From Wonderland To The Circle Of Life - A Disneymoon

[brookelynpenguin]

Hello, Brooke here. I am now happily married and done with my magical honeymoon in Disney World. This is my first trip report and I have tons of pictures to supplement this with. James and I got married September 29 and left for our honeymoon on October 2nd. We finally returned to reality and Mr. Ian on the 10th. We are both now back at work and very pleased with our newly married status. That's all for now while I figure out how to post a link to my PTR.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

So I got around to downloading my wedding photos onto my computer and I looked through maybe half of them. There are lots of photos. Vonne was an amazing photographer though. She is actually the mother of one of my bridesmaids and mother-in-law of the best man. He told us to ask her about doing photos for us and she said she would be happy too. When we asked her how much she wanted she just looked at us like we were crazy Vonne was nice enough to do the whole wedding for free. Apparently she is thinking about getting into wedding photography and decided to use us as her gerbils. She's done a few weddings before but she's trying to work out all the kinks I guess. Her job right now is something to do with the photo business but I don't quite know what. It's something artsy. Anyway, she is amazing. She roped her niece into helping her. Her niece was coming to the wedding anyway and is also quite handy with a camera. Two photographers for the whole day was just fantastic. Definitely something I would not be able to afford had I been paying for it on my own.

The decorated reception hall

Isn't the place just absolutely gorgeous?

Did I mention the Alice in Wonderland theme?

Our baker was worth every single dollar

Yes, that is a cog from Gears of War (it was my idea for the cake)

My cutie-pie thumbsucker

So I was getting my hair done and my hairdresser put the clips in. She told me to check it out so I hopped up and went to the bathroom to see these amazing hair clips. As soon as I saw my reflection I flipped out. "James, do these clips look like wings...I don't like them they look like wings". So Jacie came running into the bathroom laughing and assured me that she could pin the leaves on the clip down so that they didn't look like wings. We immediately returned to the living room and she pinned them down and I returned to the bathroom with trepidation. Fortunately my hair looked a lot better. I'm still in love with the hairdo. The hair clips are replicas of the ones that Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) wore in Labyrinth which is an amazing movie by the way.

My getting ready outfit

Aren't these fabulous?

More details tomorrow of my fabulous wedding in Wonderland!

 

[Darkfirewolfe]

Subbing!! And I'm first

I absolutely ADORE your cake! That's fantastically amazing!

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Subbing!! And I'm first

I absolutely ADORE your cake! That's fantastically amazing!

Hello again! It's nice to see you back. I love our baker; she put in so many little details that we didn't originally discuss like the doorknob and the key and the roses. Those were all her idea and I loved them. The first thing I did when my bridesmaids arrived was run them over to the reception room to see the cake

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Okay, I'm back finally. My computer has been acting all wonky ever since I downloaded my WDW pics from my camera. For a few days I thought they were totally gone but thankfully I was wrong. I went online and added borders to a few of my photopass pics and I sent in a form for the pics I was missing. I'm playing catch up while James plays the new Gears (I bought him the limited edition cause I'm awesome). Rats, I was hoping to post some tonight but I got sucked into reviewing wedding vendors for a free shutterfly book. Sorry.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

So get this, I get back from Florida and get a little bit of jet lag...whatever. Then about two days later our Oklahoma weather goes from sunny to dreary. So that screws with me and now we're alternating between nice and sunny and freezing cold. I'm so tired every day Blah. I hate it.

Moving on to the wedding...finally.

My scruffy love all cleaned up

Isn't that romantic? You'll see this pose pop up a few times throughout DisneyWorld

Just in case I didn't emphasize how much I loved my hair...

I don't think the photo was supposed to turn out like this but I love it anyway.

My dream princess moment...my dress is all effortlessly swirly as we dance. It's a very Beauty & the Beast moment!

Happy family

All right, we're all done with the lovey-dovey wedding stuff. Next post we get to the good stuff starting with our early flight! Tune in.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

So James and I woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our early flight. All our suitcases were downstairs and packed.

