We Need a Proper Honeymoon! May 2016 *Updated 3rd May*

[Redrach1903]

*note list of update links at bottom*

Hello everyone! Here we go again I’ll start with introductions:

Me: Rachael, 30 years old (will be 31 when we travel). This is my 8th trip to Orlando. I have been in 1997, 1999, 2004, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2015! I am an eternal Disney and Orlando nut. I just love it and I never get bored of it. I’m one of those Disney losers than can see a Hidden Mickey in just about anything! My all-time favourite ride is Tower of Terror and I could go on it all day every day! I am a lover of American food and genuinely get excited about it! My favourites include Cracker Barrel, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and The Cheesecake Factory!

Husband: Chris, 29 years old (will be 30 when we travel). This is his 7th trip to Orlando. He’s also a big fan of Orlando, but not quite on my level He’s a serious golfer and always has a few rounds. His favourite course is Celebration. I just asked him what his all-time favourite ride is. First he said Revenge of the Mummy (which I would have guessed), then he changed it to Dr Doom’s Fearfall. I told him that he can’t say that as he never goes on the bloody thing! Then he settled on Rip Ride Rockit. He also said Gwazi , but I don’t think that’s around anymore is it? Hopefully not. *shivers*. He is also a lover of American food and joins me in getting excited about it! We pretty much love the same restaurants, but he discovered Buffalo Wild Wings last year and is excited to go back this year!

We last visited in October 2015. We got married on 20th October at The Bohemian Hotel, Celebration. It was just perfect and we loved every second of our special day

Since we had Chris’s son with us as well as lots of family & friends, we didn’t really get much of a honeymoon though! There was only one night we actually got to ourselves the entire time and that is not good enough, is it?! We decided we NEEDED A PROPER HONEYMOON So there you have our excuse for going back so soon and the title of the trip explained

Dates

We fly out on Saturday 7th May and fly back on Monday 23rd May.

Accommodation

Now, allow me to take you back to before we had even left for our October trip. Disney had been advertising their free dining offers for 2016 along with free memory maker, gift card etc etc. We had already discussed coming back in 2016 and I really wanted to spend some time onsite, so we decided to get some quotes. Before we knew we had booked 5 nights at The Beach Club paying £100 deposit.

Fast forward to when we returned from the wedding and I decided that we should look into switching resorts as the Beach Club prices were a tad on the ridiculous side. I know it’s a deluxe resort and it’s stunning, but I couldn’t get my head around paying nearly £3k for 5 nights in a hotel . I don’t know how people can afford to stay there for a fortnight! Haha! So I called Disney and asked for a quote to be moved to Port Orleans Riverside, but to extend our stay to 7 nights. Our total including upgrading to full dining plan (POR only offers free quick service) and for a pool view room was £2,010. That includes 14 day ultimate tickets too! That’s better! SOLD! We had already paid £100 of that, so our balance was £1,910.


I am so excited to stay at POR. Mum, Dad, Emma and I stayed here in 1997 when it was still known as Dixie Landings, so you could say this is where the obsession began! It gets glowing reviews on TheDibb too! I really think we have made the right choice!

I’ve been going back and forth on whether I want to request Magnolia Bend or Alligator Bayou. I mean, I was getting genuinely worked up about it! Haha! I have now decided to go with Magnolia Bend though. That’s where we stayed back in 97 and for nostalgic reasons that is where we are going to request! Don’t try and change my mind! *sticks fingers in ears* La la la la!

After we check out of POR we are going to drive up to St Augustine for 2 nights to visit our friend Hanne. *This has changed! See update no. 7*


We usually just chill out when we are here, but I am determined to do one of the ghost walks this time! Chris is looking forward to fishing off the pier again!

Our last 7 nights will be spent at Bahama Bay. I have booked this through Dibber BahamaBayLisa! It will be different for us not staying in a villa, but we thought we would try something different! I think we will really like it! The only real difference is not having a private pool, everything else you would expect from a villa is there (washer, dryer, full kitchen etc). I think it will be nice having the grounds to explore and wildlife spotting etc!


Flights

We decided at the end of the last trip that we were never doing a 3 flighter again! I know it can work our really cheap, but we just find it far too long a day and really tiring. Our options out of Aberdeen are limited to say the least, so we decided we would probably drive down to Edinburgh and do the BA route via Gatwick. Glasgow was also an option, but we prefer the drive to Edinburgh. Direct flights with Virgin from Glasgow are only available on certain days, so that option was out for us since we are staying an odd number of nights.

When the BA sale started in January I of course was straight in about for a nosey! Our chosen route (EDI-LGW-MCO) was showing a good bitty cheaper than it had been. I also realized that if we put some avios towards it we could get both flights for £900. I told Chris expecting him to tell me to wait a while (cos he is the sensible one ), but no! He gave me the green light and they were booked that day! Hurrah! This is when it feels real for me! You can have hotels booked, but they can always be cancelled. Once flights are booked its serious So, we leave Edinburgh at 06.40 on 7th May and we arrive in Orlando at 15.35.

Now, we are very fortunate in that between wedding and Christmas money we will only be paying for car hire and spending money ourselves. POR, Bahama Bay and flights are covered. How lucky are we? Very actually! If that wasn’t the case there is no way we would be going back so soon given the state of the oil industry! Chris has his own business and work has been pretty sparse, but thankfully he did get away to West Africa on 24th November and is yet to return home! That is 7 weeks and counting Financially it's a huge relief to us, but I would like him home now! My job appears to be safe for the moment, but I'm not counting my chickens!

Airport hotel, parking & twilight check-in.

