Trip Report Happily Ever After.....A Honeymoon to Remember

Welcome, welcome, welcome! To all that come to this happy place, welcome!

So where do I start? I guess I'll explain this TR a little bit. I did previously write and post this TR on disboards.com, but in the last few months I've found that I've connected with some many people on these boards that it has now become my go to - sorry disboards! I thought it would be nice to share my first and so far only TR here with all of you since you've all been so kind to share yours with me.

This is a report from my fairy tale Walt Disney World Honeymoon from 2015 - eek, I know a bit late, but hopefully it will still be entertaining for those of you who decide to join in. I am just working on the plans for my next trip (hotel and ticket booked and purchased), but I still feel it's a bit too early to share those details for a pre-trip report. I thought I'd relive one of the most amazing weeks I've ever had in WDW to get excited (like I need anything MORE to get excited) about my next trip.

So here we go!

Day 00
August 29, 2016 - THE day

I won't spend too much time recapping this day (better known as THE day) as that is not the reason for this trip report. That being said, our wedding was the whole reason for this trip so it has some importance!

The girls as I had a sleepover the night before the wedding (as did the boys somewhere else!) and it was amazing. It was so low key (which I wanted!), filled with love, laughs and some corny chick fliks....like every good girls night. Before we knew it, it was time to head to bed because we had an early morning.

The day started EARLY. I'm talking 4:45 am early....yikes! But for once the sound on my alarm clock didn't send me into an uncontrollable rage. I was getting MARRIED today! We quickly packed up what we needed for the day, dropped some items off at the hotel we would be staying at that evening, made a quick pit stop for some coffee and headed to my dad's house where we would be getting ready.

We all got ready at my dad's house while (now) DH Ryan got ready with his family and guys at his parents house. What a lovely sight to walk in on!

While we had some breakfast and mimosas - let me be clear, everyone else had breakfast while I focused on the mimosas, our beauty team arrived. We had arranged for hair and make up to come to us which is exactly how I wanted the morning to go.

Eventually it was time to get our beauty on. The team we worked with was freaking amazing - not only did they do an AMAZING job, but they were so much fun and really helped to keep me calm throughout it all. If anyone out there is from Ontario GTA and wants to know more about these vendors, please contact me! While we were having our hair and makeup done, our photographer (again, another supercalifragilisticexpialidocious vendor!) arrived and began taking photos of us getting ready, our dresses and in general just captured the general commotion and excitement of the morning.

FINALLY, it was time to go. It was time to get MARRIED! "Going to the chapel and we're gonna to get married."

Everything ran as smoothly as I had planned and dreamed. Before I knew it....we were Husband and Wife - officially the Ellie to his Carl. It took 13 years, but we were finally officially Mr & Mrs.

We had an AMAZING day. So much love, so many people there to share in our joy and excitement of a new life together. Ugh, I wish I could do it all again or relive it somehow. Just magical.

Things did get a bit weird later that night though

*Sorry, I had to share that one. I absolutely love it. For those who may not know, Jurassic Park was a BIG part of mine and Ryan's relationship. In fact, Ryan walked down the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme song played by our amazing Harpist (again, another vendor I'd love to share with anyone interested)*

The night felt like it was never going to end. So many people, so much food, drinks and dancing. Unfortunately, like all good things it must come to an end. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head to the hotel for the night.

Low and behold, our friends had a surprise in store for us. An after party.....that lasted until 5:30 am . All we wanted to do was get to bed, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some more time with some amazing people and enjoy this day. We ended up going to bed REALLY late, but it didn't matter. We had a blast.
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[PacNWTigger]

I'm late to the party, but enjoying everything very much. I could see the pics in the last post, so whatever you did worked that time.

 

[mlegerto]

I can't see them either.

Hmmm...I don't know why. I'm going to try and remove all of the photos and upload them again and see if that works. Not sure what else to do

 

[radiorae]

Things did get a bit weird later that night though
View attachment 192141
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You are my hero.