The airport was empty at five in the morning (imagine that). I just realized I don't have an pic of me in my outfit. Brown paisley skirt, blue shirt with a giant Mickey Mouse and little Mickey Mouses running all around him. Anyway we hopped onto our first flight, had breakfast at our stop in Texas, then hopped onto our final flight towards the Magical World of Disney! We exited the plane and were trying to figure out how to get to the ME bus when I spotted someone with a stroller and luggage with a Mickey Mouse tag on it. There was a ME booklet hanging out of the diaper bag so we trailed them until we saw someone farther ahead with luggage tags and so forth until we found the spot. We found the correct line and accepting congrats from everyone on our marriage and I completely dug the attention over my bridal ears.

All our flights were on time so we got to AKL at 100pm as planned. We checked in and decided to explore our surroundings a little.

I just love the flamingos!

After our walk around the pool, it was back to the hotel room for us for a quick nap. After the nap we got ready to go to the California Grill. I got all dressed up and put on make-up. James got all spiffed up and off we went. At the bus stop we ran into people heading to MNSSHP. Since we got dropped off at the MK we saw tons of people heading toward the party. So we hopped onto the monorail and back off at the Contemporary. I noticed they didn't have a 13th floor, BTW. The meal was amazing.

I had the Pacific halibut while James had...

...grilled pork tenderloin.

My dessert was bread pudding of some sort with bacon ice cream. I just looked at the menu and the desserts changed. What they have now looks a lot better than the choices I had at the time. It was okay. I didn't like the bacon ice cream at all and bread pudding was not what I expected. They didn't have much choice for me though seeing as I don't really like chocolate.

James had...I don't remember what he had. Anyway, I collected all the pixie dust off the table and swept it into a little tin. While we were waiting for the meal we divided them mouse heads into troops and sent them into battle. Anyway, the check came and we decided to head outside to check out the balcony.

Not a bad pic from my camera considering how cheap it is.

We headed back home and we were the only ones on the bus. It was 730ish I think so the Halloween party was in full swing. It was much too early for anyone to be headed home so we had the whole bus to ourselves. Once we got back to the room James wanted to swim so we dug out our bathing suits and headed down to the pool where I chickened out because it was too cold. So we decided to hit the hot tub instead where we soaked for at least 30 minutes if not longer. It was really relaxing just soaking outdoors and listening to the really soft music being piped in. Eventually we got out and then I heard Toy Story 3 somewhere. We followed the sound and found a projector, screen, and beach chairs set up. It was getting to my favorite part where they plan their jail break so we sat and watched their epic plan. I just love that one line..."Get the tortilla". Lotso eventually trapped them on the dumpster and we ditched the movie to head upstairs to bed. I couldn't have planned for our first day to get any better. It was all very magical

 

[heaven2dc]

Congrats on your marriage! What a great start to your honeymoon - loved the pic of MK What a neat idea of gathering the pixie dust off the table

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Congrats on your marriage! What a great start to your honeymoon - loved the pic of MK What a neat idea of gathering the pixie dust off the table

Hello, glad you could join!

Because I took so long to start up my TR and have been too busy lately to update it, I got my photopass cd! I am now currently downloading the pics so look for an update hopefully tonight.

Did I ever mention why I take so long updating? I don't think I have. James is a manager at Sonic and has been working towards his own store. In the months before the honeymoon I was so terrified that he was going to get offered a store meaning he'd have to start working long hours right away. He would get the day off for the wedding and maybe an extra day but definitely not enough time off for a honeymoon. Anyway, we got back from our honeymoon on Monday and on Thursday (the day we were returning to work) he got offered a store! The timing was absolutely movie perfect. The best part is...the store he was offered was the one we currently work at! The manager at this one was offered a different store that needed fixing up bad. The big cheese decided that he wanted Dustin on it and made him a good deal. So James is in charge of the one we work at currently. Yay! He's been working long hours, we're understaffed, and I've actually stepped up in responsibility. I don't have a title or power or anything but I've started taking control at work.

The other day we had a power outage and the manager was baffled as to what to do so I stepped in and called James. Next I asked if the customers outside knew. Everyone looked at me and was baffled. Well, we were in the middle of taking an order and someone already had an order in the building.

