wedding night hotel

[Kim10110]

Hey everyone, well i have a question. We are staying at shades of green with everyone for the week we are getting married but we are looking for somewhere else the night of the wedding. any suggestions.

Thank you

 

[JandJ]

I am obviously partial to WL but honestly it is such a romantic resort! We loved it there. It is just a peaceful, beautiful, fun place to be. Every bride will recommend a place, all of them special in their own way, and it depends on what you're looking for, but I have to recommend WL

 

[sajetto]

Every bride will recommend a place, all of them special in their own way, and it depends on what you're looking for, but I have to recommend WL

She's absolutely right. I guess it all depends on the theme you like and the proximity to your wedding location. We are spending all 12 nights of our honeymoon in the same resort, but if we were to spend one night somewhere we would stay at the GF because it is right next to the Wedding Pavillion

 

[TexasCourt]

I personally would choose the GF, but again, it is a very personal decision, and everyone has their favorite. By the way, does anyone know if GF has a "honeymoon suite"? And if so, do you know approximately how much it is a night, and what all it includes?

 

[sajetto]

I personally would choose the GF, but again, it is a very personal decision, and everyone has their favorite. By the way, does anyone know if GF has a "honeymoon suite"? And if so, do you know approximately how much it is a night, and what all it includes?

GF does have a honeymoon suite but I can't remember the cost. I know that Elisabeth stayed there and she could tell you. I think her screen is ead79...but I can't be sure

 

[BelleMcNally]

I'm partial to the Animal Kingdom Lodge--I love just getting up early in the morning and standing on the balcony with my fiance, enjoying each other's company and watching the animals...but you can't really go wrong with ANY of the Disney resorts!

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

I would definitely say go with the GF honeymoon suites! If you meet the minimum room block requirements, your night there will be comped. I think the room we stayed in had the best view in all of Florida- from the bed, we could watch the Castle change colors. It was stunning! Not to mention the full 180 degree panoramic views from the Poly, WP, GF beach and pool, to the GF courtyards.

Check out www. D i s n e y S u i t e s.com under "Grand Floridian" and honeymoon suite. The view on that one was from the opposite side of the hotel than we were on.

 

[TexasCourt]

UndertheMistletoe,
I went to the www.disneysuites.com, and could not find anything on the GF...all it had was something on Pop Century....??

 

[FutureAshleyDukes]

I think she meant to post w w w. s u i t e d i s n e y . c o m

 

[Kim10110]

Thank You everyone so much for all of the ideas. You guys are awesome

 

[Janet2k]

...We are staying at shades of green with everyone for the week we are getting married but we are looking for somewhere else the night of the wedding. any suggestions...

Kim10110, this is going to be a long and somewhat convoluted post. Please bear with me. I want you to understand what it means to switch resorts in the middle of your wedding vacation.

For your wedding night, consider staying in a resort that your heart desires. In my humble opinion, if you follow your heart, it usually doesn’t lead you astray.

If your heart doesn’t have a specific resort in mind, please look over the resort videos that are found on the official WDW website: click here. Find one that strikes your fancy and consider booking it.

For my Fairy Tale Weddings vow renewal, I booked five rooms at the BoardWalk Villas for various family members to use. That is my DVC home resort, and since my own family hadn’t stayed there in awhile, I thought it would be fun to do so again. Plus, the BoardWalk Villas is a favorite of my parents and my sister due to its proximity to both the Epcot and Disney-MGM Studios theme parks. Booking rooms there was an easy choice for me to make.

One of the five rooms that I had booked was supposed to be for my own family, but as my vow renewal planning moved forward, I kept being drawn to the Grand Floridian, a sentimental favorite of my husband’s (it was the first resort that we had ever stayed in at WDW). As my planning unfolded, our rehearsal and ceremony were going to be held next door to the Grand Floridian (at the Wedding Pavilion), and our Welcome Party was going to be held at the Grand Floridian (at the resort’s marina). With so many things happening either next to or at the resort, I kept debating booking a room there. When I realized that my husband and I were going to embark upon the next stage of our “happily ever after,” I could fight temptation no longer. I booked a three-night reservation at the Grand Floridian and gave usage of my BoardWalk Villas room to a dear friend. Everything worked out beautifully. My family went on to have a wonderful stay at the resort. I was happy that I had followed my heart.

Now I would like to mention the flipside of switching resorts. You’re going to have to decide if it’s personally worth the hassle. Please read on.

Your vacation begins and you’re in Resort A. Your wedding day arrives and you’ve got a one-night reservation for Resort B. Do you check out of Resort A and check into Resort B for that one night? That would entail packing up everything in Resort A’s room and transferring it over to Resort B’s room. Not a small task when a wedding is involved and you’ve got more than the normal amount of vacation luggage plus various wedding supplies. Also, remember that once you arrive at Resort B, you’ve got to stop by the Front Desk and actually check into the resort: credit card authorization, room key issuance, and room assignment. Please note that Disney does not guarantee room availability until 3 PM. Will your room be ready upon check-in? Maybe. Maybe not.

After your wedding night, you have to pack everything up and move back to Resort A (and most likely into a different room). Disney’s check-out time is 11 AM. Sure, you might be able to get a later check-out time, but that usually only prolongs your stay for another hour or two without incurring an additional charge. In the worst case, you need to pack up your stuff and vacate Resort B by 11 AM, then head over to Resort A with your luggage (don’t forget that you’ll need to stop by Resort A’s Front Desk in order to check-in, and your room might not be available until 3 PM). In the best case, you were granted a later check-out time and don’t have to vacate Resort B until 1 PM. At 1 PM you transfer resorts, stopping by Resort A’s Front Desk for check-in. Hopefully, your new room will be available at that time (if it isn’t, it should be available at 3 PM). As you can imagine, either one of those two cases winds up being a bit of a hassle for most wedding couples.

