Transitioning to a New Site

Hey faithful readers! Some exciting news. I've been wanting to upgrade this blog to make it easier to display helpful information and our wedding photos, and also make it a little easier to find the site. As a result, this blog is moving! You can now visit www.thedisneygroom.com to see an updated site. I'll be leaving this blog active, but from now on new updates will go through that website.

Day 3: It's Always Calmest Right Before the Storm

This post is part of a series of journal posts meant to chronicle what actually happened on our Disney wedding and honeymoon trip. Did all of our planning pay off? Read on, and find out!

I wanted to start off the Disney portion of our trip right, so I scheduled breakfast on the first morning after Universal at Chef Mickey's. Yes, I know, we checked into our Disney resort two days ago, but the first day was just about getting settled in, and the next day was at the rival park, so I feel like I'm justified in talking about this being the first day of the full-on Disney experience. I knew going into it that Chef Mickey's wasn't going to be an amazing culinary treat (and I was correct, though in all fairness it was perfectly acceptable), but I knew that Girl Scout Wife needed to start off her wedding trip, nay, her first trip to Disney World, by meeting Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. We had a nice, relaxed breakfast; the characters were great to interact with, and even though we were two adults with no kids each of the characters were so friendly and emotive that they put us quickly at easy. There were cute kids to laugh at, carbs and sugars to be consumed, and Minnie Mouse even brought us a special cupcake as a little pixie dust for our breakfast.

The only place you're OK with seeing a mouse in the kitchen.

After a filling and fun breakfast, we hopped on the monorail (Yay! First monorail ride of the trip!) and headed over to the Magic Kingdom, where we were going to meet her family. While we waited, we decided to hop over to Guest Services and buy a Tables in Wonderland membership. We had tried to do this twice already; once, on the day we arrived, we forgot our Annual Pass vouchers, and the second time we tried they told us we had to actually activate an Annual Pass in order to buy the membership. While we didn't want to activate my AP that early, this morning we decided to go ahead and do it anyways, because our activities later in the day would give us chances to use the Tables in Wonderland membership. I highly, highly recommend this for anyone getting married and spending their honeymoon at Disney World. The membership pays for itself very quickly (especially if you're eating at lots of sit-down restaurants like we did), and it basically covers your gratuity anywhere it is accepted.

Soon, Girl Scout Wife's family arrived on the ferry from the Transportation and Ticket Center, and while her immediate family went into the Magic Kingdom for the day, Girl Scout Wife and I took her aunt and her grandmother over to the Grand Floridian to do some exploring. We enjoyed a lovely boat ride from the Magic Kingdom to the Grand Floridian, looked all around the grounds and the lobby, did a little shopping up on the second floor, and stopped by the pool bar to grab a drink and chat. A few hours later, my family began arriving for the main activity for the afternoon: tea at the Garden View Tea Room. I knew Girl Scout Wife was really looking forward to this, and my mom and my sister-in-law were both very enthusiastic about it. We ended up having ten people, which put us at two adjacent tables, and I can honestly say it was a fantastic experience. I'm typically more of a beer-and-baseball kind of guy, but I actually really enjoyed the tea service. It was quiet and elegant, but at the same time the staff was always putting us at ease and offering suggestions. I had delicious tea, and a great...meal? I guess? It was something between a snack and a meal, consisting of pate and cheeses, and a small dessert. We spent the entire time chatting and lounging, and by the end our family members that had gone seemed to have really gotten to know each other a lot better.

"Spot of tea, guvnah?"-selfie

After tea, we took some photos in the Grand Floridian, then Girl Scout Wife, her aunt, her grandmother, and I headed back to the Magic Kingdom to catch a bus for the Boardwalk. As we were getting off of the monorail, we could see the gray clouds rolling in fast, and the first heavy droplets were starting to fall even as we descended to the entrance of the park. With a long walk over to the buses, I just knew we were going to get drenched. I stuck close to Girl Scout Wife's aunt and grandmother, making sure they got to the bus stop OK, but somehow Girl Scout Wife and I got separated and I had to go back for her. The storm was rolling in fast, and the two of us started running for cover. Just as we got under the bus stop awning, the skies opened up and a torrential downpour drenched everything in sight. While followed was a mildly nerve-wracking bus trip (full of heavy rain and lots of driving through standing water on the roads) back to the Boardwalk, but we made it back safely and managed to stay dry.

