Faith, Trust & Pixie Dust! Jenn & Kevin 10/12/14 Italy/ADH/France - The End (7/2016 New TR Link!)

[elphie101]

Finally catching up on reading about your wedding day! Everything looked so gorgeous and so perfect. I adore your photos. Your photographers did a fantastic job!

Yay!! It's so good to see you again - I hope you share more about your day! I'm kind of obssessed with our wedding pictures, not gonna lie

As a Disney cruise junkie, I am impatiently waiting for you to get on to the cruise part of your honeymoon! Also, I am now really wanting to eat at Ohana! I ate there a few years ago and have been wanting to go back, but I couldn't justify the price. But your photos make it seem like it would be worth it!

Bahhhhh I have got to get to the cruise ASAP! Especially since the memories are starting to fade a bit (all that blissful relaxation really blurs together!)

Best trip report ever! Can't wait to read more!
Jenn- I sent you a message on Facebook about your wedding programs and buttons.

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Really enjoying the Honeymoon TR so far (naturally)! Your pictures are really great, especially the on-ride ones! They came out so detailed, you'd think you're sitting still. I'm somewhat in awe of your camera! Especially the Tink picture in Festival of Fantasy (the theme to which is now stuck in my head). Oh & I love the wishing well moment - that's such a mum thing to say!

Oh & the fastpasses! Actual. Paper. Fastpasses! My heart is warmed just knowing that they still *kinda* exist. And you very well deservedly got quite a nice collection of them. I love the caption on the Buzz line, that's priceless. And even if you're a little down on your previous average, I don't think I'd see *either* of those scores on that ride unless there was a stop while I was on it. I feel like I should be good at that ride but I just can't get it. Plus I'm always looking for the camera and as yet haven't managed to spot it before the picture is taken.

We've still never been to Ohana (nor the Poly itself, not even the beach) but I've heard often of the famous bread pudding! But I'm a bit of a veteran now when it comes to the celebratory cupcake, I think next time I go it's gonna be weird not getting one for one reason or another. I think we'll certainly have to check it out next time! Hopefully we'll still have Tables in Wonderland then ourselves - how good is it?! I'm so grateful I found out about TiW before our trip, getting our passes and our TiW cards was literally the first thing we did when we arrived and it saved us SO MUCH on our trip. We're so jealous about Disney Visa, one day when we live in Orlando I think the first thing we'll do is getting Disney passes and Disney Visas, the perks seem so good.

Can't wait to hear about your day at Universal and I'm really looking forward to the cruise too!

So funnily enough - I used my iphone camera the entire trip! Bless the iphone man, it has one heck of a camera! And if it makes you feel better, I worked at the ride for 7 months (plus seasonal odds and ends) and I STILL don't know where the camera is - I can point you to a couple of secret targets though....

I adore TIW! We especially loved it on our last trip since we could use it at the All Star food court (and no auto tip applied!) I think if we have an AP, we'll be getting TIW from here on out, which is great for me since I'm always pushing Kevin to let me make more ADRs anyway (if it were up to me, we'd have one a day!)

Are you and Jess planning on moving to Florida in your future? It would be wonderful to meet you two someday! We'll have a grand ol'Root-union and invite Nate & Jensey too!

Holy cow where have I been???!!! Finally catching up on your TR. You're making me want to plan a trip now.
You look so happy!!

Welcome back! Don't worry, you didn't miss much, just a whole ton on park stuff

How cool! I hadn't gone to download this week's episode yet, but I definitely will now.

Did you have to apply to be interviewed? I'm still a long way out, but would love to eventually be on the podcast.

I hope you enjoyed it! And I hope at least something was helpful to your planning!

I am going to go listen now! (Hopefully it's available, lol)
That's super cool!

Thanks! It was incredibly cool to record (and sooooooow weird to listen to)

I'm only on page 3 of your report, but I recognized the small, local shop where you tried on your dresses (I'm planning my own wedding right now and tried on some dresses there, too!) and had to say "hi!" to someone who's so nearby!!! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report and I'm loving it so far!!

Get out of town! Congrats on your wedding - are you planning a DFTW or Florida event or something up here? I hope you enjoy everything and I'm glad to have you along!

 

[elphie101]

**Important forgotten trip story** I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to include this in my entry for the previous day - normally I would just keep going, but since this story is actually related to the wedding (and that's why we're really here, isn't it?) I figured it was worth sharing.

After we had split up from our parents post-Mine Train and were on our way over to Peter Pan, I noticed I had a missed call and a voicemail on my phone. It was the Brevard County Clerk's office, calling to say there was a problem with our marriage license.

Well include that in the list of phone calls you never want to get.

I frantically called the woman back and she explained that the title my brother had given ('Officiant') as the one who actually performed the marriage ceremony was invalid, and needed to know his actual title. Since I was the one who told him to write officiant, I panicked and said I'd have to call him and ask. She left her number as a call back and said she'd be expecting our call.

I immeadiately called my brother and asked him to check all the of the documents for what his title would be - given that I was calling him around 2:00pm on a Wednesday (and we never call each other) he answered and started to look through everything. Nothing had a clear 'title' on it, but it did seem to reference ministry a lot, so we decided the proper title must be minister. I called Brevard back and left a message that his title was minister and then we sat and waited to see what happened - vowing NOT to tell our parents there was a slight chance we would need to go get everything legalized in a courthouse back home (which was my mother's greatest fear in having my brother ordained online).

As the day went on we waited and waited and didn't hear back from Brevard, so once we decided to leave the park for our monorail loop before Ohana I gave the county a call again. The woman was surprised I was calling back, saying she got my message, changed the title on the license, and had already put the certified copy in the mail to be sent back to us at home!! We were utterly relieved (and it was quite literally an easy fix - she just crossed the word "officiant" out and wrote minister next to it. I've even changed my name with it and everything!).

Moral of the story everyone: if you bring your own officiant, do not write officiant as a title. It's a world of trouble!

Thursday, October 16th

Another day, another early alarm - but today was not a Disney day! Today we were headed to Universal, which for me meant one thing: Finally seeing Diagon Alley. I fell in love with Harry Potter as a child and adored the first theme park section in Islands of Adventure. Today's goal was to use our old one-day hoppers with Kevin's parents (who had a rental car) to conquer Diagon Alley, then Hogwarts, and then whatever else we had time for before we returned to Disney for some very important dinner dates: our four parents at Captain's Grille, and Kevin and I at a "date night" of Yachtsman Steakhouse. Sinclaire was also going to meet us for the day, as she has an AP for Universal and didn't have to work till the evening.

While Kevin was in the shower, I got our breakfast ready - cake!





So as it turned out, 4-day old fondant that has been kept in the fridge is INCREDIBLY difficult to cut through with a plastic knife. I managed to carve a piece out for each of us, and honestly, it was just ok, though I've never been crazy about cake to begin with, and the fact that it was cold and not fresh probably didn't help. Kevin for his part totally loved it.