There are solutions to this dilemma, but they come at a cost. I’ll only mention one solution below since it is the most obvious solution.

You have two resort room reservations: Resort A (for seven nights) and Resort B (for one night). You hang onto your Resort A reservation for all seven nights, including the night of your wedding even though you won’t be staying in the room. This will allow your luggage to stay put in one place. (Remember, this means that you’ll be paying for two resort rooms – Resort A and Resort B.) On the day of your wedding, you will transfer your wedding outfit and supplies to Resort B, along with an overnight bag and a change of clothes for the day after your wedding.

You stay in Resort B on the night of your wedding. On the day after your wedding, you move back to Resort A. Since check-out time is 11 AM , please ask yourself if you will be motivated enough to vacate Resort B by that time (or slightly later if you can get a later check-out time).

For most people, the answer to that question is yes since there won’t be a lot of luggage to pack up and move (only the wedding outfits and supplies, along with sleepwear). Also, since you hung onto Resort A’s reservation, you don’t need to re-check-in at Resort A. You’ve already got your room keys and can head directly to your room whenever you’d like.

I hope that makes sense. It’s the route that many couples have chosen to take, and with a slight variation, the route that I chose to take. I’ll explain below.

I was in WDW for two weeks: the week prior to my vow renewal and the week of my vow renewal. I love to resort-hop and thus hopped all over the World: All-Star Sports, Old Key West, Saratoga Springs, BoardWalk Villas, and Grand Floridian. Yes, that was a lot of resort-hopping for a two-week vacation, but my family has been doing it for years. We’re pro’s and resort-hopping is usually never a chore. But no wedding or vow renewal had ever been involved in any of our prior vacations. This vacation would be different because it contained our vow renewal. I had to seriously consider how resort-hopping would affect it since a wedding dress and other special items would be involved, and so I chose a specific course of action based upon my family’s needs.

On the day before my vow renewal, my family transferred over to the Grand Floridian Resort from the BoardWalk Villas (the resort transferred our luggage). On that first evening, we scheduled a rehearsal at the Wedding Pavilion, followed by a Welcome Party at the Grand Floridian’s marina. It would prove to be a wonderful day, and I was pleased that we had stayed at the resort, especially since it was conveniently located for our events.

On the second day of our stay, friends and family gathered at the resort for lunch. Later on that afternoon, the wedding party began preparing for the big night. My son, nephew, and husband got ready in our resort room; while my daughter, nice, and I got ready in the St. Augustine Ballroom inside the Grand Floridian’s Convention Center. Once everyone was ready, we assembled in the Grand Floridian’s lobby for photos. When 8 PM arrived, it was time for our vow renewal ceremony to begin inside the Wedding Pavilion

After our ceremony, there were photos taken inside the Wedding Pavilion. Once the photos had been completed, everyone was transported to the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park for a dinner reception inside the Great Movie Ride. Dinner was followed by an outdoor dance party, and our magical evening came to an end at 2 AM with a custom fireworks display. Afterwards, everyone was transported back to their resort. It was 3 AM when my family was dropped off beneath the Grand Floridian’s porte cochere. We made our way to our resort room, and within 30-minutes my husband and son had passed out from exhaustion. My daughter fell asleep after they did, but I stayed up until almost 5 AM (I had after-wedding things to take care of). When I finally laid my head on the pillow, I was beyond exhausted.

Before I fell asleep that night, I was extremely grateful that I had the foresight to book one more night at the Grand Floridian. There was no way that I was going to be able to pack up my family and our belongings, along with all of the gifts and special surprises that had been given to us for our vow renewal, and be out of our resort room by the 11 AM check-out time. It would have simply been impossible.

So, on the morning after our vow renewal, my family slept in for as long as we could. It was nice having that luxury. But, as they say, there is never any rest for the wicked. Eventually, our resort room phone began ringing off the hook. A few of our guests had assembled at the swimming pool and were demanding our presence for lunch. We had no choice but to drag our weary bodies out of bed. Believe me, I sure was glad that I didn’t have to worry about transferring resorts that day. Getting myself down to the pool was difficult enough.

After lunch, most of us visited Epcot, followed by the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. Later on that evening, a group of us enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Yacht Club’s Yachtsman Steakhouse. The day wound up being another long day, and we didn’t make it back to the Grand Floridian until almost midnight (just in time for our usual midnight swim).

On the morning of Day Four of our Grand Floridian stay, it was finally time to transfer resorts. We packed up our disorganized mess (and that is putting it very, very mildly) and transferred over to our room at the BoardWalk Villas. That room had been kept warm for us by our dear friends who had used it in our absence. Since we had hung onto our original resort reservation, there was no need to stop by the Front Desk to check-in. We simply had Bell Services bring our luggage up to our existing room.

All in all, the resort-hopping schedule for my vow renewal worked out beautifully. I was happy that I had booked a three-night stay at the Grand Floridian for the days surrounding my Fairy Tale Weddings vow renewal.

The moral of my story, and the reason I shared so many details of it, was to give you a glimpse of what is involved with a resort-hop in the middle of a wedding vacation. Please think things over carefully, all the pluses and minuses, before reaching a decision. The more foresight you can apply now, the easier your wedding vacation will flow when the time comes.

I hope this helped. And I hope you have a wonderful wedding and vacation.