Following along!

 

[MomofPrincessGrace]

They are working now

 

[mlegerto]

Woooo....I think I figured out what I was doing wrong with the photos. They should be working now. Please let me know if anyone else experiences any issues. Now onto day 3!


Day 3
September 2 2015 - Hooray for Hollywood and Delicious Food

We had our alarm set for 7:40 this morning and we're easily able to get out of bed. We couldn't believe that after all the food we had consumed last night that we were hungry! So we decided that we would snack on some OJ and fruit for a light breakfast.

Today we decided that we were going to visit Hollywood Studios, which opened at 9:00 am. We had our snacks, got showered and dressed and were out of the room by 8:20 am. We decided we would drive over because hey, why not we have a car.
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The drive over was easy and we had arrived by 8:35 am, parked the car and walked up to the entrance.

When we got there, they had already started letting everyone into the park so we followed the masses. Once we got past the gate we realized that they were holding everyone right in front of the Chinese Theater. It was PACKED and sweaty!

not my image

Ryan and I decided to be a bit sneaky as we had planned to make a dash to Toy Story Midway Mania. We cut across towards Starring Rolls cafe and ended up almost at the front of the people being held. Win for us! It was SUPER humid today...like just standing there sweating and standing in and about all these people didn't help.

Thankfully once the crowd began to move, we were leading! I think we must have been one of the first 20 people to ride TTMM this morning. YEEEEEEAH...no line for us! I absoltuley LOVE this ride. It is on my must do for every visit to Hollywood Studios.

I of course kicked Ryan's butt as I ALWAYS do at this game...not gloating or anything haha.

Once we were done at TSMM we went across towards Rock N Roller Coaster as we weren't able to get a fastpass for it - we decided on a fastpass for TSMM and Tower of Terror due to the way the tier system works at this park.

We may have waited in line for all of 10 minutes before catching our limo to the show! Ride was fun as it always is.

We now had a bit of time to kill before our first fastpass of the day, so we decided to head back to Starring Rolls to grab a coffee for Ryan - if you haven't noticed yet, I don't drink coffee.

not my image

We just sat at one of the tables outside and had a chat while Ryan enjoyed his coffee. He decided it would be fun to take some photo of me while we hung out - remember, it was SUPER humid today so don't judge me haha.
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It was now time for our first fastpass of the day. 9:50 - 10:50 am for Tower of Terror...straight to the twilight zone for us!​

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Now just a little background. I was extremely lucky and thanks to our DVC membership (which my parents entered into I think in 1994 at OKW), I pretty much grew up at Disney World...which means I grew up on rides. I LOVE rides, but a few years ago (I guess my body was changing as they say) I became SO incredibly sensitive to motion and would be physically ill from being a passenger in a car rather than the driver. It sucked!

On our last trip to WDW, I got sick on almost EVERY ride and it just wasn't enjoyable - to the point that we'd have to leave the park after only being there for an hour or so. Needless to say, I was nervous that this trip would have the same results.

Rock n Roller Coaster....no problems! YEAH starting to feel a bit more optimistic that maybe my body was over whatever "change" it was going through previously haha.

Flat out....this ride on Tower of Terror made me SICK. We had the series where you go all the way up, then all the way back multiple times and my stomach was NOT feeling it. Booooooo. Such a shame as I absolutely LOVE this ride. No seriously....I will still ride it even though I know I will be sick. Ugh, getting old sucks LOL.

After we rode, we sat down in the shade for a bit and Ryan went to go get us a bottle of water. I however was determined NOT to let this ruin my day at HS.

We decided to wander Sunset Blvd. and see if any of the street performers were out so we could enjoy something unique to this park. Luckily, we came across these guys.

I actually got asked to participate in the show and was called up to help out with a magic trick! These guys were a hoot! With all of the budget cuts, I really really really hope that Disney keeps these guys around (and others). They really add to the atmosphere and make your trip that much more memorable.

