Adam & Ian's Christmas Honeymoon Vacation

[66Caunce]

“If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse.”

Walter Elias Disney

This is my first time producing a 'trip report' but it's an idea I've grown fond of since being a lurker/member here since January 2014. Reading all of your reports has given me lots of ideas and really assisted in organising such a trip - when I first looked at the various ticket options and combinations for the parks, for instance, I thought my brain was going to explode.

Anyway, this is our first trip abroad as a couple - our honeymoon, over Christmas and New Year - my second trip to Florida (a family holiday to Atlanta, GA and Orlando back in 1999 being my first) and my partner's first trip to the United States full-stop. Our adventure begins in less than ten weeks, on 20th December, our wedding day followed by our honeymoon 24th December - 9th January.

So, having read about 52 trip reports a day for the last 52 weeks, I believe I now need to introduce the 'cast':

Adam, 28 (29 when we fly) - that's me. A big Disney fan, a huge USA fan and an even bigger fan of travel in general. Chief-planner, financial-worrier and most excited about the trip (more than the wedding...). Having been in 1999, I now appreciate just how much effort it took my parents to get us there, both in planning and financially. I've spent hours upon hours poring over notes, trip reports, forums and Facebook groups and still feel like we might be missing out on something. When we booked our honeymoon, we didn't realise Christmas is the busiest time of year for the parks - this has only led to my planning neuroses increasing! What am I looking forward to the most about this trip? The food! Huge portions of food. If I don't come home with a food-related medical condition, I haven't done the honeymoon right. What am I not looking forward to? Rollercoasters that go upside-down, although I'm trying not to show it too much as I'll be made to ride them far more than the once I'm planning. With my eyes shut.

Ian, 24 - my partner and the least excited about the trip. Excuses I've heard so far for not showing interest in my many itineraries or Disney-related conversation include, but are not limited to, '...but it's so far away...', '...you know what you're doing, you choose...' and '...why are you booking stuff now? Can we not just walk in?'. I'm sure as the time to leave approaches, he'll get more and more interested and excited but until that moment, I think he's far more pre-occupied with the wedding (and who wouldn't be, marrying me? ) Ian's never been to the USA but has traveled to Australia and various European countries. He's probably more used to holidaying than I am as I haven't been abroad for a decade or so.

In the build up to the event, most of you have simply a holiday to plan. Well, not us! A wedding takes a phenomenal amount of planning. Add a honeymoon to Orlando on top and my life has been consumed this year with these two events. I'll almost be glad when it's all over so I can think about our next holiday (somewhere that doesn't require me to take on a second job as Chief Planner would be nice!)

We'd originally looked at traveling to Cape Verde for our honeymoon. Two weeks over Christmas on a beautiful beach, staying in a lovely hut right on the coast, with whale and turtle watching, horse riding and general lazing around. This idea didn't fully appeal to me - the idea of lying on a beach for two weeks - so I voiced my concerns. Ian wanted somewhere hot and wasn't concerned where we went. I was happy when we discovered the wildlife-based activities available but when it transpired that these animals only did stuff in the summer months, we had to go back to the drawing board.

We searched holidays in destinations where the temperature in December might exceed 20C and spotted a fortnight in Animal Kingdom Lodge online for about £2k. This price seemed insane and, after a phone call, it was. "It's meant to say £8k", she said. Oh. But this find had ignited a spark - could we do Orlando over Christmas and New Year within our budget of £2600?

We didn't have the money at the time. We needed somewhere that would take a deposit. Or we could chance it and sit it out while saving. We went for the former when I happened across Holiday Genie. They quoted us £1698 for the Rosen Inn (opposite Wet 'N' Wild) for a fortnight, return flights (from LHR, returning to MAN) and in-flight meals. We paid our £99 deposit each and started squirreling away our cash each payday.



Living in Blackpool, and flying from LHR, meant a leg of the trip needed to be planned. My first idea was the train - at £300 for the two of us, that was a big no. Next, flights - £94 for both, MAN to LHR. Fantastic. We booked them and booked a Premier Inn nearby for Christmas Eve for £29. We have yet to buy our theme park tickets but they'll be coming out of October's pay - all £1150 of them...



