Summer and Steven's WDW Wedding TR SBP Aug 20 2007
 

Hi all

I was invited to post my wedding TR over here (it is on the DIS) and although I got married in 2007, I hope that people will still find it relevant and enjoyable. It is still unfinished but I have the majority of it written and posting here will definitely encourage me to get it completed. If anyone has any questions I am more than happy to answer them and for anyone planning their wedding at WDW, I wish you all the pixie dust in the world!

Here goes...

Vendors used and reviewed

Officiant - Rev Randall Miller (review page 5)
Wedding Planner - Tanis Armstrong (review page 5)
Photography MK Shoot and Honeymoon Shoot - Paul at Disney Weddings (review page 6)
Photography Wedding - Randy Chapman (review page 6)
Videography - STVS (link included in TR to full clip page 2) (review page 5)
Make up - Beaute Speciale (review page 4)
Dress Steaming - Carolyn Allens (review page 4)
Wedding meal - Victoria and Alberts (review page 6)

During this TR I also have very detailed reviews of all restaurants we ate at (and there were a lot). I will update this with a list of all completed reviews as I go along. Places include both CS and TS and signature restaurants.

Restaurants reviewed so far

Shutters (dinner), CBR page 1
Flame Tree BBQ (lunch), AK page 1
Coral Reef (dinner), Epcot page 2
Kona Cafe (breakfast), The Poly page 2
Sunshine Seasons (lunch), Epcot page 2
Le Cellier (dinner), Epcot page 3
Sassagoula Floatworks (breakfast), POFQ page 3
Raglan Road (dinner), Pleasure Island page 3
Citricos (lunch), The GF page 5
Victoria and Alberts (wedding meal), The GF page 6
Sci Fi Dine-Inn (lunch), Disney Studios page 6
Chef Mickeys (breakfast), Contemporary page 7
Peco Bills (lunch), MK page 8
Jiko (dinner), Animal Kingdom Lodge page 8
Backlot Express (lunch), Disney Studios page 11
Kona Cafe (dinner), The Poly page 11
California Grill (dinner), The Contemporary page 12

Introduction
 

I have decided to post my introduction to my TR tonight. My new husband is asleep on the sofa, all that travelling really takes it's toll. To beat the post wedding blues I am going to go full force into my TR and relive the whole experience again. I warn you now that I am a stickler for details so I tend to report everything and anything, I can remember the most pointless of facts, so if you think I am rambling please be sure to tell me.

So lets begin...

The cast:

Summer (me) 27yrs, first time at Disney World but been to Disneyland several time, self confessed theme park freak.
Steven (groom) 31yrs, first time at Disney World but been to Disneyland with me 5 years ago, was more of a supporter of my dream to get married at Disney World.
Mom (my mother, with us for a week) 55yrs, first time at Disney World but been to Disneyland before, fun loving and excitable.

The plan:

1 night at Holiday Inn Express in Glasgow, night prior to flight
3 nights at Caribbean Beach Resort
4 nights at Port Orleans French Quarter
7 nights at The Grand Floridian
3 nights on Disney Cruise Line
4 nights at Crown Plaza Universal

Pixie dust..., it took several days for us to find it, but when we did we were blinded by it. I have learned many things throughout this trip, there were many highs and scattered lows, unforgettable moments sprinkled with pure magic intertwined with some obstacles along the way.
Our Wedding Day however was truly magical, there are no other words to describe it, I became a Princess and Steven my Prince. We married on August 20th 2007 at Sea Breeze Point and this by far exceeded my expectation. The many months prior to the wedding I had envisioned this exact fairytale, from beginning to end, the whole experience was spectacular.
Not everything went to plan however with the honeymoon and we hit some rocky road the few days leading up to the wedding. The phrase 'What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger' resonated before the wedding.

I hope my TR can help other upcoming brides in some way. I read so many before my wedding and I only hope I can make my predecessors proud
I feel very lucky to have stumbled across such a helpful bunch of people who I now call my friends. I have went through it all with you and you have all become part of our special day.

Dreams may come and go, but this one, will last for eternity.

Travel to Glasgow
 

Day One...

