I think I wanna marry YOU..and then immediately go to Disney! Nov. 22 PTR (Updated 10/18)

[RollTideinMD]

Hello DisFam!



Welcome to my latest PTR - honeymoon style!

WHO:
The soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. RollTideInMD

Hi, I'm Shanna. I'm a thirty-something mama to two wonderful munchkins. I'm an HR director for a growing robotics engineering company, hopefully will soon see that promotion to VP. I was born and raised in rural Alabama and now call Baltimore, Maryland home.

Mitch is the bearded handsome man in our life. He's a thirty-something Butcher and has lived in Maryland the majority of his life.

AND WE ARE GETTING MARRIED..on November 5, 2022 in Maryland.

WHEN:
November 7 - 11, 2022
November 7 - 12, 2022

WHERE:
Port Orleans - FQ
Animal Kingdom Villas Jambo House - Savanna View

We got engaged during our most recent WDW family vacation, which you can read all about in my November 2021 Trip Report.



We're currently planning a mini-honeymoon Disney style! Follow along as I plan our Disney honeymoon!
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[RollTideinMD]

This wasn't supposed to be our honeymoon
So..this is an amazing update
18 days until we say 'I Do'!​

 

[rdkeim]

Following

 

[unbrelievable]

Following along! How exciting for the two of you. ❤

 

[RollTideinMD]

This wasn't supposed to be our honeymoon.

Much like everyone else, I get post-Disney depression and it can usually be cured by booking another trip.

And that's exactly what I did on our most recent family vacation last November. We had only been engaged a few days at that point and it was the last day of our vacation. We were sitting by the pool waiting for the Tragical Express (RIP) to whisk us away and the thought of returning to reality just made me so sad..so I did what any one else of us would do..

I booked the trip.



A few weeks later, we booked our wedding venue and set a date - we'll leave for Disney the Monday following our Saturday wedding!

This trip was always definitely intended to be an adults-only trip, my children are getting too old to miss a week of school and I (fearfully) think that we're going to have to be Disney in the summer people now.

But that's neither here nor there.

This is about relaxing. Drinking. Getting dressed up and eating at the fancy restaurants that I don't want to take the kids to.

We are planning for an all-inclusive situation sometime in early 2023, but my heart sings for Disney and that's where we shall go!



We're switching things up on this trip:

1. We are staying at Port Orleans - French Quarter, a moderate resort. We are hardcore value resort folks, but wanted to splurge a little and POFQ feels like such a romantic resort.

2. We are doing Park Hoppers for the first time! We are not a park hopping family, but since this is a shorter trip (we always stay a full 7-8 days, this trip is 5 days), I decided on Park Hoppers so that we can make the best use of our time and maximize our time at the Food and Wine Festival.

I've given a lot of thought about dining options and have a list of restaurants in mind - California Grill, Le Cellier, Yachtsman, Shula's, Narcoose's, and a few others. Given the recent news of Victoria & Alberts reopening - I had a wild hair and I'm considering it.

I know, I know.

We are not fancy people and don't eat a lot of seafood or wild game, so the menus make me slightly hesitant, but, it's a once in a lifetime experience, right?

We do want to make the most of F&W Festival, so we may only plan for two sit down dinners while we are there. I'm also thinking about a dessert party at MK too, if they're available.

As far as park time and planning is considered, we are a rope drop family and that won't change on this trip. It does make things particularly easy since Mitch and I are both early risers. Despite trying to go to Disney every year or every other year, I still try to do EVERYTHING on EVERY trip and I am going to try really hard to break free from that on this trip in particular. We'll rope drop and ride our favorite rides, but I'm actively trying to not be my usual insane self who runs all over the parks trying to squeeze everything in.

We'll see how successful I am with that. Hah!

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[DLo]

Read your TR now following along on third PTR. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[MickeyMinnieMary]

My fiancé and I just booked our Disneymoon for October! We are so excited!

Following along!

 

[RollTideinMD]

So..this is an amazing update

Oh my goodness - you guys - I can't believe that I get to write this and share it with you.

We got pixie dusted - by my boss!

A couple of weeks ago, we made the unfortunate decision to cancel our honeymoon due to increasing costs with the wedding and a very insane travel baseball schedule with my son - we basically leave the state every weekend to travel for tournaments. So many financial priorities and we didn't want to go into debt for a wedding and honeymoon.

As so many of you could probably relate, it was devastating to have to make the call.

Over this past weekend, while at a baseball tournament, my boss called me and he is gifting Mitch and I our honeymoon! Oh and he got me so good - he initiated the conversation by making me think that he needed me to action something urgently and said that it had to be done and I couldn't say no.

