Day 1 - Thursday, May 17, 2012
Part 1
Thursday, two days before wedding day, was the day we were leaving for the Disneyland Resort! I slept okay but I was up late packing (I'm a last minute, throw-it-all-in-there-and-sort-it-out-later packer) so I only got a few hours. I set my alarm for 8:00am because I had a 9:00 hair appointment at Dry Bar to give my hair a little style for our engagement pics later. But the day started on a negative note with a text from DH's parents and sister that their flight was cancelled and they were put on a later flight out of a different airport and instead of arriving around 2pm, they would be arriving around 8pm. I felt so bad for them.
My parents arranged to stop by our apartment with their van on their way to DLR at 10:00 so they could help transport our crap. They were right on time and between the four of us we were able to Tetris everything into their van, which was a major help! I had a bit of a bridezilla moment because I was trying to take inventory of what was going with my parents and what was staying with us, but the guys were taking stuff and packing it in faster than I could write! Turns out this would be the first of many bridezilla moments that day.
Also, by the time we were done packing up my hair had completely fallen and all the curls were gone, so that was a major waste of time and money. (I was rushing around so much on Thursday that I didn't think to even take any pictures of my hair while it still looked good. In fact, I barely have any pictures from this day.)
My goal was to be on the road by 11am but we were running a bit late. After we packed up my parent's van, we had to pack up my car, say our goodbyes to Walter, stop by the grocery store and fill up the gas tank. We were finally on our way to Disneyland at around 12:15.
We had a quick and uneventful trip to Disney. It took us about an hour. We parked the car in self parking and met up with my parents in the lobby. Everyone was starving so we went to Tangaroa Terrace for a quick lunch. My goal was to get our Welcome Bags delivered by 3pm in time for check-in.
After our quick lunch (DH and I split the chicken sandwich, which is SO GOOD), we all went back to the lobby for last minute Welcome Bag items. I wanted to get park maps and schedules and I thought I may have to go all the way to the park gates, but I thought to ask at Guest Services at the hotel and they gave me what I needed! (YAY Guest Services!) Then we checked out the little gift shop and I decided to get lollipops for each bag, which were a hit with at least one of our guests:
After gathering all the items, I moved my car next to my parents van (they had the boxes with the Welcome Bags) and everyone helped assembly line style to add our new items to the bags (thanks mom and dad!!). Then Tim organized all the bags so one box had all the bags for the Disney hotels, and one box had all the off-property bags. Then we loaded the boxes in my car and DH and I set off to deliver all the bags.
Delivering to the off-property hotels was relatively uneventful. Some hotels were confused as to what we were doing (which I thought was weird - surely there are a ton of weddings in that area so this can't be THAT odd???) but some hotels were very helpful. Our only snag was trying to get to the convention center hotels since that area is under some major construction. We delivered our last off-property bag at exactly 3pm - woohoo! We swung by Paradise Pier Hotel and dropped off those two bags, which took a little bit of work but finally Bell Services took them. I dropped DH off at DLH lobby and he took all the DLH Welcome Bags to take to Bell Services while I parked the car.
At some point during our delivery, I got a text from The Roots asking we could move our shoot from 5:00 to 6:00. DH was a little annoyed since he wanted to make sure we were back to watch Community at 8:00 but the delay ended up being a good thing.
After parking, I went back towards the lobby and saw my parents unloading their van with a bellhop. I saw my dress and grabbed it, along with a Rubbermaid bin that I knew contained my shoes, veil, tiara, jewelry, rings, and marriage license, so I decided I would rather keep those things with me. Then I made my way to the lobby and here's where the day started doing downhill. I found DH in the lobby with all the Welcome Bags still, and he said DLH simply wouldn't take them. He checked with Guest Services and Bell Services. We had about 10 bags and they were heavy so I knew we had to get rid of them. So I said I'd get in line for check-in and as we were checking in, I would ask about the bags. There was no wait to check in so I gave the CM our info and we were told to wait off to the side. Then a CM, Tracy, came up to us and said to come with her. I told her okay but we have the issue of the Welcome Bags. After explaining our situation, she had us follow her to Bell Services, where they told us they could take them for $3.50 each. I was getting annoyed but asked DH what he wanted to do since he was the one who was carrying them. He was in no mood to pay and said he'll carry them to the room and we can just deliver them ourselves. Whatever!
So then Tracy said she was taking us to our room. This was really interesting to me because I've never been escorted to our room before and I assumed we were getting some kind of VIP treatment. Our coordinator Traci knew I would have loved a suite upgrade but she warned me that it's really difficult to do for a stay as long as ours (seven nights) so I assumed we wouldn't get it, but when we got this CM escort, I got my hopes up that maybe we were getting upgraded!!! Then she led us to the Adventure Tower (I had requested Frontier Tower since that is my favorite tower) and I got bummed for a second BUT THEN I thought, ohmygosh, we were upgraded to a Signature Suite!!! But that was dashed when Tracy pressed "8" in the elevator and I knew at that point we were going to a regular room.
