Our Honeymoon/DH's first trip * Canadians in 90+ temps. Update 28/6 - Day 2, part 2

[vikkii19]

Hello all and welcome to my first ever trip report. I know I'm a little late, but better late than never right.

I've been to Disney once in 1991 and we only visited MK and Epcot. We went during Christmas and I remember waiting over 2 hours to go on Jungle Cruise. Here are a couple pictures from that trip.

So I had been wanting to go back to Disney for a while and when we started thinking of where to go for our honeymoon, I really wanted to go to Disney. DH didn't really want to, but after forcing him to watch the vacation planning dvd and many videos from youtube, he finally agreed. His main concern was that it was only a place for kids, but thanks to the DIS I showed him it wasn't.

So I'll start with a little introductions

Me (Vicki) 28 now, was 27 on the trip. I work for government of Canada as an Insurance agent. I love Disney movies, scrapbooking and reading. I started planning our trip about a year in advance and I had almost as much fun planning as actually going on the trip.

DH (Denis) 26, will be 27 in July. He's a mechanic and loves restoring antique muscle cars. He doesn't really care for anything Disney and hates when I start overly talking about Disney, but since he loves me he'll tolerate pretty much anything.

We were actually married October 2nd, 2009 and we were in Disney from October 6th to the 16th (flights were less expensive leaving Tuesday and it gave me time to pack after the wedding)

Here are a couple pictures of the wedding

So we ended up staying at CSR with the Dxdp the first 3 nights then we moved to SSR with the DDP for the last 7 nights. I had the whole trip booked as CSR, but after learning about DVC, I wanted to check out a DVC resort so DH could see what it was and maybe want to buy DVC...I'm still working on that. He'll give in eventually...or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

So here was our original itinerary and it changed a little, but you'll hear about that as we go along.

Tuesday Oct. 6 - Arrival day. Flight arrives at 1:05pm, hopefully we'll be checked in by 2:30pm and get settled in. Then head to MK for MNSSHP at 4pm. Dinner ADR at Tony's Town Square at 7:55pm

Wednesday Oct. 7 - Up early for RD at Epcot. Lunch at Coral reef @ 12:35pm and then Le Cellier @ 6:05pm. Hoping to get FW done right before dinner and then tour the WS after dinner since it is a EMH night.

Thursday Oct 8 - Breakfast ADR at Donald's Safari Breakfast at 8:30am. Yak and Yeti lunch at 2pm. We plan on leaving the park at around 3:45pm to be back at the resort for a 7:50pm dinner @ Whispering Canyon Cafe

Friday Oct 9 - Sleep in, then check out of CSR before 11am and head to SSR. Check in there, if our room is ready we'll get settled in, if not we'll head to DTD for a bit, Lunch ressies at Planet Hollywood @ 12pm. We might go back to the resort for a swim, depends how much time we spend at DTD, then Dinner at Ohana @ 8:25pm.

Saturday Oct 10 - We're planning on going to Sea World today and have an 8pm reservation at Fulton's Crab House

Sunday Oct 11 - Just relax in the morning and head to DHS for Fantasmic tonight. No ADR's today.

Monday Oct 12 - Sleep in, hopefully do the DVC tour at around 11am. Head to Epcot once that is done and enjoy the F&W kiosks. Lunch at Chefs at 12pm, Dinner ADR at Teppan Edo @ 5:50pm. Stay to watch illuminations.

Tuesday Oct 13 - Get up way early and head to MK for 8:05am breakfast at the Crystal Palace. It's a non EMH day, so hopefully we'll get good pictures of a nearly empty park. Tour MK all day until about 6:30pm (closes at 7 for MNSSHP), then head to the GF for 7:00 for dinner at 1900 Park Fare.

Wednesday Oct 14 - Get up early for RD at DHS. We have lunch ADR at Sci-Fi @ 11:40am. We'll tour the entire park until closing at 7pm, then head to the Beach Club for a 7:35 ADR @ Cape May Cafe. After dinner head to Jellyrolls for a couple of hours.

