Our Disney Fairy Tale Wedding: Morocco/The Attic/Lower UK About This Page:

[MayraLR]

What a beautiful wedding you had! The pictures were so breath taking.

[Elastigirl]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

More fabulous pictures!! How great to get into the park before anyone else!!

It was an amazing experience, I'll admit. But there's something almost sacrilegious about roaring up to the hub in a van instead of on a trolley or on foot!

Originally Posted by mpwife153

More great...maybe you should be a Disney Photographer! What a shame your wedding pics didn't turn out as nice as your own pics did. I the pics Roots took, they are Amazing ! Tfs the TR,can't wait to hear/see more!

More on the way!

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

Congrats on being in the Destination Weddings magazine! How awesome is that!
Sorry the MK photo shoot wasn't all that you expected, but I'm glad you had a good time while doing it.

Yes, it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing!

Originally Posted by MayraLR

What a beautiful wedding you had! The pictures were so breath taking.

Thank you! I owe it all to the Roots!

[Elastigirl]

I woke up early and decided to do a little laundry and read until DH woke up (the curse of staying at a DVC resort is that you feel compelled to do laundry constantly because it’s FREE!). I took my book down to my fave common area, the Solarium, but they had the TV on full blast (with nobody in the room) at 7:30am, and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off. I moved to the Breezeway, but people kept parading through there like it was noon. So I ended up back in the Drawing Room, where we had our meet ‘n’ greet – just right!

DH woke up and had some cereal and then we headed for the park. It was SO nice to be able to walk over to the International Gateway for park opening. Since neither of us had been to Epcot since we were kids (getting married there doesn’t count), we planned a full day to explore. As soon as the rope dropped, we raced off to Test Track while everyone else dashed for Soarin’. We ride Soarin’ Over California all the time at DCA, so that was one crowd magnet we managed to avoid on our trip. Along the way we got tons of congratulations and comments on our hats. Test Track was fun, but my favorite part – the high-speed loop at the end – felt like it was just getting started and then the ride ended. We found that a lot with the thrill rides at WDW (Expedition Everest excepted).

Then we rode the orange side of Mission: Space and didn’t die. Hooray!!! Really, most of my tummy weirdness at the beginning was just fear from all the horror stories I’d heard. Once again, just as things really got interesting and we landed on Mars... the ride ended! DH was bummed that we didn’t get to tool around the surface and explore. From there we went to Spaceship Earth, which I’d never ever been on. I really liked it! I love how many rides with animatronics there are at WDW.

After that, we rode the Seas with Nemo & Friends, which I think really needs to be experienced before you see Disneyland’s version on the submarines. It was kinda boring and short (I don’t mean to be a D-land snob – we found many things at WDW that we think are done way better than at “our” park).



Inside the Living Seas we looked at a bunch of unidentified fish and the back of a manatee. We couldn’t figure out why nothing in the exhibits is labeled. Even the tiniest local aquariums tell you what you’re looking at.



We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons in the Land cuz I’d heard it had good variety for counter-service spot. The “airport food court” theming is kind of a head-scratcher, though. Didn’t all of us see one of those on the way to WDW? The nice lady at the Spring station told us we could take two cookies from the bakery for being newlyweds, but I also tried the peanut butter chocolate cake – OMG, it was amazing! It was better than our wedding cake! Light, moist and the peanut butter wasn’t gummy and fake-tasting. It became my dessert, the way some people latch on to Norway’s School Bread or the Dole Whips.



We couldn’t believe how soon we finished Future World, considering we’d wanted to see it all. The Imagination Pavilion was completely closed, as was the body one, and we decided to save Ellen’s Universe of Energy for when we had 45 minutes of our lives that we never wanted back... Off to the World Showcase!



Canada was, of course, lovely. The new Circlevision movie was pretty cool, despite Martin Short (he kept the mugging to a minimum), and it made me want to go back to (real) Canada – so I guess they succeeded! DH loved the shop...