Here's where I start sounding like a brat. My idea in my head was I was going to ask how much it cost to get a suite if we weren't upgraded. I was also interested in a balcony room in the Frontier Tower if we couldn't get a suite. But mostly I really wanted the Frontier Tower because I like how secluded it feels (and also our parents were all staying in the Fantasy Tower which is the farthest away, heh).
When we got to our room, it was upgraded to a pool view, which was nice. But I told Tracy I didn't realize what was happening and I wanted to talk to someone about paying for a suite upgrade or requesting a balcony room (I made a point to make sure I said "PAYING for a suite" so everyone didn't think I was expecting anything for free). She said she needed to check me in to this room first and then she'd call and talk to our coordinator Traci about the suite and also the Welcome Bags and see if they could take them for free. Tracy said she would call me on the room phone after researching availability for my room requests. I asked how long it would take because we had a photo shoot to get to, and she said it wouldn't be long. So DH and I were stuck in this room without our luggage, we couldn't settle in because we weren't sure if we were moving, and on top of all of that, DH was dealing with one of our videography friendors who said he may have to bail on our wedding because he got hired for a gig that paid $25,000 for one day of work. We obviously couldn't tell him to NOT take that job but DH was upset his friend was putting us in that position. Between quick phone calls and texts we knew that the gig might be Friday or Saturday and our friend was trying to push for Friday, but he also said he would find a replacement for him for our wedding day if he needed to bail. DH was really stressed about it, but I wasn't, I kept thinking about how I'm not going to have time to get ready for our photo shoot and we may have to cancel.
It felt like an eternity but after about 30 minutes Tracy called back. The details are a little fuzzy for this but I believed she said she talked to Traci and they were able to upgrade our free night to a suite but not the other nights. Now I started to feel anxious because I didnt want Traci thinking I was acting like a brat about the suite upgrade. I told Tracy that was fine and we were interested in paying for an upgrade. She said the upgrade for 7 nights minus the free night would be around $2000 but she had to double check availability and find out an exact total. I also asked her about non-suite balcony rooms and she said she would check and call me back. Ugh.
So I got off the phone and was talking to DH about the extra $2000. We both knew it was a lot but DH was not interested in paying it, at all. So I knew if I really wanted it I would have to pay from whatever might be left over from the wedding budget plus from my savings. We had the ipad with us so I pulled up my bank account and tried to do some quick math and the bottom line was I had to dip into my savings. DH and I went back and forth some more and he said he didnt care either way. After about another 20 minutes Tracy called back and gave me a final figure for the suite upgrade, and in actuality it would be around $2800 more!!! And she said there were no non-suite balcony rooms available. I asked her if I could discuss with DH and call her back in 5 minutes. She said sure and gave me her extension. I got off the phone and told DH the new price, and then burst into tears. I had just convinced myself the $2000 was justifiable somehow but now it was another $800! And DH didnt want to make a decision and we had a photo shoot in an hour and a half that I wasnt prepared for and the videography stuff I had just had enough at that point and broke down. DH came over and got me some tissue and put his arm around me and said he was sorry this was all happening. I told him I wasnt crying over the suite, I was just exhausted, we had a long day and I was tired of making decisions. I was so annoyed that all of this back-and-forth could have been handled in 15 minutes at the front desk but instead it was taking almost 2 hours due to our special treatment. I was ready to pay the $2000 but now it is $2800 and is it worth it? I wanted our wedding trip to be special. I wanted to have a large place where we could have everyone visit and relax, and to store all our stuff and not worry about tripping over it or each other. I told him I felt like bridezilla but I didnt mean to be. DH said I was allowed at least one breakdown pre-wedding and this was as good a time as any. I composed myself and I asked about cutting our trip short one night to make the suite more affordable. DH was okay with that, so I called Tracy back and asked her what we would save if we cut a night. The amount was $730-something (!!!!) so after a quick conferring with DH we decided to go for the suite and cut our trip to six nights. I assured our suite had a balcony and a park view, since those are the two things I cared about, and Tracy confirmed it did. She also said she would come up and get our Welcome Bags and take them to Bell Services. I said we could drop them off at the lobby but she insisted she would come and get them. Ugh. More delay. So we waited another 10 minutes or so for Tracy and she collected our Welcome Bags and was very apologetic for the hassle. I told Tracy the bags were really heavy and we had to go to the Fantasy Tower anyway and we could help her carry them, but she insisted on doing it herself. I wonder if Traci told her Im a blogger? ;-) At this point I should really say that Tracy was wonderful and very helpful, but I was immensely frustrated that I could just have handled all of this at the front desk in a much shorter time frame. I actually dropped off a comment card later in the trip for Tracy because I was paranoid she may think I was angry. Anyway, while we were waiting for Tracy, DH and I discussed that we may have time to run down to Bell Services and pull a fresh outfit from our bags, then clean up in my parents room, and still make it to our photo shoot at DCA on time. So we explained this to Tracy and she said she would bring our new room keys to my parents room, so at this point we parted ways and DH and I said goodbye to our fake hotel room.
Thursday Part 2 coming up since this is getting a little long!