What Started As A Cruise... Another update! 19/04

[Kiren]

Hello everyone! -waves- I'm sitting on my couch bouncing with excitement about planning a trip to Walt Disney World in May 2016 but first I need to tell you a story.

The story begins with a cruise. Back in July of 2014 and wonderful now husband proposed to me on Main Street USA in Disneyland on our first big trip together! (Also our first foray into the World of Disney). We set a wedding date of October 3, 2015 and started thinking about a honeymoon. We were really set on a cruise and even put a deposit down for it last February. Fast forward to last week. We were happily married on October 3rd in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada (We are from BC) and spent a week visiting family afterwards. Upon arriving back home my husband had three days of regular work before he flew out to meet his ship. Both my husband and I are in the Royal Canadian Navy and we love it. We found out last week that he is deploying and won't be back in time for the cruise! Oh no!

So through some rapid calls to both Disney and our Travel Agent and a lot of pixie dust, we were able to move our deposit for the cruise over to a stay at Walt Disney World! Neither of us have been and we are incredibly excited. It looks like we'll be going for a week at the end of May and we will be staying at the Contemporary! This is our Honeymoon and we are both excited! I'll introduce us tomorrow but hope for now this will do! If anybody has any advice for us it would be greatly appreciated!

Welcome!

Links to posts!

23 May - Travel Day!

24 May - MK

 

[luckylady]

Have fun planning.

 

[Kiren]

Introductions!

I'm Kiren (obviously), and the mastermind of this particular trip! I've gone into crazy planning mode and might be overdoing it a bit but hey! I'm 26 years old and a proud member of the Canadian Armed Forces. I live with my DH and have a white cat named Edward. This is my second time to WDW but my first as an adult. So naturally I don't have any favorites yet because I don't really remember anything. I have been to DL and I loved all of it!

My husband is going to go by Kal. He's 36 years old and also a member of the CAF. We were dating for about a year and half and then he proposed on the 2nd of July on Main Street USA in front of the train station on our first trip to DL! It was a magical trip and we were immediately into wedding and honeymoon planning mode. He has a wonderful son who is 5 and doesn't quite know what Disney is yet but he definitely knows what Star Wars is all about!

Those are our main players for this trip! We go tomorrow to transfer all the deposits over and book the Contemporary! So exciting!

 

[Kiren]

Oh does nobody else want to stop by and say hi? I know there's not too much going on and it's so far away but I like company! Anyways, we went to the TA today and got the paperwork all switched over! Yippee! We now have a room at the Contemporary. He also talked us into something interesting. We live in Victoria and so it's difficult to get decently priced flights and times. He got us thinking and found a flight that leaves Victoria at 6 AM and gets in into Orlando at 7:42 PM. While that isn't ideal he came up with a great plan of spending the Monday night in the Hyatt and then catching the DME first thing in the morning! We stash our bags at the front and hit the parks! Then he came up with the plan of adding a night at the end of the trip. So now we are going to be checking out on the 31 of May, stashing our bags again and then hitting up the parks! In the evening we will head to the airport on DME and this way we don't have to get up suuuuuper early on a travel day for a 7 AM flight! It's a bit more for the tickets but we save on the airfare! Plus who doesn't want two extra days at Disney?

 

[luckylady]

Going home late flights are the best . You get park time before you leave. So staying at the Hyatt on arrival evening, will you catch a cab for DME? Extra days at park... YES!

 

[Kiren]

The Hyatt is right in the airport! We just have to walk from the hotel to DME! It's awesome!

 

[felynn]

Great idea. Can't wait to read about your plans.

 

[Kiren]

Alright! So once we booked the Contemporary I knew I wanted to get everything set up in the MDE app pretty quick but could find a confirmation number! Yikes! Unfortunately I couldn't reach my TA (He was off for the next few days) So I had to talk with other people who all gave me different answers. Ie, it's given 30 days out or I couldn't get it until we made final payment. Luckily my TA Did some digging and got the number from the wholesaler! I was so happy to see the reservation pop up on the screen! Can't wait to start booking ADR's!

 

[Kiren]

Oh my it's been awhile! So we've been slowly gathering our ADR's and I'm so excited! The 24th we are having supper at Raglan Road, the following night we are having a romantic dinner at the California Grill and then last night my husband requested the Sci Fi Theatre so we booked that for lunch on Friday. Well just before bed last night my hubby announced that he had made a lunch reservation for Thursday. I was so excited to see what it was and it turns out we are doing Crystal Palace Character Buffet! EEk! I'm so excited! I think he's starting to get excited for the trip as well. We can't wait!

