Your taking how many people on your honeymoon?

[cadale]

Please bear with me as this is my first attempt at trip report.

First who's going:

Me, Heidi (51) and my DH Stephen (56), our DD Jennifer (28), DS Sean (23) and our future DDIL Jessica (26).

We made our first trip to Disney World in September 1999 as advisors for my daughter's scout troop. While it was a whirl-wind visit, all four parks in 3 days (who needs sleep?), it made us realize how much we enjoyed being in DW. I still cry every time I walk into or out of the Magic Kingdom (and on the DME to MCO).

My DS and I caught the Disney bug on that trip. My DH enjoys the time we spend there but is just as content hanging out at the hotel. My DD is somewhere in the middle - really enjoys her time there, especially EPCOT, but is ok waiting for her next trip.

We have been planning this trip since January 2012 and have had a count down planner going since day 225. My DS is a big trivia person so I made a count down board filled with all kinds of Disney information and trivia for him (and us).

When:

We will be visiting from November 30 thru December 8, 2013. Our first Christmas trip with the kids. I am so excited to show them all the decorations! We are coming from the Northeast and I am sure some wonderful sunshine and warmer temps will be much appreciated.

Staying at:

We are doing a split stay between AK KV and BLT. We will do two nights at KV on a savannah view and 6 nights at BLT in a 2 br LV and a studio SV.
AK will be a first for us so we are looking forward to watching the animals from our room. Hopefully they will co-operate and actually show up. BLT is our favorite and also our home resort for DVC. Can't beat being on the monorail!


Reason for the trip:

We try to visit as a family every other year and this just so happened to be our next family visit. When we visited in 2012 my DS proposed to his girlfriend in front of the castle just before wishes. It was so romantic!! Well they planned their wedding for this October on their fourth anniversary. Since we were already planning an early family trip to see the decorations they opted to make it their honeymoon. I know, who can say they took their parents and sister on their honeymoon? Rest assured they have plans of their own in order to celebrate their big day.

So who is my future DDIL? Well, she met my DS at college while they were in theater together. Theater wasn't my son's thing so they lost track of each other for a year until Jessica voluntered with the student ambulance (my son's real interest). They have been together for 3 1/2 years. She is a natural born Disney nut, just like us, so she fits in great!


I would post a picture for you but I can't figure out how . Well that's it for today. ADR's coming up next.

 

[Disneychix]

Fun! I will be there some of the same time as you and we are coming from WNY also

Can't wait to see your plans.

 

[cadale]

Fun! I will be there some of the same time as you and we are coming from WNY also

Can't wait to see your plans.

Thanks for reading my post! So where in WNY are you from?

 

[cadale]

ADR planning for us is always so confusing. There are tons of places everyone wants to try along with the places we have been at and really like. I have to say we are pretty diplomatic about it. Everyone picks their top 5 or 6 and then we all check out the menu's and pick the finalists from that. We don't always get to everyones top choice but at least we try to pick something from everyones list.

ADR's so far:

Sunday, Nov. 31 - Dinner at Ohana (we are excited about this one as it will be our first time)

Monday, Dec 1 - Dinner at Raglan Road (for 3 of us)
Dinner at Teppan Edo for the newlyweds (first time)

Tuesday, Dec 2 - Pre-park opening breakfast at Crystal Palace (never been in the park before opening so excited for picture taking)

Dinner at BOMA

Wednesday, Dec 3 - Dinner at Rose & Crown for DS bday

Thursday, Dec 4 - Lunch at Biergarten
Dinner at Mama Melrosa (first time)

Friday, Dec 5 - Dinner at Garden Grill (first time)

Saturday, Dec 6 - Dinner at BOG to celebrate the wedding (first time)

I have been to BOG for lunch and really enjoyed it. I am a little nervous about the dinner ressie because the reviews are pretty hit and miss. People have either really loved it or thought it was a waste of time. I am hoping it goes well since we will be celebrating.


Of course I have tossed around the idea of chaning some of the ressies as I never feel completely satisfied when they are all made. I thought about adding Cali Grill but haven't been able to get anything yet.

Anyone been to the places that are new to us? Would love to hear what you thought about them.

In addition:

Just because 5 people on a honeymoon doesn't seem odd enough, my DB and DSIL will be also joining us for part of the time. We have 5 meals planned together and I am sure we will hang out at the parks together also. They are also DVC and will be staying at the WLV. They are also big Disney nuts and with our normal lives as hectic as they are it will be great to just hang out.

Next up our plans (or what we have scheduled for now )

 

[MrsK53113]

Ok, so this is actually my very first post!! It's exciting! I just joined so I can get prepared for my own Disney honeymoon.

My story is almost exactly like yours!! My future hubby and I are going on our honeymoon with his parents, 2 brothers and his niece and nephew!! His father had planned a trip to Disney for his niece's 5th birthday and invited us along. We had JUST picked our wedding date and it turned out it was 2 days before his planned trip!! So we'll be honeymooning in Disney in June with almost his whole family! Thankfully, though, we're making our own arrangements and are just meeting up with them for a birthday dinner.

 

[cadale]

First let me say

It's nice to know someone else travels like us . I am sure you will have a wonderful time. Is it your first visit? There is so much information on the boards you should be able to get an answer to just about any question.

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

 

[cadale]

What's on the agenda:

So this is what we have planned so far - I am always thinking of other things to add or re-arrange .

Day 1: Arrival day, check into AK KV. It will be a late arrival.

Day 2: AK in the a.m.; afternoon by the pool or just relaxing. Dinner at Ohana's and then MVMCP. We are having an early dinner so hopefully will get to MK early enough to get in line for the dwarfs.