In England we got dissed by Alice for taking a picture of her as she walked to her picture location – sorry, lady! In France I went on the hunt for perfume, thinking I would get something to remind me of our trip every time I wore it. Unfortunately, they only have a very small selection of exclusive perfumes, and none of them knocked me out. Chanel was debuting some new fragrance at Epcot and passing out samples: It smelled exactly like the soap in the restrooms – ick!

We watched France’s Circlevision film and of course decided we had to go there, too. (This became a theme.) We also lined up to get chocolate mousse at the bakery on the recommendation of a DISer, who is apparently obsessed by it. It tasted like it was made from powder, and we ended up pitching it (Of course this DISer also eats All-Star food court pizza for every meal I love you, Crystal!).

In Morocco we stopped to marvel at how different everything looked from our wedding day. In fact, it hardly seemed like the same place! One funny thing happened – I began whining about how the Roots hadn’t taken any pictures of us in front of the fountain and how I wished I’d asked for one (this was before we got our discs and saw that they managed to get 1,500 excellent pictures without sticking us in front of the fountain!). So we decided to use some of the leftover foreign coins we’d brought from home to make a wish in the fountain, and DH wished we had a picture in front of the fountain. Just then a couple walked up to us and asked if they could take our picture in front of the fountain cuz they loved our wedding ears!!! It was spooky!



In Japan we watched the candy lady make a wolf and explored the Mitsukoshi department store. We bought our first souvenirs, two cute stuffed animals (I think they’re from Pokemon - don’t tell anyone...).

In America we were set upon by a very tenacious and slightly annoying cast member who first dragged us over to hear a congratulatory phone call from Mickey and Minnie (apparently Mickey is as enamored of cake as I am!) and then insisted we sit down in the middle of the Rotunda and stay until the Voices of Liberty showed up. I was kinda creeped out by how demanding he was, so we sneaked out, but when he saw us outside, he started freaking out about how we had to come back and sit in that spot. Finally DH said we should humor him, so we ended up with a front-row seat for the Voices of Liberty, and they made a big fuss over us and sang us “When You Wish Upon a Star” – it was really quite moving.



Then another CM came to get us and took us in an elevator to the American Adventure show. We got to pick out our seats before they let anyone in to the theater – sweet! In Germany we poked around the Biergarten and the shops. I made DH take a picture of the Arribas Brothers’ $37,500 crystal-encrusted castle so we wouldn’t have to buy it.



We kinda skipped Italy because we were running out of time before our Le Cellier reservation. I was really looking forward to this one because I’d heard so much about the food. Boy was I glad I’d made a reservation 6 months in advance – while we were waiting, we saw them very snottily turn away several groups who walked in without ADRs. In fact, it felt like the whole place had the air of a successful business that doesn’t have to try very hard because the customers will come anyway. As many people have pointed out, the tables are squeezed together to get the maximum number of customers in (why can’t they just expand the building?). The service was perfunctory and each course came out before we finished the previous one – no secret that they were trying to rush us out.

And, the biggest offense, NO FREE DESSERT! Boo! OK, of course we were not entitled to a free dessert just for spending thousands of dollars to marry at WDW (hee hee!), but it sorta underscored the indifferent service. Actually, a bigger bummer was that they no longer served maple creme brulee, just vanilla. What’s the point? I can get vanilla creme brulee at every restaurant on property... (They have since reinstated it.) However, all that complaining aside, the food was very tasty and I am a sucker and I totally want to go back!

After dinner we buzzed through China and Mexico, knowing we’d be back to give them a proper look later. We rode the Three Caballeros ride, and DH modeled a sombrero.



We decided to skip IllumiNations (sacrilege, I know) and get some ice cream at the Beach Club marketplace to take back to our room and eat with cake. We sat on our balcony eating cake, watching Wishes over the Magic Kingdom, and listening to the soundtrack to “Believe... There’s Magic In the Stars” cuz it was the only fireworks music I had on my iPod!