It's been crazy because Dustin doesn't have enough employees at his new store (they quit cause they don't like him). He's been borrowing people from our store and we barely have people to work with without him borrowing some. It's getting cold too so we're not getting very many applicants. No one wants to hop in cold weather. Oops, Ian's awake from nap time. More later.

 

[heaven2dc]

Congrats on James' getting the store! What a responsibility but great for your future Loved the wedding photos - you are a beautiful family

 

[brookelynpenguin]

Howdy, y'all! Haha, so where was I? Oh yes, day one. James and I woke up, got dressed and hopped on the bus headed for the Magic Kingdom! We walked in and encountered our first PP photographer. This was the first of many male cast members to gawk over James' tattoos. Let me explain quickly. James loves the Legend of Zelda video games so on his left arm he has a LoZ theme going on...master sword, phoenix thingy, triforce, etc.

Rats, his left arm is around my waist. BTW, that skirt is actually a strapless dress but it is too big around the chest area so I use it as a skirt.

Argh! I had almost finished my post complete with pictures and then guess what? I deleted half of it I don't know how it happened I was typing something about Rapunzel and all of a sudden I had half a sentence instead of the four paragraphs and pictures I'm done for the night now I don't want to redo what I just undid. I'll try again tomorrow ARGH

 

[brookelynpenguin]

I'm never gonna get anything done unless I have a whole week to myself. Way too much going on. So back to the Magic Kingdom.

We headed in, grabbed a map and times guide, checked out the barbershop, then headed down Main Street.

All kissy kissy in front of the castle!

We kept wandering trying to decide where to go first. Finally I took the lead and we passed Liberty Square looking for a big scary looking building. That's right, we were headed for the Haunted Mansion. There was a 10 minute wait so we headed into the cemetery touching and looking at everything. After the ride I asked James if it was as amazing as he always dreamt. I'm pleased to report that it withstood his expectations.

Now that we were immersed in the parks and our first attraction ridden, we had no issues with what to do next. We decided to go check out Frontierland but I noticed the Liberty Square Riverboat nearby fixing to depart. We hopped on and made our way to the stern/bow (???) front of the boat where I snapped this pic that I just love.

Remember the Disney movie Tom and Huck? I had a big crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas!

We only heard bits and pieces of the narration because we were too busy talking. We weren't too near the speakers but it didn't matter because James and I made up our own narration. It was fun what we came up with.

We were on a mission to hit up all the big thrill rides first so Splash Mountain was next on our route. SM was the only ride I remember from my visit to DW when I was little. I have a picture of me sitting on some rocks waiting to ride. I'm very happy that the line wasn't near as long as back during my summer trip. The ride would have been better had it not kept stopping every few minutes while we waited for...I don't know what it kept stopping for actually. That and the music/narration kept being interrupted by an announcement telling us to stay inside the log at all times. It was really annoying and ruined the ride for me.

I was in charge of the map and decided that we had time for one more major ride before lunch so the logical choice was next door at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We actually had a little bit of a wait for this ride. It was a 20 minute wait max; nothing too terrible at all. I explained pin collecting to James and we eventually hopped onto the runaway train. BTMR was a blast. I loved it!

We still had an hour before lunch but we were done with rides for the moment so we slowly started making our way to Tony's. Along the way there we saw Tiana being led out by her handler/bodyguard (???). James immediately changed course to follow her. He's never seen Princess and the Frog but he knows I wanted to meet some princesses.

There were 2 people in front of us. I felt very self conscious being the only adults with no children waiting in line. Actually the whole trip I was self conscious about it. It didn't stop me from cheesing it up though and enjoying myself.

After exiting the gazebo we found ourselves almost right in front of the castle and took the opportunity to grab a few pics.

I hate that picture and meant to come back to retake it but forgot.

Anyway, we still had some time to kill before lunch so it was off to the future!

