42 hours in Florida

[Beckers 1,136]

It's been 9 years since Brian and I went and left Adam home, so I decided it was time. He was able to get the weekend off, so we had 9 days to plan something. Our options were very limited due to time, short notice and airfare. Orlando had the cheapest flights, so we booked it and then tried piecing together a trip. We decided on Friday night doing MVMCP, fishing Saturday morning and then ICE at the Gaylord Saturday night and we had a 6:30 am flight home Sunday. We originally couldn't find anything on property that was reasonable ( 3k at the Grand Floridan wasn't in our price point 😂) so Jason found us a deal at B Resort and Ray said he has rented car from there and it looked nice, so we booked it. We also lined up a rental car but myself and Jason kept looking and finally we found a room at All Star Movies, thankfully we found it before I missed the deadline to cancel B Resort. 

 

So this is the day before we were to leave, the forecast was originally for a coating-1 inch, so we didnt think anything of it. Well, turns out we got 3 inches (north of us got slammed) but thankfully the temperatures were in the 40's over night and it was gone by morning 

Our friend picked us up at 6am Friday morning and dropped us off at the airport. This is the first time we flew Frontier, we are normally Southwest loyal but Frontier had cheap flights. They charge you for everythingggggggggggggg, carry on, snacks, assigned seats, etc. You are allowed a personal item for free but it has to fit under your seat. We both packed bookbags because there was no way I Was paying an extra $70 round trip for a suitcase, we also took our chances on our seats, for the 2 of us it would have been an extra $52 round trip to pick our seats ahead of time. We lucked out and ended up together for both flights but rows 36 out of 40. 

When we arrived at the airport, Frontier had 4 kiosks for self check in, but only 1 was working, and the line for people who had to check in luggage was insane. Needless to say we were thrilled we didn't have to wait in that long, but I was not very impressed with Frontier at this point. 

Here's our plane, it has Crockett the raccoon on it. 

 

We really weren't impressed, the seats are AWFUL, super uncomfortable, there is no cushion, it's basically like a plastic covering over a hard plastic seat and the tray table isn't your standard size. It's maybe the size of Bible. But, they got us there in one piece, so I can't complain. I don't think I could ever fly them a long distance. 

We saw this plane when we were walking to the monorail. It's a JEtblue plane

 

Because we planned our trip with little time, we didn't have paperwork for ME nor magic bands. They were able to look us up quickly and we lucked out the bus was there loading, we may have waited 10 mins before it left. All Star Movies was the second stop. Our flight was a little early (we were supposed to arrive at 10:55) so by 11:12 we were on the bus and checking into the hotel at 12.

 

[djsamuel 322]

Great you were able to fit a trip in.

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

1st tied....  Our daughter hates Frontier too and of course we're a little prejudiced since our son is a Capt w SW..😏

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Looks like fun so far 🙂

[Beckers 1,136]

This tree was in the lobby, 

This star wreath was cute but it drove me crazy because it wasn't on there straight. The lobby also had some super strong, smell, we couldn't pin point the fragrance they were going for but it was gross. Maybe a cinnamon/Christmas smell? either was it was super strong, and thankfully only in the lobby. 

Our room wasn't ready, so we ate lunch and were hoping it would be by time we were done. I don't have any food pictures, but Brian had a chili cheese dog (it was massive) and I had a ham and cheese sandwich. We ate outside, it was really nice in the sun but a little cold in the shade, but considering we left snow, we were thrilled. I forgot how expensive food was because we normally have the free dining plan so that was a shock. 

Our room wasn't ready and we wanted to get moving so we dropped everything off at bell services. Not traveling with kids was crazy, we had no bags to carry! No strollers, etc. Love my kids to death but it was easier without all the stuff. 

We had planned on taking Lyft Saturday morning for fishing, since I had only used it once and that was for a Minnie Van, I wanted to try it before the next morning. We decided to go to the Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house. We had a driver arrive in less than 10 mins (one of the drivers told me they sit at either McDonald's or Speedway and wait) as soon as we sat down in the car, we got a text our room was ready. Our lyft from Movies to GF was $11.59 plus tip. We set an account up for Brian and used credit from a fiend and Ebates was offering you a $20 credit if it was your first ride and an $1 credit for each ride after. 

[Beckers 1,136]

10 minutes ago, djsamuel said:

Great you were able to fit a trip in.

