"Will it still be MAGICal?" A Honeymoon Trip Report - Updated 10/31!

michellem1118

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Feb 2, 2008
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Starting a TR (my first, btw), is a very bittersweet experience, for it means the vacation is over. Of course, it also allows you to relive the best (and worst) moments of the trip, and to share that experience with others. So, I'll begin this attempt with all the critical information you need to follow along. :)

First, our cast of characters:
Me - Michelle princess: , the bride/new wife
DH - John pirate: , the groom/new husband
That's it, it's a honeymoon after all! :hug:

The plans:
Our wedding was Saturday, July 26, 2008. Our honeymoon was planned as a land/sea vacation, booked separately using our DVC points. We spent 3 nights at Old Key West, starting on Thursday, July 31, and then embarked on a 4-night Wonder cruise. For the land portion of our trip, we decided to add the DxDDP and take advantage of some of the signature restaurants that we weren't able to try on past trips. It proved to be well worth the money, but more on that later.

Being the good DISer that I am, I made all of our ADRs at the 180 day mark. The original plans are outlined in my PTR (linked in my siggy), that I abandoned at some point. I plan on finishing this TR, though, so no worries.

Up next: More important background info, and maybe some wedding pictures if I decide to stop being lazy & upload them. ;)
 
Day -1: Wednesday, July 30

Now, before I begin the actual TR, it is very important to give you some background information. At the beginning of July, DH & I moved from NYC to Dallas, and I was finally able to try on my wedding dress for the first time ~3 weeks before the wedding. Imagine my surprise when I realized it was a little (and by little, I mean quite a bit) too small. I didn’t mention the snugness to the seamstress, and vowed to lose 10 lbs or so before the wedding.

As you can imagine, trying to lose 10 pounds in less than 3 weeks is not easy, nor is it healthy. But I was determined to do it – after all, I had a very expensive dress that had to fit, and a very expensive party to attend. So I started a detox diet that I’ve done before with success. It’s supposed to last for about a week. I did it for 2.5 or so. On the plus side, I lost the needed weight, and 2 days before the wedding, the dress fit wonderfully.
(here I am with my bridesmaids in the dress that fit!)
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(and here I am with DH during dinner)
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On the downside… I hadn’t really eaten much of anything except fruits & veggies for nearly 3 weeks. Then, the week of the wedding, I had to eat real foods again. Not only did this cause the lost weight to return rapidly after the wedding, it also led to my lingering food allergies to be aggravated, so the day after the wedding, I didn’t feel that great. And of course, it weakened my immune system, too. I wasn’t worried, since we had 4 days between the wedding and the start of the honeymoon, and I simply went about my normal routine. We wrote thank you notes for wedding gifts, we cleaned & organized our apartment, no real problems.

On Wednesday July 30, the day before we were to leave, we grabbed breakfast burritos from a local gas station for breakfast while we were running errands. When we got home, we tried out our snorkel gear in the pool, along with our waterproof digital camera, and then showered & started packing. At some point, we decided to go get an early dinner, and after dinner went to do some last minute shopping. While we were out, both DH & I were feeling very chilled, odd in 100+ degree weather.

By the time we got home, I was almost dysfunctional. I took some Excedrin, and tried to finish packing. At 7:30PM, I decided it was time for bed, hoping to sleep off whatever was wrong before our flight at 6:00AM the next morning. I couldn’t sleep though; I was freezing & burning up at the same time, so I finally took my temperature. It was 101. Over the next 4 or so hours, I obsessively monitored my temperature (it topped out near 103!) while trying to fall asleep. At one point, I even sent DH out to get Tylenol, knowing if my fever went any higher I was going to have to go to the emergency room and probably cancel our honeymoon.

Up Next: Did we go at all? (OK, you know the answer to this since you’re reading a TR) Were we able to keep our plans? Did I end up in the hospital?