We were just wandering around killing time. James got a big kick out of the stroller parking. We found a huge mess of them right in between Stitch's Great Escape and the Monster's Inc. show. We made our way into a little shop and browsed before exiting and circling into Fantasyland. The Mad Hatter was just finished greeting guests and was making his way back to Wonderland or wherever he hangs out. Oh, and leaving Fantasyland we saw Rapunzel's meet and greet pavilion. There was a huge line there. We laughed at the amount of people in line to see Rapunzel (not realizing we would be in that same crazy line a few days later).

We checked in at Tony's Town Square and were given a pager. I checked out the line for the princesses and it was 40 minutes. Yuck. We waited forever to get a table but it was worth the wait. We got a table on the terrace outside in the center right by the railing.

Our view from the table we were seated at

I don't remember what either of us had and I don't have pictures either. I do remember that I enjoyed my meal though. For dessert I had the green apple sorbet.

James' pistachio creme brulee

After lunch we decided to do some m&g since they were near the restaurant. Mary Poppins had the shortest line so we said hello to her first.

I don't think James really wanted to do Pinocchio but the line wasn't bad and I wanted to do it. James later told me that Pinocchio freaked him out which is why he didn't get too terribly close to him. With full bellies and 2 last character m&g, we decided to go back home for a nap. I'll leave you there for the night (or at the rate I'm going the next few days). I'll try to get back more often.

 

[brookelynpenguin]

So last I left off we were napping. We woke up around fourish and decided to do a little more playing in the Magic Kingdom so we finally got there around 5:15ish. Who do we see but those happy playful chipmunks...Chip & Dale. The line wasn't too long so we hopped into it and then their handler started yelling that they were going off for acorn ice cream soon and would be back in five minutes. We were very near the front so we decided not to ditch. What happens? The guy waves us forward to wait and says after these two we'll take a quick break. Ha! Awesome.

Unfortunately there was no photopass around so the images are a teeny bit grainy.

Oddly enough there was a photopass guy right behind them so we hopped in front of the pumpkins and smiled. Down Main Street we went and somehow we ended up in Adventureland where we learned about the spitting camels there. We jumped onto Pirates of the Caribbean (which James declared as really short) and ended up back out front. We stopped and I browsed some tiaras. Naturally the one I liked the most was also the most expensive so onward we moved into Frontierland where I noticed cast members setting up ropes for the parade. I wanted to watch and I figured it was a prime time to get a good seat up front. We picked a spot and got comfy then James decides he wants something to snack on. I chase him off and eventually he comes back with ice cream and two spoons. I look at it and it's swirled ice cream; I don't like chocolate ice cream so I kind of glared at him. He apologized, said he forgot, and then I wandered off in search of snacks. I walked all over Adventureland but didn't find anything so I found the bathroom and returned to my seat on the sidewalk.

The parade was awesome. Mickey started off the parade and I was trying to act all cool and pretend I wasn't that into it. What happened? He pointed at my bridal ears, put his hands to his mouth, then clapped. I got super cheesed out and totally forgot about being an adult for the rest of the parade. I didn't really think it was James' thing but he said he rather enjoyed the parade. Of course after the parade was over we just followed the crowd who were heading toward the castle. We were at the very end of the parade route so there were already people just packed like sardines everywhere. Cast members were yelling at us to get a move on and so were impatient people behind us but there's only so much you can do when everyone in front of you is shuffling along slowly. Eventually, the people cleared some so James and I forged our way to an empty spot so we could watch the fireworks.

Right before they started I was trying to remember why I like fireworks so much. I've seen them tons before and it's just shiny glittery lights in the sky. Then Disney's fireworks started. I was almost in tears it was so good. After the show was over we decided to try our luck at Space Mountain. Of course that's where everyone else was headed as well. Whatever, we could tough the wait. We met an off duty cast member and her family though so we spent some time talking to them. We made it to the ride finally and I got the front seat. Poor James almost couldn't get his long legs into the ride. He had to fold himself all up to fit.