 

[luckylady]

I love the food at Raglan Road. Hope you will be there for the music and sit in that area. Looks like plans are coming together.

 

[Kiren]

Oh boy another update! I've gotten DME booked and good to go. I'm not concerned about getting the luggage tags because we are probably going to be collecting our bags the whole way through. Only 25 more days until we can book Fastpasses! Woohoo! I popped onto the Delta website today and noticed that a lot of people have already selected seats! I didn't realize that you could do that for free on the tickets we got so I quickly grabbed some seats so DH and I wouldn't have to sit seperated.

 

[Dormouse.]

Following!

I hope you have a wonderful first trip!

 

[ariane37]

Hi Kiren Just noticed you had this going. So FP's soon! Do you have them all planned out?

 

[Kiren]

Following!

I hope you have a wonderful first trip!

Thank you and Welcome! I'm super excited and my DH is getting more excited!

Hi Kiren Just noticed you had this going. So FP's soon! Do you have them all planned out?

We are starting to. We have planned out which days we are going to be in which parks and now it's just a matter of getting DH to sit down with me and plan everything out haha!

 

[Kiren]

Oh we are getting close to the 30 day mark! I was really excited on the 25th of March because I got to book Fastpasses! With a little input from my husband we managed to snag fastpasses for everything we wanted! The only thing we couldn't get was the Electrical Parade so we are going to try to see it our first night there and get it out of the way!

But we had a twist this week. Monday I had missed a call from my TA. I called him back and he told me that there was a miscommunication between the wholesaler and himself and our PIF date changed from the 15th of May to the 23rd of April! I went into full on panic mode because we would need to come up with 2000.00 dollars by next Friday! Luckily my mother is a wonderful angel and is going to loan us the money until our tax return comes in. Then we just need to pay them back by the 15th of May, our original PIF date.

Keep watching this thread as it's going to get busy! I plan on turning it into a Trip Report without creating a new thread. I just need to figure out how to make links in the posts. This isn't HTML...

Stay tuned!



Here is my most interesting cat in the world named Edward! Just to break up the text a bit!

 

[Kiren]

The trip has been paid off, the loonie is happy and I'm getting excited! 20 Days to go and our Magic Bands have "shipped" (they're going to the hotel) Now all I can do is wait. The planning is done, fastpasses picked and ADRS booked. Agh the agony of waiting!

 

[Kiren]

Well travel day is here!!! We are currently sitting in the airport waiting to catch our first flight. Nervous about flying but luckily I've got some lovely pills to make me happy!

 

[ariane37]

Well travel day is here!!! We are currently sitting in the airport waiting to catch our first flight. Nervous about flying but luckily I've got some lovely pills to make me happy!

Have a wonderful trip! Pills that make you happy are always a good idea in my book lol
I'll be on the lookout for when you start your TR

 

[Kiren]

Hello everyone! We got back from our trip last week and had a blast! Here's the first update! Actually I may attempt a double update just because the travel day one is kinda boring haha!

23 May - "Of Course I forgot my sunglasses... It's 2AM!!!

Yay! It's Disney time! I had already been off for a week and DH's leave started Friday so we were ready to go! We had to pick my dad up at the airport for a quick visit with him and my mum before DH and I headed to Disney! So I guess I'm starting this day on the Sunday instead. We had an early morning on Monday so I decided I wasn't going to go to bed. I did my nails (at 10:00 at night haha!)


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And then settled in for a bit of a wait. I'm on a pain medication so I took that and passed out which wasn't in the plan but hey! Power naps are always nice! Finally the alarms sang out that it was 2 AM and it was time to head to the airport! We live an hour away and even though our flight wasn't until 5:45 we had to be three hours early (international... even though we are going from Canada to Florida haha). So off we go! We said our goodbyes to my mum and dad and Edward and we were off. We got down the road when my phone buzzed. It was my mum telling me I had forgotten my sunglasses! Oops! So we turned around and headed back. We had plenty of time! Sunglasses in hand we left again, this time without turning around! We made it to the airport and easily found a parking spot. We were so early for our flight that the lights weren't even on yet!