We awoke at 6.00am, I had great difficulty getting to sleep that night so I was extremely tired. I jumped in the shower first as I had my make up and hair to do while Steven organised a few last minute things. I had given my mom explicit instructions to be at our house by 8.00am. I do not like rushing and I wanted to make sure she had all her documentation with her before we left for the train station. While Steven was in the shower I made sure all my documentation for my wedding vendors was in my travel wallet and we had all the tickets etc. Now I have doing my make up down to a fine art, I can do it in 10 minutes if pushed, but if I have time I spend about 30 minutes doing it, with absolutely no difference :) I could see Steven getting frustrated that I was taking so long:cutie: Anyway my mom called at 7.30am to tell me she was in a cab and she would be about 10 minutes, great, I wasn't even dressed yet! She arrived at 7.45am on the dot and I had ordered a cab for 8.30am to take us to the train station. As soon as she came through the door I started rifling through her documentation, passport, tickets, and travel insurance docs. I made sure she had her meds as she has to take certain tablets for the heart bypass she had 3 years ago. She also had to get extra travel insurance so she would be covered if she had any problems while away.

With that all checked I got dressed and we sat with the Disney DVD on in the background while we chatted about the adventure to come.

8.25am and we get a call that our cab is out front. I do one last check of my documents (yes, I'm obsessive that way) and we grab our bags and go outside. Now Morgan had been picked up the night before to go into the kennel, I found it weird that we closed the door without saying goodbye to him or giving him a hug, I hoped he was enjoying himself and was feeling good, the amount of guilt I felt by leaving him was huge, but the vet had said he was doing well so I didn't really have a choice.

The cab driver helped us with our luggage, my huge pink suitcase, and my mom's smaller pink suitcase, Steven had a huge black suitcase along with his backpack which we had stuffed with all our hand luggage stuff.

In 10 minutes we were at the train station, our train wasn't until 9.37am but I wanted to be there early to check the platform and have some breakfast, as far as I was concerned the holiday had began and I was ready to start eating out;)

We went to a cafe called The Lemon Tree in the station, I had a croissant and a huge Cappuccino, Steven just had Tea and my mom had the same as me. This cost us £9.74 (about $19.00) and I was mortified, I can't believe they charge so much here, I couldn't wait to get to the States where I knew I would get better value for money. Steven said he was feeling a bit nauseated, so I told him he was likely hungry and should eat something, not taking my advice, he sat quietly and drank his tea, men!

After breakfast we went to the FastTicket machine where you can collect train tickets you have ordered online. I swiped the Credit Card and put in the Ref number for mom's return tickets, received them, no problem. I swiped the Credit Card again to input our reference number and our card disappeared...WHAT, the machine stared blankly at me. I told Steven to wait there while I went to find someone. I began to panic slightly, I hoped this wasn't like an ATM where it swallowed your card and didn't give it back! I eventually found someone and she said it happens all the time and she would just switch off the machine and it would spit out my card, thank god. Card in hand I went to try again, this time the machine didn't even ask for my card, it just said Error, so I queued in the ticket line, 10 minutes later I received my tickets and we headed over to the platform. Mini drama over we sat and waited for the train, which appeared 5 minutes later.

Boarding the train was a hoot, these are trains that go to Glasgow which has a huge airport, one would assume the luggage holder would be pretty big, uh uh, it was tiny. I stared at it and laughed, there was no way our 3 suitcases were going to fit and there was no way we could put them in the over head or at our feet. A passenger came up to us and offered to remove his suitcase as it was quite small and was taking up alot of room, we thanked him and proceeded to try fitting our cases into the storage compartment. We ended up having to put our luggage on top of one another and cramming it in so it wouldn't move during transit.

The train journey was uneventful, mom and I chatted non stop, Steven watched the scenery mostly, we had a table seat which I had reserved so it was great to have the table to lean on, and put our coffee when the coffee cart came round;)

At 12.15 we arrived in Glasgow, I knew this station quite well as had often came down to Glasgow on business, so we headed straight for the cabs as I wanted to get to the hotel to drop off our bags. I asked the driver how much to get to The Holiday Inn Express and he quoted me £18.00 ($36.00) I actually thought this was pretty good, so we jumped in. I had never flown from Glasgow before but had specifically booked this hotel because of the close proximity to the airport. 15 minutes later we arrived and we were just 2 minutes walk from the airport, perfect!

