The Lovenerds' EPIC DISNEYMOON! BWV, Disney DREAM, and WLV!!!

Hello to you and you and YOU! This is the trip report of an EPIC journey of two Disney Nerds in which we stay at the Boardwalk, we cruise on the Disney Dream, and return to WDW to stay at Wilderness Lodge. AND it just so happens to be our Honeymoon, which made it even more amazing!
Characters:
Me (Lauren) 32 years old, French teacher.
Chris: DH, 39 years old, graphic artist and programmer.
A Yeti: I'll explain later.
You can read the PTR here.
I am adding in this FABULOUS table of contents so my readers no longer have to navigate all of the pages to get to the next chapter!
Disneymoon chapters:

After a year-long engagement, our wedding took place on August 11, 2012. It was truly the best day of our lives. We had 260-some guests, and we partied our buns off! The only thing wrong was that it went entirely too fast. You have something you look forward to and spend SO much time planning, and it is over in the blink of an eye. Thankfully we hired some very talented photographers and videographers to help us remember that day for the rest of our lives. The honeymoon trip report really starts the following day.

Day 1: August 12, 2012 -The day after our wedding.
We woke up and had a lovely, nutritious breakfast of COOKIES! If you live in the Pittsburgh area or have ever been to a wedding in the vicinity, you know the greatness that is the Cookie Table. (If not, google it-seriously! It is actually a well-documented tradition in this area!) We had friends and family baking weeks before the wedding and ended up with literally THOUSANDS of cookies, complete with little boxes for people to take cookies home in. This was actually our first taste of our wedding cookies because we were so busy at our reception, we forgot to eat any! We got all of our stuff together, and I decided to play with the luggage cart.

We went back to the reception hall to help get the rest of the food from our reception to take to my parents house. Chris had to hold his Groom’s cake in his lap the entire journey. We are huge Doctor Who fans, and our gingerbread Tardis was NOT being left behind!(The guy sticking his tongue out in the other car is my nutty brother.)

We finally joined our families at my parents’ house and opened presents and pigged out again. We also spent quite some time untying dollar bills from the bridal dance (another local tradition).

One special present we got from one of Chris’s coworkers was a Happy Meal toy that is the Yeti from Monsters Inc (Welcome to the Himalayas!!! SNOWCONE???). It is an inside joke between Chris and his coworkers that they systematically hide the Yeti in random places around their office, and the person who finds him has to hide him again, and so forth. Chris was delighted to find him inside a present, and we decided that he would be accompanying us on our trip. He became an interesting conversation piece and made for some pretty fun photos.
Our flight to Orlando was the following morning, August 13 at 7:30 AM. We decided it would be easier to just stay in a hotel the night before, so we made reservations to stay at the Hyatt at Pittsburgh International Airport to make it easier on ourselves. We stopped for gas and the Yeti had his first Photo op.

We got stuck in some traffic, but made it there around 10PM. We left our car in extended parking, near the hotel. We are here!

It was a nice experience, the hotel was really nice inside. We had more fun with the Yeti, and found our room.

We had a snack, (cookies of course), and Chris had a drink with an umbrella in it. (We brought the umbrellas with us-we are dorks.) We went to bed but I honestly didn’t sleep, I was too excited and still too worked up from all the wedding excitement.
Next up: we roll out of bed and onto a Mickey-bound plane!

 

[lovenerds2012]

Day 6- August 18, 2012

We woke up the next morning to see us pulling into Castaway Cay.

Steady as she goes...

We got dressed quickly and went up to Cabanas for breakfast. This time we were sure to sit on the outside deck so we could see the whole docking procedure.

We then headed back to our room to get our stuff together for our island adventure.
We got our beach bag, sunscreen, and other stuff we would need.
On our way downstairs, Chris took this pretty picture:

We got off the ship and headed with the crowd towards the beach. I had purchased a voucher to rent snorkeling gear for the day, so we stopped there first. We found some hammocks in the shade near the snorkeling lagoon, so we set up camp there and relaxed. I took a dip and tested out the snorkeling gear, and went to see some of the things on the snorkeling path. I came back and rested in the hammock for awhile too. PARADISE! There were REAL coconuts in these palm trees, a veritable tropical oasis.

