Day 4 up! / With this ring, we thee Dis. {Pic Heavy} Honeymoon to WDW & Disney Dream!

[leeshiebean]

Ah, and so begins my Disneymoon trip report!

That's me, Alicia. Long-time Disney lover (I've been about 9 times). Former meteorologist, currently working as a photographer/photo editor (so be prepared for lots of pictures, y'all).

This handsome fella would be my husband, Jon. He's been to WDW twice: once with his family when he was a kid and once with me for the Princess Half Marathon last year. I am happy to report that while he was once indifferent toward WDW, he really loved it when he went with me for his second trip, and is super impressed with how Disney does their thing. It's all in the details, as you know. He was psyched for our honeymoon and now that we're back, he's hoooooked!

And we went to Disney for our honeymoon!

We were married on May 29, 2011. For several reasons we decided to take a delayed honeymoon, and we are both so glad we didn't go right after our wedding. Instead we took a mini-moon to Williamsburg (as new residents of Virginia, we wanted to see more of our state) with a stop in Richmond as well which held us over until the big trip.

But that's not why you're here, right?!

Disney-moon details:

Dates: Sept 27-Oct 6, 2011
Resort: Boardwalk Inn
Ship: Oh yes, there's also a ship. From Oct 2-6 we slept aboard the Disney Dream. This was a land and sea (or as I like to call it, a little surf and turf) honeymoon!

Wayyy back when we first got engaged (Sept 2009), our plan was to honeymoon in Bermuda. It was a short flight and would still give us the typical beachy/relaxing honeymoon vibe. But to have the length of a trip that we wanted (and a nice resort) it was going to cost quite a bit. Not that I have a problem with spending money on traveling, but before booking we tried tossing a few other ideas around.

Jon's mom was the one to bring Disney up first and we both loved the thought. Who needs a beach? Alright, Disney World it is! It's where my parents honeymooned so it's like I was going to continue the tradition. But then awhile later I came up with another idea: what if we added a Disney Cruise to our trip? I wasn't sure if Jon would like this idea but he loved it. So it was settled. We would spend the first half of our honeymoon galavanting around WDW, and the second half sailing the open seas.

 

[leeshiebean]

**First I want to note that there are a lot of pictures in here, and they're pretty large. I need to figure out how to resize them in my posts, I think. You can also see more on my flickr (see signature). Let me know if you're a fan of lots of pictures or you think it's too much and I can cut back on the other posts. I know I love to see lots of pictures, though!**

Day 1:

Let the honeymoon begin! I’ll skip over the flight part (because really, I’m afraid to fly and I’d rather not think about it any more than I have to) and get straight to the good stuff. We arrived at MCO around 9:30 am. We left our gate and showed up for the Magical Express bus - but first I changed out of my cold weather clothes and into summer clothes. I always look forward to this part; it’s like the magic begins right there at the airport. One of the things I just love about Walt Disney World is that at no other destination does your vacation start off quite the way it does there. Sitting on the Magical Express - especially once we started driving and made our way through the gates of The World - I was terribly giddy. Just like a child, sitting in my seat, staring out of the window waiting to arrive.

After a few stops we made it to the Boardwalk Resort! As we got off the bus, we were greeted by a cast member who asked if we were Jon and Alicia (why yes, we are) and led us to the check-in desk. Such personal service! Very cool. I don’t recall having anyone personally greet us like that before.
Check-in was just as it should be - quick and easy. We did online check-in so our room was ready; but first we went to the guest services desk to buy our Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party tickets.
The CM at check in warned us of two things: one was that the walk to our room would be long. And it was. We were on the third floor all the way down toward the ESPN club, so to leave the resort we had to walk down a very long hallway or go down the stairs near our room and then walk all the way around to the front of the boardwalk. I’m not super lazy about where my room is usually (I enjoy walking extra for the exercise) but it was a little annoying to do every time we wanted to run back up to the room ‘really quick’. The second thing was that our room was down a very cold hallway. I am also not the biggest fan of super cold air conditioning, but I figured it would just be a few moments of cold before we got into our more comfortable room. The hallway was freezing. Downright subarctic. As in, it was 95° outside and I was sweating my butt off, and the hallway was still uncomfortably cold. It surpassed refreshing about 20 degrees ago. Pair that with the length of the hallway, and it got to the point that we would run to get to our room (which we’d turned the a/c way down in). So those are my only two real complaints about the resort; I loved it in every other way.
Our room had a water view, facing the lagoon over the boardwalk. I think the room number was #3215 and aside from the long, cold hallway, the location was just fine! We were next to the ESPN club and above the boardwalk and had no issues with noise when the balcony door was closed.