I had booked a room with a double bed and double sofa bed, I figured there was no point booking seperate rooms for one night, plus the cost would have been much more than we budgeted for. So we checked in and went upstairs to our room

Here are some pics:

This is the bathroom, it had a great power shower:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...n/bathroom.jpg

Here is a view of our bed:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...in/bedroom.jpg

The sofa bed is in the background:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...in/sofabed.jpg

I was pretty happy with the room, it was small but it was only for one night. So after looking around I decided we should go to Braehead Shopping Mall as there were some things I wanted to pick up and mom wanted batteries for her camera. So we went over to the airport to catch the bus to the mall. Braehead Mall is pretty big and has loads of good stores, I however wasn't in the mood to shop much so I only wanted to pick up what I came for.

Here is a pic of the shopping mall:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...n/braehead.jpg

We went into Boots which is a huge Pharmacy in the UK, I bought sunscreen, shaving gel for Steven, fake nails and my mom bought batteries and sunscreen.

We had a look round the mall, but we were really worried about our luggage allowance so I was too afraid to buy much more. As it was 2.30pm Steven said he was hungry so I agreed to us eating a snack at one of the counter services at the Food Court. Now I only wanted us to have a snack as I planned on us eating at Tony Romas. We ended up getting a Philly Steak Sandwich each with fries and cokes, so as you gathered we wouldn't be eating at Tony Romas that night.

After lunch we headed over to Xscape Centre which is just across the road from the shopping mall. This is an activity centre that has indoor skiing, wall climbing, mini golf etc. I didn't intend to do any of these things but I wanted to have a look anyway. We stayed for about an hour and then decided to just go back to the hotel and have dinner there later on.

Here is a picture of the outside of the hotel:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...n/glasgow2.jpg

I was pretty tired so I decided to take a nap before dinner, Steven managed to snap a pic of me sleeping:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...n/sleeping.jpg

I awoke much more refreshed and we headed down to dinner. The menu was pretty bland so I ordered Carrot and Coriander soup and Sticky Toffee Pudding, Steven had Fish and Chips with Peas and my mom had Pasta Carbonara. My soup was gorgeous, I will say, but the portion was small. Stevens fish was greasy and the fries were undercooked, but mom loved her pasta. This was really expensive too, £30.00 ($58.00), I knew there was a reason I wanted to eat elsewhere:mad:

After dinner we headed up to the room and Steven jumped in the shower then fell asleep almost instantly, I had loads to do, I wanted another shower and had my toe nails to do and I wanted to go over my wedding stuff.

Mom and I chatted til about 12.30am, while we both did our nails, Steven was sound asleep. I pulled out mom's sofa bed while she was in the shower, which believe me was no easy feat. We ended up going to bed at 1.00am and we had to be up at 5.30am, the air con was really loud and I kept waking up through the night. At 3am I got up and switched it off as I was really cold. Steven didn't wake up once but I could hear my mom moving alot too. I think I was so nervous about the flight, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I settled down again and managed to drop off and dream about the fun that was instore.

Coming Up:

No way, we've been upgraded, the dreaded flight, and I never knew I had the attention span of a gnat.

Here we go...
 

Day two...

We awoke at 5.30am, luckily I had set the telephone for a wake up call as my mom's alarm didn't go off :confused2 My mom said she didn't sleep very well as the mattress was pretty hard, I had asked her the night before if she wanted the bed and Steven and I would take the sofa bed, but she said it was fine, I guess it was more uncomfortable the longer you lay down.

I got in the shower first and applied my make up carefully as I knew it would have to last all day. My mom went in after and Steven went last. We had everything packed and were ready to head over to the airport by 7.00am. Our flight wasn't until 10.00am but for International flights you have to be there 3 hours prior to your flight. So we grabbed our suitcases and headed out the door. We didn't check out as breakfast was included in our hotel stay so the plan was to check in and come back for breakfast. It was a quick 5 minute walk to the check in gate, it took slightly longer as our suitcases were heavy, even with the wheels. We walked up to the desk and checked my mother in first. Her luggage weighed 19.6kg, the limit was 20.0kg so she just made it, I couldn't believe her luggage weighed so much for one week :omg: Next was Steven and I to check in, I handed her our passports and we went through the speech of yes, having packed our luggage ourselves and no, it hasn't been out of our possession at any time. I put on my suitcase and was surprised to see my case weighed 18.9kg, phew, I thought we may have to pay extra. As a last ditch attempt to get my wedding dress as a carry on, I asked the check in woman if I could carry it on, she said

"Of course you can"

Me, "Really? I was told it may not be possible."

