Snoopy's Disney Wedding Trip - Oct 21-28,2015 - Pop Century/Boardwalk

Dates: Wed Oct 21 - Wed Oct 28
Travel Method: Airplane (Southwest), Car Rental (Alamo)
Resort: Pop Century and Boardwalk (Additional cast at Yacht Club, PO Riverside, Coronado Springs, Offsite)
Accommodations: Standard Room (2 adults)
Ages Represented in Groups: Adults (late 20s through early 60s), Infant/Toddler (1 and 2 yrs)
Disney Experience Represented in Groups: Some veteran, some moderate, some rookie

Cast:
Snoopy(me, late 20s) and Tim(30) - Bride and Groom. I've been to WDW every year since I was 1, Tim has been there every year since we met 6 years ago. And now we're getting married!
Sissy(30s) and Ryan(30s) - my sister and her boyfriend. She's a Disney vet like me. I think he's been there a few times. He really likes Star Wars.
Mom and Dad(50s) - My parents. Easily the best parents a person could hope for. (My MousePlanet-lurking dad is probably reading this right now, so I will only say nice things.) Disney vets.
MIL and FIL (50s and 60s) - My new in-laws. Easily the best in-laws a person could hope for. They've been to Disney World once in 1994 with their 2 sons.
BIL and SIL(30s), Wall-E(2), and Eve(1) - Tim's brother, his wife, and their 2 children. Wall-E and Eve's 2nd trip in 2 years. Naturally, I approve.
Sonya(late 20s) and Mrs. P(50s) - Sonya's my BFF. She's had 1 prior Disney trip last year with me and it was a wild success. She's bringing her mom along too, who has never been to Disney.

Hotels:
We are all staying in different places, but that's part of the fun!
Snoopy and Tim: Wednesday night Pop Century, Thurs-Wednesday Boardwalk. No dining plan
Sissy and Ryan: Wednesday-Saturday Yacht Club, Sunday-Wednesday Coronado Springs for free dining.
Mom and Dad: Port Orleans Riverside Wednesday-Saturday, Sunday-Thursday Coronado Springs for free dining.
All in-laws: Renting a house off property advertised at 10 minutes away. Interestingly enough the rental agency won't give you the address beforehand. Something about stalking the house? That's ridiculous - I only want to look it up on Google maps so I can get a sense of how big the pool is. And Google street view so I can evaluate the parking situation...and see inside the windows...
Sonya and Mrs. P: Luxury all the way with 6 nights Wednesday-Tuesday at the Boardwalk. No dining plan.

Planning:
Throughout the process I used a mix of booking over the phone and online - both seem equally easy and I don't have a preference. I originally booked a full week at Port Orleans Riverside as a package including a 4-day park hopper pass. I was looking for a deal for a few nights at the Swan and Dolphin (the location of the wedding), but I eventually switched to a full week at the Boardwalk for full price. Finally the fall room discounts were released but the Boardwalk was not available for our day of arrival, so I booked Wednesday night at the Pop Century and Thursday-Wednesday at the Boardwalk for a discounted price. Overall, I saved about $900 from the full price week at the Boardwalk. I looked into the cost of upgrading to the concierge level, but eventually decided it wasn't worth the price.

Flights for Tim and I were booked through Southwest. I also paid to rent a car for the week. I have never had any complaints about the Magical Express service, but I love the convenience of driving in WDW. I also feel really smug when I am able to drive places in Disney without directions/GPS. - like I am impressing all of my passengers with my expansive second-nature Disney knowledge. Having a car is also practical for this trip - we need to drive to the county courthouse to get our marriage license, as well as a few other offsite wedding-related trips. I rented the car through Alamo, and I'll admit, I spent a little more than I wanted. But I partially chose Alamo for the online check-in and "skip the counter" features. Cue flashback of last September, standing in the cheapest rental car line for over an hour after midnight. Tired, starving, cranky.

Some wedding details: We are getting married Friday in the Swan courtyard at the Swan and Dolphin hotel. It's a small crew (see "Cast" above). After the ceremony, we are having a cake and champagne toast in the courtyard, followed by dinner at Jiko at AKL. Dinner at Jiko isn't until later, so we have time to head over to AKL early and show Wall-E and Eve some animals. No plans yet for after dinner.

A few notes about booking dinner at Jiko. We originally wanted to have our post-wedding dinner at 'Ohana. What better place to celebrate the joining of 2 families than at a restaurant where the name literally means "family." Plus I love me some 'Ohana lo mein and bread pudding. I called twice maybe 200 days out, unsure of any special process for such a large party. Both cast members on the phone assured me I could book online/phone at the 180 day mark using the normal dining reservation process. Later on, I learned this was not correct. For parties of 13(?) or more, you should let them know you are booking for a large party and (in my experience) they will forward you to the restaurant directly where you will set up the reservation with them. In this case, I don't know if the 180 day cutoff applies. As you can probably guess, when I woke up early at exactly 180 days and tried to book my large party 'Ohana reservation, there was nothing available. I was disappointed, but decided to book at Jiko since I was already planning on eating there with Tim as our "honeymoon" dinner. I called the general dining reservation number and was given the phone number for Jiko large-party dining. I called that number and left a message with my reservation request details and email address. Next, I received an email back with availability and a different phone number to call to provide contact info and a credit card number to hold the reservation. Then I had a beer because that was more work than I've ever done to secure a Disney reservation. In the end, I am happy with the result - I know Jiko will be enjoyed by everyone and I'll get some lo mein and bread pudding later in the trip.

I put together a proposed schedule from my (and Tim's) perspective, but the events of each day are very much up-in-the-air when coordinating such a large group with different wants and needs.

Proposed Schedule:
Wednesday 10/21: Arrive Wed afternoon, stop at Osceola County Courthouse for marriage license, stop at grocery store for snacks and breakfast supplies. Dinner perhaps one of the new fancy burgers at the Everything Pop food court?
Thursday 10/22: Check-in at Boardwalk. Hollywood Studios in the first half of the day. "Rehearsal" dinner (without the rehearsal) at Buca Di Beppo in Orlando.
Friday 10/23: Get ready. Get married! Dinner at Jiko.
Saturday 10/24: Magic Kingdom for part of the day, Epcot for another part.
Sunday: 10/25: Epcot for part of the day, MK for another part. "Honeymoon" dinner reservation for 2 at San Angel Inn.
Monday 10/26: Pool and Outlet shopping day. A portion of our group will be headed to Universal, specifically to see Harry Potter, but Tim and I will not be participating. Been there, done that, ended with a rain-soaked walk back to the car and Tim pleading that we never go back there again. Dinner reservation at 'Ohana.
Tuesday 10/27: Late breakfast reservation for 1900 Park Faire. I am on the fence about this reservation. I don't love the characters that are there, and wasn't looking to do a lot of table service restaurants since we didn't get the dining plan. However, they do have amazing sausage gravy here and my sister really wants us to go. We'll see. Short trip to Magic Kingdom. Dinner at Food and Wine Festival.
Wednesday 10/27: Go home :-(

In addition to the proposed schedule, there are a few food items I need to try and fit somewhere (into the schedule and into my stomach). These items include:
-spicy chicken and waffle sandwich (Sleepy Hollow - MK).
-chocolate lover's waffle (Roaring Fork - Wilderness Lodge)
-cake cup (Cheshire Cafe - MK) Do they still have these??
-loaded macaroni and cheese (Food and Wine Fest - Epcot)
-mushroom filet (Food and Wine Fest - Epcot)

I'll update with a full report when we return.