I have booked us into the Holiday Inn Express near Edinburgh Airport for the night of the 6th May and have added on the 18 nights parking. The total is £141. Not bad! I looked at The Hilton which is walking distance to the airport, but their prices are simply hilarious.

I finish work at 12 on a Friday so we will probably head straight down the road once I’m done! We might even get the tram into the city centre for tea and a few drinks. We are fans of Edinburgh

I have learned that BA offer a twilight check in, so we’ll be taking full advantage of on the Friday night as that means we won’t have to be at the airport too early and can enjoy our free breakfast at the hotel. SWA-EET!

Magical Express and Car Hire

We were going to hire a car straight away, but then we thought why not leave it a few days and collect it from the Disney Car Care Centre? It saves us the hassle of collecting the car at the airport and it means we can ride the MAGICAL EXPRESS! I am so excited for this! I wasn’t sure how to go about sorting this out so I asked on TheDibb! I was given a link, but the page kept freezing, so I ended up phoning Disney directly and I got the nicest lady who sorted it all out for me

We haven’t booked the car yet, but we will probably collect it on the Tuesday which is our 3rd morning.

ADRs

I booked the ADRs before we had even confirmed that we were 100% going! Haha! I didn’t want to miss out on any popular ones, so I thought I could always cancel if I had to! So our 7 Table Service credits will be spent on the following:

Sunday 8th May – Breakfast at 1900 Park Fayre at The Grand Floridian
Monday 9th May – Dinner at Captain’s Grille at The Yacht Club
Tuesday 10th May – Dinner at Boatwrights Dining Hall at POR
Wednesday 11th May – Dinner at Be Our Guest at Magic Kingdom
Thursday 12th May – Lunch at Via Napoli at Epcot
Friday 13th May – Dinner at ‘Ohana at The Polynesian
Saturday 14th May – Lunch at Beaches n Cream at The Beach Club

Ta Da! What do y’all think of those? I had originally booked Chef Mickey’s for breakfast, but switched to 1900 Park Fayre as we’ve never been to the Grand Floridian yet and I’m strangely intrigued by the strawberry soup! I also had Yak & Yeti booked for lunch, but I changed that for dinner at Captain’s Grille cos I decided a Quick Service lunch at Yak & Yeti would be sufficient!

I think that’s all I need to blab on about for now! I do have a list of Quick Service restaurants that we’ll probably go to along with a list of snacks I want to try, but I’ll save that for another update

Thanks for reading!

Update No.1 - ADR change
Update No. 2 - Dollars purchased
Update No. 3 - ESTAs and Car Hire
Update No. 4 - Another ADR change
Update No. 5 - Quick Service Choices
Update No. 6 - Snack credit wishes
Update No.7 - Anna Maria Island!
Update No. 8 - Disney balance paid and Golf Reservations
Update No.9 - More dollars!
Update No.10 - Offsite eats
Update No. 11 - Universal tickets
Update No. 12 - Garden Grocer Order
Update No.13 - FP+, OLCI and more dollars!
Update No.14 - Mousekeeping Envelopes
Update No.15 - Dollars, FPs and Packing
Update No. 16 - Late check out
Update No. 17 - Daily Plans
Update No. 18 - Morimoto ADR!
Update No.19 - Behind the Seeds Tour
Update No. 20 - Change of airport hotel
Update No. 21 - ADR changes!
Update No. 22 - Grand Flo Cafe change
Update No.23 - Itinerary reshuffle due to Symphony in the Stars!
Update No.24 - New camera, Aspire Lounge and other ramblings!
Update No. 25 - Dessert Party!
Update No. 26 - 5 days to go!
Update No. 27 - Room request and general jibberish!

[Helen0705]

All sounds amazing !
I've read a few of your trip reports and really enjoyed them .
Congrats on your wedding - you both looked fantastic !

[Guest]

Very jealous! Going back so soon! I feel your pain about the oil industry...
Interested to hear if you like captains grill, that's on my to do list.

[disney332]

Looking forward to the trip report. Loved your others !

Have a good time

Disney 332

[Guest]

Fab pre trip.
All I would say is beaches and cream isn't good value for a credit! Pay oop for it and use the credit elsewhere as the burgers etc are much cheaper than mains in other places.

[Wozi]

Oh wow ... sounds like the making of another amazing trip. I'm looking forward to booking our TS restaurants on Monday, hopefully we'll get what we want. Can't wait to see which CS restaurants you pick. We've been looking through the menus trying to decide what works for the 4 of us.

Looking forward to reading more

[collybird]

I think you made the right decision switching from the Beach Club to POR. I was dead set on booking the Beach Club for next year, we had breakfast there on our first day last year then walked to Epcot and even spoke about how great it was going to be just to stroll to the parks... Then we picked up our (first ever) hire car and realised staying in a moderate being parked right outside your building works so much better for us, we love food courts too. I just can't justify the extra cost of a deluxe.

I can't believe how long Chris has been away for, you poor thing! I know in the industry right now you have to count your blessings that he's working but it doesn't mean you miss him any less!

The prices of the Hilton at Edinburgh are an absolute joke, it's in badly need of a refurb too!

[lovedisney89]

Yay! You have started your pre-trippy, sounds like a lovely "proper" honeymoon trip

Your restaurant choices sound fab too x

[berniegroves]

Your trip sounds fantastic :-)
I do remember how lovely florida holidays can be before kids :-)

We are there from 21st April until 12th May, so our holidays overlap :-) Although we are staying at a Villa so we aren't onsite.

I'm looking forward to following along with the rest of your plans.

[mrsstitch]

Sounds perfect xx we stayed at POR a couple of yrs ago on Magnolia bend-you won't regret it. It is a lovely resort with Everything you'll need at close hand, we'd love to go back there! Looking forward to your trip report on your return