We've decided on 14-day Disney and Universal tickets with a day at Discovery Cove with the dolphin swim thrown in. A day at Seaworld is also on the cards but, thankfully, that day's tickets is included with the DC purchase. Overall, come October 31st, our total trip cost will be £2971. Slightly over budget, but aren't most weddings and honeymoons? And, yes, I know this doesn't include spending money - we'll be using wedding gifts and other savings for this with a hope of taking £1500 with us. I get paid on 31st December whilst out there so if we need any more cash, we'll be fine. We can deal with any financial fallout when we return to the UK.

I still have a to-do list as long as Pinocchio's nose after a big lie even today. But I have managed to cross a lot off over the course of the past six months or so. Economising on suitcases (we already had a perfectly decent one) so, one day, I headed to Sports Direct and happened upon a sale on all luggage. I got a case that perfectly fits Delta Airline's luggage dimensions for £23.

With the cases sorted, my next focus was on currency. I have decided we'll take a mix of cash, traveler's cheques and travel money cards. Of the cards, we plan to take three different cards after reading of some problems here. This way, we'll also be able to take advantage of TopCashback's incentives on each - a total of £18 in cashback is not to be sniffed at for simply transferring money to cards - and it means we can hedge our bets. If something goes wrong with one of our sources of cash, we have four other options to choose from (plus my debit card from 31/12, pay day).

None of us are drivers. Ian has epilepsy so potentially might never be able to drive and I just haven't ever felt the need to do it. How I wish I had for this trip! Nevertheless, I knew I couldn't learn and pass my test in time to be able to hire a car over there so we looked at our options. At the end of November, I'll be booking the Hoppa bus from Heathrow to our Premier Inn at £4 each. A taxi for the return journey the following morning at £16. Return transfers in Orlando through a forum advertiser here. And my dad is picking us up from Blackpool on Christmas Eve and driving us to Manchester. We get a few hours with my family before he'll then take us on to the airport. We're very lucky in this respect as the journey would have added about £50 to our costs, each way. Finally, we'll be making use of the iTrolley and Lynk buses as well as trying to befriend taxi drivers to bring our transport costs down. I also don't mind walking up to an hour or so to get to places but Ian is less enthused by this idea...]

I applied for our ESTAs a couple of days ago and got my new, shiny passport a few weeks back. Ian already had a passport in place and was hassling me for months to get mine done but with the backlog stories that made the news I was hesitant. Post-application, it was back to me within a few days which was brilliant.

Our holiday insurance was a bit of a pain for a few nights. Searching for the best price three nights on the trot kept bringing up huge prices due to Ian's epilepsy - nearly £500 from some companies! I found a company that added epilepsy cover for just £3 providing he doesn't have any seizures before we depart. I've told him if he has one, I'm not calling an ambulance as it will effectively cost us £400! In the end, we managed to get insured for just £36 for the period away.

In the past few weeks, I've booked more ADRs than we're going to use. I don't know how people feel about this - we have maybe three times more reservations than we will use, but as I am unsure of our plans until we start booking FastPass+ on 25th November, I have kept hold of them until then. On one hand, we're holding places other people could book and on the other, I think we're hedging our bets by doing this to ensure we have the best trip possible. I still feel a bit guilty though...

Our (rough) plan:

http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/plan...ew.php?p=36210

We will NOT be using all of these, so look out for some of them being released back into the system at the beginning of December!

I've really tried not to overplan the parks. Partly because even I, a crazy planner, don't want to be governed by a military operation when over there and partly because I do want to give Ian some say in what we do. To this end, the Quick Service restaurant choices for lunch are his - we'll go wherever he wants!

In August, I got a new job. It involves shift work, working for a private firm that has taken on NHS contracts. It has allowed me a huge amount of paid planning time - meaning I can spend time on the Dibb and write this pre-trip report at work and get paid to do it! During this time, I have thought about many things, including our distribution of spending money between the different means mentioned earlier. £300 will be in dollars, £300 in traveller's cheques and £900 split between three different currency cards. The slightly different rates we'll get will be negated by the £18 cashback earned through TopCashback. It kind of pays for our takeaway on our first night back in the UK! All of this is pencilled in to be done on 30th November, along with a million and one wedding things.