Chris saw a funny little lizard who came up to visit us.

We decided to go to serenity bay, so we packed up, hopped on the tram and were there before we knew it!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

I'm a little late to the thread but I am so glad I found time to catch up. Congratulations! I stayed at the Boardwalk in 2010 and I really love that resort. It's such a great location and has such a great theme. I am loving all of your pictures of the Dream! I also honeymooned on the Dream so your pictures are bringing back a lot of great memories. I loved your picture of the plate at Royal Palace. I didn't notice that Cinderella's carriage was on it! Disney incorporates so many great details into everything they do. I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

 

[lovenerds2012]

Well, I am finally getting around to posting another installment of this TR! The Thanksgiving holiday was pretty busy for us, we spent 4 days at my parents' house- they live about 1 and a half hours east of us, in the mountains of PA. We even ventured out on black friday, but it was in the afternoon so it wasn't too crowded. We got a few things for our next Disney trip, which is COMING UP IN ONLY 9 DAYS!!!!! YESSSSS! If you missed my PTR about this one, we are staying at Old Key West and will be with DH's family (8 of us altogether). His brother is in DVC, and this is their first trip back to WDW in two years, because last year they went to Aulani. (DH and I of course opted to save up for the Disneymoon). It will be me, DH, DH's brother, DH's mom, DH's sister, her husband, and two kids. Anyway, we will be there for 4 days, but I am very excited because I have never seen WDW all decorated for Christmas!!! I am sure that will be a very picture-filled TR!
ANNNNYYYYWHOOOOO back to your regularly programmed TR.

When I left off we were lounging in hammocks by the snorkeling lagoon at Castaway Cay, when we decided to head over to Serenity Bay. We decided to call it "SERENITY NOWWW!!!" bay because if you have ever seen that episode of Seinfeld where George's father sees a psychiatrist, you remember that he has to yell "SERENITY NOW!" to control his anger to keep calm. (However, we didn't think it was a good idea to start yelling "HOOCHIE MAMA!" like George's dad did. LOL!)

When we got there, we scoped out the umbrella situation, and we moved further down the beach and found a nice umbrella of our own. The beach was actually not very crowded, it was so peaceful. I was HOT, so I immediately went in the water. It was SO CLEAR and these little fish kept coming around and swimming around my feet. They were so cute!
We decided to go eat since it was getting near lunchtime, so we walked over to Cookies Too. I couldn't believe the food they had...BBQ ribs, as many steaks as you wanted, fruit, lobster tails, and lots of other stuff. I ended up getting some fruit and of course I had to have a lobster tail.

This was the most beautiful place...a totally secluded tropical paradise.

Chris was in heaven....and the ice cream was a huge bonus.

After lunch we headed back to our beach spot and lounged.

This is the last photo we took on the beach, because we spent most of the afternoon in the water. However, that part is on the video I posted in the first thread of this day. Chris went back to his lounge chair and I took the snorkeling gear I had rented, along with the waterproof video camera and I had a ball. I ended up on a sandbar way out from the beach and I was videoing what I thought was a rock....but then I saw a weird eyeball or tentacle poking out. Whatever was living inside got tired of my intrusion and eventually started scooting away. It is too funny!
We were pretty fried by the sun at around 3:30 so we decided to head back to the other side of the island. We put the towels we had rented into a towel return bin and checked out the shops. We didn't really find anything we wanted, so we hopped on the next tram back to the ship.

She's so pretty.

Back on the ship, we headed straight for our stateroom to get showered and clean off the saltwater and sand. It was then that I discovered my big mistake...I had put sunscreen everywhere but the most important place for snorkelers...my rear end! While I will spare you a picture, considering it could not only have broken the camera but possibly crash this whole website, the back of my legs all the way up to my butt was very very red and extremely painful. What a dummy! I would suffer that reminder for the rest of the week!
Chris finished up his shower before I did, so he took some pictures. I joined him once I was dressed and we watched us pulling away from Castaway Cay. Goodbye, island paradise, we will miss you! Goodbye weird moving rock! (Once I had access to Google again I figured out that this was a Conch snail. I named him Fred.) Goodbye Fred!!