[Elastigirl]

Friday was supposed to be our first unscheduled day, to give us time to move from Beach Club Villas to the Contemporary and relax before our reservation at California Grill. But in the weeks before our wedding people started getting us all these cool experiences on our Disney Honeymoon Registry, so the free days quickly filled up with activities.

We got up and finished packing, then drove our stuff to the Contemporary and checked in. I’d secretly hoped for a little more honeymoon magic, like a Tower room upgrade or even an early check-in, but they were sold out that night so we got nuthin’ but a baggage claim ticket from Bell Services.

We hopped a monorail to Epcot, where we had reservations for the Behind the Seeds tour of the Land Pavilion. We must be getting old, cuz we loved it! It is what the Land ride should be – educational but fun, interesting and interactive. We got to see all the crazy hydroponic growing systems and ginormous vegetables, plus the fish tanks (where we induced a feeding frenzy with pellets our guide distributed) and parts of the Living with the Land ride from the other side. I highly recommend it!








Afterward we took the monorail back to the Contemporary and ate a quick hot dog in our room before our appointment for… parasailing! We met our two, uh, boat dudes at the dock and hopped on a speed boat. It was disconcerting and yet mildly comforting how casual they were about the whole shooting-into-the-air-on-a-parachute thing.





They gave us these frighteningly simple harnesses to wear and had us take off our shoes and sit down at the back of the boat as they unfurled the Jolly Roger-bedecked parachute. One minute we’re sitting there chatting about the weather and the next thing we know we’re 300 feet in the air as the boat grows smaller and smaller below us.



It almost wasn’t scary til I started to think about how our only connection to the tiny boat below was a 2-inch wide cable and the only thing attaching me and DH to the chute was a pair of metal hooks.



We picked the 600-foot, 12-minute deluxe tandem parasailing package, and we were so glad we’d gone together. I know I would have spent the whole flight trying to memorize every detail so I could tell DH about it when I got back to the boat. When we got up there, DH said, “There’s nobody else I’d rather be up here with than you” – so cute!



We tried to pick out landmarks (easy to do cuz Florida is so flat!) and wished we had a camera to take pix of the DVC resort they were not building next to the Contemporary (which, of course, has since been officially acknowledged - I mean, it's kinda hard to miss!). Originally 12 minutes had sounded short, but it turned out to be just right – and maybe a tad too long!

My feet started to get kinda cold, and I noticed that one of the clasps on my harness looked like it was about to come undone (it wasn’t, but it sure looked that way!). They’d given us a chicken signal to make if we wanted to come in early, but we were trying to be tough so we waited til they reeled us in. Apparently they had been having a party onboard in our absence – the frat rock was cranked way up and all that were missing were the Budweiser Babes…


After that we took a break in our room. We hung out with our duck buddies, who came right up to our patio and then tried to come inside after we fed them Cheetos. (This became our favorite pastime at the Contemporary.)





I used the slooooooow free Internet access to read the message boards and check out the preview pix the Roots had posted on their blog. Here is a picture of me posting a message from my honeymoon, like a dork.



We got all gussied up and went upstairs to the California Grill for dinner. Originally I’d perfectly timed our reservation so we could catch the second showing of Wishes during the Pirate & Princess Party from our table. But right before our trip they cancelled Wishes during PP and suddenly we were stuck with a 9:30pm dinner reservation. The only time I was able to switch to was 5:50pm, but it turned out to be really nice because it was so uncrowded.




I’d heard horror stories about waiting 45 minutes past your ADR time to be seated, but we got in right away. We had a nice, mellow dinner. I’d had Disney Dining put “honeymoon” on every single ADR, and at this one they’d sprinkled confetti on our table.

DH made this for me!


When the waiter made the obligatory sushi pitch, I was like, “We’re from California – we can get sushi at the laundromat,” and he backed off. I had the filet, which cannot be obtained at the laundromat and is delicious (but why the teriyaki sauce on a perfectly fine piece of meat?). DH’s scallops were better than the ones I had at Flying Fish.






