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?):

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

But that SSE shot came at a cost…the monorail was now officially shut down (apparently some lightning had struck the monorail beam or something, and the pilot smelled smoke in the cockpit - or whatever it’s called).

So we waited…

And waited….

Like we sat there for at least a half hour!

Finally, they announced that there was a bus to take us back to TTC. It was raining at this point, but the scary downpour part was gone. It was really coming down, though. Poor Randy was desperately trying to keep his cameras dry. We were totally fried and soaked, but more than anything I was tired and hungry, lol. I could care less about the rain, but I needed food!

Oh and seriously, my smile muscles were totally shot. Have you ever smiled for like 4 hours straight? Oh my gosh!

A nice little story - as we were practically running to the bus at TTC, a woman who was heading in to Epcot offered to literally give me her umbrella - isn’t that nice? I thanked her but said it was okay, we were done anyway.

What a nice thing to do!

We got on the bus and it was practically full by this point, but we had standing room. A nice young man of about 13 offered me his seat, and although my dress wasn’t huge, it was still pretty poofy, so I thanked him and said I didn’t mind standing, since I had more room to fan out that dress, lol.

WDW guests can be super nice all the time, but they are seriously so nice when you’re wearing a wedding dress, lol.

Throughout all this, the comments and congratulations from people were seriously so nice - it really made our day even more magical

The bus took us back to TTC, then we hopped on a resort monorail back to GF, then we got back into Randy’s car to go back to the Boardwalk.

And then we snacked on Goldfish and napped

Oh, but we also had a super nice gift waiting for us from the Boardwalk:

How nice!

Here's a closer look at white chocolate Mickey:

And the card that came with it:

Seriously, that was the most exhausting morning of my life. I got up at 5am to get ready for the wedding, and it was 3pm by this point. My wedding was at 10am! Poor Randy was almost 2 hours over what I had paid him for - I told him to bill me, but he said that it was his suggestion to go to GF and not to worry about it. Still, I felt pretty bad!

Oh, and one other thing I forgot to mention…did I mention earlier how Todd had messed up the toilet on Monday and it overflowed? I think I did…(Sorry for the TMI, folks - I think it’s happened to a bunch of us in WDW, though!).

Well remember that I hadn’t been in our Boardwalk room since late Monday morning - when we got back, it smelled HORRIBLY of mildew. Like suffocatingly bad. We were so exhausted we dropped for that nap, but I called housekeeping/maintenance and as we left for dinner they brought up a dryer to help (why he didn’t do that Monday night is beyond me, lol).

Nap on, because we have a jam-packed night ahead!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

July 15, 2015: Wedding Night - The Finale

After a nice nap, we were off to our wedding night dinner. Now this is a big deal - our first meal as a married couple. Our choice? Probably not what some would expect or choose, but it had sentimental value for us.

We ate at Shula’s

Todd is a huge Dolphins fan, so we ate there on our 1-year dating anniversary on May 31, 2013. It was only fitting that we were married at the Swan, and spent our wedding night dinner at Shula’s!

Here he is with the Shula’s football menu:

We also changed out of our wedding gear, by the way. It was all hot and sticky, and Men’s Warehouse was picking up Todd’s tux the next morning anyway, so we got it all set and dropped it off at bell services so it was ready (and we didn’t have any fees). We had to get my brother in law’s too - I forgot that he had changed after the wedding and left it there for us (SO many details, lol).

Also, because I was married at the Swan and not an official WDW hotel, I wasn’t allowed to wear my wedding dress in Epcot for our dessert party “reception.” Honestly, that was fine with me. It was hot and sticky and I was sick of wearing the thing, lol. I picked up a cute little white dress for like $30 at Old Navy, so I wore that instead

Stopping on the way to Shula’s:

We had an awesome experience at Shula’s for our 1-year anniversary, and they really went above and beyond for our wedding night. They were so touched that we celebrated such important days with them, and we had tons of employees, plus the manager, stop by to congratulate us. Really awesome experience (they are always awesome!).

