Steve Mahanahan
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2010
I wasn't sure if I'd make one of these - but then again, I wasn't sure we'd be honeymooning at Disney, either.
(Sorry for no pictures - our 6-year old digital camera just clonked out on us and we're budgeting everything for the honeymoon right now. On the registry, though, so here's hoping we'll have shots from the trip.)
We met way back in 2003, when she was a photography student and I was studying economics. She'd come up to Chicago from southwest Georgia, and through some combination of charm and dumb luck (I'd been through a nasty breakup just weeks before) she left for summer totally convinced that we should move in together the next fall. So we did! We've been living together so long that most people already consider us married/say we act like an old married couple... so last year, after her brother's wedding, we decided to make it official and set a date for July 2010.
To be honest, we've been looking forward to the honeymoon almost as much - if not more - than the wedding itself. The only trips we've taken in the last seven years have been to see her family in Georgia, so we've yet to have a real vacation together. Disney, however, wasn't our first choice.
Initially, we were dead set on a trip to Hawaii. Years ago we'd always fantasize about eloping to Hawaii and having a beach wedding, so it seemed like a logical choice. But with the economy the way it is now, and the price of a Hawaiian vacation creeping up over the $6000 mark, there was no way we could justify the expense (I'm currently still in school full-time studying for my pharmacy degree, and she's a teacher at an alternative school - so it goes without saying that we're on a tight budget anyway.) Around January, we started looking for other options.
Disney started out for us as the second option - almost the ****y prize the way we talked about it. Oh, ha ha, Goofy and Donald congratulating your marriage, oh boy, a couples' drop on the Tower of Terror, what a gas! I'm also not too terribly keen on all the characters and costumes and things like that - seemed too kiddy. Neither of us really grew up on Disney (more on that later) and there wasn't any major appeal to the resort. Amazing what a little research can do...
It was her mother who first suggested Disney to us. Despite a guest list over 100 strong, they're also doing their best to save money (they're very well-known in the local community and are calling in favors left and right; the church and minister are free, so is the invitation printing, food is being done at cost from a caterer who works with Paula Deen, and so on) and she felt Orlando would be a good choice since
- It's close to the wedding (about a 7 hour drive, and I'm already driving down from Chicago since my mother doesn't fly)
- It's cheaper than Hawaii
- It's familiar, yet new. We've both been there, but not very recently, and never on our own.
I wasn't yet sold on the idea, so that weekend we went out to the bookstore and picked up one of the unofficial travel guides to research it. I hadn't found this site, or any of the other Disney sites, but I'm a bookworm, and read through that thick monster of a book that evening. It was a lot of information, but I did know one thing:
"We're going to Disney."
I guess it was a good time, too, since we made the decision right at the beginning of February - right at the 180 day mark to start making reservations! I had no idea before that guide that restaurants at Disney filled up that fast, so we picked the places that seemed most enjoyable to us and every morning at 6AM, before heading to the gym, I'd hop on and book the reservations for the next day of the trip. We ended up getting everything we wanted, but I'll talk about the reservations a little later.
I also started comparing packages on the Disney site. One thing was for sure - we wanted to stay on property, since neither of us had ever done so before. We did the virtual tours of the resorts and one thing was made adamantly clear - she did NOT, under any circumstances, want to stay at POP or any of the All-Star resorts. Her words: "I'd rather stay at Comfort Inn than any of those."
Welp. Value resorts are out. Thankfully, she really liked the Moderates, especially French Quarter. We calculated it out, and we'd be able to do 6 nights there for about $2600, including the Dining Plan. Seemed reasonable enough (and I didn't have any PINs or anything, just the stock deal on the website) so that Friday I called up Disney to book it.
Julia, the cast member on the phone, couldn't have been nicer. She guided me through the whole process and really made me feel good about booking the trip. As it happens, I just sort of offhandedly asked if there were any other deals that I might have missed...
And what she told me floored me. She mentioned that for $40 more (not per night - for the WHOLE TRIP) she could put us in Wilderness Lodge. I jumped on it, seeing as $40 more for a Deluxe resort versus a Moderate seemed too good to pass up. So I booked it. One little problem, though.
I hadn't told my fiance yet.
She wasn't set to be home from work for another few hours, so I spent all afternoon formulating the sales pitch - it was a Deluxe, boat access to Magic Kingdom, the atmosphere, only $40 extra, all of that. She seemed to fall in love with French Quarter, so I was prepared for the worst.
Thankfully, that didn't come, and I think she likes Wilderness Lodge more (we hadn't even considered it prior to booking, it being a Deluxe and all.) Most of the pre-trip planning is done, but we're always open to suggestions!