Our goal was to leave by 8am, so we headed over to the main hotel to wait for the rest of our party.



There was a bit of a backup to actually get into the parking garage, as it took us 45 minutes to get from Beach Club to the Universal garage. Before long, we were schleping our way allllllllll the way to the gates of the park (seriously, why do you park in the middle of nowhere over there?) - at least they have moving walkways! We barreled into Universal Studios and, like everyone else in the park, fast walked our way to the former Amityville, current London facade. We actually couldn't figure out how to get into Diagon Alley at first, and walked right past it to King's Cross! We quickly corrected ourselves though, and stepped back into the alley....



Ho-ly Crap. HOW do you not see that giant dragon from outside?! I'm pretty sure my jaw actually hit the ground. The Disney-level of detail in these sections of the park is just outstanding. No time to waste though, the line at Gringotts wasn't getting any shorter (in fact, it was bordering on 90 minutes at that point). Knowing the line would only continue to grow, and given that we only really wanted to do Harry Potter things, we stowed our bags and hopped in the Gringotts line.


See the people allllllllll the way at the top-right corner of the screen? Somewhere around them was the end.

Sinclaire meanwhile was texting us that the backup to enter the parking garage we had encountered had only grown, and she was stuck in some unholy traffic waiting to park. No matter, I told her, there was quite a long line ahead of us.

And then the announcement came: due to technical difficulties, the ride would not be operating at this time. We had known Gringotts had a reputation for breaking down, and since we weren't being asked to leave the line, decided to wait it out. We were actually some of the last people who had gotten in line before the breakdown, so almost no one was behind us.

45 minutes later, we had moved a little - only because so many people had left


Remember how full this was?!

After an hour of waiting (and STILL no Sinclaire!), I was dying without caffeine, so I asked the team member out front if I would be able to return if I ran out to get coffee. She assured me I would, but the nearest coffee place was outside of London, all the way by the Mummy. I hustled over, waited in the longest Starbucks line of all creation, and just as Sinclaire finally found me and entered the park I got a frantic phone call from Kevin.

"Where are you?! They reopened the ride and we're almost all the way inside!"

Sadly I left my already-paid for coffee but not yet made coffee behind as Sinclaire and I sprinted back to London. We made it up to Gringotts just in time to catch a frantic Kevin waiting for us at the entrance, with his parents already inside the bank park of the queue. Thankfully, the team member at the front let Sinclaire and I in, even though Sinclaire still had her bag (we were told we would be pulled out of line for her to lock it up later).

90 minutes later, we finally had something interesting to look at!


Look how empty the bank is behind us! They had not reopened the line to the public yet


We're finally moving!!

We made it all the way though the preshow room (where they show the video of your ride car) and into this hallway, where a team member immediately seized Sinclaire to ask why she still had her bag (he was quite abrupt about it). He directed her to the lockers through what must have been some kind of chicken exit, and once she returned we were cleared to rejoin the main ride line.



Now the ride itself - IS AWESOME. The whole time we were in line Sinclaire kept telling us that we would know instantly once we got on the ride why it takes so long to reset when it goes down - and she was right. We were completely blown away - it was like Spiderman, but better, smoother, more thrilling and oh yes, full of Harry Potter characters. Man oh man, I wish we could have ridden again.

In total we spent 2 hours of waiting for Gringotts, thanks to waiting out the downtime. Our waiting was rewarded though - since we stuck it out in line, we were each given a few paper Express Passes for one ride for our troubles. I grabbed the first ones I could, which were valid at all rides except the two Harry Potter main attractions and Despicable Me. Kevin's parents however had gotten their tickets from a manager instead of a regular team member, who was giving out different Express Passes - that were valid on the Harry Potter rides!! We were so excited to realize we had an Express Pass to Forbidden Journey, which really balanced out the fact that we waited two hours for Gringotts - we reasoned it was like waiting one hour for each ride (which we had been prepared to do).



With no rush to get over to Hogwarts now, we poked through some of the shops (and I fell in love with a Ravenclaw Quidditch shirt that did not come in my size) before we decided it was time for some lunch and headed over to the Leaky Cauldron for some Harry Potter grub.



I ordered the Shepard's Pie and a size of fries, along with my favorite - Frozen Butterbeer (always frozen, ALWAYS!) The shepard's pie was very tasty and satisfying, especially the potatoes on the top and the fries were delicious. The butterbeer of course was also excellent. A great meal all around. It was a bit of an odd meal for such a hot day (though we finally had a break in the humidity that day) but it was exactly what I wanted and the perfect meal.







After lunch, we found ourselves compelled (mwahaha) to enter Knockturn Alley. I love how creepy and dim this part of the park is, even compared to the bright sunny Diagon Alley steps away. Again, well done Universal!



We somehow exited Knockturn Alley from a different way and came out to the dragon breathing fire! Great timing!


Yep, this place rocks.

Having browsed what there was to browse, we decided to use our non-HP eligible Express Pass at Transformers (since ours apps said the wait was astronomical and it was the only ride other than Spiderman we were interested in doing) before taking the Hogwarts Express over to the "old park".


Bye significantly more crowded Diagon Alley.....we loved you!

We found Kreacher in the window of Grimmauld Place before making our way past the Simpsons area (which I will never forgive for taking over the Back to the Future ride) and coming upon Transformers.


It's really hard to go from the awesome themeing of Diagon Alley to.......this. I'm so glad we didn't wait an hour for this - while it was a cool ride it was just a repeat of Gringotts/Spider-man - and Gringotts at least does it better. It was pretty cool to be in and out in 20 minutes though!

We debating doing Men in Black or The Simpsons after Transformers, but it was already 1:00pm by this point and we decided just to plug along to Island of Adventure and hit the things we really wanted to do - which meant the Hogwarts Express was up next!


Here was where they scanned your tickets to make sure you had park hoppers and could actually go visit Island of Adventure - brilliant move on the part of Universal if I do say so myself.

The wait ended up being about 20 minutes long, but we didn't mind too much - it was cool, not in the sun, and they sold Strongbow in line! Sinclaire and I partially bonded over our love for the cider so we had to grab a can for the road.



We headed through the barrier at Platform 9 3/4, and then the beautiful Hogwarts Express was in front of us! I seem to remember there being a lot of no photo/video signs, but I took this one just fine.



I was surprised by how short the ride was, or how short it seemed. Maybe it was all those distractions (which I was not expecting at all!) that made it go by so quickly, but it literally felt like we had just boarded the train and in an instant, we were stepping off to this sight!



We only had four Express Passes valid for Forbidden Journey, but luckily for us Kevin's mother doesn't do this ride (which also meant we got to skip the lockers this time). This was an especially exciting trip not only because we barely waited in line for it, but because it would be Kevin's father's first ride! He has some inner ear issues and generally avoids thrill rides, but after listening to us describe the ride from our last visit he decided to take the chance and give it a try.


