesome! Loving your TR so far and can't wait to read more!

Thanks and thanks! More to come!

 

[ForAandA]

Subbing in. You had a beautiful wedding! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness .

 

[rockin2it]

I love the Wilderness Lodge..definitely one of my favorites. It's the best at Christmastime.

I have eaten at the WCC a few times. My kids absolutely love it especially asking for ketchup..my daughter still talks about how we had 19 bottles on our table. I don't eat brisket or pork but I thought the chicken was pretty good there.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

We woke up well rested, bright and early at 6:45am on the first full day of our honeymoon. Who needs sleeping in when your friends Pooh and Tigger are waiting to have breakfast with you at 8am? You guessed it...we had a pre-park opening reservation at the Crystal Palace. This was one of the many dining tips I had picked up with the Disboards as I was planning the honeymoon.

One of the main reasons we had booked the WL over the AKL was the fact that WL was on Bay Lake and had the boat you could take to Magic Kingdom. What better way to start the day than a boat ride? I was envisioning the perfect morning of boat ride to the MK, breakfast at the Crystal Palace, and a fairly empty park.

We got down to the lobby a little before 7:30. I asked one of the CMs who was working in the lobby if he recommended the boat or bus to get to MK the quickest that morning--he recommended the bus. Making our ADR on time (and enjoying an empty Main Street USA) was most important to me--so bus it was!

Here I am, happy at the bus stop!

Here I am, sad at the bus stop, because we had been waiting over 15 minutes at that point.

We saw 3 buses come for AK and one for each of the other parks. At the 25 minute mark, I was getting sort of upset because I was nervous we were going to miss our breakfast and empty park pictures! As much as I try to be go-with-the-flow, when I have something planned, it's really hard for me to accept my plans going wrong.

To pass the time, I threw a bean bag into this Celebrate board-thing (thrilling game, really!). Guess which one I got the bean bag into?

Finally the bus came (I'm sure the walkie-talkie guy was even more relieved than me! Haha). The bus driver was great--he took off with just us on the bus when I told him about our reservation.

We ran off the bus, went to the special turnstile for people with breakfast ADRs, prayed a littler prayer we'd have no issues with our Undercover Tourist tickets (we didn't!), and we were on Main Street USA! Yahoo!! I did a happy dance.

Oh! Something I forgot! On the way over to the MK, I realized I forgot to put our Just Married pins on us that I had bought on Ebay. This had been a tip from the honeymoon board because I had heard they were just giving out the Happily Ever After pins (which could be for just engaged, married, anniversary, etc.). That sort of bummed me out, so when we got to the MK, I checked in at the Town Hall building to see if they had any pins. They had 2 Just Married pins for us--woohoo! This ended up being a blessing, as we were able to tuck the two pins into a wedding gift the following month for a friend of ours who loves Disney.

We had bought a Photopass CD in advance (another great tip from the Disboards!) so as much as I wanted to run to the CP, we stopped for some empty park pictures. Just the two of us, baby! Oh, and that lady over there.

Note to future honeymooners--if you get a Photopass picture, get ready to smooch! The photographers will ask for it a lot.

We were about 10-15 minutes late for our reservation, but it was not a problem. (Probably would have been fine regardless, but I had also called the reservations line to let them know we were running late.)

I was so happy we were in the MK and made our reservation that I asked Dave to snap a picture of me posing with the buzzer.

It went off shortly and we were invited to the Friendship Day Celebration!

Our table had some cute honeymoon flair (little Mickey-head confetti).

We ordered some coffee and then Pooh came over! We weren't thrilled with the camera lens we had for the breakfast...a little too close up.

I know some adults aren't into character breakfasts. We hadn't done one before (well...other than CRT on the engagement trip), but we had a great time with it. As you'll see, we met and got photos with A LOT of characters on our trip. When I'm at Disney I forget that there's a person in that suit and in my mind I am interacting with the real character! That is what Disney is all about.

We hit up the buffet next...yum. We were really impressed with the spread. Standard hot buffet line (eggs, bacon, casseroles, potatoes, etc) but they also had a made-to-order station for pancakes, omelets and eggs. We each ordered an omelet and got some other items from the buffet. I was not expecting the food to be very good but we really enjoyed all the options and the made-to-order omelets.

I loved the Pooh's Stuffed French Toast! It's like a huge cinnamon sugar donut...I dream about having another one...in the land of Disney where all the food is calorie free, of course!

While we ate, we got to visit with Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore.

We got some photos of the beautiful topiaries as we left.

Looking back, my breakfast at CT was my favorite meal of the whole trip. The fact that it was our first day in the MK, the first full day of our honeymoon and a totally new experience for us probably added to that! I have a possible trip planned with my mom and sister this fall and taking them to a pre-park opening CT breakfast is a must-do on my list.

Next up: Touring the MK

 

[tinkgurl]

Just found this TR! It has me so excited for our "Disney-moon" in August!! Congrats to you two!!

 

[ForAandA]

Chrystal Palace is one of our favs as well! Cannot wait to read more

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Chrystal Palace is one of our favs as well! Cannot wait to read more

We absolutely loved it. I am probably talking about that darn breakfast once a week. I will e-mail Dave a picture of it and say, "I really wish I was celebrating Friendship Day today!" I think it will become a 1st day of vacation tradition for us.

