OUR FIRST HONEYMOON TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING! - All 8 days here

[DeBestWife]

The PreTrip…Planning, Panicking, and Are we really doing the right thing?

Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

I will start with a bit of background…so that you know who we are and what brought about this trip. My DH and I met 9 ½ years ago. We were married shortly there after. We never managed to get a honeymoon because I already had a 3 year old son…and the debt that went with being a single mom on my own. Eric loved us both…and DS #2 followed soon behind. In the chaos of raising 2 boys, life got away from us. When we celebrated our 8th Anniversary we decided that we wanted to go on a honeymoon to celebrate our 10th Anniversary…so we started saving. When we got a bonus check at Christmas time we knew exactly how to spend it…sort of.

We had been to WDW 2 times with my parents and our 2 DS’s, but this would be the first trip without the kids, and the first one we would pay for ourselves. As if decisions weren’t hard enough about the time we got our bonus check, WDW changed all of its pricing! Now what? To dine or not to dine? Did we need a plus package? What was a plus package? Wait for it…Oh no maybe we shouldn’t do this…What if we mess it up? OK deep breath. Pick a date and go for it. We picked May 3-10…booked MYW package with park hoppers and dining and don’t forget airfare…excuse me big celebration for Disneyland at WDW during our honeymoon…OH NO…I knew this was a bad idea, after all we have more important things we should have spent the money on. OK another deep breath…LOL.

After much panicking…making arrangements for kids, dog, and cats…way too many hours at all of the wonderful sites planning our trip…we were off.

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 1 – Sweet Escape…Rain - no problem…Deluge – Gonna need ponchos!
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

Have I said we don’t do mornings? Somehow this morning was just no problem. Could be that neither of us actually slept due to our anticipation of what was to come. After kissing sleeping children goodbye, looking into the eyes of the poor co-dependent dog, and thanking my parents…again…for taking care of everything in the real world for us while we’re gone, it was off to the airport.

Our flights with Delta were uneventful, and our connections were made with ease. We had made arrangements with Bob from Sunray Transportation to get us to the Pop Century. This was a great decision! Bob was waiting for us at the bottom of the escalators; soon we had our luggage loaded in the SUV, and were off. (THANKS BOB) In no time we were driving up to the front doors at the PC. (THANKS AGAIN BOB) I had heard horror stories about the lines at the front desk at PC, but there were none when we got there.

After completing check-in and ditching our luggage in the room it was off to EPCOT for dinner, a little touring in the World Showcase, and Evening EMH. About the time we got to EPCOT it started to sprinkle a little bit…famous last words…LOL. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Electric Umbrella. Loving the meal plan already a couple of CS credits used, and energy to get on with our night. We headed out to the world showcase, starting in Mexico. Honest we weren’t inside that long, but the sprinkle changed to real rain. Oh well we didn’t mind, no big deal we’re on our honeymoon after all. By the time we got to China it was a deluge, there were no more sidewalks, just very wide rivers. Time for poncho’s! Love WDW poncho’s we still have a couple of the old yellow ones. (Great for car emergency kits).

Surprisingly the rain lightened up enough for Illuminations to be done. We love this show. (Surprised my parents with a breathless cruise 3 years ago, what a treat that was) After Illuminations all the rest of the wimps left the park, and we proceeded to walk on, with no wait, to all of the EEMH rides. The rain stopped about 10 PM and the park was just plain empty. The biggest surprise of the night was that I didn’t puke on Mission Space. (Don’t need to do it again, but glad I tried it once)

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 2 – DH in the spotlight & shopping till he drops! – MGM & MK
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

This is our first full day of vacation, and after staying at Epcot until midnight, we were wiped. We got up about 10 AM, after all it is our honeymoon. We decided to start our day at MGM and see how it would go. MGM was to close at 3 PM for a press event, and we took a shot in the dark that it might be very quite there. Wahoo we guessed right. We had the park practically to ourselves. DH shopped his way into the park…something about to much overtime before the trip and no budget…very fun. We had PS for the Sci-Fi Diner at 12:55 PM. We had just enough time to catch the Beauty and the Beast Show before lunch. That is a great show; don’t know why we never made it before. Lunch was wonderful, the waitress…sorry I forgot to right down your name…was excellent. We split a burger and onion rings and a giant Sundae of some sort. (Side Note…our waitress from the Sci-Fi will show up later in our trip at the HoopDeeDoo Review) I think that we did a couple of other things before DH shopped his way back out of MGM.

