**UPDATED 02/09** Lucy & Nick // The 'We are 100% not having a Disneymoon" Disneymoon - October 2018

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Hello!

So some of you may well remember my previous trip report entitled "The Superfan and the Skeptic" (if not please feel free to check out the link in my signature). Many of you tuned in over the insane amount of time that it took me to finish the trip report (about 10 months so thank you for bearing with me!) to find out whether I managed to convince my skeptic fiancé that Disney is in fact the most magical place on earth - and I guess the fact that I am back here writing another trip report speaks volumes!

The main reason for taking so long getting my previous trip report up was due to the fact that we have had a pretty busy time since getting back from Disneyworld at the end of May last year. We bought a house and have done it up, bought a car, I got a promotion and we also GOT MARRIED ! (which you may have deduced from the title!)

So (for those of you who don't know us) who are we?

The Cast

Me - Lucy, aged 28 (just!...yuck!)
I am the main driver behind our Disney holidays, as well as chief planner of all things in our lives!
I work in Proposition Development for a high street bank and absolutely love my job and the team of people that I work with. I work insanely long hours at the minute but I wouldn't change it for the world!
The highlight of our 2017 holiday was probably getting to watch Wishes on its very last night - I will definitely miss Wishes as I absolutely loved it, but we saw Happily Ever After later that week and I have to say, I was blown away by that too.

Moving on to...

Husband - Nick, aged 29 (but will be 30 just after we get home)
He isn't a Disney lover, but loves me enough to indulge my Disney holidays. He is also the one who does the majority of the cooking and cleaning to allow me to work the crazy hours that I do.
He works as a Financial Consultant for a Wealth Company - and I have absolutely no idea what that actually means!
His highlight from 2017 was apparently the food - typical!

Here are some photos of us together from our 2017 holiday...

So...how did this all come about?

The Booking

As I mentioned earlier, we got married in April 2018, so obviously we needed a Honeymoon! The very first thing that Nick said was "we are absolutely NOT going to Disney for our Honeymoon". I am not going to lie, I was a bit heartbroken as this had always been my plan, but the more we discussed it, the more I came to agree. We both have good jobs and know that if we wanted to go to Disney at least once a year, we would be in the position to do so, meaning that if we went to Disney for our Honeymoon, it wouldn't be necessarily be something memorable.

After a lot of thought we finally decided on doing a Safari holiday in South Africa, followed by some time relaxing on a beach in Mauritius afterwards. We used a Honeymoon Specialist travel agency to book the hotel and they suggested waiting until June for the Honeymoon to ensure better weather, so we currently have about 6 weeks left until we go!
Here are some photos of where we will be staying...

I was pretty happy with this decision for a while, and am still very excited for the holiday but I just kept dreading the thought of going the whole of 2018 without a Disney trip and over Christmas I was obsessively checking flight prices.

I have ALWAYS wanted to go to Orlando for Halloween as I am desperate to do MNSSHP and HHN, and I knew I wanted to experience this before children come along, so 2018 seemed like the best opportunity. I then came across some super cheap flights for October, which were direct to MCO and I (having had a couple of drinks by this point) decided to be impulsive and book them - and so a trip was born!

And just quickly before I start with the plans...

The Wedding

If you only want to read about our Orlando plans, please skip this section, but I couldn't not include a bit about our day in here (and you will soon see why!)

The wedding itself was absolutely perfect. With all of the recent weather that we had been having, I had resigned myself to the fact that it would likely be raining and freezing, but thankfully the day of the wedding was one of the lovely warm, sunny days that we had in mid-April, it was perfect!

I also managed to put my stamp on it by including some of my love of Disney. Our table plan was a vintage map of Magic Kingdom, and all tables were named after different ride and we had fastpass tickets in place of place names. For dessert we also had the famous "grey stuff" (thankfully our catering company indulged my ridiculous request!)

Here are some photos of the day...

Now that's over, onto the actual plans...