Day 3: Check out of AK KV and transfer to BLT. Some of us will have dinner at Raglan Road and some will go to Teppen Edo. Today is kinda up in the air. Don't know if we should resort hop for the decorations or we are talking of going on the Backstage Safari tour. Has any one done this tour?

Day 4: Pre-opening breakfast in MK. Spend the day here and then go to BOMA for dinner. This will be our first day hanging with my brother and his wife.

Day 5: Sleep in day (requested by everyone but me). I may hit up downtown this morning. We have a 3:30 pm appointment for a photo shoot at the Poly. Dinner at EPCOT to celebrate DS birthday. Will try to catch Illuminations.

Day 6: EPCOT for most of the day. Lunch at Biergarten with my brother and his wife. Dinner at Mama Melrosa's and catch Osbourne lights.

Day 7: Might do MK with my brother. Haven't really picked anything certain for this day. Dinner at Garden Grill. I hope this is good; I am so psyched to see Chip and Dale.

Day 8: Possible HS and then MK with dinner at BOG to celebrate the newlyweds. Might stay for wishes or catch it from top of the world.

Day 9: Depart for home

Everyone wanted a more laid back approach to this trip but yet they have a list a mile long of stuff to do. I am thinking the tour might be a bit much for this trip. We have waited this long what's a little longer.

 

[cadale]

I am bummed.

My DD will not be able to join us for the entire trip. She is a speech pathologist and the company she works for expects them to take vacation during the school year when the kids are out. She is only able to get 3 days off of work so will be in Disney from Wednesday through Sunday.

I am going to try and put her on an early flight so at least she will have most of Wednesday to enjoy the parks or hotel. I am a little nervous though because she HATES to fly so this will be her first time flying by herself. I would prefer direct but will have to do a connecting flight.

On the up side she will be there to enjoy our EPCOT day which is her favorite park.

 

[cadale]

So now the second guessing starts with my flight times. We are flying out of Syracuse because JetBlue no longer has a direct flight out of Rochester. The only problem is JetBlue moved the direct flight so it doesn't leave until 4:05PM which mean we won't land until 7PM. I hate the idea of getting in so late you really can't do anything. So do I bite the bullet and pay the change fees to move us to a non-direct flight that leaves at 6AM and gets in at 11:30AM or do I just leave it alone and figure we will be well rested for the next day?

 

[cadale]

I was surfing the web the other day and came across some really good Disney crossword puzzles and some BINGO games for the parks. My DS and his fiance love games so I think I will make a packet of the them and give it to them to do on the plane. Maybe one (or two) Disney Dollars for each correct answer? The BINGO games are cool because you can complete them easily enough by spending the day in any of the parks. I know my DDIL will take the challenge to finish them all!

It seems like a cool way to start the trip and make the plane ride go faster. Still haven't figured out if I am switching to the earlier flight or not. I am hesitant about getting stuck in JFK in December.

 

[cadale]

Just thought I would bring you up to date with some changes we have made.

We will now be leaving at 6am out of Syracuse so we will have more time in WDW on Saturday. I didn't really like the original timing as we wouldn't have made our hotel until 8pm.

We are finally below 60 days so we can now customize the magic bands and I even think we can make fastpass+ reservations.

Starting to put things together that I want to take. Will probably mail a box down the the hotel with some stuff just to make it easier.

It has been hectic around here as my son was married this past weekend but now the focus will be all Disney!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[ls1jt]

Sounds awesome!

 

[cadale]

Following along!

Thanks for following along!!

 

[cadale]

So needed to make a few more changes. We had scheduled to be in MK on Friday, Dec 6. but just realized they are taping the xmas parade that day. No way we want to be stuck in that crowd!

So we are thinking of making it a downtown disney day instead. Of course I also have to reschedule the haircuts I had booked for that day at the Harmony Barbershop. I am going to try and see if they have room on Wed. Dec. 4. We are having a photo shoot done that afternoon so fresh haircuts would be appropriate.

The customize your magic bands link showed up on MDE the other day. We are going to try and get to that tonight. We never seem to have everybody around at the same time to get the task accomplished. Still debating about FP+. Unsure of when to make the times as we don't know yet if we will be doing early mornings every day.

Just received my DD ticket in the mail yesterday so I still have to link that to MDE. She can't always make it to Disney so she doesn't have an AP like the rest of us.

 

[cadale]

Called and changed the Harmony Barbershop appointments. The only time available was late Saturday afternoon which is the day before we leave. The CM said that the Barbershop has become very popular so making appointments has gotten much harder. I guess the secret is out!

I will probably try calling each day we are there to see if there are any cancellations. If making appointments has gotten so hard I feel bad for those that just walk up. The wait must be very long.

In other news I wish I knew how to post pictures because you would all love the table decorations from my son's wedding. Each table was decorated in a different disney movie theme. They came out so nice! Everyone was going around to see if they could figure out what movie each table was. It's hard to believe that all that planning for 18 months and it's finally over. But now comes the disney trip!

 

[cadale]

So our first set of magic bands arrived two days ago! We will be getting two sets because we are doing a split stay. They are a little stiff but hopefully they will relax as we wear them.

I managed to book the fp+ we wanted. Some of the times aren't the best but I figure we can always try and change that day if it really doesn't work in the schedule. The headliners are all good it's just the extras that we will need to tweek.

I signed on to MDE yesterday and all of a sudden three of the park tickets don't show and one of the room reservations doesn't show. Spent 30 min on the phone and they couldn't figure it out. They did acknowledge they are all in the system just not showing up. So it's been bumped up to IT to see if they can fix it. At this point as long as they are not cancelled we will deal with it.

It has gotten cold up here so the idea of Disney and warmer weather are sounding really good. Now we just need to make sure everyone stays healthy and safe!