Honeymooner staying at resort for first time. HELP!

[mguimond1990]

I will be heading to WDW sep 23rd-29th for my honeymoon. This will be the first time that we have actually staying on the disney property. I've looked at crowd calendars and such and my mind just spins. The only thing I have really planned is going to downtown disney on the 23rd cuz our flight arrives late afternoon. The 24th I have penciled in going to AK since it closes at 6 and then heading over to MNSSHP at MK. This is the first time we are attending MNSSHP so any tips would be awesome. My main goal is to attend all the nighttime shows. Fantasmic is a personal fav and I've never seen illuminations or wishes. I know MK closes early Friday the 27th for MNSSHP so I'll avoid it since wishes won't be showing. Are there any activities people would recommend for honeymooners? Also are crowds really that low in September? People keep telling me I picked a great time to go. I usually go end of may/early June when it's busy so I'm not sure what to expect during the "offseason". I'll put below my tentative plan and people can tell me if it sounds crazy or if they have better tips thanks guys

Mon 23rd- fly in, take magical express, arrive at WDW around 3pm. We were thinking of going to downtown disney and maybe checking out the bowling alley(?) I've never been so idk what to expect.
Tue 24th- go to AK. Leave around 5 to attend MNSSHP. I heard they will let you in around 4 so I figured we'd head over before 7.
Wed 25th- I penciled in HS for today. The disney site says fantasmic will be showing every night this week. So Wednesday should be fine for HS.
Thu 26th- I've got MK here. Mainly because this seems to be the only day to see wishes and the nighttime electrical parade. I think it shows Saturday as well but I'm not sure i wanna endure MK on a Saturday. I was also thinking of eating at be our guest restaurant. We haven't been to WDW since the expansion so it's exciting
Fri 27th- I've got Epcot here. My only concern is its the start of the food & wine festival. Is this something that severely affects the crowd levels? Cuz all the crowd calendars I've checked have Epcot in big ole red. Maybe it's not as busy as I'm thinking, but maybe it'd be good to check out the food & wine festival? It's something I've never experienced.
Sat 28th- this is our last day to spend at the parks. And we have no idea which park we wanna do twice. It's safe to rule out MK. We will be there Thursday and for MNSSHP so twice is enough. I would like to do AK again mainly because I love the safari and expedition everest(minus the whole broken yeti)...but my fiancé lovessss HS. So I think we may have to flip a coin haha. But for Saturdays I'm assuming all parks are busy, but which one would be the best bet?

 

[Susan Savia]

We did the Halloween party last September and so that day, we slept in later, had a leisurely breakfast and went to the MK about 3:30pm. We stayed at the Halloween party until it ended. With the heat that night, the crowds and all there is to see and do at the party, we were glad we had taken it a bit easier that morning and we were not dragging quite so much that night.

 

[Mukta]

Where are you staying?
I am a very high energy person who gets by without a lot of sleep. When I am in WDW, I hit rope drop every morning and stay until closing every night. Your plan looks fine to me.

You are going during a slow time of year, so that certainly helps.

Unless you are a big shopper or seeing La Nouba, Downtown Disney is a huge waste of time.
On the 23rd, go to the Poly hotel. Make a reservation at Kona or 'Ohana and watch Wishes from the Poly Beach. Or, if there is an ADR available, eat at Cali Grille and watch Wishes from there.

MNSSHP is great fun. Read up on it everywhere you can. Get a spot for the parade 20 minutes before it starts to see the headless horseman. I watch the second parade from the train station area. Watch the fireworks, ride HM and see the ghost out front.

For Fantasmic!, get in line 30 minutes before the show. Try to sit in the center section.

F&W does affect the crowds in Epcot. F&W is an amazing thing, so enjoy samples from the booths.

For the last day, I always do Epcot because there is so much there to see and do, but if you guys like AK and DHS, look and see if the park hopper is worth your money. You can see a few headliners in each park.

 

[JillC LI]

EPCOT probably will indeed be crowded on the first day of F&WF. Get there before rope drop, do the big rides first, and then when World Showcase opens, checkout the F&W Festival. Also, Rose & Crown is a great place ti eat late and watch IllumiNations while you eat. It may be difficult getting reservations at this point though.

