Pre-Trip Our Pop Century Honeymoon!

I’m sort of new here- sort of because while this is only my third post, I’ve been lurking and reading the forums since early 2015 (when I was last planning a WDW trip). Now I find myself planning both a wedding (November 4th, 2017) and our Disney World honeymoon! What better way to distract myself from the things I should be doing than to introduce myself via this PTR?

First, to introduce myself! I’m Amanda, 28, living in northern Michigan, working in academic services at a public university, and having fun with my fiancé, Daniel, and our two dogs. Daniel and I met three years ago while working in the lodging department in Yellowstone National Park. It’s been a great three years and we are very excited to get married this fall!



My first trip to Disneyland! October 2014.

We’ve both mean to Disney parks multiple times. My family visited WDW several times before I was six and then again in 2003 and 2009. Despite the large gap between trips I was a very Disney-obsessed child with the Lion King and Mickey Mouse being my favorites for pretty much forever. In 2013 I was able to take a spring break trip with a friend (we stayed off site at the Avanti Resort). Daniel is from southern California and grew up going to Disneyland. He had only one WDW trip under his belt before meeting me- his grandparents took him and stayed at the Swan in 1995. Whenever we visit his family we (mostly me) make time to visit Disneyland and DCA. We took our first trip to WDW together in 2015 and stayed at All Star Movies over a long weekend. Now I never want to stay offsite ever again!




My Dad and I in the Magic Kingdom. My best guess is winter of 1990!




My first visit back in over eight years- Epcot in 2003! First ever visit for my sisters.

Which brings us to today and the planning for our honeymoon- here are some details:

Where?
Pop Century Resort- we debated between Pop, AoA, and Caribbean Beach for quite a while. We ultimately chose Pop because it was $400 cheaper than CBR, the Little Mermaid rooms didn’t thrill us, and we really like the refurbished rooms at Pop. Now if AoA had Lion King themed standard rooms? I’d be ALL about it!

When?
January 18th-27th, 2018- we will be driving to the Detroit airport on the 18th (six hours- bleh) and flying to Orlando on the 19th. Our local airport is very expensive and very unreliable during the winter months. We’re seriously crossing our fingers that we get good weather on those days! This will also be our very first time using the Magical Express!

The Nitty Gritty!
I have a rough outline of our trip plans though they are obviously subject to change. We have seven days in the World and currently have five day park hoppers. We wanted to leave a couple of days open for breaks and resort hopping. We are also totally open to adding a day if we desire. Our park plans and ADRs look like this:


1/19- Arrive! Hopefully have dinner at California Grill.

1/20- Magic Kingdom.
This will be my first time back in MK since 2013 and his first time since 1995! Hoping for a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest.

1/21- Epcot.
My favorite park! So excited to check out the Festival of the Arts.

1/22- Resort hop!
Breakfast at Kona Café so I can try some of that Tonga Toast!

1/23- Epcot AM/Hollywood Studios PM.
Lunch at Teppan Edo before hopping to HS. We really want to see the new Star Wars show! Planning to set our FPs for HS in the evening.

1/24- Resort hop!
We both really love hotels (from our time working in YNP) so we want to try and visit as many as we can! We’re also hoping to eat at Morimoto Asia this day (Daniel’s very specific request).

1/25- Animal Kingdom.
Looking forward to visiting Pandora but AK has long been my 2nd favorite park. I love the feel of AK. Also Expedition Everest and the Lion King show!

1/26- Magic Kingdom.
It’s been so long since either of us have visited MK we felt it deserved two days (we reserve the right to change our minds). Hoping to eat lunch at Skipper Canteen.

1/27- We just don’t talk about this day. ;)

I do have our Fastpass+ reservations outlined as well but I will save that for another day!

Thanks for reading and sharing in my excitement!




Carsland in Disney California Adventure- October 2016!
 
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Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Your trip sounds great! I will be there at the same time staying at AKL but haven't gotten as far with my planning as you. Can't wait to read the rest of your plans.

Thank you!