(this will be edited later to add wedding pictures, I just need to upload them to my photobucket account)
 
YAY!! Can't wait to read more! popcorn:: I can totally relate to the having to loose weight to fit into your wedding dress story. :lmao:

Congrats on your marriage. :banana: We got married in WDW and honeymooned there as well. We also took a 4 day cruise on the Disney Wonder. I couldn't ask for a better honeymoon. :love:
 
So sorry you got sick:sick: I hope you recoved so you could enjoy your honeymoon. I can relate to being sick at WDW, DD & I both got the flu last year at Xmas when we were there & it wasn't much fun. We just decided to grin & bear it, took Advil & enjoyed ourselves anyway, though not as much as if we hadn't been sick.
I can't wait to hear how it all turns out.popcorn::
 

Yay, I have readers! I'll try to get the next installment up tonight, but I want to get the photos uploaded & organized first. It'll be up this weekend though, I promise! :laughing:
 
Sorry to hear you got sick! I hope everything works out for you. I can't wait to hear about it.
 
Day 1: Arrival & such

When I left off, I was suffering from a really high fever a mere 6 hours before we needed to leave for the airport. After DH returned with the Tylenol, I was able to fall asleep with the alarm set for 4:15AM. I didn’t sleep well, but when the alarm went off, I was feeling somewhat better. We threw the toiletries into the suitcase, loaded the car, and headed off to the airport. We arrived at the airport just before 5:00AM, but didn’t get into the terminal until nearly 5:30, and our flight was already boarding. When we checked in, we were offered the option of upgrading to first class, which we took (hey, it’s a honeymoon!), but were told our luggage would have to go on the next flight. No worries there, we were using ME, so we knew the bags would eventually get to OKW.

Our flight was uneventful, although one of my ears refused to pop as we were landing, so I was in a lot of pain. We were in Orlando just after 9:00AM. We made our way to the ME check-in desk, and boarded a bus to OKW, with a detour through the Port Orleans resorts. We got checked in, and were a bit disappointed that our room wasn’t ready yet, but it was only 10:15 or so. The CM gave us our “Just Married” buttons, and we dropped our carry-on off with bell services to head into the parks. We had lunch ressies at Le Cellier, and I still needed to get my Minnie bride ears!

We arrived at EPCOT, and headed straight to MouseGear for the ears. While we were standing in line to check out, it began to rain. We weren’t too concerned, not because we had ponchos (we didn’t), but because we figured it was a normal, Florida afternoon rain shower & would end shortly. It didn’t. We were completely soaked by the time we made it to Le Cellier & checked in for our ressie. While we waited for a table, we received a call from Mickey & Minnie, congratulating us on our wedding. They were able to seat us pretty quickly in the Nova Scotia section of the restaurant. I ordered cheddar cheese soup, the mushroom filet, and the spiced apple crumble, while DH had the duck two ways, the New York strip steak , and the chocolate “moose” for dessert. Our server brought us complimentary champagne & strawberries since it was our honeymoon.

Our plan after lunch had been to spend the afternoon at EPCOT, and put our faces on the granite wall near the entrance. But it was still raining heavily. We walked (quickly) around the world showcase & didn’t even stop to take pictures, and ultimately decided to head back to the hotel and get into dry clothes. We called first to make sure our room was ready, though, and were pleasantly surprised to find our luggage there when we got back.

We showered & changed, and decided to begin getting ready for our dinner at Jiko. It was at this point that my illness the night before began to have lingering effects. First, I was starting to feel poorly again. Second, and perhaps more important, I realized that I had forgotten to pack several important things. First missing important item? A hairbrush. So I sent DH up to the “general store” to find me a brush. He returned with the crappiest brush I’ve ever owned, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers, huh?

