There's nothing more romantic than the monorail! - August 2016 honeymoon TR

[princessgabriella]

There's nothing more romantic than the monorail!
Our 2016 Honeymoon TR
August 16th - 24th
Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa
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Hello everyone, and welcome to this disneymoon trip report! This will be my first full trip report, as I had to abandon writing my last one after school and life took over. This time, I have a few weeks of vacation ahead of me to finish writing it, so it should be easier!

This trip was a long time in the making. After we came back from our first ever disney vacation in october 2014, I knew I wanted to come back. The 6 night trip had felt way too short, and I needed something to look up to after coming back with a solid case of the disney blues. Then, my now DH proposed that christmas, and we decided on a disneymoon a few weeks later.

This was truly our dream vacation, and it lived up to all of our expectations. So, if you would like, I invite you to read along with me as I remember all the details of this amazing nine day trip at the most magical place on earth!

Without further ado, let's start off with some presentations!

Here we are!
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First up, i'll present to you my fiancé-turned-husband...

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Age: 28
Favorite park: Epcot
Favorite disney movie: Aladdin, The Lion King
Favorite characters: Mickey, Pluto

And here I am!

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Age: 24
Favorite park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite disney movie: The princess and the frog, Inside out
Favorite characters: Rapunzel, Mickey

So here we go! I hope you enjoy this trip report!

CHAPTERS

DAY 1

Part 1: We get married, then we travel to the most magical place on earth!
Part 2: Monorails and a magical kingdom!
Part 3: Fireworks from the balcony

 

[Disneycampfan]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

 

[GrumpySue]

Our honeymoon was at the Grand Floridian too, and this month it will be our 20th Anniversary !!

 

[disneyguy4life]

I hope you don't mind... I think I'll follow along. Congrats on your marriage and disneymoon. There's nothing like being in love and Disney. The two go hand in hand. I can't wait to read more.

 

[princessgabriella]

PART 1: We get married, then we travel to the most magical place on earth!

So this trip being a honeymoon, we obviously started it out with the most magical day of our lives... We got married!

We got married in Quebec city, which is where we live, with all of our friends and family there to celebrate with us. It truly was a perfect day, with a few disney touches of course! Our processional song was "Beauty and the beast", and we had disney music playing during dinner. And for us, it was a fairy tale dream come true!

What made it even better was that we knew our dream honeymoon was coming up right after the wedding! I was SO excited to get back to the most magical place on earth, after almost two years of planning this vacation. With the wedding planning, I didn't have time to buy everything I wanted (customized t-shirts! customized mickey ears! all the things!), but I was still feeling ready, with ADRs all booked and fastpasses checked. So on august 15th, just a few days after our wedding, we drove to Montreal the day before our plane. We slept at my parent's house, and on the 16th, we got up at 4 AM to go to Disney!!!

Now at this point, we made a mistake that could of ruined our vacation. We were flying with Air Canada Rouge, which is like a bargain version of the traditional Air Canada. We didn't reserve seats, because it was 30$ each and we didn't really mind where we were seated inside the plane. Well, turns out that when we got there, we found out the plane had been overbooked, and because our seats were not reserved, we would be the first to be bumped to another flight. They asked for volunteers and a few people accepted another flight with a correspondance to Miami. Everyone boarded the plane, and we were the only ones left. They were on the phone speaking with the front desk. A family of five was late and still going through security. I was stressed out, thinking we should have paid the 60$ for the seats, when finally they decided to let us through and put the family on another flight. Hurray! Our first day was saved! Next time i'm not taking Air Canada Rouge...

The 3 hour flight went by quickly, and before we knew it we were in Orlando! I got all teary-eyed as soon as I saw the magical express counter. We were home!

And soon, we saw this...

And this! Oh my goodness, THE GRAND FLORIDIAN!

I was so excited to be staying at this amazing resort for our honeymoon. We originally wanted to book at POR, but when the great summer deals came out, we decided to splurge. My husband knew it was my dream to stay at the GF, and he told me we would only be getting married once, so why not make it special?

