Irisbud's PJ & Wedding TR: 1/22/09: NOW COMPLETE! 3/26/2009

[padisneyfour]

your pics are beautiful- very exotic feel/look to them.... the pics from the DP look wonderful. congrats it looks like you had beautiful day. Thanks for sharing

 

[pink_tink8i8]

Your pictures are so nice!

 

[Goldeelox9]

Oh WOW! Your Animal Kingdom Pictures are AMAZING!!!!!

 

[disneymeg]

You were a gorgeous bride. I just wanted to say that my BF is 15 years older than me. Im 25 and my parents were totaly against him (and might still be) but I'm so in love and thats what matters. I congratulate you on being able to do whats right for you and forget about what everyone else says (sometimes thats hard when it's people you care about). Randy looks like an amazing person and obviously loves you - enjoy your life together -congratulations!!!!!!!

 

[irisbud]

Amy, your pictures turned out so great! I especially like the ones in the area right around Everest. Some of the ones along the wall of you by yourself and then with DH are so dramatic. I'm sorry you didn't get as many Tree of Life shots as you were hoping for, but you still got such a great variety. How cool to be the first Disney bride to have a shoot at AK. I know when we scheduled MGM only a few had been done there, so our photographer was open to wherever we wanted to go which was really cool. I really like some of your shots where you're looking off in the distance and DH is looking right at you, they're so romantic

I'm sorry your time was cut a little short, but its good to know that you got the extra time in Epcot (although I'm partial ) The shots in Italy are beautiful, the door shot was definitely worth waiting for! The Morocco shots blend well with your shots from AK too; what a wonderful bonus!

That's great that you were able to meet up with your guests for lunch that day. I hope you were able to get a nap in between, I know we needed one! One of my favorite things was having time to spend with our guests in the park. That is nice that you were able to kick back at your DP too, I know I was so sick of wearing my dress at that time and didn't get to enjoy the experience as much as I would have liked.

Thanks Vanessa! we had such a good time! I thought the Morocco shots went well with the AK shots also. It was funny, Joe seemed like he wasn't too thrilled about doing an AK session to start with, but then he was telling us how he liked to do Morocco and I thought about how similar they would be. I think he really enjoyed doing the AK session once we got into it. I was so glad we did the BP shoot. It and the dessert party were some of the best decisions we made!

Great update!! I absolutely loved your AK/Epcot pictures. They turned out SO good!!!

Thanks so much! We had such a great time doing them!

Great update. Your pictures are beautiful, and your day was perfect. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Thanks Maxie!

I enjoyed the update! I see you don't have any pics of the two of you at the DP...but do you have any more general shots of the DP?

No, unfortunately we don't. I know my dad took a lot of pictures (he got a new camera and he was a little obsessed), but I guess they must not have turned out or something because he put everything on my computer and that was pretty much all we had.

your pics are beautiful- very exotic feel/look to them.... the pics from the DP look wonderful. congrats it looks like you had beautiful day. Thanks for sharing

Thank you! Our pics turned out just the way we wanted! We were thrilled with them!

Your pictures are so nice!

Thank you!

Oh WOW! Your Animal Kingdom Pictures are AMAZING!!!!!

Thank you, that is so sweet!

You were a gorgeous bride. I just wanted to say that my BF is 15 years older than me. Im 25 and my parents were totaly against him (and might still be) but I'm so in love and thats what matters. I congratulate you on being able to do whats right for you and forget about what everyone else says (sometimes thats hard when it's people you care about). Randy looks like an amazing person and obviously loves you - enjoy your life together -congratulations!!!!!!!

Thanks Meg. My mom was really against this as well, but she was great at the wedding and really has come around since then. I think once she saw that Randy and I truly love eachother she decided that age didn't really matter. I hope everything works out for you too!


I will try to post more today or tomorrow, now that I have finished with my latest class!

Thanks for reading everyone!

 

[irisbud]

Day 4, Part 2

After we finished up with our photoshoot we headed back to the room and got changed. It was about 10:00 by this point, and we decided to see if there was anything left in the CL for breakfast. Lucky for us, they seemed to be replenishing the food and there were plenty of pastries and fruit left.

We finished up with breakfast and walked over to the IG at EPCOT. We had about an hour or so until our lunch at Biregarten at this point and decided maybe we would ride Test Track. We got over to the pavilion and found out that Test Track was broken so we picked up some FPs for later.