We arrived at MK around 4 and grabbed a Nestle Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich and a water to share. I had heard about the Flag Lowering Ceremony in Town Square and we wanted to catch that while we enjoyed our snack. CM’s in dress shirts and ties were running around looking a little frantic and stopping everyone who walked by. I told DH we should pop down from the train station and see what was up. As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs a CM stopped DH and asked him if he was a veteran. DH said, “Yes, Why?” CM said, “Would you like to participate in our flag lowering ceremony?” DH looked at me and I grinned and nodded. He said, “I would love to…but did my wife set me up?” CM giggled and said, “Not that we know of.” So DH handed me all his stuff and they started going thru with him what would be done. Disney took pictures of the whole thing and we got to select a picture for free. DH was also honored as Veteran of the Day at the MK with a Limited Edition Pin and a Certificate to commemorate the event. You should have seen him glowing. It was great.

OK so back to the real world…yea right. DH shopped his way into the MK…are you seeing a trend yet…LOL. We had PS at the Liberty Tree for dinner at 7:45. Dinner and the Characters were great as always. It was on to EEMH and no waits for the three mountains, Peter Pan, and Snow White. Our favorite of the night though had to be the Philharmagic show. This show was new since our last trip and we loved it. We exited the park at the end of EEMH with the rest of the tired masses. Oh boy the longest line of the night…the bus line to get back to the POP. Who needs to wait in line though? We parked ourselves on a bench and sat back to watch all the tired people waiting in line. After about 5 minutes they asked for anyone willing to stand to fill the rest of a bus getting ready to leave…we can do that, and we were on our way. Cool you can even fast pass a bus line I guess.

The only downside came when we got back to the hotel and the Everything Pop Store was already closed so we couldn’t grab a beer to sip back in the room. Oh well we need to get to sleep anyway. Note to self...Store closes at midnight…get beer, or anything else before that…LOL.

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 3 – 10th Anniversary of our 1st date – Kick Off of Happiest Celebration

Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

Another blissfully slow start to our day. To our surprise we had a treat left at our door! I guess that Aladdin and Jasmine had been by, because there were balloons, and an autographed photo from the two of them. They wanted to wish us a Happy Anniversary. Disney Magic…It doesn’t get any better than that! The weather was actually a little warm today with the humidity. (I know a wimp from dry Idaho) We started our day at the Animal Kingdom with lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ. This is some great food, and we found a quiet spot to eat down by the water. The Characters floated by in a boat. Lunch with entertainment…Sweet. Expedition Everest is looking like it is going to be a blast. It was EEMH at AK so we were in no rush to see anything. We saw Tarzan Rocks for the first time. What a great show! Went on the Safari twice, on the first time it was raining lightly and the Elephants, including the babies were enjoying the rain and a bath. We got some great pictures. The second Safari ride was during EEMH and most of the animals were no where to be seen. I am glad we saw it earlier too. We also caught Dinosaur, ITTBAB, the trails in Africa, and Primeval Whirl. We’d had enough of getting wet so we skipped Kali. I know it sounds like we missed so much, but we were very laid back this trip, and tried to see things we had missed before. We also enjoyed the atmosphere, benched and Nestle Ice Cream Sandwiches, oh yes and shopped in and out of the park.