I still need to buy some decent trainers for the parks and will probably settle for these: skechers/style/5359...-gowalk-2/bkgy or these: mandmdirect/01/detail...Shoes-Charcoal I also plan a last-minute trip to Primark, failing that, a visit to the M&M Direct website for a hoodie. Again, these are a 30th November purchase.

So, onto the details. We fly Christmas Eve from Manchester to Heathrow at 7pm, arriving at 8pm. We're staying at the Premier Inn on Bath Road and intend to eat here at Thyme restaurant. They do a deal where you can eat a three-course meal with drink and unlimited breakfast the next day for £24.99 per person. Even if we don't eat the breakfast (it's Christmas Day, will they be serving early enough for us?), looking at the menu prices, we still get a good deal. If we don't manage breakfast here, we'll spend the £20 or so on a Wetherspoon's breakfast at The Windsor Castle at the airport. We then leave Manchester on Christmas Day at 10am, flying to Detroit. From there we fly into Orlando International, arriving at 6.08pm.



I've printed out some dollar envelopes and some mousekeeping envelopes too, even though we aren't staying on Disney property, I think they're a more personal touch for the hardworking housekeeping staff. I hope to have the smaller denominations by the end of November so can have them stuffed and ready to pack rather than sorting each night/morning: http://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/show...5&postcount=29

We have a few dates in the diary leading up to the wedding now: on the 17th, I'm treating myself to a haircut and cutthroat shave at a local posh barbers, the 19th my parents come down from Manchester to spend the afternoon and evening with me and Ian goes to St Annes for the night. The 20th December is then the wedding and I have a few restaurants booked for the three days gap we have before the honeymoon (Ian doesn't know about this - he thinks we'll be lazing around for three days, which we will, with nice food thrown in!).

Another 30th November purchase will be luggage scales, TSA locks and Dibb advertiser luggage ribbon. I'll have to make a pen and paper list for this day at this rate and maybe have the day off to spend some money all day! As far as the honeymoon itself goes, it's all paid off - flights, hotel, everything bar tickets for parks is paid.

The Rosen Inn looks lovely for a budget I-Drive hotel:

16/10/2014 UPDATE

Today, I have been packing my hand luggage (yes, two months before we go!) All paperwork has gone in, along with tickets, passports, money (still in £s) and our digital camera. I'm taking my tablet with me but, annoyingly, as I use it every day at home, I can't yet pack it away! We bought two of these a few months ago and they're fantastic. I'm sure we'll get comments from a few Americans whilst over there:

We've talked about the main luggage situation too and have both agreed to travel as light as possible so we can buy things out there to bring back. We're going to mix and match our clothes in two suitcases going out (in case one gets lost) and hopefully bring back a lot of goodies.

I've been taking advantage of the extreme workload I've taken on (my last day off was three weeks ago, my next is in a week) by printing as much stuff as we need at work. Well, ink is so expensive!

In terms of transport, we'll be booking Quicksilver Tours to transport us from MCO to the Rosen Inn at the end of November. I'll also be buying our Hoppa Bus tickets then and booking our taxi from Premier Inn to Heathrow on Christmas Day morning. Found a great deal for this - £16 for one-way on a Bank Holiday when everywhere else was quoting £24+. Why pay more for a taxi when you don't have to?

Yet another November purchase is Disney's Memory Maker and Universal's PhotoConnect. Both of these will be invaluable and are such good prices when you consider a visit to a theme park can involve ten or more rides with photos to buy. We should break even very quickly on this trip.

17/10/2014 UPDATE

Another day, another set of things to do. I've today added a bottle of sun cream to the list of things to buy as, although I doubt we'll need any over December/January time, I think it'd be handy to have just in case. I've also decided, if funds will stretch, to purchase a camcorder. It may even be the case that we buy one out there but I so want video footage of our honeymoon to look back on. Even more saving then!

On a slightly unrelated note, with our wedding coming up, I need to diet! I'm currently 14st 9lbs and was 12st 7lbs this time last year. Ooops. My birthday is this Monday so I'm starting the day after. I hope/want to lose two stone before 20th December. I'll be updating you with my progress on this front here, too!