Thursday Oct 15 - Sleep in a little, but head to the Contemporary resort for 10:20am breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Then head back to SSR for a swim. We'll be going back to DHS sometime before 4pm. We have dinner ADR at 50's Prime time cafe @ 4:25pm.

Friday Oct 16 - Departure day, sleep in a little, then pack and check out and get on ME back to the airport. Flight leave at 1:55pm.


So that was our initial plan. It changed slightly and we had a big mishap, which I'll tell you about later.

 

[vikkii19]

So our flight was departing Moncton, NB Canada at 6:30am and heading to Toronto. Then from Toronto at 10:30am and arriving in Orlando at 1:07pm.

So we took off from Moncton and it was -5 (that's Celsius and that's what we use here, so it took some time for me to get accustomed to the Farhenheit temps, but -5 is 23 degrees). All that to say it was freezing and I couldn't wait to get to Orlando for warm weather.

So this is where part of the trip started going iffy. Denis and I had never been on a plane. I was so worried about him not being alright (he has a weak stomach) that I never really thought of myself. Well let me try and describe the feeling. We took off and the whole way to Toronto I thought I was dying. I had my seatbelt as tight as it could go, I had my hands gripped to the armrests and I didn't move for the whole way. I basically never wanted to get on a plane again, but I really wanted to get to Disney, so I had 1 more flight to get there.

Anyways, 10:30am came and it was time to board. Well I had thought to myself I overreacted, and it was just the unknown that made me scared, but now that I knew what to expect I would be ok. Well..... not so much. It was the same as before, but a little worse because the flight was an hour longer and I really had to pee. But there was no way I would get up. I would of pee'd on the seat before getting up to use the bathroom. So the flight went great, as far as that goes.

So there was one part of the flight I didn't mind and that was when the decent started. Once I could see land getting closer I started to breathe normally and my stiffness loosened up a bit. So finally we started our decent and I couldn't have been more relieved.

So when we landed we boarded the little monorail and of course we ended up on side A of the airport and went all the way to the end of the never ending corridor. Until finally taking out my ME booklet and realizing we were in the wrong place. We finally found the ME counter about 30 minutes after landing.

So my first shock, was when we went outside to board the bus, I couldn't get over the heat and humidity. I only found out later in the trip that there was a heatwave and it was abnormaly hot for October. So thank god the bus was air conditionned. We boarded and about 10 minutes later, we were off.

Soon enough we saw the sign

We dropped off guests at Carribean Beach first

then at POP

and finally we got to our resort CSR

I had done the online check in and that went really fast. There was no one in the line. I had requested a room in the Casitas section prior to the trip and once I received my map and folder, I was please to have a room in the Casitas. So thru the lobby we went in search of our room

I couldn't get over how pretty the resort was. After about a 2 minute walk we found our room. It was in building 3 on the main floor. When we opened the door, I was surprised to see we got an upgrade to a suite. It was wonderful, but at first I thought we were in the wrong room, so I called the front desk and they advised me about the free upgrade. It was wonderful, especially the 2 bathrooms.

Here is Denis, he couldn't get over the room

So we both got changed, because when we left that morning we had jeans on and we were both starving. It was about 2:30pm so we headed to the Pepper Market for a quick lunch before heading to MNSSHP.

So they sat us and our server explained the stations and got us drinks. We headed over to the stations and both decided on ribs. I forgot to take a picture before eating... oops. I got better as the trip went along, I promise.

For dessert I had the oreo cake and Denis had the Strawberry shortcake.

We had a great meal at Pepper Market and despite the bad rep it gets here, we really enjoyed it.

Up next, MNSSHP and the MK.

 

[blairbear]

Great start! I am looking forward to following your trip. DH and I are booked at CSR for our December trip this year. I can't wait to read your thoughts.