Due to the Happiest Celebration Stuff MGM was open late and did two showings of Fantasmic, so when we were done at AK we headed to MGM for our 7:40 PM PS at the 50’s Prime Time. This restaurant is the most fun! Thanks Cousin Phillip for a highly entertaining anniversary dinner. DH got himself in all sorts of trouble…lucky for him they didn’t have to call over Auntie to put his nose on the wall…LOL. About the time we were done with dinner it was time to go and get seats for Fantasmic. No lines here either. This was a trend the whole trip, luck, planning, FP, and EEMH’s were the reason for this I guess. Gotta love the Pixie Dust. Fantasmic was a great show, and I am glad that we had not taken the boys 3 years ago; it would have scared the crap out of the youngest DS. He will enjoy it now and not have any bad memories.

Another great day over and back to the hotel…after shopping of course!

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 4 - Messed up TS credits from day 2 fixed – Ouch! Blisters

Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

Another early morning for us…LOL. We did have to start our day out with a trip to Guest Services at the front desk. It seems on day 2 we were inadvertently charged for 5 Table Service Meals on our dining plan rather than the 1 TS Credit that we used. Note to anyone using the dining plan, watch your credits at the end of each meal and fix any problems at that time. Anyway, Guest Services was wonderful! They were able to fix the problem with a smile on their faces…and the help of a couple of wonderful supervisors. (Thanks POP Guest Services!)

The weather was perfect today. We started our day at EPCOT. The new Soarin’ ride was on its first official day of being open to the public, so we swung in and snagged a FP for it. Then it was off to Le Cellier for lunch. Now we had heard all the hype on this place prior to the trip, and to be honest, we were disappointed. The Cheddar Soup, and Pretzel Breadsticks were wonderful as promised. After that though it just didn’t do much for us. We got mediocre service, and the food was only OK. I am glad that the meal was paid for in advance, and that we didn’t pay out of pocket for all of the courses. I would have been really upset, but as it was, no big deal, and we were full. This was the only meal that we did not add a cash tip above and beyond what the meal plan gives servers. We just didn’t feel like they even knew we existed. Anyway the only down side to a great day!
So off to touring the countries in The World Showcase. We really wanted to spend some time enjoying the WS and the Flower & Garden Festival. We were not disappointed! The topiaries, and flower displays were amazing. I don’t think that I have ever seen anything like it. We popped over to the land to use our FP for Soarin’, and grab FP for Living with the Land. Soarin’ is one of the most amazing rides that I have ever been on; I think I can smell the orange groves now. What a treat. Living with the Land is always a favorite as gardening is my thing. Dinner was a bonus tonight…we got a Turkey Leg at the cart outside of the American Adventure, and it only cost us one snack credit! Now there is a bang for your snack credit dollar! We sat over in Italy and people watched while we played carnivore…LOL.

By this point in the day I am realizing that I have 2 very painful blisters on my feet, and they are getting worse with each step. I think that maybe my shoes from the first nights deluge were not dry even though they sat for 2 days. Major bummer, but not to get in the way of our honeymoon, just a bit slower of a pace.

After seeing all that we wanted in the world showcase it was time to head to Downtown Disney for you know what…more shopping…I mean a trip to Pleasure Island. We had a great time at the stores in Downtown Disney, and then headed over to PI. We hadn’t decided if we wanted to pay to go into the clubs this time, and with my blisters I knew I couldn’t dance, so we grabbed a beer and did some exploring. My life saver shows up now...They didn’t have any business at the aqua massage place, so they were offering free 5 minute trials of the beds to get people to come in and look around. WOW this is a must do for me from now on…I don’t care if it’s ever free again, it was wonderful. My feet even felt better! They had a live band out in the street for Cinco De Mayo and so we relaxed and watched the band and had a couple of beers. It was clear that my feet were not doing that much better, so it was back to the POP, and blissful slumber.

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 5 – Chillin’ in the Magic Kingdom – Intro. To the Hoop!
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

After so many late nights, we were wiped out, so we slept until 11 AM today. Hey it’s our honeymoon right? After we meandered out of bed, we headed for the Magic Kingdom. We wanted to catch a few things that we hadn’t made it to yet, and FP a couple of favorites.