A week ago, I bought a multi-charging device from Amazon. We can charge up to five devices (phones, tablets, etc) on the one plug socket. Well worth £20 as I have no idea how many sockets we'll have in the hotel room. Even if we have loads, the device will come in handy for future travel. As we had Amazon credit, we got it for 'free' so even better.

ADR News - I had to cancel our Wishes Dessert Party reservation I paid for last week due to discovering it's on one of our two Universal nights. Very annoyed as I had tried for about five weeks, every day, hoping for a cancelled slot to pop up. No idea how long it takes WDW to refund so will just have to keep an eye on my banking app over the next week or so. On a brighter note, I managed to book Be Our Guest! Like, just now, as I'm typing! We've got 4.05pm on 30/12 but I don't care, I'd eat at 3am just to visit this place. Very, very excited about this one. It'll mean a bit of rejigging to the itinerary but hopefully worth it.

Today I also thought about SD cards for the cameras so have added those to my shopping list for 30/11. A couple should do as I should be able to upload any pictures each night to my tablet...

Financially, I'm aiming for a budget of $250 a day, which means we need $4000 for the 17 days (including our two UK travel days). That's £2500 at today's exchange rate. My mum and dad are giving us money for our wedding, so this will be our spending money for the honeymoon (as long as we're controlled and don't dip into it beforehand - I'm considering changing to dollars early so we're not tempted but waiting for the 'real' exchange rate to hit $1.60 to the £1 (by 'real' I mean the one we, as consumers, can actually access)).

Our toiletries for the trip have been sorted for ages. I'm a bit of a bargain-hunter/hoarder and our spare room is akin to a corner shop. I'll collate what I think we'll need tomorrow and start a suitcase off, two months early!

18/10/2014 UPDATE

I decided today that with 67 days to go, I will attempt to watch every Disney film ever made (or at least the animations). I'm going to try and rope Ian in too and with it being my brithday on Monday, I'm going to suggest we start then with Snow White.

I've also been looking at places to get our wedding and honeymoon photographs printed and found Blurb. They'll put all of our memories into a hardback book, with the most expensive option being around £90. I think this will make a great Valentine's gift for Ian and will give me something to do after the holiday as I'm already getting concerned with how I'm going to spend my time! I'll buy the Blurb book at the end of January, giving me three weeks to sort out the design and, crucially something to do after all this planning is over!

I've thought about the day of travel and, in particular, what we're to wear. I need to buy a hoodie, probably from Primark and will travel in that, jeans and trainers (also need to buy). I imagine Ian will travel in similar, I'll need to ask him. Also looking at purchasing a couple of personalised travel t-shirts if funds allow from StreetShirts. Will have to wait and see for those though...

As we're staying on I-Drive, I've been looking at deals in restaurants for those nights where we're not eating at Disney. I found restaurant/listing?lo...ting=proximity which has lots of options to purchase gift certificates at a fraction of the cost. The restaurant attached to our hotel, Shogun, is on there - if they'll combine these vouchers with the half-price ones we apparently get at reception, I'll be pencilling Shogun in for a visit one night.

On Monday, I need to call HMRC as I feel, due to my work over the past four years, I may be owed a tax refund and a much needed one at that. I used to work for an agency as a supply teacher/cover supervisor and, even when the work was sporadic, my weekly earnings were taxed as if that was what I was earning every week of the year. That really wasn't the case so I'm hoping there is at least something owed to me.

Also on Monday, I want to print copies of our documents to give to respective parents before we leave. Added to my personal to do list.

19/10/2014 UPDATE

Tomorrow is my birthday. I'm not a great fan of birthdays any more, I don't like being the centre of attention. Still, I'm doing a short 1pm - 6pm shift on the day so that will keep me occupied. As I'm doing an early 7am - 3pm right now and it's extremely quiet, I have started the day with watching some YouTube videos, Disney ones obviously! This is a current favourite: youtube/watch?v=F6pTRcVuoRA

A slight concern popped into my head while uploading these images - we still haven't received anything bar a proforma and receipt from HolidayGenie. No flight tickets, nothing! I have emailed the Rosen Inn to make them aware we are staying with them for our honeymoon (in the hope of a cheeky upgrade) and they confirmed our booking is made so I'm not too concerned. I'd just rather have all tickets here now than have to chase them up. I'll give them until the beginning of November then give them a call to find out what's happening.