Is it bad I only JUST realized this trip that the room where you load onto the ride vehicles is the Great Hall? Duh doy!

I'm pleased to say that the ride was fantastic as always, and FIL loved it with no inner ear issues! Best of all, we were in and out in 20 minutes. That definitely took some of the sting off of the 2-hour Gringotts wait. We found MIL in one of the shops, and debated browsing around, but decided to keep moving onward as Hogsmede was incredibly claustrophobic and we were starting to near the end of our stamina.

We made our way over to Spider-Man by way of Jurassic Park, as Kevin cannot leave IOA without doing Spider-Man at least once (as he is Kevin's all time favorite comic book character). It was here that we parted ways with Sinclaire, who had to head home to get ready for work that night and still had to trek allllllllll the way out to her car first.


The offices of the Daily Bugle

Maybe it's because it was the first ride of it's kind for us as kids, or maybe it's because of the recent refurbishment, but Spider-Man still felt as fresh and new to us as it always had, and more original than Transformers. With that (and some poking around the comic book shop) we decided our day in Universal was done and it was time to head back to the pixie dust bubble - after a stop for ice cream of course!

For whatever reason, it took an ungodly amount of time to make it back to property - a full hour and a half from leaving IOA to seeing this:



We finally made it back to Beach Club, and Kevin's parents headed upstairs to relax before meeting my parents for dinner that night. As for the two of us, I had made FP+ for Studios, as it was the only day in our schedule that would allow for it. We had missed our Star Tours one (no big deal) but our Toy Story window had just opened, and I reasoned we would have just enough time to squeeze in a quick ride before our dinner reservation at Yachtsman Steakhouse that night. Kevin thought I was batty and that we should be doing our laundry instead of schleping over to a park for one ride, but to his credit let me drag him all the way out to the boat dock. As soon as we got there, and I realized we'd still have to wait for a boat, then go through bag check, then run to the back of the park, I decided it wasn't worth it and we headed back to our villa.


Sooooooo pretty


Love, love, LOVE Beach Club. Man, can't wait to stay there again

We were about 3 hours out from our dinner at Yachtsman, so we focused on making use of Beach Club's laundry facilities (so we wouldn't have to worry about it on the cruise the next week) as well as cleaning up and some general beginning repacking, since we would be checking out of our studio villa and into our complimentary room night at the regular Beach Club the next day. About an hour before dinner, I started doing my makeup and general girl stuff to get pretty for "date night", while Kevin ran down to check on our load of laundry in the dryer. He was infuriated to find the clothes still soaking wet in the machine, ran over to the front desk to tell them the machine had ate his quarters, and moved our clothes to a second machine which the front desk kindly provided quarters for, since the other ones had been lost, as well as to call the restaurant to let them know we might be running a little late thanks to the laundry mishap. Eh, no harm, no foul (or so I felt).

About 10 minutes before our reservation, we left our room to collect the laundry, and lo and behold, the clothes were still wet, still not dry. Kevin was livid at our luck, as all other machines were occupied (save the one that had previous ate our funds). I took a look at the machine and noticed one very important, small detail - there was a start button to press. Oops! Kevin felt silly for not overlooking the button, and then started panicking that we couldn't leave our clothes there, since dinner would most certainly take over an hour, and our clothes would be unattended. I said anyone who stole our underwear probably deserved to keep it in that case!

With the laundry dilemma finally squared away, we strolled over to the Yacht Club and checked in at Yachtsman, only a little outside of our 15-minute "no credit card charge" zone, though thankfully we were covered by the front desk's earlier phone call. Unfortunately there was no table ready, so we were directed to the Ale & Compass Lounge to wait. Kevin ordered a reliable Sam Adams, whereas I was distracted by the drink special - a Pumpkin Spice Martini. (ah fall, when you can't go 50 ft without something being Pumpkin Spice).


My drink wasn't too bad - it was strong and tasted like vodka more than anything, but at least I know I'm getting my money's worth! The funniest thing was noticing the couple at the table across from us, as soon as she saw my drink she immediately ordered one for herself!

Remembering the need for manager approval, Kevin decided to pay for our drinks on the spot with Tables in Wonderland, which ended up being a good idea as about 90 seconds later our table was ready. Thankfully there was no rush and we were told to just come to the hostess stand once we had paid for our drinks, and soon we were led to our table.


My cute date for the evening!


For the first night in the week we had been down in FL it was actually cool.


Stormalong Bay from behind my seat

We glanced at the menu quickly, but we both knew almost instantly what we would order, quickly enough that we placed our orders with our server when he came to introduce himself, and then we dove headfirst into the heavenly pull-apart onion rolls and roasted garlic (heavenly doesn't even begin to describe it).


All praise the garlic!

We ordered another round of drinks (I the sangria and Kevin a beer) when all of a sudden we heard some muffled shouting behind us. I turned around and our four parents were furiously waving from behind the window, on their way back from their dinner at Captain's Grille. They were so excited to see us and we smiled for a photo for my dad (thankfully the table right on the window was empty!) before leaving us to our date night meal. We enjoyed the ambiance and talked about how excited we were about the upcoming cruise, and before long our entrees arrived.


Kevin's 8oz Filet Mignon and Cabernet Wine Sauce (with substituted truffle fries instead of mashed potatoes)


My 12oz New York Strip Steak with White Cheddar Twice-baked Potato, Peppercorn-Brandy Sauce

Honestly, I'm usually a "pick the smallest size of meat on the menu" person when it comes to steak, but Kevin immediately chose the filet and I wanted us to try a variety of steaks (and sides!) so I went with the next cut up. Both steaks were utterly fantastic, so tender and delicious, but Kevin's was clearly the better choice for us both (though my potato was far superior in my eyes!) Next time we visit Yachtsman I'll be getting the filet for sure. All in all, we both agreed it was the best meal of the WDW portion of the honeymoon and we can't wait to return (once we try a few more new-to-us Signature restaurants on property). And yes, I did say this was the best meal of the WDW portion for a reason - because eventually, I will get to the part of the story where we go to Palo on the Disney Fantasy (oh. my. goodness).

While we settled the bill (over $20 saved thanks to Tables in Wonderland!) we caught the tiniest glimpse of Illuminations over the tops of Stormalong Bay, the perfect end to a magical meal. I also made sure to get a photo of us as we walked back to our room in our "finery".


The handsome shirt and tie I bought him just for the honeymoon!

It was the first real non-humid night of the trip, and we took our time savoring our walk back to the Beach Club Villas. Once we got there, we began cleaning up and doing some preliminary packing, as we were switching over to the main Beach Club hotel for our comp night we earned through our room block (I figured it made the most sense to pack everything up right before we left WDW, since we'd need to be all packed up for the cruise the following night). It was a little sad to be leaving our studio villa - we'd checked in as an unmarried couple, full of excitement and promise about the upcoming weekend, and the first real ending of the honeymoon had come. Of course, if I had known then what the room we were moving to was like, I might not have been as sad!

