Lesley & Joseph DCL Wedding - Updated 5/8

[lescal79]

We spent 4 nights prior to the cruise at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

My trip report will start here ...

We arrived at the Contemporary around 3 or 4-ish on Sunday ... I was immediately impressed that we were checked in and had room keys/package before we even walked in the resort. Surprised to hear that we were "upgraded" to a Magic Kingdom view. I have never stayed here before, so I have no idea if this is a better room or not ... we were booked with a Garden View. I can tell you it was nice to be able to watch the Fireworks at night in my jammies and have our own dessert party!

Here are a few photos, sorry ... they will be large!

We had a pleasant experience here. We utilized the business center by sending our wedding wear down as well as another box. Before we left on Thursday for the cruise, we mailed a box back home with dirty clothes.
We did pay $10 fee to receive the boxes.

The next few days we spent in the parks. I won't bore you to death by this, but I will share my experience at "Be Our Guest" restaurant.

At lunch, we waited 20-30 minutes in line for a table. When you enter, you place your order and they give you a rose to place on your table and they bring your food to you. At lunch, you can choose what dining area to sit at. My daughter was dying to eat in the "West Wing" ... I'm not sure why, it was so dark in there. Here is the Beast's Rose ...

The food was great and the desserts were fantastic!

We went back for dinner that night as we had dinner reservations as well. This time we were seated at the main Ballroom. After you eat, you are invited to meet the Beast in the Study and take a picture with him. It's absolutely adorable in there!

 

[lescal79]

Congratulations!!

Happy legal ceremony day Lesley!! Have a wonderful wedding, cruise and honeymoon. Can't wait to hear all about it

Congratulations!!! I can't wait to see pics & hear how it all turned out.

Thank you ...

 

[dclwonderprincess]

I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed Be Our Guest, we also have reservations there. You take really nice photos, I love your fireworks pic.

 

[1EvilQueenfan]

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time! That's awesome that you got some pixie dust and got an upgrade! Love the pictures and can't wait to hear the rest of your TR! Which did you prefer lunch or dinner at Be Our Guest? Or are they so different you have to do both

 

[lescal79]

Glad to hear you had a wonderful time! That's awesome that you got some pixie dust and got an upgrade! Love the pictures and can't wait to hear the rest of your TR! Which did you prefer lunch or dinner at Be Our Guest? Or are they so different you have to do both

Lunch and dinner are different options. At lunch I had a steak sandwich and at dinner I had a steak, lol. Both were excellent. We went twice only because my daughter wanted to eat in the west wing. We had dinner reservations from a very long time ago. I would do at least one of them, it's adorable and the service is fantastic!

 

[LittleKittyMarie]

What an amazing room and view at the Contemporary! Wow!

Love the BOG photos!

 

[lescal79]

Here's a view of our last night at the Contemporary

We woke up around 7am and headed downstairs for breakfast, nothing fancy, but enough to hold us over until we had lunch on the ship. We also decided to send back a box of dirty clothes before we headed to the port. The business center was very handy.

We arrived at the Cruise Terminal around 10:45am. We decided to just park our rental at the terminal, this time around was more about convenience than cost. For a 3-day cruise, we paid $60 for the parking.

We proceeded through security with no problems and headed upstairs to check-in. We checked in at the Concierge desk, they were extremely friendly. We were given boarding group #3, not #1 like others, but this was not a big deal to us. After the First Family boarded through the "special entrance", they asked us to board and allowed us to board through the same entrance.

As we entered, we were questioned by several Disney employees if we were "Concierge" ... we explained we were getting married on the ship and they asked us to board. After we were announced and entered the Atrium, we were again questioned if we were concierge. Again, we explained why we were onboard early. One even said to us "Well, you are not concierge, I have nothing for you to do, I don't know what to do with you" I felt so out of place. If we knew it was going to be such a problem, we would have waited to board with our group. We decided to take our wedding wear (my dress and Joe's suit) over to Guest Services and hope that we wouldn't have the same treatment there. Thankfully, they were more than happy to take our stuff.


We headed to Cabanas for lunch. We were happy to sit and eat and just kind of relax ... and I ordered a fruity drink


Around 1:30, we headed to our room. We were overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that was in there. We had a basket of fruit, a box of chocolate, sparkling cider, a bag from DFTW, and a Memory Book. We also had a gift from the Castaway Club.

We placed our Day 1 Magnets on our door ... it fit great.

We had an invitation to meet our onboard coordinator, Anjte, at 3pm, at Guest Services. From there, we went up to Outlook. We exchanged our vows and completed the necessary before we left Florida. We also went over the rundown for the next day and we stressed our concerns regarding the treatment we received at boarding.

When we arrived back at our room, we received a call from Joe's sister explaining that she had a bag in her room but it said someone else's name on it. Joe ran down the hall to her room to see what she was talking about. It was our Welcome Bags ...

A quick rundown here ... we mailed out our Welcome Bags to the ship a week before ours left. This was all to ensure that our guest had these bags when they arrived!

