Meryll83's SBP/Citrico's/Morocco TR - And they lived happily ever after...

[meryll83]

Welcome Ladies (and Gents),

So I have (finally!!!) started my trippie - hurrah! Here's hoping I can remember everything!

I've started this as a new thread (breaking the rules I think - eek, let's see if I get busted!) because my PJ thread is already far far too long, but I have a link in my signature if anyone needs to find it!


I'll start by doing the traditional vendor gradings shall I, with a few details on why I've graded them as such, but with much more detail to follow:

Disney - Wedding Coordinator - Kathleen
A
Kathleen was great beforehand in the planning stages, responded to my emails quickly and was on hand on the day to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Disney - Floral - Rosie
B
I loved Rosie on the phone, she has such a cute voice, and I loved our flowers. The flowers were in silk so we could use them again at home, I don't think you can tell, but you guys can tell me when you see the photos! The reason I've graded a B may be a bit finnicky, but it's because I wasn't warned about the below....

Disney - MK and Epcot Bridal Portrait - Amy
B
Amy got some really great shots and was quite friendly, but most of the time she was just down to business, maybe it's an early morning thing but she wasn't too chatty! Amy gets a B (again probably not really her fault but...) because she set my bouquet down somewhere damp whilst we were doing some shots, then I held this against me for later shots, the dye from my flowers came out on my dress leaving it tinged pink around the bodice. 3 dry cleans and it still won't come out I didn't figure out until later that it was the fact the flowers got damp that caused this, as my dress was fine all through the wedding day.

Disney - Honeymoon Shoot - Ty
B
Ty was friendly enough and got some good shots of us. I think maybe it's my fault for not making enough effort with my hair, and choosing an unflattering dress, but I don't like me in a lot of the pictures. Ty didn't take a huge amount of pictures, but I suppose I should be grateful we got the shoot subbed at all, as it seems this isn't offered any more.

Randy Chapman - Wedding Photography - Randy
A+
Loved Randy, he was awesome! He started snapping pretty much the moment he entered our hotel room, but really put everyone at ease and had a fun time with us all. I gave him a sheet of shots I liked, I think we got every one done in our own way. He also met us at the GF just a few days after the wedding to present us with 5 discs worth of photos and an album with around 400 prints. Great service!

STVS - Wedding Video - Stan (& I believe his wife, although I never remember meeting her!)
B+
I love our video, but we only got it to proof a couple of days ago, which I thought was quite a long wait. Hopefully our DVD will be on the way soon! I wasn't aware of Stan (or his wife!) most of the time, they just snuck around and got all the footage which was great!

Beaute Speciale - Hair and Make Up - Ana & Laine
A
The girls were great, we had such a fun time with them! I provided sheets with about 10 different hairstyles on, explaining I wanted a mix of them all, and they really did deliver! My hair was slightly different for the MK shoot the following day, but again I loved it, and Julie and Jackie seemed pleased with their hair and makeup too, in fact, they asked Ana what eye makeup she used on them and went off to hunt for it afterwards!

Uniquely United - Service - Rev Randal Miller
A
Randal Miller was a lovely man, such a calming prescence, and delivered a ceremony which really seemed personal to us, even though he must repeat these things to so many couples each year.

Carolyn Allens - Suit Hire and Dress Steaming
A
What a lovely couple they were from Carolyn Allens! The boys (especially my Dad) commented on how pain-free the suit fitting process was , the couple of small changes that were needed were delivered well in time and the dress steaming was a quick, quiet process.

Forever Memories - Sand Ceremony - by mail
A-
I ordered our sand ceremony to be delivered to Pop, and sure enough, there it was! I only wish (again my fault really) that there were instructions that said to not forget to use the funnel, as we had fun without it during our ceremony!!

Think I've covered everyone there, now let's get on with the story!......

 

[meryll83]

I must firstly apologise that we weren't as photo happy on this trip as we have been on others, therefore I may borrow some photos from our previous trips or from the rest of our gang to better illustrate my tale as we go along...

I booked the Friday off work so that I could go to the hairdressers for my final set of highlights and a trim, and as my parents wanted to set off to the Manchester airport hotel in good time in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, when I was sitting with foil all over my head, Simon was visiting the registrars to confirm details of our blessing type ceremony we would be having when we got home.

After much fun rearranging our many suitcases and bags to fit into my Dad's car we were off, and had a smooth trip to the Cresta Court hotel. Adam, Anna and Isabelle (Si's brother, sister-in-law and their daughter) were already there waiting for us, so after arranging our morning airport shuttle at reception, we all went out for a yummy tea at Frankie and Benny's with some start of holiday cocktails!!
We didn't have a late one, as we were up early the next morning, so not an eventful day, but to us, our holiday had begun....