Just found this TR! It has me so excited for our "Disney-moon" in August!! Congrats to you two!!

Oh, wow! Have fun planning! I really enjoyed planning for our Disneymoon. Dave was getting a bit tired of hearing me say "Dave, I can't wait until XYZ in Disney..." so he put a dry erase magnet board on the fridge and called it our Disney Dreams board and we wrote down what we were looking forward to on it. Congrats on your engagement and upcoming wedding!

Subbing in. You had a beautiful wedding! Wishing you a lifetime of happiness .

Oh, thank you so much! I was so pleased with how nicely everything turned out with the wedding.

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

I love this! This makes me so excited for our "Disney-moon" this upcoming September! We are getting married September 1; only a year and 2 days after you!

I'm shocked to see the fall decorations going up that early! I hope they are there when we get there on September 2nd!!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

We were done with our fantastic breakfast at the Crystal Palace at a little after 9am--just after park opening. We were there on Labor Day, and just like I was hoping, the crowds were very low. We could have gone anywhere in the park and the lines would have been fine, but we went ahead with my favorite park-opening strategy at the MK: head straight to Fantasyland and get the "kiddie rides" done. This was another tip I picked up from the boards (shhh...don't tell anyone else)--rides like Pooh and Peter Pan get PACKED later in the day. At park opening there are no lines for these rides and they are all so close together that you can get all of Fantasyland done in about an hour.

We walked towards the back of the park and hopped on the Mad Hatter's Teacups. We hadn't ridden that one on our engagement trip, so we took a spin--fun! Outside of the ride we saw Alice and the White Rabbit. When it was our turn, we stood right next to the characters to get our photo taken. Alice said something smart alecky and funny (in character, of course!) about not wanting to chat with them and wanting to get right to the picture-taking.

We then rode Snow White (I said my goodbyes--boohoo! Can't wait for the mine car coaster, though!)

(Okay, this is probably my 10th complaint about the camera lens--just not good for some shots!)

Then we rode Peter Pan...I love boarding that ride--how cool is it to step into a little sailboat and then take off over the tiny lit-up city?

We checked out the blocked-off area for the Fantasyland expansion--I am so looking forward to new stuff to check out at the Magic Kingdom...I was never much of a Toon Town fan.

Our last ride in Fantasyland that morning was Winnie the Pooh--I think this ride is so well-done and "classic Disney." Walt would be proud. I always make sure to look at the framed picture of Mr. Toad handing off the deed.

The new interactive queue for Pooh is very cool. We didn't "have" to go through it since there was no line, but I wanted to check it all out and try everything out. Very entertaining for me as an adult...I'm sure it will be very handy for entertaining the future kiddos if we ever go during a busier time.

Next up we moved on to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain (didn't try out the new video games in the line, but looked like a nice addition) and Buzz.

Look how serious we are about saving the planet from the evil Zerg!!! Oh, and notice that I'm a Galactic Hero (the highest rank!!) and Dave is a lowly Star Cadet.

We met Buzz after the ride.

We did one of my favorites, The Carousel of Progress (Love, Love, Love the song! But I wish they would update the last scene some more--the whole room looks so 1991) and Monster's Inc. I always try to be very strategic where we sit...aisle seat in front of the light things...but we weren't picked. Oh well--still fun!

We headed back towards the castle and saw a bit of the afternoon castle show (sorry, can't remember the name). It was so blasted hot and the shady spots were taken so we didn't watch much of it.

Before leaving the castle area, we got some nice Photopass pictures.

The woman who took our pictures with the castle background did a great job. She did lots of different poses and really took her time with us. I just wish we had done that station when it was either earlier or later in the day--a bit too sunny.

Next up: Afternoon in the Magic Kingdom

 

[ForAandA]

Great update! You were able to accomplish so many rides in what seems to be such a short amount of time. With the girls we always have to stop here, and browse there. Would love to just go, go, GO!

And your DH's face in the photopass pic with Tink is too funny!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

Great update! I really like you "kiddy-ride" in the morning strategy. I never thought to do that...most likely because we just can't get ourselves to the park early enough to do so

How crowded were the parks? It looks really empty!! It's getting me excited for our September honeymoon! I love a nice, empty park!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

We decided to head to the Liberty Square area to cool off and ride the Haunted Mansion and maybe see the Presidents show. On the way we stopped at one of our must-dos for our honeymoon: buying a special Christmas ornament! I am NOT a shopper--not at home and not at Disney. I despise clutter and knick-knacks so I don't like to pick up a whole lot at the parks. We stopped at the Ye Olde Christmas Shop because we knew they'd have a nice assortment and also because you could get them personalized.

Whee! They had a whole wedding display. Here I am with the Mickey Bride ears and the ornament we ended up getting.

We also got a photobook that Dave wanted. The veil ears were cute to try on but I never once considered wanting them in the park. For one, the Just Married pin was enough attention--did not need to "declare" my status as a newlywed. Two, I'm not one for headgear of any sort.