Since we were ready pretty early, and we’d never been over to Animal Kingdom Lodge before, we decided to head over & do some exploring. At this point, I still wasn’t feeling that great, but I was determined to make the best of our honeymoon. We hopped on the first bus that showed up at OKW – it was headed to EPCOT – and then at EPCOT, headed down to wait on an AKL bus. We didn’t wait too long, less than 10 minutes for sure, and then we were on our way to AKL. We arrived at the resort a little after 6; our ADR was for 8:15. We had a lot of time to waste.

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So, first we explored the gift shop, looking for something unique that we couldn’t get in other gift shops. There was quite a bit of cool African art to look at, so we were able to spend a decent amount of time in the gift shop. Then we headed outside to look out over the savannah. We were a bit disappointed that the overlook outside Jambo House was so small, but we did get some nice photos of the animals.

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As we were walking around, I began to feel sick again, so we went inside to sit down, and DH went off to get me some water. We realized at this point that the heat/humidity, combined with illness, was getting me dehydrated very quickly, so I started drinking quite a bit more water for the next few days (dining plan snacks were handy for this!). The water seemed to solve the problems temporarily.

At this point, it was about 7:50, so we decided to check in for our ADR at Jiko. They weren’t able to seat us right away, so we sat in the bar and sampled South African wines. I wasn’t thrilled with the first couple I tried, but the bartender was great, offering suggestions & samples until we found one I liked. We were finally seated around 8:30, after the bartender commented that we’d been waiting a long time for our table & went to the check-in desk to see what was going on.

Our meal at Jiko, while delicious, was the worst service we received on the entire trip. Our waiter had 3-4 tables in the same area, and although he was relatively attentive to the other tables, he almost completely ignored us. He didn’t refill our water glasses, he ignored my repeated requests for lemon for the water, and we had to flag him down every time we needed anything. We didn’t finish dinner until almost 11 as a result. The food was great, though. DH started with the seared ostrich filet, and then had the coffee BBQ braised beef ribs. I started with the cucumber, tomato, and onion salad and then had the seared Ahi tuna. I don’t remember what we had for dessert (they were both dessert specials not listed on the menu on allears.net), but I do remember it being very good.

We were finally done with our meal around 11, and headed outside to catch a Magic Kingdom bus – it was EMH at MK, so that was the only bus still running. We didn’t wait long for a bus, and at MK we switched to a bus to OKW, again not waiting long. We were back in the room by 11:30 or so, and went right to sleep.

Up Next: Our only real day in a theme park, an expensive photo shoot (with links to pictures!), and a surprise from the Mouse himself!
 
Hi there, checking in for this report. :goodvibes

A honeymoon at Disney and then a Disney cruise sounds so wonderful!

How awful that you were not feeling good, I hope it did not effect your honeymoon too much. :guilty:

I have been dying to eat at Jiko, too bad about the crummy waiter but yay for the delicious food!

Can't wait to read more about your trip.
 
Subscribing!

Your wedding dress is gorgeous!

Thanks! :) And :welcome: to my trip report!

Today was my first day back at work for new teacher training, so it might take a few days before I can get the next update up, but I'm starting it tonight so hopefully it won't be too long. :)
 
Joining in on the fun! :) Congrats & wishing you a lifetime of happiness & plenty more disney trips! you made a beautiful bride. princess: :bride:

So sorry that you are feeling ill for this trip but I am glad its not getting you down.

Looking forward to reading more!
 
Day 2: Friday, August 1, 2008

On Friday morning, the alarm on my cell phone went off around 7:30am – we had to get ready for a 10AM photo shoot at Animal Kingdom that I booked through Disney Photography Services. While DH showered, I ran down to the main building to refill our souvenir mugs, and the humidity was already out of control… I started to regret our park choice. We’d calculated that we needed to be out at the bus stop around 9:15, in case we *just* missed a bus, so we got dressed & then I decided to wear some makeup. Yep, you guessed it – I’d left nearly all of my makeup products at home as well! Oh well, the photos are more natural this way, LOL.