Nothing else looked overly appealing to us right then, so we wandered over to the Land pavilion and got in a mega line for LWTL. The line here was crazy, backed up past the escalators, which was causing problems as people started jumping in line and causing mass chaos. EPCOT was supercrowded that morning, for the end of January. I suppose the EMH that evening might have had something to do with it, as the Brazilian Tour Groups were everywhere we looked.

Inside the Land Pavilion:

We finally got to the front of the line and slid across our row. DH and I really like this ride. I know a lot of people think it is really boring, but I find some of the hydroponics and such fascinating. I am such a nerd, I know!

LWTL:

Once we got off the ride we battled our way through the massive, angry mob inside the land (there was a huge line for the escalators even) and outside into the park. We headed across the bridge between FW and WS and turned left, walking quickly past all of the countries on our way to Germany. DH likes to walk with purpose and I am a wanderer so I was struggling to keep up with him most of the time.

Germany, take while hurrying after my DH:

When we got to Germany no one else had arrived yet. We started making phone calls since they wouldn’t seat us without the rest of our group. Finally we got everyone together and they took us to a table for 10. I had been worried about this, as the last time DH and I ate here I didn’t remember anything but 8 top tables. Needless to say, I was relieved when I saw that we would all be able to eat together.

We had a really nice lunch that everyone seemed to enjoy, especially the desserts. After we finished, we made plans to meet up with my parents that evening so they could pick up some of our wedding things and take them home with them on Sunday, as we would be going on the cruise and then returning to WDW so we didn’t want to be carrying jewelry and other valuables around with us. We said goodbye to the rest of our guests and thanked them for coming, gave away our FPs as we couldn’t stand to be in EPCOT anymore because of the crowds, then headed back to our hotel room for a much needed nap.

Pictures from lunch:

We took a nap and then proceeded to pack up some of our thing as we would be moving to the WL the next day. We got all of our wedding stuff we wouldn’t be needing anymore put safely in a bag, including my bouquet holder. It was so hard to get the flowers out of there, and for some reason it was emotionally really hard for me too. I guess we had just been planning this for so long and it was well and truly over when I took the flowers out. The end result was better than the planning, of course, but the planning had consumed my life for such a long time it seemed that I thought it might be a little disconcerting not to worry about the wedding anymore.

Flowers, just before the destruction:

After a couple of hours, we decided to try DHS again, figuring the crowds must have all migrated to EPCOT for the day. We got a snack from the lounge than wandered out to the dock and took the Friendship boat over. Usually, I like to walk to DHS from the boardwalk area at least once since it is such a nice stroll, but I was just too exhausted at this point, even after our nap.

When we got into DHS we were alarmed at first because it still looked really crowded, but then we heard the music for the parade and decided that must have been responsible for most of the congestion. While we were deciding which direction to head, a woman came up to us and handed up five FPs for Rockin Roller Coaster, DH’s favorite. Since we had those, we decided to head over to TSM, which we had heard rave reviews about.

The line was almost an hour, but all of the FPs were gone for the day so we decided to brave it. It turned out to be only about 40 minutes, and the queue was fun so it wasn’t too bad. We loved this ride! It was so awesome! DH was a beaver and I was a squirrel at the end, though my accuracy rating was higher than his, if that means anything!

TSM Queue:

After TSM, we headed to RNRC and got right on. I usually love this ride as well, but this time I felt like my head was being thrown around. I attributed this to the fact that I hadn’t taken my hair down from our BP session and the pins were digging my head when I leaned back. I felt a little sick but I made the (bad) decision to go ahead and ride again using our second set of FPs. By the time that ride was over, I felt so bad I could barely walk.

We sat on the bench right outside the ride for a while as I tried to collect myself. I encouraged DH to use the remaining FP for himself, but he said he had had enough as well. We headed out of the park, and I think we stopped at half the benches along the way I was feeling so bad. My head was starting to throb from a migraine which was making me super sick to my stomach as well. I think it was brought on by purse exhaustion at that point.

We finally made it over near the boat dock where we sat on the bench until the boat pulled up since the line wasn’t long enough to worry about. I thought I was going to be sick all the way back but we managed to make it without incident. Once we got back to the room, I took some aspirin and went to bed.

I remember waking up at about 6 thinking how I had made ressies for Kona, one of our favorites, and had planned to watch Wishes before hand. I knew right then that this would be a bad idea, and encouraged DH to go get some dinner, as I wouldn’t be up to eating anything. I think he got something from the lounge and brought back some crackers for me.

