Trip Report COMPLETED! Our First Family Trip...Oh, and My Disney Wedding! A PeoplemoverTTA Trip Report.

Okay, we’ve been back for two weeks now, so I guess it’s time to get started on my TR. I’ve been feeling the post-wedding blues, so this might be some good therapy

For a rundown on the trip and my Disney wedding, here’s my wedding planning thread. There are lots of details over there! Also, Todd and I went to WDW for a long weekend to celebrate our 1-year dating anniversary. If you’re bored and love TRs, you might enjoy it

But here’s a really quick rundown anyway:

Who
Me - 33 y/o VP of a marketing firm (I just merged my social media marketing company with a full service firm, effective August 1 - lots going on this summer!)
DH - 40 y/o healthcare employee
DS - 10 y/o stepson who has never been to WDW before (or anywhere, really)

When
Friday, July 11 through Monday, July 21

Where
Disney’s Boardwalk Villas (we rented points through DVC Rental Store)

The Wedding
Oh yeah, so the wedding was on Tuesday, July 15 at the Walt Disney World Swan. Right smack dab in the middle of our trip (it was designed that way, so we could enjoy a family trip with my new stepson, enjoy the wedding festivities, then have a short honeymoon - it worked out perfectly!).

So, our trip kicked off on Friday, July 11. Our Southwest flight from BUF to MCO left at 6am, so that meant a bright and early, 2:30am wakeup. My brother in law took us to the airport, and we checked in at about 4am. Ugh.

Still, my boys were feeling pretty chipper - we were heading to WDW!

Moving walkways are an adventure:

Checking out the plane outside:

Brandon was nervous about flying for the first time, but he did very well, and was cool as a cucumber as soon as we were comfortably high in the air:

Just in case we had long lines for DME, I scheduled a town car pickup with Tiffany Towncar. We had used them back in 2004 (before DME) and had a great experience, and we weren’t disappointed this time either. Our driver, Abdul, was a really friendly guy and was waiting for us at baggage claim as we came down the escalator. We quickly gathered our luggage and hopped into our Lincoln. Todd is a car guy, so he was excited to ride in one

Even loading luggage is fun - we’re in Orlando!

Todd wanted to ride shotgun and explore the Lincoln, and he was snapping pictures the whole way.

He was so excited to get this shot (isn’t everybody?):

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

So happy to see you started this!!!!!!!!

Love how you all did the pirates league together!!!! Such a cute idea to do as a family!

You forgot one thing your room had a view of.....my Sea Breeze Point! haha

Seems like you guys had a blast at DHS despite the heat! And that is also one of my favorite things about the Boardwalk...being able to walk to both parks...so worth the price!!!

The lego store bit touched my heart. I'm sure he had a blast in there! I love the little lego people too

It's been such a long time since I've eaten at the Electric Umbrella!!!! We usually always opt out for World Showcase instead!!!

I have to say also in that amazing photopass picture of your sister's family...it looks like Charlie was squinting or something from the sun...that picture is hilarious!

Don't you worry, I hear your pain about the purple...all those tank tops from hot topic...if I don't use one of those clips that holds your straps together in the back then it sticks out everywhere too! I made sure to so while I was in WDW (my husband had to do it for me every morning..those things are impossible to do on your own!) I get lazy when I wear them at home so I have straps hanging out LOL

That Wild Africa Trek looks really cool! I may have to consider that next time we're in the parks. Walking over those crocs looks fun!!!!!

Can't wait to read more!!! And mostly about your wedding day!!!!!!

 

[flipadeeflop]

Following along and loving it!

 

[Brwneyedgirl72]

Great report, can't wait to see the wedding pics.

 

[disneypearl]

What a great trip you are having! I am a huge Via Napoli fan myself, and actually have two reservations set up for my next trip.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Oh my gosh I have been so awful about this thread - I promise to post more details after Thanksgiving!

 

[LizC]

Oh my gosh I have been so awful about this thread - I promise to post more details after Thanksgiving!

I just read your entire report in one night! What an amazing trip so far!! The pirate league and Wild Africa Trek are two must dos for us as our son gets older.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Dgeek]

I'm loving your report. The Wild Africa TREK looks interesting. I can't wait for the safari!

 

[mrdrift]

That Wild Africa Trek seems really cool and worth the money to get that close to the animals. That is really awesome that you cross that bridge over the crocs. Following along this great adventure.

 

[Kosmo1986]

Your trip looks like so much fun, best of all you all look so happy! I am glad to be following along

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Thanks to those who jumped in and are following along...I am SO far behind on this - today is my 6 month wedding anniversary! I PROMISE to post more this weekend

 

[Ciciwoowoo]

Love reading your report! Can't wait to see the wedding pics!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Okay, I am back! Here goes more of Day 4:

First sighting - giraffes. They are so beautiful!

I guess they try to lick bugs or something off the trees, but it can actually kill the trees, so they cover it in mesh. But this girl was a bit stubborn!

Todd was caught a little off guard on this one - he never smiles with his mouth open!

I like this shot:

Gazelle?