"Let me just check"

She toddled off to her superior and came back about 2 minutes later and apologised profusely.

"I'm so sorry, the rules must have changed, it has to go into the hold"

"Oh, okay then" I felt deflated, I had got my hopes up in that split second she wandered away, never mind, I was positive my dress would be fine.

So we continued with the check in process, Steven put on his bag and it weighed in at 24kg, oh, oh, looks like we have to pay. She informs us that the luggage is fine as our allocation is 30kg each for Steven and myself, huh?

I was told 20kg and 5kg for hand luggage, nope, again 30kg and 10kg for hand luggage! I ask why and she says, "Well you're first class" Huh again, WHAT?

"You are a Premiair Gold passenger, your allocation is 30kg, didn't you know?"

"Um no"

"Oh well, you are, you're luggage will be first off the plane in Sanford, hope you have a wonderful wedding and great trip"

I thanked her and Steven and I moved aside and looked at our boarding passes, right enough, it said 1st Class, but it also confirmed that mom was not with us, she was in Economy and we were right at the front of the plane. We asked her if she was okay with this. I really didn't want to pass up this huge upgrade, we had never flown 1st Class before and it seemed a wonderful amount of pixie dust to receive and this was before we even left Glasgow:thumbs-up My mom was disappointed but agreed that we couldn't pass it up, she said she would likely sleep anyway. We looked into how much it would cost to upgrade my mom, but it would have been an extra £400 ($790) as you had to purchase it for both legs of the flight. There was no way we could have afforded that and I know my mom certainly couldn't. She seemed okay and I said I would come back and check in on her throughout the flight.

We walked back to the hotel and had our included continental breakfast.

It was pretty bland, croissants, danish, orange juice and coffee. I was too excited to eat much anyway. I was really hyper through nerves and excitement when I get like this I talk and talk, I can't remember what I talked about but I do remember Steven saying he hoped I wouldn't be like that for the whole flight:tounge:

After breakfast we checked out and walked back over to the airport, we decided to head straight for the departure lounge as I wanted to buy some nail polish remover wipes and currency. We went through the metal detectors and had to remove our shoes, including my flip flops:confused2 Nothing out of the ordinary happened and we were waved through after I got randomly searched. The departure area was huge, I found Boots again and bought nail varnish remover and we bought $600 in cash as we already had $500 in checks. I also purchased travel sickness meds as Steven sometimes gets bothered by this. He took one immediately hoping it might make him drowsy on the plane.

Now I had purchased an Executive lounge pass which we had access to from 6am-9am, it was already 8.15am and it was decided that we didn't really have enough time to get there and actually enjoy it, so we chose to just go straight to the Gate. I was disappointed as I was really looking forward to the Exec lounge, but I didn't want to chance missing boarding so I put it down to bad timing.

We sat and looked at our plane through the window, it looked much bigger than I remember:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...n/mytravel.jpg

At 9.15am there was the announcement for all wheelchair assisted and stroller passengers to make their way to the Gate for boarding, 5 minutes later all 1st class passengers were called. I guess this was us:d:I told mom she had to wait for her row to be called, she was row 18 and I told her they usually call rows 10 -20 together. She said if they didn't call her in 5 minutes then she would just board. We explained it doesn't work that way and you have to wait to be called. I already knew that this week was going to be quite difficult. I love my mom to pieces but she has a habit of following other people instead of finding out for herself. Throughout this vacation she did just that and it left me a bit frazzled to say the least.

So we were boarding, our seats were 1A and 1B, we were ushered right up to the front of the plane, the seats were leather and they had spongy headrests, the legroom was fantastic, put it this way, I could stretch out my legs and not touch the wall. We were offered a complimentary pre flight drink so we both took wine. Although we are not wine drinkers we were both nervous about the flight, we hadn't flown in a while and our last flight was pretty bad.

Steven had almost finished his wine when he remebered the travel meds, I checked the box and, yes, it advised not combining with alcohol, oops! So he stopped drinking and switched to water instead. I managed to get 3 alcoholic drinks in before we got ready for departure, 2 glasses of wine and 1 baileys. Yup, I was nervous.

The stewardess came round collecting glasses and the announcement came over that we had to watch the safety routine as we got ready for departure. We started to move and the emergency exits were being shown along with the lifejacket speech. I breathed deeply as I watched the crew sit down and belt themselves in.