I've made a few more ADRs this morning. They may be used, they may not, but they are in place should we need them. I've reserved tables at Raglan Road, Chef Mickey's, Coral Reef (with Candlelight Processional) and Whispering Canyon Cafe, amongst others.

And a full list of our current ADRs (many of these are to be cancelled at some point, probably the last week of November when our itinerary is finalised):

Beaches & Cream Soda Shop
Tusker House
Whispering Canyon Cafe
The Plaza
Planet Hollywood
50s Prime Time Cafe
The Garden Grill
Biergarten
Coral Reef
Raglan Road
The Crystal Palace
Yak & Yeti
Be Our Guest
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater
Mama Melrose
Chef Mickey's
Hollywood & Vine
Akershus
Victoria & Albert's
1900 Park Fare
Liberty Tree Tavern

20/10/2014 UPDATE

Today, it's my birthday but that hasn't stopped me planning. Our financial situation with regards to the amount of money we can take with us isn't as great as I thought. Our original aim was to go there with £2500. I think we're going to be aiming for £1500 realistically speaking. This is due to our finances being extremely tight with only two paydays until the wedding. I'm not too concerned with that figure though - I'll get paid a four-figure sum on 31st December while we're in the USA so we'll still effectively have £2500 over the course of the fortnight and, who knows, we might not even need it all.

I've also thought about what we need to buy for hand luggage. I have a list that includes hand cream, notepad and pen, mints, chewing gum, chocolate and paracetamol.

25/10/2014 UPDATE

Six days until we buy our tickets! I've done some further research and was amazed to find we can save £157 of our expected price with FloridaTix by going with OrlandoAttractionTickets instead. Our expected total price was £1150 for WDW, US and DC and now its just £993! Can't wait to get this last lump sum paid and out of the way then all we have are odds and ends for the wedding to stump up for.

Due to work on my birthday 1pm - 6pm, I didn't get up until 11am and so Ian had already left the house. I had a lazy hour or so in bed with the dog and then left for work at 12.20pm. I didn't get home until 6.30pm so, until that point, it felt like any other day. Ian arrived home fifteen minutes after me and proceeded to disappear into the front room for a short while, all giddy - he was more excited than me! He then walked in with a beautiful big birthday cake-sized chocolate cupcake decorated with '29' candles, singing Happy Birthday. Once I'd blown them out, he took my presents from a box in the living room (they'd been hiding in plain sight for a month or so, the crafty beggar)!

We'd long ago agreed no gifts for birthdays this year yet I broke the rule by hiring a wedding car to take him from home to the venue on the day. He went above and beyond that by presenting me with a Go Pro Hero 3, chest mount and FIFA 15 for the PS4! Very naughty indeed. I'm very excited about trying out the Go Pro though, especially on rides and around the parks during fireworks, etc. That's the camcorder AND underwater camera crossed off the list!

Yesterday I received by email a revised flight itinerary that, this time, included our flight numbers, departure gates and luggage allowance. Unfortunately, the luggage is showing as '1PC' - I'm seriously hoping that's each and not between us! I tried to get in touch with them yesterday but couldn't get through so left a message. I'll try again on Monday afternoon if still no answer.

On the diet front, it was a non-starter due to the birthday cake leftovers and my lack of willpower. I've set a D-Day of 1st November - that day is 'now or never' and I have seven weeks in which to attempt to lose about two stone. I'll be keeping you updated here.

I got my Wishes Dessert Party refund within two working days so was able to pay my mobile phone bill, something I'd neglected in order to put funds into the wedding. I went two weeks without it and, to be honest, it was a lovely break!

The 'Watching Every Disney Film Ever Made Before Our Honeymoon Challenge' has yet to begin, mainly because we don't have Snow White at home nor can I find it on our app of choice, Showbox. We may have to start with an alternative but, with the clock ticking, we MAY not make the deadline... There's also a load of Universal films I'd like to get watched prior to take-off including The Simpsons Movie and E.T. I so hope we get the chance to do this together before we go.

