Tricia & Reuben 4.29.08 WP/Narcoossee's/Grand 1 TR - Day 8 - Our trip is at the end

[IndyBride]

Congrats on the wedding - I love the pictures you have posted and can't wait to see more!

I wanted to share a story with you about my honeymoon at Disney and how I can relate to your DH about having his name spelled correctly! We got married in December - DH and I had been together since March of that year - so a good 9 months or so - we had been living together since August - ANYWAY... I made all of the reservations for our honeymoon - and Disney Reservations misspelled my name on the reservation - and thus it was misspelled on our KTTW/room key card. My new DH - who I have know for over 9 months by this time - went to a shop in DTD to order an engraved picture frame - the Castmember asked him if my name was spelled with one "S" or two... DH got flabbergasted and confused - not knowing it could be spelled with one... so since the KTTW card had my name with one "S" - he had the engraver use the name on the card - since he was sure it had to be right and he had been wrong all of those months!!! We got married December 14 - honeymooned that week and was home for Christmas - DH saved the engraved crystal picture frame and gave it to me for a Christmas present... there it is - Mickey and Minnie engraved above our wedding date and our names KEVIN and MELISA!!! I proudly display it on my dresser - mostly to remind DH that he can't SPELL!!

Can't wait to hear more about your wedding!

That is such a cute story! I can totally see my DF doing that. He gets so stressed out about "messing up"!

 

[msmayor]

Grand 1 Wishes Cruise
A+
Besides getting married and staying at the GF, this was the part I was most excited about. When we got to the GF our first day, you could see the Grand 1 from our room, so we walked over and they were nice enough to let us walk around for a tour before our day. That was great. I had wanted to wear my dress on it. Well, we booked it for 18 ppl - max capacity - and it would have been really hard for me to have been on there in my dress. I was glad I hadn't tried to do that because DH and I watched wishes from the upper deck and I wouldn't have been able to get up there in my dress. The boat really impressed everyone and we had an amazing view of Wishes and the electric water parade. It was stressful to get the reservation having to wait until 90 days out, but so worth it! If you have a small enough party, definitely do this!!

I'm so glad to have found someone who had this many on the Grand 1...I'm trying to decide whether to try and book it for a family gathering, but the pictures I've seen of it don't seem to show whether it will REALLY work.

Did all 18 of you have a good view of the fireworks? There doesn't seem to be enough reasonable deck space to be comfortable. It looked to me like folks would have to climb out on the bow, and not have regular 'seats'.

Can you describe where everyone was when watching the show?

 

[disprincessatheart]

Yay for pictures! Thanks for sharing them

Ohhhhhhhhh, I missed the start of your TR when we were away!

I know exactly what you mean about having a hard time getting pics. But the ones you have a great and I can't wait to see more.

And you looked like a princess!!! Your dress and tiara were beautiful!

Nikki

Thank you!!

Thanks for posting your reviews. They help tremendously Your flowers were gorgeous!

I really loved my flowers!! Disney did a great job with them!

Congrats on the wedding - I love the pictures you have posted and can't wait to see more!

I wanted to share a story with you about my honeymoon at Disney and how I can relate to your DH about having his name spelled correctly! We got married in December - DH and I had been together since March of that year - so a good 9 months or so - we had been living together since August - ANYWAY... I made all of the reservations for our honeymoon - and Disney Reservations misspelled my name on the reservation - and thus it was misspelled on our KTTW/room key card. My new DH - who I have know for over 9 months by this time - went to a shop in DTD to order an engraved picture frame - the Castmember asked him if my name was spelled with one "S" or two... DH got flabbergasted and confused - not knowing it could be spelled with one... so since the KTTW card had my name with one "S" - he had the engraver use the name on the card - since he was sure it had to be right and he had been wrong all of those months!!! We got married December 14 - honeymooned that week and was home for Christmas - DH saved the engraved crystal picture frame and gave it to me for a Christmas present... there it is - Mickey and Minnie engraved above our wedding date and our names KEVIN and MELISA!!! I proudly display it on my dresser - mostly to remind DH that he can't SPELL!!

Can't wait to hear more about your wedding!