We began hurtling down the runway and I quickly asked Steven for some gum. I have problems with my sinuses since my fall last September, so my ears sometimes cause me a problem. I chewed the gum frantically and grabbed on to the arm rests, I felt the lift off and started breathing faster, I looked out the window every so often, but declined when I saw we were turning. I used to be such a great flyer, now I am terrible, I hate any kind of turbulence even though I know it's normal.

I asked Steven about 5 times in the space of 10 minutes whether we were cruising yet, the answer was always "NO" with a variation of sighs tagged on to the end. It seemed to take forever for the stewardess to get out of her seat, when I saw her come down the aisle I calmed down a bit, I must admit to reading the crews faces intently now during any bouts of turbulence:cry:

The drinks came out pretty quickly and then the food about 11.30. As we were in first class we received better and more food. We were advised that the bar was complimentary so to ask for drinks as much as we liked. YAY!

We received a cold pasta side dish, which I didn't really care for but Steven liked, a chicken breast fillet done in red wine gravy with carrots and roast potatoes, a small bun (I always love these) Bannoffee Cream Pie (very sweet) Crackers and cheese, dried fruit (didn't eat these) and 2 chocolates (very nice) I also had coffee and a bottle of water. After lunch we were handed out these handheld TV's. I ended up trying to watch Music and Lyrics (Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant) but I couldn't get into it. I watched 10 minutes of a Friends episode I had seen dozens of times (Thanksgiving episode), Simpsons episodes again, why do they always show the same ones? So I started flicking through Radio Stations and noticed that I couldn't concentrate on anything. Steven was quite happily watching the TV. So I got up to look at the toilet. Thats right to look at it, I only used it once during the whole flight, but looked at it 7 times :grin: It was a great source of distraction during times of minor turbulance. I then went to visit mom, and asked about the take off and food. She was fine and I stood there for about 10 min chatting.

I then went back to my seat and Steven could see me staring at him.

"What?"

"I'm bored" It was only 2pm UK time, we had only been in the air for 4 hours and I was really unsettled. I couldn't see anything out the windows but clouds, the TV was a pain, and because Steven was content watching TV, I had no one to talk to:cry:

Throughout the flight I chatted on and off to Steven, grabbed his hand when there was turbulance and although I will agree it was minor, I didn't like it one bit. The flight was long, boring and I didn't like the fact I was so nervous. I just wanted to be on the ground and for the flight to be over, I knew I would relax once I landed.

The Captain announced that we were flying over Iceland and I noticed some icebergs but that was all, then again later over Greenland, not much happening there either.

About 6 hours into the flight we encountered some turbulance, the seat belt sign went on and panic set in again, externally I looked very calm, but on the inside I was not doing so well. I would look out the window and say, "it's just clouds, that's why there's turbulance", or "we are over water and there is always more bump over water" yes, all that being true, it still didn't help me that much. After the main movies played it would show us where we were on the map, I remember cursing at 6 hours in, noting that we were still in Canada, "MY GOD, how big is Canada"?

Six and a half hours in I asked a crew member if he knew where we were, he checked with the cockpit and confirmed we were flying over Canada now, WHAT, STILL? I looked out the window and noticed land and lakes and I thought, but it looks like Maine or something like that. I badly wanted to be on US land as it would feel like we were so much closer to landing. The captain did not update us like I would have hoped 8 hours in our TV screen stated that we had 40 min flying time left. Hmmm, and I thought we were still in Canada;) As the time ticked down, we gradually descended and I saw the cluds over Florida, yikes that meant a bumpy landing. The captain announced that we were flying over Daytona Beach and it was a beautiful sight, I really wish we had taken pics of it. I had hoped I may have been able to see the spires of MK from the plane but I knew we were pretty far away from it.

The crew was told to get ready for landing, the collected our TV's and any rubbish and belted up. We went through some fluffy clouds which are always pretty bumpy, I didn't know though that we would have to turn quite steeply to land in Sanford, damn, I hate this. We seemed to be descending for such a long time, to be honest I think he was waiting for clearance but never said. We landed with no problems though and on time, I looked out the window to notice some rain droplets forming, I thought to myself that it was so typical, I brought the weather with me:erm:

Coming Up...

YAY, we are in Orlando, where are my suitcases? Our coach transfers are going to where? Will we make it to 'Ohanas?

Day two, Part two...