Tpmorrow, I'm going to 'make' a version of a Disney CD using an app on my tablet so we can get into the spirit of things on our travel day:



I've added a bottle of the Body Shop's Peppermint Cooling Foot Spray to my shopping list. Apparently, it's great after a day in the parks, 12+ on your feet, to be sprayed directly from the fridge to help take away that aching pain.



And, finally, I bought a travel document holder from Amazon. We had £5ish of credit left so just got a cheap one from China for £1.77. It should be with us in three weeks:



Things done:

Book and pay for flights
Complete and pay for ESTAs
Travel Insurance
Book hotel
Book ADRs
Itinerary/Plan
Toiletries
Book Overnight Stay at RPR
Book overnight stay at Premier Inn

Things to do:

Holiday clothes
Sun cream
Pre-Order PhotoPass CD
Reserve seats
Order Disney Park Tickets
Order Universal Park Tickets
Book Wishes Dessert Party
Get some dollars!
Arrange Sainsburys delivery for return (few days before we go)
OLCI - 23/12
Contact banks to let them know we'll be in the US of A

16/11/2014 UPDATE

Hello, it's been a while!

Since my last update, we've bought and received all of our tickets. My original order was with FloridaTix, through TopCashback. I paid the £20 deposit then promptly found the tickets cheaper elsewhere. Not to worry though as the cashback paid out even though I'd only paid £20 of the balance. I ended up losing £1!

We eventually went with OrlandoAttractionTickets who were superb. I ordered the Disney/Universal combo on the Friday morning and the following day they arrived by tracked Royal Mail. I then promptly ordered our Discovery Cove Swim with them and received the emailed e-tickets two days later. Brilliant service.

So, with these in hand, I set about finalising our itinerary and there were major changes afoot! I've removed the original itinerary from this post as it no longer bears any resemblance to our new plan of action. Here's our new travel day:



I'm getting up bright and early and I've already told Ian he can get up as and when he wishes. After a shower, shave and general grooming session, I'll get changed and head out to hit one of our local supermarkets. This was initially intended to be Sainsbury's (we are lucky enough to live less than 5 minutes walk away from a brand new massive store) but I realised I have £30 in gift vouchers for Morrison's and, as we also have a brand new Morrison's Local less than 5 minutes walk away in the opposite direction, I fancy grabbing some freebies before we fly!

I'll stop off at a local hot sandwich shop on the way home to pick up our breakfast batons then trundle home to an idyllic scene of everything packed and ready to go, Ian lounging on the sofa, all tranquil and calm... In reality, we'll stuff our food into our faces then panic as we quadruple-check everything is packed and ready to go before my dad arrives to give us a lift to Manchester.

Before we depart for the airport, we're spending 5-6 hours with my family on Christmas Eve, which will be nice. We're getting a chippy lunch so we should be suitably full for the day ahead. We'll then travel to the airport, fly to Heathrow, use the Uber app for the first time to get us to our Premier Inn, check in, leave our bags in our room and head down to the restaurant for our first dinner reservation of the trip.

We're eating at the hotel's Thyme restaurant where we will order the package of a three-course meal, drink and unlimited breakfast the next day for £24.99. Even if, when I call the hotel on Tuesday, they tell me that their Christmas Day breakfast times are unsuitable for us, we'll still have saved a few quid based on the individual menu prices at dinner. If this is the case, we'll be leaving slightly earlier the next day so we can eat at Wetherspoons at the airport before the flight.

18/11/2014 UPDATE

Having just called Premier Inn Bath Road, they've informed me that Christmas Day breakfast will be served from 6.30am. This is just about doable for us and, as we're paying for the package of dinner the night before and unlimited breakfast in the morning, even though we'll only have 40 minutes to take advantage, I've pencilled it in and taken Wetherspoons at the airport out.

Our second travel day now looks like this:



We'll get up bright and early at 6am and freshen up before heading down for breakfast dead on 6.30am. We'll have 40 minutes to stuff our faces (and hopefully secrete bacon, sausages and toast/bread about our persons for munching on at the airport) before checking out of the hotel. An Uber cab will have been booked for 7.15am to take us the short 15 minute journey to the airport (although I've been conservative on the planner and allowed 45 minutes to arrive). We should be inside our terminal by 7.45am.