Congratulations on your wedding. Maybe you want to consider a romantic meal at Victoria & Albert's for the occasion of your honeymoon.

 

[mguimond1990]

Where are you staying?
I am a very high energy person who gets by without a lot of sleep. When I am in WDW, I hit rope drop every morning and stay until closing every night. Your plan looks fine to me.

You are going during a slow time of year, so that certainly helps.

Unless you are a big shopper or seeing La Nouba, Downtown Disney is a huge waste of time.
On the 23rd, go to the Poly hotel. Make a reservation at Kona or 'Ohana and watch Wishes from the Poly Beach. Or, if there is an ADR available, eat at Cali Grille and watch Wishes from there.

MNSSHP is great fun. Read up on it everywhere you can. Get a spot for the parade 20 minutes before it starts to see the headless horseman. I watch the second parade from the train station area. Watch the fireworks, ride HM and see the ghost out front.

For Fantasmic!, get in line 30 minutes before the show. Try to sit in the center section.

F&W does affect the crowds in Epcot. F&W is an amazing thing, so enjoy samples from the booths.

For the last day, I always do Epcot because there is so much there to see and do, but if you guys like AK and DHS, look and see if the park hopper is worth your money. You can see a few headliners in each park.

Thank you! Great info

 

[tare]

Congrats. Looks like you have most of it under control!!!

 

[mguimond1990]

Where are you staying?
I.

We are staying at All star Movie resort. Which I know isnt fancy but the whole trip was a wedding gift so i wont complain does anyone know if you can request a certain theme for the hotel? My fiance is huge Toy story fan and would probably just die if we stayed in that section. Also Ive read that you can let them know its your "disneymoon" and they will do some special things for you. Anybody know if thats true? All I know is I cant wait for September!

 

[Mukta]

You can certainly request an area to stay in, but no guarantee if you will get it. Personally, I would mention 'honeymoon' as much as possible.

 

[mguimond1990]

Personally, I would mention 'honeymoon' as much as possible.

Will do!

 

[kasey1988]

First off , congrats!!!! when is your big day? ours is sept. 21 and we will be arriving the same day for our honeymoon, only staying at port orleans French quarter until oct 4! Don't forget to pick up a honeymoon button, we had"just engaged" ones and recieved lots of congrats and free treats and even a fast pass.

Do you have the dining plan or plan on doing any dining? Options may be limited at this point where free dining was available for this time, but where it's your honeymoon it might be nice to do a sit down meal together. Our celebratory meal is at the flying fish cafe, but will also be trying a few more as we have free dining, such as boma, Ohana, crystal palace, Tusker house, tappen Edo, boatwrights and liberty tree tavern.. But there is so many great options!

September crowds really are that low, that's when we went last year for our engagement, and we walked on pretty much everything or it had less then a 15 minute wait.

Maybe consider the wishes dessert party, we loved the great view of wishes (not doing it this year, but only because we scored tickets to a dessert party for illuminations). We are also attending MNSSHP (later in our trip), going to cirque du soleil and going on a carriage ride at pofq. We are having a "night in" where we plan on dining at the resort, watching the outside movie, roasting marshmallows and doing the carriage ride! Disney is going to be such a great place to disneymoon!

 

[mguimond1990]

First off , congrats!!!! when is your big day? ours is sept. 21 and we will be arriving the same day for our honeymoon, only staying at port orleans French quarter until oct 4! Don't forget to pick up a honeymoon button, we had"just engaged" ones and recieved lots of congrats and free treats and even a fast pass.

Do you have the dining plan or plan on doing any dining? Options may be limited at this point where free dining was available for this time, but where it's your honeymoon it might be nice to do a sit down meal together. Our celebratory meal is at the flying fish cafe, but will also be trying a few more as we have free dining, such as boma, Ohana, crystal palace, Tusker house, tappen Edo, boatwrights and liberty tree tavern.. But there is so many great options!

September crowds really are that low, that's when we went last year for our engagement, and we walked on pretty much everything or it had less then a 15 minute wait.

Maybe consider the wishes dessert party, we loved the great view of wishes (not doing it this year, but only because we scored tickets to a dessert party for illuminations). We are also attending MNSSHP (later in our trip), going to cirque du soleil and going on a carriage ride at pofq. We are having a "night in" where we plan on dining at the resort, watching the outside movie, roasting marshmallows and doing the carriage ride! Disney is going to be such a great place to disneymoon!