We started our day with lunch at Pecos Bill’s. Hey it was lunch time already what can I say! Love the toppings bar…sautéed mushrooms and onions, I’m in heaven! After lunch it was over to the Hall of Presidents. Lunch defiantly needed to settle before doing anything wild. In no particular order we managed to see the Tiki Birds for the first time, and FP for Space Mountain & Buzz Lightyear. DH kicked my butt at Buzz. Even with all the hints and cheats from you wonderful folks, I still stink at the game/ride. After that it was time to hop over to Tom Sawyers Island for a little exploring, and ice cream on the porch at Aunt Polly’s. This was our first time on the Island, and defiantly must go back with the boys! What a great place to let loose for a bit. Another first was the River Boat…nice break, interesting, but nothing spectacular. ****NOTE UNDISNEY MOMENT AHEAD****Please skip ahead if you don’t want to read about nature happening at Disney. The one really weird thing that we saw when we were on the river boat was a natural moment anywhere else, but kind of unexpected at Disney. There was a Heron sitting on the bank of the river, and it had captured a baby duck, and was preparing it for dinner…a.k.a. drowning it. It was one of the grossest things I have ever seen, and we both giggled that we couldn’t believe security had not come to stop the murder on property. Anyway that was our one bit of reality on our trip. ****UNDISNEY MOMENT OVER****

We had tickets for the Hoop De Do Review for 9 PM so we headed out early by boat, to give us time to explore Fort Wilderness. This is a great place from what we saw…right up our ally. Not terribly practical for us unless we stay in a cabin though, cause we probably will never drive from Idaho…LOL. We had never been to the Hoop, so we were unsure as to what to expect. This show is wonderful slapstick comedy in a family feeling atmosphere. The food was great, and the show was hilarious! We had a table front and center and it was a blast. They wished us a happy anniversary when they were going thru and honoring birthdays and anniversaries. A woman walked up to us during a break, and said, “Didn’t you eat at the Sci-Fi the other day?” We said, “Yes” She said, “I thought so, I was your waitress over there!” Too funny, she was there with her family and remembered us. I guess we must make quite an impression on people…LOL.

It was another great day and a bunch of 1st’s for us, but now it is time for all night owls to go to bed!

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 6 – ToT / RnRC Marathon – Ooo Ahh…the New Stunt Show - Oh yea & its Mom’s Day
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

Yea so I am giving myself my own Mothers Day gift this year…I took the day off…LOL. Our goal today was to see as much as we could at MGM…or is it DS? Oh well you know what I mean. We have not spent much time here the last two trips due to time issues. For whatever reason this is the park that we have always skimmed over or missed…so lots of first today. Nice treat! At the gate were carnations for all the Mom’s, but who wants to haul a flower all over the park all day? Ok so lots of other people did…I guess I am going to have to get sappier in my old age. We had 2:40 PS at the Sci-Fi. Liked lunch so much we went back again, and split the same meal. Unfortunately the service was horrid this time…oh well no one is perfect, and the food was still great.

We caught the Little Mermaid show for the first time and were quite impressed. Sounds Dangerous was very disappointing…it may be time for a rehab on this one. Muppets 3-D was very good, and the key under the mat was a good giggle for DH. The Back Stage Tour hasn’t been amazing in the past, but it is downright poor now in our opinion. They cut even more of it out to put in the Stunt Show, and most of the buildings that used to have workers were sort of looking like storage buildings. We opted for fast passes to insure our spot for the next showing of the Stunt Show. This show was amazing. We were very impressed with the skill of the drivers, and the format of the show. Don’t love metal benches in the heat…and will get a snack to take in next time, but other than that it was a great show.

