I sent off an e-mail to our guests about some of the events we're planning for the days surrounding the wedding. I thought I'd share our honeymoon itinerary with you guys too! There are a couple hotel switches gumming up the works, but overall I think it will be a very relaxing stay. We're not overwhelming ourselves with too much planning at all.
Saturday, November 2nd
We'll arrive probably in the late afternoon. The worst thing about living in Montana is the fact that it takes all day to get anywhere! There's no such thing as a direct flight to MCO, so we'll spend pretty much the whole day either on a plane or waiting for one. We probably won't get to Old Key West to check in until the early evening, so we're just planning on having dinner at Olivia's and turning in early.
Sunday, November 3rd
This is the day that most of our guests will be arriving. We're planning on hitting Epcot right as the World Showcase opens so that we can kick off the trip with some Food & Wine Festival snacking. In the late afternoon, Pug and his friends will golf at the Palm, then we plan to meet up at Splitsville that night after we've all had a chance to clean up and relax a little.
Monday, November 4th
This is rehearsal day. Pug and I will have to go to the Orange County courthouse first thing in the morning and pick up our marriage license. I'll likely stop somewhere in downtown Orlando to get a pre-wedding mani/pedi while Pug checks us in to the room we're renting at the Dolphin for two nights so that we have a room near the wedding events. We'll then meet up again at Epcot for our second day of Food & Wine "brunching." Our rehearsal is at Crescent Terrace at the Swan at 4, and we're having dinner afterward at the Cabana Bar and Beach Club at the Dolphin. I'm talking to Disney's Catered Events department about doing an IllumiNations dessert party after that, but if we decide against the dessert party, we'll still probably go back to Epcot and grab dessert at the Festival Marketplace booths before catching the fireworks.
Tuesday, November 5th
This is wedding day! The stylists from
Beaute Speciale will be arriving at 10:00 AM to style the women.
Jocelyn will arrive as they're wrapping up at 2:00 PM to take a couple getting ready photos. She and I will meet Pug at 2:30 for some first look photos and then a couple pictures with the wedding party before the ceremony. At 3:30, we'll all get in to place and our
musicians will start setting up to play. Ceremony is at 4, then the guests will head over to bluezoo for cocktails while we take some more pictures. Dinner is at 5:30, and then we'll head to Jellyrolls for the after-party.
Wednesday, November 6th
We have a "farewell brunch" scheduled in the CoraNation room at Kouzzina, which I will write about in detail at some point. Kouzzina serves our favorite breakfast on property, so we figure it's a good final gathering before we break off on our own and enjoy our honeymoon. After brunch, we're planning on doing a little park hopping, hopefully with some of our friends and family. We'll want to be in the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon, as we're hoping to get a dinner reservation at Be Our Guest that night. Wish us luck! Our 180+10 opens next Monday, and I hope we have good reservation karma.
Thursday, November 7th
Today we're back at Epcot. We want to spend as much time there as possible during the Food & Wine Festival. I suppose we'll know more about how this day will go once the details of the festival events come to light. I'm hoping for a good seminar and a semi-good musical guest. For now, all we know is that we'll definitely hit Future World in the morning and ride Test Track, which we haven't done since the refurbishment. At 11 we'll utilize the Festival Marketplace booths for our late breakfast/early lunch, then we'll hit some more rides because is there really such a thing as too many trips to Spaceship Earth? We're planning a late dinner at Via Napoli this night.
Friday, November 8th
Another loose plan today. It's probably going to be Epcot in the morning and then Hollywood Studios later in the day for a couple attractions and the opening night of the Osborne lights. After we get festive with the Osbornes, we'll probably head out for dinner at a resort. It might be a good night to do a "progressive dinner" at the lounges of the Swan and Dolphin restaurants.
Saturday, November 9th
This is race day! It's also a very hectic day for us. We check out of Old Key West EARLY so that we can get to Animal Kingdom in time to run Mickey's Jingle Jungle 5k. Since ALL DVC studios were booked for the night of the 9th when we hit our 7-month mark, we have to head back to the Dolphin for a one-night stay. We're hoping we can get into that room early so that we can rest before the finish line party for the Wine & Dine half marathon (we have spectator tickets for the party). I doubt we'll make it all the way to 4:00 AM, but we'll give it the college try!
Sunday, November 10th
I don't think we'll be going to any parks today. After the late night the night before, we're planning to sleep until the Dolphin throws us out, then head over to Kidani to check in for the final leg of our stay. I'm so excited about staying in a savanna view villa! After we check in, we'll probably either hang out at the hotel or go to Downtown Disney and do some shopping and wandering around. The dinner plan for that night is to try Bongos for the first time.
Monday, November 11th
Today will be a full Magic Kingdom day. According to EasyWDW, we're looking at a Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party night, but I don't think we'll be attending. We are hoping for a dinner at Narcoossee's (or California Grill, if it's open yet) so that we can see the special Christmas fireworks show from one of the restaurants.
Tuesday, November 12th
We're back at Epcot today for what we're calling a "mini food and wine festival." Yes, we know that it's actually post-Food & Wine. Since our trips usually fall squarely within F&W dates, we tend to overlook the excellent Epcot snacks and drinks that are available year-round. So today, we're "drinking around the world" and making stops at some of the quick-service spots in the World Showcase that are home to cult favorite snack foods. We'll get our first look at the remodeled Patisserie, and probably try some Lefse at the Kringla Bakeri. It will also give us a chance to watch all of the World Showcase short films again. We usually see
Impressions de France and skip the others. Maybe I can even make Pug sit through
The Spirit of Norway again! We're also planning on booking another late dinner tonight, this one at Monsieur Paul.
Wednesday, November 13th
I think we're park hopping today. We'll just play "bus roulette" and go wherever the first park bus takes us. Our only real plan is to head back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge in the afternoon. We've been wanting to try the wine and cheese tasting that Jiko offers on Wednesday afternoons for a while now, and we figure we have NO EXCUSES not to do it when we're staying at the resort!
Thursday, November 14th
This is another park hopping day. The luxury of a long vacation like this one is that you have a lot of leisure time. I think by this point we'll probably have done everything we feel we "must" do, so now we can just revisit favorites and explore at our leisure. Vacation will be winding down at this point, and we'll want to go with the flow. I think we'll probably head back to our room in the late evening and have dinner at Boma. We're not usually buffet people, but when in Rome, right?
Friday, November 15th
Our last full day in the World. We'll head to Animal Kingdom and do all we want to do there, then come back to our room, rest, clean up, maybe pack a little, and then have our final dinner of our honeymoon at Victoria and Albert's. We planned this specifically for our last night so that we could save the best for last. We're torn right now on whether to book the regular dining room or one of the special tables. Any V&A veterans want to offer their suggestions?
Saturday, November 16th
This is departure day, and we'll probably be leaving way earlier than we want to. We haven't booked flights yet, so I don't know how long we'll have. I'm not planning on visiting any parks that day, but maybe we'll have time for Downtown Disney or some resort hopping. We shall see!