Awwww

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

They gave us these cooling menthol clothes to help us at this point - it was a scorcher! Our tour started at 8:55, but you know how quickly it heats up there, especially on the savannah. At this point, it felt like it was about 100 degrees, lol.

Todd channeled his inner Clark Griswold with his - I found it very amusing!

OMG he is so Clark Griswold now with it that way!

This one was taken after we ate, by the way. Our special safari vehicle (it had seating around the edge and gear storage, etcetera - not a typical KS safari truck pulled off and we had nice restrooms and tables to eat and have some amazing juice. I forgot to download the picture of our food, but it was from Tusker House, I guess. It was an assortment of dried fruits and meets, an edible flour, yogurt and other stuff. Todd barely touched his (picky eater!) and Brandon had a special one with more kid-friendly stuff, but I was the only one who polished off the whole thing

They also had binoculars so we could look across the savannah. Brandon took advantage:

Brandon’s really quiet, but I guess Stephanie noticed how fascinated he was by the animals, because she talked to me during lunch about signing up for the Dolphins in Depth tour when Brandon turns 13. We are definitely planning on it! Actually, Todd and I were going to do that on our honeymoon, but something happened (a little foreshadowing there, guys!).

Clark and Rusty…er, Todd and Brandon:

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

One cool thing about our special safari on the tour was that our vehicle would pull off so that Stephanie and Davis could get us closer or tell us more stories about the animals. It was so cool!

We pulled off when the lion was actually out - how cool! Such a beautiful creature:

Can’t quite make him out in this one, but he’s behind us:

Awwww (everybody literally did that when he rolled over, lol):

Davis said something fascinating here, as evidenced by all of our expressions:

Davis was so cute - he looked and sounded exactly like Neil Patrick Harris, lol. Todd and I discussed it after the tour, so I knew I wasn’t (too) crazy!

When he was a young warthog…

Are these zebras, or the things that look like zebras but aren’t? Shoot…

How gorgeous - could you imagine balancing with those things on your head all day?

The best tour guides ever!

 

[fractal]

Wow, how did I miss this TR?

First off - Congrats on the wedding!

Secondly - Great report and pics so far!

Finally - Africa Safari Trek looks great, thanks for the in depth report.

Looking forward to more.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Wow, how did I miss this TR?

First off - Congrats on the wedding!

Secondly - Great report and pics so far!

Finally - Africa Safari Trek looks great, thanks for the in depth report.

Looking forward to more.

Thanks, fractal! Times flies, right? I remember my first long TR back in 2011 after my mom died...my life is so different now (for the better ). It's fun to look back on these!

 

[shakes20]

I'm usually just a lurker here (love living vicariously in WDW through trip reports) but I had to commend you for your Evita reference! That was the play that made me fall in love with musical theatre. Anyone that can combine my two passions (Disney and theatre) is doing a fantastic job at life! Looking forward to seeing more!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

I'm usually just a lurker here (love living vicariously in WDW through trip reports) but I had to commend you for your Evita reference! That was the play that made me fall in love with musical theatre. Anyone that can combine my two passions (Disney and theatre) is doing a fantastic job at life! Looking forward to seeing more!

You just totally made my day...and put Rainbow High back in my head, lol.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Day 4 - Almost there!


So, I headed out of AK and Todd and Brandon decided to go to Epcot. It was hard leaving them, but to be totally honest - I had a lot of stuff to do! I had to pack my bag at BW, walk to the Swan and check in, then get ready for our Welcome Dinner at Trail’s End, which was super early at 4:30. I knew that people would want to do stuff that night and/or get a good night’s rest (the wedding was at 10am Tuesday), so I figured early is better. It worked out.

Oh, and I also met my convention rep from BW, who gave me the wristbands we’d need for our Epcot Dessert Party after the wedding. She also gave me a gift - the WDW Recipe Book, which was really nice. I want to say there was some chocolate in there too. Her name was Debra, and she was on the ball for the months we communicated via email. It was nice meeting her in person!

Todd and Brandon meet Pooh and Tigger at Epcot (wow, a smile!):

(they also saw Turtle Talk - I wish I could have seen it again with them!)

Checking in at the Swan was a breeze, and the room was nice. Nothing special, thematically, but it was large and clean. They had some champagne in the room, which was a nice touch.

Oh wait - I totally forgot something!

So that morning, Todd apparently did something to the toilet and it plugged…then it ran…badly. Overflowing into the sink area and the main hallway bad. And SUPER fast. He panicked until I reminded him to shut off the water (!), and I called maintenance ASAP. They said they’d bring something to dry the floor.

Well when I came back to get my stuff, the room smelled awful. Super mildewy and gross. Luckily I wasn’t spending the night there, but it comes into play later, lol.

I had just enough time to pack my bag, get to the Swan, check in and leave my stuff, get back to BW and work in a short snooze when Todd and Brandon came back so we could get ready for dinner.

