Orlando in July

I'm not going to lie... I hate Orlando in July!  (No, I did not intend for that to rhyme!)  So then, why you ask, are we planning our Orlando vacation in July?!  Simple.  We are not able to do a planning session until 6 months before the wedding because that is when they are able to lock in our prices.  If we go in August, the prices change to the 2011 prices and there will most likely be an increase.  We would like to lock in the 2010 prices we are comfortable with!

So, as much as I would rather wait until September, we are going in July.  I booked us a room at POP Century resort, which is one of our wedding resorts.  We have never stayed in a value resort before and truthfully, I'm a little nervous.  I was going to just say the heck with it and spend the extra $200 and stay in a moderate, but then saw that it was only $150 more than that to stay in a deluxe.  I had to hurry up and book the value before I ended up spending more on our planning trip report than our whole honeymoon will cost and before Kevin killed me!  All in all, I'm glad we are staying at POP.  I've swam there before and I think it has a fun vibe to it.  I have heard nothing but great things about the resort and the only reason I was nervous is because it is SO BIG!  We loved staying at Port Orleans French Quarter because it was small and quaint.  If we were flying down and using Disney transportation, I would have INSISTED we stay in at least a moderate because the busses get extremely crowded in prime season.  Since we are driving and will have our car there, I don't care about Disney's transportation and just figure we will drive most of the time anyway!

I figured by staying at POP that I can give our guests an honest recommendation of how I felt the hotel was.  We stayed at Coronado Springs for our first trip on property together and absolutely loved it.  We almost blocked rooms at French Quarter instead because of the size, but we wanted to give our guests a resort that had sit-down dining and Coronado also has two outdoor bars!  We will be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge and although we haven't stayed there yet, we have been there for dinner and it is amazing!  All this resort talk makes me want to go to Disney right now!

So, in true Meagan fashion, what started out as a simple, lets go to Disney for a few days, we will share meals and have our planning session turned into an all out Disney extravaganza!  This is the first time Kevin and I have ever been to Disney where we are not meeting up with anyone, so we are looking forward to the relaxation part of the trip, although we will miss seeing Amy and Jeff!  However, since I discovered that they now offer the Disney Dining Plan (the best thing in the world!) to annual pass holders (yes, we will officially have annual passes starting in July!), I have been rushing to make dining reservations at all of the restaurants we've been dying to try!!  One really cute thing about Kevin is that he gets really excited (like me!) when we start talking about our Disney trips!  Most of the time he is so go-with-the-flow and when we start talking about Disney, he gets so into it and puts in his thoughts.  So we have three days of restaurants booked, I just need to figure out two more.  Kevin put his vote in immediately for a breakfast with the characters buffet (I told you he's adorable!) since we would have enjoyed Cape May Cafe more if we hadn't celebrated our engagement with Amy and Jeff the night before at Jellyrolls... 

For Kevin, I booked us at Chef Mickey's for breakfast in the Contemporary, which is somewhere that we are never able to get reservations for!  I also booked us dinner at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom for the night we arrive and Ohana in the Polynesian one night.  These are all places we have been trying to get into forever!  We are still debating over where to have our "really nice" dinner.  Our choices are California Grill on top of the Contemporary, Narcoossee's in the Grand Floridian or Jiko in Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We have never been to Cali Grill or Jikos so we are not sure what to expect.  I went to Jikos in the bar area once because we found out Dave Matthews had dining reservations there (and he totally sat down at our table and talked to me, Amy and Tonya and it was amazing) but all we had were drinks and a flatbread.  After not being extremely impressed with Citricos on our Christmas trip, we are nervous about trying something new.  Kevin votes for Narccoossee's.  My mom and Blaine took us there for my early birthday dinner in 2008 and it was really good.  Although I'm not sure if I remember how good the food was or how my mom made sure we had the perfect seat right in front of the castle during fireworks and tapped on the glass when someone outside stood in front of our table! :)  Unfortunately the restaurant we've been dying to try in Epcot's Canada, Le Cellier, is booked solid for dinner the entire week we are there!  They have lunch times available, but that is a heavy meal for lunch and we really wanted to enjoy it right before Illuminations.  Oh well, something we will save for the wedding week I guess.

In addition to eating, we have other things jam-packed through the week.  I will be doing a hair and makeup trial since we will not be back before the wedding (according to Kevin...)  We will also be having our engagement picutres taken while we are down there.  We are having them done at the Polynesian/Grand Floridian resorts by our photographer (www.mistymiotto.com).  I am so excited that we get to meet her and work with her before the wedding so that on our wedding day it will be like seeing a friend, instead of a complete stranger watching our every move.  I guess I need to get on the ball and call her and get a contract started for the engagement sesssion....  add it to the list of things to do!

And for the main reason for the trip (or at least how I rationalized it was so important we go down!) the planning session.  One of the days we are down there, we are working with our sales coordinator now to get the date finalized, we will be meeting with our wedding planner.  During this meeting we will discuss everything we want at the wedding.  We will design all of the floral, table settings, music and the cake!  We get to taste test a bunch of cake samples (Kevin's super excited for this!) and pick out exactly what we want.  Disney can make anything we wish come true, so this should be a really fun day!  We also get to do a menu tasting at the Grand Floridian for what we want to serve for our guests.

I keep wavering between a buffet and sit down.  Normally a sit down would be a no-brainer, but with the amazing food Disney has to offer, a buffet can showcase a range of food and offer our guests many choices.  As you can see, eating is a big part of our trip down there.  I think Kevin ate prime rib for about 5 out of 9 meals during our Christmas trip!  Thank goodness for the Disney Dining plan!!  But because we know that not everyone coming down will be making lavish dining plans that week, this would be a really great way to show them some of our favorites.  One really cool thing about Disney is that you can take things you like (i.e. Canadian Cheese Soup from Epcot) and have them at your wedding!  Now I dont think the cheese soup will make it onto our menu, although I HIGHLY recommend having it during your trip, but there are bunches of things we have enjoyed throughout our dining expereinces that we would love for everyone to try!

Coming Soon.... Disney Dining reviews and some tips for using the Dining Plan!