So we had arrived in Orlando, after months of planning I was here, it all seemed surreal at the moment and I was just eager to get off the plane and get my suitcase.

We had filled in the visa waiver forms on the plane so it was just a matter of going through security and collecting our bags. We gathered our stuff and exited the plane and immediately I felt that Orlando humidity, I grinned as I had been hoping that it would be hot. We had a terrible summer in Scotland so I was desperate to get some heat.

Going through security was pretty easy, we got called up to a window and was told to show our passports and forms that we had filled out. My mom looked blanky at me and I shown her the forms. She hadn't filled it out, even though I had told her too while on the plane:spin: The security officer sent her back to the desk to fill it out while he processed our forms. We had to put our index finger on the plate and confirm that we were here on vacation. It was over pretty quickly and painlessly, except my mother was taking forever to fill out her form. Security waved us on and we tried to hold back for my mother but we were informed that we couldn't wait there. She was still writing and I said I had no idea how that little form could be taking so long! We were ushered in to collect our bags and noticed that nothing had came out yet. So we waited for both my mom and my bags. We waited and waited some more, still no sign, bags started coming out, but not ours, people were milling through the airport but not mom. Where was she? Where were my bags? I started to panic a bit, my suitcase was pretty bright so I knew it would be easily spotted, where on earth was my mom?

20 minutes went past and no more bags came out, my heart sank, my mom still hadn't arrived but I didn't want to leave, where was my bag?

A baggage handler jumped up on conveyor belt and said there was a blockage. A woman that had been sitting behind us asked whether we were told if our luggage would come out first? I told her yes and that my wedding dress was in there and I was now really worried. She tried to make me feel better and said she was sure our luggage was fine.

I turned around and saw my mom slowly walking in, why is she taking her time like that? Doesn't she know my wedding dress is missing?

I waved her over and I told her my suitcases were not out yet, but loads had been unloaded and ours weren't there. At that moment a pink suitcase fell on to the conveyor belt, it was my moms. But that means that all the Economy passengers are now getting their luggage what about 1st class? Have they all been unloaded? One by one I saw passengers collect their luggage, it became apparent that pink was very popular and my mom proceeded to tell me that every pink suitcase that appeared on the conveyor belt was mine, "No, no that's not mine, nope not mine either, mom, it's too small, it's a dark pink mine is light" this continued for about 15 minutes where I had almost ressigned myself to the fact that my dress was gone and I would be spending the next 4 days searching for a wedding dress. The area was almost empty and the luggage had slowed down, tears began to form as I realised how much I loved that dress.:cry:

Then through a band of light it fell on to the conveyor belt, I started jumping up and down, "my dress, my dress, it's my dress" Steven's suitcase followed and all was well once again.

Day two, Part three

So I had my luggage, I breathed a huge sigh of relief as we went to find our Coach that would be taking us to WDW:grin:Now I hadn't told my mom this as I didn't want to stress her out but there had been two seperate coaches booked. My mom would be leaving WDW after 1 week so her coach transfer was going to be with Mears and our transfer was to be with Coach USA. I had only found this out about 4 weeks before we were due to leave and I tried to fix it, but we were told we would be charged $50 for my mom to be on the same Coach as us. I figured it would be fine for us to go seperately as it was going to drop her right there.

Anyway it took a little time to find where we were supposed to go. I know Sanford airport is small but the directions weren't that clear. I went up to the Airtours desk and I asked if I was in the right place. I gave her my name and she handed me my Welcome Pack, or at least that's what it said on the envelope. She told me to go out and take a left where I would see our Coach transfers. So, we gathered our luggage again and I went to see them, telling my mom and Steven to hang back. I told them we were here for our Coach transfers. I gave them mom's name first and they said they had her and confirmed that she was going to CBR, that was correct, they would also be picking her up from CBR in a weeks time, not correct, I explained to them that we would be moving to POFQ after 3 nights so she would need to be picked up from there. She seemed a bit confused but changed the paperwork to reflect our move. She then went on to us and said we are taking you to Crowne Plaza, not correct, we were going to CBR with my mom! So she said we were getting picked up from POFQ, not correct again, we were getting picked up from Crowne Plaza. I shown her my most recent paperwork which detailed my transfers, she sighed and said that the agency had not notified them of these changes but she would change all the documentation for me. Strike one for our travel agency!:angry:

She advised me that we would all be travelling in the same coach. Really? I informed her that I had been advised otherwise but she said that if we are all going to the same place then we would be travelling in the same coach. Okay, it worked better for us so I didn't complain.