After a while, my family came by and took our wedding things. We said goodbye to them and thanked them for coming as well. After they left, I was feeling a little better so I decided to try some cake. We still hadn’t touched the top layer of our wedding cake, and we needed to eat it if we were going to have any, as we had no way of getting it to the WL and couldn’t take it on the cruise with us.

Cake, before the destruction:

We looked around for some utensils and plates, but couldn’t find anything. We decided that, since it was just us, we would go ahead and eat it with our hands. At first I was a little disgusted by this but then I decided to just have fun and eat it. It didn’t really matter, and it was the only way I was going to get to try it. It may sound odd, but that is actually one of my favorite memories from our trip: sitting on the couch watching TV and eating the cake like that. I guess it’s one of those things you can only do with someone you really love and care about, and it made it sort of sweet in an odd way.

Slightly less barbaric method of eating cake:

Once we had had our fill and decimated the cake (though, in reality we didn’t make much of a dent in it!), we headed off to bed for the last time in our beautiful room, as we would be moving to the WL the next day, thankful we could actually sleep in the next morning.

 

[irisbud]

Day 5, Part 1

We finally got to get up at a reasonable hour on Saturday. I started to diligently pack up our things, and noticed that we had about a whole suitcase worth of dirty laundry. When we had packed for this trip, I had done so with the belief that doing laundry at least once during the course of our vacation would be an unfortunate necessity. I had planned on doing it at WL just before leaving on the cruise, but I decided that I actually had time before we needed to vacate our BWI room.

I stuffed everything in a laundry bag and pulled out a handy Ziploc I had filled with all of the paraphernalia necessary to do laundry at Disney: individual Tide packets, dryer sheets, and loads of quarters. The day before, I had accidentally stepped off of the elevator on the third floor rather than the fourth on the way to the lounge and spotted the laundry so I headed that way. I was afraid it would be crowded, but there was no one there at all. I managed to fit everything in one washer, set all of the buttons, and headed back to the room, figuring we still would manage if someone stole all of our clothes, and there was nothing in the machine I couldn’t live without.

I went back to the room and took up packing again. We had four suitcases (including our carryon) and our park bag. I made sure to leave one empty so I could fill it with clean clothes when we finished. I left the suitcases upstairs, and we headed to the lounge for breakfast one last time, stopping to move the laundry into the dryers (do people ever clean the lint filters on these things; GROSS!) on the way there, and adding more quarters on the way back.

Once we returned to the room, we lugged all of our big heavy suitcases down the super slick stairs. We took a last look around, then headed for the elevators. DH got out and waited in a seating area on the lobby level while I took our empty suitcase up to the laundry room, pulled out our now clean and dry clothes, cleaned the lint filter in the dryer, and folded everything right into the suitcase and went back to meet DH. We then headed over to bell services and told them we would be moving to WL. We always do split stays, since they are so easy!

We then headed out to the busses, deciding we should go to AK again since it had been so cold the first day we were there. We were relieved to find that it wasn’t very crowded that day. After we made it through the turnstiles (“access denied” for me twice) we headed in the direction of FOTLK. We were stopped on the bridge to Camp Minnie Mickey by a CM who congratulated us after seeing our buttons. He told us he and his wife had also been married at WDW, and compared watches with DH. We then discussed the photo shoot, and he said that he had seen us the morning before! He brought another CM over who had seen us as well and we chatted a bit about the wedding and about the cruise the next day before continuing on.

We were in the elephant section (we are always in the elephant section) at FOTLK. We absolutely love this show, and weren’t disappointed this time either. I would love to see it on Broadway someday. Before the show started, I made my very first pin trade with a CM assisting with seating.

On the way out we ran into another CM who was from St. Louis and chatted with her for a good long while. DH made his first pin trade with her, and I think a monster was born.

We headed back towards the safari area and decided to do Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which DH had never been to. We enjoyed the ride over and looking at the exhibits. While we were there, a CM told us about how the horses and ponies are stabled at FW. Since DH is a horse trainer, we decided that we would have to make our way over at some point and see. We then went to the petting zoo, which has to be the cleanest petting zoo I have ever seen. On the way out, we ran into the talking recycle bin, which was pretty funny. We never did see the person controlling it.

