TR: Our Magical Honeymoon at the Grand Californian

[cinderella-princess]

I could have sworn I marked my spot here but it is nowehre to be found!

Anyways, looking forward to all that is to come! You two do make a great couple. Oh, and what a coinkydink. I was just in Auburn this past week visiting family. I don't know why but I always find it exciting to find DIS'ers who are either nearby or at least someplace I have heard of.

How funny! I like finding people that are nearby too - it makes you feel more connected.

That is such a nice touch on Disney's part. They do, do it better. And because of that it makes it harder to stay any where other than on property.

They really DO do things better. We were surprised by the amount of "congratulations" we got from the park employees. Everyone who passed commented or wanted to know wedding details; even people in line! Wearing the ears and the pins was a great way to strike up conversation with people all week.

 

[GirlfromTN]

I love this report I will be at DL on my honeymoon in June. I am trying to convince my fiance to wear the groom's ears

 

[Docter419]

On the third morning we had reservations at the Mandara Spa for 9am for a couples' massage. So we got up early and ate a little breakfest at La Brea before we headed over to the Spa. Once we got there we both were lead into the one couple's room in the place. We each spent one hour in the spa while we were given the first massage we've have ever gotten. It was fun... and after it was all over we both decided that it was very overrated! We both were shocked about how short it was and we were not that very relaxed after it was over. Oh well, I guess we are just not the massage type :
After it was over my wife had a message on her phone from her mom that worried her... Let me backup a bit, before the wedding and her honeymoon her golden retriever of over 14 years named amber was being very sluggish and the family worried about her health. But with all the hubbub of our wedding we simply thought that she was just acting like a old dog again. But that faithful morning she passed away. It really touched me as well, because I feel she knew she was going to pass but being the trooper that she is she stuck it out in order not to ruin our special day. Rest in peace amber. I only knew her for a couple years but I loved her like my own. Of course we were both shaken after this event. We both agreed to immediately go over to build a bear and make a little Amber. And that is exactly what we did. We still have that wonderful stuffed animal to this day.
After that we head back into the park. Its been a while so I don't remember what rides we rode that day, but I can promise you it was the best way to forget about the tradegy that happened earlier that day. After we had our fill of the park that day. We went back to the hotel to relax by the pool after a somewhat stressful day. And of course I had to try the water slide!

And of course I had to grab a brew!

And the lady had some good reading material!

It was a great way to unwind a little bit. After we got back to the room and showered up a bit. We headed to my favorite place for dinner... THE ESPN ZONE! I ended up ordering cheese fries and sliders, I especially enjoyed the sliders!

But both made me a very happy man....

After that we headed back to the room to celebrate with a bottle of Champagne. After some horrible news, it ended up being another wonderful day on our honeymoon.

 

[DizNee Luver]

So sorry to hear about Amber...... it's very sad when a family pet passes on. I love that you went to Build-A-Bear to honor her.

ESPN Zone cheese fries are delicious!!!!!

Sounds like you made the most of the day, even with the rough start!

 

[cinderella-princess]

My poor Amber...it wasn't an unexpected call but it was still very sad. I think I was in shock for most of the day and was able not to think about her, but when we went to build the stuffed golden retriever it really hit me that she was gone. I pretty much sobbed throughout the building process (especially when you take her heart and kiss it so she is never lonely). After I made her I had a good cry, a drink to her memory and felt much better. She was not herself at the end and it was her time to go. I'm going to stop talking about her know because I'm tearing up just thinking about her.

As for the massages, I think the real reason we thought they were overrated was because of the price! It was $400+ for a couples massage! It was a little much for an average massage. Oh well, it was still nice to be pampered. .

I loved that Jason went down the water slide! He only did it once as everyone else on the slide was 5 and under, but I thought it was really cute. Just another reason why I love him.

 

[Docter419]

On Wednesday We both got up early so we could ride Finding Nemo. We have rode it before so we knew that the only way to get on it without waiting for two hours was to go bright and early right when it opens. We ran right over to the line right when the ropes dropped.

MINE MINE MINE!

Me on Nemo!

After that we had to take advantage of the awesome morning sunlight so we went to the castle to take some great pics!

After walking around and riding whatever rides took our fancy I decided to take part in a tradition that went back to my childhood days... The shooting range!

Everytime I fire that gun it takes me back to when I was a little boy, I hope they never get rid of the shooting range. After that we headed over to the pirates lair which as most know was tom sawyor's island. We didn't hear very much about it so we were very interested. Needless to say we were very inpressed! We loved the cave with the animated ghost pirate, it was right out of the movie and perfect. But the effect was a little too good. A very small child got frighten by the "jump head" that protects some of the treasure. The child let out one of the classic lines we've ever heard. "I don't want to be here anymore!.. whaaaa" LOL. I love it when Disney magic is a little too good. As many readers know, the haunted mansion is best at that. But the rest of it was very good too. And of course DW had to take a picture in front of the treasure.

