Honeymooning at WDW

Early in our engagement, it was evident that a WDW wedding was out of the question. Our families are too big and there was a lot of protest about having a smaller destination wedding. So what is the next best thing…a WDW honeymoon obviously! Now I’ve been to WDW more times than I have fingers and toes, but my new husband is a relative newbie. I took him on his first trip 2 years ago and as a surprise to both of us, he loved it! Well, how could you not? So since I didn’t get the WDW wedding of my dreams, we decided to splurge for our “Disneymoon.” We stayed concierge at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL) and upgraded the free dining offer to the Deluxe Dining Plan (DDP). You only get one honeymoon, right? Well hopefully just one. I’m an event planner by trade, so I meticulously began my trip planning 9 months in advance. I wanted to make sure we had the right balance of fun, relaxation and food…but mainly food.

From the moment we arrived at the Jambo House, we felt like a prince and princess. When we were brought in to the concierge desk for check-in, the woman at the desk exclaimed “We’ve been waiting for you! Congratulations!” What a warm welcome after a 17-hour drive from NJ. We were whisked upstairs to the 6^th floor concierge lounge to continue with check-in and I was pleased to find that all of our dining reservations were set, along with the various tours we booked. We grabbed a glass of wine and some snacks and headed to check out the Savannah. Waiting for us in the room was a small gift of perfumes, a note congratulating us on our marriage and our “Just Married” buttons. All I can say is, if you're on your honeymoon, wear these everywhere you go! Everyone we saw were saying congratulations and were so happy for us. Cast members would clap and sing songs to us and twice we were surprised with a phone call from Mickey & Minnie! We were so impressed by the extra effort all of the cast members went to to make us feel special on our honeymoon.

Since we arrived in the late afternoon on our first day, we opted to just have dinner and relax instead of running to get in the last few hours at a park. We went to Artist’s Point and got a bit adventurous with our meal. I ordered the Wild Boar and my husband ordered the Buffalo. Both very delicious and just the beginning of the many fabulous meals we had on our trip. Since we were on the DDP we mostly had table service meals, many of which were Signature restaurants. Each restaurant deserves it’s own review (future posts), but some of our favorites were Boma for breakfast, the Cape May Café character breakfast, Yak & Yeti, Hollywood Brown Derby, and our all time favorite California Grill. Our dining experience culminated with a memorable dinner at Victoria & Albert’s, which was probably the best meal of our life. Overall, I can’t say enough about the quality of the meals we had…amazing! I’m not sure we would get the DDP again because we found it to be too much food. We enjoyed eating at many of the Signature restaurants, but felt that if we didn’t have the free dining offer originally to upgrade from, the DDP wouldn’t be worth the money.

We wanted to try new things during this trip and decided to step outside of the normal long days of park touring. First, we did the Keys to the Kingdom tour, which is something I’ve always wanted to do. My husband was a bit hesitant, since he’s not the Disney geek that I am, but he found it fascinating. We were taken backstage numerous times, down in the utilidors and through back entrances for Jungle Cruise, Pirate of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. We were also filled in insider secrets of WDW and learned a lot of new trivia. I highly recommend this tour to everyone, but be warned you may see some “unmagical” things while backstage. We then did the Wilderness Back Trail Adventure Segway Tour. This was by far one of the best things I’ve ever done at WDW. After a short introduction and practice on the Segway X2s, we were off for our tour of the Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground. We were given wireless headsets so we could hear our guide while we were zipping around the resort. He was filled with corny jokes and fun Disney trivia. I haven’t been to Fort Wilderness for probably 20 years and I forgot how beautiful it is. We were taken on some back trails that provides spectacular views of Bay Lake and the contemporary resort. The only problem is that you look incredibly dorky riding them! But nonetheless, what a great way to start the day! This is something we would definitely do again! Because we were staying concierge at the AKL, we were able to partake in the Sunrise Safari, which is an hour long guided tour on Kilimanjaro Safaris. Our guide was the curator of the AKL and as we went through the savannah, he stopped along the way and explained how they take care of each of the animals and the conservation efforts put forth by Disney. This tour was the reason why we decided to stay concierge at AKL and it was well worth it! Such an amazing opportunity to learn more about the amazing animals at the Animal Kingdom park. It was followed by a delicious buffet breakfast at Pizzafari. Lastly, we tried Characters in Flight. This took a lot of coaxing from my hubby to get me to do this, but I reluctantly agreed. For those of you who don’t know what Characters in Flight is, it’s a HUGE helium balloon that takes up to 30 passengers 400 feet in the air. That’s right, I said 400 feet. From the second I stepped foot on in the basket, my legs were shaking. We slowly ascended and reached our top height in just a few minutes. The views were amazing even though it was at night and it would've been incredibly romantic if my heart wasn't beating out of my chest from fear! I’m very glad I experienced this, but I’m not sure I would do it again :)

In addition, we were fortunate to experience many of the special events that were happening while we were there, such as Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and the Food & Wine Festival. We also toured the parks, hit the spa and did our fair share of relaxing. We went all out for our Disneymoon and took advantage of a lot of the extras that WDW has to offer. This was a once in a lifetime trip for us that will never be replicated. Even though I didn’t get my dream Disney wedding, I spent the most magical eight days a girl could ask for with her new husband in the Happiest Place on Earth!

Share your Disneymoon stories with us…we’d love to hear all about the magic you created!