Afterwards we headed to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin where he beat me by a very big margin. I think he cheated. It was a very cheesy ride but still fun. We moved on to Fantasyland to try to finish up the park and the first thing we hit was the teacups. It was fun but James was spinning them pretty fast so I ended up with a light headache then James started complaining that he was hungry. We backtracked to Cosmic Ray's so in we went where I decided that I didn't really want anything so he shared his burger, fries, and cake with me. I really liked the place...not so much the food but the atmosphere. The cheesy lounge singer with bad jokes and schnazzy little tunes. I really dug it and now sincerely wish I had gotten a picture of the place.

Back we went to hit a few more rides. We started off with Cinderella's Royal Carousel (which I was surprised that James agreed to ride it) then Snow White. The line for Snow White was very deceiving. I thought it was a straight forward thing but it wound around. We didn't have a wait for the ride, it just surprised me how well the line was hidden. Mickey's Philharmagic was next up. We entered the waiting area and almost immediately the doors to the theater opened. Most people were trying to pile into the center doors so I pulled James to the door to the front of the theater. All of a sudden a lady came on the intercom informing us that there were seats up front if anyone wanted to sit there. I looked at the seats behind us and people were just cramming in while up front there plenty of empty seats. We didn't even scoot all the way to the end of the row. We were front and center. I didn't know what to expect from the show but I was completely blown away by it. It was awesomely amazingly fantastic. I LOVED it so much.

Naturally we exited through the gift shop and James insisted on buying me an autograph book. I resisted at first but happily picked out a pink princessy one. He offered me a pen that matched but I had picked up some sharpies for our trip. Next was It's A Small World where we proceeded to have a big boat pile-up in the very last room feet away from the door. I guess the loading process was going uber-slow because there were three boats in front of us and soon the last room was filled with boats all the way to the door of our room. Only every other boat had people but we sat there for about five minutes just listening to the song over and over and over again. Horrible experience. That ride is definitely a once every blue moon ride. To finish up our night (and to try to erase the song from our head) we did Peter Pan's Flight. It was cute. I was sad that we didn't do Winnie the Pooh but we were both tired and completely ready to go. We walked through Cinderella's Castle for the first time and unfortunately never made it back to look at the walls more closely. What I saw of the murals was pretty but we didn't get a close look as we were tired. We did find enough to pose for two more pics though.

I didn't notice but James mentioned that we looked photoshopped in and he's completely right. I think it's cause the castle is an unnatural color

We left the park and were headed toward the bus stop when I looked up and saw our bus already there. James and I made a run for it; we just really didn't want to stand around waiting for another one. The little chain was up but the guy saw us running so took pity on us and opened it up. The bus was just jam packed with people and I was afraid we were going to get kicked off because there were too many people but everyone was really nice and squashed even closer together without any prompting from the driver or anyone. As we were at the very front there wasn't much to hang on to. James of the long arms had no problems grabbing the bar over a few people's heads but I just leaned against the wall and had one hand on a little itty bitty railing there. He was a really nice bus driver. He was talking to James on the way back and when the announcement came on telling us to disembark if you want these restaurants he cut it off with a quick "They're closed". He gave us ample warning of when the overhead lights were going to turn on as well.

Our first day at Disney World was very action packed and we covered most everything. Those late night magic house are pretty cool for that kind of stuff!

 

[brookelynpenguin]

I love Christmas time but I'm still way behind on everything. I finished most of my shopping by December 5th then totally slacked off. I just need to finish shopping for James and pick up one or two clothing items for Ian. I haven't even watched Love Actually or Elf yet. I also wanted to bake cookies this year. Every year I say I will but I never do. I think when James and I actually get a house I'm gonna host a get together for a few people for Christmas. Anyway, back to Disney for a night.

So on day 2 of our lovely Disneymoon we headed to Epcot for the Food & Wine festival.

So we walked in, took photos, got our maps and times guides, then headed in. The first things we saw were Daisy Duck and Stitch posing for pictures. We immediately headed for Stitch for two reasons: he had a shorter line and he's much cooler than Miss Daisy Duck.

Oh, check out James' Legend of Zelda arm...only half of it is in the photo but this is what all the male cast members were super-excited about.

World Showcase wasn't open yet so we headed into one of the Innoventions buildings to sign up for Kim Possible and wandered around eventually stumbling across The Living Seas.

