Our Christmas Disneymoon 20th December-30th December 2011

Hi everyone.

I have been meaning to start this all week to cheer myself up- however I haven't been very well and then had an horrific time at my dentist yesterday which has delayed things further.

I am still in lots of pain, but want to start this tonight!

Ok so please see the link below for my pre-trip information:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=823613

Me and my now husband James (still feels strange to say husband) got married on Saturday 17th December at 12noon in our little town Blackpool which is in the North West of England. We got married in church and had a lovely reception.

Here are some pictures (not official ones)

Saying our vows

You may kiss the bride

Love the above picture- very clever shot taken by one of my work colleagues.

Me and James with all our bridal party...


and finally.. my mum and dad bought me and james this from Florida for our wedding especially...

Sooo lovely!!

Anyway hope you like...

 

[sam_disney]

Ok so we set off from our home at approximately 6:15am (uk time)

Here's me and James ready to go... the excitement!

I couldn't be left out of the picture so I decided to take one of myself.. I look sooo tired! It had been a long couple of days of course..

My mum was lovely enough to drive us to Manchester Airport for our 10:25am flight. We booked the Vroom, which we were very excited for!

We got to the airport about an hour later and found the virgin desk and was told to check in ourselves using this:

After a while of pressing the touch screen that didn't seem to be working very well and other families going ahead of us... we checked in! Yay!

In the queue to check in our luggage I noticed this sign:

Made me chuckle

After we checked in and went through passport control etc we went to find this:

Now we checked in and we immediately felt that extra bit special. we sat in the bar area which was a (kids free zone) which was nice, just to get peace and quiet for a little while.

 

[sam_disney]

It was probably now around 8:30 and we had about an hour until our flight would be called and we got hungry.. so we went to explore the options available at the v lounge.

There was lots of choice- drinks your normal soft drinks, hot drinks- tea, coffee, hot choc etc...

There was pastries, muffins, yoghurt, cereal, and then there were hot items, sausage, bacon, pancakes, egg, beans. toast etc.

I was quite impressed overall..

We enjoyed the v room, chilled out, read the free newspapers and then our flight was called. The lady in the v room told us not to go until it was called again, which was a good tip. We got our next call and headed to the gate...

Next thing we were on the plane and ready to go...

9 hours and then some later... we arrived in Orlando International Airport... very tired but soooo excited !! :xmas:

 

[sam_disney]

When we arrived at Orlando- I always love feeling the heat when you immediately go through the tunnel off the plane- I wasn't disappointed. We left home from very cold temperatures.. on our wedding day it hailstoned! We arrived in high 70's - it was lovely. We got through the airport very quickly and our bags were there waiting for us, yay!

We then went to wait for our taxi guy Marty-http://transportation.orlandotaxiservice.com/Default.aspx

He's a lovely guy and very reasonable. We began using his services because we got sick of airport transfers and just wanted to begin our holiday without having to wait for others!

We stopped at a 7 eleven and topped up on lays crisps, bottled water and milk (the essentials of course).

We then got back in the taxi and headed to the world..


I then began to see it coming in to sight...

When I see this, i get so excited and can never really believe I have arrived!

I tried in vain to get another pic of the arch- but missed completely..

Nevermind...


We arrived at Port Orleans Riverside to check in and nobody was in line. We got a congratualtions and our happily ever after badges and had a room located at :

I stayed here with my family back in 2009- so not long ago and nothing had changed. It was the first time for James and he loved it immediately. James is a garden landscaper and he adored how green it all was.

We got in to the room and we had a voicemail from a cast member wishing us a happy honeymoon- which was lovely.

I then took snaps of our room... (before we could mess it up).

This was the first thing I spotted...

Yay- definitely in disney world now!

I then had a quick read of the activities on at the resort:

Before we got unpacked, refreshed and headed out to have a look around the resort/ gift shop and then head to downtown disney for some food! We were starving!

 

[sam_disney]

We got changed and headed to the main lobby... but before that I couldn't resist taking a picture of our room keys..

Gorgeous tree there...

We tried in vain to take an arms reach picture of us both with the tree..

Oh and how could I forget we obviously wore our happily ever after badges for the first time...

We then got the boat to downtown disney and I really wanted to buy the bride and groom ears from the best shop ever- world of disney...

