Highs, highs and even more highs of a secret wedding and Disneymoon- FEW PICS ADDED PAGE 6

[princessnicki]

Apologies this is a long post.

So we have just got back from the most perfect 3 weeks in Disney, it really couldnt have been more magical. I was planning on doing a food report but i may see if i can convert this into a full trip report as so many amazing things happened to us.

The reason for the trip was for my fiance and i to get married and have our Disney honeymoon, it was a secret, we didnt tell people we were going on holiday let alone getting married. We got married at Cypress Grove followed by pictures at Yacht and Beach Club and the Boardwalk and a meal at Jiko. We stayed the whole trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge Jambo House with the free dining plan. We flew Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy

I will try to summarise a few of the highs from our trip- it is hard to truly put into words how special and magical this trip was for us from start to finish

Highs

Virgin Atlantic
Wow the service we received from Virgin was outstanding. The return journey was great, the Flight Manager addressed everyone by name, food was lovely, i thought i would be disappointed with the breakfast as it is no longer a full breakfast but the almond croissant was to die for. However the outbound flight was something special. The crew spotted our matching tshirts when we boarded and couldnt do enough for us, bringing us extra drinks and snacks- this would have been enough to start the honeymoon for us. Later in the flight, the Flight Manager invited us into upper to sit at the bar with our afternoon tea, a glass of champagne and to order some of the bar snacks offered to upper. If that wasnt enough, they also brought out a gift hamper with a bottle of champagne, sweets, card and a signed flight map of our journey from the captain and all the crew. I was completely overwhelmed

Radisson Blu Manchester Airport
Beautiful hotel, the bar does some lovely cocktails, perfect location with the walkway, the breakfast buffet is unbeatable with good quality food and unlimited mimosas and bloody marys- we were upgraded to a superior room with free breakfast which pleased my husband no end as he could watch the planes take off on the runway

Animal Kingdom Lodge
Stunning resort, my husband is South African so he really felt at home here and it was nice to hear him sharing stories of back home with the cast members. We requested a high floor room on kudu trail but ended up with bottom floor on giraffe trail- i think we were upgraded though as we had a pool view bunkbed room? I felt a bit bad as i know the bunkbed rooms are sought after and we had no use for it but they couldnt move us for the whole trip so we stayed- it was room 1030 and right next to the gym and pool entrance, great location and very quiet. The food at AKL is beautiful, we tried Jiko, Boma and Sanaa. The Mara is a great QS location too with plenty of choice.

The wedding
I have no words this was simply the best day of my life. We have seen a sneak peak of our pictures and they are stunning. We had a limo to and from Disney then a Minnie van back to AKL which was lovely. We were treat like royalty at Disney even though we werent an official Disney wedding couple. We had pictures in Ale and Compass and the bartender gave us a glass of champagne then told us to come back later as the baker wanted to do something for us, which turned out to be one of the large solid chocolate Mickeys they use on the cakes and a pile of balloons. In ESPN, we asked for our cheque and was told there wasnt one as some guy had paid it (he had left before we could find out who it was to thank him). In Abracadabar we were given a cupcake and macaroons. In Jiko we were given an extra dessert platter to say congratulations.

The honeymoon magic
We had so much magic gifted to us on this trip. We would have been happy with cast members saying congratulations when they saw our badges but every meal we were gifted something whether it was a glass of champagne or they didnt charge us for our second round of cocktails. Ive mentioned the experiences on our wedding day but we also had another person pay our bar tab at Universal and it was over $100, i just cant put into words how mindblowing it has all been. I honestly cannot believe how special we have been treated and how much we have been given. It truly was a once in a lifetime experience.

My husband
This is the first proper holiday he has ever been on, he has never been to America before. He has quite a severe form of ADHD and i was a little anxious about how he would feel about the rides and i thought there may be too much going on at once for him to process. I am so proud of how much he truly embraced it. I stood back a few times and captured him interacting with the characters and dancing and he really did have the time of his life. Admittedly the rides made him nervous in the queue a little but when he actually got on them there was nothing he didnt love. He said a few days ago "i feel like i can be myself here without being judged" and that just summed up the pure magic of Disney for me.

Weather
We were soooo lucky with the weather! Despite a bad start of a serious thunderstorm which delayed us at the Seaworld Food Festival and meant we had to cancel Tiffins, we only had one other afternoon of rain. The rest of the time it was beautiful glorious sunshine and hot temperatures

Victoria and Alberts
This was our wedding treat on our first day of married life and boy what an experience. Yes the price tag is very inflated by Disney but it is worth doing. The food is mindblowing and the service is second to none. We love cocktails but i was reluctant to pay $25 if they werent something special but luckily the 4 we sampled between us were!

Crowds
We were again incredibly lucky with crowds, with fastpasses we managed to get pretty much all the rides done. Hollywood Studios was busy both days but we still did everything, i dont envy anyone visiting after August, i just cant see where the space will be for everyone to go. The character lines overall were really short which surprised me. We didnt queue longer than 15-20 mins for anything.