 

[lovenerds2012]

After our showers, we packed our suitcases back up because our bags had to be outside our room by 10 PM if we didn't want to have to carry them out of the ship by ourselves the following morning at debarkation.
We got ready for our last dinner on the Dream, which was again at Enchanted Garden. However, this time it was full of regal-looking servers and cruisers instead of scallywags and wenches!

My regal date (who still refused to shave, since he was on vacation.)

I guess I didn't take a photo of my food that evening, I must have been too exhausted! I do remember that had the lobster ravioli for an appetizer and I had the prime rib for the main course. It was delicious. I then got the Sweet Temptations trio for dessert

...but Valter, our main server told us not to eat too much dessert because he had a surprise for us!

It was chocolate mousse with fudge...sooooo delicious.
We said our good byes to our servers and to our table mates, and we headed to the shops so that we could make our final purchases on the things we had decided to buy. We then took all of our things back up to our room before it was time to go to the last show. We found a sole-fish on our bed!

We put our suitcases outside our door and headed down to see "Disney's Believe," which I think was my favorite show of the whole cruise. You can watch that one too if you search for it on Youtube.
We walked around the ship and went for our nightly ice cream, but this time we put ice cream in the disposable drink cups and we took them back to our room so that we could enjoy our verandah for the last time. We were sad to leave the ship...but not TOO sad because we were on our way back to WDW and Wilderness Lodge the next day!!!

 

[sam_disney]

yay an update! Everytime i read this, I am sooo jealous! I will do cruise line one day !!

 

[lovenerds2012]

yay an update! Everytime i read this, I am sooo jealous! I will do cruise line one day !!

You SOOOOOOOO have to! It was amazing!

 

[lovenerds2012]

We woke up the next morning to the voice of good old Captain Gus, reminding us of the debarkation procedure. We were back in Port Canaveral....blech. Oh wait, we're going back to Disney World!!!!! ZOOOOOOOOOM!
We got ready and said goodbye to our beautiful stateroom and verandah.

Good morning, Florida!

We had been told that if we wanted breakfast, it was served at 6:45 AM....ummmm no thanks. We slept in a little more and we figured we'd eat once we were back at WDW. Besides, we had packed snacks just in case.

We got together all our carry-on luggage, packed up our PJ's, and waved goodbye to our stateroom. We went downstairs through the Atrium and said goodbye to all the CM's, went through the tunnel, and into the terminal. We were then directed downstairs to claim our luggage. The night before, we were given two green tags with a picture of Tinkerbell on them and were told to put them on our large bags that were left out in the hallway....this was to find the general area where our bags would be when we got off the ship. We found baggage claim, found the Tinkerbell section, and a CM was there to help us find our bags after we told him our stateroom number. Then we wheeled our stuff out past a border protection guy who looked over our passports and declaration forms, and we were free! Once outside, there were tons of Magical Express buses taking people back to WDW. A CM asked us where we were going, and we said Wilderness Lodge. The CM directed us to a big white van, not a ME bus. Hmmm. Maybe they were full? Maybe we were the only people going to WL? Anyway, another group of people joined us and we were off. The ride was nice, and we were back to the World in what seemed like a flash. The van stopped first at Yacht Club to drop off the other group in the van, then continued on towards the Magic Kingdom resort area...
We're back!!

We pulled up to Wilderness Lodge and we hopped out and dragged all our luggage inside.

This place was GORGEOUS.
We went up to check in, got our KTTW cards, and the nice CM gave us another set of Happily Ever After buttons. However our room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to leave our bags with the front desk and go eat breakfast, since we were starving. Chris turned around and somehow his suitcase had left a big black streak on the floor. It was then that we discovered that one of the wheels on his bag was broken. UGH. The CM's told us not to worry about the streak, and that it would come up easily. We decided to eat breakfast at Whispering Canyon. Chris was really anxious to show me this restaurant, and we didn't have an ADR for it until Thursday morning, the morning we were going to leave. He was happy that they had plenty of room for us to eat there earlier than planned.