LOL - glad to know we weren't the only ones with spelling issues!! Funny that he would think he'd been wrong for 9 months and you hadn't corrected him. This week I found and left out for DH the picture we got from Mickey and Minnie when we sent them an invitation, so he felt a little better.

That is such a cute story! I can totally see my DF doing that. He gets so stressed out about "messing up"!

At least we know they try!

I'm so glad to have found someone who had this many on the Grand 1...I'm trying to decide whether to try and book it for a family gathering, but the pictures I've seen of it don't seem to show whether it will REALLY work.

Did all 18 of you have a good view of the fireworks? There doesn't seem to be enough reasonable deck space to be comfortable. It looked to me like folks would have to climb out on the bow, and not have regular 'seats'.

Can you describe where everyone was when watching the show?

There was plenty of room on the boat in general. The inside is huge and has a couple of couches and then there's the lower deck and an upper deck. When we watched wishes the captain turned the boat so the back is straight on towards MK. DH, me, my mom, nephew, niece and good friend were all on the upper deck watching from the bench seat and the 2 captians chairs (the boat was stopped so they let us have the seats. THere were more seats up there, but they were on the front end and would have been obscured views.
That left 11 people downstairs because we actually had 17 not 18 when it came right down to it. Down there there are 2 captains chairs, and a long bench that I think 4 or 5 people were sitting on. Then my one aunt and uncle sat on the stairs leading to the upper deck so that took care of 8 or 9. There was room that another person or 2 could have done the stairs option if they wanted. Also on the other side of the boat there was another small set of stairs allowing you to walk to the front of the boat that my mom says someone sat on, so really, all 18 could sit and watch, but if they didn't there was still room to stand behind the chairs or in the doorway into the cabin.

 

[disprincessatheart]

Ok, after stewing for 2 weeks over having no pictures for my TR (ok, the first week I was way too tired to write a TR and ok, ok, it's my own fault for being lazy and not taking my own pics on our trip) I suddenly realized that the first couple of days of reporting don't have any pictures anyway (day -1 and day 1 were just us, so no one to take pics, duh!). So, on with the show, er, TR!!

I'll actually start day -1 with a little build up/recap of how we got to this day, since at this point I don't think anyone on the boards now, except for maybe Lynn was on here when I started planning our DFTW. We got engaged valentines day of 2006 - yes, 2 years, 2 months and 2 weeks before we got married!! Anyway, we planned a custom DFTW for April 2007. Early 2007 DF got cold feet and we called it off, went to counseling and then in late fall 2007 we scheduled our new Escape DFTW for April 2008. So, with all that time and drama, and scaling back a wedding, I had a LOT of stuff already done long before the month of the wedding. When we finally hit April 1 the only things left to do were: dress alterations (had to go in a little ), and all the little last minute hair appt, nails, waxing . I had already wrapped gifts, finished favors, bought DF's gift, etc.

The week of the wedding DF was working a lot of evenings, so it was just me and the dog home at night. Most brides would have loved this, but I had nothing left to do but wait. Everyone I called was busy getting ready to go to Florida, so really I watched a lot of TV and overthought everything... Too bad I didn't think to take some pictures! Anyway, I worked Thursday and DF and I both took Friday (day -1) off to get everything together for the trip.

