16 Days of Disney! A Wedding and Disneymoon Trip Report!

Introduction

Welcome to my Disney World Wedding and Disneymoon trip report! For the full pre-trip report, click here.

I’ve decided to start by introducing…

The Full Cast

First (copypasta!) there’s me:

24 year old, prior-Air Force, college student with a possibly unhealthy love for Disney and Disney World in particular. This makes my fourth trip to Disney World since my very first trip in 2009.


Coda:

27 year old merchant marine. This is his second trip to Disney World.


Coda’s twin (yep, twin, honestly) brother, Levi, and his girlfriend, Carolyn:

Levi's first (and only) trip was in 2010, and Carolyn hasn't been since she was a kid.


My mom, dad, and my brother, Michael:

This is everyone's first trip!


Coda’s mom and sister, SuHana:
Apparently we have absolutely no pictures of Coda's mom... So this is Coda and SuHana.

Also their first trip.


Our friend, Reuben and his son, Cy:

Yep, their first trip too!


Wow! Can I just say that I will never bring this many people to Disney World (or anywhere else, for that matter) EVER again! Levi and Carolyn joined us from December 15th – 22nd, and they were great! Reuben and Cy were there from the 16th – 22nd, but man, they were a handful. My family and Coda’s mom and sister arrived on the 20th and left on the 22nd and that was complete madness. I promise, we’ll get to that.


The Plan

This trip was supposed to be completely stress free! Key word here is “supposed”. Shockingly, it was not.

We ended up arriving a day early on the 14th. The first few days were mainly for Coda to spend time with his brother and friend Reuben. Coda’s brother, Levi, lives in Alaska (for those of you who are geographically challenged, that is many miles from North Carolina), and they hadn’t seen each other in over a year. The 20th through the 22nd were days to spend with family and, most importantly, get married. Finally, the 23rd through the 29th was our honeymoon. Again, supposed to be stress- and drama-free…

Oh, there was also much consumption of Disney food planned.

Next up: How things actually played out.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I'm in and can't wait for more! Congratulations!!

 

[Californian Elitist]

Man, there were a lot of people in your group! I guess the phrase "the more, the merrier" is played out, huh?

Congratulations!

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

Happy for y'all, but I'm worried about foreboding comments about stress and drama.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Ooooooooo I'm on board and excited!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[rufio]

I'm in and can't wait for more! Congratulations!!

Thanks!

Man, there were a lot of people in your group! I guess the phrase "the more, the merrier" is played out, huh?

Congratulations!

Oh my god, you have no idea! Sooooo many people! And so many personalities and opinions!

Thank you!

Happy for y'all, but I'm worried about foreboding comments about stress and drama.

Haha! Just wait... It gets pretty good around the 20th.

Ooooooooo I'm on board and excited!! Can't wait to read more.

Yay!!! I got my photopass pics so I'll be working on more tonight!

 

[DisneyDebNJ]

Congratulations!!!!!!!!! Wishing you many many years of happiness, good health and Pixie Dust!!! Oh hats off to you, planning a wedding AND arranging a family trip! Youre my hero!!! LOL Can't wait to read more

 

[Britt]

Ooooooo can't wait!!!!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

Oh and congratulations on your recent wedding!!!

 

[PUSH]

Congrats on the wedding again! I'm in for the TR! Can't wait!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Can't wait to see how this unfolds. It's just such a different ball game when you're with a larger group.

 

[rufio]

Day One

The day started at the crack of dawn. We were up and on the road before the sun even came up and neither of us are morning people. Coda insisted that we be out the door by 6am to get to Jacksonville, Florida, in time for his work-related adventures, even though it’s only a 7-hour drive to Jacksonville and his appointment was at 2:45 in the afternoon.

In any case, our Disney mugs full of coffee and we were on the road by 6:15 watching the sun come up as we drove through southeastern North Carolina. There was not a lot of conversation (like I said, not morning people) and I passed out less than an hour into the trip.

When I woke up, we had already crossed into South Carolina and the sun was blaring. It was then that I realized I had left my sunglasses in my car in the driveway, so I would go without for the entire two weeks. South Carolina was pretty uneventful, aside from one really interesting thing that I don’t have pictures of. We saw a huge black blob in the distance on a trailer and couldn’t figure out what it was! Coda sped up to get to it and when we were directly next to it we realized that it was a sad looking Army helicopter missing its blades. It was huge! I haven’t seen one up close in years. Anyway, it added a little bit of excitement to an otherwise boring few hours.