I was still really sleepy since I had nodded off a bit on the van ride, but our waitress's personality woke me up pretty quick. She was too funny! I immediately saw someone at another table ask for ketchup. KEEEEEEEEETTTTTCHHUUUUUUUUUUPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chris and I both ordered waffles and coffee....YUM. We also took our time and stayed there until around 10:30 because we figured it would be awhile until our room would be ready. Apparently, the last time Chris had stayed at WLV with his family, they were placed in a room that was at the VEEERRRRRYYYY ENNNNNDDDDDD of the villas and it took them forever and a day to get to a bus. So this time he made sure that he requested a room closer to transportation.
After our lovely meal, we walked around and took in the surroundings.

We went into the Mercantile store, and I bought the best pajamas ever!!! I will show you that picture a bit later.

We sat in the lobby for awhile, then we went outside and sat down at the tables near Roaring Fork and I took some pictures.

I had just checked into Wilderness Lodge on Foursquare when I got a text from a friend who said that another friend of ours, whose study abroad group I assisted with while I was living in France, was working there in the College program. No sooner did I get this text, than my friend came out the door looking for us...she was working at Roaring Fork! IIIIIT'S A SMALLLL WORLD AAAAFTER AALLLLL... ok enough of that.
We sat and chatted with her for a little while, but then she had to get back to work, so we ventured over past the pool and to the villas to explore a little bit.

We went into the small lobby and tossed our stuff down on one of the comfy sofas, and we took some pictures. This lobby is also a great place to find Hidden Mickeys. We found a bunch of them, since Chris had gotten the Hidden Mickey clue sheet at the front desk.

Can you find the Hidden Mickeys by the elevator?

 

[lovenerds2012]

Still taking pictures of the VIllas lobby...

Here's Chris snoozing in one of the rocking chairs.

This lobby is pretty amazing if you've ever had the chance to see it.

Finally, around 1:30 we got the text that our room was ready. I stayed with our backpacks and Chris went to the front desk to get our room number and to ask bell services to bring our luggage on a cart because of his broken suitcase wheel. We were in 1514, just around the corner! Literally, past the elevators and it was right there, on the ground floor.

The bell services guy showed up within a few minutes and we started to unpack and look around.

There were even some towel animals!

I liked this bathroom alot more than the one at the Boardwalk, considering I could actually see my legs when I wanted to shave them! Plus it had a cute picture from Little Hiawatha.

While our view this time was not Epcot and Crescent lake, nor the Caribbean, we had a nice little patio where you could see the covered walkway that took you to bus transportation.

Remember how I said I bought the best PJ's ever?

I LOVE Humphrey the Bear!!! My favorite cartoon of his was the one where the park ranger tries to get Humphrey and his bear friends to clean up the park for food, and they do the butt bump dance.

 

[lovenerds2012]

It had started raining, so we decided that this was a perfect opportunity to do some laundry. Our room was literally just a few steps from the FREE laundry room, so we did a few loads and napped in between. Then we took a real nap, and put dearest Stacey on low volume to "Must-Do" us to sleep.
We woke up a little bit later feeling refreshed and packed up our backpacks, and headed to the boat docks to go to the Magic Kingdom!

We're going to the Magic Kingdom!!!!

Hello rainclouds...

We were hungry again, so we headed to Fantasyland to Pinocchio's Village Haus (or HAAAAS for us, since we are from Pittsburgh...i.e. Git inna haaas, you jag!) because we had heard that they had new flatbreads.
I got a seat next to the Small World overlook while Chris went to rustle up some grub.

I have to admit, those flatbreads were pretty tasty!
Then we headed over to Tomorrowland, since it finally stopped raining.
We checked out the New Fantasyland progress on our way over. I can't believe I get to see it fully open in just over a week!!!

Here's the video from that point on...I didn't turn on the camera until we got to the TTA! We did TTA, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear, and Space Mountain.

Here we are on Buzz!

Chris looks like he is riding the bus instead of Space Mountain. He should have his earbuds in. "Oh, you know, just another morning of my inter-galactic commute. Traffic is AWFUL in this galaxy!"

After riding, we decided to go find a spot to watch "The Magic, the Memories, and YOU." I waited and watched some ducks while Chris went to get himself a sundae. I wasn't hungry for one yet, but he must have waited in line forever!
I took pictures while he was gone.