We woke up that Friday and I was so exctied, #1 because it was the first day of our wedding vacation, and #2 because I had things to do ! We got up and had breakfast and made our plan for the day. I went off to the spa at 10 for a bikini wax and DF got a haircut. Both went really smoothly (ok, the waxing wasn't fun, but the girl who did mine was good and it really didn't hurt nearly as much as I had expected - it'd been a long time since my last one). So we were groomed, and now time to go run errands. We went off to the tux shop to get DF's tux. On our way there we decided to stop and get my ring polished and then we went to lunch. Pretty uneventful. We got to Men's Warehouse and DF tried on his tux. The shirt was too small. He could get it buttoned, but the top button was really tighter than it should have been. The girl wasn't really helpful when I asked what we could do so DF decided just to take it and not worry about it as he only had to wear it for a few hours and I told him he could undo that button as soon as the pictures were done. While he was trying on his tux, I wandered over to the tux rack and see a tux for DF's dad. I mentioned this to him as we're leaving and he calls his dad, only to find out his dad already got his tux the day before. So I proceed to panic and assume that someone is missing a tux since we have an extra. Called all around, DBil has his and my dad has confirmed with the shop in FL that he and my nephew are picking theirs up from has theirs waiting. So, I have no idea why there was an extra tux for future Fil, but I was now satisfied that everyone would have a tux and we moved on.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of laundry, packing, repacking, dropping the dog at a friend's house and the like. Around 8:30 we were ready to go, so we got a pizza, and DF put Enchanted in for us to watch Around 10 we decided we were both ready to go to bed (I know, we're realy lame) and we both took a tylenol pm to help us get to sleep on such an exciting night. It worked wonders!! I had been having a little trouble sleeping soundly the weeks before the wedding and had some weird dreams, so I was glad for a good night's sleep. It still hadn't really hit me that after so long we were finally getting ready for our wedding trip and not just another Disney vacation, but I was starting to feel it!

Up next - day 1!!

 

[lov2b@disney]

looking forward to more of your TR!!!!

 

[Keira1387]

 

[accountingbabe08]

I'm subscribing so I don't miss anything. Congratulations on your marriage, I truly hope you and your husband have a very magical life together.

 

[29apr00]

Yeah, you're starting your TR!! WOo hoo!! And I know i've told you before, but it needs to be mentioned again. You picked a GREAT day to get married! Great things happen on 4/29!

Looking forward to more and lots of pics!!

Jennifer

 

[alissa2008]

 

[disprincessatheart]

After a very solid night's rest, DF and I woke up bright and early (6:30 is way early enough for me on a Saturday) and sprung right out of bed, literally!! For me, that was enough proof that this was really the day we were finally leaving for our wedding

Getting ready went by in a flash. I took a few extra minutes in the shower to just let it sink in that our wedding week was finally here - can you tell I was excited?!? By 7:45 after at least 2 double checks of the list and the bags packed in the car we were ready to go. We had to put DF's tux and my dress in the back seat (the very large trunk was totally stuffed) so that made it extra exciting that I could see my dress all the way down and let reality sink in!! We were out of the house before 8, so we started off on the right foot - our plan was to leave by 8:30, so I guess we were both anxious. We stopped and got some breakfast really quick and got on the road - only 9 1/2 short hours to Orlando...

Our original plan had been to head down on Sunday, with the wedding on Tuesday. Luckily a few months earlier DF had a great idea to head down a day earlier (so what if I might have hinted around, he thought it was his idea ) so we were now leaving a day earlier than his family who were also driving down from NC. To pass the time on the drive and to attempt to be helpful hosts, we hunted for cheap gas prices so we could tell the family where to stop for gas. What we found out is that these days, there's no such thing as cheap gas, but it did pass the time.

We made a couple short stops, the only one of note being a stop in SC for gas and drinks. DF pulled up to the pump and I went inside to find a bathroom. It was a very odd store that was a combination snackshop/gas station/lottery depot/random religous giftshop/baitshop. Yes, I said baitshop. It was rundown and weird, but clean enough. When I came out of the bathroom, I wandered past the bait and church decorations to find a diet coke and some sort of snack. I figured DF would be in momentarily to do the same and we'd be on our way. Eventually I started to realize that it'd been several minutes since I'd come out of the bathroom, and no DF. I started to panic just a litle (he did get cold feet like last year after all?) and I did a very brisk walk to the door to see if he was still out there. Lucky for me (and all my TR readers) he was - panic attack over. He was still pumping gas When he came in I told him I thought he'd deserted me there. Apparently it's the world's slowest gas pump. Anyway, no dessertion and we were on our way again.