About us:
Me: 27 years old, pharmacy student. I've been to Disney twice before - once for a day when I was 5 years old, and a second time back in 1999 on a band trip. That trip was good fun - got to march in two parades and perform a concert at Epcot, as well as go backstage for a seminar and practice with some of the Disney musicians. My birthday also comes around during the trip, so I'm preparing myself for celebration overload on that day. Been working hardcore to improve myself the last year or so - I've lost over 100 pounds on a strict low-carb diet and exercise regimen, and I've moved from 'morbidly obese' to 'still chubby, but getting there' - and I hope to do more before the wedding!
Fiance: 26 years old, high school teacher. She teaches at an 'alternative' school (read: school for troublemakers) affiliated with a suburban district. She's from south Georgia, but you wouldn't know it from her accent (though it still comes back a bit if she's talking with her family!) She's also been to Disney a few times, but just on weekend trips and things like that. Terrified of roller coasters, though. I'm still trying to see what I have to bribe her with to get her on Space Mountain - Aerosmith is right out, no hope there. Suggestions?
And, thankfully, that's everyone. Did I mention this is our first vacation with just the two of us?
When we'll be there: The wedding is on July 31st, and we check in to Disney the next day, August 1st. We'll be there until that Saturday the 7th.
Resort: As mentioned above, Wilderness Lodge. They've put in a request for us to have a King bed, which is nice, but we're just grateful to be on property in a nice room. View doesn't really matter all that much, I think, but any suggestions on room location would be great!
Dining Reservations: I'm going to admit something: the thing I'm most looking forward to may just be the food. We decided on the Deluxe Dining Plan, and we've loaded up our schedule with a ton of table service meals. We'll probably have a cooler full of milk and cereal from her place, plus all the snack credits to use for filler - so we've got quite a lot of reservations at signatures. To the list!
Sunday:
Dinner: California Grill (reservation right at fireworks time!)
Monday:
Lunch: Liberty Tree (Might change this, we'll be at Magic Kingdom. Any thoughts?)
Dinner: Citricos
Tuesday:
Lunch: Coral Reef
Dinner: Le Cellier
Wednesday:
Lunch: Teppan Edo
Dinner: Artist Point
Thursday:
Breakfast: Kona Cafe
Dinner: Jiko
Friday:
Lunch: Mama Melrose's
Dinner: Brown Derby
Saturday:
Lunch: Raglan Road (maybe, if we don't leave too early)
That leaves one or two credits left for something quick or if plans change. Like I said, a LOT of eating out. I've been on this diet for nearly a year now, and the wedding will be my first 'cheat' meal. Then, as you can see, it kind of becomes a cheat week. Oh well! She's even considering ordering every creme brulee she can get and reviewing them for me.
You can probably guess from the reservations what we're doing, but here's the basic plan anyway:
Sunday: Arrive, relax at the hotel, go have dinner at Cali Grill and then head to the Magic Kingdom afterwards to do the crowded rides during Extra Magic Hours.
Monday: Finish up anything we didn't do at Magic Kingdom.
Tuesday: Day 1 at Epcot, leave early to eat at Citricos.
Wednesday: Day 2 at Epcot, once done, head back to hotel for dinner, then go out to Downtown Disney.
Thursday: Breakfast at Kona, then head to Typhoon Lagoon for the afternoon and Jiko for dinner, maybe Animal Kingdom afterwards?
Friday: Hollywood Studios all day.
Saturday: A second visit to Downtown Disney after checking out and before the drive back to Georgia.
Our plan is, I guess, leisurely but efficient. We plan on liberal use of FastPasses and bride/groom mouse ears for the busy stuff, but to take our time in between and soak up the atmosphere. Speaking of the ears - I know we're inviting attention by wearing them, but how much attention do you get? I'm not sure if I want to be pointed out and congratulated everywhere I go...
Also, another question for anyone who's done their wedding or honeymoon at Disney - did you use the Honeymoon Registry? Since we've lived together for so long, we really don't need much in the way of traditional wedding gifts or anything like that. The agents suggested the registry to us, and we've got it all set up and ready (of course, we have items registered at more 'traditional' registry places like department stores as well.) We'd prefer people to give towards the honeymoon over just giving cash at the wedding (which my family is known to do at weddings), I'm just not sure how to... guide, I guess, our guests to use the wedding registry if they want to give a gift over the other options without seeming like I'm begging or money-grubbing or anything like that. Her parents love the idea and are on board, but my mother thinks it's a bit uncouth (but registering for $500 bedsheets is fine to her!) and I'm not sure if she'll spread the word about it. Any advice?
I'm sure this is getting long-winded and if you've read this far, thanks! I'll be happy to answer questions about us, or what we're doing for the wedding, things like that. Thanks for reading! I'm glad we're able to share our honeymoon with everyone!