We also received a very nice dessert (although I’m a writer, I will forgive them the typo, lol):

Poor Todd struggles with his eyes closing during pictures, lol. It’s so dark in Shula’s too, so he’s always squinting! I like this pic, though:

Oh, and that reminds me - you might be wondering what our family was doing while we were taking pictures, naps and eating? Thanks to the awesome ability to connect our MM+ account with our family (plus my sister gave me some of her pics), we have documentation, lol:

My aunt and cousins (left side, middle row) went to DHS:

I think they tricked my aunt (front row right) into riding things she wouldn’t ordinarily ride, lol:

Todd’s friends got some nice character shots (they’re big Disney fans too):

My sister, brother in law and nephew meet the big cheese again too (no tux this time, lol):

And it looks like my sister, brother in law and nephew met up with my brother and dad at Epcot before the dessert party:

And they apparently went for dinner at the American Adventure. I love that my brother got Charlie a Bruno Mars hat to match his, lol:

These pictures are so cool - obviously we couldn’t be with everyone at all times during the trip, so we enjoyed looking through the pics SO much after (and I am enjoying it so much now).

More family bumping into each other on the way to the dessert party:

The rain had taken a break by this point, but we were told that our rain backup location for the dessert party was in the Living Seas (which would have been so cool!). We’d get ponchos for the fireworks at our original UK location, though.

 

[Princess A]

Enjoying your report so far. Your wedding photographs are so beautiful, I love the ones with Mickey. Thank you for sharing!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Todd and I got to the location early so we’d be first, and it was starting to drizzle. I asked for a manager and she said that she thought it would be fine, but they’d give us ponchos. Everyone started arriving, and they doled out the freebies.

Here’s Todd with his parents during a lull in the rain:

See Guys, I’m not above putting goofy pictures of myself in here - you know how I love the goofy ones!

I wish I knew what I was talking about here, lol. Brandon looks funny too

Now, another wedding splurge was to help document everything. I wanted pictures of everything - it was important for me to have memories to hold onto from all these family activities. It was SO special to have us all together for our wedding in my favorite place in the world, so I wanted it all documented. To hire a Disney photographer to shoot the dessert party (which was 90 minutes total) was over $400, lol. But that’s okay - I wanted group shots, shots of people talking, etcetera. And I got some

Plus food pics, lol.

Mini Boston Cream Pies:

Mini Banana Cream Pies:

Rice Krispy Treats:

AMAZING Strawberry Shortcake:

The food was SO good!

Okay I don’t mean to always pick on my brother in law and sister, but their pics are the best - seriously!

The WDW CM manning our food gave Brandon a glow cube from the display:

Chatting it up:

I love the funny ones

This one alone makes the $400 worth it - right?! I wish I knew what they were all talking about/looking at!!

I'm literally laughing out loud looking at this one again right now!

So, as we were all eating, it started to rain again…kind of pour, really. It was drizzling pretty much the whole time, but then it kind of unleashed. The photographer told me he might have to leave (and I wondered if we’d get a refund on any of our $400+!), but he said he’d try to set up and shield the camera from the rain.

In the meantime, the ponchos went back on…and our photographer told Todd and I to “set up.” I guess most people want firework shots with the couple - makes sense. I really just wanted shots of our guests (and us too), though.

Well little did we know that’s all we’d do during all of Illuminations, lol. Smile, kiss, smile, kiss…the whole show. We heard it, but literally didn’t see any of it, lol. I did turn at one point and see all our guests totally enthralled, sitting there in their ponchos watching it. That moment choked me up, actually. It was pouring, but they were all just enjoying the magical moment. I guess we really are WDW pros

So at the end of the day, we ended up with like 50 shots of Todd and I that basically look like this, with slightly different firework variations behind us, lol:

That’s okay, though, I like the group shots too, and I’m glad we got any pictures at all.

Here’s another one for good measure:

And this cool, final one:

Most brides would probably flip if their wedding reception pics were all in a poncho. Me? Eh, what can you do, lol. We had a great time (I just wish we could have watched Illuminations from that awesome private area in the UK, lol).

And with that, our wedding day was over.

Well, almost.

We walked back to the Boardwalk (Brandon was staying with my in laws that night). Exhausted, exhilarated - it was our wedding day!

Oh, and I love this Photopass pic of my sister and brother in law with some of our friends on the way out of Epcot:

So yeah, back to the Boardwalk and guess what we forgot about? Oh yeah, the mildew smell.

Lol, it was way worse - the drying machine didn’t help at all. And Todd has asthma, so I was really worried about us trying to sleep there.