The Plan

Flights

As mentioned, I booked the flights on impulse around Christmas/New Years after I spotted a bargain.

We originally booked to fly on Tuesday 2nd October until Tuesday 16th October, direct from LGW to MCO with Norwegian Airlines for £330 per person return.

A couple of months later, I got an email to tell us they were changing the time of the outbound flight to a couple of hours earlier (which was actually better for us) so they gave us the option to accept the changes or move to any other flight for the same price. We had originally wanted to go Thursday-Thursday so we had the weekend to recover before going back to work, but the Thursday flight was much more expensive, so we took the opportunity to switch!

I have heard a lot of good things about Norwegian so I am looking forward to trying them out!

Accommodation

I actually booked a room with Disney way before we booked the flights during the free dining (+$200 gift card) offer last year. I had always hoped we would end up doing Disney so wanted to make sure that if we decided to go, we had secured free dining! I booked myself into a room with free dining and paid the £50 deposit.

Once the flights were booked, I rang up Disney, reshuffled the dates and added Nick onto the booking. I couldn't get into POFQ, which would have been my first choice as I stayed there previously and loved it, however there were rooms available at POR, so we are booked in there. I see amazing reviews of POR as well, so I am looking forward to staying there and seeing whether I like it as much as POFQ. It does look seriously stunning! We will be staying at POR from 7th-18th October

I also LOVE catching the boat between the resort and Disney Springs too

Before we check into POR, we have 3 nights at Universal as we love the Universal parks, but the main reason is for HHN! We stayed at RPR last year, and while we really enjoyed it, my heart wanted to go back to HRH as I absolutely loved it in 2016. I love bobbing about in the pool with a cocktail and of course, you can't beat the location! We check in on 4th October and check out on 7th. We booked 3 nights through Expedia with about 11% or 12% cashback. Think it cost us about £700, which I thought was pretty good.

Tickets

We obviously have 14 day Disney tickets that we bought as part of our free dining package, and as always that includes free memory maker.

We have bought tickets for MNSSHP for Tuesday 16th October, which I am really excited about. I have been wanting to go to MNSSHP for absolutely years, especially after watching several vlogs of others who have been! I have literally no idea what we should dress us as though, so please leave any ideas below! I have no idea what the temperature will be like on October evenings either to know what to wear! I can't remember how much the tickets cost, it was either £160 or $160!

We have also bought the standard 14 day 3 parks for the price of 2 for Universal. I am looking forward to spending a bit more time there this year as Nick was feeling unwell while we were there last year and we had very limited time. I am hoping to squeeze in a trip to Volcano Bay too but we will see nearer the time.

Finally I bought HHN tickets when they released the 2 nights for the price of 1 deal as this seemed to suit us quite well and were cheaper than I expected. Once the express passes are released, we intend to buy these to ensure we get everything done.
As excited as I am for HHN, I am absolutely terrified! I am such a wuss, so I know I will spend the night petrified!

Now onto the main bit...

ADRs

We had full DDP in 2017 and we absolutely loved it. We enjoyed having some time out of the day where we could sit down and enjoy a nice meal and take some time away from the busy parks. It didn't bother us that it was taking time away from them as I know some people don't like this aspect. We decided to upgrade to full DDP again for 2018 to allow us to try some more places.

We do have some repeats though, these are:

Sanaa
Homecomin'
California Grill
Narcoossees

These meals just absolutely blew us away in 2017, we loved them so we can't wait to go back again this year!

The best experience of the entire holiday was California Grill Brunch - I can't even express how good it was! If I can give you any advice... BOOK IT!

The other ADRs that we have booked are:

Frontera Cucina
Yak & Yeti (TS)
Trails End Breakfast
Yachtsman Steakhouse
Garden Grill

We will pay for Yak & Yeti OOP with help from a Landry card. For other meals, we will use our QS credits or eat offsite (i.e. when we go shopping - which I am certain we will do a lot more of this year!).

