Magical Fall Disney Honeymoon Report for November 15th - 24th 2016

[adossantos89]

Part One - Honeymoon Trip Report for November 15th - November 24th 2016

My husband Kevin (name changed) (29m) and I (27f) just got back from our wonderful honeymoon! A few general details about us: I LOVE Disney. LOVE IT. I went two years ago with a friend, and have wanted to go back ever since. Kevin hadn’t been in 18 years (He was there for Animal Kingdom’s opening day) and so left most of the planning to me. I was very excited to share Disney with Kevin! We both hadn’t been to Universal or KSC in years so those were both new experiences for both of us.

We stayed at the Dolphin hotel in the Epcot/Boardwalk area for the entire time (spoiler alert - we LOVED it). We booked the deal through Costco, which was really easy to do and everything went very smoothly. We had a ticket to the Christmas party, 5 one-park Disney tickets, 3 one-park Universal tickets, and a day planned for the Kennedy Space Center.

I’ll split this up into a couple of posts because it is sooooo longgg.

Tuesday 11/15/16

We decided to get a rental car at the airport so we could stop at a grocery store on the way to the Dolphin. Magical Express wasn’t an option for the Dolphin, and wouldn’t have helped with the grocery store issue. An Uber (no UberX for the airport) would have cost as much as the rental. In any case, it was nice not being tied to a schedule- we could go from the airport, shop, then head to the hotel without keeping an eye on the clock. Returning the car was a breeze- because the Dolphin has on-site car rentals, we were able to drive up, hand the keys to a valet, and walk inside. This was all surprisingly easy and painless to do and the groceries set us up nicely for the rest of our trip.

The Dolphin Check-In time was officially 3PM, but the cast member at the front desk not only got us into a room immediately, but he upgraded us to a king-size room with balcony that faced the lake, Epcot Fireworks, and the Dolphin’s large fountain.The room itself was very nice- we couldn’t get over the view. We were given drink tickets and the Dolphin’s own version of the ‘Just married’ buttons, which was a sweet touch. It was an amazing start to our honeymoon and made us feel very special. The service at the hotel was consistently great and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a more ‘adult’ hotel like the Grand Floridian, but with more affordable prices.

We grabbed champagne at the lobby bar with our free drink tickets and then headed to the Beach & Yacht club for an early dinner ADR at Beaches & Cream. The retro atmosphere was very cute and we liked that the restaurant was small and didn’t feel overcrowded. We both ordered sandwiches and couldn’t get over how good they were. The only disappointment was that we didn’t have room for the adult shakes - will definitely go back to get them in the future!

After dinner, we walked over to the Beach & Yacht busses to get to MVMCP for the night. The bus took a while to get there, but I may have just been impatient from my excitement (Kevin’s note: It wasn’t a long wait- she was just VERY excited.) We picked up our ‘celebration’ buttons (hard to find, but cast members were helpful) and then got to exploring!

The park was fully decorated for Christmas and looked gorgeous! We hit a couple of the free food spots and while I thought it was fun that each one had different snacks, some were better than others (peppermint bark > snow cone). MVMCP was more crowded than I expected, but we were still able to hit a large number of rides with very little wait. We rode Haunted Mansion (a first for me!), Pirates (fave), It’s a Small World (classic), Pooh (eh), Jingle Cruise (super fun with the xmas overlays), and Peter Pan. Peter Pan had the longest wait, but even that was only 15 minutes.

The new Once Upon a Time show was great. As usual, Disney’s fireworks and music were spectacular, but we were simply BLOWN AWAY by the projections. We were exhausted by this point (our day started at 4:30AM and it was now 11PM) but still wanted to see the last parade of the night. It was a good decision. As tired as we were, every part of the parade was amazing. We were particularly impressed with the toy soldiers. They were downright simple compared to some of the floats and costumes, but watching dozens of cast members move in near perfect choreography in costume was something magical. The last surprise of the night was the snowfall on Main Street. We’re from a snowy area and it looks exactly like a snowstorm.