Ours is the 21st too! How awesome, congrats on your big day!

 

[disneygirl76]

I will be heading to WDW sep 23rd-29th for my honeymoon. This will be the first time that we have actually staying on the disney property. I've looked at crowd calendars and such and my mind just spins. The only thing I have really planned is going to downtown disney on the 23rd cuz our flight arrives late afternoon. The 24th I have penciled in going to AK since it closes at 6 and then heading over to MNSSHP at MK. This is the first time we are attending MNSSHP so any tips would be awesome. My main goal is to attend all the nighttime shows. Fantasmic is a personal fav and I've never seen illuminations or wishes. I know MK closes early Friday the 27th for MNSSHP so I'll avoid it since wishes won't be showing. Are there any activities people would recommend for honeymooners? Also are crowds really that low in September? People keep telling me I picked a great time to go. I usually go end of may/early June when it's busy so I'm not sure what to expect during the "offseason". I'll put below my tentative plan and people can tell me if it sounds crazy or if they have better tips thanks guys

Mon 23rd- fly in, take magical express, arrive at WDW around 3pm. We were thinking of going to downtown disney and maybe checking out the bowling alley(?) I've never been so idk what to expect.
Tue 24th- go to AK. Leave around 5 to attend MNSSHP. I heard they will let you in around 4 so I figured we'd head over before 7.
Wed 25th- I penciled in HS for today. The disney site says fantasmic will be showing every night this week. So Wednesday should be fine for HS.
Thu 26th- I've got MK here. Mainly because this seems to be the only day to see wishes and the nighttime electrical parade. I think it shows Saturday as well but I'm not sure i wanna endure MK on a Saturday. I was also thinking of eating at be our guest restaurant. We haven't been to WDW since the expansion so it's exciting
Fri 27th- I've got Epcot here. My only concern is its the start of the food & wine festival. Is this something that severely affects the crowd levels? Cuz all the crowd calendars I've checked have Epcot in big ole red. Maybe it's not as busy as I'm thinking, but maybe it'd be good to check out the food & wine festival? It's something I've never experienced.
Sat 28th- this is our last day to spend at the parks. And we have no idea which park we wanna do twice. It's safe to rule out MK. We will be there Thursday and for MNSSHP so twice is enough. I would like to do AK again mainly because I love the safari and expedition everest(minus the whole broken yeti)...but my fiancé lovessss HS. So I think we may have to flip a coin haha. But for Saturdays I'm assuming all parks are busy, but which one would be the best bet?

Hi there! Congratulations!

For MNSSHP, if you want tricks and treats, there will be loads of opportunity for that but if you don't have an interest in collecting the candy, then just skip it. Its fun, but its not the best stuff in the world. Are you dressing up? Don't fret if you are worried about being the only adults b/c you won't be. There are loads of people in costume. If you want to see characters, the lines are long and if you want the 7 dwarfs pic, you will be in a line for awhile and get there first.

If I could suggest, not sure of park hours but I would shoot for Epcot on Wednesday to avoid weekend crowds at Food and Wine and go to DHS on Friday instead. You can do AK in one day and ride your faves a couple of times. As for the last night, I would go with MK. Its a tradition for my DH to end our trip at MK.
If you have an evening free, its great watching the electric water pageant from the one of the resorts - Poly, GF, Contemp, WL. You can also check out the Boardwalk and then rent surrey bikes. Spa is always great for a honeymoon too! Oh, and dinner at CRT!

 

[CrazyDisneyLady]

We stayed at all star sports for our Disneymoon 5 years ago. I made up matching shirts for us for each day with Disney couple and our names and just married and we were treated very well. Congrats on your big day!!

 

[mguimond1990]

Here's another question I have. I'm all for matching shirts and wearing the just married buttons, but we are a same sex couple. I'm just not sure i wanna publicize our marriage and run into someone filed with negativity who could ruin the day or honeymoon. Is disney gay friendly? Silly I know

 

[Mukta]

Disney employees are, but the general public may not be. I understand how a negative person could ruin the trip and I hope that someday soon, this will no longer be a concern for all humans.