We have not finalised our plan for eating at Universal yet but it will likely include:

Cowfish
Toothsome
Panda Express
Hot Dog Hall of Fame

And most certainly at least one of these...

That is about all that I have to update on for the minute, we don't have a detailed plan yet, but I will update with updates when I have them!

Thanks for reading - sorry it was so long!

[Kat11]

That all sounds brill! I can't believe that you booked a Disney hotel last year "just in case you decided to go?!" Ye right like that wasn't going to happen! 😉

We go on the 16th October too! 😃

Just finished booking all our ADRs including CG brunch, can't wait to try it. 😋

Kat

[caitlinsmummy]

We go in October too! Can't wait to follow your trippie x

[MrsSilverStar]

Congratulations on the wedding! Your honeymoon hotels look amazing.

We're going next Oct so looking forward to reading along for tips.

[EJSakaAnna]

Ahh exciting, glad I found this! Congratulations on the wedding, loved seeing your pics on Instagram but so cool to see your Disney bits too!
Sounds like a fab trip, South Africa also looks AMAZING. Have a great time xx

[Lucyjane45xxx]

So sorry guys - I think I totally forgot that I even wrote this pre-trippie so I haven't been back since to check for comments!

Originally Posted by Kat11

That all sounds brill! I can't believe that you booked a Disney hotel last year "just in case you decided to go?!" Ye right like that wasn't going to happen! 😉

We go on the 16th October too! 😃

Just finished booking all our ADRs including CG brunch, can't wait to try it. 😋

Kat

See more...

Haha I know, I just had to work on getting Nick to agree - although he agreed pretty quickly to putting the £50 down so I think I already knew he would eventually cave. I want to upgrade our tickets to annual passes in october and squeeze in a couple of cheap trips next year (he doesn't know yet though so shh )

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

We go in October too! Can't wait to follow your trippie x

See more...

Ah exciting - what dates are you there?

Originally Posted by MrsSilverStar

Congratulations on the wedding! Your honeymoon hotels look amazing.

We're going next Oct so looking forward to reading along for tips.

See more...

Thanks so much - I can't wait for the honeymoon now, I am in desperate need of a holiday! Only a few more days to wait now - eeeek

This is a first October trip for me so hopefully I will pick up a lot of tips that I can share in the trip report!

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Ahh exciting, glad I found this! Congratulations on the wedding, loved seeing your pics on Instagram but so cool to see your Disney bits too!
Sounds like a fab trip, South Africa also looks AMAZING. Have a great time xx

See more...

Ahh hello! Thanks so much, I kept meaning to share the Disney touches on insta but thought I'd better wait for the professional pics to come back!
SO excited for S.A now, counting down the hours!
Hope you are having an AMAZING time in Canada - it looks like you are! xx

[loldis]

Ooh, I need to check the pre-trippies forum more - I missed this. Plans sound great so far, I'm a big fan of Thursday return flights as well. Can you post some pics (not expecting a full trippie!) from the regular honeymoon too? Looks amazing, Mauritius has been on my bucket list for wayyyy more years than I'd like to admit.

And more wedding pics please! You look stunning.

[caitlinsmummy]

I plan to do the same upgrading the passes ... hubby doesn t know yet either haha.

We go 27th October although I'm waiting for an email back about adding a few extra days onto the beginning of out holiday! Fingers crossed xx

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Originally Posted by loldis

Ooh, I need to check the pre-trippies forum more - I missed this. Plans sound great so far, I'm a big fan of Thursday return flights as well. Can you post some pics (not expecting a full trippie!) from the regular honeymoon too? Looks amazing, Mauritius has been on my bucket list for wayyyy more years than I'd like to admit.

And more wedding pics please! You look stunning.

See more...

Yes, I am definitely looking forward to a Thursday return! Last time we landed on a Tuesday morning and were back in work on the Wednesday and the rest of the week was hell!