Even though we had only recently finished our tea, the time was soon coming for a dinner reservation I'd put in at Kouzzina. Our officiant had arrived early in the day and, though he had declined to join us for tea, he decided that dinner was in the cards. So, after relaxing for a bit in our room (and discovering, coincidentally, that he had been placed in a room two doors down from our own), the five of us headed down to the Boardwalk, dodging the still-blowing (though not as intense) rain and scooting into Kouzzina. We then proceeded to have an absolutely delicious meal that began with, "Oh, we'll just have some appetizers" and then evolved into, "Well, maybe we should get some entrees." The food was great, and our officiant (who is a vegetarian with Celiac disease) found a dish that was not only safe for him to eat, but also surprised him with how good it was. I was glad we got to try Kouzzina for dinner, and am now kind of sad that it's going to be gone next time we go. The atmosphere was OK (it was very, very dark inside, largely thanks to the fact that the skies outside looked like the Apocalypse was on the horizon) and our waitress was...sassy, would be the only way I can describe her. Nice, but a little fiery.

Plus, Girl Scout Wife's grandmother got a drink with a glowing Tinkerbell in it!

After dinner, our families started to convene at the Boardwalk, and it was time for Girl Scout Wife and I to say goodnight. We'd decided that I would go stay with my parents that night, so that she could share the room with her sister and cousin (though it ended up being just her and her cousin). That way, we would see each other for the first time on our wedding day when she walked down the aisle...

Takeaways

Here's what I learned that could potentially help other folks planning Disney weddings:

• Go to Character Meals, If You Want To. Even if you don't have kids, even if it's just the two of you adults, go to a character meal. It's a lot of fun, and though I was worried it would be weird being a childless couple there, the Disney staff all made us feel right at home. Plus, if you're not going to embrace your inner kid, what's the point? Character meals were just fine with the two of us.
• Get Tables in Wonderland. If you're going to be spending any length of time at Disney World and plan on eating well, buy the membership. It paid for itself within the first few days, and then some. It's a great way to save a little bit on the food, especially if you're eating well.
• Plan a Relaxing Family Activity. We chose tea at the Garden View Tea Room, but there are plenty of other such activities at Disney World. A more relaxed activity like this gives everyone a chance to chat, mingle, and actually have a conversation, something that can be important when two families are getting together (especially, in our case: it was the first time either family had met!). Plus, doing an activity like this gives the people in attendance something to do, and doing something special or unusual provides the perfect icebreaker for getting conversations started.

Day 2: Universal Truths

This post is part of a series of journal posts meant to chronicle what actually happened on our Disney wedding and honeymoon trip. Did all of our planning pay off? Read on, and find out!

It's not much of an exaggeration for me to say that Girl Scout Wife was looking more forward to gong to Universal Studios (specifically, to Islands of Adventure for the Harry Potter section) than anything in Disney World proper. As a Disney World veteran, this blew my mind, but I, too, shared a bit of curiosity about Universal; despite 25 trips to Disney World, my family had never gone to the "other parks." I guess Disney World was always just enough for us. Still, it was something that Girl Scout Wife said she wanted to do right up front, so we built it into the schedule. I put it on the schedule for the day after arrival for a couple of reasons: first, I figured it would be a good chance for Girl Scout Wife and I to spend some time with our siblings (a sort of "younger folks fun day" if you will), and second because once the Disney experience started I didn't want anything to interrupt it.

We bought our tickets to Universal in advance, opting for the one-day, two-park ticket purchased from Undercover Tourist through a link in the MouseSavers newsletter. Knowing that we were going to try to do two parks in one day, and not having any concept of the scale of either park, I sat down and (shocking, I know) put together a plan of attack for that day. I started doing my research on some of the usual touring plan websites, but by far the most useful site was the Orlando Informer Universal Studios touring plans page. Using their adult-oriented one-day, two-park touring plan as a base, I laid out a path that would take us through the parks and put is in the right place at the right time for lunch and dinner. My brother and sister in law added a must-do ride to the plan (the Terminator 2 3-D ride, which was so fabulously 90's that I thought I was going to lose it), but we went into the parks with a plan of action, and we were not disappointed. In fact, we had an awesome experience, largely because we walked right on almost every ride, no line, no waiting!