Todd went to his parents to take Brandon’s pajamas and say goodnight, and I called the front desk. They told me congratulations again (the CMs there were so awesome our entire stay) and I apologized profusely, explaining that Todd had plugged up the toilet (oops, lol - he’s going to be so mad when he sees this) and it was totally our fault that the toilet overflowed, but that the smell was really suffocating and I was worried about us sleeping there because of Todd’s asthma.

The CM explained that they didn’t have any Boardwalk Villas that night they could move us to, but that they could switch our room the next day. I said that would work, my husband was at my in laws’ room anyway so we could’t move right away. I didn’t really want to sleep there that night, but I mean what could you do? It was 10:30ish by that point and they didn’t have any other rooms in our DVC category. I thanked her and hung up, but then the phone rang again like 1 minute later.

“I just can’t let you and your husband spend the night in separate rooms on your wedding night!” she said.

Wait, what?

“I have a room for you in the Boardwalk Hotel - just across the lobby - please enjoy that room for the night and we’ll move you into your new room in the villas tomorrow, if that’s okay.

Well sure - thank you!

I hung up a little confused. Then I realized - I absentmindedly said that Todd was at my in laws’ room, and she thought that meant he was going to sleep there - that we were going to spend our wedding night apart from each other. Oh gosh - I totally didn’t mean for it to sound that way! So she gave us a free $450 room in the Boardwalk Hotel for the night. I felt so bad! But honestly, I didn’t want to spend the night in that room - the mildew smell was awful and I was really worried about Todd's asthma. I just didn’t want to be difficult - it was just an accident and bad set of circumstances with the toilet overflowing. I really did appreciate the CM going above and beyond to give us that room, though!

It would be a bit before we could go to the room, although a CM brought us some keys for the room right away. We had to pack everything up so that they could move our stuff over to the new room in the morning, and we needed essentials and close for the next morning in our temporary room. Finally around midnight, we went to sleep in our temporary Boardwalk Resort room. It was a nice room - completely different than our villa.

And THAT brings our wedding day to a close

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Enjoying your report so far. Your wedding photographs are so beautiful, I love the ones with Mickey. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you! I feel so badly that it's taking me so long!!

 

[pcrum]

Love the update! You have such a good attitude abut dealing with the rain...I'm sure some brides would not be as upbeat as you!! Love the photos at the Wishes Fireworks Party too (and your white dress!). And, the ponchos just add character and a great story to tell!! I'm a sap because I actually got all teary eyed looking at your photos...you can just see the love!! Can't wait for more!

 

[CheersBigEars]

Absolutely LOVE your report and pictures! You have a wonderful family and it's so nice to read that you get what is important in life, spending time with the people you love. Your weddings looks like so much fun for everyone.

 

[Doc Disney]

Your pictures are stunning! Especially the monorail ones thats so neat! I actually really like the poncho ones too - nothing says Disney like a little bit of rain and Disney Ponchos! Congratulations again, your wedding looked amazing!

 

[FlaggNL]

Love the wedding pics! The black and white ones are marvelous! Congrats!!!

 

[mrdrift]

Congrats again on the wedding. All of the pictures turned out wonderful. You had a great photographer that new what to do to get the shots. The pictures with fireworks were really cool. Glad you were able to get a different room to sleep in. Following along.

 

[fractal]

You are a very good sport! So many people let one small thing ruin a special event, but no event goes off without some hitch. It may not have been "perfect" but it seems to have been memorable.

Congrats again and looks like the "free room" sorta made up for the cost of the photographer.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Love the update! You have such a good attitude abut dealing with the rain...I'm sure some brides would not be as upbeat as you!! Love the photos at the Wishes Fireworks Party too (and your white dress!). And, the ponchos just add character and a great story to tell!! I'm a sap because I actually got all teary eyed looking at your photos...you can just see the love!! Can't wait for more!

Thanks! I get teary eyed looking at them again too

Absolutely LOVE your report and pictures! You have a wonderful family and it's so nice to read that you get what is important in life, spending time with the people you love. Your weddings looks like so much fun for everyone.

Thank you We've always been a close family, but since losing my mom almost 4 years ago and my grandma nearly 2, we appreciate special moments even more. My wedding was awesome on its own, but having us all together in a place that is so special to all of us made it that much more magical.