Around 1 we stopped for a quick lunch. When we left I called my parents to see if they were safely in Orlando yet (they flew from NY) and if they'd been to the mall yet to get my dad and nephew's tuxes. All 6 of them were eating lunch in the mall food court - mom, dad, sister (MOH), niece, nephew and DBIL. My dad proceeds to tell me that yes, they did go to the tux shop and his tux was there and right, but they couldn't find my nephew's. Now, my nephew is at this time about 2 weeks shy of turning 3, but is a tiny little guy and still wears 12 mo pants. Every time we went for tuxes, they had little tiny tuxes hanging on the wall for sale. We opted to get him the tiniest rental tux instead so he would match and because then we got the free groom's tux, so it was cheaper in total to rent, and when would a 3 year old wear a tux again before he outgrew it? So, I really wasn't that upset knowing that they had those little ones we could buy if need be. Also, remember, my dad had called that store the day before and they assured him they had the tux. I was sure they had it, just were dumb and couldn't find it right then, same thing as DF's dad having 2 tuxes for some reason. Well, dad gives mom the phone and I tell her how weird it is that they can't find the little tux and she tells me my dad is kidding, they have both tuxes and they're all set. I was not amused. Seriously, my dad's not a practical joker so I have no idea why the week of my wedding he thought he would start trying to be one. I wasn't at all upset about the tux missing - thinking either they'd find it or we'd buy one of the tiny ones they had there - but I was upset that he thought he was funny telling me it was lost.... Parents.

We made it the rest of the way to Orlando without any more drama. We stayed with my parents at their timeshare just off property that first night so we went straight there and saw everyone. DF hadn't seen my niece and nephew in a year, so I wanted them to start warming up to us ASAP! We had a family dinner, DF learned where my serious lack of kitchen skills comes from, and we headed out to DTD to start the vacation and for my first public wearing of the minnie bride ears!! DF had been insisting I couldn't wear them before we left because I'd jinx us. Of course I put them on before we got out of the car at the condo. DF thought I shouldn't wear them until after the wedding, but that would mean only 4 days of ears, um, NO. I'd been waiting 2 friggin years to wear those babies (well, really since I was 10, but who's counting). There was NO WAY I was waiting until Wednesday to be a bride! So, I wore my ears Besides the ears, we'd been thinking about was sundaes from Ghiradelli for days, maybe weeks, ok, really, since our last trip - sheesh, we need to get a life!!! We knew we'd get an AP discount and we were salivating. We'd looked it up before we left and knew there was a refurb, but it was scheduled to be done earlier that week - fate! We park, we practically run thru the crowd and what do we find, WALLS!! Not like walls to the shop, those lovely little Disney walls that tell you this area will be nice for some other guests in the future, but not now. I yelled out "NOOOOO!!'. Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that dramatic, but I'm pretty sure I did yell, it was just too loud out there with the cheerleading competition girls and HS choir show that no one else heard me. We were totally crushed. So DF with his quick thinking saved the day with It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but I always want to get a mickeybar, and never seem to get one on our trips, so it was a good second place. I was sure that we'd seen that the Ghiradelli refurb was supposed to be done before we got there. It bothered me so much - or I really wanted that icecream - that we asked the GF concierge later in the week who discovered that the whole schedule was pushed back a week. Oh well, at least we can do it on the free dining trip in Sept!! (that will be a recurring theme of this trip!)

We did just a little bit of shopping and headed back to the condo. We were tired from the drive and wanted to check in to the GF as early as we could the next day, so we went to bed around 11. The condo has 2 bedrooms. We started going there when I was a freshman in HS, so the room with the 2 twin beds was very convenient. DF and I just laughed - we've lived together for 5 years, and the first night of our wedding/honeymoon trip we're sleeping in twin beds... To add to the comedy, the beds there were AWFUL. Picture those 3" thick matresses you had at summer camp, after 20 years of people sleeping on them. They were not comfortable at all, they wouldn't stay put on the frame/boxspring (kept sliding around when you'd move) and they made a crunchy noise! Oh, and the sheets wouldn't stay on them for anything. I can't imagine why - the matresses were tiny, so you'd think the sheet would fit with room to spare. They must have had those sheets specially made to be so small they wouldn't stay on those mattresses. My uncle had a good theory on those beds later in the week (my parents booked 2 for the week and a good portion of my family stayed there) that Disney gave them the beds and sheets so that no one would sleep in, thus getting them to the parks earlier to spend more money. After one night there I totally see how that theory could be true - good thing it was only one night, if we'd been there all week I would have been bridezilla!!!

