Laurafoster
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2005
I have to work today and the office is empty - so im finally getting a chance to write my TR!
The Wedding went so much better than expected! It was totally perfect and Disney did a great job! The whole day was magical and everyone is still talking about it.
A couple of things im really glad i did:
Choose the Yacht Club Gazebo - The Wedding pavillion is really stunning but it just wasnt us - we only had a small group and wanted something more intimate and meaningful to us. We stayed at the YC on our first trip together so the place held special meaning to us.
Had Mickey and Minnie at the Reception - Ok so they were really expensive but they went down really well. It was such a suprise to everyone and they were really worth the money.
Anyway on to the Trip Report!
November 29th, 2006:
We were not flying out to Orlando until the next day but a 9 hour flight is long enough without adding a 3 hour drive to the airport at 6am! So we decided to book into the London Gatwick Hilton as its only a 5 min walk to the airport! Gives me that extra few hours sleep!
The Cast
Me - Laura - The Bride
My DH Gary - The Groom
My Parents Alison and Ian
My Grandparents Joan and Alec
My Aunt, Uncle and Cousins Christine, Stuart and Andrew and Robbie.
We left for the airport at around 3pm and as there was no traffic we were at the airport by around 5pm. We got checked in for the flight smoothly. I was concerned about all the extra security as i was taking my dress on as hand luggage and it was slightly over the allowed size. It was fine though, they said it wasnt a problem.
We then headed off to the hotel to get checked in there. When we got to check in they asked if we were going away anywhere special and we said we were off to Florida to get married the Lady behind the desk got all excited and upgraded us to an executive room. The room was fab, really big and had a huge bathroom. We headed out to get something for dinner the bar in the hotel was so expensive 1 glass of wine was £8.75 so we jumped in a taxi and went to a restaurant instead. We still had a long day ahead of us so we went back to the room to get a good nights sleep with the wedding dress safely in my view!
November 30th, 2006:
Even though the flight was not until 11:15am we were advised that we had to be in the airport no later than 9am because of the increased security. So we got up around 7am and had a nice breakfast in the hotel because we had been upgraded this was all free so Gary was happy! We headed over to the Airport and met everyone else as they had stayed at a different hotel. We headed over and were relieved to find there were no delays on the flight!
We decided to head straight through into the departures and do some duty free shopping, as I needed to buy a new battery for the video camera. After we had done that we sat down and had a drink around the bar my mum and nan are terrified of flying so they had a large drink LOL! By this time our flight had started boarding so we headed down to the boarding area, we waited a while as I hate to be the first on when I have to be on there for so long. When we got on the plane one of the cabin crew noticed my dress and made sure that the over head compartment over my seat was empty so that my dress could go in there. She was really excited and was asking loads of questions, she said she had gotten married at Disney a year ago too.
The flight ended up taking off 30 mins late which wasnt too bad of a delay. About an hour in to the flight they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that we were going to get married in Disney and brought us over some champagne and truffles which was really nice. They also brought over a big box aswell, when we opened it it was a magnum bottle of champagne, when we looked at the bottle it was a special Moet and Chandon bottle covered in swarovski crystals it was a gift from my parents to enjoy after the wedding.
The rest of the flight went relatively smoothly and we even managed to make up a bit of our delay and landed 15mins early at 3:30pm Florida time.
We collected our luggage and headed off to the Yacht Club.
I have to say that I have never stayed in the YC before and I was really looking forward to staying here, but I was really disappointed in most things at the hotel. When we checked in it was around 5:30, we gave her our room reservation numbers, all the rooms are booked under Foster/Flower Wedding and ours had a note on it saying Bridal Party. I asked if our room request had been met (id requested a room away from my parents room as their room would be used for the men to get ready in and our room for me to get ready in). Her reply was how should I know and walked off into the back room. I thought it was kind of rude and not exactly what i am used to in Disney but i didnt say anything.
We headed up to the rooms and I was disappointed to find out that our rooms were next door to each other I phoned down to the front desk to explain the situation and see if there was any way we could get moved and I was told the hotel was full. I had other family checking into the hotel the next day and I asked if there was a possibility of having their room instead and was told that that was not an option. I wasnt wanting to argue so i just left it. We were all worn out from the flight by this point so Gary and my dad went over to the boardwalk to pick up some pizzas and we sat out on the balcony and ate that. As most of my family had never been to Disney before we were heading over to MK bright and early tomorrow for park opening - we wanted the kids to see the characters open the park.