After all that we moved round the corner to catch our coach. I couldn't see any driver there anywhere, so we saw our coach and started loading our luggage. A few minutes later the driver came up to us and said we couldn't load it ourselves as all the bags are in order of drop off, oops, we didn't know that. So he unloaded and reloaded our luggage, oh well!

Here is a pic of our coach:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...chusa43280.jpg

We gave him our transfer tickets and boarded. The welcome agent came on the coach along with several other passengers, she picked up her mike and started going on about the welcome meeting etc, I never go to these things, I lose too much precious time when we have a schedule to work from;)

Anyway she wishes us all a great trip and leaves the coach, then we're on our way:)

I decide to look at my welcome pack and open it to find one sheet of paper with telephone numbers to call if we have any problems or emergencies. Okay where were my tickets? Where were my other welcoming things? My travel agancy did not explain the 'key to the world' cards. I had never stayed on Disney property before so was unaware that my theme park tickets would be on my room key. I paniced, where were my tickets?, I needed them for that night, I knew I didn't have the energy to discuss all this with my ground agent. All I wanted to do was get to the hotel and relax.

I started getting agitated, the coach driver comes over the mic telling us that CBR would be his 4th stop, ETA, 5.30pm. WHAT? I had 'Ohana reservations at 7pm, there is no way we could make it, not if I had another crisis on my hands with tickets. I wanted a shower, to change, I wanted a nap god dammit! How is that possible? We arrived at 2.05 pm, I thought I had made my reservation in plenty of time, great, everything is falling apart.

My mini meltdown became apparent and Steven started saying we would never make it to 'Ohanas for 7pm. WHAT? Don't be silly of course we will, even though I knew he was right, I didn't want to admit it. I tell them 'Ohanas is just a bus journey away from the hotel. My mom looks at me and says "but I thought you booked a restaurant at the hotel"

"No, when did I ever say that, I have told you all for months where we are eating"

"Oh but I'm too tired to go out of the hotel, I thought you would have booked one there, what posessed you to book one far away"?

My good manner was about to falter, I was tired and annoyed and my mom was acting like I hadn't told her squat. I had made sure everyone was well aware of the plans I had made and now all I could see was them getting flushed down the toilet. I wanted to scream:mad:

Calmly I said "It is not far away, it is one bus ride away, I have had this reservation for 180 days, I don't want to eat at the hotel as I've read that the restaurant there sux, okay?"

As an afterthought I said "Why don't you stay home then and Steven and I will go out to eat?"

I didn't mean to sound annoyed or say anything like that, but I felt like I was going to explode. All I could hear were all the conversations of the past four months or so circling in my head, all the conversations where I told my mom what we were doing, when we were doing it, and she looked at me as if I had roaches crawling out of my ears when I mentioned the restaurant.

I really wanted to go to 'Ohanas but I knew deep down that we wouldn't make it. I asked Steven if he thought I should try and call and we could make it for 8pm, he said I could if I really wanted too.

My mom said she was too tired to go anywhere and wanted to go back and sleep, so I relented and agreed that we wouldn't go to 'Ohanas. I said if we were hungry later on we would just grab something at CBR.

I went quiet, something I always do when I am fuming, I looked out the window at the scenery and houses passing by. We stopped off at AKL first, then All Star Sports then Pop Century. I was already disappointed and started to worry about what was to come when I arrived at CBR...

Day two, Part four

We arrived at CBR and we got out and tipped the driver $6.00, we didn't know the tipping suggestion so we tipped what we thought was okay. We ended up arriving at CBR at 5.45pm. I was exhausted as were Steven and my mom. We had been up since 05.30am UK time and it was the equivalent of 10.45pm UK time here.

We walked up to The Custom House and it looked beautiful, I smiled, very happy that I had chosen to stay at CBR. A Bell boy asked if we wanted our luggage to be taken to our room, totally surprised we agreed and said we hadn't even checked in yet. He explained that if we go and check in and come back with our room number he would then deliver our suitcases. Sure, I guess...

So we went into the Custom House, leaving behind our bags, and me constantly looking over my shoulder at them, not particularly wanting to leave my wedding dress yet again. We walked straight up to check in and I had all my vouchers at hand along with my mom's.