We were flying Delta, just back in April they started a SkyConnection to Sea-Tac and it was way cheaper than flying to Vancouver. I was a little nervous because I don't fly well and have never flown Delta before. But we got checked in and the lady was kind enough to waive the baggage fee for us because we are Canadian Military. She said they weren't supposed to and to not expect it in Florida but hey, she saved us 25 US! Can't complain there.

We waltzed through security and got to the gate with plenty of time to spare (our airport has 10 gates, not even kidding! But we are an international airport!) Finally it was time to board. My nerves started fraying a bit but I walked onto the plane. I have Ativan to take but I was saving it for the longer flight because I need it more to keep me calm and not freak out halfway through the flight. We were flying in a CRJ-700. It took a whopping 20 minutes from wheels up to touchdown! Pretty over the mountains. We got off and headed through customs. WOW! The auto kiosks are so cool! Made it a breeze to get through. Going back through security we had a bit of a snag. I took off my shoes and stuff but you'll notice in later pictures that I wore a brace during this trip. Well it showed up in that fancy full body scan and the agent seemed confused about it. I ended up having to take it off so she could look at it. The metal in the lace holes showed up. It was a quick snag and we were off through the terminal. I had a short nap and then it was time to board and head to Detroit! I popped an Ativan and soon enough wasn't caring about the plane at all.

We were on a Boeing 737-900ER and it was a four hour flight. I gotta say: the inflight entertainment system on board is FANTASTIC! I quickly got distracted and barely noticed that we had taken off. I ended up watching Mulan. The bathrooms are also very cool. The way the lighting slowly came up was neat. And it smelled nice! I made a note that travelling in economy on Delta actually felt nicer than on WestJet which is our Canadian carrier of choice. The flight attendants were polite and seemed happy to be there.

We had a bit of a dash to our other gate in Detroit (literally the other end of the airport) but we made it! We had one more flight to go. Unfortunately at this point the Ativan began to wear off and with me that means a bone aching tiredness. As soon as we got on and buckled in I curled up and dozed off. I put on Pocahantas once I could but dozed through most of the flight which never happens! But before I knew it we were heading into Orlando! But we weren't going to Disney yet. Boo! Also we were on a Boeing 757.

Because our flight was landing at 2030 we decided to spend a night at the Hyatt in the airport and catch the DME the next morning to head to the resort and parks! So we checked in and the guy commented that we were away from the elevators and on the 9th floor for quiet. Boy, he wasn't kidding. We basically had to walk AROUND the airport to get to the room. It was nice enough but I personally felt the rate ($265 US almost 300 CDN!) was a bit high.


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print screen windows xp

I especially liked the bathroom! We went down to the hotel restaurant and grabbed a bite that wasn't an airplane snack and both of us started crashing pretty hard. So we retired to bed and skyped DSS before turning in for the night.

Next up we have our first day in Disney!!!!

 

[Kiren]

24 May - "So how do we get into the park?"

Well due to the time change I woke up bright and early and had to wait about three hours before we could head for Disney! No! So while DH dozed I went for a walk around the airport. I went to check out breakfast and wasn't going to pay that much for a buffet so I continued wandering and somehow made it to the pool area. Wow the view! It was cool taking some time to watch the planes take off. I mozied back to the room and started packing everything up. Finally 0900 rolled around and we could leave! This is where our first experience of the awesome VIP Transportation package that we got started working! We literally walked onto the DME heading for the resort! We sat down on the bus for all of two minutes before we were on our way! I was so excited! It was nice being the last stop because I was able to scope out the other resorts. We went to Poly, GF, WL and finally stopped at our home for the week: The Contemporary!

This where we had our first relatively minor hiccup. The systems were down so they were checking everyone in by hand. They had no idea if our room was ready but they gave us our magicbands and a temporary card to get into Magic Kingdom and told us to check back at about 4pm. So off we went. They told us we could still use our Fastpasses if they were booked, They would just look us up! So we dropped our bags off and off we went! We decided to walk to the park and that became our favourite method of getting to MK. We did take the Monorail a couple of times but the walk was so much more convenient.