Girl Scout Wife and I, headed int the park.

I'm not going to go through the entire day, but I am going to give you my evaluation of Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure from a few different angle. First, the rollercoasters are freaking awesome. Almost every rollercoaster we went on was head and shoulders even my beloved Rock 'n Rollercoaster at Disney World. When it comes to these thrill rides, Universal has Disney beat hands-down, but, then again, Disney doesn't really traffic in extreme thrills. The Hollywood Rip Ride Rocket was our first one, and it set the tone for the day: after ascending up a 90-degree vertical incline, you launch into one of the longest rollercoasters I've been on in a while, all with your choice of music blasting in speakers. It was intense. Each subsequent coaster was almost as good, though that's the only one we rode twice. The Mummy, the Hulk, the Dragon Challenge, these were all a blast.

Who wouldn't love a ride that can produce these facial expressions?

Universal also has several rides I'm going to call simulator rides, which are a unique twist on the traditional "dark ride" concept. You load into a car, usually with about 8-10 other people, and wear 3-D glasses as the car moves through a series of sets with large 3-D screens built into them. All along the way, you're moving through a narrative while the car you're in moves in sync with the action on those screens, and other physical effects (like sprays of water; it became a running gag with us that Universal rides really like to pee on you) give you a really immersive experience. They're like a mash-up of Star Tours, the 3-D shows that use water, smoke, and other effects, and a dark ride. We rode three rides like this (the Transformers ride, the Spider-Man ride, and the best executed of the bunch, the Harry Potter simulator ride) and they basically ruined Soarin' for us. I had never ridden Soarin' before this trip, but after experiencing these simulator rides first, I walked off of Soarin' saying, "Wait, that's it? That's what the huge lines are for?" I wouldn't say that I loved any of these rides, and I'd still pick Star Tours over any of them, but they were really great to do once. There are also a couple of rides (the Despicable Me ride and the Simpsons ride) that are kind of like this, only you're in a big theater, a lot like Soarin'. I hate to admit it, but even these were better (and the Simpsons ride was laugh-out-loud hilarious).

One of the biggest surprises was how good the theming was at the park. I was actually expecting an experience a little more like Six Flags, or any other run-of-the-mill amusement park, but you can really tell that Universal has taken pains to really crank up the atmosphere, both between rides and within them. The Simpsons Fast Food area was amazing, and the theme and atmosphere in the Harry Potter section were second to none. It's not as good as Disney's atmosphere, but it's not too shabby. I definitely took my time to look around in several areas, and many of the rides even had a little bit of a show element to them, leading up to the actual ride. The Simpsons ride and the Harry Potter ride were among the best.

My full grown adult wife, photobombing in Hogsmeade.

So, the food. The food was...OK. We ate lunch in the Simpsons fast food area, and while the atmosphere was amazing, the food was nothing to write home about. I got a Krusty burger and had a Duff beer, and while they were fine, they weren't very memorable. To digress about the beer for a second, the Duff beer comes in three different varieties and, while ostensibly a craft beer (it's brewed by a craft brewery in Melbourne) it definitely doesn't take any chances. It's on par with a second-tier beer like Yeungling (which is what I drank all over Disney World when I couldn't get anything good, like in Epcot) and while only a little malty (my preferred flavor in beer) it was at least good enough for me to get a second one that evening. It's better than PBR or Bud Light, let's put it that way. Dinner was at the Three Broomsticks, and it was pretty bland. I was largely disappointed to see very few interesting choices anywhere we got food, something that applied to Disney World as well (though Disney is beginning to show intermittent sparks of creativity outside of their signature restaurants). I guess they have to cater to the lowest common denominator, but it left a lot of the food pretty plain. I do have a few hearty food recommendations though: get the doughnut ice cream sandwich from Lard Lad, a taco from Bumblebee Man's taco truck, a frozen butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks (or one of the stands in the Hogwart's area), and grab a couple of bottles of pumpkin juice. You'll thank me later.