 

[meryll83]

We all piled into the airport shuttle early on Saturday morning, and took the short trip to the airport with our somewhat sexist driver (I'm sure it was all in good fun!)
I was surprised at the length of the queue at check in, as we'd got there around opening time.
We were asked to use a computer check in kiosk type thing, presumably to speed up the process, which proved to be fun when it decided to give Isabelle the wrong surname, therefore lots of manual work had to be done by a check-in clerk anyway!!
As we got in the queue, Julie and Steve appeared (bridesmaid no.1 and hubby - they were staying at the Radisson) so we had most of the gang together already. Si's parents were on a later flight that day, and Tim and Jackie (groomsman and bridesmaid no.2) had already been enjoying a week's worth of Florida heatwave!
We had more fun going through security when my mum misplaced my dad's boarding pass (just too many compartments in that handbag of hers) and I got cross that I had to pay for a plastic bag for my lip balm as last time they were free, but they were the biggest problems we had, so all in all, pretty smooth going again!

We then went our separate ways to explore the joys of duty free and Simon and I had a nutritious Burger King breakfast with my parents. Time seemed to fly past and before we knew it we were boarding.

We had a good smooth flight and I watched The Hangover (love that film!), Star Trek and half watched The Proposal. Even my mum took the flight in her stride, after this being the reason putting her off coming for so long, so that was a bonus! We had some unmemorable inflight food and planned what we might do for the rest of the day, thinking that Si's parents would now be behind us in the air somewhere.

We had a good landing in Orlando and I love the feeling getting off the plane there, somrthing about the warmth and the smell. Security didn't take us too long to get through, but we did seem to have a stupid amount of bags between us all to get to the transfer bus! At one point Simon was carrying around 10 bags on various body appendages.

We checked into Pop and were given some Just Married pins. We were in the 50's block, previously we'd stayed in the 80's so this was handy to be closer to the food court and buses.
I think my parents and Adam and Anna chose to relax at the hotel that afternoon, but we were off after a quick change of clothes - oh yes I'm one of those people! - along with Julie and Steve to go to the Magic Kingdom. We met a bronzed Tim and Jackie in the lobby too and headed off to see the mighty castle and have the obligatory group photo!

As a reminder, from L-R - Me, Si, Tim, Jackie, Steve, Julie

Noone seemed to be able to decide which ride we should do first, but somehow we settled on the traditional Pirates so went to pay Johnny a visit! After just one ride we realised we were hungry (after only really enjoying a choc ice and bread roll on the plane) so set off for Peco Bills. Steve and Julie got served as normal and went off to grab a table. On the other hand, someone took an aversion to the rest of us and it took us half an hour to receive a portion of fries each (seriously!). Luckily, we were in Disney, so got some free scrummy chocolate cake, carrot cake and cookies between us in way of apology! The fixin's bar also made up for the wait, so I piled my fries with cheese and hot mushrooms to make a mini-feast.

As Steve and Julie had been waiting for us forever and it was getting chilly outside, they went off in search of a jumper for Julie and we agreed they'd come back for us after this.
Unfortunatley, Spectromagic then kicked in and scuppered our plans, as we ended up being cut off from crossing the park and we also discovered our phones didn't want to connect to each other!

I forgot how many people line up to watch the parades!!

As soon as the parade was over, and still not being able to contact Julie and Steve, the rest of us decided to go over to the Haunted Mansion. we later discovered Julie and Steve spotted us going in, but were too far behind to catch up! There was a good CM at the Mansion, as the doors opened it made me jump and Jackie and I got the giggles, but the CM kept her straight face and just looked at us in distaste!

We then walked around the back of the castle, through Fantasyland, and Wishes began. Turned out we'd timed everything pretty badly! we walked right round through Tomorrowland and watched the rest of Wishes as we manouvered round.
After the crowd went wild, we decided we'd best go back to Pop for an earlyish night, as tomorrow we were having a long full day at Universal, followed by Halloween Horror Nights - eek!

 

[gemmybear83]

Yeahy you have started!!! So sorry about you flowers - something similar happened to Meg (I think hers melted with the heat!!!)

Looking forward to reading more

 

[malibustacey]

Ohhhh what is Universal Horror Night like!!? We plan to do this when we go for the wedding! Im not sure I like the sound of mad man chasing you around the park...

Oh and DF is from Yorkshire too!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[Pirate's Princess]

Yay for a TR! Can't wait to read more...

 

[ChocoKat]

WooHoo! You started it!

I am sorry about your dress I hope you can find a way to get the pink out.

So far the trip sounds like a ton of fun! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[shippedtosea]

yay! you started! can't wait to read more.

 

[figment fan21]

yay i'm here too!!! Cant wait to read all about it!

 

[mamaboogie]

Yay! How exciting to be reading your trip report!