 

[lovenerds2012]

Chris finally came back but then it started to pour. The announcer said that the fireworks and MM&Y would be postponed, but then he came back over the loudspeaker to say that they would instead start in 15 minutes. We were thrilled because the rain chased away alot of the crowd so we were able to get closer. I was impressed with the castle show! I can't wait to see the holiday version of the Magic, the Memories, and You when I am at MVMCP! After the fireworks (which I love), we went over to ride Haunted Mansion. We had fun playing around with the interactive queue because last time we were there in March 2011, it was being installed.

We went on the ride, and then did Pirates of the Caribbean...those two rides are obligatory for us. We don't go to the MK without riding both of them!
We were pretty tired so we started to head out when we caught a photopass guy.
Ugh, another one of those cheesy matching couples...

Time to go on a boat!

I LOVED night time at Wilderness Lodge.

One other evening we came past this hot tub to find 4 ducks in it. I can't really blame them...

We were glad we didn't step on this little guy!

Disney is really a wonderful place to find all sorts of little critters. Earlier that day, I saw one of those brown lizards and googled it to find out they were called a "Brown Anole." Then Chris and I called each other an "anole" the rest of the trip. LOL.
After chasing Mr. Toad off of the sidewalk for fear of him getting squished, we called it a night.

 

[lovenerds2012]

Congratulations to you both! You look like you had so much fun!
Great TR! Love all the pictures!

Thank you! I am enjoying yours as well!!

 

[lovenerds2012]

I'm a little late to the thread but I am so glad I found time to catch up. Congratulations! I stayed at the Boardwalk in 2010 and I really love that resort. It's such a great location and has such a great theme. I am loving all of your pictures of the Dream! I also honeymooned on the Dream so your pictures are bringing back a lot of great memories. I loved your picture of the plate at Royal Palace. I didn't notice that Cinderella's carriage was on it! Disney incorporates so many great details into everything they do. I can't wait to read the rest of your report!

Thank you so much! Yes I loved the Boardwalk...I can't decide whether I liked it or Wilderness Lodge better, they were both beautiful!
I forgot to upload a picture of the bread basket shaped like Cinderella's carriage from Royal Palace. That place was just breathtaking!

 

[coachwnh]

Looks like a lot of fun!!

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I had started reading your TR before we left for vacay. First off...Congrats to you both!!! And what a great honeymoon/Disneymoon!

Your pictures from the first portion of your trip gave me instant flashbacks. Also reminding me that I wish we had time to try Kouzzina. The food on the Dream looked sooooo good. I could go for some mango cheesecake right now! Cool that you also got to try WCC upon returning to WDW. Can't wait to read more.

 

[lovenerds2012]

The next morning was Monday, August 20. We woke up early because we were off to morning EMH at Animal Kingdom. I had never been to that park, so I was pretty excited. Chris had packed snack bags for both of us containing fruit snacks, Powerbars, animal crackers, and cheese crackers, so we didn't really eat a full breakfast, as we had 11:30 ADR's to eat at the Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom.
Here's Chris on our way to the bus stop. Our room was directly behind that sign, the room on the bottom floor on the corner.

Straight ahead takes you to the main Lodge, and left takes you to the buses.

COME OUT AMINALS!!!!!!! WE ARE HERE!!!

The CIIIIIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIIFE AND IT MOVES US AAAAAAAAALLLLLLL......

This is where we headed first...

We got fastpasses for Everest, and the time to come back was 10:30, so we had plenty of time to go ride the Safari and Dinosaur.
Un escargot!

We headed over to Dinosaur first.

I liked it! However the little girl in the front seat of our car didn't seem to, since she decided to throw herself behind the dash.

I enjoyed the little boy and the dad behind me...they were French, and the little boy was explaining to the dad the entire ride what each dinosaur was called and what its characteristics were....Here in the US, I hardly get "Francophone" moments like this.
We then headed for the big tree and "It's tough to be a bug"
I loved all the animals on the tree.

Next it was time for our Everest fastpasses.

LOVED this ride!!!!!
On the way to our lunch ADR's we ran into a photopass guy, so we seized the opportunity.