We then strolled along the shops and ended up stopping for some yummy treats. I got myself a Rice Krispy Treat and Ryan got the Carrot Cake Cookie! Rice Krispy treats are my absolute favorite. I get cravings for them all of the time so don't be surprised if they show up multiple times in this report LOL. This was the first time we tried the cookie and it was so good! We probably could have eaten another one if we tried.

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[kaitertot5249]

Your honeymoon sounds amazing! Staying at the Polynesian is my DREAM. My boyfriend and I stopped by on our last trip and I was in love with everything about it. Staying there would be amazing!

I became SO incredibly sensitive to motion and would be physically ill from being a passenger in a car rather than the driver. It sucked!

That's so frustrating! I had a similar bout with motion sickness/nausea last year and it was awful! I had no idea what it was and it just went away eventually. I'm glad that you were determined to not let it get in your way and ruin your Disneymoon!

I can't wait to hear more about your time in Disney!

 

[PineapplePrincess]

Enjoying your report so far. DH and I Disneymooned at the Poly back in 1994. What a fabulous way to start out a marriage! Wishing you many years of health and happiness to come!

 

[blreinsel]

Loving your report so far! It makes me so excited to finally go with my prince in June!

 

[bee]

Hmm..that's weird! Thanks for letting me know. I refreshed the uploads and from my end it looks like they are showing - but they looked like they were showing before, so I'm not sure. Is anyone else having this issue that they cannot see my photos?

Maybe I need to remove and reload them if it's not working. Please let me know!

I can see everything now. Yay!

 

[mlegerto]

Your honeymoon sounds amazing! Staying at the Polynesian is my DREAM. My boyfriend and I stopped by on our last trip and I was in love with everything about it. Staying there would be amazing!

That's so frustrating! I had a similar bout with motion sickness/nausea last year and it was awful! I had no idea what it was and it just went away eventually. I'm glad that you were determined to not let it get in your way and ruin your Disneymoon!

Staying at the Poly was one of my dreams too and I cannot think of a better time than our Disneymoon for it to have come true - especially with the view we were gifted! See my family have been DVC members since I was very young, so it never made sense to stay at the Poly before it became a DVC property. I'm SO thankful that it because a part of the DVC club so that I would have my chance - but it is a lot of points, so I'm not sure I will be able to/it would be worth it to stay there on every trip. Either way, we loved it and made sure to take advantage of the view almost every night to view Wishes!

Ugh, yes I have NO idea why all of a sudden I got this motion sickness thing. I still have it to this day, but it is not nearly as intense as it was. I'm hoping that on our next trip (which yeeeeeah we booked a few weeks ago) it will be even better than it was on our honeymoon trip. Here's hoping!

Enjoying your report so far. DH and I Disneymooned at the Poly back in 1994. What a fabulous way to start out a marriage! Wishing you many years of health and happiness to come!

Thank you for your kind words and well wishes. It means a lot. And thank you for joining in. The Poly was the perfect choice for our honeymoon resort. Glad you felt the same.

Loving your report so far! It makes me so excited to finally go with my prince in June!

Aww that's so cute. You guys will have a wonderful time! Thanks for joining along.

I can see everything now. Yay!

Yeeeeeeeah!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Congrats on your wedding! WDW is a great place to honeymoon. You report is making me flashback to my honeymoon 11yrs ago! We also had our first big meal at wdw in 'Ohana.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Enjoying your report! Wish I could remember that much about my Disneymoon. ha! I guess that's the benefit of doing trip reports, you can look back on this stuff years later!

 

[mlegerto]

Off Topic Update

I promise I will get the rest of the day posted shortly, but wanted to give you a quick off topic update!

I wanted to share with you some of our wedding photos because I absolutely LOVE them and really the wedding was the whole reason for this trip. If you want to skip, no problem I will be back to our regularly scheduled program after this post. Here are a few of my favorites!