Flight of Passage
This blew us away, i may have cried a little. I am so glad we managed to get fastpasses for this twice, it really is just a special experience

Happily Ever After
Just writing this puts a lump in my throat, we saw it three times and it is just magical, the soundtrack is so much more beautiful than Wishes, the nod to Robin Williams gets me everytime, the chosen Disney songs are brilliant especially Moana as thats my husbands favourite

Fastpasses
Amazing system, we never had to queue and got straight on the rides, even FOP we were taken straight to the pre-show.

Flower and Garden
The best festival- so much better than Food and Wine, just prettier and not crowded, excellent food booths. We never had to queue for any of the booths it was a brilliant experience, we hit it three times to try and use up our snack credits. The honey cheesecake, violet lemonade, salmon stack, lobster tail were all our highlights.

Food
We enjoyed all the food we had from snacks to table service. We tried to get something different each time and never got the same entree or dessert. We did a lot of signatures. It is hard to pick a favourite but i think i would say Yachtsman Steakhouse for signature, Sanaa for TS and Satuli Canteen for QS. We tried the infamous Blaze and enjoyed it but later that night we had pizza from the Boardwalk window and this was so much nicer (also a great use of credits as you get a large pizza and 4 sides for 2 x QS credits). We did two character meals and both were amazing value- Storybook dining food was beautiful and three courses, Bon Voyage Breakfast was huge! The pastries were enough but the main course portions were massive! We did both QS experiences at Be Our Guest and they are also a fab use of credits. We usually got an alcoholic drink with our QS meals so found the dining plan a lot better value than when i last used it in 2015.

Mehs

California Grill
We've had no lows and no bad meals but this one was a bit of a meh experience. We had brunch here and it was mindblowing in terms of food and service. Dinner was a completely different experience for us. We booked a 7.45 ADR specifically with the plan of at least being done with our entrees to be able to get a decent spot for Happily Ever After, at 8.50 our entrees arrived and so did the crowds for the viewing platforms. We just about managed to finish in time for the fireworks but we had to make do with whatever space was left, which was a bit annoying when we booked a specific ADR time to get a decent view. The food was overly salty and probably our least favourite signature meal. The server had no interest in us, she didnt bring me a steak knife for my steak, she spilled everything (water, my drink, the oil for the bread), she got our desserts the wrong way round- basic little things you wouldnt expect when the suggested tip was $32

Observations

Servers
On the whole we had amazing servers and everyone acknowledged our honeymoon which was lovely, but we did get the impression they dont put as much effort in with the English as they know they will get their tip. We didnt try any table service food at Universal but we found the bartenders a lot better than at Disney. Nobody spoke to us at Jock Lindsays, we had to get their attention for drinks yet the suggested tip for service was $15. The eyewatering amount we spent on tips in total i am not sure was always 100% justified.

Rude people
We found the Americans to be super polite and friendly, the English people not so much. There was a lot of entitlement especially parents with children, pushing their kids in front of us in lines and to meet characters, we saw a lot of cast members patience getting tested. Everyone is on their once in a lifetime trip but some thought theirs was more important than everyone elses especially if they had kids and other people didnt.

Weight
Ive not dare weigh myself yet but i really struggled this trip with my weight. We drank 3L of water and did the gym everyday plus all that walking but i feel horrendous. Ive had really swollen ankles and feet which has never happened to me before. I lost 16lbs for my trip and i genuinely feel like ive put it all back on

Drinks
We didnt go to Disney to get drunk or anything but we do like a couple of cocktails with dinner. With the exception of Trader Sams i think the cocktails at Disney are a bit lacking, maybe they have watered them down because they are included on the dining plan but we had a few that just tasted like sugar syrup.

Toilets
The toilets were a disgrace at Disney, not the fault of the cleaning staff as they were constantly in there cleaning up, i dont know how people can be so dirty!


We really cannot wait to go back, i dont think we will make it for our first wedding anniversary but we are 100% pencilling in the second in 2021

[DisneyStacey]

I teared up a bit reading this!
Congratulations!
I am so happy for you.
What an amazing wedding and honeymoon for you both!
Wishing you both a lifetime of happiness together x

[Mel49]

Firstly congratulations on your wedding day and managing to elope and have a truly special day with you and your now Husband.

Sounds like you had a fantastic time with mainly highs, highs, more highs and a few niggles.

Thanks for sharing

[Infinity Red]

Congratulations to you both, what a fab happy trip report , great to read 😀

[FloridaFairy]

Many congratulations to you both!

What a wonderful time ...

[Loobylou_82]

Many congratulations, may you have along and happy life together. Sounds like you had a fab time and glad it was all very special.

[walt4it]

Congratulations to you both, sounds like a trip that will never be forgotten and I'm sure your new DH will be wanting to go back. He really did sum up what WDW means to so many of us. Delighted that he really felt that way and it made your Disney Wedding and Disneymoon so special

[Gull]

Congratulations ! It sounds like you had a wonderful trip with lots of pixie dust - fab ❤️

[Mamie Baldwin]

How utterly amazing for you both, can we see a wedding photo?

[Guest]

Congratulations, what an amazing start to your married life 🥂