Yes I will definitely post photos from the honeymoon - I actually can't wait! I normally hate beach holidays because I get bored but work has been so chaotic that I actually can't wait to fully switch off and relax!

Haha I have the professional wedding photos back now so I will make sure to post some more!

[Lucyjane45xxx]

Hello again!

I realised that I actually haven't updated this thread since I originally wrote it, so I thought it was about time I did!

I know a couple of people asked for more wedding photos and some from our first honeymoon, and I promise I will post them at some point, I just need to be bothered to transfer them onto my laptop!

I will say this though - the South Africa Safari part of our honeymoon was absolutely incredible, and it was the most amazing thing I have ever done. I have to admit I wasn't sure I would enjoy it, but wow, it was just surreal. The lodge we booked held up to 12 people, however there was only me and Nick there for the entirety of our stay which made it even more special!

We had a few problems with British Airways and they even managed to lose our bags for a few days when they were transferring them from Johannesburg to Mauritius, which put a bit of a downer on that part of the holiday. I have to be totally honest, although Mauritius was nice, I would not be in a hurry to return!

RIGHT, BACK TO DISNEY!

So we are now just over a month away from our trip and the excitement is kicking in big time! As we are so close, I now have a finalised itinerary that I can share with you too. I thought it was finalised, until the other day I found out that a band I used to love are playing at Hard Rock Orlando while we are there, so of course tickets were purchased and the itinerary was shuffled around to make room I was surprised at how easy my ADRs were to move around!

We also had a slight change in plans. When I booked the hotel initially, there were no rooms left at POFQ, so I ended up booking POR. I rang Disney a couple of months ago for something totally unrelated and asked out of chance whether there were any rooms available at POFQ and there were, so we switched and I am super happy about it. I was a bit nervous about staying at POR as it looked so huge when we wandered around it in 2016.

Here is the itinerary as it currently stands:

Weds 3rd Oct: Check into Hilton Gatwick South and dinner at Nicholas Culpeper. We stayed and ate at these places last year and really liked both so decided to do the same again!

Thurs 4th Oct: Breakfast at Nandos - I am very excited about trying their breakfast menu. We didn't enjoy the lounge last year so have not bothered to book again. Our flight leaves about 10am and lands at about 2-3pm. We will check into HRH, and then head out to Universal Citywalk for dinner at Margaritaville. I know most people say no to table service on the first night, but we try to stay up until 10-11pm Orlando time to sort out our body clocks straight away.

Fri 5th Oct: Make use of the extra hour in the morning at Volcano Bay. We just missed the opening last year so looking forward to this. We are planning on Hot Dog Hall of Fame for lunch, with a little rest before heading to Universal Studios for Halloween Horror Nights. We will probably grab dinner at the Simpsons Food Court. We have express pass for this night too, so hoping to cover most of the houses this night

Sat 6th Oct: Planning to spend the day at Islands of Adventure, with lunch at Cowfish. Really looking forward to this after all of the amazing reviews I have seen online. Then depending on how we feel we might make a trip to the International Outlet followed by Panda Express for dinner.

Sun 7th Oct: Depending on how we feel, we will either go for another morning at Volcano Bay or have a relaxing pool morning, before we head to Antojitos for lunch and then Halloween Horror Nights. Again, will grab dinner from a QS at Universal Studios. We will then move across to POFQ

Mon 8th Oct: Heading to Hollywood Studios for the morning, then will catch the bus to Saratoga Springs and walk across to Disney Springs for lunch at Polite Pig. We will then head back to the hotel for couple of hours before heading to Epcot for dinner at Chefs de France.