On the train to RPW:

Some exhibits at RPW:

This reminded us of our dog:

So did this:

After we got back to Africa, we decided to stop in Pizzafari for lunch. This is one of our favorites after trying it last trip and has become a must do for us. I had a pepperoni pizza and DH had some sort of sandwich with ceaser salad on top.

Once we were full, we decided to go over to the Maharaji Jungle Trek which we had been too late for on Wednesday. I love this area! It is so well themed. It never ceases to amaze me the level of detail Disney goes to even on something like this.

Tiger area on MJT:

More MJT:

After walking through the jungle trek, we decided to hop on a bus and check into WL. Once we got there, the check in process was pretty smooth. They had more buttons for us, and we collected our luggage and were taken up to the seventh floor and lead to the honeymoon suite that backs up to the food service area of the lounge.

This was yet another stop on our grand tour of all the Disney Deluxe resorts. By the time we finished this trip, we only have YC & BC left (if you don’t count S&D, which I don’t). Unfortunately, this was not a winner for us.

We found WL to be very dark and just not to our tastes. I didn’t exactly hate it, but I didn’t find my next love either. I also think Disney really needs to rethink the way they classify these rooms, maybe call them Deluxe Kings or something. The bathrooms are different than in the other rooms, but this is in no way a suite. For me, a suite has a separate living area from the bedroom. We have stayed (through lucky upgrades) in some really awesome Disney suites and this was not one of them. This was a regular room with a king bed and a big bathroom. I knew going in that this wasn’t a traditional suite from research on the DIS, but had I not known that I would have been terribly disappointed.

I did like the ceilings:

Our view:

Bathroom (We will revisit this later):

On the bright side, the ladies working in the lounge were wonderful, some of the friendliest CL CMs we have found. Once we opened up our suitcases, I discovered that I had committed the unforgivable sin of leaving DH’s “special” pillow at BWI. They called over there and had us fill out forms to try to get it back. They even offered to drive DH to Wal-Mart to get another if he so desired, but he declined.

We decided to throw on some long pants and jackets and head over to MK for Spectro and maybe Wishes. On the way out, we grabbed some food from the lounge. DH had some BBQ he liked, but there wasn’t much there for me. We ate in the room because all of the tables were full. We then hopped in the elevator and headed to the bus stop. There was no bus coming and the stop was empty, so we decided to find our way to the boat dock so we could get to MK!

 

[irisbud]

Day 5, Part 2

We got to MK and found a good that Main Street was already full with people waiting from Spectro. Spectro is my very favorite parade, so we decided to view it from Frontierland just in case we didn’t get the opportunity to see it again.

Bad pic of MS at night:

I have to say I was a little disappointed to watch it from this vantage point. I don’t think the lights got as low as they seem to on Main Street and I believe they were having audio problems, as something seemed off about the whole thing. From now on, we’ll get there early enough to watch it on MS with the castle in the background. It was still good, but I like it so much better the other way.

This makes a better background than Frontierland:

Once Spectro was finished, we decided to do Splash really quick, since we were right by there anyway. We got right on and went through. The big extra splash effect that sometimes hits you as you pass by was turned off, which thrilled me. I really don’t like getting wet. I love this ride, but even more so at night. Seeing the castle all lit up in color as you come over the drop is awesome!

Splash at night:

We decided to hurry out of the park at the point and wait until after the cruise to see Wishes, avoiding the crowd until we were staying at the CR and could just walk back. It was so nice to have the luxury of time on this trip. We could really take our time and try to do things at our leisure instead of forcing them in

We decided we were hungry, so we jumped on the monorail and headed to the CR to try the Wave, which we had heard rave reviews about. Our server was great and the restaurant was really neat looking but the food was just okay. DH has some sort of pork tenderloin with an apple reduction that looked like apple butter. He said it was good, but the apple was overpowering. I had the chicken pot pie. Again, it was good, but almost had a gamey taste I have never experienced before in chicken. Our lettuce wrap appetizer and desserts were wonderful, though, and they gave us a free champagne toast. I don’t think we would go back for the price.

We left the wave and headed to the marina boat dock to take the boat back to WL. The EWP was going on by Ft Wilderness apparently, and for some reason this prevented the boat from going to WL. Finally, the right boat came (DH was ancy, he wanted a soda from the lounge and it was going to be closing shortly). We made it to the hotel, rushed to the lobby and up the elevator, and got to the lounge just as they locked it shut. Luckily a nice CM grabbed him a soda anyway.