The Georgia sign was really lame. I was hoping for something super awesome to take a picture of since I had gotten it out during a gas station stop. No such luck. The Georgia sign is ugly. To pass the time, we listened to an audiobook:

It was a pretty interesting "read," though Coda didn't like the way it was written, bouncing around from person to person. About two hours before we crossed the Florida border, Coda asked me to drive since he was about to pass out. He would be sooooo mad if he knew this picture was on the internet!

I took over the wheel and handled the navigation (with the GPS’s help, of course) until we were just about to Jacksonville. This picture definitely definitely didn't happen while I was driving down I-95:

We got to Coda’s union around 1pm.

Only an hour and forty-five minutes early. No big deal. Except they didn’t even open until 1:30 so he couldn’t even get in early. So we sat and waited. It was a super good time! They did get him in right after 1:30 though, and we were out around 2:30. Then we needed sustenance.

On a recent trip to the Smokey Mountains, Coda decided that he loved Zaxby’s chicken, though I have no idea why. So guess where we went! Yep, Zaxby’s. I only managed to down a couple pieces of chicken fingers and passed the rest to Coda who is basically a human vacuum cleaner. By this time, we had been away from home for nine hours and I was ready to be at Disney World! So we hopped back in the car and made the two-hour drive to Orlando.

We ended up running into really bad rush hour traffic around 5pm and had to take a detour. All-in-all, we were delayed by about an hour. And I finally got to see my first Disney billboard of the trip!

I thought I was out of luck because we had detoured through residential areas. We checked into our hotel around 6pm. It was literally about a mile away from the WDW sign outside of Downtown Disney! It was a very colorful hotel, to say the least. When we got there, I was carrying my wedding dress (I couldn’t leave it in the car overnight!) and we were upgraded to a king-size bed for free! Not too shabby. We had dinner reservations at Raglan Road for 8:45. I made them late because we weren’t sure when we would actually get there. With time to kill, we both took showers (twelve hours in a car is unpleasant) which was an adventure in itself. There wasn’t much hot water and the water pressure was non-existent. To the point that I wasn’t sure if it was going to be able to get the shampoo out of my hair. For $50 for the night, I guess that’s what I get. But it served its purpose! I got to go to DTD a day early!

We headed Downtown around 7:15 and the sign was so close that I completely missed getting a picture! Coda let me out before he parked and I quickly located Guest Relations to exchange our Annual Pass vouchers for the real deal and purchase Tables in Wonderland for all of our out of pocket meals related to the wedding. He found me there and told me about the craziness he encountered in the parking lot. Coda can be a little (read: a lot) impatient at times and I was just glad he made it through finding a parking space. With APs in hand, we headed towards the West Side just to take it all in before dinner.

Here's the really cool DTD blue tree:

The living statues were out!

And we caught a glimpse of the not-yet-open Splitsville:

First picture together of the trip:

We checked in at Raglan Road a few minutes early and were seated almost immediately.

It was our first time there and all I can say is wow!

I had listed an allergy on my reservation and the chef was there almost as soon as we sat down to discuss options with me. It was so much different than any other dining experience I’ve had outside of Disney! Normally when I ask if something has yeast in it, I get a blank stare and “I don’t know, probably,” as my answer. A+ service, Disney!

We started with drinks. Coda had a Blue Moon with OJ and I had the Very Berry Blueberry Martini, which was so good! When you’re limited to vodka drinks it’s always great to find something new and amazing! The highlight of the meal was that I was able to eat the bread! Apparently, soda bread is completely yeast free! I can’t even remember the last time I got to eat bread at a meal out.

For our main courses, Coda had the Burger ‘R’ Way, which was basically a bacon cheeseburger, but he said it was amazing. He’s a burger kind of guy, as you’ll see.

I had the Beef Murray. I had no idea what it was when I ordered, but man, did I make the right choice! It was beef curry with spinach and potatoes in a big pastry thing, and came with apple chutney. I didn’t know what that was either, but it was awesome.

The entertainment was so much fun! I’ve never seen anything like it!

We skipped dessert since we hadn’t gotten our dining plan yet, but we’d make up for it later.