Tues 9th Oct: First Animal Kingdom day, with a Navi River FP (we have FOP later in the holiday). We plan to have lunch at Satuli Canteen (cannot wait to try the cheeseburger pods!) and then an early dinner at Sanaa. We are there last year and loved it so much we put it straight on the list for this year! Depending on how we feel, we will either head back to AK for Rivers of Light or head back to the hotel

Weds 10th Oct: Typhoon Lagoon morning. We usually only stay until it starts to get busy, so we will then head to Disney Springs to get lunch at Chicken Guy. I am really looking forward to this - there isn't much better in life than chicken strips! We will then have a couple of hours at the hotel before heading to MK for a few fast passes and to watch Happily Ever After. We will grab dinner from Columbia Harbor House, which is a firm favourite of ours.

Thurs 11th Oct: We plan to have a bit of a relaxing morning. We will probably get up and have a stroll around Disney Springs and get lunch from Earl of Sandwich. The plan is then to go back to POFQ to get changed as tonight is MNSSHP night so we need to get our costumes on! We have some late fast passes booked and will likely get dinner from Casey's Corner. I am super excited for Hallowishes and Boo to You and have been trying to avoid spoilers on Instagram!

Fri 12th: We will head to Epcot for some early fast passes before snacking our way around the world. Then we will get an Uber straight from Epcot to Vineland Outlet for a wander around before catching an Uber back to the Grand Floridian as we have an ADR for Narcoossees. We have been dreaming about the almond cheesecake since last trip so we both cannot wait for this!

Sat 13th: Early morning fast passes for Hollywood Studios. We will then head to Disney Springs for lunch at Blaze Pizza before heading back to POFQ for a little while. The evening will be spent back at Hollywood Studios,where we will probably grab a sandwich from Woody's Lunchbox before watching Fantasmic!, which is my favourite!

Sun 14th: We will have a bit of a rest morning before heading to California Grill for our Brunch reservation. We are both super excited for this as it was our favourite reservation of last years' holiday. We will then head over to Animal Kingdom for our fast passes (including FOP) and then we have a late dinner reservation for Yak and Yeti (TS)

Mon 15th: We will spend the morning at Blizzard Beach and then once we are done, we will head back to resort for a rest afternoon. We will probably grab lunch from the POFQ food court. We then have a reservation at Chef Art Smiths in the evening so will likely have a few drinks in Disney Springs.

Tues 15th: Late breakfast at Trails End followed by some MK fast passes. We will then head back to resort for a chill and grab dinner from the Food Court at POFQ before catching an Uber to Hard Rock Live for Good Charlotte

Weds 16th: Plan is to spend the morning and afternoon at Vineland Outlets. We will then head back to the resort to drop our bags, before heading to Epcot for a couple of fast passes, followed by dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse

Thurs 17th: Last breakfast at Garden Grill before we head back to the resort to catch the Tragical Express back to MCO. I will likely get Chick-Fil-A for dinner and Nick will likely get McDonalds!


Shopping

I have read many great reviews on here of FairyTale Personal Shopper (Beth) so I have also signed up for her services and she has been absolutely fab! I have placed a few different Bath & Body Works orders (obviously!) to make best use of the coupons for a mixture of candles, hand creams, soaps and scent portables. Cannot wait to be able to smell them all when I get there

I also managed to pick up some bargains in the Wildfox sale this weekend as everything (including the sale) had an extra 30% off! I love Wildfox but they only offer a limited range in the UK and it is insanely expensive!

I have also ordered some Sorel boots that I have been after for years as I managed to get them for $52 (£40) instead of the £120+ they are here in the UK!

It is so great having access to Beth's delivery service as I am able to order things that I might not necessarily get while I am in the USA and can't get here in the UK. I have a couple of other orders I know I am going to place, i.e I am hoping to buy the new Vera Bradley x Disney duffel bag that is being released this week.

I did try to get hold of the new Haunted Mansion Dooney & Bourke but sadly it sold out too quickly

I have also ordered some clothes for Nick and I to wear while we are in Disney from Redbubble and OnceUponApparel, but I don't have photos right now. I am sure they will make an appearance in my full trip report!

That is about all of the updates I have for you at this time, so thanks for reading!