The entrance to the Rainforest Cafe

 

[lovenerds2012]

The video for this day started at RC.

My favorite part of RC is the huge aquariums. My first time to a RC was when I went to Chicago with my family to visit friends, and it was right after Finding Nemo had been released...I loved seeing Dory in the aquariums!

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...."

After lunch we finally went on the Kilamanjaro Safaris, but most of the animals seemed to be hiding from the heat. We couldn't blame them, really. We did video it, but I didn't take any pictures.
Then we decided to wander around the animal exhibits at the Pangani Exploration trail.
I think this was called an Okapi. I thought his stripey legs were cool!

There was a big fat frog in one of the indoor exhibits.

I really enjoyed the bird exhibit. There was a CM in there that came right up to us and told us about all the sorts of birds. It was really nice!

I liked these cool ducks and their fishy friends, too.

My favorite part was the hippos though! It was really neat to see them swimming around.

On to the gorillas.

I really need to follow this guy's example: On a hot day, cool off by pressing one's butt against a rock wall.

We decided after this that we would go to see Rafiki's planet watch, then head back to the resort for a nap and a dip in the pool. The train ride over to Rafiki's was pretty brutal, and temperatures were in the upper 90's. We went in the building to cool off and to check out various frogs and reptiles, but that quiet pool at WLV was calling our name so we headed back. We did get a fruit pop on the way out and I remember trying to eat it as fast as I could because it was melting almost as fast! We were glad to be leaving, because there was an extremely dark cloud in the sky. Soon after, the skies definitely opened up!
Once back to WLV, we took a nice nap, then headed over to Roaring Fork for a light dinner, because we had other plans This is coming up soon, but I can say that it was a BLAST!
We took pictures of our visitors as we ate. Here's Mister Anole:

And here's Madame Duck, who had just waddled directly under my chair looking for freebies.

After our snack, we headed to the pool and the hot tub.
For that evening, I wanted to plan something special to surprise Chris with. I had looked into the Tomorrowland Terrace dessert and fireworks party but it was full for that evening. However, I managed to book this:

 

[sam_disney]

ooo interesting!!! I really love this report! x

 

[DisneyFreakEst1994]

I love your TR!!! I'm dying to go on the DCL so badly, but no money right now for it. Hopefully soon And reading your part about WL is bringing me back to my trip last month, we had to wait for a room too and just took pictures in the lobby lol, I can't wait to read more

 

[LizC]

Wow, what a trip! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[lovenerds2012]

We left WL around 7:30 and hopped on the boat over to the Contemporary to get checked in for the fireworks cruise. We had brought our bandannas from Pirates IN the Caribbean, but found we didn't need them because we were given brand-new ones. Chris tied his Pirates in the Caribbean one on his belt loop anyway.
There was a photopass guy there taking pictures. We still had our bandannas from the Dream on at this point. And yes, I wear Crocs at Disney World...I am one of THOSE people.

The return of Stinky McScruffybritches!!!!

ARRRRR!!!

When the CM's opened up the main part of this lobby, there were all kinds of goodies waiting for us, that were included in the price of the voyage.

To our delight, Captain Hook and Mister Smee came out!

After we had stuffed ourselves with treats and got pictures with Pirates, our hosts reappeared. They were Patch and his identical twin brother Patch. (Not really). These two were hilarious!!! I recorded the cruise on the video that is posted above, but it was too dark to take pictures. The one really funny thing I remember they said was when they made us repeat "There's no bathroom on the boats!" and then they said "Yeah! No poopin' on the poop deck!" We had gotten a card when we registered that said we were in the Smee group, so we were directed to follow the elder Patch out the door to a boat. This cruise was SO FUN and I so highly recommend it! Patch was a hilarious pirate. He made us sing, he did a trivia session (in which I won a pirate rubber duckie that now lives in my bathtub), and he told jokes...all in good taste for the kids. The driver of the boat first took us out in Bay Lake to see the Electrical Water Pageant close up. I had never seen it before, so I was delighted. Then we went over to the Seven Seas Lagoon and got a great place to watch the fireworks. When they started, the music from Wishes was played over the loudspeaker on the boat. Totally magical!