December 1st, 2006:
We had booked breakfast at the Crystal Palace for 14 of us at 9:20 so we arranged to meet everyone just inside the turnstiles at 8:45. We had a bit of spare time so we thought we would double check on the reservations for the rest of the week. A good thing we did because WDW Dining had cancelled a bunch of them for some reason so we had to spend 20 minutes trying to sort those out. We met my parents who had been waiting for us in the lobby and as we walked outside we saw the MK bus leaving typical!! So we decided that we would rather pay for a taxi than be late to meet everyone. We got to MK right on time! We met everyone in the right place and waited for the opening show we were disappointed in this as usually when the train comes there are characters on the train but because the parade was being taped that day there was nothing so we were a bit disappointed in that the kids still loved it because they didnt know any different. We decided to head straight to the Crystal Palace to get checked in. The kids saw tigger through one of the windows and started getting really excited.
We had 4 kids with us for the meal My Cousins Andrew whos 9, Robbies who is 3, and the kids of a friend of the Family Charlotte who is 10 and Jack who is 7. It was quite funny as they all had completely different reactions to the characters coming over to them. Charlotte loved them but she is really shy normally so she was a bit quiet to start with! Jack was really excited and got out the autograph book I had given him. Robbie was just completely awestruck it was so sweet. And Andrew who was pretending he was to cool for the characters but asked his Dad to get the autographs for him anyway! Everyone really enjoyed the meal not so much for the food but more as it was their first real taste of Disney!
After breakfast we headed out and everyone took some pictures around the castle. We then headed off around the park towards Adventureland first. We did the Jungle Cruise first and as we got to the front of the queue the cast member saw our pins and asked when we were getting married. They then asked Gary what year it was, he innocently said 2006 and they laughed and said no its the year of a million dreams and everyone in the party got a free beanie hat with the silver ears! Everyone was really pleased with them and we got some pictures of people wearing them.
We spend the rest of the day making our way around the park, my grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins headed off at about 2 as the kids were still really tired from the flight and Robbie was not feeling well (The kids are really fussy eaters so they were finding it hard).
The rest of us stayed and did some more rides and watched the parade! I quite enjoyed this parade, I much prefer it to the one before with the snowglobes. We left at about 4pm and headed back to the hotel to rest a little before going out in the evening.
That evening we headed over to Crossroads just outside of Downtown Disney and ate at the TGI Fridays there. We played the Pirates Cove adventure golf too which was good fun even though I lost! Im terrible at things like that! I start off well then if I take a bad shot I loose my patience and end up making worse shots! We then headed over the Supermarket to pick up some beers and snacks etc for when the guys get ready in the Hotel room. After that we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel.
The Wedding went so much better than expected! It was totally perfect and Disney did a great job! The whole day was magical and everyone is still talking about it.
A couple of things im really glad i did:
Choose the Yacht Club Gazebo - The Wedding pavillion is really stunning but it just wasnt us - we only had a small group and wanted something more intimate and meaningful to us. We stayed at the YC on our first trip together so the place held special meaning to us.
Had Mickey and Minnie at the Reception - Ok so they were really expensive but they went down really well. It was such a suprise to everyone and they were really worth the money.
Anyway on to the Trip Report!
November 29th, 2006:
We were not flying out to Orlando until the next day but a 9 hour flight is long enough without adding a 3 hour drive to the airport at 6am! So we decided to book into the London Gatwick Hilton as its only a 5 min walk to the airport! Gives me that extra few hours sleep!
The Cast
Me - Laura - The Bride
My DH Gary - The Groom
My Parents Alison and Ian
My Grandparents Joan and Alec
My Aunt, Uncle and Cousins Christine, Stuart and Andrew and Robbie.
We left for the airport at around 3pm and as there was no traffic we were at the airport by around 5pm. We got checked in for the flight smoothly. I was concerned about all the extra security as i was taking my dress on as hand luggage and it was slightly over the allowed size. It was fine though, they said it wasnt a problem.
We then headed off to the hotel to get checked in there. When we got to check in they asked if we were going away anywhere special and we said we were off to Florida to get married the Lady behind the desk got all excited and upgraded us to an executive room. The room was fab, really big and had a huge bathroom. We headed out to get something for dinner the bar in the hotel was so expensive 1 glass of wine was £8.75 so we jumped in a taxi and went to a restaurant instead. We still had a long day ahead of us so we went back to the room to get a good nights sleep with the wedding dress safely in my view!
November 30th, 2006:
Even though the flight was not until 11:15am we were advised that we had to be in the airport no later than 9am because of the increased security. So we got up around 7am and had a nice breakfast in the hotel because we had been upgraded this was all free so Gary was happy! We headed over to the Airport and met everyone else as they had stayed at a different hotel. We headed over and were relieved to find there were no delays on the flight!