They looked like this


Each bag had the guest last name with their stateroom number on it. I don't know how much clearer it could have been. In our box that we mailed down, we also included instructions. Well apparently, they didn't understand. All of our bags were delivered to the wrong rooms. Each bag was the same, but the contents inside were different and addressed to those in that stateroom. This was a complete nightmare. This was the entire reason I had mailed them down ahead of time to avoid the headache of these bags. We finally switched all the bags but found out my parents and my grandmother never received their bag. I won't dwell here, but my parents and my grandmother received their bag on the last night at 8:30PM! The bag apparently was delivered to a stateroom that was not even in our party ... they rummaged through the bag, opened the card addressed to my parents and my grandmother. There were things missing in the bag ... OMG, I am still so angry about this. Luckily, I decided to call in all of the stateroom credit, but who opens a card that is not addressed to them. UGH.


Moving on ...

Our dinner that night was at Enchanted Garden. I know others say that this is their least favorite place, we enjoyed it. I had chicken here, and it was delicious.

We skipped the show that night, but I can't remember why.

We had planned on doing some pictures with our photographer this evening at dinner as well, but it didn't work out. I think she was overwhelmed and I was still so angry about the bags.



.... To Be Continued

 

[lescal79]

I'm still waiting for pictures from the ceremony, but here are a few pictures to share of things we received onboard.

Please forgive the crappy iPhone pics ...


Cake Serving Set:




Memory Book:
(received from our Travel Agent)



opens up to this:



It also came with a flash drive.


Inside the bag from Disney Cruise Line Fairy Tales wedding, were two huge towels:




We received both the "Just Married" and "Happily Ever After" ...
And I mean, at least 6 of these (each)

 

[andeesings]

Not only who opens a card not addresses to them, but those people CLEARLY saw the bag labelled with someone else's name and room. Why would anyone open it???? People are so disgusting.

 

[dclwonderprincess]

I'm so excited about the just married pins!

 

[1EvilQueenfan]

Lesley,

I'm so sorry to hear about your welcome bags! I hope that was the only thing that got screwed up. I truly can't believe people, why not just call Guest Services and let them know!

That's very exciting about the pins! I hope they still have the Just Married ones in January!

Looking forward to any advice you might have. I hope they will take your complaint about concierge and fix that for future brides.

Can't wait to see more

 

[Evi]

Lesley,

All your crafts came out absolutely fabulous. I can only imagine the frustration of having oot bags go missing and then rummaged through. I can't wait to see pictures with all the fabulous props you made.

 

[lescal79]

What an amazing room and view at the Contemporary! Wow!

Love the BOG photos!

We felt the same way about the room! We've never stayed there before, but we felt kind of spoiled! It was nice to be able to watch the Fireworks!

BOG was fabulous!

Not only who opens a card not addresses to them, but those people CLEARLY saw the bag labelled with someone else's name and room. Why would anyone open it???? People are so disgusting.

Amen! I am still so angry about this whole situation! Just like when I had read before that people steal magnets off of their doors. The only thing that I can think is that people thought they were fish extender gifts? But then again, it was inside their room, not on the fishy outside. But still ... it clearly said the person's name on the cards as well as on the bag ... GRRR ...

Lesley,

I'm so sorry to hear about your welcome bags! I hope that was the only thing that got screwed up. I truly can't believe people, why not just call Guest Services and let them know!

That's very exciting about the pins! I hope they still have the Just Married ones in January!

Looking forward to any advice you might have. I hope they will take your complaint about concierge and fix that for future brides.

Can't wait to see more

Jodi ... thank you. This is still a sore subject for me. I can't stress that enough to Disney. And especially, it was my parents and grandmother's bag. People are just rotten. The stateroom host wouldn't tell me what room they found it in, I think she knew that I was about to go pound on their door! I have a few extra pins, let me know if they don't give them to you. We had them on our bed, we got them at dinner and at the wedding also. They do say Disney Cruise Line on them, so I am sure that they will still have these.

I had read past brides TR and no one had ever mentioned anyone ever being rude to them. This is NOT the Disney treatment that ANYONE should EVER receive regardless of your status. I had brought this up to our onboard coordinator and have shared this with Meredith. I don't want anyone else to experience this.

Lesley,

All your crafts came out absolutely fabulous. I can only imagine the frustration of having oot bags go missing and then rummaged through. I can't wait to see pictures with all the fabulous props you made.

Thanks Evi - I can't wait to see them too, staged! Unfortunately, everything was such a blur at the wedding that I only saw glimpses of them. I hope to have something this week to share!

Oh the bags ... grr ... still a sore subject for me.

 

[bats]

OMG, I can't believe someone would rifle through a bag with someone elses name on it. Shocking.

Not surprising that they wouldn't tell you the stateroom they found it in .. I'm sure the thought of you visiting that room made them think twice pretty quickly! Mind you, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall if you had visited!

Looking forward to hearing about the other days and seeing some photos.