That's right.

My boss is sending us on our honeymoon!

"Any resort you want"
"This is a special time in your life"
"We appreciate you so much"

All I could do was cry. And not just cry - but sob.

And just like that, we are back on track.

We'll be celebrating and honeymoon-ing at AKL - Jambo House with a deluxe studio, Savanna view.

I really can't put together enough words to express my gratitude and I am so wildly happy.

​

 

[SEAGULL59]

So..this is an amazing update

Oh my goodness - you guys - I can't believe that I get to write this and share it with you.

We got pixie dusted - by my boss!

A couple of weeks ago, we made the unfortunate decision to cancel our honeymoon due to increasing costs with the wedding and a very insane travel baseball schedule with my son - we basically leave the state every weekend to travel for tournaments. So many financial priorities and we didn't want to go into debt for a wedding and honeymoon.

As so many of you could probably relate, it was devastating to have to make the call.

Over this past weekend, while at a baseball tournament, my boss called me and he is gifting Mitch and I our honeymoon! Oh and he got me so good - he initiated the conversation by making me think that he needed me to action something urgently and said that it had to be done and I couldn't say no.

That's right.

My boss is sending us on our honeymoon!

"Any resort you want"
"This is a special time in your life"
"We appreciate you so much"

All I could do was cry. And not just cry - but sob.

And just like that, we are back on track.

We'll be celebrating and honeymoon-ing at AKL - Jambo House with a deluxe studio, Savanna view.

I really can't put together enough words to express my gratitude and I am so wildly happy.

​

That is incredible news!! Sounds like an awesome boss.

 

[Jess_VacayMode]

That is amazing and super exciting. Side note...this is the second PTR/TR where someones boss has gifted them a trip. I work for my best friend so I will be sending him these reports LOL.

 

[unbrelievable]

So happy for both that you've got such a generous boss who made this work! Enjoy AKL, it's a really lovely resort. I've been trying to convince everyone we need a Boma breakfast for that striped and spiked cold brew and the goat cheese eggs.

 

[MickeyMinnieMary]

Wow! How kind of your boss! That makes your honeymoon even more magical!

 

[RollTideinMD]

18 days until we say 'I Do'!

Or is it 20 days until our Disney Honeymoon?

It's both!

It feels just like yesterday that we got engaged at Magic Kingdom and I can't believe that we're 18 days from the big day! The wedding plans are coming along well enough, but let's be honest, I'm just ready to go to Disney.

This is how our honeymoon is shaping up so far:
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Monday, November 7, 2022	Land at MCO ~9:10am, park rezzie at Animal Kingdom	Dinner rezzie at California Grill for 9pm!
Tuesday, November 8, 2022	Park rezzie at Magic Kingdom	Breakfast rezzie at Boma and dinner reservations at the Yachtsman
Wednesday, November 9, 2022	Park rezzie at Epcot	No dining plans except for drinks at Oga's Cantina
Thursday, November 10, 2022	Park rezzie at Hollywood Studios	No dining plans
Friday, November 11, 2022	Park rezzie at Magic Kingdom	Dinner rezzie at Le Cellier
Saturday, November 12, 2022	Departure day	Breakfast rezzie at Ohana

We love the Food & Wine festival at Epcot and wanted to make the most of our adult time with park hoppers, so we didn't go crazy with the dining reservations and I am proud to say that I was able to secure reservations for everything that I had hoped for (though I would willingly trade Ohana breakfast for Topolino's Terrace).

California Grill, Boma, the Yachtsman, and Le Cellier are all new-to-me restaurants and I am thrilled that we are trying new restaurants - ones that we wouldn't necessarily take the kids to.

Our flight is scheduled to depart BWI at 6:35am on Monday, 11/7 and I know that we are going to be exhausted from post-wedding bliss, so it was a smart move (for us) to make AK our first park because we don't spend more than a few hours in the park on AK days. I imagine that we'll get checked in, head to AK and prioritize the safari, EE, maybe FOP (if I can snag an ILL while 40,000 feet in the air), and walk around for a couple of hours before heading back to the resort to rest, relax, and then spend time getting all gussied up for a magical dinner at California Grill. I can not think of a more romantic way to kick off our honeymoon than dinner at the 'top of the world' while watching fireworks at MK.



I budgeted in the cost of a few ILL knowing that we can't miss RotR, Remy's, and we absolutely must try GotG. I'll admit that I'm a little nervous of GotG and feeling nauseous afterwards, so I'll have to be armed with Pepto or Dramamine.

Overall, we're just so excited for this part of our life together and can not wait to spend it celebrating at the most magical place on earth.

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