 

[Disney_Alli]

I can't wait to see what room they gave you!

 

[Seia]

Eek! I'm glad everything worked out with your marriage license, and it was solved pretty easily. Talk about a terrible call to get on your honeymoon. You and Kevin look so nice on your date night - I love your sweater.

I also can't wait to see what room you get!

 

[Doodlebug25413]

Oh my Gosh I would have cried with that phone call! how freaking stressful. Glad it all worked out for you guys.

I know exactly what I'm ordering at Yachtsman when we go!

See, this is what bugs me with my sister. She is a huge Harry Potter fan, and trying to convince her to come to our wedding, she still won't do it! GRRRRR.
Love all your photos.

Can't wait for the cruise updates!

 

[elphie101]

I can't wait to see what room they gave you!

Now I'm nervous I've overhyped the room! We did realllllllllly love it though.

Eek! I'm glad everything worked out with your marriage license, and it was solved pretty easily. Talk about a terrible call to get on your honeymoon. You and Kevin look so nice on your date night - I love your sweater.

I also can't wait to see what room you get!

I liked my outfit without the sweater, but it was something like 60 degrees that night! Sweater weather for me Thankfully that marriage license incident was the most stressful thing we encountered (until the end of the trip!)

Oh my Gosh I would have cried with that phone call! how freaking stressful. Glad it all worked out for you guys.

I know exactly what I'm ordering at Yachtsman when we go!

See, this is what bugs me with my sister. She is a huge Harry Potter fan, and trying to convince her to come to our wedding, she still won't do it! GRRRRR.
Love all your photos.

Can't wait for the cruise updates!

Ooooo which steak? I need to know, it's the foodie with me.

She won't come even to see Harry Potter? Sheesh, if there's one thing I learned it's that you can't make anyone come to Florida. Sad but true. I hope she changes her mind for you!

 

[Doodlebug25413]

I think if I won the lottery and paid for EVERYTHING and hold a gun to her head, she might. She's such a homebody. Last time she actually went anywhere for a vacation was when we went to the outerbanks to do my mother's ashes.
That was back in 2010. It's frustrating.

LOL the steak, my husband would get yours. And I'd get the filet minon. I've never gone to Yachtsman, but I'm making a point to go now!

 

[Adgie128]

Jenn, I finished your whole PJ and TR and I enjoyed it more than I can tell you. Its funny because I had commented on your DR a while back, but now I have such a better look at the planning and successful playing out of you and Kevin's special wedding. You really capture the many emotions that I can only imagine go into realizing the dream of having a DFTW.

I have so much I wish I could comment, but that might be too much for you to read. I will say, the love you and Kevin share is so nice to see and while all the little things made it extra special, that was evident in every part of this journey. Your pictures are incredible! Stunning.

I hope to be able to join the Disbrides in the coming year or so. I can't say enough about how wonderful this community seems, and I am not even engaged yet, so I'm sure it will become even more of huge help.

By the way, I totally recognize you on the Disney Foodies FB page. I saw your recent posts on it, and was like, hey, I know who that is! Hope your trip was great. And in the meantime, looking forward to hearing more about your honeymoon, cruise, included!

 

[Disneyducks12]

I LOVE your Diagon Alley report! That was one of my favorite days I am a huge HP fan and that park was so well done and so many details all throughout we too did it in one day I wish we had more time there but what do you do! and I can't wait to hear how your cruise went!

 

[elphie101]

I think if I won the lottery and paid for EVERYTHING and hold a gun to her head, she might. She's such a homebody. Last time she actually went anywhere for a vacation was when we went to the outerbanks to do my mother's ashes.
That was back in 2010. It's frustrating.

LOL the steak, my husband would get yours. And I'd get the filet minon. I've never gone to Yachtsman, but I'm making a point to go now!

I totally understand. We had some family members behave similarly in regards to travel....just the risk you have to take I guess when you have a destination event. Still stinks though

You'll love Yachtsman when you go! Everything there is fantastic.

Jenn, I finished your whole PJ and TR and I enjoyed it more than I can tell you. Its funny because I had commented on your DR a while back, but now I have such a better look at the planning and successful playing out of you and Kevin's special wedding. You really capture the many emotions that I can only imagine go into realizing the dream of having a DFTW.

I have so much I wish I could comment, but that might be too much for you to read. I will say, the love you and Kevin share is so nice to see and while all the little things made it extra special, that was evident in every part of this journey. Your pictures are incredible! Stunning.

I hope to be able to join the Disbrides in the coming year or so. I can't say enough about how wonderful this community seems, and I am not even engaged yet, so I'm sure it will become even more of huge help.

By the way, I totally recognize you on the Disney Foodies FB page. I saw your recent posts on it, and was like, hey, I know who that is! Hope your trip was great. And in the meantime, looking forward to hearing more about your honeymoon, cruise, included!

I feel so bad, I completely neglected the DR! I stopped because it was moving faster than this report, but that made me forget all about it. I'm glad you migrated over here and thank you for reading! Your words are so sweet and truly touching. Feel free to comment, I love reading them

I hope you join us too when the time comes! As someone who lurked in this part of the DIS for many years before officially being engaged, it was an amazing feeling to finally begin posting and sharing with the community. Even if you don't go with a DFTW, all Disney brides are welcome! Swan/Dolphin, DTD, at-home Disney weddings, anything!

Ahhhh so funny you're on the Foodies page too! I do love me some Disney food

I LOVE your Diagon Alley report! That was one of my favorite days I am a huge HP fan and that park was so well done and so many details all throughout we too did it in one day I wish we had more time there but what do you do! and I can't wait to hear how your cruise went!

I wish all the HP stuff could be it's own park - it blows me away how it's so well executed compared to the rest of Universal! (Not to sound hating on Universal - the HP stuff just is several steps above the rest of it all!)

 

[elphie101]

Friday, October 17th

Our last morning at WDW. We woke up and got ready to check out of our villa, and Kevin remarked he was a little sad, like he always is after a WDW trip is over. As for me - we were getting on the FANTASY the next day - I didn't exactly want to rush through our last day in FL but I couldn't WAIT for the second part of the honeymoon.

We didn't have any set plans - change rooms, explore whatever parts of the park we felt we wanted to see (presumably Epcot/Food & Wine) and just enjoy the last day. As we were getting ready though, I was browsing Facebook and happened to notice something in one of my Facebook groups - the Haunted Mansion Dooney & Bourke purses, previously sold out everywhere, had just been restocked at Magic Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom only. I wanted a wristlet so badly, but we hadn't planned to go to MK and I didn't know when I'd be able to get one in our day.