Special does not even begin to describe this resort...

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We arrived at around noon, but when we checked in, the cast member told us he had a room ready for us if we wanted. We were excited to get to the parks as soon as possible, so we accepted. We had reserved a garden view room, so we were NOT expecting this amazing view when we got to our room!

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Hooray for a lagoon view! But then, I figured out the best part...

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Yes, that's the CASTLE! A view of Magic Kingdom for our room, which meant we would be able to see the fireworks from our balcony every night!

The most amazing part about this is that the cast member said nothing about the uprade when he gave us the room at the check in counter. We went back to see him the next day to thank him. This really started our honeymoon with all the pixie dust and magic we could hope for.

Here are a few pictures of our room!

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We loved everything about our room. We were in the Boca Chica building, and I felt that the room was spacious, clean and with just enough small disney details. Loved the Alice in Wonderland art in the bathroom!

NEXT UP: We take the monorail for the first time and explore Magic Kingdom!

 

[princessgabriella]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip!

Thanks for following along!

Our honeymoon was at the Grand Floridian too, and this month it will be our 20th Anniversary !!

Congratulations! I hope we can say the same one day! I loved the Grand Floridian for a honeymoon, I thought it was the perfect romantic resort.

I hope you don't mind... I think I'll follow along. Congrats on your marriage and disneymoon. There's nothing like being in love and Disney. The two go hand in hand. I can't wait to read more.

Thank you! Yes, it truly was very romantic I'm glad you will be following along!

 

[BippityBrittany]

first let me just say, the picture from your wedding is absolutely stunning and congrats!!

secondly, i cannot wait to follow along as i have a feeling this is going to be a very magical TR

 

[princessgabriella]

PART 2: Monorails and a magical kingdom!

After checking out our room, it was finally time for some park fun! I hadn't booked any ADRs on that day in case our flight was delayed, so we were on a relaxed schedule, which ended up being the case for most of our vacation. This was a recommendation I had read on Disney Tourist Blog in the planning stage of our honeymoon, and I'm so glad we followed their advice to keep a more leisurely pace for a honeymoon trip. I had booked most fastpasses in the afternoon, and not too many ADRs. This way, we got to enjoy the hotel more, and also have some relaxing mornings.

We walked back to the main building to the monorail station. This was our first time getting to the parks on the monorail resort loop!

Funny-face monorail fun!
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The GF was literally one monorail stop away from the Magic Kingdom. It took us 5 minutes from the station to the park entrance. 5 MINUTES! After staying at Pop Century last time and taking many crowded buses, the monorail honestly felt amazing. It was quick, easy and rarely crowded. A major perk when staying at one of the monorail resorts!

And at this point, it was time... I had been waiting two years for our wedding, and this amazing vacation, and this moment where I would walk up Main Street and see the castle!

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We had fastpasses for the parade at 3 PM, but it was storming on and off, so the parade ended up getting cancelled. We changed our fastpass directly on the MDE app for Space Mountain later in the afternoon. I love how they changed the MDE app so we can make fastpass reservations directly, it really makes everything easier.

Our next fastpass was for our favorite ride of all: Splash Mountain! We always ride Splash at least three times each trip, and this one would be no exception, especially in the hot august weather.

We took a few pictures walking to frontierland...

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We were seated first row in Splash Mountain, and got soaked! Then, it was time for our Hauted Mansion FP, and of course we had to stop by the happiest cruise that ever sailed

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I love going on It's a small world, but my DH thinks its a little creepy. He used to love it as a kid though! His father has a video tape of him describing everything on the ride, and getting mad at his dad for not looking. It's the cutest thing

At this point, we were starting to get hungry, and I had something on my mind...

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Yum! Corn dog nuggets of course! I had missed out on trying theses on our last trip, so I wanted to have them this time. They were delicious!

DH had the chili dog, and he thought it was pretty good!