And we got a free dessert to go! Oh, and speaking of going, I made DH take pix of the Sonoma Room on the way to the bathroom so I could post them on the wedding boards if necessary. Nerd!



Because we finished dinner so early, we had time to go back to our room and change into warm clothes, then ride the elevator back to the California Grill to watch the regular Wishes from the observation deck. At that point we’d seen them three times, and never from the hub! After the fireworks we dashed downstairs and along the path to the Magic Kingdom to catch SpectroMagic. Neither of us had ever seen it and we’d heard sooo much about it (well, OK, Tour Guide Mike goes on about it constantly). We staked out a spot in Liberty Square and pretended that the CMs pushing carts full of light-up necklaces were the first floats of the parade. While we waited we got a call from the Roots, who wanted to do another photo shoot with us, this time inside the parks. We made plans to meet them in Celebration for breakfast the following Tuesday and then hit Magic Kingdom, and Jensey told us her favorite place to watch SpectroMagic (which isn’t Liberty Square – whoops!).

So the parade came by, and Cinderella pointed to our bride & groom ears and wished us congratulations, but…. I don’t get the big deal…. I’m not a huge parade fan, but I guess I thought Spectro would be different cuz of all the lights. Maybe someone can e’splain it to me….

Then we rode Haunted Mansion – whohoo! And then we walked back to our room, back to the ducks pressing their beaks against the glass and quacking “Cheetos! Cheetos!” and pooping all over our patio to thank us.

[Elastigirl]

My journal entry for this day starts: “Another frickin’ magical day!”

It was Saturday, and we inveterate park tourers decided to sleep in for a change. When we got up, we took the monorail from the Contemporary to the Polynesian for brunch at Kona Café — our first spontaneous, non-ADR meal (gasp!). I made DH order the Tonga Toast because I’d heard so much about it (but don’t eat bananas myself), and I had a delicious (Polynesian) trencherman’s breakfast of eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, macadamia nut pancakes, French toast and home fries. Burp!





Afterward we took the monorail to the Grand Floridian to buy soaps at Basin. DH wanted to use a special one during our trip so we could sniff it later and always be reminded of our honeymoon. Awwwww! Coincidentally, the one that smelled the best had a bride and groom in it! (Imagine my dismay when I eventually had to separate them as the soap wore down and pieces began to fall out, including the groom’s head!)

From there we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and spent the morning walking up and down Main Street and soaking in all the theming.









The first time we went to the MK, I remarked on how loud the music was compared to on Main Street at Disneyland.

“Hey you kids, turn down that $%&@ music!!”


This time we figured out that they only blast it when a train pulls in, as if to say, “HOORAY! The train is here! Again! Just like it was 10 minutes ago! Let’s all celebrate by going deaf!!”

“I can tell the train’s a-comin’ cuz my ears are a-bleedin’!”


We had time to stop and listen to the Dapper Dans, who sang a lovely song to me and DH and another couple, who were celebrating their 63rd anniversary! You can bet we solicited advice from them…



Then we walked back to the Contemporary and freshened up. On the way we discovered a duck nest against the window just inside the door to the Garden wing:



While we were in our room, I called about a “bounce-back” offer for returning guests in September. We’re such suckers – when we were in Walt Disney World for our planning session last September, they hooked us with a free-dining bounce-back offer for the following September. So on our honeymoon we took advantage of another offer to get a screaming deal on one night at the Polynesian when we went back in September. I have to say, though, that having that September trip planned already REALLY helped ease the post-honeymoon blues…

Next we caught the monorail to Epcot, where we got to sit up front with the driver. It turned out he used to live in SoCal and worked at Disneyland, so we all reminisced about it. He said he wanted to move back.