After dinner, Coda was on a mission to get wedding Mickey and Minnie ears. It was hilarious because he had fought tooth and nail not to have to wear them when I brought it up prior to the trip. We had gotten some ears embroidered for his niece in March over at the place connected to the Art store (can’t remember what it’s called), so that was where we went. But we couldn’t decide what to get embroidered on the back. We didn’t want to put “Just Married” because we wouldn’t actually be getting married for a week. We settled on just our wedding date since it was accurate no matter when we wore them. With hats ready for wear, we only had one stop left…

Ghirardelli! On the way, I saw some super awesome parents pushing around what looked like a 12-year-old in a stroller. Way to go, Mom and Dad! Anyway, I don’t remember what Coda got because I was so excited about mine. I settled for one scoop (who decides what a scoop is, by the way, because I’m pretty sure I had at least three scoops in reality) of cookie dough ice cream with peanut butter in a chocolate sprinkle cone! NOM!

Thus ends day one. We got back to our hotel and passed out.

Next up: Animal Kingdom and meeting up with Levi and Carolyn!

 

[Englebabies]

Yea! Can't wait to see how this all played out.

 

[sam_disney]

congratulations cant wait for more xx

 

[rufio]

Day Two

Waking up that first day in Florida is always a rush. I never get out of bed that early at home! We got up at 7:15 hoping to get to Animal Kingdom for opening. The plan was to hang out there until 3 or 4 in the afternoon at which point we could check in to our Disney resort! Breakfast was downstairs in our non-Disney hotel. It was the usual continental selection: cereal, biscuits, pastries. Most of the people in the lobby were dressed in Mickey shirts. Can I please just say that I would never stay off-site during a Disney vacation? It was the most un-magical thing I think I’ve ever experienced. Everyone was fighting to get through the breakfast lines and out the door.

Finally, we made it out of our hotel and were on our way to the magic bubble. We got stopped at a traffic light and I was able to snag a good shot of the Disney sign!

For the first time ever, we parked in a theme park lot instead of taking Disney transportation. We were close enough that it was a no-brainer to walk to the gate, especially since the trams were packed full. I stopped for some pictures of the Animal Kingdom Christmas tree and wow! It was awesome!

The lines weren’t too bad so early in the morning, and once we got through the gate we stopped to get our photopass plus card (which turned out to be a pretty awesome investment, by the way). We got a quick photopass picture on the way to the Tree of Life.

Once we got to the tree, we noticed that no one was moving. I guess we made it for opening! Nothing super exciting happened, so maybe we missed the show, but suddenly everyone made a break for it. At first, we turned toward Asia and Expedition Everest, but then I reminded Coda of how active the animals are supposed to be early in the morning and we switched course for Africa and Kilimanjaro Safaris!

We walked right onto a truck with no wait and we definitely made the right choice! The animals were more active than I’ve ever seen them. The animals were all over the place and were really close to the road!

We had a very close encounter with a rhino that was ridiculously close to where we were sitting. This picture is not zoomed!

After the safari, we found our way in a very secluded and empty viewing spot and got some pictures with the Tree of Life.

Our next stop was Everest! But when we got there it was closed. We grabbed a couple fast passes and headed over to Dinosaur.

On the way, we decided to walk through the carnival since we’d never seen it from the inside. All I can say is, nope. I was not impressed, but I guess the kids enjoy it. I was a little surprised that you have to pay extra for the carnival games!

We made it over to Dinosaur and walked on with no wait! Twice in one morning! I definitely plan on doing DAK at opening in the future. They put us in the front of a car by ourselves, which was pretty cool.

After Dinosaur, the Finding Nemo musical was next on our list since it opened in about 15 minutes. We got perfect seats, front and center, right behind the sound booth.

Coda loved the show, surprisingly! He usually hates musicals, but he loves Nemo (and Crush, especially).

When we got back around to Everest, it was open with a 15-minute standby wait. We decided to go on and use our fast passes later. As always, it was a great ride, and the Yeti looked like his usual sad self. Oh well. Maybe they’ll get him up and running one of these days. Oh, and we got another photopass picture from the ride! I love photopass plus!

We grabbed lunch at Flame Tree where I had a HUGE salad! It was delicious! I’ll definitely stop here for lunch again in the future.

Next up, Coda wanted to do It’s Tough to be a Bug. He loves that show! I got to be the time keeper, which I was super excited about. I know it’s no big deal, but it made my day! The show itself was okay, but there were some things that were different than the last time we did it. One of Flik’s eyes was really weird and didn’t always work. The most noticeable thing was that the stinger in the back of Coda’s seat didn’t work (I don’t know if mine worked because I always move forward before it happens since it freaks me out). He was pretty disappointed that he didn’t get stung…

My favorite experience of the day was Camp Minnie Mickey! I’ve never been able to convince Coda to do meet and greets but he was extra agreeable during this trip. First we met King Louie and Baloo:

Followed by Chip and Dale:

Chip and Dale were hilarious! They made Coda go over to the side and took pictures with just me, then Chip told Coda he could come back, but drew a line on the ground and told him not to cross it. Coda got a kick out of them! He said he never realized that the characters interacted with you. He thought you just got your picture taken. The lines were getting out of control, so we stopped after those two.