Once we checked the room out, we ventured out to the boardwalk for lunch, and ended up at Big River Grille. There’s not much to say about lunch - the food was tasty and otherwise it was a typical brew pub (and don’t get me wrong, we’re big fans of brew pubs, it’s just that there’s not much else to say about them).

After lunch we did what I consider to be possibly the hardest thing to do while in Walt Disney World: nap. After all, we had been awake since 3:30 that morning. It’s just that there’s so much to see and do at the resort alone, so I find it hard to just stay in the room, so usually I am in the park shortly after arriving to WDW. But this time I made it a point to schedule downtime on our arriving day, and it was extremely welcomed.

But hey! It’s vacation! We can’t spend all day napping! I got up and began getting ready for my first ever MNSSHP. I’d been excited for weeks leading up to the party and had planned on heading over to the MK at 4pm (guest services told us we could get in at that point), but we ended up being so tired that we arrived closer to 7. No matter, we still got plenty of time in at the party!

I was actually on the fence about getting tickets to MNSSHP. I love halloween (it seems like I enjoy it even more as an adult than I did as a kid - I think I took it for granted back then) and had no doubt that I would enjoy the party. It’s just that at $60 per ticket, it’s a little bit expensive. It was a last minute decision about a week before our trip that we decided it was a definite go, and so I had about four days to make my halloween costume. After toying around with a bunch of ideas, I ended up as Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas. I settled on Sally because it was a simple enough costume to make, inexpensive (cost me less than $10 for all of the fabric pieces and just under $10 for the makeup), and most importantly it was going to be simple and lighweight to travel with.

If, like us, you’re on the fence because of the price: go for it. MNSSHP was such a fun and unique experience at MK and I’m so happy we went. Jon and I agreed that we would go again and he said that he’d probably dress up, too (he didn’t on this trip). And because we decided not to get a park ticket for our first day, the $60 got us into a park for a decent amount of time without having to spend the money on both tickets.

For those not familiar with MNSSHP, it’s a hard-ticketed party, meaning if you have a regular park ticket and were even in the Magic Kingdom all day, you still need a separate ticket for MNSSHP to stay in the park for the party. MNSSHP ticket holders are allowed to enter the park as early as 4pm, though the party does not begin until 7pm. Upon entering the park with your party ticket, you’ll be given a wristband that will get checked several times throughout the night (possibly). We entered right around 7 and walking down Main Street, USA, several cast members were checking for wristbands. If you don’t have one, then you’re ushered back toward the park exit. They checked wristbands before getting in line for some rides, as well.

The halloween party was a huge hit! The whole atmosphere of the park was reminiscent to the feel of the Haunted Mansion: even the ambient sounds were being piped in throughout the Magic Kingdom. Many people were dressed in costumes, and not just children. And most people who weren’t in costume at least had a halloween shirt or hat or some accessory on. I’m so glad I wore a costume! Lines for rides were short to nonexistent, so we used this evening (being our first night in the parks) to hit up all of the must-do rides just in case we didn’t get a chance to ride them later in the week. Splash mountain! Space mountain! Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! And of course, Haunted Mansion! I love Haunted Mansion on a regular night, especially during the fall, and now most of all at the halloween party. Trick or treating was also encouraged, as all guests were given a trick or treat bag when they entered the park. Big Goofy’s Candy Co lights illuminated each candy station, and yes, they had chocolate!