We recommend MVMCP, but if we were to do it again, I would have moved it later in the trip. A early flight combined with a late night makes for a rough day, physically.

Overall a fun, although long, first day!

Full album, including parade: http://imgur.com/a/V6ilF

We will be back soon with Part Two (which will hopefully be more than just one day of our trip!)

EDIT: I embedded the pictures to the post! Looks like that's what you all like to do around here

 

[disvisitorkim]

Following along!! OMG the Dolphin looks AMAZING!! My sister and I are crazy Disney go-ers, and want to try out every resort, and since GF is out of our price range (At least in the near future), I would totally "settle" for Dolphin! All your pics are amazing as well! Can't wait for more!

 

[adossantos89]

Hello all,

We’re back for Part Two of our Honeymoon Trip Report for November 15th - November 24th 2016.

Day Two - Wednesday 11/16/16

Our Epcot day! We took the ferry (convenient and fun!) over to the International Gateway entrance right after park opening. It was a beautiful warm day and the crowds were pretty light. Following bloggers tour plans (like easywdw and disney tourist blog), we headed straight to Soarin’ and walked on. I thought the new video was exciting but some transitions worked better than others. Kevin, who skydives, was really impressed with the ride experience.

We were able to do most of the rides in Future World pretty quickly with our Fastpasses for Spaceship Earth and Mission:Space. It was my first time on Mission:Space and Kevin really wanted to do the ‘Orange’ version of the ride. There were more than the average number of warnings leading up to the ride which got me nervous, but the actual ride was really fun and not as intense as I was preparing myself for. Kevin thought it was a really cool way of replicating what a shuttle launch feels like.

Around noon, we ate our packed lunches near Club Cool and then drank the coca cola samples. We were really enjoying all the attention we were getting from our buttons (most cast members we passed congratulated us) but in Club Cool they went a step beyond and gave us a free (yummy) slushy.

Afterward, we made our way around the world starting in Mexico (where I always start!).

We were planning on drinking around the world but it was too hot to get a drink from each country, so instead we opted for the $20 three country (Germany, Italy, France) wine tastings. In Germany, we also got the cheese plate which was a nice snack though a bit forgettable.

We were having fun window shopping but we were getting a bit cranky and tired from having been up late the night before. It goes without saying that we both slept through the American Adventure and the nap did wonders. One of these days I will stay awake for the whole show!

After France, we made our way back to Future World to take some photos as the sun was setting. We were also able to ride Test Track on stand by. Both Kevin and I enjoyed the design element of the ride and thought the outside portion was pretty exciting. Then, it was finally time for our Frozen Ever After Fastpass. Even with the fastpass, there was a wait but it moved pretty quickly. We were both really impressed by the animatronics and how Disney transformed Maelstrom to tell a new story.

England is one of my favorite countries in the park (and in real life) so we spent some time walking around the area. We had a reservation at Rose & Crown in England around 7pm. The atmosphere in the pub and in that area in general is very energetic. I’m pretty sure we could have gotten seats outside and waited out the fireworks, but it was getting brisk and we knew we had plenty of time to find a viewing spot after eating.

We both got fish and chips which were very impressive while for drinks I got a pub blend and Kevin got a beer sampler - both better than we expected.

We got the warm fruit crumble for dessert, which took quite some time to prepare, but our server was extremely apologetic and even threw in a free toffee pudding dessert which we very much enjoyed. The extra time sitting and resting didn’t hurt either! We then found an excellent fireworks viewing spot around the lake, right by where the special occasion boats park themselves. We were also right next to the ferries so were able to get back to the hotel very quickly, which was unbelievably nice.

Overall, a very pleasant day at Epcot though we did still feel the affects of the long day before.

For the full album (and some additional photos from around the world!): http://imgur.com/a/rQlWt

 

[adossantos89]

We’re back for Part Three of our Honeymoon Trip Report for November 15th - November 24th 2016.