When we went to the till, we got a lovely cast member who made a big fuss and congratulated us once more.. it was so nice!!
We were very hungry now and started to feel very tired so we headed to cookes of dublin for food!!

I had the chicken tenders, chips and crushed peas. ( hmm crushed peas? we call them mushy here in the uk).. anyway its genuinely very good... we went back here 3 other times!
There were no tables free inside or out, so we took ours to go and sat on the window ledge by ragland road.. everyone who came past commented and said congratulations to us.. it was a lovely start to the trip!

 

[Phineas fo Prez]

Congrats on getting married!!! Can't wait to hear more about the trip!!

 

[jhoff3405]

Congrats! Your are a beautiful bride!

Looking forward to more!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Congratulations! The pictures you posted of your wedding were beautiful!

Can't wait to read more!!!!

 

[BrittanyRose428]

Congrats! You guys look so cute with the bride and groom ears!

 

[sam_disney]

Thanks everyone for the replies, its nice to know people are reading and enjoying my report

So where was I? Oh yes... We got the boat back to Port Orleans and decided to go grab our refillable mugs...

We headed back to our room... ready for our first full day at Disney World...


Bright and early at 7:00am we woke up- got dressed and headed to the Magic Kingdom Park. We had made reservations for breakfast at the crystal palace for 8:15am. We did this originally to take advantage of being in the park before others- however the operating hours changed on the lead up to christmas and MK was already opening at 8am. Annoying.. but nevermind! On the way to the bus stop, I took a few pictures of the resort...

Half way to the bus stop I realised I had left my wedding ring and engagement ring back at the room, so James ran back to get them for me.. I sat on a bench and decided to take a picture..

Rings back on... We made are way to the bus stop and saw the disney buses for the first time! Yay... love it!

We arrived at MK at around 8:05am- we just missed the opening show! Darn!

Nevermind- I was starting to panic a little bit though now as we still didn't have our tickets to get in the park and our reservation was in 10 minutes.

We fast walked to the will call kiosk, got our tickets with no wait at all and we were in...

I was watching the camcorder footage yesterday and as we walked down main street I made this big wow.. theres the castle! The feeling you get when you see it for the first time on your trip- gets me very emotional. I've been to disney world 12 times now- since i was 11 and it still gets me sooo excited.

We headed towards the crystal palace- hurrying along as we were just on time.. I managed to take some pictures of the castle..

Its sooo beautiful. Anyway, we checked in and got the buzzer and right next to the crystal palace we took advantage of our first photopass pictures..

As we were just taking it in.. that we were in magic kingdom... I heard clang clang... and I couldn't believe it.. THE TROLLEY SONG! I had never seen this before... I was so excited- I grabbed the camcorder and ran down to main street and caught it all. As it finished and the trolley past me by.. one of the men shouted to me.. I love your ears.. congratulations ! Caught all on camera! These are magical disney moments!

And as I walked back towards James the buzzer had just gone off... and we went inside for our breakfast...

 

[sam_disney]

We headed in to the crystal palace and on our table was a little bit of a celebration going on... with this...

We enjoyed the unlimited drinks of juice, tea, coffee and I ordered a coke as well... needed more caffiene

I had cereal, cooked breakfast and then took advantage of the continental offerings with a bagel and cream cheese...

Then it happened.... Piglet came to say hello...

I got up for a cuddle.. and before I knew it.. Piglet was proposing..

I explained he was too late and that I was all ready married... he took it well!

Then... Tigger arrived!

 

[sam_disney]

We finished breakfast and headed out to begin our day at MK.. before we left a very nice waiter took our picture...

It was now just after 9am and we decided to head straight to Peter Pan's flight for fastpasses as I haven't ridden this in a long time. On the way I took a few more pictures..

We were really enjoying being in the park early and taking lovely snaps like this! I then looked down and spotted our shadows... so I coudn't resist..

I love this picture... might have to frame this one!!

Anyway... more castle pictures...

<< This particular shot is sooo beautiful, I love everything about it. It definitely comes out of a fairytale!

We took another arms length picture ( this is when I realised the sticker was still on my new sunglasses!)

A lovely man walked by and spotted us struggling and offered to take our picture for us! This is something that happend alot during our honeymoon and it was lovely that people jumped in for us, so we could get pictures together!