 

[vikkii19]

Ok, so we had finished our meal at the Pepper Market and we had tickets for MNSSHP. So it was about 3:30pm and I knew we could get into MK with our tickets at 4pm. So we headed out in search of a bus stop. We kind of got a little lost in the Casitas section, but once we found our way, it was easy for the rest of our stay.

and then finally we got to the bus stop

After a short bus ride we finally arrived at the Magic Kingdom. It was about 4:15pm by this time. I was so anxious to finally be here that I ran off the bus and didn't know you had to follow the little path, well I tried to run to the walkway that guests from the Contemporary use. Well, the bus driver didn't like that too much and peeped the horn at me and started yelling. I was like Oooops....my bad and laughed. He didn't find it funny. Oh well, he was the only grouchy bus driver we had the whole trip.

Ok, so on to the MK. I was so excited and really liked the Halloween decorations.

As soon as we started walking up Main street, I noticed 2 things. How freekin hot/humid it was and how uncrowded it was. We didn't know where to go first, so we turned left and started in Adventureland. As soon as we turned I saw Aloha Isle and after reading here about the wonderful Dole whips I had to try one. Denis had a citrus swirl, you can see it in the picture behind me.

Now I have to be honest. I really wanted to like Dole Whips, but it was just alright. I liked Denis' better than mine. The fact that I don't really care for Pineapple should have been a sign.

After cooling off with the ice cream, we headed to the Swiss Treehouse

After that we headed over to Jungle Cruise. This is the ride I remembered waiting over 2 hours for back in 91. When we got there the sign said 5 minutes, but we just walked on.

I don't remember our tour guide's name, but she was alright. Pretty corny, but I think that's how they're supposed to be.

After Jungle Cruise, we headed over to Pirates and again I was shocked at this

5 minutes, was a walk on again

I really like Pirates, especially the drop, because I could remember there would be one, but it still took me by surprise.

After, we headed over to Splash Mountain. I've wanted to ride this ever since my first visit. Everyone else were too scared to ride back in 91 and I had really wanted to, so I wasn't missing my chance this time. So Denis has a really weak stomach, so I made him take non-drowsy gravol before our meal, in hopes he would be alright. But when we got closer and he saw the drop he didn't want to go.

I said he was going wether he liked it or not, I pointed out the little children who were on there and that it always looks worse than it really is. So finally he agreed. When we walked up I was surprised again

WALK ON!!!, actually we were stuck behind this really, really, really slow man and it might have actually been a 5 minute wait, but by the time we got to the logs, there was no one.

Continued in next post

 

[vikkii19]

So we left off at Splash, and how was Denis you ask. Well he wasn't sick, but didn't really like the big drop either. I loved it, and wanted to go again, but Denis didn't want to. Oh well, maybe our next MK day.

So we made our way through Frontierland and we had about 30 minutes before our ADR time at Tony's.

So we headed to Fantasyland and rode IASW. I know a lot of people don't like this ride, but I think it's a classic and really like it.

There was only about 20 people waiting to get on, so it took about 5 minutes and then off we were.

So by this time I have to give you an update on Denis. At first, he didn't really want to come to Disney because he thought it was only for kids. Well he didn't think that anymore. He couldn't get the awe off his face. He wasn't fascinated by the big things, he was fascinated by every little detail Disney puts in stuff. Like the queue lines, all the details surrounding the actual ride and the architectural stuff.

So after this we started headed to Tony's for our dinner reservation. Our ADR time was at 7:55pm and we got there at 7:45pm. We were seated within 5 minutes. There were a lot of people in the entrance hoping to get seated, but they would all get turned away.

We got to our table and they had decorated it with little confetti. I thought that was really cute.