When we got back to the room, I decided to take a shower and then repack everything. This is where the bathroom I thought was beautiful became a nightmare!

Every suite that we have been in at Disney that had a soaking tub like this also had a separate shower. Not so in this bathroom. The shower ran right into the tub. This would be okay, except the ledge of the tub is really high and really wide, making it really difficult to step over:

Insanely wide ledge:

Once you get in the tub and get the shower on, you have to start walking uphill. For me, the tub was like a treadmill. The bottom was sloped so that the end away from the shower head was lower than the end near the shower head. The tub was really slick and had no traction, so I kept sliding towards the drain and having to walk back under the water.

Evil sloped tub:

The shower had one of those big wide shower heads on it. As a consequence, it was getting EVERYTHING in and around the tub wet. There are drains all along the big wide ledges, but they couldn’t keep up.

This was soaking everything:

When it was finally time to get out, I felt like I was taking my life in my hands. All of the tile was so slick with water, it was really hard not to slip, especially when I had to take a gigantic high step out, only to land on a wet towel, since the shower had soaked the floor too, even with the shower curtain pulled shut.

This is pretty, but when it is wet, look out:

All in all I thought this was really poorly designed, and I can’t believe no one has broken a limb or split their head open because of it! It was really an awful setup. It looks fairly innocuous, but it really was bad:

Death trap at WL:

After getting dressed for bed, I took everything out of our suitcases and packed again, putting the things we would need right away in our carryon, and filling one bag with stuff we shouldn’t need at all on the cruise so we wouldn’t have to open it. This was a chore, but I was glad to have done it when I was finished. At some point during all of this, we got our check out documents and a signed photo from Mickey and Minnie, which was a nice touch.

I set the alarm for eight, since everyone was really vague about when and where the cruise transportation would come (the general consensus was 10-10:30, ish). I was really excited to head to the Wonder the next day for our first ever cruise!

 

[figmentfan814]

I love TSM too; we got to ride it during our trip and we had a blast! I just wish the lines would get a little shorter I'm sorry to hear how you got sick when you went over to DHS. One time I wasn't feeling the greatest and rode RnRC anyway and regretted it too. It can definitely jerk you around which doesn't feel the greatest when you're feeling sick. We just did RPW on our trip for the first time and I really enjoyed it; it was a nice relaxing experience and the talks they gave were quite interesting.

Your experience at WL sounds horrible. I'm surprised about the set-up of the "suite." We stayed there about 5 years ago and were given an upgrade to a suite, but this truly was a suite with a separate living room from the bedroom and it even had 2 balconies (one off bedroom, one off livingroom). Your room definitely doesn't sound like it was up to par at all.

excited to hear about the cruise!

 

[irisbud]

I love TSM too; we got to ride it during our trip and we had a blast! I just wish the lines would get a little shorter I'm sorry to hear how you got sick when you went over to DHS. One time I wasn't feeling the greatest and rode RnRC anyway and regretted it too. It can definitely jerk you around which doesn't feel the greatest when you're feeling sick. We just did RPW on our trip for the first time and I really enjoyed it; it was a nice relaxing experience and the talks they gave were quite interesting.

Your experience at WL sounds horrible. I'm surprised about the set-up of the "suite." We stayed there about 5 years ago and were given an upgrade to a suite, but this truly was a suite with a separate living room from the bedroom and it even had 2 balconies (one off bedroom, one off livingroom). Your room definitely doesn't sound like it was up to par at all.

excited to hear about the cruise!

I was so glad we had the extra time on this trip to get to do those things we always skip over. I think those little things are what makes Disney really magical. I know DH spent a lot of time pin trading this trip and really enjoyed interacting with the CMs. I enjoy when we rush through and get tons of stuff done, but there's somethign great about doing those little extras too. The rest will still be there when you go back again

I was so surprised that they call this a suite; I would think the misnomer would cause them problems. I knew what we were booking (well, I knew it was a reg king room with a big bathroom, basically, I didn't know EVERYTHING about the tub). The whole tub thing sounds stupid, but it was such a pain if you prefer to shower.

We have been so lucky and stayed in three other beautiful suites (the GS we were upgraded to this trip, a 1 BR at AKL, and our most fabulous upgrade ever to the Roy Disney Suite at the GF ) and they were totally different than this. It was okay, since we had an AP discount and the price was lower than it would have been otherwise.