In Epcot we hit the attractions we’d missed on our commando day Thursday: Maelstrom (“Please stay for the 5-minute movie, PLEASE! No – wait, where are you going? Did I say 5 minutes? I meant 5 seconds. Pleeeeeeease!!!”), the China movie, and Ellen’s Universe of Energy (“Did we mention this ride is 37 minutes long? That’s right. Thir-ty… se-ven… MINUTES. There are no potty breaks. 37 minutes. All Ellen, all the time. THIRTY SEVEN MINUTES!!!! While you’re on the ride, we’ll be enjoying the delightful film in Norway... 58 times.”)



Just so you know, I was purposely sticking my belly out in this picture…




We also got to try out Segways for about 30 seconds each in Innoventions.



Then we saw a turtle in the murky water between Future World and the World Showcase.



In the evening we had dinner at Bistro de Paris. The honeymoon note on the ADR worked – we got a table right by the window, where we could see IllumiNations!









DH had duck (tastes like Cheetos!) and I had yet another filet. It was good, but not as good a piece of meat as the one at California Grill or Le Cellier.






For dessert, which was not free, DH had apple crisp and I had peanut butter chocolate cake I’d smuggled in from Sunshine Seasons. It took forever to get our bill, so we got to watch the park clear out from our perch. Walking out of France toward the monorail was a bit like being in Epcot for our wedding because there was hardly anyone around.






But we found everyone eventually – they were all trying to get on the monorail like we were! It took us an hour to get back to the Contemporary, and then we had to pack because the next day we moved to…Animal Kingdom Villas!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Great updates!

(note to self, must try the peanut butter chocolate cake at Sunshine Seasons)

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates and pictures! What a fun honeymoon!!

[OhToodles!]

Looks like you had a lot of fun!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

Originally Posted by Elastigirl

Thank you all for your kind words!

We had a fabulous anniversary at Walt Disney World! Now that we're back, I want to get going on posting the rest of our honeymoon trip report so I can start on the one for our anniversary!

One other thing you might find amusing:.... Our wedding is featured in the latest issue of Destination Weddings & Honeymoons magazine (on stands til March 30). It has been a real kick to be at the grocery store or Barnes & Noble and open up a copy ofthe magazine to see ourselves.

THAT IS SO COOL!!!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I have to say, having caught up on everything thus far... I bet the experience was great but for $1000 (or more) I'd have asked for a refund on those pictures. Not to disparage your pictures, because you two are both lovely, but they looked like they were shot with a disposable camera. How disappointing! But at least you got the experience!

I can't wait to read more! I'm exhausted just reading about your adventures! But it sounds like you had a lovely time!

[mpwife153]

Another great update. How much fun you guys make your pics. Can't wait for the rest of the honeymoon!

[Elastigirl]

Originally Posted by WeRDisneyFanatics

Great updates!

(note to self, must try the peanut butter chocolate cake at Sunshine Seasons)

You know, when we were there last week, I couldn't find it! The lady at the bakery counter said she thought it had been discontinued, but then she also said she'd been there for 2 years and never seen it - but I've had it about 4 times in the last year! Here's hoping it's only a temporary shortage....

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

More great updates and pictures! What a fun honeymoon!!

I'm glad you're enjoying the recap!

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

Looks like you had a lot of fun!

And how! I just don't think there's any place more fun to honeymoon than WDW.

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

THAT IS SO COOL!!!

Hee hee! We think so too!

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

I have to say, having caught up on everything thus far... I bet the experience was great but for $1000 (or more) I'd have asked for a refund on those pictures. Not to disparage your pictures, because you two are both lovely, but they looked like they were shot with a disposable camera. How disappointing! But at least you got the experience!

Yes - I agree on all counts. Definitely not worth $1,000, but the memory of the experience is some consolation.

Originally Posted by mpwife153

Another great update. How much fun you guys make your pics. Can't wait for the rest of the honeymoon!

Coming right up!

[Elastigirl]

Today was an “on” day of park touring but felt like an “off” day because Animal Kingdom is easy to see in one day. Everyone tells you this but I didn’t believe it because we like to explore every nook and cranny of every park. But they are right! We had to get up heck-of early to check out of the Contemporary, check into Animal Kingdom Villas, and make it to AK in time for rope drop. Not only did we make it, but we were first in line at the turnstiles!