I'm always overly obsessive about planning my vacations and I feel like Disney vacations bring that out more than any other. I'm sure I'll change things numerous times as we get closer! :)

AKL looks like such a great hotel. I'd love to stay there someday!
 

amjt660

Premium Member
Congratulations on the upcoming wedding
Love the throwback pic and the pictures from wdw and dlr

6 hours drive to DTW??
Are you close the Canadian border?
I live in Waterloo Ontario ( about 3 hr drive from Detroit)

Following along

Max
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Congratulations on the upcoming wedding
Love the throwback pic and the pictures from wdw and dlr

6 hours drive to DTW??
Are you close the Canadian border?
I live in Waterloo Ontario ( about 3 hr drive from Detroit)

Following along

Max

I live right on the border with Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I actually go there frequently because it's the only movie theater nearby.

I also seriously wish there was a good airport nearby but both the one in Michigan and the one in Ontario are small and the tickets are double the price compared to flying out of DTW.
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
It's been quite a while!

ADRs and plane tickets have been the focus of the past several weeks. We also had our wedding shower and my sister, and maid of honor, got us the BEST gift! With 138 days to go, I'd love to share the plans we have in place and some old Disney pictures (some I haven't looked at in years)!


Dinner at Chef Mickey's during Spring Break 2003.​
I am SO excited about all of our ADRs! Every time I've been to one of the parks with Daniel we have been on an incredibly strict budget. The first time we brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and almonds to get us through the day. Our treat was a Mickey pretzel with cheese (our traditional snack) and that was it! The next two trips were better but it was still tough to manage. This trip though? We are going all out and have been saving all year. We have so many reservations- many at places I've always wanted to try! Here is a run down-

January 19th-
Starting it off in the Magic Kingdom! Originally we weren't going to be in a park this day but the way our flight sorted out it made sense. When we added the day I managed to snag a late lunch reservation at Be Our Guest. After some thinking, I swapped it for a breakfast one since we have other dinner reservations. Then (and I don't know how I missed this) I saw how expensive BOG breakfast is. Holy cow! I've been checking MDE daily for the past few weeks and just this morning I got another lunch reservation at 11:55am! So glad that worked out. I know people say BOG is hard to get but I was definitely surprised by how true that was.

For dinner, we have reservations at California Grill! This has been a place I wanted to try for so, so long. I am really looking forward to hopefully seeing Happily Ever After from the Contemporary. The best part is a dear friend of ours purchased our CG dinner off of our Disney Honeymoon registry and we are so thankful for that!

January 20th-
We will be using this day for some resort hopping and Disney Springs! Lunch will be at Morimoto Asia as that was one of two requests Daniel made for the trip. This meal was also paid for by a friend via our honeymoon registry.

January 21st-
Epcot! My favorite park (still). We have lunch at Via Napoli. My sister is a vegetarian and swears by their pizza. I've recently made the switch to a vegetarian diet/lifestyle and decided to give it a try.

January 22nd-
Another resort day. We have breakfast at Kona Cafe (there was a trip report here that made me so anxious to try Tonga Toast) before dinner that night at Paddlefish (Daniel's second request of the trip).

January 23rd-
We will be at Epcot and Hollywood Studios this day so it seemed like the perfect time to try the Beaches & Cream Soda Shop for lunch! Really looking forward to the grilled cheese and tomato soup (and some ice cream)!

January 24th-
Animal Kingdom is one of just a couple days we don't have a reservation! Looking forward to eating in Pandora though.

January 25th-
No dining reservations this day either because my wonderful sister bought us tickets to the Keys to the Kingdom tour for our wedding! I have wanted to do this tour for so long and I am so looking forward to it!

January 26th-
No dining this day either. As it's our last day we want as much flexibility as possible. I do know that we will likely end our trip at Epcot because I need to cry about Illuminations more than once per trip (especially since it may leave soon).
I'm sure this will change a bit before we go but I am really pleased we got pretty much everything we wanted.


My whole family while visiting Animal Kingdom on NYE 2008 (never going that week again!).

The other big thing we got taken care of was purchasing our plane tickets! We are flying Southwest out of Grand Rapids, MI (about a four hour drive from where we live). My best friend lives there and will keep our car for the week. We don't arrive at MCO until 11:50pm but we were originally flying in the next morning so it all worked out (and adding a night to our Pop reservation was so simple). We also got a nonstop flight back to Grand Rapids on the way home. It was such a relief to get our tickets booked.

We have our package with Disney just about halfway paid off. Our friends and family have been so wonderful and generous with our wedding registry and that has helped us put some extra money away for this amazing vacation.