 

[irisbud]

Day 6, Part 1

We woke up with the alarm on Sunday morning and quickly got dress, DH braving the shower and despising it even more than I had. After getting dressed, we stepped out of our room and grabbed some breakfast from the CL. WL CL is our fourth CL, and our least favorite overall. The food area was a mess. People were just letting their kids run wild and get whatever they wanted, sometimes taking all of something. The pastries were okay, but they weren’t as extensive a spread as at BWI and the fruit wasn’t quite as nice either. It isn’t that it was bad, it just wasn’t as good. For us, BWI CL and especially GF RPC CL had something refined and luxuries about them, if that makes sense. That was lacking at WL, and we had also found it a bit lacking during our AKL CL stay. For me, WL CL was like a continental breakfast at a mid range motel gone bad, it was just so chaotic.

After finishing our breakfast, we collected our luggage from the room and headed down to the lobby to bell services. They told us we were just in time, as they started taking the luggage for the cruise line anytime after 8! Um, hello? Why weren’t we told this by ANYONE we asked about the cruise transfer procedure the day before. They then told us to look for a gentleman in a royal blue blazer at about 10-10:30, as they would be with the motor coach heading for Port Canaveral.

We still had at least a long hour to kill, so we wandered outside to the pool area. Though we didn’t like the rooms at WL (or at least our room), the outside of the resort is gorgeous! I loved the courtyard. We walked past the pool and saw a momma duck and her ducklings swimming in the water.

Ducks in the pool:

Momma duck and ducklings:

While we were watching the ducks, we heard a noise and looked over to see the geyser erupting. This was really neat!

Geyser:

After the geyser went dormant, we watched the ducklings for a little while longer then started heading back to the lobby, taking several pictures along the way.

WL Courtyard:

When we got back in the lobby, at about 9:45ish we staked out a comfortable couch. I pulled out the Disney Cruise Line Passporter to see if it mentioned bus times, but there was nothing in there about it. I fiddled with stuff in my bag for a while, and finally started to get really bored. It was about 10:30, so I figured any minute…we had considered going to FW that morning to see the stables, and I was wishing we had by the time 11:00 rolled around.

DH asked somebody about the transfer and they said the man we were looking for would be around and find us. We hadn’t see anybody in the DCL costume. He sat back down for a while and we waited….

And waited…

And waited…

At this point, I was starting to get a little concerned. I had the transfer tickets in my bag, though, and, as I had booked through a TA, I knew this was going to be taken care of one way or another but I still just wanted to get things going.

Finally at a little after 12:00 a woman walked into the lobby who we decided must be with the cruise line. DH talked with her, and the gentleman responsible for collecting people for the transfer. It turned out that they “thought we were at Ft. Wilderness, but knew that we were at WL, and had been waiting for us at Ft. Wilderness”. This made no sense to me at all (aside from the fact that we have never stayed at FW in our lives), but the main thing was that the bus was there!

We found some seats and settled back, watching a skywriter as we headed off property. Once we reached the property line, a movie about DCL started playing with “Hello everybody and welcome aboard! We’re on our way…” The movie went over check in and the basics of the ship. After it was over, there was still quite a bit of time left. I tried to take a nap but I wasn’t successful as I was really excited. Neither DH nor I had been on a cruise or out of the US before so this was all new to us (I know it was just the Bahamas but still…)

We drove through a whole lot of nothing when finally we exited towards Port Canaveral. We could see the Wonder in dock, and I was amazed at how big it is. I know there are even larger ships, but neither of us had ever been so close to a cruise ship before and the size was amazing!

We got off the ship, collected our carryon, and penguin marched through the security line. DCL has a beautiful terminal with an awesome model of the Magic in the center that I wish I had taken more time to look at.

The video had instructed that only one party member should do the check in, so I headed up to the desk with our Driver’s licenses and birth certificates and all of our other documents and received our KTTW cards. Once that was done we had our photo taken for ID purposes, walked up the gangway, and were welcomed aboard. Our stateroom was ready, so we dropped off our carryon and headed to Parrot Cay for lunch!

Chandelier in ship’s atrium:

 

[goofygal531]

Amy, did you book a land/sea package? When we sailed on the Wonder we had such a different experience. It was much smoother.

