Disney bound for our honeymoon

KD+AR

Hey-

My fiance and I are Disney honeymooners and neither of us have been since we were kids. Does anyone have any suggestions for romantic locations for newly weds?

My parents are going this coming January for their 20th wedding anniversary and they are the ones paying for our honeymoon, so they have thier suggestions, but every time they go they have kids, so its not quite the same. Any suggestions would be great!!

delujm0

go to http://allears.net/index.html for a TON of helpful info, inluding menus for every restaurant on site.  If you see one you like, reservations open (online) 180 days in advance - i'd suggest booking ASAP especially if you want to go to one of the more popular places (Be Our Guest especially).

 

definitely stay on-site - Disney resorts include free airport transportation and park transportation and make everything super easy.

 

investigate photopass plus - you can pay about $150 in advance, and then when you get home you have access to all of the photos you have had taken by the park photographers as well as on any ride.  a great option to get plenty of pictures of both of you together. https://mydisneyphotopass.disney.go.com/wdwmemories

 

Depending on what time of year you are going, there might be special events happening too - such as the garden festival or food & wine festival.  both offer a bunch of additional activities, most of which are included in park admission.

 

i'd spring for the Park Hopper passes if you can afford them - that way you can go wherever you want whenever you want and won't have to plan everything out or stick to only one park per day.

 

if you have any other specific questions, fire away!

KD+AR

Thank you so much. I have beel to all ears once or twice.. I also have an account on the disboards.

There a few places I would love to go.  The Coral Reef, and The California Grill.

Have you been to either?

delujm0

not yet, but i have reservations at the California Grill for my bachelorette party in January!  i have a time share at Bay Lake Tower, which is attached to the Contemporary, and California Grill was closed for renovations last time i stayed there.  I'm really looking forward to it!

I don't eat much seafood so i've never tried Coral Reef, but my aunt who also has a Disney time share has eaten there several times and said it's one of the best restaurants.  The steakouse in Canada in Epcot (the name is failing me right now) is great if you're a meat eater, and Be Our Guest has OK food, but if you're a Beauty and the Beast fan, it's worth the experience - it is a really amazing replica of the Beast's castle.  When we went shortly after it opened, dessert was included with your entree, so that was nice too!  there's not too much at Disney that is truly free!

KD+AR

Le Cellier- that was one we wanted to go to as well. but we had narrowed it down to the two.

delujm0

oh also be wary of the "meal plans."  i've never done one for a few reasons.  First, you MUST purchase one for every night you are there, plus one additional day.  So that works if you fly in early in the morning and out later in the evening, but a lot of times i do the opposite of that, which is a waste.  Second, from my research, your options are either Not Enough To Cover All Food (the smallest and medium plans) or Way Too Much Food (for me at least - at Disney i'm more of a Big Breakfast and Big Dinner with a Snack or Two in Between kind of person).  I could never find a way to make the meal plan work - and based on my calculations, i almost always pay less for food than the meal plan would have cost - and i completely eat my face off every time i'm there.

 

My Aunt and Cousin (teenage boy - so the biggest eater there is) got the big one once, and said they basically needed to be rolled around the parks they were so full all the time.  And they didn't use all of their meals.  Basically, if the meal plan is free (they run promotions like that a lot during the off-season), obviously do it - that makes sense, you can just pay for anything extra you may want and you still come out on top.  But if you'd have to pay for it, i wouldn't advise it.

KD+AR

OK Good to to know.

My fiance has his heart set on a meal plan. We are going to make a list of all the places we want to eat not just a first romantic dinner, and go from there.... If we have an idea of what we want to eat we can price it out. My parents also bought into the time share. They are paying for our hotel when we are there. I don't know if we are staying at Old Key West or Animal Kingdom Lodge.

I would be happy eating off property a few times or getting some cereal and milk for breakfast but he thinks the food would be a total experience thing....idk

I heard the Earl Of Sandwhich is great. Opinion?

[Deleted User]

We're Disney-bound in 27 days for our honeymoon - and we're going with the dining plan. Our logic is we made dinner reservations as soon as we could at the places we "have" to eat at - such as Cinderella's Royal Table & Belle's Castle. Both of those take "2 meals" because they're special dining experiences, just as an FYI. Any character dining takes 2 meals, as well.

We're staying on property, and are kicking off the first full honeymoon morning with a 3hour safari through AK - I think it's called "Wild Africa Trek" or something? 

When are you headed out on your trip?

delujm0

The biggest meal plan is handy if you want to eat at a lot of the places that "cost" two meals - that makes the amount of meals more managable.  I consider myself to be a pretty big eater, but i still don't think the meal plan would be cheaper than what i normally buy.  Disclaimer though - i don't drink soda really (but i do buy bottled water) - i know diet coke devotees that really like the refillable mug that comes with the meal plans (but that can only be refilled at the hotels - not at the parks - so it's not super convenient).

 

Keep in mind that EVERY meal is basically 3 courses.  So you'd be having dessert at both lunch and dinner, as well as two snacks, and breakfast EVERY DAY to make that work out.  You will walk around a lot while you're there, but that is still a LOT of food.  I also don't care for the fact that some stuff "doesn't count" on the meal plan.  i like to eat what i want, when i want, where i want, without having to make sure i'm falling within the prescribed guidelines.  i'll probably try it when i have kids though - it would make meals easier to manage at that point i'm sure.

 

I have stayed at both of those places.  Old Key West has the biggest rooms, by far.  I mean they are GIGANTIC.  That is my Aunt's Home Resort, so we always stayed there when i was a kid.  She likes to have a rental car when she stays there - the kitchen is great and she does buy some food to keep around.  I'm with your FI though - when i'm on vacation, i like to eat out!  Especially breakfast - that's my favorite. 

