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

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

Sounds like such a fun day so far! I couldn't agree more about Philharmagic being one of the best attractions. It really represents "classic Disney." It brings me to tears every time we see it.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

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.

Fun! Yeah, I can see why kids would really like it. I'm really hoping to do a future stay at WDW in the late Nov/early Dec time frame so that we can go to MVMCP and see all the resort and park decorations.

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!!

Yup, MK will be beautifully decorated for fall. A bit of a shock since it's still summer the 1st week of September pretty much everywhere in the USA, but it's pretty. I think you and your DH will really enjoy visiting the parks at this time. Pros: Parks are EMPTY--you barely need to use Fast Passes. Dave made fun of me when I got them because the wait times were so low. Cons: Need to keep an eye on hurricanes that time of year--I was watching the weather websites for two weeks before our trip and tracking Hurricane depressions.

It will be HOT--we've gone that week for the past 2 years and it's been in the low 90s both times. Also, every day, count in it to rain for 15-30 minutes. Not a big deal--we packed ponchos and went on with our day.

Sounds like such a fun day so far! I couldn't agree more about Philharmagic being one of the best attractions. It really represents "classic Disney." It brings me to tears every time we see it.

Me too!

 

[kimbo0569]

What a great ending to a wonderful day!

I had someone hack into my Itunes account a couple months ago but luckily it wasn't my credit card. I just buy the Itunes cards at Target/CVS and use those. They did credit back the money to my account though.

 

[ForAandA]

Another great update, thanks for sharing!

 

[BadgerGirl84]

We left the MK at about 3pm and headed for "home." We decided to take the boat instead of the bus--obviously the boat ride across Bay Lake is more magical! I LOVED being able to glide across the lake back to our hotel and enjoy the scenery and resorts. This was a major "perk" for us compared to staying off-site. The ferry/monorail > parking tram > walk to the car option that the off-site guests have to take is not very fun. We are "sold" on staying at a MK Deluxe Resort when we go to Disney with kids one day.

The plan for the rest of the day was to relax. We had been going non-stop for the past three days between the rehearsal, the wedding, and traveling to Florida...I was glad I had planned for relaxing! Our plan was to hang out at the pool and then eat somewhere. I didn't have an ADR, but it was a slow time, so I wasn’t anticipating having an issue.

As our boat neared the WL dock, the skies turned very dark, and it was raining cats and dogs by the time we had to get off the boat. Good thing I had been working on sprints at my gym, because that's how we got from the dock to the hotel!

When we got in the room, we were surprised by a special message on the phone from our friends, Minnie and Mickey! (You can hear it on the video below.)

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Our pool plans were shot for the moment, so we decided to hang out in the room until the storm passed. The great thing about the rain in September was that although it rained every day (usually in late afternoon), the rain would usually only last 15-20 minutes. We sat on the balcony, called our families, and watched some more wedding videos.

I had taken off my Keen sandals before going on the balcony and when we came back, we found that the whole room smelled kinda funky. I did my best to fix the situation! (See video below)

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I did not end up wearing those stinkin' sandals the rest of the trip. I know some people RAVE about Keen sandals at the park but they rubbed my feet in an uncomfortable way, even though I had been wearing them off and on during the summer.

The rain cleared up a bit later so we headed out to the pool. Sorry, we didn't take our camera, so no pictures. We liked the pool but found that it wasn't as big as we were expecting and the slide was pretty small. I love waterslides but it was so small I would have felt like an elephant going down it. The kiddos were having fun with it, though. We mostly floated around in the main pool and watched a kids activity where one kid would sit in a chair with a contraption holding a water balloon over their head. The other kids would take turns trying to hit a target and if they hit the target, the water balloon would pop. Fun!

After relaxing in the lounge chairs and taking in the sights (the geyser was neat!) we decided to get dressed and find somewhere to eat dinner. We stopped at the concierge desk and asked what was open at one of the resorts that we could take the boat to or a resort that was on the monorail--we also excluded Signature dining restaurants. Our options were The Wave, Grand Floridian Café, and Kona. We went back and forth between the Wave and Kona after listening to the CM's recommendations and looking at the menus. We picked the Wave.

We walked to the boat dock and waited for the boat to take us to the Contemporary. On the dock, we filmed the first of several "video updates!" Check it out!

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I rave enough about how much we liked taking the boat to and from the hotel. So much fun! I don't remember if these pictures were from the MK to WL or WL to Contemporary.

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I don't have pictures of the Contemporary or the Wave, so I'll make this part quick. We LOVED the Contemporary. Everything was fresh and modern and we loved how close it was to the MK. As soon as we walked in we knew we wanted to stay there some day. I'd love to rent DVC Points to stay at Bay Lake Towers!

We enjoyed our dinner at the Wave. We were seated right away and ordered beers. We got the shrimp and scallop appetizer. I ordered a pork chop entrée and Dave ordered the short ribs. He loved his entrée and I really liked mine, too. We were seated at a two-top where Dave was sitting on a long bench and I was at a chair. We ended up chatting with the couple sitting next to us and really enjoyed that. They were probably about 20 years older than us and were there for a long weekend trip--hope that's us someday!

I had listened to the Disunplugged podcast review of the Wave after our trip and it was awful. I was really surprised because we thought that the ambiance and food were both good!

After dinner, we decided to make as much of our short on-site stay as we could, so we headed to the Grand Floridian to check out the resort and also get a spot to watch Wishes. The resort was beautiful but a bit spread-out. We walked on the patio by Narcoosees and bumped into a couple who had just gotten engaged and congratulated them (that had been us just a short year ago!).

We got a spot on a bench on the pier/dock at the GF and had about an hour to wait for the fireworks. No problem--when you are in Disney you always have friends to chat with! We met an older couple from Canada who came to Disney for a MONTH every year and another couple with a young daughter who offered us some of the sweets they had brought down from the concierge lounge at the GF. Very nice of them!

We got to see the Electrical Water Pageant--it was so loud it startled me! Here was our favorite (DH and I are very patriotic!) Video:

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We watched Wishes, which was fun, but not as fun as it is with the sound. That would have to wait until our dinner at the California Grill. I remember sitting there watching the fireworks and feeling very grateful for the gifts that God had given me...to be sitting with my new husband enjoying the fireworks in Disney World. Wow.

After the fireworks we took the monorail to the Contemporary and then took the boat to the WL.

Next up: DHS Day!