Our last stop was at the Kusafiri Bakery for a Cotton-top Tamarin Cupcake! Absolute favorite cupcake of the trip!

Next up: Checking in to BLT, dinner, and fireworks!

 

[rufio]

Day Two, Part Two

Finally, it was time to check into our home away from home. The Bay Lake Tower lobby was really cool looking! I looked around while Coda got us checked in.

Our room was on the seventh floor and was just as awesome as I’d remembered from the DVC open house! Coda was super impressed.

View from the room:

Once we’d unpacked, we got dressed for the gym and headed over the skybridge. We got a little lost on the way to the gym, but we finally got there. Why on earth would we bother with the gym on a Disney vacation? Well, because we were getting married six days after our arrival and I wanted to fit into my dress. So our plan was to workout as much as possible leading up to that day. You’ll see how that worked out.

After our workout at the Contemporary fitness center, we walked over to the salon next door to see about getting Coda scheduled for a pre-wedding haircut. The lady there was not a happy camper. I think she was irritated that we walked in right after working out. Oh well. She quickly informed us that we could not make appointments at the salon and that they had to be made at the fitness center. So we headed back to find the desk unattended! We waited for about 10 minutes, but no one ever showed back up. Coda knocked on the “cast members only” door, but no luck. Eventually we gave up and went to get ready for dinner.

This was the night we were meeting Coda’s brother, Levi, and his girlfriend, Carolyn! We had originally planned on going to the Magic Kingdom and getting a quick service meal there, but they called to let us know they’d forgotten their tickets at their hotel room, and we agreed to get dinner at the Captain Cook at the Polynesian Resort.

While we waited for them to arrive at our hotel, Coda and I took the opportunity to check out the Contemporary’s fourth floor. We took our time taking in the gingerbread Christmas tree.

It smelled amazing! Finally, Levi and Carolyn arrived and we jumped on the monorail to the Poly. Coda was so excited to see Levi! And we had never met Carolyn before. She turned out to be a really nice, cool person.

At the Poly, we got a little lost looking for the Captain Cook, but we managed to locate it eventually. Coda had a burger and I got the stir-fry noodles with chicken.

It was delicious! Another great meal, Disney! For dessert, I had the gingerbread cupcake.

Surprisingly, I really didn’t like it. The frosting was far too cream-cheesy for me. But Coda enjoyed it and finished it off. His was the pumpkin cupcake, which I liked much better than my own! Sorry, no picture.

We ended the evening by taking Levi and Carolyn up to the Top of the World Lounge at the Bay Lake Tower. We had never been either and it is a really awesome place to hang out!

The views were amazing as well.

I can’t remember what my drink was called, but it was blue and had a blue glowing ice cube, which I got to bring home.

Coda had a blue moon with OJ, which, you’ll see, is his go-to drink.

We went outside for the fireworks and were able to see the water parade!

The fireworks were awesome! It was so great to get to see the show without fighting the crowds.

Before we parted ways, we agreed to meet up bright and early at the Magic Kingdom! We thought it opened at 9, so we agreed to meet at 8:30 for rope drop. Levi and Carolyn left for All Star Music and Coda and I headed downstairs to get some rest.

Next up: When Magic Kingdom really opened and a big surprise.

 

[Blueskyze]

Yay!! So excited for your TR! Loving your pictures so far, and can't wait to see wedding pics! You guys are the cutest couple. Congratulations!

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

After the safari, we found our way in a very secluded and empty viewing spot and got some pictures with the Tree of Life.

Our next stop was Everest! But when we got there it was closed. We grabbed a couple fast passes and headed over to Dinosaur.

Good decision to change over to Safari first.

Great pics! Y'all look so happy!

Our last stop was at the Kusafiri Bakery for a Cotton-top Tamarin Cupcake! Absolute favorite cupcake of the trip!

^^Yum!!^^

 

[Ariel484]

Congrats! You guys look lovely in your new avatar.

Enjoying your report so far (especially the cupcake pictures ). I'm almost nervous to read about the drama...

 

[mamamouse]

Loving your report so far!!