Hi all,
Now back from our Florida vacation, I thought I'd share a brief summary of our Disney World & Grand Floridian stay. As a background, we stayed in Florida for a couple of weeks, to visit a few relatives, but mostly relax and hang out on the beach. My hidden agenda was to propose to my girlfriend (spoiler: success!).
To that end, my plan was to hopefully propose (dependent on weather) and then surprise my new fiancée with a couple of all-inclusive nights at the Grand Floridian. I had arranged for us to drive to Orlando to simply go to one of the Disney water parks, but not to the main parks nor stay at a resort.
I made arrangements at the resort, booking us in the club level in the main building, with a theme park view room. Additionally, I booked a couple of surprises (
From Mickey & Minnie with Love and
To Infinity and Beyond) with the Disney Florist for each night of our stay.
I made use of the IPO to book a couple of dinner/lunch reservations, but didn't make any specific room requests. They had asked if I was celebrating something, and I mentioned engagement, but asked them not to mark it in the system, as I wasn't sure if it would happen before the stay at the resort. Basically, I wanted to propose at sunrise on the beach, and I wasn't sure if the weather would be cooperative before heading to the GF.
So, engagement day: perfect weather, up in time, tanked up with a bit of coffee, romantic, joyful and "yes!".
After some hours celebrating ourselves, and then sharing the news with family, we were ready to head over to Orlando, so we could make our planned trip to the Typhoon Lagoon on the next day. I discreetly called IPO and told them that we were going to celebrate an engagement. My first surprise: I booked us a deluxe jacuzzi room at the Radisson close the WDW property instead of the budget motel I'd told my fiancée, and that she was expecting. It was nice, and the jacuzzi was fantastic.
I then mentioned that I had booked us a special breakfast for the morning, before we head to the water park. We got an early start, and we headed over to the Polynesian for breakfast at the Kona Café. This was a clever way to get onto the WDW property and in close proximity to the GF, as I've only recently introduced her to the concept of
Tiki bars (not very common in Europe); which I knew we'd both like, and it was a reasonable excuse to get over there.
After breakfast, we walked around the Polynesian a bit, enjoying the theming. This led me to suggest looking at a couple of other resorts, as the water park was not yet open, and it would be an enjoyable way to pass the time. Thus, to the Grand Floridian!
The surprise was burst when I told the gate guard that I had reservations under my name. At first, my fiancée was confused, thinking that only guests would be allowed, and that by giving my name, we would be busted for some sort of illegal trespass, but she figured it out pretty quick. Nevertheless, events progressed quickly at this point.
We were met at the valet parking by a nice woman from concierge who quickly took us up to the club lounge to check us in. She was quite friendly, asking us about our travels and plans, but my fiancée was still in a bit of a shock about the surprise, so I explained that I had just surprised her with the whole deal.
The concierge gave us our key cards, cute little "just engaged" buttons, and explained that the room would be ready later in the day (this was around 9:30AM). She then explained that we would get an upgraded room. The Grand Suite.
Wow, what a surprise! I had not expected it, and frankly, I'm sure would have been perfectly satisfied with the room we had booked. We were not, however, too modest to refuse. We toured the property a bit, and eventually headed off to the water park for the day, leaving our bags with Bell Services, and returning in the late-afternoon to the now ready suite.
Whew! The suite is stunningly large. A massive hallway leading to a living area with wet bar, upright piano, three balconies, writing desk, dining table, couches, big screen t.v. One guest bathroom off the hallway; a guest bedroom with queen bed, balcony, bathroom and tub/shower. A master bedroom with king bed, balcony, twin vanities, enormous shower (literally twice as big as the elevator at my work); jacuzzi room, toilet and bidet.
I've since looked up descriptions of this suite online, which are pretty accurate, though the guest bedroom had a queen sized bed, and not two twins as currenly noted on Disney's website. A couple of geek-oriented notes: the living room features surround sound Bose cubes, a blu-ray player, flat-screen t.v. and a Logitech Harmony One remote control. There was also a card stating that the WiFi charges are waived. All lighting panels are touch sensitive and most are dimmable.
Well, we were feeling pretty special. I should mention that Bell services did a great job of showing us the features of the suite when they brought us to the room with our bags. The gentleman even brought us a fresh ice bucket for the wet bar.
The second big surprise of the day was forthcoming: 10th row tickets to see the Orlando Magic play at the Amway Center in Orlando. This was probably more of a cool thing for me, as I've always wanted to see NBA live, but I assumed (correctly, yay!), that the excitement of a sports arena would also hold interest for her. I managed this surprise by saying I had dinner reservations at a nice steak house in downtown Orlando. I feigned surprise at the legions of blue and white dressed fans on the streets, but eventually, the secret came out. We had a fun time and the Magic won.
The third big surprise of the day was back at the suite.
Mickey & Minnie had been to the room, and delivered a dozen roses, rose petals on the bed and floor, personalized towels, a spa gift basket, a framed Princess Proclamation, and other like gifts. It was a really fantastic (and long) day, full of surprises for my sweetheart. Worthy of well-earned jacuzzi bath.
As we were only booked for two nights, we spent the remaining two days in the parks, concentrating on the ones we'd not been to (e.g. Epcot and Animal Kingdom), but touching in with all four. As this was the week before Easter weekend, I was expecting huge crowds, but the Queue Gods smiled on us, and we miraculously had walk-ons for virtually every big ride we went on: Space/Splash/Thunder mountains; Pirates, Haunted Mansion; Test Track, Soarin', Journey into Imagination; Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur; etc. On our second day, we came back to the room to find that Buzz Lightyear had floated on in.
We also spent a considerable time just enjoying the suite and the Grand Floridian.
I should mention that the property is beautiful, and the staff were excellent. On check-out day, we wanted to visit some parks, and Bell services held onto our luggage, and packed up the roses we had from the Disney Florist extremely well, and kept them refrigerated until we claimed them later in the evening. The roses lasted nearly two weeks!
The parks were all superb, and by far we felt the most enjoyable was the Animal Kingdom for the fantastic theming, plentiful shade, great rides and walks, and fewer crowds. As a guest, I was very pleased with the experience; and quite frankly glad that my job does not entail getting to work at 8AM in costume and ready to sing and dance with a smile in a parade. At least not without intravenous injections of coffee and sedatives.
The vast majority of cast went out of their way to congratulate us on the engagement, and we got some freebies along the way, such as fastpass tickets and free digital copies from ride pictures.
We did see some of the other resorts, and while the GF was fantastic along with great service, we could easily visit other properties for the experience as well. All told, it was a great break, a great surprise, and we have very nice memories and pictures of our engagement together.
Cheers,
P&C
p.s. Happy Mother's Day, moms!