We skipped the first Boo to You parade in favor of more rides with less lines. I’d heard the second run of the parade would have less of a crowd, but it was still busy crowded where we were. The parade was super cute and the music was so catchy! Jon and I both sang it for the rest of the trip. Then the creme de la creme: HalloWishes. I’d heard great things about HalloWishes and it certainly lived up to -no, exceeded- my expectations. The storyline and music were excellent, as was the fireworks show. Jon and I agreed it was one of the best fireworks shows we’d seen (although the New Year’s Eve 2000-2001 show I saw was also amazing and was, go figure, also in the Magic Kingdom).

For the rest of the evening we went on some more rides and trick or treated. We caught the Villains show in front of the castle and also stumbled upon Stitch's dance club in Tomorrowland. We managed to stay until late - I think we started exiting around 11, but because I couldn't stop taking pictures, we didn't make it to the bus until 11:30-11:45.

More pictures:

(Someone's getting tired!)

 

[leeshiebean]

Day 2 HERE!

 

[leeshiebean]

Day 3 HERE!

 

[leeshiebean]

Day 4, Part 1 HERE!
Day 4, Part 2 HERE!
Day 4, Part 3 (pics only) HERE!

 

[leeshiebean]

Reserved for day 5

 

[leeshiebean]

Reserved for day 6

 

[leeshiebean]

Reserved for day 7

 

[leeshiebean]

Reserved for day 8

 

[leeshiebean]

Reserved for days 9 and 10

 

[Merida]

Yay! You're doing a trip report! More pictures is always great, I really like your fisheye ones. The Boardwalk rooms are adorable, it's probably my dream resort. Just have to get my boyfriend on board.

 

[leeshiebean]

Thanks! I don't think too many people ever read my trip reports, but I wanted to get writing it at least for my own memories. It's also forcing me to edit all of my pictures from the trip, haha.

 

[amazingact21]

I'm joining in!

Amusingly enough, my name is Alicia, and my DH and I took a delayed DCL trip (only we were on the Magic) and Disneymoon last October, as well. What are the odds...

Your photographs are gorgeous. I'm in awe over how beautiful Main Street looks in your post. Makes me wish I were back in WDW.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip report.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I love the picture of your husband on the bus watching Donald Duck on the screen. Priceless!

It looks like you really had a great first day.

 

[glennbo123]

I love your pictures! And when I saw that picture of the fireworks, I figured I might as well just throw my camera to the ground and jump up and down on it...there is no need for any other fireworks picture after that one!

But, I gotta say, I'm afraid if you put all of the pictures in this first page of the TR, it's going to take my PC forever to load it by the time you get to day 9.

 

[Merida]

Thanks! I don't think too many people ever read my trip reports, but I wanted to get writing it at least for my own memories. It's also forcing me to edit all of my pictures from the trip, haha.

Yeah, it's a nice exercise to write things down. I know I'll definitely remember more from our recent December trip compared to other trips I've taken just because I took more pictures/wrote down notes/etc. for a trip report. It's kind of awkward to get into the habit but I never look at old photos because I forget why I took them! Or never show them to other people because I never edit them or forget what they are.

I still don't think I'll ever be brave enough to try working with fisheye lenses, though! Just can't get my brain to think of images that way.

 

[BookTrout]

Great trip report and I'm looking forward to reading more.....please. And your photos are awesome!
Sharon

 

[leeshiebean]

But, I gotta say, I'm afraid if you put all of the pictures in this first page of the TR, it's going to take my PC forever to load it by the time you get to day 9.

To be honest, I hadn't even thought of that. Now I feel bad! I want to make sure people can see the pictures because that's half the fun of a TR! Perhaps I'll delete the saved posts above and post them as I write them and link from the original post.

And thanks everyone for the comments! I'll need to get day 2 up asap!

 

[Disfan3]

Awesome pics!!! Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[mousetravel]

Subbing! I LOVE your pics!!!!

I agree with the other post about the fireworks...Best one I think I've ever seen! My camera sucks at taking night time pictures!