Kevin stepped in with a sweet husband of the year award moment, and offered to pack up the rest of the room on his own (and we had a LOT of stuff, thanks to the wedding) while I ran to MK to get a bag. Ecstatic, I rushed through getting ready and dashed down to the bus stop, and before long I was on a bus and driving past this sweet sight:



I hustled into the park and ran into Uptown Jewelers, where a pyramid of Haunted Mansion bags were guarded behind the counter. To control the (potential) crowds, the CMs had laminated sheets with the different bag styles and prices, and would bring you a bag on request before you made your purchase. No fussing with the other bags though - one wristlet for this girl! A few minutes later I was leaving MK with my shiny purchase in hand and confusing the heck out of the CMs and bus drivers as to why I was leaving the park at 9:15am.


Bye MK! Short but sweet!


My spoils

As the bus left for Beach Club I sent Kevin a text to tell him I was coming back, and he let me know that not only was our room ready, but it was HUGE! I was a bit bummed we hadn't gotten a mythical concierge upgrade, but my curiosity was peaked. I met Kevin in the Beach Club lobby, where he led me up to the second floor and allllllllllllll the way down the hallway to our new room. "It's different, but AWESOME" he said - and he was right.

He opened the door to a long hallway:










I freaked out and started taking tons of pictures of the place. In reality I'm sure the actual room square footage wasn't much different than the rest of the resort, but the weird layout and long hallway certainly made it feel bigger. But best of all was the balcony:



It was HUGE! It was a standard view, so we were facing the woods (with the villas on our left), but we were facing in the direction of Epcot, and given that we saw the tops of Illuminations on previous nights from around the Boardwalk we reasoned that we might have a fireworks view room! We decided to test it out that evening, and wandered into Epcot (now that much closer thanks to the conveniently placed stairwell next to our room!) to use our FP+ for the day and enjoy a little more Food & Wine. This trip really made me fall in love with the Epcot resort area and the ease of the International Gateway (and really, deluxes overall - we're in trouble now!)


Always a pleasure to walk right by our DP spot with every entrance into Epcot

We had a valid Fastpass for Test Track at that time, so we decided to stroll in that direct and pick up some food & drink along the way. For whatever reason, nearly every food picture from this day is out of focus, so I'll spare you most of them. I grabbed a Honey Wine from Ireland (meh), the CraB’less CraB Cake from Terra aka the vegetarian booth (also meh) and a husband and a beer in the Odyssey beer booth (wish this was open year round!) Knowing Kevin's tastes and not remembering what the beer was, I'm going to guess it was anywhere from all right to bland.



We got in the Fastpass line at Test Track and decided to make the most ridiculous, horribly inefficient car we possibly could - I think we succeeded!



After Test Track we decided to skip our Mission Space FP in favor of going to get some food. In the grand tradition of us, we headed to Liberty Inn for Kevin's chicken nuggets & fries while I grabbed something more adventurous for myself along the way.


Roasted pork lettuce wrap with kimchi slaw from South Korea (pretty bland - I just made a kimichi slaw last week and it was waaaaaay spicier!) and Pepper Bacon Hash (OUTSTANDING! Quite possibly my favorite item from Food & Wine this year)


Apple Maple Spice Latte, iced, which I got because of a) tiredness and b) a misguided attempt to complete a passport (I'd call it an adequate coffee beverage)

After eating, we were in a very "go with the flow, relaxation" kind of mood, so we wandered next door to American Adventure. We caught a Voices of Liberty show (love them so much!) and explored the historical display on the ground floor (never noticed it!) before enjoying some American history, air conditioning, and seats.



After the show, we decided to check out the Chase Lounge aka the AA Parlor, because Kevin has a Chase card and I wanted to see another DFTW venue.





Maybe it's just the nature of the space, but it felt a lot more crowded than it looks in these pictures. The lines next door for the freestyle Coke machines were crazy, and Disney Infinity was set up to demo - we briefly picked the game up before noticing the eagle-eyed kids lurking in the distance waiting for their turn, so we grabbed some quick water to rehydrate and left. Since we hadn't done Figment yet (and who leaves WDW without going on Figment? Not us!) we headed in that direction, while I grabbed a glass of champagne for the walk.


One of my favorite candids from the whole trip


If I had my passport, I could tell you what this was.......but let's just leave it at being yummy shall we?

After visiting Figment, we decided to do a driveby of the Festival center just in case we wanted any specific souvenirs (or more alcohol for the cruise).




Kevin almost bought this shirt (he settled on a Rose & Crown one instead), but my parents bought us each this shirt for Christmas anyway!

Our four parents were going out to dinner that evening again (this time at Yachtsman), and we wanted to meet them at our room to show off the new space and pass off some of our wedding-related items (like our wine box, wedding accessories and so on) for them to take home so we would have less to worry about coming home from the cruise. We had about an hour till their reservation, so we decided to take the long way back to International Gateway.


I had to stop in Poland to get the Frozen Szarlotka (yay booze! and apple!) and because I'm half Polish and needed to get a photo for all my Polish family


We found this in the crystal shop in Germany - somewhere, a CM is a How I Met Your Mother fan! The date is actually the airdate of the first episode!


The Berliner, which replaced my beloved apple strudel, and was a poor substitute

We got to Italy and couldn't help but wander in - it was our first time back at the pavilion since the wedding day. Having been back to WDW since, I have to say I love, love, love that we got married in a location that wasn't of any special significance to us before the wedding day. Every time we walk by Italy now I'm instantly sucked into my happy memories of our wedding day, and what was once just a pavilion with a decent restaurant or two now is the most special place in WDW for us.


A much different view than the last time we stood up there!


A picture for the road - we've decided to get a photo here on every WDW trip going forward

I really, really wanted to get a souvenir from Italy to commemorate the trip - but being that it's one of the pavilions that doesn't have as much operated by Disney I personally find the merchandise to be a little lackluster. I was browsing the room with the masks, when I noticed this tucked in the back corner:


Now, we'll always have the way the pavilion looked on our wedding day (complete with where our first look happened!), just in case big changes ever come through Epcot (as we found out the hard way given that our proposal spot is now a giant pile of dirt)

We made one final pit stop in France to get ice cream, where I had the caramelized apple deliciousness for probably about the third time that trip. Yum, yum, yum. We strolled back to Beach Club, really just taking our time, enjoying the Disney atmosphere, enjoying being on our honeymoon and excitedly gabbing about the cruise the next day. We met our parents in the lobby and took them up to our room (cue ooooing and ahhhhing), then took some time to do a proper repack of our luggage to get everything where it needed to be for the cruise such as swimsuits and booze in carryons (we still had a bottle of champagne plus something like 8 or 9 beers from our parents that we were bringing with us - yay DCL!). Kevin grabbed a flatbread pizza from the Marketplace downstairs to be his dinner, but I wasn't about to pass up the chance to continue eating around the world, so we went back into Epcot once more!


The little second floor balcony in the Beach Club - love it!



Since it was a Friday night during Food & Wine, Epcot was predictably crowded. Kevin was full from his pizza, I sent him off to wait in line at Brazil for me while I headed to Belgium.


Potato and Leek Waffle with Braised Beef (I literally have no memory of my opinion of this, so we'll just call it good!)