I immediately asked if my theme park tickets were here and she explained the 'key to the world' card to me, thank god, I relaxed a bit.

She then went on to explain the layout of the resort and gave us a map, EMH brochure and more info about the resort. She explained that we would have adjoining rooms, on a high floor, great, just what I had hoped for.

She handed me the key to my room and I looked at it and noticed that the check out date was wrong. It stated the 08/23, we were actually checking out on 08/19 and moving to POFQ. I knew I had to query this but Steven was standing right there and this was a major surprise I had planned, he had no idea we would be moving to POFQ, and I knew how badly he had wanted to go. So I bit the bullet and just decided to hell with it, I had to know why the check out date was wrong.

She looked up the computer and said "This is the funkiest thing, according to this you are checking out on the 19th but your key says the 23rd, huh..."

I asked her if she could possibly check my POFQ reservation to make sure it was there, she managed to do this and confirmed that, yes, it was there and we would be checking in there on the 19th, but there was a problem...

We had managed to secure 14nights DDP for our reservation, CBR had us down for 7 nights DDP, but only if we stayed there, POFQ had no note of our DDP but they did have a room reservation. This was the same for my mom aswell:confused3 I didn't know what to do or say, neither did the receptionist. She said to just go to our room and for me to call POFQ in the morning and see what they are saying at their end, she assured me that this would all get sorted out somehow.

Hmmm, not very reassured, I left, I was so tired and really just wanted to go to our room and have a shower. I really wanted to look around the grounds at least and maybe grab a bite to eat.

We went outside and gave the bell boy our room numbers. Steven and my mom wanted to catch the bus to the room, but I flat out refused, I wanted to see some of the grounds and I knew we would likely only be about 5 minutes from our room. We were given the Aruba section on the second floor, the resort looked so beautiful and although we had a bit of difficulty finding it to begin with, we did eventually find it, 15 minutes later:grin:

So we finally got into our room and I immediately took some pics

This was a picture of the beds, I ran over to put the lights on first to make it cosy:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...aitlin/CBR.jpg

A view into the vanity area:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...itlin/CBr2.jpg

A view of our TV closet and table:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...itlin/CBr3.jpg

Another view of our beds from the vanity area:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...itlin/CBR5.jpg

A shot of the bathroom:

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l8...itlin/CBR6.jpg

The room was huge, much bigger than I had imagined, it was very bright and cheerful, just what I needed after our long journey. We had adjoining rooms but the door could be locked for privacy. My mom was really impressed by it all and I could tell Steven really liked it too. We immediately went to the bed and was taken aback by how high they are, they were also really comfy. We both clambered on top of the bed and lay down, I wanted a shower asap so I decided not to fall asleep but to wait instead for my case.

So I waited...and waited, 30 minutes later and still no case, okay, where is it?

I decided to call down to reception and ask and she put me through to bell services. I gave them my room number and name and inquired about our luggage.

"Um, they have already been delivered" he said.

"Um, no they haven't, I haven't left this rrom since I checked in and they aren't here"

"Well it says here they have been"

"I think I would know if I had received my suitcases"

"Hmmm, I guess I'll have to go check then, I'm gonna have to call you back"

"Okay"

I hang up the phone and scream "MY SUITCASES ARE GONE, THEY SAY THEY'VE BEEN DELIVERED" I was very close to losing it at this point, I was shaking and I could feel myself going. My mom then comes through and starts to panic too, making it much worse for me.

"But you're wedding dress is in there"

This statement causes me to go.

I know this and stating it doesn't help at all, visions of me getting married in a sundress start floating in front of my eyes and I flop on the bed, my head is pounding and I can't see straight, white flashes appear and I feel very heavy all of a sudden. Everything fades to black...

lovin your trip report so FAR ! cant wait to see if your dress is intact and with you ...

OMG, I am stressed for you!


I have to say, an ADR at Ohana's on arrival night was pretty ambitious, we never manage anything more than a trip to the food court and flopping into bed.

craigs bride - Thank you, I absolutely loved writing this report. I didn't expect to write so much if I'm honest but I enjoyed it so much.

BevS97 - It was very stressful believe me! As for the ADR at Ohana, well I have organised the same thing this year when we go back:grin: Steven and I definitely could have managed and I am determined to go this time. I was not impressed with CBR Shutters and would not be going there again. The bread was really nice though as was the dessert:confused2