By the time we finished up all of that it was time to pick up wristbands for Evening EMH. This would be where the ToT / RnRC marathon came in. With no line we rode each one 3 times going back and forth between the two. Somewhere in there we took a short break to call our mom’s and wish them a happy Mothers Day. We told them that we were thinking of them while we were busy making our own hurl a whirl…LOL…They didn’t know what to think of that…LOL. At this point we were getting hungry so we grabbed dinner at the counter service places over by ToT & RnRC. We decided that we had done enough for one night and headed back to the hotel for a beer, and relaxing by the pool before bed. Another great day and a new found respect for MGM/DS.

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 7 – Our last day in the parks…boo hoo – Resort Hopping
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33
Today’s goal was to see the Safari at AK, and Soarin’ one more time. To do this we had a wonderful WDW travel adventure. We started our day by taking a bus to EPCOT, entering the park and grabbing a FP for Soarin’. The fast pass was for a time later in the afternoon. We went back out and got on a bus to the AK. We went in and grabbed a FP for the Safari. It was only for about an hour out so we ran over to the Flame Tree BBQ for lunch down by the water. By the time we got off the Safari it was time to head back to EPOCT for Soarin’ FP. Back on the bus and back to EPCOT it was. Both rides were great as expected, but in my opinion Soarin’ is best if you are on the top row.

We got our rides in, and we wanted to see a couple of the Moderate Resorts for future reference, so it was off to the busses again and over to Port Orleans French Quarter. We got off the bus at the main entry, wandered through the gift shop and back to check out the pool with the King Triton Slide. This part of the resort didn’t suit us much, but it was really neat, and we are glad we checked it out. Since my blisters had continued to get worse, and we were already out by the boat launches we decided to catch a boat up to Port Orleans Riverside. We took the first boat that came by and rode down to Downtown Disney, waited while they switched drivers to take the boat back up to Riverside…LOL. We loved riverside! This would be an area we could defiantly feel at home in. The only downside was that it felt so spread out, and the bugs seemed to be an issue here, even though we hadn’t seen a problem anywhere else.

OK time for another bus ride…LOL. We wanted to go over and see Wilderness Lodge next. This is one of our favorite resorts for theming. Now you can’t get from resort to resort by bus, so we took a bus to the Magic Kingdom, and bounced to a boat for a ride to the Wilderness Lodge. Like I said we love the theming here, someday maybe we will get to spend one of our vacations at this resort. After a tour of the grounds and lobby it was time to head to the MK for dinner with Tigger.

Since we were already in the lobby we decided to try a bus back to the MK…our only bad transportation decision all day. We waited for 20 minutes or more for a bus to the MK…we defiantly should have taken the boat…oh well we were in no hurry. We had PS for dinner at the Crystal Palace at 8:35. We can’t go to WDW and not have dinner with Tigger. Tigger is DH hero, and a great help to him with kids in bad situation when he is at work. We still got there in plenty of time to go for a quick trip on the Jungle Cruise, and play stair climber at the Swiss Family Tree House…LOL. The Jungle Cruise was great…we had one of the trainee’s from Hong Kong…she is going to knock them dead! We so enjoy dinner at the Crystal Palace, the characters and the food are always good. As we left the Crystal Palace fireworks started, but it wasn’t Wishes, that had been done during dinner, so we were at a loss as to what was up. Once we went around the corner by Casey’s, it became very clear…they were filming the big Disney trip AFV show. We stopped and watched for a while as they were not shoeing us out of the park. We should have stayed longer…LOL…the line for the bus to the POP was sooooo looong. Well, my blisters were too bad to stand in line, and we were in no hurry so we sat down on a bench behind the line to wait for it to go down. We hadn’t been sitting for more than 5 minutes when they asked for anyone willing to stand. DH asked me if I could stand, and I said yes so off we went…FP on the busses…COOL.

It was a real adventure today and we did exactly what we wanted. We rode seven different busses, incase you lost track, and two boats. We love the bus system; it really works if you give it a chance. We got back to the hotel, scheduled our first wake up call, did some packing, and went to bed.