So since we had the Dxdp the first 3 nights, for apps I had the rock salad shrimp on crostini

and Denis had the Caesar Salad

For entrees I had the Seafood Diavoli

and Denis had the New York strip steak

For desserts I had the best dessert of the whole trip, the pistachio creme brulee

and Denis had the Ice cream bomb

When we finished, we caught the end of the Boo to you parade

After the parade, we started going up Main Street and noticed people had already started taking there spots for Hallowishes, so we did the same. Then they started

After Hallowishes, it was around 10pm, and we were both pooped. We had been up since 4:30am. So we decided to call it a night and head back to the resort for some much needed rest. We took some pictures going back to our room. The resort was so beautiful at night.

So that's it for day 1. I'll try and have part of day 2 up tomorrow. What does day 2 have in store.... well a full day at Epcot, that's what. Stay tuned.

 

[vikkii19]

Great start! I am looking forward to following your trip. DH and I are booked at CSR for our December trip this year. I can't wait to read your thoughts.

We loved CSR, I had a couple concerns with the people saying how long of a walk everything is, but as long as your not in the Ranchos, I don't think it's that bad. I think you will love the resort, it's very romantic.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I'm in! I have to support a fellow Maritimer! I love your TR so far. That's too bad you didn't enjoy flying. I love to fly, especially because I love to get where I'm going! I can't believe the wait times. Everything was about 5 minutes in the afternoon/evening? Wow! I'm going to have to get myself there somehow in October. (Being a teacher makes my vacation times very limited).

 

[vikkii19]

I'm in! I have to support a fellow Maritimer! I love your TR so far. That's too bad you didn't enjoy flying. I love to fly, especially because I love to get where I'm going! I can't believe the wait times. Everything was about 5 minutes in the afternoon/evening? Wow! I'm going to have to get myself there somehow in October. (Being a teacher makes my vacation times very limited).

Hey fellow Maritimer. I'm hoping I will get used to flying. We're heading back to Disney in November, so I'm hoping it will be better. I'd love to love to fly.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Hey fellow Maritimer. I'm hoping I will get used to flying. We're heading back to Disney in November, so I'm hoping it will be better. I'd love to love to fly.

Just keep thinking Disney thoughts. Bring an MP3 player and play some Disney music. That's what I did for my sister. She gets motion sickness too though, besides the hating flying part. Hopefully each time you fly, you'll feel better and more comfortable!

Looking forward to more TR.

 

[blairbear]

We loved CSR, I had a couple concerns with the people saying how long of a walk everything is, but as long as your not in the Ranchos, I don't think it's that bad. I think you will love the resort, it's very romantic.

I really think that we will like it too. We aren't really that fussy and I think it looks really beautiful and romantic as well.

I am really enjoying your trip report so far. Tony's has a bad rep but DH and I enjoyed it when we tried it a couple of years ago.

 

[vikkii19]

So all in all day 1 went fine. I don't think I would do MNSSHP on our arrival day again. We were too tired to take advantage of the party.

So day 2 started with me being up at like 5:30am and not being able to sleep. So this is where the suite at CSR came in really nice, because Denis slept in the bedroom while I watched TV in the living room. It was great. He finally got up with the alarm at 7:30am to get to Epcot for rope drop. At 8am we were out the door. As soon as I opened the door, I couldn't get over the heat and humidity at 8am. I don't think it's ever this hot and humid here. The pictures are all blury, that's because the lens would fog due to the humidity

After a short bus ride, we arrived at Epcot. I have to say, we never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus and they were pretty empty.

So we got there at about 8:30am and waited for rope drop

Once that was done, we followed the mass of people heading for Soarin. We rode first then grabbed fastpasses for later.

After Soarin', we were a little hungry so we used some snack credits at Sunshine Seasons for breakfast. I had a banana nut muffin and Denis had a Blueberry muffin with OJ.

After a quick bite, we headed to Living with the land. I really enjoyed this and want to do the Behind the Seeds tour on our next trip.

After that, we decided to head over to test track.

It was soo hot we went looking in Mousegears to cool off in the aircondition.

We ended up finding the bride and groom ears. I wanted to buy them the night before at the MK, but could only find the groom ears, there were no bride ones left. So I was pleased, we bought them and had them shipped to the resort, which is a great perk of staying onsite. I wouldn't of wanted to lug the bag around with me all day.