I mean, how could we not have a Duff in Moe's Tavern?

One really neat element of the Universal experience that I appreciated a great deal was the fact that outside of all of the thrill rides they have free short-term lockers that are easy to access. This was great for storing our stuff before thrill rides, and it something you occasionally see at Disney World (I seem to remember this option before Kali River Rapids, but I would have appreciated it elsewhere too). It was nice being able to quickly stow everything, and even with short lines the price (free) was right!

After our very first rollercoaster (the Rip Ride Rocket), I decided to pick up Universal's version of Memory Maker, called Universal Photo Connect. It basically works the same way; you get a card that they scan every time you get a ride photo, or a photo from one of the in-park photographers. At first, I balked, given that we were only going to be there for one day, but since we were having so much fun (and since my Dad had gone with us, and I knew he was often on the other side of the camera) I went ahead and splurged. It turned out to be a great idea, because we got some amazing photos from the rides.

Left to Right: My Dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, Girl Scout Wife, GSW's sister, GSW's brother, and me.

Overall, it was a blast. Girl Scout Wife's sister actually smiled through most of the day (she's 15 and largely refuses to show emotions), I discovered that my sister-in-law is hilarious and awesome at amusement parks (let's just say the first time she yelled, "Let's go, Optimus!" to Optimus Prime in the middle of the Transformers ride, I knew she had bought in), and we all spent a great day together without any of the stress or worry about wedding planning.

My sister-in-law declares her true love for Optimus Prime.

That night, we headed back to our resort, and on the way we picked up Girl Scout Wife's cousin. It was here birthday that day, and she'd just arrived from Pennsylvania earlier, so we decided to take her out to Jellyrolls, the dueling piano bar on the boardwalk, figuring that would be a lot of fun. It was not. Six of us went, discovering that there was a $15 cover charge at the door (which none of us were prepared for), and then once inside we were confronted with a really un-Disney-like scene: a bunch of middle aged people acting weird and drunk and grinding on each other to dueling pianos. Down on the main floor there were a couple of other wedding parties, and it wasn't too bad once we found a seat. The drinks were awful and ludicrously priced, and while the music was good you couldn't get anything played due to the queue of other requests and the fact that you have to tip the piano players big to even get their attention. Plus, it was so loud that it was impossible for us to socialize, so we just sat there listening to other peoples' requests, and occasionally laughing at men who were clearly too old to be out clubbing trying to get all "sexy dance moves" on clearly drunk girls. The thing that blew my mind was this: how did they get that drunk, when the drinks were so watered down?

Well, at least they're smiling.

Takeaways

Here's what I learned that could potentially help other folks planning Disney weddings:

• Plan a "Young Fun" Day. If you're a younger adult and have family members around your age coming in for the wedding, I highly recommend taking a day for some high energy fun. We both had families with three generations present, and it allowed us to spend some quality time with our siblings (and my fun-loving Dad) before the more formal, slower-paced events started.
• Go to Universal. If you like thrill rides especially, go to these parks. We had a fantastic time, and will definitely go back. A secondary recommendation is: go to Universal during off-season on a Monday, because we didn't wait in a single line all day.
• Splurge on the Photo Connect. This goes for Memory Maker too, but I'm glad I traded a little money for a photo record of the day. Now, we have even more photos of our trip, and we didn't have to constantly snap photos (even though we still did).
• Skip Jellyrolls. Unless you just absolutely love overpriced, watered-down drinks and dueling piano bars, give this place a pass. The cover was ridiculously expensive, the bartending service was awful, the drinks were so weak that I couldn't have gotten a buzz if I tried, and the other patrons were so weird and obnoxious that I wouldn't be sad if I never went back. If you just want drinks and a good time, there are plenty of better places to go, like World Showcase in Epcot.

Day 1: We have arrived in Disney World!

This post is part of a series of journal posts meant to chronicle what actually happened on our Disney wedding and honeymoon trip. Did all of our planning pay off? Read on, and find out!

