October Honeymoon Pre-Trip Report
Party Members:
Guinness – Me, husband to be, 32, fourth trip to Walt Disney World
Valkyrie – She, wife to be, 26, second trip to Walt Disney World
Trip dates:
October 15 – wedding
October 16-20 – Disney Cruise Line (DCL)
October 20-25 – Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL)
October 25-30 – Grand Floridian Resort and Spa (GF)
General trip parameters:
We are in a category six stateroom for the cruise.
Our room at the AKL is standard view, and we will be on the premium plan for this portion of the land vacation.
Our room at the GF is garden view, and we will be on the Magic your way plus Dining plan for this portion of the trip. We also have the park hopper and the plus pack for the second part of the trip.
This will be our first trip together to WDW, as well as being our honeymoon. I wanted everything to be special so I pulled out most of the stops for a pretty extravagant trip. There are a couple of notable exceptions, but we can’t have it all all of the time.
Neither of us have been on a cruise of any kind before, so we are really excited about this one. It looks like it will be a good time. We got a stateroom with a veranda partly for the romance of it, and partly because she has a tendency towards motion sickness, and thinks the access to fresh air will do her good.
We transfer to the AKL and get on the premium plan. The main thing about this plan is that breakfast, lunch, and dinner are included for everyday of the plan. There are also other benefits like recreations and such. I have never done a plan like this before, and the general consensus is that it is difficult to recoup all of the money for the cost of the plan, but we wanted to be free of thinking about money, for one thing, and we plan to eat well and take advantage of some recreation.
If we don’t like the premium plan, we will be happier with the second part of the trip when we transfer to GF. The dining plan allows for just food in the quantities of one sit down meal, one counter service meal, and one snack a day. For this portion we chose this plan because we thought we could get the most out of the recreation of the other plan in just half the time, also we could save some money by not going premium, and we planned to eat at Victoria and Albert’s and the Food and Wine Festival booths, neither of which are included on either plan.
I am an over-planner but not a commando, that is I like to plan things out, but in a general kind of way. I don’t plan to see things in a particular order or anything as specific as that, rather I plan for events and let whatever happens between them happen. That being said, on to the daily plan.
October 15th, Wedding day and departure (Sat):
Our wedding takes place at 4:30 in the evening and we will be leaving for the airport from the reception at around 8:30 or so.
Our flight leaves Sacramento at around 11pm and arrives after transferring in Orlando at about 8:30am on Sunday. I like the red eye anyway as I believe it maximizes your stay, and it just made sense for this trip.
October 16th, Day one, Cast off on the Disney Wonder (Sun):
We will catch the Disney Cruise Line bus for Port Canaveral. We board sometime around noon.
The cruise ship has three main restaurants and we all rotate through them. This means that on a four-day cruise like this one you will eat at the same place on the first and last night. Taking advantage of this, I have booked Palo for the first night of the cruise, so I wont miss out on any of the other places at all. Palo is the adults only eatery that requires a separate reservation. I was able to get this online before they ran out.
October 17th, Day two, Nassau (Mon):
October 18th, Day three, Castaway Cay (Tues):
October 19th, Day four, Day at sea (Wed):
I was lucky and quick enough to secure a seating for the Palo brunch during our day at sea. There is a small surcharge for dining at Palo, but it isn’t too steep at ten dollars per person.
October 20th, Day five, Docking and transfer to the AKL (Thurs):
Disembark by 9:00am and get on the transfer to the AKL.
We will probably have a quick lunch at Mara if we are hungry after check in.
7:30pm dinner California Grill
October 21st, Day six, My Birthday, Premium Plan AKL (Fri):
7:30 am Breakfast – Boma
8:30 am Backstage Safari tour
12:00 pm Lunch – Tusker House
4:00 pm Parasailing
8:00 pm Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show
October 22nd, Day seven, Premium Plan AKL (Sat):
7:30 am Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour
1:00 pm Lunch – Brown Derby
6:30 pm Dinner – Portobello Yacht Club
9:00 pm Cirque du Soliel
11:00 pm Pleasure Island
October 23rd, Day eight, Premium Plan AKL (Sun):
12:30 pm Lunch – Coral Reef
7:15pm Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review
October 24th, Day nine, Premium Plan AKL (Mon):
7:30 am Breakfast – Boma
9:00 am Undiscovered Future World
1:45pm Lunch – Marrakech
7:30 pm Dinner – Jiko
October 25th, Day ten, Transfer to GF (Tues):
7:30 am Breakfast – Boma
8:30 am Hidden Treasures of World Showcase
1:50 pm Lunch – Le Cellier
8:10 pm Dinner – Narcoosee’s
October 26th, Day eleven, Dining Plan GF (Wed):
12:30 pm Lunch – Food and Wine Festival
8:00 pm Dinner – Rose and Crown
October 27th, Day twelve, Dining Plan GF (Thurs):
12:05 pm Lunch – Cinderella’s Royal Table
5:30 pm Dinner – ‘Ohana
7:30 pm Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
October 28th, Day thirteen, Dining Plan GF (Fri):
6:30 pm Dinner – Victoria and Albert’s
9:00 pm Pleasure Island
October 29th, Day fourteen, Dining Plan GF (Sat):
12:30 pm Lunch – Food and Wine Festival
7:20 Dinner – Citrico’s
October 30th, Final day and return trip (Sun):