We then began to walk towards libery square on our way finally to peter pan...

 

[sam_disney]

On our way through liberty square I took pictures as we went along..

It was such a beautiful day.. however it was a tad windy and I had to keep hold of my mickey ears and dress- which I found hard to do!

We looked across to frontierland and saw my all time favourite disney attraction...

I love Splash Mountain and I am devastated to say I didn't ride it this year. There a few reasons for this- my hubby is very scared of the drop and I decided we could come and do it the next time we came to MK. I didn't want to scare him on the first day... however afterwards, when we came again the park was manic and the weather was a lot colder and I really wish now I had gone on it then when I had the chance! Nevermind..

On to fantasy land..

We grabbed our fastpasses for peter pan and headed across to..

Our first ride of our honeymoon was It's a small world! Interestingly the queueing system had changed since my visit in 2009.. going over the bridge- the other way round, which was a lot better I must say.

Needless to say... the song stuck in our heads all day... until we visited the Carousel of Progress later on..

 

[sam_disney]

So after It's a small world we headed over to Snow White's scary adventures..

After riding snow white, which used to really scare me years ago... hope I'm not the only one! he he- we went over to Philharmagic... (James loves this!)

As we waited I thought it would be funny to see James wearing my bride ears and me to put on his groom hat...

<<<< very dashing don't you think? lol

After we had ridden these we headed over to the Haunted Mansion, as it still wasnt time for our fastpass time at peter pan...

 

[sam_disney]

We walked over to the Haunted Mansion and at this point the wind was really breezy and I really had to keep hold of my dress or I could have shown something you should never see in the Magic Kingdom lol

We decided to go through the new interactive queue area... being honest I wasn't that impressed. It was ok- I'd probably not bother in future.

We walked straight in after that and straight on to the ride...

I took this as the narrator told me flashes scared the ghosts... whoops! Camera flash off..

On the way out I had to take a picture of this..

 

[sam_disney]

Finally it was peter pan time! So we walked back in to fantasy land..

Here's me waiting to board our ship..

I love Peter Pan's flight but I don't get why its always sooo busy!

We decided to head to frontierland and go through to adventure land-
On the way we spotted the main street band playing christmas songs..

We carried on when they had finished and walked up to Frontierland

We cut through where there is a restroom on your left and shops on your right and came out by this..

We decided to go tour the Swiss Family Robinson TreeHouse first.. I camcordered our tour, but James took pics on his camera (I apologise for the small images)

I love the view from up there...

We then decided to go and visit the Jungle Cruise. I have never been a fan of it.. and tend to miss it on many visits but as James had never done it, I wanted to try it again. Whilst queuing, we got lots of congratulations as we walked round, which was lovely!

We did seem to wait quite a while for the jungle cruise.. and finally we were getting nearer...

My verdict of the Jungle Cruise this time was actually good! Our driver was very good and I did laugh along at all the silly jokes. It was pretty good.. so carrying on we decided to go next to visit the Enchanted Tiki Room..

 

[sam_disney]

So off we went to...

Now.. I was really excited to see the newly restored Tiki Room, but I actually found myself missing the Under New Management Version!? It just didn't seem as fun as I remember and James didn't enjoy it either. I do love however: 'In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Room'.. its soo catchy! Anyway after this we had been wandering around for a long time now and were beginning to need a sit down and something to eat.. so we of course visited Aloha Isle for Ice Cream and Dole Whip!

< James in the queue!

We sat down on the rocks and when I stood up I realised I had had ants crawling all over and on my legs I had been bitten everywhere... So my advice is do not sit on that wall opposite! Anyway, whilst on the wall we spoke to a few people who were asking us about our wedding day etc which was very nice! Then we moved on to Pirates of the Caribbean. For some reason I have no pictures of this.. crazyness but I know I took pictures the next time we visited. Next it was time for the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade...

 

[disneygirl1]

Congrats!!! Loving the start of your TR. The rooms at Port Orleans look really nice refurbed!

 

[deb4him40]

Loving the TR! Can't wait for more.

 

[sam_disney]

Congrats!!! Loving the start of your TR. The rooms at Port Orleans look really nice refurbed!

Thank you.. was starting to think nobody was reading