At about 9:10, we heard a bus at the stop outside our room, and DH wanted to run out to see which one it was. I said not to worry about it, since we weren’t quite ready to go yet. We walked out at 9:15 to see the bus just pulling away… and yep, it was an AK bus. We weren’t too worried, since OKW is relatively close to AK, and we assumed there would be another bus in the Disney-estimate of 20 or so minutes. But of course, as you can probably predict, the bus didn’t come. So at 9:35 we decided to walk to the main building, figuring that if a bus came, the main building is the last stop within the resort, so we wouldn’t miss it. At 9:45, still no bus. But, as luck would have it, a taxi pulled up to drop someone off. DH seized the opportunity to ask if we could get a ride to AK, and off we went. Thank goodness I had cash on me (it was supposed to be for tips on the cruise). We walked into Guest Relations at AK at 10 exactly, and met David, our photographer.

Our first stop after meeting David was the lockers in the park – David graciously used his CM discount to get us a locker for free, and we stowed all the stuff we didn’t want to carry through the park with us while on the photo shoot. For the next hour or so (we went a little over), we wandered AK posing for photos. David was even able to get us front-of-the-line access to Mickey & Minnie, so we have a few non-photopass character pics.

To view the pictures from the AK photoshoot, visit www.collages.net/disneyweddings . The username is LoPresti Honeymoon and the password is 1971.

After we finished with David, we headed over to Yak & Yeti for our lunch ADR. We were about 10 minutes early, but were seated immediately. As an odd aside, midway through our meal they got really busy & pulled our waiter to another section, so we were handed off to someone else. The service was great though, from both gentlemen, and we tipped very generously since we assumed it would be split. Also, the bill at Yak & Yeti printed like the old DDP ones did when tip was included, so we had to estimate the actual cost of our meal. At lunch, DH started with the lettuce cups while I had the wok-fried string beans. Both were good, but not exceptional. For our main course, DH tried the baby back ribs (he found these to be excellent – better than Wolfgang Puck Café whose ribs we loved on previous visits), and I had the glazed duck. For dessert, we shared the mango pie (really good) and the trio of sorbet. We were pleasantly surprised with this meal, as we’d read some iffy reports about Yak & Yeti on the disboards.

After lunch, we decided to run back to OKW and change clothes before spending the afternoon at AK, which is one of our favorite parks (even with the added heat & humidity). Before leaving, we grabbed fastpasses for Expedition Everest. It took us about an hour, give or take, before we were back in the park. When we returned, we wore our bride & groom ears, which ended up being a good decision. Our first stop upon returning was Kilimanjaro Safari. We headed over to grab fastpasses, but found a 10 minute wait so decided to just go ahead and ride. I finally got a decent lion picture, too!

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When we finished the safari, we headed over to Everest and showed our fp’s. When we got up to the front of the line, where the CM takes the fp from you, he instead congratulated us and told us to keep the fp’s to ride again! (See, the ears were at work!) I put our camera in high-speed photo mode, and managed to snap a few good pics while on the ride.

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After our ride on Everest, we headed over to Kali River Rapids, where we again found a very short line. For the first time, DH & I weren’t the ones to get completely soaked, and I got a few cool pictures (we were really having fun with the waterproof camera!).

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After Kali, we realized that it was almost time for the last show of the day of Flights of Wonder. We really enjoy this show, even though they haven’t changed it, uh, ever. Last April, DH was chosen to be one of the volunteers (the one that the bird comes and takes money from), and I’ve always tried to get chosen for the “silent flight” demo with the owl. Well, again, the ears paid off, and I was able to sit up on the stage and take video of the owl flying towards me. The other adult volunteer for that one said some not nice words (it freaked her out a bit to see the owl flying at her head), so I haven’t uploaded the video, but here’s a nice close-up of the owl I was allowed to take while still on stage with it.