We stayed at the CR and at check in we had to show our passports to the DCL desk in the resort. On the evening before our cruise, we had to have our luggage outside our room by 2am. The luggage was sent to the cruise and we had the option of being picked up at the resort at Noon or being picked up at AK at Noon. We went to AK. We were there from 8am to Noon. At Noon about 10 DCL buses arrived. Thankfully, we got on the first bus we were so exhausted from our early morning at AK. We slept thru that whole movie!

At the ship, since we already had our KTTK cards, we were able to bypass check-in. Our resort keys worked on the ship.

Sorry you had such a horrible experience. We were so impressed with the land/sea transition.

I wasn't impressed with CL at BWI, I'm surprised WL is worse!

Enjoying your TR!

Mare

 

[irisbud]

Amy, did you book a land/sea package? When we sailed on the Wonder we had such a different experience. It was much smoother.

We stayed at the CR and at check in we had to show our passports to the DCL desk in the resort. On the evening before our cruise, we had to have our luggage outside our room by 2am. The luggage was sent to the cruise and we had the option of being picked up at the resort at Noon or being picked up at AK at Noon. We went to AK. We were there from 8am to Noon. At Noon about 10 DCL buses arrived. Thankfully, we got on the first bus we were so exhausted from our early morning at AK. We slept thru that whole movie!

At the ship, since we already had our KTTK cards, we were able to bypass check-in. Our resort keys worked on the ship.

Sorry you had such a horrible experience. We were so impressed with the land/sea transition.

I wasn't impressed with CL at BWI, I'm surprised WL is worse!

Enjoying your TR!

Mare

Hi Mare,

No, we didn't do the L/S, and I think that caused a lot of the problems we had . The whole thing really surprised my because in my experience, all in all, Disney is usually pretty good at making things really smooth and easy.

This was so ambiguous it was really shocking to me. It was very un-Disney like. I had heard before about going to AK for the half day and I wish we would have done that, but we weren't even given that as an option ever.

Now that I know a little more about how it works I think next time will be better, but it would have been nice to have a little bit of guidance

I know you had a really bad BWI experience and I know others have too. We've been lucky to have had two good experiences there. We didn't care for CL at WL or AKL (other than Don at the AKL IPO; he is amazing!) and won't be back for either. Just not our taste RPC still blows everything else out of the water

 

[Mrsdisneyb2b]

I just read your entire pj....
First, You looked stunning..

Second, in the beginning, the comment about the "age" between you and df....Sorry DH now shouldn't mean a thing to anyone.

My fiances mother and father literally have 14 years between them! And they are still as in love as ever...

And you know what they say...us girls are supposed to find a older guy so their as mature as us!

Other than that. Congratulations. I think the sentiment of your grandmothers ring is just amazing by the way. Its so personal and something that you can then pass down to your children. Just beautiful!

Congrats!

 

[PrincessShea]

Great TR, I am really enjoying it!

I was very underwhelmed when I first saw FOTLK...but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was expecting it to be more like the Lion King musical. If you liked FOTLK, you MUST see the musical. I think your head will explode due to its sheer awesomeness.

 

[irisbud]

I just read your entire pj....
First, You looked stunning..

Second, in the beginning, the comment about the "age" between you and df....Sorry DH now shouldn't mean a thing to anyone.

My fiances mother and father literally have 14 years between them! And they are still as in love as ever...

And you know what they say...us girls are supposed to find a older guy so their as mature as us!

Other than that. Congratulations. I think the sentiment of your grandmothers ring is just amazing by the way. Its so personal and something that you can then pass down to your children. Just beautiful!

Congrats!

Thank you

I'm so glad we decided to use my grandma's ring. It's a little old fashioned looking, but there truly is nothing I would rather have.

Great TR, I am really enjoying it!

I was very underwhelmed when I first saw FOTLK...but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was expecting it to be more like the Lion King musical. If you liked FOTLK, you MUST see the musical. I think your head will explode due to its sheer awesomeness.

Thanks!

We both really want to see the full version, I have heard such good things about it. We want to do an NYC trip at some point so hopefully we can incorporate it into that

 

[irisbud]

Day 6, Part 2

We headed to Parrot Cay for lunch, where we received the first of very many sanitary wipes to use on our hands before the meal. The wipes were a staple on the ship, and we received one every time we were in line for food.

We were seated by ourselves, and we immediately headed to the buffet. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The food was great, and there was so much of it! I found lots of desserts, and DH found lots of cheese cubes, so both of us went away happy!