 

Animal Kingdom Lodge is really nice.  The rooms are smaller, but it's a beautiful hotel.  The quick service restaurant has a delicious (and extremely reasonably priced) breakfast.  It is a lot of food for under $10.  A complete steal by Disney standards.  The breakfast buffet is also good.  I like the pool better at the Kidani Villas than the Jambo House.  The animal viewing areas are really cool.  i've never had a "savannah view" room, but i bet those are really cool as well.  Keep in mind that Kidani Village (which is the time share hotel) is about a half mile walk to Jambo House (or you can wait for a bus to take you there) - basically all of the restaurants are in Jambo House.  So if you were having breakfast in the hotel restaurants, you'd have to get all the way over there first to do so.

 

Both of those places have busses to all of the parks.  Animal Kingdom Villas is FAR AWAY from Magic Kingdom.  I was surprised at how long the bus ride was.  But i'd still gladly stay there again.  I prefer to do Bay Lake, Boardwalk, or Beach Club because i like to have the option to walk/monorail to a park or two instead of always having to wait on busses.  But, because of the convenience, those options also cost more time share points than the others.  So it's a trade off.

 

I ate dinner at Cinderella's Castle with my girlfriends last year and it was hilarious.  it was clearly geared towards children but we had a blast.  All of the princesses came out and you got pictures with them (good because we refuse to wait in line for that).  They give out magic wands to the little girls and swords to the boys - our waitress saw us coveting the wands and brought us some too.  we treasure the photo package from our "Princess Night Out" as Cinderella called it.  She was like "where are your princes" and we were like "at home."  and she asked us if they were charming, and we said "well, some of them are."  Ha. :-)

KD+AR

LOL. I really wanted to go to Cinderellas castle, more to take a look around than to eat. I found a few pics online and the archetecture looks neat.

And as for breakfast, I can't wait for 1900 park fare. That is the one character meal I remember from being a kid. I love Mary Poppins.

Any suggestions on where to go for good snacks?? Especially using snack credits?

Heading out in May 2014

delujm0

OH if you are there in May, plan to spend some time at the Garden Festival at Epcot.  They had it set up this year like a mini-version of the Food and Wine Festival, so there were special food booths all over the place.  I had the BEST frozen drink ever at a stand over by the Italy Pavilion - i can't remember for the life of me what it was called, but it was a red slushy-type frozen drink with vodka in it and it was amazing.  if you see anything like that, DO IT.

I'm not sure about what exactly qualifies for snack credits - i believe that popcorn and soft pretzels everywhere pretty much qualify, and some of the ice cream products.  I always get a Mickey ice cream bar (the kind that looks like a klondike bar on a stick shaped like Mickey).  I am also partial to the mini-sized Mickey-shaped waffles at breakfast. :-)

They have absolutely enormous caramel/candy covered apples in the Big Top gift shop over in the new fantasy land by the Dumbo rides.  Completely delicious, but i suggest sharing one - my mom and i each got our own last year, and then about 30 minutes after finishing them we thought we were about to have a sugar coma.  I needed a bland carbohydrate product STAT to revive myself (soft pretzel did the trick). 

If you're in Epcot and want a light lunch or snack definitely try those special food booths - they have tasting portions of all sorts of things that are great - but i have no idea if they count for the meal plan.

I realized that i ignored the Earl of Sandwich question earlier - i have been to the one in Downtown Disney.  I know a lot of people go CRAZY for that place but I don't get it.  I've also eaten at one in Vegas...it's just a sandwich/salad place.  It's a little better than like Panera or Jason's Deli, but it's nothing special.  It's affordable, and if you need a lighter lunch or dinner, it's good.  But it's not a must-do for me.

KD+AR

Ok, Thanks.

My parents are Disney fanatics and they are foodies so they give me good tips, like who has the better what. And if you want to hit this place its better to go for Dinner than for Breakfast. Things like that, but outside perspectives are nice. Thanks. I am excited for the garden festival, I heard its neat! And they will have the food booths during that time? Because that should be fun! I also heard that the Turkey Leg is no longer a snack credit but a quick meal is this correct?

OliveOilsMom

We are going fr vacation in November.  I haven't been since Kindergarten, so I'm very excited!  We are staying at our timeshare (Wyhndam), which is the only non-Disney property within Disney (if that makes sense!).  We plan to eat breakfast in our room each morning.

My friend told me about Undercovertourist.com, it's all things Disney/Universal.  They even have discounted tickets, which were cheaper than AAA (including shipping).  They also have a guide to which day to do which park.

Lastly, the one "dinner" we are most excited about is the dessert buffett at Tomorrowland Terrace that overlooks the fireworks show that evening.  That books at 60 days in advance and it was the one reservation that I literally planned our whole week around!  I just hope it lives up to the expectations!

Also, another Disney thread down below had many great ideas.  I think MuppetOverload started it.  One recommendation was to get reservations at the English pub in Epcot for around 8 pm and have an outside table.  The Epcot fireworks will go off above you while you eat dinner.  Unfortunetly, I couldn't get a reservation for that one!

KD+AR

awesome, thanks!!

davisse3

If you have a Smartphone, get a Disney Parks app. There is an official one and a few non official. They are REALLY helpful when it comes to checking things like wait times for rides. I think you can also make restaurant reservations.

In the Magic Kingdom, there is a Dessert Party every night where you can see the fireworks. You have to make reservations pretty far in advance - https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/magic-kingdom/tomorrowland-terrace-fireworks-dessert-party/

Eat/drink around the world in Epcot - I've done this two times now and had a blast both times... Just around to all the countries and get something small to eat. I think last time we ate/drank: empanadas in Mexico, beer and soft pretzel in Germany, crepe in France, sushi roll in Japan, and a Scotch flight in England.