Your pictures are stunning! Especially the monorail ones thats so neat! I actually really like the poncho ones too - nothing says Disney like a little bit of rain and Disney Ponchos! Congratulations again, your wedding looked amazing!

Thank you - we're super happy with how our photos turned out. And right - how many people get rockin Disney ponchos in their wedding day pics?! I love them too

Love the wedding pics! The black and white ones are marvelous! Congrats!!!

Thank you! He actually sent us all our pics in color and black and white - I love how they turned out

Congrats again on the wedding. All of the pictures turned out wonderful. You had a great photographer that new what to do to get the shots. The pictures with fireworks were really cool. Glad you were able to get a different room to sleep in. Following along.

Thanks! I promise to be better about updating...I'm so embarrassed it's taken this long! Todd and I are taking a long weekend in WDW starting May 7, so my goal is to have this TR done by then

You are a very good sport! So many people let one small thing ruin a special event, but no event goes off without some hitch. It may not have been "perfect" but it seems to have been memorable.

Congrats again and looks like the "free room" sorta made up for the cost of the photographer.

It was totally perfect, lol. Perfect for us at least. Our family was totally unfazed by rain in WDW (I mean it was July, lol). It was so awesome to look and see everyone dripping, eating and mesmerized by Illuminations. I'm so glad that's what we chose for our "reception."

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

July 16, 2014

Well, my wedding day was in the books - I was a married gal It was a good feeling, waking up that next morning and knowing that I had just experienced the most amazing day of my life. Wow!

But, we had one last “formal” part of our wedding to celebrate, and that was our farewell breakfast. Todd and I were up early so that we could head to the Polynesian for breakfast at ‘Ohana. By popular demand, we made our ADR for 8:15 so that it wouldn’t cut into too much park time for my family (they have their priorities straight, lol). That outweighed those people who wanted to sleep in (well, just my dad!).

The entire lobby was covered in construction walls, but everything was good to go when we arrived at Poly. This cast member was asking Disney movie trivia questions and giving out stickers to kids…I was picking random kids and helping them with answers Side note: Doesn’t she look like Paula Deen?

We were all seated together in a fairly secluded area at ‘Ohana, which was awesome. I didn’t expect it, but it worked out really well. I had to call and make a special ADR by talking to the manager there, who was super nice. Everything went off without a hitch.

And almost perfectly, Stitch rhymes with hitch (yes folks, I’m a professional copywriter and just got excited to rhyme those words, lol):

Okay we have some awesome pictures in here - check out my cousin’s son, Mason - the expression he’s giving Pluto?! Remember this, because I’m going to show you another hilarious picture…now

Pluto is innocently patting his head and the kid is just NOT having it. LOL - I love this one.

I also love my nephew Charlie’s shirt - with the Mickey tie?! Love it!

The food at ‘Ohana was awesome as always (I hadn’t been in at least 5 years, though), so we all chowed down and mingled:

Charlie is giving my mother in law an awesome expression here:

Me and my dad:

Lol - I love my sister and brother in law:

Another cool thing about the setup here is that the Photopass photographers got some pics of people who probably wouldn’t have posed together ordinarily - it was fun and “off the cuff” - love it:

I can safely guess my in laws hadn’t posed with characters before, but they were in the spirit!

I wonder where I’m looking here, lol:

Brandon and Charlie

New BFFs who just met at the wedding (my friend and his date, plus Todd’s friend and his wife):

I think it was a great, low-key end to the wedding festivities

 

[sheriffwoody]

Just stumbled upon your report today and love it! Congratulations on your marriage. My husband and I went to WDW for the first time on our honeymoon. I wish we'd known how much we'd love it beforehand, and we could have had a Disney wedding!

Also, this makes me really wish I lived closer to WDW and could shoot weddings there. Reading that you don't have a shot of your first kiss as man and wife makes my little wedding photographer heart hurt . I love the ones on the monorail though. That's a fun, unique thing that most folks probably don't think of!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

Just stumbled upon your report today and love it! Congratulations on your marriage. My husband and I went to WDW for the first time on our honeymoon. I wish we'd known how much we'd love it beforehand, and we could have had a Disney wedding!