We decided to head straight through into the departures and do some duty free shopping, as I needed to buy a new battery for the video camera. After we had done that we sat down and had a drink around the bar my mum and nan are terrified of flying so they had a large drink LOL! By this time our flight had started boarding so we headed down to the boarding area, we waited a while as I hate to be the first on when I have to be on there for so long. When we got on the plane one of the cabin crew noticed my dress and made sure that the over head compartment over my seat was empty so that my dress could go in there. She was really excited and was asking loads of questions, she said she had gotten married at Disney a year ago too.
The flight ended up taking off 30 mins late which wasnt too bad of a delay. About an hour in to the flight they made an announcement over the loudspeaker that we were going to get married in Disney and brought us over some champagne and truffles which was really nice. They also brought over a big box aswell, when we opened it it was a magnum bottle of champagne, when we looked at the bottle it was a special Moet and Chandon bottle covered in swarovski crystals it was a gift from my parents to enjoy after the wedding.
The rest of the flight went relatively smoothly and we even managed to make up a bit of our delay and landed 15mins early at 3:30pm Florida time.
We collected our luggage and headed off to the Yacht Club.
I have to say that I have never stayed in the YC before and I was really looking forward to staying here, but I was really disappointed in most things at the hotel. When we checked in it was around 5:30, we gave her our room reservation numbers, all the rooms are booked under Foster/Flower Wedding and ours had a note on it saying Bridal Party. I asked if our room request had been met (id requested a room away from my parents room as their room would be used for the men to get ready in and our room for me to get ready in). Her reply was how should I know and walked off into the back room. I thought it was kind of rude and not exactly what i am used to in Disney but i didnt say anything.
We headed up to the rooms and I was disappointed to find out that our rooms were next door to each other I phoned down to the front desk to explain the situation and see if there was any way we could get moved and I was told the hotel was full. I had other family checking into the hotel the next day and I asked if there was a possibility of having their room instead and was told that that was not an option. I wasnt wanting to argue so i just left it. We were all worn out from the flight by this point so Gary and my dad went over to the boardwalk to pick up some pizzas and we sat out on the balcony and ate that. As most of my family had never been to Disney before we were heading over to MK bright and early tomorrow for park opening - we wanted the kids to see the characters open the park.
December 1st, 2006:
We had booked breakfast at the Crystal Palace for 14 of us at 9:20 so we arranged to meet everyone just inside the turnstiles at 8:45. We had a bit of spare time so we thought we would double check on the reservations for the rest of the week. A good thing we did because WDW Dining had cancelled a bunch of them for some reason so we had to spend 20 minutes trying to sort those out. We met my parents who had been waiting for us in the lobby and as we walked outside we saw the MK bus leaving typical!! So we decided that we would rather pay for a taxi than be late to meet everyone. We got to MK right on time! We met everyone in the right place and waited for the opening show we were disappointed in this as usually when the train comes there are characters on the train but because the parade was being taped that day there was nothing so we were a bit disappointed in that the kids still loved it because they didnt know any different. We decided to head straight to the Crystal Palace to get checked in. The kids saw tigger through one of the windows and started getting really excited.
We had 4 kids with us for the meal My Cousins Andrew whos 9, Robbies who is 3, and the kids of a friend of the Family Charlotte who is 10 and Jack who is 7. It was quite funny as they all had completely different reactions to the characters coming over to them. Charlotte loved them but she is really shy normally so she was a bit quiet to start with! Jack was really excited and got out the autograph book I had given him. Robbie was just completely awestruck it was so sweet. And Andrew who was pretending he was to cool for the characters but asked his Dad to get the autographs for him anyway! Everyone really enjoyed the meal not so much for the food but more as it was their first real taste of Disney!
After breakfast we headed out and everyone took some pictures around the castle. We then headed off around the park towards Adventureland first. We did the Jungle Cruise first and as we got to the front of the queue the cast member saw our pins and asked when we were getting married. They then asked Gary what year it was, he innocently said 2006 and they laughed and said no its the year of a million dreams and everyone in the party got a free beanie hat with the silver ears! Everyone was really pleased with them and we got some pictures of people wearing them.
We spend the rest of the day making our way around the park, my grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and Cousins headed off at about 2 as the kids were still really tired from the flight and Robbie was not feeling well (The kids are really fussy eaters so they were finding it hard).
The rest of us stayed and did some more rides and watched the parade! I quite enjoyed this parade, I much prefer it to the one before with the snowglobes. We left at about 4pm and headed back to the hotel to rest a little before going out in the evening.
That evening we headed over to Crossroads just outside of Downtown Disney and ate at the TGI Fridays there. We played the Pirates Cove adventure golf too which was good fun even though I lost! Im terrible at things like that! I start off well then if I take a bad shot I loose my patience and end up making worse shots! We then headed over the Supermarket to pick up some beers and snacks etc for when the guys get ready in the Hotel room. After that we jumped in a taxi back to the hotel.