After eating we decided to go back and check out of stateroom again. We had booked a Category Seven, which has a more enclosed navigator’s veranda, but our TA had secured us a cabin that used to be a Category Six but was reclassified due to a slight obstruction. This cabin had a regular veranda though, and it was great!

Stateroom pictures:
Steamer trunk:

Closet/ doorway/ bathroom entrance area:

Desk/Table/ Veranda entrance:

I liked this lamp:

All afternoon, the loudspeaker kept going off, preceded by the first seven notes of “When You Wish Upon a Star”. This is my favorite song (I used it to walk down the aisle), but it was driving me crazy after about an hour.

Annoying Speaker:

Finally, it was time to put on our beautiful life jackets and head to our assembly station for the mandatory drill.

Looking snazzy in our life vests:

After the drill was over, we decided to brave our way through the Sail Away Party and make our way up to the top deck to watch the ship leave the port. I was a little nervous at this point, as I was so afraid we were going to be horribly motion sick the entire time. When we started moving, though, I didn’t really feel anything.

Anchor:

Ship’s Flag:

Not so Hidden Mickey:

The ship’s horn blew the first seven notes of “When You Wish Upon a Star” a couple of times as we made our way through the channel. This may sound silly, but there was something almost exhilarating about making our way out into the open water. It was so neat to see all of the people watching and waving as we passed!

Heading out to sea:

If you look close you can see the Mickey hands:

Security escort?

Birds chasing the ship:

Almost there:

Finally, we were out in the open sea. Dh and I decided to head back to our room and see if our luggage had arrived yet. I had packed us each an outfit for the evening just in case, but that turned out to be unnecessary, as our bags were waiting for us when we returned.

Open Water:

Sunset:

We decided we would head down and see the Golden Mickey’s show before dinner. On our way to the show, our stateroom host, Donny, stopped and talked to us, already greeting us by name. I was really amazed at the level of service and hospitality aboard the ship. One of the reasons we go back to Disney again and again is the friendliness of the CMs. On the Wonder, they were even more magical!

The Golden Mickey’s was a lot of fun and really well done. After it concluded, we didn’t have much time left before our dinner. We had the late seating, and our first rotation was in Parrot Cay again.

When we sat down, our server, Mahalo (I’m sure I just butchered that) greeted us by name even though we were the first ones there! We waited for a little bit then ordered as no one else joined us at our six top table for some time.

Finally another couple arrived about thirty minutes later and we chatted with them for a while over dinner. Again, I was really pleased with the quality of the food and the service was outstanding! Our tablemates declared the meal to be “Spectacular”.

Once we had finished up, we decided to go to sleep early. There were lots of activities listed on the personal navigator, but we were still recovering from so many days of getting up early that lounging in our room watching movies on TV and going to bed early sounded like a better option.

Sleep (notice DH’s pillow didn’t make it…):

Much lamented lost pillow:

We went up and got some complimentary soda before heading to bed. I braved the shower first (not the greatest ever, but it worked, especially for being on a ship), and we got to bed. We actually ended up having to open the veranda door all night, as our AC was broken, unbeknownst to us until we were settled in. The sound was soothing, though (if you could get past our neighbors cackling and the smell of smoke drifting in from their veranda), and if not for that, the weather was so beautiful that I actually would have liked to have kept it open every night.

 

[Mrsdisneyb2b]

Oh bugger I cant see your pics here theyre blocked at work
What a tease to read and not see

 

[4th_little_pig]

Much lamented lost pillow:

THIS WILL BE MY FIRST POST I AM AMYS DH AND I MUST SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT MY BELOVED PILLOW IS THE ONE IN THE BLUE PILLOW CASE NOT THE FUFU GIRLY BOY PILLOW ON TOP AND TO ALL THE MEN OUT THERE GETTING READY TO GET MARRIED REMEMBER IT STARTS WITH A PILLOW !!!

 

[irisbud]

Oh bugger I cant see your pics here theyre blocked at work
What a tease to read and not see

Sorry!

THIS WILL BE MY FIRST POST I AM AMYS DH AND I MUST SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT MY BELOVED PILLOW IS THE ONE IN THE BLUE PILLOW CASE NOT THE FUFU GIRLY BOY PILLOW ON TOP AND TO ALL THE MEN OUT THERE GETTING READY TO GET MARRIED REMEMBER IT STARTS WITH A PILLOW !!!