So finally we got to test track. It said 5 minutes, but we walked on and actually let people go by us because Denis was amazed and wanted to take pictures of the queue area.

I didn't know how Denis would do on test track, but he was fine. I fed him non-drowsy gravol in the morning, so it's hard to tell if he would have been fine without them.

After, we headed over to the seas and rode Nemo

After Nemo, we explored the area while waiting for our ADR time of 12pm at Coral Reef.

Up next, Day 2 continued, more Epcot and lunch at Coral Reef.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Joining in on your TR...my DD17 is the same as you on the aircraft, she doesn't relax until the descent We always fly Westjet too....I love that airline

How wonderful that you got an upgrade....two bathrooms.....

I look forward to more

 

[vikkii19]

So I left off with heading out to lunch at Coral Reef

There were a lot of people at the podium and waiting on the little benches, but we only waited about 5 minutes before our server came to get us. We were seated on the highest tier further away from the tank, but we still had a good view.

We started with the appetizer for 2, which contained a mixture of their appetizers.

While we ate, there were some visitors in the tank.

Denis had the trout with white bean salad. He always thinks of salad as lettuce and when this came out he didn't know what to do with it. Let's just say he didn't care for it, but he did like the trout.

I had the Mahi Mahi, it was delish

For dessert we both had the chocolate wave. It was excellent.

After lunch we strolled around and saw Honey I shrunk the audience and Figment.

Then we headed over to Innovations to stroll around

We did the side closer to Soarin' first. Then we grabbed a couple of these to cool off.

After our refreshing snack, we headed towards the other Innovations, the ones closer to test track.

Denis always wanted to try a segway and was thrilled when he saw this.

I'm hoping to surprise him with the segway tour on our upcoming trip. He rode like a pro.

After Innovations, we headed to Spaceship Earth which was a walk on.

I noticed the flash at the beginning of the ride, but had no idea why. We both cracked up when we saw this. The missing chunk out of Denis' head, is because he was in the process of removing the camera from around his neck when the flash came.

My sister laughed even more, when I called her that night and I had e-mailed her the video.

After playing around there, we headed to Ellen's Universe of energy. I hadn't heard much about this, but we actually enjoyed it. It was nice being in aircondition.

After Ellen, we started heading toward the World Showcase for our dinner reservation.

Before we got there, we spotted a Photopass photographer who took these shots

That's it for now, up next will be dinner at Le Cellier and our quick voyage around the world showcase.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I love those photopass pictures! Some were really original. Maybe I'll get some fun ones on my next trip. And your pictures are great, I feel like I'm right there.

 

[vikkii19]

I really think that we will like it too. We aren't really that fussy and I think it looks really beautiful and romantic as well.

I am really enjoying your trip report so far. Tony's has a bad rep but DH and I enjoyed it when we tried it a couple of years ago.

I really liked Tony's too and was worried when reading the comments before, but it exceeded my expectations.

Joining in on your TR...my DD17 is the same as you on the aircraft, she doesn't relax until the descent We always fly Westjet too....I love that airline

How wonderful that you got an upgrade....two bathrooms.....

I look forward to more

Welcome, we loved Westjet, even though we technically haven't flown with anyone else. I keep hearing they're better than Air Canada.

I love those photopass pictures! Some were really original. Maybe I'll get some fun ones on my next trip. And your pictures are great, I feel like I'm right there.

Some of them were a surprised, I didn't realize until I saw them why he was making Denis pose with his elbow out like that.

 

[blairbear]

I love the photopass pic of you all leaning on Spaceship Earth! that is really cool and one that I haven't seen before.

I am really enjoying your trip report

 

[KatMark]

I just found your trip report and am enjoying what you've posted so far. Congratulations on your upgrade to a suite. We were upgraded to a suite at the CSR in 2008 for our 25th wedding anniversary. As you can probably tell from my siggy, it is our favorite resort.