 

[DeBestWife]

Day 8 – Packing – Resort Hopping – Going Home…Maybe – Closing Thoughts
Cast: Me – Stephanie – 34 / DH – Eric – 33

Well it is the saddest day of vacation…going home day. Stich and Mickey woke us up this morning. This was the only wake up call we had and we both woke up giggling. We got a late check out so that we would not have to rush around to get out. After doing most of our packing we went over to Everything Pop for some breakfast to use up the last of our counter service meals. It wasn’t spectacular but it filled us up and got us on our way. After a last bit of shopping, we went back to the room, gathered up our bags, and dropped them off at luggage services.

We wanted to see one more resort before we left, so we chose the Caribbean Beach Resort. We got on the bus to EPCOT and then caught the bus from EPCOT to the Caribbean Beach Resort. We screwed up right off the bat and got off the bus at the check-in desk. Since we were there we grabbed a map of the resort and rather than wait for the next bus, we took off walking. We wanted to see the restaurant area and the pool, and soon found them. Again this resort is very nice, but did not feel like it would be a fit for us. We found the nearest bus stop, and headed back to EPCOT for a bus hop to the Pop Century.

It was a little early for our town car, but we grabbed our luggage and sat back to relax and wait for our car from Sunray Transportation. We had just settled in to wait and Bob arrived…early…very cool. In no time we were at the airport and unloaded…THANKS BOB!

Now the adventure begins! We tried to check in but the computer was saying that it couldn’t find us. It took the attendant at the desk about 15 minutes to figure out that they had changed our flight without telling us due to our flight having a late departure from Orlando, and little chance of us making our connection. After showing them my copy of the paperwork that proved that they had our cell phone number she was unable to explain why they had not contacted us, but that they would get us back on the flight in our original seats, and could make no guarantees that we would make it home tonight. Now, under any other circumstances this would have been no big deal, but our kids were expecting us, and we were ready to be home with them. To make a long story a little shorter…after a very bumpy landing…a blitz from the end of one concourse to the end of another in Salt Lake City…a bumpier take off…and a quick uneventful flight we made it home on time.

It was a great trip! We would do it again in a heartbeat! We loved the dining plan, and will defiantly use it again. The Pop Century more than meets our needs, with the exception of the lack of a hot tub. It was not even a let down after the previous two trip being at the Beach Club in a water view room, and the Boardwalk in a one bedroom villa. The resort transportation was quick and efficient at the times we were traveling, and we found a way around the lines at the end of the day. Sunray Transportation was the best! We had rental cars the past two trips, and this was so much easier…besides the rental cars always sat in the parking lot the whole trip. I know that the Magical Express is an option, and is free, but we love the personal touch that Sunray provided. Thanks so much for taking the time to wade through all of my thoughts, and I hope you enjoyed them. The next trip is less than two weeks away, and I am four months behind getting these out…Maybe I will do better this time.

 

[luvmy2sams]

Thanks for the trip report. Sounds like you two had a wonderful time. DH and I have celebrated the 10th anniversary of the day we met and our 10th wedding anniversary at Disney World over the past few years. It's just as magical for couples as it is for families. Enjoy your upcoming trip!

 

[disneymagic02]

Great reviews, it sounds like you had a great time....good way to celebrate your 10th anniversary honeymoon Thanks for the review

 

[teentoddlermom]

Thanks for your report! Glad you had such a great time! How great for you that you're on the way back soon. Looking forward to the next report!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Thanks for the great trip report. My wife and myself also went to WDW for our 10th anniversary.

 

[fizz13]

Really enjoyed the report, thanks for sharing. Oh, nice to hear good reviews of the bus system too,

Claire xx

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your trip reports ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[Credit Man]

Thanks for the great report!

 

[DeBestWife]

Thanks to all of you for your kind remarks. We are off to WDW again, this time with the kids in only 5 days. I am hoping to get our next reports posted in a more timely manor. Have a magical day.

Stephanie in Idaho
5 days till WDW



See you all when we get back

 

[DeBestWife]

Bump...for those looking for crowd information Mother's Day Weekend