It took a cross-country redeye flight, but we finally made it to Disney World. We arrived at MCO at about 6:10 AM, but by the time we retrieved Girl Scout Wife's dress and my suit from the overhead bins (luckily, they had bins all to themselves due to a group of students on the plane traveling light) and found our way down to the check-in area for the Magical Express (down on the first floor, B side, for reference) it was almost 7 AM. We were surprised that, after checking in, we boarded a bus and the driver took us (and no one else; the bus was otherwise completely empty) straight to the Boardwalk. We got checked in, dropped off our bags at the bell service desk (our room was not yet ready), and then headed out in search of breakfast.

Smiling, despite dragging this giant bag through the airport.

We ended up going to Kouzzina, which was a ghost town, and so we only had to wait long enough for them to set a table for us. This was a great decision, as it turned out, because the food was amazing. While there is some very traditional American fare on the menu, we both opted for something a little less safe. Girl Scout Wife got the sweet potato hash with turkey, while I got the Kouzzina stack (I think that's what it was called), which was the same sweet potato hash, with a poached egg on top, which was in turn topped with an artichoke spread. It all combined into something simultaneously sweet and tangy, and was just what I needed.

First look at the Boardwalk.

After that, we headed to the main pool at the hotel, and decided to get some sun on our pasty Seattle bodies. We spent a couple of hours sunning ourselves, took a dip in the pool, and moved over into the shade to keep ourselves from burning too much. I grabbed a much-needed beer from the pool bar, and life was good. When we left the pool, we headed out on a walking tour of Crescent Lake, walking all the way around the loop so Girl Scout Wife could get the lay of the land.

Starting the trip off right: pool, and beer.

We had a couple of minor hiccups, though. First, our room wasn't ready until after noon, which is still  sooner than they normally promise, but left us with some morning time to kill. Then, when we got into our room, we discovered that we'd been given a room with two queen-sized beds instead of a king-sized bed; fortunately, the front desk was able to move us to a room with a king bed, but unfortunately our room got a significant downgrade in the view--now facing the traffic loop at the front of the hotel, when before we had a partial Boardwalk view.

The other issue was the packages we shipped to Disney World. While our wedding coordinstor gave us all of the information we needed to make sure our packages got here, she neglected to tell us that the business center, where the packages go, is closed on Sunday. Fortunately, a manager was able to get into the business center and get two of our three packages for us.

Dinner was at Giordano's, and it also marked the first time our families met. Girl Scout Wife and I were in the middle of the table, but on the booth side, meaning we were kind of stuck in one place and were a bit limited in who we could interact with. Still, it was great to see everyone, and things are kicking off well. Plus, we ended the night with ice cream from the candy shop on the Boardwalk.

And they gave us a weird balloon hat.

Takeaways

Here's what I learned that could potentially help other folks planning Disney weddings:

• Use a hanging suit bag to carry more than just your wedding outfit. A single hanger can easily hold a pair of dress pants, a shirt, multiple vests, and a jacket, all without wrinkling any of the items. I brought every dress shirt, pair of dress pants, vest, and jacket I would go on to wear on the trip in my hanging suit bag, and put my wedding shoes, belt, belt buckle, socks, an undershirt, bow tie, and a few other items in the bottom of the bag, too.
• Call your airline in advance to ask about their policies for carrying on a wedding dress and hanging suit bag. We called Alaska Airlines in advance to confirm that it would be OK, and when we arrived at the gate we spoke to gate personnel to let them know what we were bringing on. Even then, the first-class cabins' closets were full, but the flight attendants were kind enough to store them in the overhead bins for us.
• The redeye flight gives you an extra day in Disney World, but don't plan to be a commando that day. Our lack of plans was perfect, as it gave us lots of flexibility and meant that our first few hours in Florida were spent enjoying each others' company, not running around trying to stick to some schedule. It really set the tone for the whole two weeks.
• If you want a King-size bed, make sure that the King-size bed request is noted on your reservation. Apparently, whoever booked our rooms only put the wedding/honeymoon note in there.
• Plan a welcome dinner. I'm really glad we did this, as it gave our families a chance to interact a little before the wedding, something that's crucial if your families don't live in the same region.