Trail’s End

If you haven’t been to Trail’s End, I recommend checking it out. I personally picked it for the Welcome Dinner because (I am being so honest here, lol): 1. It’s pretty cheap compared to other options for dinner (true!), 2. It literally has something for everyone, so no one would starve or eat something they didn’t like.

It’s a little bit of a pain getting to Trail’s End if you have a car. One way to get there is to take a bus to MK and hop on the Ferry Boat to Ft. Wilderness - this is actually the best way, as it lets out right near the building.

The other option is to drive to Ft. Wilderness, park and hop on one of their resort busses - they all stop there eventually. We took a cab and were told when I called that they could drop us off right at the building, but our cab driver dropped us off at the lobby. Ah well.

When we arrived (15 minutes early), about 10 of our family members were there too - Yay for punctuality! Once everyone but 2 people (who were coming direct from OIA) arrived, they sat us. Our server was pretty good, and we all dug into the buffet. Yum! Ribs, chicken, pasta, pizza…there is literally something for everyone.

I didn’t get any food pictures, guys - sorry! There was too much stuff to coordinate, making sure everyone was there, had food they liked, making conversation with everyone, and also distributing the wristbands for the dessert party.

Remember this for later

So we’re all eating when our server comes over and asks who Diana and Jonathan are. Instead of explaining this, I’m just going to tell you the conversation that ensued:



“I’m Diana, but, um Jonathan is my brother…Todd is my fiance.”



“Oh wow - sorry! Your reservation says “Congratulations Diana and Jonathan.”


Um what?! Did I mention that when we went to Kouzzina I saw the printout of our reservation when the girl seated us and it also said something about Diana and Jonathan? I didn’t think anything of it at the time…

My brother is a former CM (Skyway in Spring 1999..unfortunately when that poor guy passed away, but luckily he didn’t work that day until later) who is completely annoyed and confused by MagicBands and FP+. He had problems connecting with our dining and FPs online, and apparently spent hours on the phone with Disney leading up to the trip.

Well apparently he confused the heck out of a CM during his calls, because all our reservations congratulated me for marrying my brother. Ew.

Now by all accounts I was far from a bridezilla; however, I was mortified that I was going to be congratulated for marrying my twin brother on my honeymoon, so I turned to him and said extremely sternly, “FIX IT.”

Now something more positive (and finally some more pictures - sorry, but I had to set it all up!), lol, Brandon and my cousin’s son, Mason:

Brandon and my sister’s son, Charlie (I love his shirt!):

We had a nice section to ourselves where there really weren’t other guests - it was nice

Family:

My brother trying to fix the issue with Disney (LOL it made it into pictures!) while I am talking animatedly and my cousin and brother in law look on:

Our friends having fun (some people had never met before, and are now Facebook friends because they had such a good time together - that makes me happy):

More mingling:

Okay so you guys don’t know our family and friends so enough of that, lol.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

So, we’re all finishing dessert (they brought us out a special dessert but we were too stuffed to eat it) when all of a sudden a cowbell rings really loud. A CM asked for Diana and Todd (THANK GOD) to come up.

Hehe, I thought this was pretty cool

He lined us up by the kitchen and announced to everyone we were getting married in the morning, and that he had something special for us:

Specifically, that we had to kiss for as long as he kept ringing the bell - but “nothing fancy - this is a family restaurant,” lol.

It actually wasn’t too long - or at least it didn’t seem that way! It was cute, and everyone got a kick out of it. We were super impressed with Trail’s End and thought it was a nice, relatively low key way to welcome everyone.

As we all headed out, it unfortunately started to rain pretty badly. We all huddled under the bus stop and waited (my in laws, plus my brother and dad had left a little earlier because my dad was tired) a few minutes for the bus to come.

We all took up the back and had the bus to ourselves (except for 2 poor other people). The conversation was loud and animated, and it was awesome. I soaked in this moment, thinking about how awesome it was to have our closest family and friends all together on a Disney bus - something that seems so simple and stupid to most people, but to me was the most special thing in the world. We were all together in my favorite place celebrating the happiest thing that could happen to me. Wow. The only thing I wished was that my mom and grandma were there (my mom passed away suddenly in 2011, before Todd and I started dating, and my grandma passed away in October 2013, a week after Todd proposed).

It was really special, so of course I took pictures!

My two aunts (my mom’s sisters) - My Aunt MaryEllen would KILL me if she knew this was on the internet, but her expression is hilarious (actually, both are):

Todd could sense how special it was too - he’s sentimental like me

More bus fun:

I love people’s expressions when they don’t know their picture is being taken, lol..except for my cousin, who apparently was picking on me for pushing up my sunglasses!:

Someone grabbed this shot of me in eager conversation:

From there, my sister and brother in law dropped my sister, Charlie and I off at the Swan, where I said goodbye to Todd…until I walked down the aisle! We were a bit sappy, and I gave him a letter I wrote him to be read before he went to bed that night.

Then we went upstairs, Charlie got a bath, and we went to sleep - no exciting parties for me (my sister and cousin took me out in Buffalo on July 5)…I had an early wakeup call at 5:15!

I had been counting down on this app since around 250 days…