Cocadas from Brazil (boring, wish I had gone with the cheese bread instead!)

I don't really have much detail on what we did for the rest of the night - I think more atmosphere-soaking and wandering through the park, though I do have this gorgeous shot:



We made a loop around the World Showcase and then headed back to our resort to get situation for Illuminations, but not before making a detour in the gift shop just for kicks.


We are not ear people. Some of you wear these ears wonderfully! We do not.

We headed up to our room and relaxed, and about a minute before the show headed out to our balcony in hopes of getting a glimpse of the fireworks. And we could see them!





Ok, just barely. Best of all, the wind was blowing in our direction, so we could hear the music perfectly. Quick access to Epcot, huge floor plan, AND fireworks viewing? Best standard room we've ever had! Exhausted but happy, we went back inside, watched a tv show episode or two, and passed out - the next day was EMBARKATION DAY!

 

[Belle612]

OMG!!!! My husband and I definitely stayed in this EXACT room on our 4th of July 2013 trip to WDW!! It was freakin' awesome!! This rooms beats all others at BC

Also I am really loving the honeymoon TR so far, can't WAIT to read about the cruise as we did the same one for our honeymoon last summer...it was definitely the best vacation of our lives!!

 

[Doodlebug25413]

Ok, I think you've convinced me to book our honeymoon night at the Beach Club now. Still going to get a 1 BR villa, but just for us, I think it might just be Beach Club.

You & your hubby are so stinking cute! Love your silly selfies!

 

[Adgie128]

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I LOVE your Dooney wristlet. I would have probably done the same thing and ran to pick it up. I'm so glad it was successful and they had it.

Your day looked like it was so relaxing. Any time spent in Epcot, drinking, eating, and just enjoying the WS is near perfect in my eyes.

I can't wait to see how you enjoyed the cruise. Looking forward to hearing!

 

[charliegirl76]

Yay! Glad you updated! I love seeing all the pictures of the food and knowing if you liked it. I tend to be more like Kevin and stick with a tried and true meal. I'm all about the chicken nuggets. LOL I do like a variety, but I'll stick to the stuff I know and hope DH will let me try whatever he gets. That way, if I don't like it, I won't have to order something else or waste the food because I won't eat it. So it's good to know what other people like and don't like.....kind of gives me something more to go by.

I need to go back to Universal to see the expansion at WWoHP! I think we'll take a day out to do this the next time we're in FL. Did you say you have to have a park hopper option to get to see all of it? I'm really excited to see what you thought of the cruise, we've never been on one and are looking to do one in the next few years.

 

[Disney_Alli]

That was a great room! I haven't mentioned it but I really enjoyed your WWoHP updates too! I've seen the original part twice and can't wait to finally see the expansion in August!

 

[Seia]

That room is really cool!! I'm so excited to stay at the Beach Club for the first time in December. Your photos have me hyped.

Love your Italy print. I totally bought the Boardwalk one from the same artist. I'm glad you were able to get your wristlet - it's super cute!

Now... cruise, cruise, cruise! So excited to see what food and drink pictures we get to see from there.

 

[elphie101]

OMG!!!! My husband and I definitely stayed in this EXACT room on our 4th of July 2013 trip to WDW!! It was freakin' awesome!! This rooms beats all others at BC

Also I am really loving the honeymoon TR so far, can't WAIT to read about the cruise as we did the same one for our honeymoon last summer...it was definitely the best vacation of our lives!!

Ahhhhhh! We LOVED this room! Seriously, we 100% intend to request it whenever we next stay at Beach Club. LOVE!

Writing the cruise TR is going to be so hard....because we're not taking another one anytime soon! (I'm fingers crossed hoping to sneak one in during 2017 but no promises there)

Ok, I think you've convinced me to book our honeymoon night at the Beach Club now. Still going to get a 1 BR villa, but just for us, I think it might just be Beach Club.

You & your hubby are so stinking cute! Love your silly selfies!

If you're planning on spending lots of time in Epcot, you definitely should! Being 5 minutes from France is the best thing ever - we miss it so much!

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I LOVE your Dooney wristlet. I would have probably done the same thing and ran to pick it up. I'm so glad it was successful and they had it.

Your day looked like it was so relaxing. Any time spent in Epcot, drinking, eating, and just enjoying the WS is near perfect in my eyes.

I can't wait to see how you enjoyed the cruise. Looking forward to hearing!

As much as I love scheduling and ADR planning and running around, relaxing Disney days are seriously the best. Just meandering about at a slow pace is perfect!

Yay! Glad you updated! I love seeing all the pictures of the food and knowing if you liked it. I tend to be more like Kevin and stick with a tried and true meal. I'm all about the chicken nuggets. LOL I do like a variety, but I'll stick to the stuff I know and hope DH will let me try whatever he gets. That way, if I don't like it, I won't have to order something else or waste the food because I won't eat it. So it's good to know what other people like and don't like.....kind of gives me something more to go by.

I need to go back to Universal to see the expansion at WWoHP! I think we'll take a day out to do this the next time we're in FL. Did you say you have to have a park hopper option to get to see all of it? I'm really excited to see what you thought of the cruise, we've never been on one and are looking to do one in the next few years.

Bahaha just wait till I get to the cruise food pictures - I think I stopped taking photos of Kevin's meals after Day 2 because they were ALWAYS the same! You guys would get along swimmingly I do love my Disney food so I hope that inspires you to try something!

You need a park hopper to ride the Hogwarts Express, since the original HP section (with Forbidden Journey, Hogsmede etc) is in Islands of Adventure and the Diagon Alley expansion is in Universal Studios. A one-day hopper is usually what we do when we visit Universal, so it worked for us, and depending on what else you want to do at Universal it's definitely enough to see all the HP stuff.

You should keep an eye on the Galveston DCL sailings - sometimes those are deeply discounted!

That was a great room! I haven't mentioned it but I really enjoyed your WWoHP updates too! I've seen the original part twice and can't wait to finally see the expansion in August!

It's sooooo cool! I want to go back as soon as we can (maybe for an on site stay - GASP)

That room is really cool!! I'm so excited to stay at the Beach Club for the first time in December. Your photos have me hyped.

Love your Italy print. I totally bought the Boardwalk one from the same artist. I'm glad you were able to get your wristlet - it's super cute!

Now... cruise, cruise, cruise! So excited to see what food and drink pictures we get to see from there.

You'll love it! We wandered through during our trip last month and a LOT of the resort was under construction (at least what we could see from the lobby) so IMO it'll be shiny and new for you in December!

Don't worry, I was very good about getting food pics (now I just hope I can remember what everything was.....)

 

[elphie101]

Saurday, October 18th - CRUISE DAY!!!!