Up next: Day 2 - The Grand Floridian!!! and our first little bit of pixie dust (I promise i have a couple of pictures for day 2)

 

[DecemberBride]

Yay, for an update! Love your sense of humor... I can't wait to hear more!

 

[IndyBride]

I love the Ghirardelli (is that the correct spelling?) ice cream place! I forced myself to order a sundae even though I was stuffed from dinner when I passed it.

 

[29apr00]

yeah can't wait to hear more!!

 

[disprincessatheart]

Yay, for an update! Love your sense of humor... I can't wait to hear more!

I love the Ghirardelli (is that the correct spelling?) ice cream place! I forced myself to order a sundae even though I was stuffed from dinner when I passed it.

yeah can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks for following along. I PROMISE it gets more interesting!!

 

[disprincessatheart]

Sunday we woke up way before the 8am alarm - mainly because of the torture devices, er, beds we were subjected to the first night of our trip - those and the car alarm going off outside our window. The combination of those two things woke us up around 7am, but the excitement that I was FINALLY getting to stay at the Grand Floridian is what got me moving. I'd been wanting to stay there as long as I could remember and we were finally splurging on it for the wedding week. We'd decided that even though check in wasn't until later, we'd go there first anyway, then go run our other disney errands until our room was ready.

Once we were up we decided we should go to the restaurant next door and get breakfast. My parents had food we could cook, but we were on vacation, and all the food was in the condo next door with my sister, her husband and kids, and we weren't guessing they were up at 7:30 (we were right). So, we took a nice stroll next door and went to Perkins. I have an unexplained love for Perkins. Ok, there's an explanation - they used to have killer salads served in a giant bowl made out of some sort of french/italian bread. I LOVED those salads and would drive way out of my way to get one on a regular basis. This fall some genious decided to nix the bread bowls and raise the price of the salads. So, now dh and I just go there for breakfast. Anyway, back to the story. We head to Perkins very early on Sunday morning. There are only about 4 other parties there, but one of them happens to be a group of about 15 or so teenage cheerleaders and their chaperones. They were there for the HS cheerleading competition being held at DHS that weekend. To say they were annoying is definitely an understatment. Really, the adults were the worst. We heard every detail of every routine and squad they had seen the day before with detailed critique. On top of that, our waitress seemed to have a lot of trouble managing the crowd - we never got refills or a check. We just left a $20 knowing that would cover it. We ate fast and got the heck out of there!!

So we made it back to the condo to see my parents had rolled out of bed. We showered, played with my sister's kids for a little bit, packed our overnight bag (we'd packed a bag just for that night so as not to have to unload everything out of our packed car) and headed out to the GF around 11. They were all planning to go to DHS early that day, when we left they were still getting ready We traveled with them once before at Disney and DF and I lost our minds waiting on them, so now we just plan lunches or dinners with them and arrive separately.

When we drove up to the GF I could hardly contain my excitement. We're not used to that level of service, so we kept trying to get our own bags and things, but we got the hang of it. We headed inside to a row of CM's waiting to check us in. On our way in about 10 CM's congratulated us The CM we had was really nice, she congratulated us (I was wearing my ears of course) and she gave us the just married buttons. DF insisted it was too soon to put on the buttons, so I tucked them in my purse.

She checked and our room was ready. She sent us off with directions and our bags were just a couple minutes behind us. DF was impressed with the service, I was in shock of the whole thing finally happening. It was all really surreal. It took me a couple hours before I got myself back to reality!! Here are a few GF pictures I have from our planning trip since we didn't take any this time!

We wandered over to our room in Sago. We were on the 4th floor in a dormer room with a king bed DF and I have a king at home, and it just seemed way more honeymoonish to have a King bed and not 2 queen beds. It spoied us though, when we go back for free dining I paid for a King bed upgrade... I was slightly disappointed that we didn't get a concierge or MK view upgrade like so many brides have recieved, but I was happy with the room and didn't want to pout about it, so I let it go. Anyway, I do have pics of the room!! Ok, mostly I have pics of the view and a couple pics I took really quick before we left as I finally remembered we had no pics!!