The Wedding Ring Saga

Let me tell you a tale, future grooms, that I hope will prepare you for the kinds of things that can happen when planning a wedding. This is a story about how trying to plan things from a long distance can jump up and bite you in the backside, and what it's almost always a good idea to give yourself a large time buffer for anything related to your wedding. Work in advance, plan far ahead, order things well before you need to, and in general every time you stop and think, "Eh, I can put this off. We've got a long time until the wedding!" then slap yourself in the face and don't ever think that again. The motto I've been espousing for months applies: everything changes.

A long time ago, nearly two years ago as I write this, I began the process of planning my proposal to Girl Scout Wife. As a part of that, I knew I was going to get her engagement ring from a jeweler near her hometown in Pennsylvania, mostly because she more or less told me, "Hey, you should get me a ring from this jeweler near my hometown." The Girl Scout Wife, sometimes, she makes it easy on me. So, over the course of several weeks I e-mailed back and forth with the nice folks at the goldsmith, who helped me get the ring I wanted, shipped it to me, and helped set me up for the proposal that would set us off on this whole wacky adventure called marriage.

Fast forward to a little over a year after the proposal, January of this year. The time has finally come to order Girl Scout Wife's wedding ring, and things couldn't be easier. You see, many of the engagement rings that this particular goldsmith makes have matching wedding bands, and I'd specifically ordered the one I had so that the matching ring would nestle up snug against the engagement ring. So, I contact the goldsmith, provide them with the information about the ring I'd purchased from them previously, and they set to work on crafting her wedding ring. In my mind, things were going great, and at least one aspect of the run-up to the wedding was being taken of largely by the efforts I'd put in over a year previous.

Pictured: A metaphor for my situation at this time.

Unfortunately, things did not stay happy for long. We got the shipping notification on the ring, and one day it arrived at my desk at work as a bit of a surprise. That evening, when I brought the ring home, Girl Scout Wife tried it on to make sure it fit...and it didn't sit snugly up against her engagement ring. In fact, it pushed the ring away, and just didn't look right at all up next to her engagement ring. More than that, she didn't really even like it; the style looked strange next to her ring, and even though it was similar there were aspects of the design that didn't match. Well, of course we weren't going to get married with a wedding ring she didn't like, so I contacted the goldsmith again and, through about a week's worth of back-and-forth e-mails, we discovered that the engagement ring that I'd been given was not the one I ordered (although this turned out to be a good thing, as Girl Scout Wife likes the one she got better than the one I actually ordered!) but they are similar. So, when I ordered the matching ring, I ordered the match for the one I thought we'd received, not her actual ring. Fortunately, the goldsmith was kind enough to allow us to return the ring and get another one.

This, of course, was not as easy as it sounded. For several weeks, the goldsmith sent us pictures of various rings, allowing us to (slowly, over the course of many many days) to "browse" their styles until Girl Scout Wife could settle on something she liked. I was happy to let her take her time making her pick, but near the end, when she'd narrowed it down to two styles, I was fairly certain she wasn't going to make any decision at all. Thankfully, the goldsmith was extremely patient, and in the end Girl Scout Wife settled on a design for a wedding ring that wasn't even close to the design of her engagement ring. It did, however, have some of the same coloration and a line of beading that, when put up next to the engagement ring, highlighted the detail of both rings. Once that was settled, the goldsmith crafted the ring, sent it out to us, and, thankfully, the new ring fit as well.

Different, but complementary. Just like my wife and I!

Now, let's contrast that with the process of getting my wedding ring. Over the course of the months of wedding planning, Girl Scout Wife and I both discovered that Etsy could be a source of some neat and unique items to give a little flair to our wedding and reception. Girl Scout Wife saw some mens' rings on the site, sold by TallieJewelry, sent me links, and I quickly found a style that I wanted. The ring I liked popped out at me from among the ones she'd referred me to, and I placed my order. The ring arrived perfectly sized, and I couldn't be more thrilled with it. The design is unique but tasteful, and I like the way it looks on my finger. Easy as can be.

One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

The takeaway here, as I mentioned above, is simple: don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today, because when it comes to planning a wedding, everything is going to change, and you'd better have plenty of time to deal with those changes when they come.