May I just say how disgustingly gorgeous you look in your teaser photos Meryll!

Can't wait to read the rest!

Sharixx

 

[Chilly]

Sorry to hear about the flowers. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[DisneyLeah]

Congrats and thanks for starting your TR!

Citricos is one of my top choices, so I really cannot wait to hear how everything went! I'm tuning in for more!!

Sorry to hear about the flower problem, but I hope everything else was great!!

congrats!

 

[figmentfan814]

I was so excited to see the start of your report! Its always nice to see the reviews, that really is too bad about your dress. I'm glad to hear that Randy didn't disappoint, he really is a great photographer. I never met Stan's wife either She was on the second floor of the rotunda taking film and then disappeared after the wedding when Stan was solo at the reception.

Out of curiosity how long was the flight from over there?

 

[Beep]

YAY - AT LAST THE TR!! Well, i can't talk really can I...?!

Been waiting for your TR, can't wait to read about everything that happened.

Amy warned me abut the red of the roses coming off onto my dress but typical me, I forgot as soon as she had mentioned it and had a few red streaks on the front. Still haven't got round to having it cleaned. I really am useless!

We got our photos from randy this morning so at least now i can include some in my TR - when I bother my a*se to do it.

Right, back to your TR. Next installment please. Now. Right now.

 

[meryll83]

Nice to see some familiar "faces" Thank you all for tuning in, pull up a chair and enjoy the ride (of course keeping all arms, legs and small children inside the vehicle)...

Ohhhh what is Universal Horror Night like!!? We plan to do this when we go for the wedding! Im not sure I like the sound of mad man chasing you around the park...

Oh and DF is from Yorkshire too!

All will be revealed in the next installment!!

Where in Yorkshire is your DF from?

I was so excited to see the start of your report! Its always nice to see the reviews, that really is too bad about your dress. I'm glad to hear that Randy didn't disappoint, he really is a great photographer. I never met Stan's wife either She was on the second floor of the rotunda taking film and then disappeared after the wedding when Stan was solo at the reception.

Out of curiosity how long was the flight from over there?

Has anyone met the elusive Mrs Stan I wonder?....

It's normally a little shorter on the way home (tailwinds or something), but a good 8 hours + either way I think!

YAY - AT LAST THE TR!! Well, i can't talk really can I...?!

Been waiting for your TR, can't wait to read about everything that happened.

Amy warned me abut the red of the roses coming off onto my dress but typical me, I forgot as soon as she had mentioned it and had a few red streaks on the front. Still haven't got round to having it cleaned. I really am useless!

We got our photos from randy this morning so at least now i can include some in my TR - when I bother my a*se to do it.

Right, back to your TR. Next installment please. Now. Right now.

Okay okay! Tsk... some people are so impatient

Can't wait to see your photos!!

 

[meryll83]

We now interrupt your regularly(ish) scheduled Trip report to confirm....

WE'RE GOING BACK!!!!

Woohoo! So so soooooo excited! I managed to find a really good fare with Virgin with Miles Plus Money and booking direct through disneyworld.co.uk is soooooo much cheaper than .com so we've managed to sneak in a 10 night trip for September/October!!!

The catch is that we are flying from London Gatwick (looooooong drive) but the saving was such that it was too good of a deal to pass up!
I was trying to hang fire to see if US Free Dining brought any good offers, but as we would have had to add park passes to do that anyway, and we don't HAVE to eat a TS meal everyday (although ), it still made more sense to go for the deal now.

HURRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

And now, back to business....

 

[Chilly]

We got our photos from randy this morning

You only just got them?! I got mine on January 12th delivered in person.

Has anyone met the elusive Mrs Stan I wonder?....

Me me I did!!!!

 

[meryll83]

Just before I go on to Day 2, I remembered something which we discovered whilst at Peco Bills on Day 1, which might be useful for some of you Brits out there to know....


As well as cash, we had some dollars in my Citibank US dollar account and with FairFX, both of which have debit/credit style cards with them.

At Peco Bills, I tried to use my Citibank card to pay for our meals, only to discover it wouldn't work - the CM tried it about 4 times!!
After playing around with it a bit and taking it to the cash point at Pop, we discovered we could only really get at this money by drawing it out from the cash machine, and only $250 max per day - no biggie, but it would have been useful to know this information before hand!! I think we were supposed to get charged for withdrawals, but that never seemed to happen so

FairFX incidentally, no problems using this card anywhere to pay for items, as you would any debit credit card.

 

[Lorelei528]

I'm totally subbing!!!

So sorry about the flowers/dress issue!!! Oh my!

Can't wait to hear all about the trip!

So glad you guys get to go back! (Gotta love those AP's!)

BTW, you look beautiful in your wedding pics!!