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Following Flights of Wonder, we went to wander through one of the trails (the one with the tigers, not the one with the gorillas), and I got some tiger pics as well. Tigers are very special in our relationship, as DH proposed to me at the tiger exhibit at the Bronx Zoo.

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As we left the trail, we decided to hop on the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which we’d never done before. Unfortunately, we got there after they’d closed the petting zoo, but we did get to see the things inside. We took the train back to Harambe, and then headed over to Everest to use our fastpass again, and then we headed back to OKW to get ready for dinner – we had ressies at Wolfgang Puck Café, and then planned to hit the Comedy Warehouse & Adventurer’s Club in DTD.

While we were out at AK, Mickey had paid us a visit with a special gift:
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“Just Married!” balloons & an autographed photo of Mickey & Minnie all dressed up!

We got dressed for dinner, and even though we were running late, we decided to take the boat from OKW to DTD. For information’s sake, this is a 30 minute ride, so don’t do it if you’re in a hurry! We made it to our 7:00 ressie at 7:30, but they were able to seat us immediately (this surprised us somewhat, we expected to have to wait since we were running so late). We’ve eaten at Wolfgang Puck on both of our last trips, so we had high expectations for this dinner. It was NOT as good as we remembered this time around, and our service wasn’t great either. It probably didn’t help that as dinner started, I began to feel quite sick again… but I ate thinking food would help. It didn’t.

DH started with the crab cake, and I started with my old favorite, the spinach artichoke dip. This, I still loved. For our entrees, DH had the flatiron steak with mushroom hash, which was good, and I had the Hoisin BBQ ribs, my favorite from a previous trip. I’m not sure if they just weren’t that good (DH preferred the ribs from Yak & Yeti), or if it was that I was still sick, but I did not enjoy the meal. We ended up taking my leftovers to go. We both got key lime pie for dessert, but we took it to go as well, since DH was full and I wasn’t doing well.

We didn’t really want to back to the resort, since we’d heard rumors (on the disboards, of course) that the Adventurer’s Club is closing, but I was sick. So we headed to guest services to find out if there was a drug store or convenience store nearby so I could try to find some medicine. This was a little after 9:00. The CMs in guest services were very nice, and even checked their back room to see if they had anything that might help (they didn’t), and then directed us to a gas station across the street that might have medicine, as well as a 24-hour grocery store in the area (they said it was walking distance – yeah right!). We tried the gas station first with no luck, and headed back to DTD to look for a taxi. We found a taxi stand, but there were no taxis to be found. Finally, around 10:15, we finally found a taxi. He took us to the grocery store where I was able to get some medicine, and then asked if we wanted to go back to DTD or to our resort. We opted to go back to the resort since there was no way I would’ve been able to enjoy myself, so we were driven back to OKW & dropped off right in front of our door. Before bed, we debated what to do the next day: should we head to MGM (I refuse to call it Hollywood Studios, sorry) & keep our lunch ressie, or should we hit a water park and get some sun before our cruise? We decided to make the decision in the morning, and drifted off to sleep.

Coming up next time: Where did we go on Saturday? Why did all the PhotoPass photographers hate us on this trip? And was our signature dinner everything we’d hoped for???
 
Your wedding dress was absolutly beautiful!!
I Hope that you begin to feel better and can enjoy the rest of your trip!!

The visit from minnie and mickey is so cool! My brother and new wife were there on their honeymoon the same week but did not get a visit!! :(

Great TR!
 
Your wedding dress was absolutly beautiful!!
I Hope that you begin to feel better and can enjoy the rest of your trip!!

The visit from minnie and mickey is so cool! My brother and new wife were there on their honeymoon the same week but did not get a visit!! :(

Great TR!

Thanks! I'm working on the next installment, and hope to get it up this weekend!
 
Sorry about the lack of updates... the first week of school (uh, and the Olympics the last two weeks) have had me a bit distracted. The next installment is partially written, I'll get it finished soon... maybe even later tonight, if I get my work stuff done soon. :)
 




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