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At this point, we were starting to feel a bit tired. Getting up at 4 AM and travelling does that to you! We still had a FP for Space Mountain, and we were planning on watching the fireworks, but knowing we could watch them from our balcony, we decided to go back to the resort for some pool time and relaxing. We didn't want to strain ourselves on our first day!

We stopped by for a castle picture before leaving:

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And we headed back to our hotel!

NEXT UP: Fireworks from our balcony!

 

[princessgabriella]

first let me just say, the picture from your wedding is absolutely stunning and congrats!!

secondly, i cannot wait to follow along as i have a feeling this is going to be a very magical TR

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're following along!

 

[heaven2dc]

Congratulations! Your wedding photo is stunning - so romantic Amazing view from your upgraded room - just love those surprise magical touches Disney does

 

[KnK]

Yum! Corn dog nuggets of course! I had missed out on trying theses on our last trip, so I wanted to have them this time. They were delicious!

DH had the chili dog, and he thought it was pretty good!

This is exactly what my husband and I get......love the corn dog nuggets.

Congrats on your special day.

 

[Raeven]

I love your wedding dress! Congrats and I look forward to reading more.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Congratulations on getting married. Your wedding photo is simply gorgeous. You guys are such a cute couple. Can't wait to read more!

 

[princessgabriella]

PART 3: Fireworks from the balcony

After a fun filled first afternoon at the Magic Kingdom, we were starting to feel pretty tired. This was our first time experiencing the August heat in Florida, and even after reading so many threads on the DISboards about summer weather in WDW, I still wasn't ready for the real deal. Coming from Canada, we NEVER get this kind of humidity, even in the height of summer. We had to adjust our touring plans a little to accomodate more breaks during the day!

So at around 7 PM, we decided to call it a day and head back to the GF for some exploring and pool time. We decided to take the boat for the first time! So many new experiences!

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I loved how close to the Magic Kingdom our hotel was, especially considering the hot weather. It allowed us to have that relaxing pace I wanted for our honeymoon. We never had to worry about going back for a nap in our room, or an afternoon of swimming in the pool. It was all so easy!

We got back to the GF, and a surprise was waiting for me in the room...!

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My sweet, loving DH had arranged for flowers to be delivered to our room on this first night of our honeymoon. They were so beautiful, and lasted for most of our stay!

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At this point, we were exhausted from traveling and being in the parks all afternoon. Our luggage had been delivered to the room, so I took some time to unpack and get settled. We also went for a quick swim in the pool, and came back just in time for the fireworks!

With our room upgrade, we knew we would probably have some view of the fireworks, but we weren't prepared for how great of a view we actually had! It was a bit obstructed by a tree, but overall, we could see the whole show from our balcony!!! What a magical way to start our vacation.

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We snuggled while watching the fireworks, still in awe of how lucky we were to be here. Our dream honeymoon coming true!

After the fireworks, we went to bed and crashed! We wanted to be well rested for our next day!

Coming up: Epcot, a dinner at Narcoosee's and evening EMH at Magic Kingdom!

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

That's so sweet of your DH to deliver the flowers to your room!! I can only imagine the convenience of staying at the GF! Hopefully someday, I will get to experience it myself!

 

[disneyguy4life]

After a fun filled first afternoon at the Magic Kingdom, we were starting to feel pretty tired. This was our first time experiencing the August heat in Florida, and even after reading so many threads on the DISboards about summer weather in WDW, I still wasn't ready for the real deal. Coming from Canada, we NEVER get this kind of humidity, even in the height of summer. We had to adjust our touring plans a little to accomodate more breaks during the day!

I could never get used to the humidity. It is brutal. My wife and I went in September and it was scorching hot. I know your pain.

With our room upgrade, we knew we would probably have some view of the fireworks, but we weren't prepared for how great of a view we actually had! It was a bit obstructed by a tree, but overall, we could see the whole show from our balcony!!! What a magical way to start our vacation.

WOW!! That is a great view. I am just going to say it... I am jealous. I can't wait to read more about the trip!

 

[adisneyaunt]

Lovely , just lovely
Congrats to you both!!

 

[frostymojo]

Congrats