Our messy room

Dresser and desk

and a bunch of pics of the balcony and our view

Our luggage showed up about 3 minutes after we got in our room. We unloaded it all, unpacked all the clothes into the dresser (well, it's a small dresser, so as much as we could). As soon as that was done we decided to get some lunch and headed down to the GF Cafe. DF is a huge fan of TS dining so we ate at the GF cafe a lot this trip. Of course we didn't have a reservation, but the GF cafe was always empty, so we were seated right away. We had a nice waiter who sat right down and started asking us how we met and when the wedding would be and all that. I was thinking we'd get one of those free desserts that seem to show up like ants to a picnic for some couples, but nothing for us. I did get him to give us the 10% AP discount even though we hadn't yet gone and activated our passes. oops From there we wandered around the resort for a few minutes and headed off to get our AP's and our DDE card. For those of you planning to do either of these tasks at the MK, know that it's a bit harder than at some of the other parks. First, we headed out on the monorail to the TTC as we assumed we'd do everything there. We were right about the AP's. It took about 10 minutes to get everything done. Of course DF got a pic of Cinderella and Prince Charming (same pic as on the just married buttons) on his AP and I got one with Mickey How come it always works that way? Last year he had tinkerbell and I had goofy... Anyway, that nice CM put my AP in my soon to be married name for easier use next trip! and then told us we had to go to guest services in the town hall on main street to get our DDE. Not that it was a big hardship, but it was a lot of back and forth. So, we headed into the MK, got the DDE card, which by the way was only $60. I had an old form in my wedding binder that I was going to mail in before they started doing them on the spot, and on the form it was $65 - $5 saved right off the bat

As we left the town hall the parade was coming by - guess that means it was around 3:30 by then. The park really wasn't that crowded and we were able to watch from the steps of town hall with the AC coming out the door behind us feeling great!! We aren't normally parade watchers, so it was fun to see it from a good spot like that for once.

As soon as we saw the last float about to come into the circle we ducked back out of the park and hopped on the monorail before the rush coming out after the parade. We headed back to the GF, got a cocktail by the pool and hung out in the lobby some. By that time DF's family was almost into Orlando, so we headed out to buy a case of water and meet them at Coronado.

By the time we ran our errand they were in their room already. They got a nice corner room on the first floor with parking right in front of it, but it was about as far as it could be from the food court or the main pool. I know they used the food court for breakfasts that week, but I have no idea if any of them swam, so it probably didn't matter anyway. (CS shot from our trip last year)

They piled into our car (DFil, DBil and DFil's girlfriend) and we took them to the GF for dinner so they could see the WP and get a feel for the size of WDW - they were rookies. They loved the GF (of course) and we wound up eating at GF Cafe again. This time we got our DDE discount! Service for dinner was turtle slow, but we weren't going anywhere anyway, so we didn't mind. Again though, no pixie dust. We took them over to our room before we drove them back so they could see the difference to their room. When we got there we'd finally been visited by tinkerbell!! We had a rose, a mini bottle of champagne with glasses and a card from mickey and minnie congratulating us. Of course DF's name was spelled wrong (see post 1 for more on that saga) but it was really nice!! That was also our first night of turndown service - LOVE THAT!!

After we returned DF's family to CS, we came back and watched Wishes before calling it a night.

Up next: Day 3 - Animal Kingdom and the great Chef Mickey's drama! (with pictures!!)

 

[PhilHarMaestro]

Loving you TR so far. It's nice to see an escape one? Can I ask what time did you get married? Mine is at noon, and I really want a wishes cruise or dessert party but can figure out what to do inbetween, because I refuse to remove the dress (mainly because I'm very stubborn!

 

[lov2b@disney]

Enjoying your trip report, keep it coming!

 

[29apr00]

Glad you finally got some pixie dust!

 

[Beep]

Great trip report

 

[Lynn5700]

Hi!!!!

I love your review of the GF..Congratulations on your wedding!!!!!

After reading this I so want to stay at the GF for our anniversary next May!!

I can't wait to hear about Chef mickeys..sorry you had a bad experience...I hope for the most part you guys got to enjoy it.