Me too. We really enjoyed being together as a married couple instead of together as parents. 

10 minutes ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

1st tied....  Our daughter hates Frontier too and of course we're a little prejudiced since our son is a Capt w SW..😏

SW will always be my first love. We can't fly Frontier with Adam because of the allergy policy and them serving nuts. Like I said Frontier got the job done, but they won't be my first choice. 

8 minutes ago, mouseketab.....Carol said:

Looks like fun so far 🙂

It was, way too short but good times!

[Beckers 1,136]

These flowers were the first thing I saw in the GF. Needless to say it's a totally different feel from AS Movies! 

 

 

The gingerbread house was pretty neat, the line to buy stuff was pretty long, I'm not sure what they were selling in there but a lot of people seemed interested.

After looking around we went out to the marina and wanted to rent the little Searacers. No one was in the booth but someone was cleaning the Grand 1 or whatever its' called so we asked her. She said we had to go to the Poly. We decided to walk over and just take out time enjoying the sunshine. 

On our way over we saw the wedding pavilion and Franck's. I always wanted to see them so we took a few pictures. 

Just wishing over here 

Since the gates were open we decided to walk up towards the chapel. 

Crazy me trying to take a picture through the glass 

and then it happened, an angel covered in pixie dust appeared and offered to open the doors for me. 

She unlocked the doors and we got to go inside! I was almost in tears I was so excited.

Closest we will ever get to having a vow renewal here 

This isn't the best of pictures but hey, better than nothing!

We then went down to the picture spot, it's a shame we both looked like bums 😂

This was such an amazing thing, I always wanted a Disney wedding but knew it probably wasn't realistic, so we never looked into it and my mom and i still regret it. This was amazing and easily one of the best moments in my life.

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

6 minutes ago, Beckers said:

This was amazing and easily one of the best moments in my life.

As they say,  "Where Dreams Come True".

[Beckers 1,136]

 Can you see all the pictures? On my lap top I could but now on my phone I can’t 

[Grumpy and Grandma 740]

11 minutes ago, Beckers said:

 Can you see all the pictures? On my lap top I could but now on my phone I can’t 

I can on my phone, it's a Samsung.

[djsamuel 322]

57 minutes ago, Beckers said:

 Can you see all the pictures? On my lap top I could but now on my phone I can’t 

Strange.  I can't see them on my desktop at work and I also cannot see them on my iPhone.

[Duane 152]

No pictures for me either...

[Beckers 1,136]

how about now?

[dblr....Rennie 224]

I can see pictures in your last post

[Beckers 1,136]

Just now, dblr....Rennie said:

I can see pictures in your last post

good thanks, I'm redoing them all now onto imgur

[djsamuel 322]

2 hours ago, Beckers said:

These flowers were the first thing I saw in the GF. Needless to say it's a totally different feel from AS Movies! 

 

 

The gingerbread house was pretty neat, the line to buy stuff was pretty long, I'm not sure what they were selling in there but a lot of people seemed interested.

After looking around we went out to the marina and wanted to rent the little Searacers. No one was in the booth but someone was cleaning the Grand 1 or whatever its' called so we asked her. She said we had to go to the Poly. We decided to walk over and just take out time enjoying the sunshine. 

On our way over we saw the wedding pavilion and Franck's. I always wanted to see them so we took a few pictures. 

Just wishing over here 

Since the gates were open we decided to walk up towards the chapel. 

Crazy me trying to take a picture through the glass 

and then it happened, an angel covered in pixie dust appeared and offered to open the doors for me. 

She unlocked the doors and we got to go inside! I was almost in tears I was so excited.

Closest we will ever get to having a vow renewal here 

This isn't the best of pictures but hey, better than nothing!

We then went down to the picture spot, it's a shame we both looked like bums 😂

This was such an amazing thing, I always wanted a Disney wedding but knew it probably wasn't realistic, so we never looked into it and my mom and i still regret it. This was amazing and easily one of the best moments in my life.

 

 

 

 

Glad they let you in!