We had incorporated the ampersand (&) into our wedding stationary, invitations, programs, decor, etc. We actually have plans to get matching & tattoos later this year. I love this photo of his cuff links.

I LOVED my hair. My hairdresser was a miracle worker!

Some getting ready shots and before the ceremony.

How dapper does my hubby look!

Here are some photos from the ceremony and afterwards!

Ahh...what an amazing day it was. If anyone is really interested in seeing any more, please feel free to PM me or add me on Facebook.

Ok, ok, ok.....back to the reason you are all here, our Disneymoon TR!​

 

[mlegerto]

Once we were done consuming our delicious snacks, we decided to head over to The Great Movie Ride. Ryan isn't a big fan of this ride, but I wanted to check it out as I hadn't ridden it since the merge with TCM.

We had a driver named Ron and the gangster scene. Ron was pretty energetic, but I wasn't a fan of the prerecorded script. I think I like it better when the driver is the one who takes you through the movies. I did however enjoy the new film while waiting in line - which was maybe only 10 minutes!
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Next we decided to head towards the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show as we had fastpasses for the 11:15 show.

However....we got stuck leaving the Great Movie Ride behind the Frozen parade. I asked a cast member how we could get by to get to use our fastpasses and was told there was no way around the parade to get to that side of the park from where we were. We'd have to wait till the parade was done and it was going to be close to getting to the show on time! EEEEK. So note to self, don't get trapped on the Great Movie Ride side of the park around parade time because you can't get anywhere else.

Oh well, took this opportunity to watch what was left of the Frozen parade as we hadn't planned on seeing it. To be honest, I am so over all the Frozen hype. Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy the movie, I thought it was great. However, it seems like Frozen has thrown up on everything everywhere you go. At one point in the parade Kristof waved to me and yelled "Congratulations" - we were wearing our Happily Ever After Buttons and I was wearing my bride Minnie ears. I said Thank you back and he asked " Did you two just meet?"...I laughed and told him no! To which he responded...."Good...you really shouldn't marry someone you just met unless...." and points to Anna. HAHA. This was a great interaction and all the while he was on top of a float so this CM went out of his way to make it happen. I've always loved how CM's stay in character and really do make an effort to make your trip memorable.

ANYWAYS...once the parade was done, we crossed over and ran towards Indy.​

MADE IT!

During the show I realized that I was still feeling a bit nauseous from our earlier ride on Tower of Terror so we decided that we would grab some lunch after the show and see if that helps. It was also very humid out still so I am sure this didn't help much.​

We decided to go over to Fairfax Fare for lunch as I had wanted to try their gourmet hotdogs.

In typical fashion, Ryan and I decided that we should split our meal and decided on the Mac n Cheese hot dog. This was a gourmet hot dog topped with truffle oil, bacon bits and Mac n Cheese.​

Ryan decided he also wanted a beer with his meal. Total cost was just under $22. This was an extremely messy meal, but it was so good!

When lunch was over, I was feeling a bit better and we were having a difficult time deciding what to do next. Since we were in the area and thought we needed some time to let our food digest, we decided to go have a look in some of the stores near by. SOMEHOW I had forgotten to bring a backpack / park touring style bag so I was on the lookout for something like that.

After shopping, we decided that we should exit the park - it was SO freaking humid still that we were sweating just standing there. It was around 1:30 by this time and we decided that we should go have a rest in the room - we still hadn't fully recovered from the busyness of the wedding and Ryan said his throat felt a little ticklish.

On the way back to the hotel, we changed our mind and decided we would go check out Downtown Disney (soon to be Disney Springs) as I still hadn't found a backpack that I liked and Ryan wanted to grab a few cigars to take home with him for his friends.