When we checked out of the Contemporary we discovered some people had added more money to our Disney Honeymoon Registry in the last few days – very cool! Checking into AKV was pretty painless, but I was white-knuckling it for a bit because non-members can’t talk to Member Services to confirm their room reservations on rented points. So at the back of my mind I had these “what if the reservation didn’t go through and we don’t have anywhere to stay for 5 nights?” thoughts until we actually got our room keys. Of course, the fact that we had a printed confirmation directly from the Disney Vacation Club should have reassured me...

We left our bags with Bell Services and left the O Mobile in the lot, grabbing a bus to AK. When they opened the turnstiles, we hustled past the row of animal wranglers they station just beyond the gates to distract you as you hotfoot it for Everest—or at least the rope to the area closest to Everest. We did the patented Disney “I’m not running” walk-run just so we could all go wait at another rope for the interminable park-opening ceremony with a truckload of characters. FINALLY we got to walk-run behind the cast members to Everest. We grabbed FPs, zipped through the line, and then waited a minute or two to ride up front.



Sweet merciful crap, is that ride fun! I know most of the other roller coasters inside and out, so it was great not to know what was going to happen next. The theming is, of course, amazing, and the ride itself is scary but smooth and it doesn’t feel too short. Anyway – you guys all know this already, but now I’ve caught up! After Everest we hoofed it over to Africa to ride the safari – probably the longest line we waited in on our entire trip, at about half an hour. There were a decent number of animals out, but I don’t know how anyone gets good pictures from those jouncy safari vehicles. I liked how long the ride was, and DH liked all the details, like fake tire tracks in the fake mud.






When we got off the ride we grabbed FPs for later. I can’t remember when we rode Dinosaur – I think it was next. I was all ready for a fun excursion to see dinosaurs with Claire Huxtable but then some jerky employee of hers sent us to right before the meteor wiped out the dinos so we could bring back a dinosaur for him to profit from. (Why an entire dinosaur? Why not just an egg? Wouldn’t that have been a little easier to carry?).

As we were walking back through DinoLand U.S.A. we ran into a couple with anniversary pins on who congratulated us on being newlyweds, and the husband said “This is what you get to look forward to in 14 years!” I thought that was sweet – and encouraging!

[Can someone tell me why they don’t have boats going around the river at Animal Kingdom anymore? We couldn’t get over what a wasted opportunity it was...]


We got to Yak & Yeti a little before they opened. I guess they were still working the kinks out b/c it took them a while to open the doors and a lot of the people ahead of us in line seemed disgruntled about it. We, however, were perfectly gruntled! While we were waiting to be seated we met a couple from the message boards in line, which was really neat. It’s a small world after all...

We got to sit upstairs by a window overlooking the front of the restaurant.



The theming is really neat. The food is... well it isn’t typical Landry’s—it’s better than Rain Forest food—but it’s way overpriced and not particularly authentic. Plus they don’t have a DDE discount, and their AP discount is a measly 10% off up to 4 entrees. Boo!

Overpriced Potstickers


Overpriced Fishsticks in Sweet Ketchup


At least they had another “stick the mouse ears on a [fill in the blank]” photo op! And we’ll totally eat there again just cuz it’s air conditioned.



After lunch we hit the day’s most popular, most crowded showing of the “Flights of Wonder” bird show. They had a neat pre-show Q & A with a handler and an owl.

We got seats down toward the front of the stadium on the left. Whenever they asked for volunteers, we were shameless in our grandstanding (“Looky! Lookit us! We just got married!”) and DH got to be in the show!

Here’s what it looks like when you’re sitting on stage and a gianormous bird comes swooping down at you from the back row of the audience and nearly whacks you in the face with its talons:



Stoopid slow camera....