We got to the gates and tap our cards to the mickey. A blue mickey showed up! So the CM called another one over and it turned out that the cards the hotel gave us are old and no longer work! So they hooked us up with new ones and we were in! We walked through the gates around 11AM. We weren't in a super rush as our first fastpass wasn't until 1:10. So we headed to Tomorrowland and grabbed a warrior's lunch of a mickey pretzel for me and a ham and cheese pretzel for DH. (Bit of a disclaimer we aren't super huge picture people. They are coming though!) We then hopped on Peoplemover. Back when I visited as a kid Space Mountain was undergoing a refurb so we got to see it with the lights on! Fast forward to this time and I'll admit I wasn't expecting it to be that dark through the mountain! But we made it through and heading onto Carousel of Progress. Oh man that was awesome! It was dated but classic! I really enjoyed it. After that we heading through the shops until it was time for our first FP: Space Mountain! Why not start the trip off right! We both agreed that we would tap our bands to see if they worked for us and bingo! Green Mickey! We were flying! I have to say that Disney has done fastpass right! We waited more in DLR whereas here it was practically walk on!



Here's mine! (Yup, loudly screaming! In the back)



And here's DH. This is a pretty typical face of his.

I'm gonna jump off topic here and say that we LOVED the Memory Maker. It was so convenient and we got SO many pictures!

We decided after SM to leave Tomorrowland for now so we headed into Fantasyland. There was a short wait for the teacups so we hopped on and had some fun getting dizzy. We then wandered through Storybook Circus where DH needed a "fresh air break". After that we wandered and as we passed VOTLM it was a 25 min wait. We decided after our next FP we would come back and see if the wait went down. Soon enough it was time for our next fastpass. 7DMT!



This was a lot of fun but kind of short. We were hoping to ride it again in the dark but we couldn't justify waiting that long. The ride was fun but not worth the wait. The lowest we saw it was 60 min.

We went back to VOTLM it was down to a 10 min wait. Woohoo! We generally had really good luck with queue lines this trip. We call it our Disney magic haha! After that we grabbed a Lefou's Brew and both agree that while it was quite tasty and hit the spot it wasn't super good. I ate all the foam off the top and quickly tired of the burnt apple juice taste. So I mentioned having to wear a brace. Well my foot started to be not happy so we decided to head back to the resort to see if our room was ready and have a break. But on our way there we got sucked into Country Bear Jamboree. Oh my goodness! I don't remember it being this funny as a kid! So then we hopped onto the Railroad in Frontierland and rode the train back to Main Street. We checked at the front desk and our room was ready but still no system! We then reminded them that we were celebrating our Honeymoon and got our pins. We collected our luggage and went up to the room. Wow so pretty! I have pictures from later on in the trip and I'll put them in their appropriate day. Our MB would not open the room so we got a keycard to use until the system came back up. We got a Bay Lake View and watched the water pageant a number of times from the balcony. We had a litre bottle of Dasani water and all the toiletries in the bathroom were the larger ones. We relaxed a bit then went down to wander the shops and grab some supper at the Contempo Cafe. I got the chicken penne alfredo and a churro cupcake for dessert and DH got a flatbread and a brownie.





They were both soooo good! But I was only able to eat a quarter of the cupcake. It ended up living in our fridge until the end of the trip .

After that we decided to head back to the park. We tried our MB and I had left my ticket in the room so we went off to Guest Services. We waited about fifteen minutes and it took them about five to activate our MB. We were good to go! It felt so good to get a green mickey! It was about 2100 when we made it back into the park. We headed back to Storybook Circus and because the line was short we rode Barnstormer. Short ride and since we had a FP for it later in the trip we decided to switch that FP to BTMMR so we could ride it at night. We continued wandering without much of a plan as we had one more FP for the night and it wasn't until 2200 so we walked onto IASW and I loved that they say goodbye to you as you leave!



We used Rapunzel's washrooms which quickly became our favourite in the park and then headed to POTC where we walked on. Then we walked right onto JC. Seriously there was literally no wait! POTC in DLR is better for me but we still enjoyed. But Jungle Cruise... What can I say. Our guide was fantastic! But I was the only one laughing in the boat. So he interacted with me a lot. (I was his only fan haha). We then headed to our FP for MSEP! DH really wanted to see it. I was so glad we are right at the beginning of the route because I had to use the washroom soooooo bad! I got a lot of waves from the characters and then when Sleepy came around I had an awesome interaction. So he kinda half lays on his pickaxe and he's sleepily waving to people. As he went by I made the sleepy motion with my hand (you know where you put your hands to one side of your face). Well he noticed and I got a thumbs up and a wave! It was so awesome and made my already awesome night awesome! We headed back to the resort and got to sleep. We had a slightly early morning!

Up Next: Wow... This was a bit of a letdown.