We parked in the new park garage and really liked how they had the green lights on top of the spots so you knew what spots were available before going down the lane. We had previously head that it's best to park on Level 2 as this is where the walkway towards DD is, so that's where we went.

We went into a few of the shops.

Ryan grabbed a few cigars from Sosa ($17), I found my backpack ($39.50) and a tanktop ($32)in TrenD and I purchased on the the tubes of bathbombs from Basin ($19). We also scoped out a few of the souvenirs that we would like to pick up at some point in our trip at World of Disney, but decided to wait and come back towards the end of the trip in case we saw other items while visiting the parks. Good afternoon of shopping for us.

We then decided to head back to the hotel now as it was close to 5:00.​

 

[mlegerto]

We got back to our room around 5:15 pm and started getting ready for dinner - shower, changing, etc.

At 6:45 pm we left our room and walked over to the TTC to hop on the monorail. We were heading towards the Contemporary for our celebration meal. We made our way down to level 2 to check in for our 7:35 pm reservation at California Grill.

We were almost immediately taken up in the elevator and to our table. We got a lovely table right beside the window!

Such an amazing view for our celebration dinner.​

When we arrived, our table was decorated with Mickey head confetti and our waiter Dale gave us a big congratulations.​

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Dale was a great server all night long. He gave us our menus, explained the specials and asked us if we knew what we wanted to drink this evening. We needed a moment to review the menu because I am a pretty picky eater. It was at this point that Dale explained to me that he can make any substitution needed to ensure that I had a meal that I would enjoy - I was SO grateful to hear this as I often put off going to nicer restaurants because I don't like a lot of variety in my foods (I often explain that I have a 5 year olds taste palate)

Now, since we don't normally visit fancy restaurants and I had already previewed the menu online, I knew exactly what Ryan was going to say when he looked at the menu, "wow, this place is expensive". I had come prepared for this and I told Ryan that we were celebrating our marriage and that we were on our honeymoon and we were going to splurge tonight so not to worry about any prices and to get exactly what he wanted regardless. He was hesitant, but I insisted - once in a lifetime trip here guys!

Ryan decided to have a dirty martini (filthy if I remember correctly haha) and I had a glass of the Harmony Riesling. Both were very good. We stuck with these drinks for the night.

We decided to start off with the BLT Flat bread on Dale's recommendation.​

SO good...but you want to eat it rather quickly as the last piece got a little soggy from the tomatoes. ​

For dinner Ryan went with the Oak Fire Grilled Beef with the added Surf and Turf (sushi) option - Florida Heirloom Tomato Risotto, Aged Balsamic, Tiny Basil, Tomato Butter + sushi side.

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I ended up having the Bell & Evans Chicken - truffle whipped potatoes, organic mushrooms, cabernet-chicken demi-glace, but I substituted the mushrooms (gross) for asparagus.

Both of our meals were delicious. Again, I am SO glad that Dale let me know that it was okay to substitute items because I was a bit intimidated to order at first as there were items I didn't like on every meal the offered. Seriously guys...Dale was the best!​

We finished our dinners and had another round of drinks because we wanted to take things at a bit slower of a pace. We decided to take a walk out to the balcony and take in our view and surroundings.​

We just spent some time outside, watching the sunset. Seriously, this is a very romantic setting and I am so glad that I didn't let my fear of a signature dinning restaurant turn me away / ruin it. If only we were alone out there :tongue::love: ​

Eventually we came back inside to our table and Dale asked if we wanted any dessert. We were stuck between a few options and asked what he would choose out of the ones we named. He suggested we go with the Warm Homemade Fritters - Banana-stuffed, Cinnamon-dusted Fritters complemented with a Trio of Dipping Sauces (caramel, chocolate and peanut butter).​

Ryan liked the peanut butter and I liked the salted caramel dipping sauce best. All in all they were SO good and were done in like .5 seconds! Another win on Dale's suggestion. ​

All in all, our night out at California Grill was amazing. It was a splurge for us ($193 + tip),but hey we were on our honeymoon so why not.