Not only that but I've managed to get Daniel to embrace the idea of returning to the World in Oct/Nov. 2018 for a long weekend! Hopefully we can get a bounce back offer but the plan is to experience Food & Wine as well as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! I'm also helping my Mom plan their trip with my youngest sister (they check out of AOA just five days before we check in to Pop). It is so much planning but I love every single minute of it.

That's all I've got for now! I'll be back with a wedding update in November as well as FP+ reservations! Thanks for following!​



Daniel (the last time he was beardless- eek!) and I at Epcot in February 2015. I have worn that sweatshirt so much the sleeves are fraying and have some holes starting!

 

MeeskaMooska0714

Well-Known Member
Hello from a fellow Michigander - I feel there aren't too many on these boards! While I read your first post, I was going to mention that you should try flying out of Grand Rapids, but then I just saw that you booked from there! We love flying Southwest from there...direct flights are the best (and the airport is much nicer than DTW). We also Disneymooned, so I'm so excited for you PTR and hopefully TR. Cali Grill is so good! We also ate at Beaches and Cream and the grilled cheese and tomato soup are delicious! Looking forward to reading more. Oh, and congrats on the wedding!
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Hello from a fellow Michigander - I feel there aren't too many on these boards! While I read your first post, I was going to mention that you should try flying out of Grand Rapids, but then I just saw that you booked from there! We love flying Southwest from there...direct flights are the best (and the airport is much nicer than DTW). We also Disneymooned, so I'm so excited for you PTR and hopefully TR. Cali Grill is so good! We also ate at Beaches and Cream and the grilled cheese and tomato soup are delicious! Looking forward to reading more. Oh, and congrats on the wedding!

Thank you!

I was so torn about where to book our flights. We usually do Detroit because it's such an easy drive from where we are in the UP but the prices weren't great (especially with bag fees on top of that). I'm looking forward to flying Southwest because I have heard so many great things. It's been so long since I've been to Disney for more than a couple of days and I'm just so excited about this trip! Maybe more excited than the actual wedding! :) Just kidding. I am so excited to get married just less excited to finish planning such a big event. Trip planning is way more fun!

Thanks for reading! :)
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Another Michigander here! I haven't been to the UP in ages, but it's so beautiful there. I think you'll like flying out of GR, my cousins live there and they really like the airport. We haven't tried it since we live right in the middle between Flint & Detroit. Can't wait to read more planning details and hopefully a trip report when you return :D
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Another Michigander here! I haven't been to the UP in ages, but it's so beautiful there. I think you'll like flying out of GR, my cousins live there and they really like the airport. We haven't tried it since we live right in the middle between Flint & Detroit. Can't wait to read more planning details and hopefully a trip report when you return :D

I don't know how I missed this but thank you! I'm planning to to a trip report so I have something to obsess over while waiting to plan our anniversary trip next year (hopefully during MNSSHP and Food & Wine)! Plus I love reading reports from other people, so why not? :)

I'm looking forward to flying out of GR! I actually was able to change our flight the other day so on the way down we now have a nonstop to MCO. Plus we arrive there at 7pm instead of midnight! Big improvement and it was $35 less expensive! 99 days now...cannot wait!
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
We have the same countdown!!!!

So excited for you!! I understand the feeling of planning a wedding vs planning a Disney trip! Disney trips are so much more fun!! ;)

It will be here before you know it! I still don’t know my epcot and ak day.. stupid ROL hours not being released.. but maybe I will see you I DISNEY World!!!! Ahhhhh!!!
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
We have the same countdown!!!!

So excited for you!! I understand the feeling of planning a wedding vs planning a Disney trip! Disney trips are so much more fun!! ;)

It will be here before you know it! I still don’t know my epcot and ak day.. stupid ROL hours not being released.. but maybe I will see you I DISNEY World!!!! Ahhhhh!!!

Way more fun! I'm actually planning a trip for my parents and sister too (January 7th-13th) and I feel like I check every single day for ROL! They missed it by like two weeks last year and want a dining package for it. Hopefully someday they release that information...:)

It would be so wonderful to see you there! I'll keep an eye out!
 

Mander

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
No
Just a couple of exciting updates!

First, we decided to splurge and book tickets for the Disney After Hours event on the 26th (our last night). It was pricey but I am looking forward to some extra Magic Kingdom time before we leave.

We also got married over the weekend!



It was a completely wonderful, whirlwind of a weekend. I'm back at work today and just counting down until we leave for our honeymoon. Only 72 days left!
 

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