Those pictures bring back a lot of memories.  Our daughter was married there in April 2014.  Disney did an amazing job.  Richard was still alive and working that day and brought her from her room at the Grand to the car.  He also asked my wife and I if we were happy about who she was getting married to (he was serious).  The pavilion is beautiful, though it was more peach colored when she was married.  After the remodel, our daughter was able to get one of the benches from the wedding pavilion.  Her reception was at the Atlantic Dance Club at the Boardwalk with a Illuminations dessert party to finish off the night.  We didn't have to worry about a thing.  Disney anticipated the problems and took care of them as quickly as they came up.  To top it off, back in 2014 at least, it wasn't much more in terms of money than other locations.  We set a spending limit and our daughter and son in law paid above that limit.  Basically we paid for the wedding and reception and they paid for the dessert party.  Best part was the menu sampling where they made servings of all food possibilities.  It was just us, the wedding planner and the chef.  Amazing food.  A lot of the planning was done in Franck's.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

I'm in.  Great pictures!

[Ivy 36]

6 hours ago, Beckers said:

This was amazing and easily one of the best moments in my life.

Great photos!  Glad it was such a fun time for you both! 

Thanks for sharing!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Frontier just recently came to Huntsville. Steve and Drew flew on it to Denver when they went to the Nebraska football game last month. Like you said the seats are not comfortable and they nickel and dime you on the extras, but the base rate of the flight is super cheap. We went ahead and got Steve enrolled under their Den savings program. So of course I am constantly searching for trips for us to take to Orlando and/or Denver over the next year. 

 

[Beckers 1,136]

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2018 at 11:47 PM, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

Frontier just recently came to Huntsville. Steve and Drew flew on it to Denver when they went to the Nebraska football game last month. Like you said the seats are not comfortable and they nickel and dime you on the extras, but the base rate of the flight is super cheap. We went ahead and got Steve enrolled under their Den savings program. So of course I am constantly searching for trips for us to take to Orlando and/or Denver over the next year. 

 

it gets the job done, and was cheap (but we didn't pay for any extras and were able to just bring a book bag with our clothes). I would use them if Brian and I go to Florida again (we want to go fishing again) but wouldn't use them when Adam is with us. 

[Beckers 1,136]

After seeing inside the wedding pavilion, we finished walking to the Poly. We saw a nice swinging bench on the beach (there was only 1?!?!) but there was a family sitting there and their kids were rolling in the sand in their bathing suites. At that point I was glad my kids were home 😁 the girls had long hair and It was all in the sand getting covered. Once we got over to the boat rentals place we were told that they weren't renting boats because it was too cold. Sounds like a BS excuse, it was almost 70 out, sounds like the bean counters felt it was time to save money and cut the small boat rentals. Yet, if you do a fireworks cruise, that's like $350 they are pretty much rain or shine... but whatever, saved us some money on renting the little sea racers or whatever they are called. The family had left the bench so we sat there a while and enjoyed the view (some how I have no pictures of it). 

We took the monorail to the Contemporary so we could check out their gingerbread castle.

and I'm having imgur issues so stand by 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

So cool!  Tom and I have never taken a trip without the kids.  We just celebrated our 20th Anniversary (the same day as the Gingerbread house in the GF!) and while part of me wants to, the other part is watching them grow up (much) too quickly and I wonder if I'd be sad the entire time we were gone.  Having said that, I think if my folks lived near us (we are on opposite sides of the country with no family close to us), we too would probably try to get away for a quick trip ❤️

On 11/20/2018 at 1:16 PM, Beckers said:

 Crazy me trying to take a picture through the glass 

 

See... I LOVE this picture, because I can see Brian smiling at you in background ❤️

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

So just in case you want to support a good cause and have a vow renewal, there is this option. Hurry it goes away in 19 days!

https://www.omaze.com/experiences/disney-fairy-tale-wedding-magic-kingdom

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I’m in!

how did I miss this thread?  I’m glad I found it  I’m loving it so far  keep it coming  

im so glad y’all were able to get away and enjoy some adult time.  

I hope DD wants to get married at Disney.   When she’s 30!  

Ive always wanted to visit Franck,s.   But we are always “Short” on time.   Father of the bride is one of our favorite family movies. 

The searacers look like fun. Sorry y’all didn’t get s chance to drive one. 

[Beckers 1,136]

Contemporary Gingerbread house

I thought the glass slipper was pretty cool

After looking around we decided to take the boat to the Wilderness Lodge, we still had some time before we could get in for MVMCP. Had to stop here and grab a photo on the way to the dock.