Before we left, we went back out on the balcony to see MK now that it was dark.

We were debating staying for Wishes (started in 25 minutes), but in the end decided to go home and have a private viewing from our room.

On our way out, I went to find the manager because I wanted to let them know how fantastic our experience with Dale was tonight. I often find that people are far to busy complaining about bad service and forget to compliment great service. I hope Dale knew how much we appreciated him that night.

We walked back to the monorail station to catch the monorail back to the TTC.

On the way home, we discussed our plan for tomorrow. The original plan was to wake up around 7:15 am and head to Universal Studios (both Studios and IOA) for the day - Ryan and I are both Harry Potter fans and really wanted to see Diagon Alley. In the end, we decided to skip Universal this trip and have a lay in as we still hadn't recovered from the craziness leading up to this trip - this sounds crazy to me too, I know, but we kept telling ourselves this is our honeymoon, let's slow down a bit! Not going to lie...I was a bit disappointed in this decisions, but hey we will be back and Universal will be on our must do list next trip!

We got back to the hotel around 9:45 pm and poured ourselves a glass of wine and went out on the balcony to wait for wishes to start. I decided that I would try to sync the music from a youtube video so that we could pretend we were in the MK watching. I was able to match the video up almost perfectly so try this next time if you have a MK view.

This is not my photos, but this is what our view looked like!

When Wishes was over, we just hung out on the balcony and talked about the last few days and how we couldn't believe that after 13 years of dating, 2 years of planning that our wedding had come and gone. We called back home to check up on the kitties (they were fine and having lots of love of course) and crawled into bed around 11:30 to watch a movie.​

We were quickly asleep with no alarm set for tomorrow - a serious first for me on a Disney World Trip...marriage really does change a person haha.


And there you have it, Day 3 complete.​

 

[mlegerto]

Congrats on your wedding! WDW is a great place to honeymoon. You report is making me flashback to my honeymoon 11yrs ago! We also had our first big meal at wdw in 'Ohana.

I'm glad that reading my TR has brought back memories of your own disneymoon. Win for 'Ohana's! Such a great meal.

Enjoying your report! Wish I could remember that much about my Disneymoon. ha! I guess that's the benefit of doing trip reports, you can look back on this stuff years later!

Yes, looking back and having these memories to actually remember is a big part of why I wanted to do this TR. I also just really enjoyed reading everyone else's reports so I thought I would contribute back to those who have helped me through my Disney depression when I had so long to wait between trips. Thanks for joining in. Hope you will continue to follow along through the rest of our adventure.

 

[bee]

At one point in the parade Kristof waved to me and yelled "Congratulations" - we were wearing our Happily Ever After Buttons and I was wearing my bride Minnie ears. I said Thank you back and he asked " Did you two just meet?"...I laughed and told him no! To which he responded...."Good...you really shouldn't marry someone you just met unless...." and points to Anna.

Love this!!

 

[blreinsel]

I'm so happy to hear how much you loved Cali Grill! I also have the palette of a 5 year old so knowing that I can substitute things is a huge relief! That was the one thing I was worried about when I booked our ADR!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Really enjoying your TR and it sounds like it was a "honeymoon to remember" so far! Thanks for taking us along and for sharing the pictures of your wedding, they are beautiful - you and your hubby are an adorable couple

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I have yet to try Tonga Toast... I cannot be a full fledge Disney addict until I try! LOL.. you make it sound good!

That was such a sweet surprise and cute way to treat your hubby to a spa! I love that you both had little surprises for one another, shows how much you are meant to be!

I can totally relate to the "day off". I can't imagine trucking through the parks for a week after a wedding! I think that was a smart decision! Time always seems so limited in the world, but you really have to take a breath at times and just slow down! It makes you appreciate everything even more.

Love love love your wedding photos! I am having a harpist... trying to find songs I want! LOL