It's finally here!!! I think more than any other day (considering I was sick for the wedding), I actively leaped out of bed as soon as we got up Saturday morning. Today we were finally, finally getting on our very first Disney cruise! A moment I had been looking forward to really since college, since I discovered Disney message boards online (as well as the wonderful world of DFTW). We had decently early breakfast reservations with our parents (8:30am) at Captain's Grille, so that a) my parents could make it back to MCO for their flight home that morning and b) Kevin's parents could drive us to Port Canaveral for our PAT (that's port arrival time) of 11:00am. We also had slightly ulterior motives, in that we intended to treat our folks to breakfast as part of our thank you to them for all they did to bring our wedding day to life, a move we had tried to do before (at Trail's End) which had been thwarted by said folks.

We packed up our toiletries and other night-before items but left our bags in our room so we didn't have to schlep them around, and headed over to the Yacht Club lobby to meet our family.


The room number of the Best Standard Room at Beach Club


As much as I fell in love with Beach Club, I also fell in love with Yacht Club on this trip - I have this place pegged as our next Epcot resort!

Captain's Grille wasn't new to us, and our parents especially had dined there 2-3 times over the course of the past week, but it was convenient, delicious, and didn't involve characters, so it hit the mark perfectly. We all chose the buffet over the a la carte menu, and I didn't take many photos - minus the obligatory food pics!


From 12 o'clock: Mickey waffle (with adorable single serve syrup!), watermelon, hash brown casserole, quiche of the day (don't ask me what it was, this was 8 months ago!), sad Disney bacon, french toast, and bread pudding. If you haven't figured it out by now, I love me some breakfast starches.

Kevin got his usual Mickey waffle-pancake medley. The buffet was fantastic! I may have gone up for an additional two bowls of that hash brown casserole - yum yum yum. I also used one of my trips to track down our server and pass off our TIW card as well as Kevin's credit card so that our parents wouldn't have a chance to pay for the meal. They were a bit disgruntled that we sneakily treated them before they could have the chance to treat us, but it was really important to us to treat them to one last meal at WDW to begin to express our appreciation for the past 13 months.

We strolled back to Beach Club one last time to collect our baggage, then waited with my parents for their Magical Express to arrive. Once they were off to the airport, we rolled out to the parking lot and bid our home for the past 9 days a fond farewell.


Bye Beach Club!

We left right at 10:00am, and our first stop was the nearest off-property CVS to get Robitussen pills (for me, since I was still downing liquid cough medicine on a regular schedule and the pills don't taste as vile) and sunscreen, for my Irish husband. Considering how far WDW is from the port, I knew we wouldn't get there right at 11:00am, but that didn't matter - we still had the early PAT!

All in all, the trip took about an hour and a half including stops. The ride was mostly uneventful, though I did find so this worth photographing:



About halfway there, I realized something awful: the diamond necklace I had brought to Florida (the first real piece of jewelry Kevin had ever given me) was gone. I had worn it to FL and when we changed rooms because it had a fragile chain, but hadn't wanted to wear it that morning because of the chunky necklace I was wearing. I set it on top of the suitcase when we went to breakfast with the intention of packing it, but I knew in an instant I hadn't put it in the suitcase. Not wanting the ILs to know, I texted Kevin sitting next to me and we decided to call Beach Club as soon as we could. He wasn't mad at me like I thought, but I was pretty devastated- the whole reason I brought the necklace down was for formal meals on the cruise, not to mention having lost something so significant to me in the first place.

Pretty soon we were driving over a massive bridge, and saw signs for park & cruise shuttles, rental car agencies - and then this gorgeous sight:


There she is!!! Our ship!!!

The ILs wanted to find a place to park so they could come inside the terminal - I wasn't sure if they would be able to, but didn't say anything. Of course, the only parking we could find was the long-term passenger parking, so we ended up parking in a cruise employee lot, then schleping our bags over to the entrance of the terminal, geeking out over the MASSIVE size of the ship along the way. The security staff out front was checking passports and cruise documents, and told the ILs they weren't allowed in without fare, so we ended up bidding them goodbye in the middle of the chaotic security line - I don't think they were pleased about it, but there's nothing we could do at that point.

One of the giant question marks for this day was the fact that we never recieved our luggage tags and onboarding paperwork, in the form of the cute little spiral bound book DCL sends you before you leave. I had called to inquire about it a few weeks before we left for the wedding, and the rep said her system showed it sent, so it must've been lost in the mail, and that we wouldn't have a problem at the port (I was annoyed - I wanted the booklet!). Now at the port, we walked over to the porters handling checked bags and told them our luggage tags were lost in the mail. Without a pause, they whipped out blank tags, took down our room number, and relieved us of our larger suitcases. That was easy!

We made our way through terminal security (think airport security, though slightly less restrictive) and found ourselves in a hugely crowded terminal and a massive checkin line for new cruisers. We both realllllly needed the restroom after the long drive, so Kevin got in line to check in while I ran to the facilities, then we switched out.


Our view from the line - boarding had already started.

While in the line to check in we perused the paperwork we hadn't been able to fill out in advance, as well as the sickness questionnaire, including a scary gold paper where we had to declare we hadn't been to West Africa recently nor had any contact with Ebola-infected persons - if you remember, our cruise was right after the nurses in Texas were infected with Ebola, and right when the Carnival Cruise passenger who worked at the hospital was quarantined on their ship.

We checked in with no problem, got our photos taken and our Key to the World cars (ah, how I miss these!) and our boarding number - even though we arrived far later than our PAT, your boarding number is assigned based on that time. We were in group 8, but they were already boarding around group 15, so we were free to head right onto the ship!


The cutest way to start any cruise!!

We headed up and got in line to wait for our onboarding picture. I may have let it slip that this photo was optional, so Kevin was all for skipping it, but I was adamant about waiting. As it turns out, we hated the photo, so we'll probably skip this one for future cruises (we only bought one picture from the cruise, one of the ones from Formal Night, though I'm not even sure where it is now.....)

About 10 minutes later, we stepped into the most gorgeous lobby I have ever seen.









It was a bit chaotic to be honest. A few passengers were sitting right at the entrance to cheer everyone on, and most people were like us - wandering around starstruck at the beautiful Fantasy. It was 12:45pm, and at 1:00pm we would be able to go to Royal Court (the restaurant right in the atrium) to make a Palo brunch reservation and to confirm we were seated at a table for 2, so I suggested we hang around where we were - Kevin suggested he run over to the Bon Voyage bar right there to get us some embarkation beers. Happy honeymoon indeed!!

While I waited with the bags, I amused myself by capturing a few more photos:


So. freaking. pretty.



Suddenly the most familiar music came playing over the speakers: The Princess Diaries Waltz. In a fit of wedding emotions I was torn about running over to Kevin at the bar, and my airport-security instincts of not wanting to leave our baggage unattended. I ended up doing a manic dash over to him, yelping "I walked down the aisle to this REMEMBER?!" then dashing back over to our suitcases. Kevin said the guy next to him at the bar turned to him and said "How the hell are you supposed to remember that?" After Kevin told him we had only been married for 6 days, he proceeded to wish us congrats and impart wise marital wisdom.