I guess some of the birds didn’t do what they were supposed to at this show, but we didn’t care – it was cute! Afterward we got to meet some of the birds. They are too-cool-for-school and won’t sign autographs.







After the show we walked all the trails in Africa and rode the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. I thought it was going to have lots of places to meet and pet animals. I like to pet animals! But all they had was a typical kiddie petting zoo with nothing but goats and donkeys. Boooooooo-ring!



So back to Asia we went to use our Everest FPs and collect some more. Even on our second go-round we couldn’t figure out if we’d actually gone upside down or not, so we had to embarrass ourselves by asking a CM. Hee hee!



By then our Safari FPs had opened up, so we went trekking back to Africa (we wore a path between Asia and Africa that day) only to find that the ride was shut down due to “animal difficulties.” When we got back from our honeymoon we learned that one of the safari vehicles caught fire! Luckily no one was seriously injured.

We got some frosty chocolate milkshakes and watched the acrobats outside Tusker House. We poked around Tusker House cuz we’ll never eat there now that it’s a buffet, and then we went to check out the animal trails in Asia. They were GREAT! We loved the theming of the tiger area especially.







After our third ride on Everest we poked around the trails at the base of the Tree of Life looking at all the animals carved in it and trying to find the otter exhibit. This turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the day because there were lots of secluded spots for necking!



The last thing we did was go over to Camp Minnie Mickey so DH could look for dragons. He is a fan of the idea that Animal Kingdom should have a land devoted to fantasy animals, and he heard about how they originally used dragons in some of the signage for the park, so he wanted to look for more dragon clues in what became Camp Minnie Mickey instead of Beastly Kingdom, or whatever it would have been called. I sat on a bench.



As we walked to catch our bus to AKV, we tried to call and have Bell Services send our luggage up to whatever room we’d been assigned, but they won’t do it unless you’re in the room. Duly noted.

I was disappointed to see that we faced the construction of the new DVC wing—it wasn’t much to look at, and I thought the noise had scared all the animals away from our savannah because we hardly ever saw any (finally, on our last day in the room, we came back in the middle of the day and discovered that’s when all the animals are out).



Also, the rooms in the main building are converted hotel rooms, so the studios are not as big as other DVC studios. And, as people have mentioned, there is not a whole lotta storage. Our closet was filled with a portable crib. We just lived out of our suitcases for 5 days.

BUT... you can’t beat having real live giraffes and zebras and ostriches walking around under you balcony!











We had the luggage brought up and started getting ready for our dinner at Jiko. I had the not-so-brilliant idea of starting some laundry before dinner so it would be done when we finished. When we called to ask where the free DVC laundry room was, no one seemed to know. We were on hold for 10 minutes before we got directions to a laundry room, but when we got there we found all the machines were coin-operated. So we called from there to ask how DVCers got free laundry and were told just to turn on the machines without putting coins in. That didn’t work, of course, so we called again and were told they’d send a maintenance guy. Ten minutes later he hadn’t arrived, and finally I had to go keep our reservation at Jiko while DH stayed behind to wait. He ended up being 20 minutes late to dinner because it turned out we’d been given directions to the wrong laundry room—there’s a DVC laundry room on the fifth floor.... And we went through all this because I feel compelled to do laundry when it’s free!

Our dinner at Jiko, when we finally got to eat it, was amazing. I’d been waiting years to try the filet with macaroni and cheese, and it was fantastic—but DH’s sturgeon was even better!






Also, they gave us a really sweet card signed by all the servers to congratulate us on our wedding. And we got free pistachio creme brulee. I’m not a big fan of pistachio flavoring so I skipped it and cut into our cake topper for dessert instead. Here’s how it went (note the addition of ice cream!).




I’m not sure what happened here – I guess I popped the top off and then put it back on? I dunno... I just needed cake and it wasn’t happening fast enough!








Up next, my first-ever trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

[ilovedisney247]

Great update! I can't wait to read the rest!

[MayraLR]

Great update!