There will be two and a half hours of mooching around duty free and checking and re-checking bags before we finally board and take off for Detroit at 10.10am. We'll land there at approximately 2pm US time and, hopefully, sail through immigration so we can hunt out Fuddruckers for our first meal on American soil before boarding our final plane to Orlando.

I've allowed an hour post-arrival at 6.05pm to get out of MCO into our, again hopefully, pre-booked in Detroit Uber cab to the Rosen Inn. I've again allowed an hour for travel although in reality it should take half of that. If we're in our hotel by 8pm US time, I'll be happy. We'll check in, have a quick shower and change and jump into another Uber cab to go out for our 'Christmas Dinner' which currently consists of Teak Neighborhood Grill. Now, I'm becoming more unsure of this as a venue for our first table service meal of the honeymoon as time goes on. If everything goes to plan, we'll have already eaten burger and fries for lunch and it looks like you can't go to Teak without ordering a burger so I'm now torn. I've emailed numerous restaurants, from The Cheesecake Factory to Ponderosa to find out if they're open on the biggest Holiday day of the year (most restaurants are open on Thanksgiving so I do think Christmas is bigger as most are shut to allow employees time with their families). So far, only Ponderosa have responded positively that they are open all day and night. I think we will end up changing this meal at some point prior to leaving but for now, what for, I haven't a clue.

Assuming we're all stuffed at 11pm, we'll head back to the hotel for some sleep. This plan heavily relies on us both sleeping on the plane as, although 11pm sounds fine to end the day, that's 4am to our jet-lagged bodies if we haven't had a wink all day. Thus, this day is extremely flexible depending on how we feel at the time.

20/11/2014 UPDATE

With two days to go until my stag do, it must be time for me to upload our Day Three plan! It looks like this:



Quite a simple one this - we were going to go to Magic Kingdom on our first full day but I managed to get an ADR last week for Be Our Guest on the 28th, so I switch MK for Epcot.

We'll get up bright and early (probably more to do with the time difference than our alarms) and have our first US breakfast in the hotel for ease. An Uber cab will be booked to pick us up and take us to the transportation center where we'll then travel on to Epcot itself. I am assuming we won't be there for rope drop, but that doesn't bother me. And today, Epcot is a Most Recommended park according to the Busy Day Guide so it should be reasonably busy rather than the unreasonable crowds at MK!

We have an ADR at The Biergarten restaurant for lunch and this then entitles us to priority seating for the Candlelight Processional at 5pm. I'm really looking forward to this as our Christmas spirit will likely have been drained by spending the previous day in the air (and in airport terminals).

I'm hoping we'll stay in Epcot all day until close so we can see Illuminations. I hope it's not a mistake to head out so early! We could spend the morning doing something else but I fear we'll be wide awake from the time difference so, either way, we might be tired come tea-time.

I hope I've got this right!

With 35 days to go, there's plenty more to come! Hopefully, I'll be able to edit this post rather than have it scattered throughout. I'll post when I've updated here.

[floridafan10]

Sounds good so far! We fly Christmas Eve from Manchester!

Anne

[ThumperFamily]

Wow you have been busy, good luck with the wedding and trip. Looking forward to reading more

[66Caunce]

Originally Posted by floridafan10

Sounds good so far! We fly Christmas Eve from Manchester!

Anne

See more...

Oooh, maybe we'll see you somewhere on our trip?

[66Caunce]

Originally Posted by ThumperFamily

Wow you have been busy, good luck with the wedding and trip. Looking forward to reading more

See more...

Thank you. Plenty more to come, trust me!

[Hannikins]

how exciting! we fly back on the 20th so I'll be thinking of you.

Happy planning from a fellow sandgrownun :P

[weloveorlando]

We go on the 16th hope you have a great time ,you will love every minute of it

[Pussycat Doll]

We fly Christmas Day but from Gatwick so maybe see you immigration! Pussycat

[smi]

Looking forward to reading more, loving the plans so far. I bet you are really excited. love your luggage.

[JackyH]

Good start. Looking forward to reading about your honeymoon. Best wishes for your wedding day and hope you both have a fabulous day.