Aw, look at that cute little knick knack you could get if you liked that sort of thing.

After riding the Haunted Mansion (again, loved the new interactive queue!) we decided to skip the President show because our tummies were a-grumblin'. When we are in the MK and hungry for lunch, there is only one option for us: BURGERS at PECOS BILLS! We love that place.

We took that cute wooden path across Frontierland to get there and we passed our feathered-friends who are always hungry.

At Pecos Bills, Dave ordered whatever burger had bacon in it, and I ordered a single hamburger. I don't think those are on the menu, but you can ask for one and they are bit cheaper than whatever souped-up burger they have on the menu is.

Here's our food after we loaded up at the toppings bar. Tomato, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, cheese sauce, yes please! Oh, and extra cheese sauce for the fries, please.

Nom, nom, nom!

After lunch we rode Pirates...but not before getting some photopass pictures by the stage-thing across from the ride and also with Goofy.

Last year we had to wait awhile to see Goofy because he had to take a break to "check on his Pirate ship" but no wait this year.

On our last trip, Dave thought it was hilarious to steer me into the spot where that golden camel spit out water by the Aladdin carpet ride and also where the totem poles shoot out water. Well, this year the totem poles were dried up so I just got a splash from the camel.

Decided to pose for a picture after I realized I could stay dry.

You'd think that after a buffet breakfast and a pig-out burger lunch that Dave and I would be full to the gills. We'll, this is Disneyworld, where stomachs always have room for a sweet treat. Like any good Diser, we love our Dole Whips. I got the pinapple vanilla swirl in a cup and Dave got the Dole Whip float.

Let's take a moment to pause and look at Dave's shirt. I gave it to him as a wedding gift the morning of the wedding. I sure hope you like the shirt because he wore it three times on the trip. Thank goodness I had some of that Downy freshening spray.

Yum. I took the time while we were sitting down to listen to these voicemails I kept getting all day from a number I didn't recognize.

Turns out it was my credit card company calling to ask me if I had made an iTunes purchase in California. UMMM….NO. Grr...identity theft stinks! I cancelled the card with them over the phone and they mailed out a new one to my home address. Good thing I had a back-up card to use during the trip.

After our Dole Whips, we rode the Jungle Cruise. We had a pretty good captain but the other guests weren't laughing that much. I tried to laugh extra loud to make up for them because I always feel bad when no one laughs at the jokes. I also did my best not to answer the riddles (i.e. the backside of water, you can look at the elephants because they have their trunks on, the captains favorite plant life is "that one and that one over there") and ruin the jokes.

If I could ever quit my job and move to Florida, I think I would be very happy as a Jungle Cruise operator--I'd love to ham it up and think of more corny jokes.

It was getting to be around 2pm so Dave and I decided to do just one more attraction before heading back to the hotel. Since we only had 2 nights booked at the WL, we wanted to have some time this afternoon to check out the resort and go swimming. So for our last attraction of the day we had to do the one attraction that I would be absolutely devastated if we didn't get to see when we came back for the Night of Joy concert...my all-time favorite at MK...Mickey's Philharmagic.

I'm half-Mexican so I think I'm an expert maraca-shaker.

I can't express how much I love this attraction. It stands for everything that is good about Disney...their movies and their parks. It is the most "magical" of all the attractions for me and sometimes I tear-up watching it! I really enjoy it when there aren't too many people in the theatre and I can sort of sit by myself...this allows me to sing a long a bit! If I had it my way, I'd sing the songs really loudly...but I don't think other guests came to see "Elizabeth Sings the Disney Hits."

A few more photopass shots on our way out of the park…

Either Photopass or the photographer made an error here...they told us I was holding the Frog Prince and for Dave to look mad because he wanted to give me a kiss. But...here is Tink...who could be mad at little ol' Tink?

On our way out down Main St USA, I mentioned to Dave that I had heard some Disers rave about an ice cream cookie sandwich you could get at the bakery. SHOCK ALERT: My ice-cream loving husband wanted one.

Oh, wow, that cookie sandwich was HUGE. Dave at most of it.

I had a few bites!

We garnered some stares from the other diners in the bakery because that cookie was humongous and it was impossible to take a bite of it without the ice cream squeezing out the sides. No challenge is to hard to overcome, however, for expert eaters like us!

We were just about to exit the park when we saw a sign to meet Mickey and Minnie and that there was no wait. I hadn't read much about the new Mickey and Princess meet-and-greets at the entrance of the MK, but wow, were we ever impressed. We walked through an empty line area, and then waited outside of a door for a moment or two. We didn't know what to expect, but then we walked into a big private "set room" with the one and only Mickey! I loved seeing Mickey and Minnie in their most traditional outfits.

Dave pulled out his cell phone and showed him a picture of our puppy, Minnie, and told her that we named her after her. <CHILDREN, SHUT YOUR EYES HERE.> We literally heard the person giggle. This was not a Minnie mouse giggle, this was a real lady giggle. We laughed--she must have LOVED the picture of Minnie!

The photoshoot with Mickey and Minnie was a really nice surprise for us and completely unplanned--what a great way to end our day at the park!​

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