Day Three - Thursday 11/17/16

Our Animal Kingdom day! We got on the bus very early and this is the first time that I’ve ever been to a Disney park at opening. The opening show with the birds flying overhead was beautiful and a magical start to the day.

Kevin and I decided to rush to the safari and it seemed like a number of people had the same idea. For a moment, I thought the crowd would turn into a stampede, but cast members kept it under control. We were able to get on one of the first safaris of the day and we were really glad that we did. We saw so many animals on the safari, more than I remember seeing during past trips. Pictures or it didn’t happen:

We really enjoyed the slow pace of Animal Kingdom and I think as a park, it is very underrated. We wandered the trails for a few hours - it was a beautiful day and it wasn’t too hot so we were able to really take our time.

We caught an early showing of the Lion King which is a really stellar live show if you haven’t seen it yet! Kevin was blown away by it. Then, we ate our bagged lunch and then went to see A Bug’s Life. I was a bit disappointed in it because our seats didn’t vibrate when they were supposed to, but it is still really cute.

Another highlight was Everest. I had only ridden it once but knew that Kevin would get a kick out of it. We had a Fastpass for it, which was very much needed, and we were able to get on it right away. This is one of my favorite roller coasters! Kevin then went to ride it an additional 2 more times via the single rider line and I was able to get a few pictures of him from the ground at the top of Everest!

We had a Fastpass for Kali River Rapids (Dinosaur was done for a refurbishment), but we we didn’t feel like getting soaked, so we decided instead to see the Finding Nemo live show. I thought it was a really clever stage version of the story, but Kevin wasn’t a huge fan of it.

When the show ended, it was around 2 or 3 and we decided to head back to the Dolphin to rest before heading out for dinner. We drank champagne and ate macaroons on our balcony in our room which was soooo relaxing!

Close to 5, we dressed up and drank wine at Blue Zue with our free drink tickets. If you get free drink tickets from the Dolphin, we would recommend using them at Blue Zue as it had the best atmosphere and the most choices of wine/champagne that you could get with the drink ticket.

Finally, it was time to head to Disney Springs where we had an ADR for dinner at the BOATHOUSE!! I was extremely impressed with the changes to Disney Springs since the last time I had visited, years ago. With all of the Christmas decorations, it is a pretty, large, eclectic place to walk around, people watch, shop, eat and drink but it still retains that Disney family feel. In the past when I visited Disney, I had no clue as to what to do at Disney at night - now Disney Springs seems to fill that void.

I was so glad I made a reservation at the BOATHOUSE because we LOVED the food and atmosphere. We sat outside by the water and it was truly was one of the most romantic dinners we had on our honeymoon. I got the coconut shrimp which was fantastic and Kevin got the fish of the day. The food was very reasonably priced which is always a relief to see at Disney. We also had one of the nicest servers of our whole trip. He let us know that the drone show would be premiering at Disney Springs soon and so we changed our plans over the next couple of days to make sure that we would be able to see it.

After dinner, I really wanted to check out Jock Lindsey’s bar because of all the good reviews I had read about it. It wasn’t busy when we went but the place is a lot smaller than you would think, especially if you don’t want to sit outside. We sat at the bar and the vibe and the detail is spectacular, but the drinks do seem to have the problem of all being overly sweet. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I was a bit younger and hadn’t developed a taste for alcohol. I had expected more complexity in the flavor of the drinks, but you really just get hit by all of the sugar. I would come here again if I was with a big Indiana Jones fan, but there are better bars at Disney Springs and the Boardwalk that I would much prefer to prioritize next time we visit.

After that, it was time to hit the hay!

Overall, Animal Kingdom was one of our most relaxing days and we had one of the best nights out at Disney Springs.

For the full album of pictures and some additional ones, click here: http://imgur.com/a/WH13T

I will be back with Part Four - Hollywood Studios very soon!

 

[DVCKerry]

I enjoy the way all of your photos turned out! They look professionally done, great work!