Also, this makes me really wish I lived closer to WDW and could shoot weddings there. Reading that you don't have a shot of your first kiss as man and wife makes my little wedding photographer heart hurt . I love the ones on the monorail though. That's a fun, unique thing that most folks probably don't think of!

Thank you! And yeah, we're disappointed about the first kiss photo. Our photographer was good, but I wish I had done a little more research ahead of time (and I kind of wish I spent more money to have more time and interaction with my photographer). I'm happy, but a little part of me wishes I had gone all in on photography.

You could always photograph Disney weddings and just build your travel expenses into the cost

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

July 16, 2014 (continued)

I was hoping everyone could spend some time together in MK after breakfast, but my in laws weren’t up to it, and a few other people had some other things planned (hey, I can totally understand wanting to get in your “musts” on a short WDW trip!). But, my sister, brother in law and nephew, Dad and brother, aunt, cousin and her son all made it to MK.

Monorail shot:

First thing on the agenda? Something very exciting - my nephew Charlie’s first haircut…in the Main Street Barber Shop! Luckily, my sister made an appointment way in advance. It is tiny in there - we barely fit, but my cousin and aunt took her son into the Emporium, so it was really just a few of us.

How cute!

Seriously, this child is adorable:

All done, and with his new ears (okay, that sounds strange...)!

It was really coming down at this point, and my brother wanted coffee, so we all stopped at the Main Street Bakery for some Starbucks. Oh, and I forgot this: We had forgotten our (free) ponchos from last night, so when we arrived from the monorail, my brother ran down and bought us all some. We had to buy more ponchos - shoot!

Anyway, the line at the bakery was long, as expected, but because of the weather we were able to grab some tables by the Plaza and enjoy our coffees.

While we were enjoying our coffee, something awesome came by - the Rainy Day Parade! I have never seen this, but it was awesome and the music was so catchy. Knowing me, and the dork I am, I didn’t just listen and smile, I got up and started dancing, lol. My brother and I started doing some weird, swing dance thing (there was no one around because of the rain) when the music started, then Brandon started dancing with us When the parade made its way to us, we ran up, waved and enjoyed it. Seriously, that parade was so much fun. A nice, unexpected surprise along with a goofy magical moment. One of the highlights of the trip

So now what could we do as a family? Something we could all do together? To CoP we go!

But first, a family photopass pic (I was hoping to get one of all of us in front of the castle, but the weather didn’t cooperate, unfortunately):

Oh, and right before CoP, my aunt and her two sons (with one of their wives) met up with us for CoP - even more awesome, since we hadn’t been in WDW with them since my grandma took us all in 1988.

We had a big chunk of the last row (pretty much the whole thing, I think) - and I loved it. I felt misty thinking of how happy my mom and grandma would be seeing us all together on CoP:

Afterward, we met Buzz:

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

July 16, 2014 (still more)

My aunt and her sons/wife left at this point (they had to drive back to Jacksonville where my one cousin is based).

We were looking for something else we could all do, so we hopped on the railroad:

We had the rows where you're all facing each other - it was like our own little caboose, lol.

At this point, my cousin and her son had to head back to Syracuse, so my aunt left to take her to the airport. We made our way into Adventureland, and some of us rested while the boys took a ride on a flying carpet (can you see them? hint - look for Todd’s ears!):

This day really flew by - it was just about time for us to grab an early dinner at Be Our Guest. I love this pic:

Opening ceremony:

I have no idea what my husband and brother are thinking here, but I love this pic, lol:

Maybe we are all really just weird…but that’s okay

A few pics from dinner:

I don't whiten my teeth, but they look, um, electrified in this picture, lol!

Wondering what the rest of our guests were up to? Thank goodness for Memory Maker!

Todd’s friend and his wife were at Animal Kingdom (and really enjoying it!):

 

[Rach&Eric]

I love your report and your pics are awesome. Your wedding dress was beautiful and congratulations on your marriage!

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

I love your report and your pics are awesome. Your wedding dress was beautiful and congratulations on your marriage!

Thank you! It feels so long ago now, lol. I can't believe it's been 9 months already

 

[mrdrift]

What a wonderful after the wedding day. The family and friends seem to blend together perfectly. The BOG pictures were really cute, still trying to figure out what the expressions are about. Following along.