Sorry if it looks sorta plain compared to the other PTRs here - I guess I'm not as good with fonts and smilies as I am with huge walls of text!
(Sorry for no pictures - our 6-year old digital camera just clonked out on us and we're budgeting everything for the honeymoon right now. On the registry, though, so here's hoping we'll have shots from the trip.)
We met way back in 2003, when she was a photography student and I was studying economics. She'd come up to Chicago from southwest Georgia, and through some combination of charm and dumb luck (I'd been through a nasty breakup just weeks before) she left for summer totally convinced that we should move in together the next fall. So we did! We've been living together so long that most people already consider us married/say we act like an old married couple... so last year, after her brother's wedding, we decided to make it official and set a date for July 2010.
To be honest, we've been looking forward to the honeymoon almost as much - if not more - than the wedding itself. The only trips we've taken in the last seven years have been to see her family in Georgia, so we've yet to have a real vacation together. Disney, however, wasn't our first choice.
Initially, we were dead set on a trip to Hawaii. Years ago we'd always fantasize about eloping to Hawaii and having a beach wedding, so it seemed like a logical choice. But with the economy the way it is now, and the price of a Hawaiian vacation creeping up over the $6000 mark, there was no way we could justify the expense (I'm currently still in school full-time studying for my pharmacy degree, and she's a teacher at an alternative school - so it goes without saying that we're on a tight budget anyway.) Around January, we started looking for other options.
Disney started out for us as the second option - almost the ****y prize the way we talked about it. Oh, ha ha, Goofy and Donald congratulating your marriage, oh boy, a couples' drop on the Tower of Terror, what a gas! I'm also not too terribly keen on all the characters and costumes and things like that - seemed too kiddy. Neither of us really grew up on Disney (more on that later) and there wasn't any major appeal to the resort. Amazing what a little research can do...
It was her mother who first suggested Disney to us. Despite a guest list over 100 strong, they're also doing their best to save money (they're very well-known in the local community and are calling in favors left and right; the church and minister are free, so is the invitation printing, food is being done at cost from a caterer who works with Paula Deen, and so on) and she felt Orlando would be a good choice since
- It's close to the wedding (about a 7 hour drive, and I'm already driving down from Chicago since my mother doesn't fly)
- It's cheaper than Hawaii
- It's familiar, yet new. We've both been there, but not very recently, and never on our own.
I wasn't yet sold on the idea, so that weekend we went out to the bookstore and picked up one of the unofficial travel guides to research it. I hadn't found this site, or any of the other Disney sites, but I'm a bookworm, and read through that thick monster of a book that evening. It was a lot of information, but I did know one thing:
"We're going to Disney."
I guess it was a good time, too, since we made the decision right at the beginning of February - right at the 180 day mark to start making reservations! I had no idea before that guide that restaurants at Disney filled up that fast, so we picked the places that seemed most enjoyable to us and every morning at 6AM, before heading to the gym, I'd hop on and book the reservations for the next day of the trip. We ended up getting everything we wanted, but I'll talk about the reservations a little later.
I also started comparing packages on the Disney site. One thing was for sure - we wanted to stay on property, since neither of us had ever done so before. We did the virtual tours of the resorts and one thing was made adamantly clear - she did NOT, under any circumstances, want to stay at POP or any of the All-Star resorts. Her words: "I'd rather stay at Comfort Inn than any of those."
Welp. Value resorts are out. Thankfully, she really liked the Moderates, especially French Quarter. We calculated it out, and we'd be able to do 6 nights there for about $2600, including the Dining Plan. Seemed reasonable enough (and I didn't have any PINs or anything, just the stock deal on the website) so that Friday I called up Disney to book it.
Julia, the cast member on the phone, couldn't have been nicer. She guided me through the whole process and really made me feel good about booking the trip. As it happens, I just sort of offhandedly asked if there were any other deals that I might have missed...
And what she told me floored me. She mentioned that for $40 more (not per night - for the WHOLE TRIP) she could put us in Wilderness Lodge. I jumped on it, seeing as $40 more for a Deluxe resort versus a Moderate seemed too good to pass up. So I booked it. One little problem, though.
I hadn't told my fiance yet.
She wasn't set to be home from work for another few hours, so I spent all afternoon formulating the sales pitch - it was a Deluxe, boat access to Magic Kingdom, the atmosphere, only $40 extra, all of that. She seemed to fall in love with French Quarter, so I was prepared for the worst.
Thankfully, that didn't come, and I think she likes Wilderness Lodge more (we hadn't even considered it prior to booking, it being a Deluxe and all.) Most of the pre-trip planning is done, but we're always open to suggestions!