I love those seagulls!

So the WS finally opened up so we skipped past Mexico to get to Norway to get me a Kimmunicator. Then James decided he wanted coffee and that we had to wander all the way to France to get some coffee and some kind of pastry. So we began the long trudge to France when I saw Belle. She's my favorite princess so I just had to meet her.

I was super impressed...she signed her name with all the little swirlys at the bottom without even looking at the book. She was looking at me and talking while she did it. Super awesome.

Playing in Japan

We couldn't find any coffee but I realized that Aladdin and Jasmine were going to pop up in about ten minutes so we hung around and snapped a pic of James looking uncomfortable. Don't worry, it's just his standard photo pose.

Then I spotted a family with a girl holding an autograph book standing around so we went to join them. A few minutes later out the gorgeous lovebirds pop. Remember how I mentioned that many male CM's recognized the tattoos on James' arm? Well this was the best recognition ever. We stepped up and said hello...then Aladdin saw the arm. He said "I think I've seen that sword before". Jasmine started giving Aladdin a don't-forget-who-you-are-I-will-kill-you-if-you-break-character look. Al asked if the sword was from Hyrule and James was super cheesed out that Aladdin recognized it. I'm standing near Jasmine and she's still shooting daggers out of her eyes at her prince. So Al tells us that in Genie's travels, he stopped in America and learned about a thing called video games then brought them back. At this point Jasmine is done with all the boy talk, turns to me, and tells me that she knows nothing about these video games and is much more at home in the marketplace. I wholeheartedly agreed with her on that front.

Silly boys and their video games

Anyway, they sign my autograph book and Aladdin tells us that someone passed through one year with a replica of the sword of Hyrule and he got a picture with it. James was very happy leaving; he found another Zelda fan.

We headed back toward Norway to start our mission and finally got James some espresso or something from a kiosk in Italy while I got something fruity. It was a smoothie or something. Of course we got sidetracked again when I saw Mulan in China. I wanted to stop but James was going to bust if he didn't find a bathroom so we did the only thing sensible. I let him ditch me because I really wanted to meet Mulan.

Mulan saw my Just Married pin and asked where my brave warrior was. I said I didn't know and the PP photog said "She lost him already" and everyone including Mulan started laughing. It was kind of funny so I joined in but I think my face was pink from embarrassment. I bid Mulan goodbye and stood around waiting for James to come back so I could berate him for leaving me all alone. He just laughed at me.

We finally made it to Norway to start our Kim Possible mission. I was so happy to get my very own Kimmunicator!

The mission led us into a store where I would have loved to stay and look at the skin care products. I thought they smelled good but James thought the smells were way too strong. We did what we had to and I was allowed an extra minute to get a pic with the Norwegian troll.

At one point during our mission we had to go up to a certain CM and say a secret code to him to get our next clue. The code? Vikings are all the rage. I went up to him and said it; he kind of snickered and agreed with me. I'm pretty sure it had to do with the enthusiasm I put into saying it. I figured if I had to do something goofy I might as well do it properly. We finished the mission and opted out of another mission so we could move on to China.

I got a big kick out of the ducks hanging out in the water in front of one of the temples. The shops in China were awesome possum and I just loved the roof of the building (temple I think). It was so pretty and detailed.

I hurried us onto Germany to meet the lovely Snow White. Oh, on a side note...a few days ago at work I took a ladies order and also happened to deliver it to her. I did all the necessary stuff: hi my name is Brooke and how are you today? Then she asked me if anyone ever told me that I should be Snow White. She started gushing that I should go to Disney and be Snow White because I have that sweet perky voice that kids just love. I started laughing and she quickly rushed to defend herself saying she meant it as a compliment. I thanked her for that. I thought it was a fantastic compliment.

After Snow White I rushed us to France where Aurora was scheduled to put in an appearance.

I'm not actually sure where this one was taken but I'm pretty sure it was France because I commented that it would be really romantic strolling around Paris and being dipped.

This time I'm taking a break right before lunch. So next installment is the rest of WS, more character M&G, and a haunted carriage ride in Fort Wilderness.