Joa
(getting married on the WBTA 2014)

p.s. Love the little curtain ring life bouys .. brilliant! I may well steal your idea if that's ok

 

[DisneyGeek39]

how did you like the wedding space?

 

[lescal79]

OMG, I can't believe someone would rifle through a bag with someone elses name on it. Shocking.

Not surprising that they wouldn't tell you the stateroom they found it in .. I'm sure the thought of you visiting that room made them think twice pretty quickly! Mind you, I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall if you had visited!

Looking forward to hearing about the other days and seeing some photos.

Joa
(getting married on the WBTA 2014)

p.s. Love the little curtain ring life bouys .. brilliant! I may well steal your idea if that's ok

Yes, absolutely steal away! I had many compliments on them!

I'm still waiting for pictures. I meet with my photographer tomorrow I hope to have something!!

 

[lescal79]

how did you like the wedding space?

It was beautiful but small. I hope to start day 2 this week, waiting on pictures from my photographer

 

[lescal79]

We woke up around 8am and headed to the Royal Palace for breakfast, daughter's choice. After breakfast we headed to the Atrium as the "Princesses" were all going to be there and we knew we would find my nieces in line! Sure enough, there they were! After waiting in line to see the Princesses and Tinkerbell, we headed up to the pool and relaxed for a few hours and had lunch.


At 1pm, My daughter and I headed to get our hair done. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera. If you have never been to the spa on the Dream, it is absolutely gorgeous. It is so relaxing in there. I almost fell asleep while they were doing my hair. My photographer did take pictures of us here ... I hope to get one soon to share with you all.


I know a lot of you want to know pricing! It was $70 for mine and $70 for my daughter, plus tip. I expected it to be high. But they did not wash my hair, they just styled it. I think that is a lot for just a style.


We took a few pictures in the waiting area with our photographer as well. We bid her farewell until the wedding. I decided that I just wanted to be with my daughter getting ready. No pictures, just her and I. And she was the one that would be escorting me down the aisle.


Joe got dressed in our stateroom as well. However, we closed the curtain and sat out on the Verandah until he left.


When we were both ready, I was on time, I was surprised, I'm never on time! We waited for the onboard coordinator to come and get us ... she said about 3:50-3:55 ... It's now 4:00pm and I am starting to panic because we still hadn't been picked up yet! Finally, she comes and we are on our way up. Well, wouldn't you know it took about 7 minutes to get an elevator! As we are getting off the Elevator to head to the Outlook, I am just about in tears because I hear my entrance song and it's almost over! They close the door to the Outlook and we get out of the Elevator and turn around the corner. They told me to walk slow ... well since my song was almost over and we were late, I was literally running down the very (short) aisle. I told myself walk slow, walk slow ... but fear of my song ending and keeping Joe (and our guests) waiting for so long, I ran. Here is a sample of the song, it's not the whole thing, just the very beginning:
Yellow


When I reached Joe, he was bawling ... I mean sobbing ... he's such a softy.


Captain Gus performed our ceremony, Captain Henry just left on vacation. He was hilarious. We really liked him.


Our cake was the Under the Sea Cake. I thought it turned out pretty, I didn't really get to see it for that long. Just long enough to see what they had done. On the bottom layer it was the chocolate with chocolate filling and the top was the vanilla with the vanilla bean filling. They were both delicious. Our cake was also hard to cut into. I think it's the fondant. I was very pleased that they were able to incorporate our small "message in a bottle" on the cake. We didn't have a cake topper, we just went with the one they provided, which was set off to the side. A cake topper was not important to us, we just wanted them to add the bottle. Oh ... The white chocolate shells I didn't get to taste, but I heard they were amazing.


We took a lot of family portraits here in the outlook. I had written everything down as to who I wanted in what photos. I think this is a good idea for future brides. Our photographer was able to just switch in and out people. It helped a lot.


We then had our first dance. We danced to "Yellow" by Coldplay. This is the version we used -
Yellow


We went around the ship and took some pictures with our photographer, since our dinner was at 5:45pm, we really didn't have a lot of time. This would be the one drawback on the Main dining.


Royal Palace was where we had our dinner this evening. Apparently they thought it would be great to get all of our tables together for this evening. Well, they were able to do it all but one ... the one table left out was Joe's family! We arrived late (as we were doing pics with our photographer) ... and everyone was already seated and had their drinks, etc. I was (still am) upset by this. We had my family plus Joe's friends at the Main table. If they couldn't include all of us, then they should have put the tables back the way that they were suppose to be. This was a huge problem. Joe's family said that it didn't matter, well it mattered to me. This was something else that I had to address to Disney.

The dinner was great ... they brought us so much dessert I thought I was going to explode. They came over with a rose and sang to us, it was so nice.


My poor daughter was starting to feel ill ... I don't know if it was from all the excitement and lack of sleep. But when we went back to our room ... this was on her bed ... I've never seen this before, very cute!

 

[lescal79]

Sorry ... these are going to be LARGE


The Outlook with Captain Gus

 

[dclwonderprincess]

It looks lovely, the outlook on the Wonder is nice but yours very elegant.