Once he came back with our beers, we noticed a small line had started at the side entrance of Royal Court (the wheelchair accessible entrance) so we hopped in line. As we entered the restaurant, the line split between two tables - one for Palo and Remy reservations and one for dining assignment requests. We decided to divide and conquer, and I sent Kevin to the dining line since I knew the cruise itinerary better and had an idea of when I wanted us to have brunch (the last sea day, so as not to overwhelm Kevin with too many new things at once).


My delicious beer, I think it was a Kona. Many other people in line commented how we had the right idea by getting a drink for the line!

Even though Kevin's line was longer, it moved far quicker, as the few people in front of me were making very complicated requests (the guy directly in front of me seemed to be making multiple brunch and dinner reservations for parties of 8-12 people over the course of the week!) Finally I sat down at the Palo station after that complicated request and simply said "I'd like a brunch reservation please." The Palo server made a few taps on his keyboard and said "How about Day 6 at 10:30am?" Literally exactly what I wanted! I gleefully said yes and we were booked in seconds. Kevin happened to finish at the exact same time, and told me as we left that we hadn't been assigned our own table, but the server said it wouldn't be a problem and changed the table number on our dining tickets. I'm so glad we checked! I don't mind the idea of meeting people and sharing a table but especially for our honeymoon cruise (and especially after spending the week in WDW with our family) we were really looking forward to 100% two of us time. (Kevin also was not happy with the idea of being potentially judged for his plain-eating habits).

It was after 1:30 when we left the restaurant, which meant our stateroom was ready. Before the cruise we made a 'no elevators unless we have luggage' rule (in preparation of all the food we were going to eat) but we took one look at the massive lines for the atrium elevators and decided to drag our bags up the four flights of stairs to Deck 7.

We were staying in room 7520, a category 7A "Deluxe Oceanview Stateroom with Navigator's Verandah", aka a slightly obstructed view. I was adamant that I wanted a verandah for our first cruise, and simply chose the cheapest way to get one. I picked the specific room because of two reasons: it was Forward rather than Aft (Kevin is a light sleeper and I didn't want to risk noise keeping him up on our first cruise) and it was on starboard side, aka the side that would provide us with a view of Castaway Cay when we docked there (why not right?!) We made it to our room, opened the door, dropped our bags and ran out to our verandah to check out the view.




The terminal building from the ship.

Oh yeah, sooooo obstructed. We were thrilled! For reference, this is our room from the outside of the ship, to give you a better idea of the "obstruction" - only one balcony neighbor and we could look up and see the bridge!



No time for more room pictures though - we were going on 5 hours since breakfast, so we gratefully left our bags behind and headed up to Deck 11 to find Cabanas (the buffet) for some lunch. Because staterooms were open, the embarkation chaos had died down, so we didn't find any massive crowds and were able to weave our way through the stations as we pleased. I did notice right away that nothing was self serve - all food and drink stations were being manned by plastic-gloved CMs, and no passengers could touch anything. I knew they only did this when there was a risk of illness on the ship, and given all the Ebola panic and the fact that we hadn't even left Port Canaveral I assumed this was why. And now - food pics!


Three guesses who's plate this is.....


And my plate - some sort of pasta of the day, a tuna roll up, broccoli (let's maintain the illusion of being healthy shall we?), lo mien, and mashed potatoes. I heart my starches!

We inhaled everything within minutes, we were so hungry. Thankfully, it was also quite good! I really loved the variety of offerings. Unfortunately, I still had my hacking cough, and it was here we discovered that it would be a problem. I let out a cough to clear my throat, and immediately 3 CMs in the area whipped their heads in our direction (being so high-alert for signs of sickness). We spent the next few days having to check for CMs in the area before I could cough - I wasn't about to be quarantined on our honeymoon thanks to some stupid lingering chest cold (the cough stopped by Day 4, so that's the last you'll hear of it!)


Our lunch view


The freaking adorable glasses! I would have taken one home!

Hunger satisfied, we went back down to our stateroom to unpack and explore some more, while I photographed every inch of the place (I'll spare you the closet photos!)


Looking into the room from the door


Bathroom #1


Bathroom #2


The sleeping apparatus


The view from the couch on the one time we sat on it, browsing through the on demand options

There was a knock on our door and we met our stateroom hostess Okta, and I'm about 90% positive she was from the Philippines (I swear, I always say I'll take better notes....). She was cheery, giggly, and always happy to see us, and let us know to grab her if we needed anything. She also had me sign a paper confirming we received the two items we had pre-purchased - our 1-Day Rainforest Room passes and the voucher for the refillable beer mug I surprised Kevin with.

We had about an hour and a half before the safety drill, so we decided to go explore the ship and get our bearings, starting with finding our muster station so we would know where to go for the drill.


Where Muster Station H is, outside on Deck 4 Starboard


The stunning and now empty atrium from Deck 4

We wandered the length of the ship and found ourselves at Deck 4 Aft, aka Europa, where the majority of the bars were located. One of the bars (The Tube) was hosting the DVC Members Reception, and we put our names in to attend the info session the next day (because I heard there were free drinks.....)


An empty Skyline, where I intended to come back later on


La Piazza, themed like an Italian carousel, is the central bar of the ship, where all roads lead to (and the entrance if you hadn't walked in via the back like we did).

In La Piazza we were able to sign up for Beverage Seminars, and we decided to do Mixology on Day 2 (after reading rave reviews for years on the DIS) and Champagne on Day 3. The memory is a little fuzzy but I believe each one was $15 per person.



We continued to look around and explore, and found ourselves on Deck 5, where we signed up for the Muppets mission of Midship Detective Agency, just so we could start our game without having to wait through long lines. We then headed back to the room, so I could call Beach Club about my necklace while we still had service, and Kevin checked in with his parents and fill them in about the necklace situation. I spoke with someone in Housekeeping about what room we were in and what the necklace looked like, and they promised to keep an eye out for it. We gave them Kevin's parents number to call back if they found it, since we would be unreachable and his parents had a few more days at WDW, and supplied their address to mail it to just in case (since our mail was stopped). I won't hold you guys in too much suspense - they did find my necklace!! They found it mixed in with the bedding and mailed it to the ILs house that week, though we didn't find out till after the cruise. Phew.

We headed back down to Deck 4 and checked in for the muster drill as people started arriving. We were grouped into clusters by stateroom as we arrived, then lined up in order of height. The drill was unremarkable and thankfully, we obviously didn't need any of the information we learned.


This couple had the audacity to also be on their honeymoon - the nerve of some people! (Kidding.)

Once we were released, we dashed upstairs with everyone else on the ship to catch the sail away party!

 

[Disneyducks12]

Aww how I love the Fantasy!! She is such a beautiful ship and what a great start to your honeymoon trip and smart thinking on making sure to check your dining your honeymoon you want that alone time! and I would have been so panicked if I lost a necklace like that but thank God you found it! Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip was and how you enjoyed Palo I love their brunch!