About us:
Me: 27 years old, pharmacy student. I've been to Disney twice before - once for a day when I was 5 years old, and a second time back in 1999 on a band trip. That trip was good fun - got to march in two parades and perform a concert at Epcot, as well as go backstage for a seminar and practice with some of the Disney musicians. My birthday also comes around during the trip, so I'm preparing myself for celebration overload on that day. Been working hardcore to improve myself the last year or so - I've lost over 100 pounds on a strict low-carb diet and exercise regimen, and I've moved from 'morbidly obese' to 'still chubby, but getting there' - and I hope to do more before the wedding!
Fiance: 26 years old, high school teacher. She teaches at an 'alternative' school (read: school for troublemakers) affiliated with a suburban district. She's from south Georgia, but you wouldn't know it from her accent (though it still comes back a bit if she's talking with her family!) She's also been to Disney a few times, but just on weekend trips and things like that. Terrified of roller coasters, though. I'm still trying to see what I have to bribe her with to get her on Space Mountain - Aerosmith is right out, no hope there. Suggestions?
And, thankfully, that's everyone. Did I mention this is our first vacation with just the two of us?
When we'll be there: The wedding is on July 31st, and we check in to Disney the next day, August 1st. We'll be there until that Saturday the 7th.
Resort: As mentioned above, Wilderness Lodge. They've put in a request for us to have a King bed, which is nice, but we're just grateful to be on property in a nice room. View doesn't really matter all that much, I think, but any suggestions on room location would be great!
Dining Reservations: I'm going to admit something: the thing I'm most looking forward to may just be the food. We decided on the Deluxe Dining Plan, and we've loaded up our schedule with a ton of table service meals. We'll probably have a cooler full of milk and cereal from her place, plus all the snack credits to use for filler - so we've got quite a lot of reservations at signatures. To the list!
Sunday:
Dinner: California Grill (reservation right at fireworks time!)
Monday:
Lunch: Liberty Tree (Might change this, we'll be at Magic Kingdom. Any thoughts?)
Dinner: Citricos
Tuesday:
Lunch: Coral Reef
Dinner: Le Cellier
Wednesday:
Lunch: Teppan Edo
Dinner: Artist Point
Thursday:
Breakfast: Kona Cafe
Dinner: Jiko
Friday:
Lunch: Mama Melrose's
Dinner: Brown Derby
Saturday:
Lunch: Raglan Road (maybe, if we don't leave too early)
That leaves one or two credits left for something quick or if plans change. Like I said, a LOT of eating out. I've been on this diet for nearly a year now, and the wedding will be my first 'cheat' meal. Then, as you can see, it kind of becomes a cheat week. Oh well! She's even considering ordering every creme brulee she can get and reviewing them for me.
You can probably guess from the reservations what we're doing, but here's the basic plan anyway:
Sunday: Arrive, relax at the hotel, go have dinner at Cali Grill and then head to the Magic Kingdom afterwards to do the crowded rides during Extra Magic Hours.
Monday: Finish up anything we didn't do at Magic Kingdom.
Tuesday: Day 1 at Epcot, leave early to eat at Citricos.
Wednesday: Day 2 at Epcot, once done, head back to hotel for dinner, then go out to Downtown Disney.
Thursday: Breakfast at Kona, then head to Typhoon Lagoon for the afternoon and Jiko for dinner, maybe Animal Kingdom afterwards?
Friday: Hollywood Studios all day.
Saturday: A second visit to Downtown Disney after checking out and before the drive back to Georgia.
Our plan is, I guess, leisurely but efficient. We plan on liberal use of FastPasses and bride/groom mouse ears for the busy stuff, but to take our time in between and soak up the atmosphere. Speaking of the ears - I know we're inviting attention by wearing them, but how much attention do you get? I'm not sure if I want to be pointed out and congratulated everywhere I go...
Also, another question for anyone who's done their wedding or honeymoon at Disney - did you use the Honeymoon Registry? Since we've lived together for so long, we really don't need much in the way of traditional wedding gifts or anything like that. The agents suggested the registry to us, and we've got it all set up and ready (of course, we have items registered at more 'traditional' registry places like department stores as well.) We'd prefer people to give towards the honeymoon over just giving cash at the wedding (which my family is known to do at weddings), I'm just not sure how to... guide, I guess, our guests to use the wedding registry if they want to give a gift over the other options without seeming like I'm begging or money-grubbing or anything like that. Her parents love the idea and are on board, but my mother thinks it's a bit uncouth (but registering for $500 bedsheets is fine to her!) and I'm not sure if she'll spread the word about it. Any advice?
I'm sure this is getting long-winded and if you've read this far, thanks! I'll be happy to answer questions about us, or what we're doing for the wedding, things like that. Thanks for reading! I'm glad we're able to share our honeymoon with everyone!
Sorry if it looks sorta plain compared to the other PTRs here - I guess I'm not as good with fonts and smilies as I am with huge walls of text!