And I had to get trapped in the bone cage!

And DW loved Will Turner's blacksmith shop.

When we got to shore we were surprising met with a pirate band!

After that we went around the park and did whatever we wanted, until we realized it was time to go back to the room and prepare for dinner. We had very special dinner reservations that night. We were set up to eat dinner at the Napa Rose. Not only that we reserved the chef's table right next to the kitchen. If you've never done that I highly recommend it, especially for you Disney couples out there. The spot was perfect!

 

[Docter419]

And the best part of the dinner was getting to meet one of our cooking heros. He is head chef at the Napa Rose and he is made famous in our house by the Samantha Brown specials on travel channel. If any of you have seen the Samantha Brown Specials you know that they are the best. She is truly the best at translating the magic of the park into a television program. In on of our favorite episodes she visits the Napa Rose and introduces us to the head chef Andrew Sutton. We had to talk to him and get his opinion of her. And he came back with glowing reports, it was so cool to talk to him it made DW's day. and after meeting us he made us a special cheese and wine pairing with was absolutely incredible. And he made us a special dessert as well.

It was a perfect dinner!

 

[cinderella-princess]

The dinner was awesome! All of the staff were really nice and friendly and seemed genuinely interested in our trip. One cook even flipped the food in a frying pan for me when I asked him too! It made a neat picture. And of course, the food was awesome!

 

[WA Kay]

Thanks for the great trip report. I love the pictures and look forward to reading more.

 

[cinderella-princess]

So I thought I'd add some pictures of the wedding just for fun.

Here is a picture of me in my dress before the ceremony

Jason before the ceremony!

Walking down the isle with my daddy

Saying our vows

First Kiss!

We are finally married!

Our cake topper - what else could we have?

One of my bridesmaids got a glass slipper for me as a bridal shower gift. Our photographer put our rings in it before the ceremony.

 

[blabbermouth]

Aww, I can't see your pics because I'm at work. Hmm, I can see most other people's pics, you must be using a different hosting site. But I will go back and look tonight.

Sounds like you guys had a fabulous relaxing time. Sorry to hear about your dog, but what a great way to remember her.

You guys are totally trying to win me over with Napa Rose... I think we should do it, but we're cheap! (This might sound bad, but... we'll wait and see how much money we get from our wedding to decide)

 

[GirlfromTN]

Your wedding pics are beautiful. I love your flowers!!! Thanks for writing this report.....love hearing about your DL honeymoon since mine is only a couple weeks away!

 

[blabbermouth]

Finally got back to see your photos, so cute! Looks like you guys had an awesome time.

 

[cinderella-princess]

Your wedding pics are beautiful. I love your flowers!!! Thanks for writing this report.....love hearing about your DL honeymoon since mine is only a couple weeks away!

Thanks! I'm glad you like our pics and report. I'm so excited for your honeymoon report! I'll relive ours vicariously through yours!

Finally got back to see your photos, so cute! Looks like you guys had an awesome time.

Thanks; we did! I'm glad you were able to see the pics - I used Facebook and so did Jason so I don't know why you couldn't see them. Weird!

 

[cinderella-princess]

Ok, so Jason has been really busy with his new job so I thought I'd take over the TR for a while. I believe we left off with the Napa Rose, which was on Wednesday evening. I don't believe we went back to the park; instead we went to the Hearthstone Lounge to have a night cap to end a great evening. We met two very nice ladies who were vacationing with their kids together and they took our picture.

They really wanted one of us kissing for some reason!

Funny story - it had been hotter then I had expected while we were there and I had not brought any shorts or skirts - only jeans. Jason actually planned better then me *gasp!* and had packed shorts. Well, I was dying in my jeans and was looking for a cute dress in all the shops. It seemed destined not to be; every dress I found that was cute they didn't have in my size, and if they had my size, I didn't like the dress. Typical me! We decided to try DTD for a dress and went to Roxy. I found a really cute dress that was on sale! Yay! It must have been some Honeymoon Disney magic.

The next morning the inevitable happened. Whenever I go to DL I always end up getting sick! It doesn't matter how often I wash or Purell my hands, it happens anyways. Well, I woke up feeling a bit under the weather. It was just a cold, but it has a way of wearing you down. So we slept in a little and then headed over to DL. We wanted to see Toon Town as we hadn't been there yet. We did Rodger Rabbits Cartoon Spin which I had never been on before. It was great! I liked how you could control how much your car spins. I had never got why that line was always so long, but now I do!

What did he do to deserve being put in the dog house?

The sky was so clear and blue that day it looked like a continuation of the "set" look of Toon Town.

Of course, we had to get the man some pizza!

We spent the rest of the afternoon in DL, just tooling around and hitting up our favorite rides (POTC, HM, Indy). We went back to the hotel to change because the Sharks (the hockey team in San Jose) was having their first game that evening against the Anaheim Ducks! We planned on watching it over dinner at ESPN Zone. We put our jersey's on and headed back to the park to get some pictures. For some reason I really wanted pictures in our Sharks Jerseys taken by the professional picture people. I'll have to scan those in and post them.

We had done a lot of the park already and were trying to think of somewhere that we hadn't been yet. Neither of us has been to Innovations for a long time; I don't think I'd ever been! So we headed over there. Here was our take on it - LAME!!! The beginning was just a big commercial for some home builder and the inside of the house was filled with regular technology. Our running joke was to call everything there "...Of the Future!!!". If there was an X-Box, it would be "look hunny! There is an X-Box...of the future!!!" or "there's a bicycle...of the future!". IMO, we would not go there again, but it was nice to get out of the crowds.

We did Autopia next and we had never done this ride either. The line was long but moved pretty quickly and was actually entertaining in some parts (the Chevron cars were really cute).

We rode in the same car together

It was a cute ride and it reminded me of being a kid (I used to love the ride like this one at Santa Cruz) but the line to get out of your car was really long! I joked with Jason that we must have hit the I-5 traffic somehow.

We then headed over to the monorail station and I took this pretty picture of the sun setting behind the Matterhorn.

We had a great time watching the Sharks vs Ducks at ESPN Zone. They put the game on a couple of tv's for us and we even had some Duck fans sitting near us. A little smack talk is always fun!

After the game we headed back to the hotel to get some much needed rest to hopefully get over this cold I had.

 

[Docter419]

Great job picking up the PTR babe. We'll finish this thing soon enough

 

[bumbershoot]

This is fun! Keep going!

He is going to be very surprised when I let him know I want us to renew our vows at Disneyland

You could start breaking it to him gently by talking about how Robert and I want to do just that same thing (but earlier than 20 years b/c I've been planning a do-over aka renewal since before we even had our wedding! ) That way he knows that there are crazy people out there...and your 20 year plan won't seem so whacky.

Yeah we weren't really ready ourselves. Surprise! But she is one of the best surprises we've had!

LOL. We did the same thing. Except he was a stowaway on our honeymoon cruise, not a hidden Disney guest. Surprise!

 

[Sherry E]

I am just now catching your TR and Pre-TR. It occurs to me, that unless I am mistaken, you and your lovely wife must have been at DLR at the same time we were there last year!!!! My friend and I arrived on the Thursday (October 2, I think) before Miley's birthday and we left DLR on Sunday - the day of the party for her (10/5). They had shut down Pirate's Lair and things were starting to get crazy around DLR so we left. So now I am looking at you guys trying to decide if you look familiar!! You know how, even though you pass by thousands of people at DLR in a day, sometimes your memory makes a note of people's faces even when you don't realize it and you recognize the same people in the parks over and over again throughout your trip? We did not stay at GCH in October, but we spent a lot of time sitting in the lobby there and we used the GCH entrance into DCA on one of the days. We may have passed you guys in line or at a restaurant somewhere!!

And we saw a couple of different vehicles that said Disneyland or Bust in the lot across the street from the GCH - which is where the GCH parking is located. Maybe that was you??!!

 

[Belle Ella]

So, so, so loving everything you have posted, but this made me scream ...

I see Sharks jerseys!! Made me all happy. Then I got sad.

 

[Docter419]

I am just now catching your TR and Pre-TR. It occurs to me, that unless I am mistaken, you and your lovely wife must have been at DLR at the same time we were there last year!!!! My friend and I arrived on the Thursday (October 2, I think) before Miley's birthday and we left DLR on Sunday - the day of the party for her (10/5). They had shut down Pirate's Lair and things were starting to get crazy around DLR so we left. So now I am looking at you guys trying to decide if you look familiar!! You know how, even though you pass by thousands of people at DLR in a day, sometimes your memory makes a note of people's faces even when you don't realize it and you recognize the same people in the parks over and over again throughout your trip? We did not stay at GCH in October, but we spent a lot of time sitting in the lobby there and we used the GCH entrance into DCA on one of the days. We may have passed you guys in line or at a restaurant somewhere!!

And we saw a couple of different vehicles that said Disneyland or Bust in the lot across the street from the GCH - which is where the GCH parking is located. Maybe that was you??!!

FYI we drove down a Silver Toyota Highlander. We also had just married on the side windows. Hopefully you saw us!