"Is This A Ride"? Our Disney Honeymoon Adventure 5/16-5/24

[DisneyKira]

Lots of great pictures! Too bad about the empty hall at the end, but everything else looked great!

Thanks! Yeah, we did the garter toss pretty late in the reception. If I remember correctly, one of the groomsmen was like in the bathroom or something. We couldn't find him for like 30 minutes after the bouquet toss. And since there were only two groomsmen left, we needed to wait for that one (otherwise the toss would have been to josh's BM and like two male guests ). A lot of the female guests left right after the bouquet toss. I had a few women come up to me to say goodbye a few minutes before the toss, and I remember asking them to stick around for the toss. I think it didn't help that a lot of the female guests participating in the toss were mad at the whole gay-guy-caught-the-bouquet thing.

 

[KatMark]

Kira, love the added wedding pictures.

 

[DisneyKira]

Kira, love the added wedding pictures.

Thanks

 

[Bickimook2]

Hey Kira! I followed you over from mine, your wedding was absolutely beautiful! I love that you had it in a theater like me I hope you post as any pictures as you can and I love the TR so far

 

[DisneyKira]

Hey Kira! I followed you over from mine, your wedding was absolutely beautiful! I love that you had it in a theater like me I hope you post as any pictures as you can and I love the TR so far

Thank you and !

 

[DisneyKira]

So for those of you that don't know, my little sister went home but spiked a fever the next morning (102 degrees). So she returned to the hospital. They think she had a bad infection, so they gave her some antibiotics and did some tests. The tests results took a few days to come back, so poor zoe had to stay in the hospital for a few days. The results came back today and she is clean! She is on her way home again!

I was looking through my wedding pictures again and I thought I would share this one with you all

Isn't Zoe just the cutest?

Now back to the TR!

So we got to sleep in again! I think we slept in until 9am or so. On our way to the bus stop, we saw this not-so-little guy:

And this critter:

And waiting at the bus stop was this guy:

We got to Epcot around 10am (I can't quite remember) and headed towards test track to grab a few FPs. But first we snapped a picture.

He smelled like strawberries!

So after we grabbed FPs we decided to start our trek around World Showcase. We started with Mexico, and grabbed a plate of nachos to share. Let me tell you: These nachos were amazing! They have a black bean paste on them instead of re-fried beans. My only complaint is that they use a cheese sauce instead of real cheese, but they are still very yummy! And big enough to share. We also got the churros with caramel sauce. Mmmmm!

A lot of people don't realize that there is seating inside (with A/C!). We saw other guests fighting over tables outside, when there was plenty of empty tables inside! I snapped a few pictures of the inside of the building.

Josh eating the yummy nachos!

After we were done with lunch, we headed to the Mexican Pavilion.

The crystal shop

Donald Pinata! I was really tempted to buy this, but I decided against it. But isn't it just adorable?

So after that we went on the Fiesta Tour. Josh thought it was cute. If there were more rides in Epcot, I could totally skip this one.

So we continued walking around the world. We stopped in China and found this cute little green anole. Josh caught him and we took a ton of photos of him.

Josh could catch this guy, but he couldn't catch the green anole's cousin: The brown anole

Here's a picture of a brown anole that was hanging out nearby. The brown anole is invasive to Florida, the green anole is native. We found way more brown anoles than green.

Just after we let the green anole go, I found this hopping across the path.

Do you see him?

It is a little southern toadlett! Isn't he adorable? Josh is holding this guy in the picture so you can get a little bit of scale.

I am so glad I saw him! We picked the tiny guy up and set him free in the bushes, where he would (hopefully) be safe from people feet. He was smaller than the tip of my pinkie finger! Josh says they are pretty fragile little guys, so we had to be really careful when we picked him up.

After we were done taking pictures of the local wildlife, we continued walking around the world.

When we got to Germany, I just had to stop in the new caramel shop. That place is like heaven for caramel lovers! The smell of caramel just smacks you in the face when you walk in. It is so strong! I resisted the temptation to try everything in the case, and just bought a small bag of caramel corn instead.

It doesn't look like much, but it was the best caramel corn I had ever had. It was still warm!

We continued our journey around the world, stopping in America for an "American Dream" (a snack on the DDP). It is so yummy! It has blue raspberry slushie, strawberry slushie, and vanilla soft serve. I think It was a little too much sugar for me, though (I was eating the caramel corn at the same time). Here is a picture of the "American Dream" next to my caramel corn.

We sat for a moment and enjoyed the a/c of the "public dining room". After twenty minutes or so, we wandered back into Norway to get FPs for Malestrom. Then we headed back to Future World to go on Test Track again.

(to be continued)

 

[ronnmel]

Zoe really is super cute! I'm sad she had to go back to the hospital, but at least it was a short trip. I don't even know exactly why she was in the hospital in the first place, if it's not too personal to ask.

The caramel popcorn and the american dream slushie both look delicious!
How cute that you guys stopped and noticed all the little animals!

 

[DisneyKira]

Zoe really is super cute! I'm sad she had to go back to the hospital, but at least it was a short trip. I don't even know exactly why she was in the hospital in the first place, if it's not too personal to ask.

The caramel popcorn and the american dream slushie both look delicious!
How cute that you guys stopped and noticed all the little animals!

I don't mind sharing . Zoe spiked a fever of 102 degrees F the next morning and she was breathing really fast (which means her heart rate was elevated), so they took her to the hospital. They thought she had a bad infection (she had a white blood cell count of 17), so they kept her in the hospital for observation while they waited for her blood, urine, and fecal culture results to come back. They gave her heavy duty antibiotics that had to be given through an IV. They were possibly going to put in a PICC line (an IV that could go home with her, basically) depending on the results of the cultures. When the results finally came back, it turned out that the infection was already gone. Yeah, I wish they had just taken the lab tests and let her go home, but they wanted to keep an eye on her. Plus, she wouldn't have gotten the antibiotics. Oh well.

You seriously need to try the caramel corn! The American dream is good, too but I don't recommend drinking it with the caramel corn. Too much sugar...

We can't not notice the little animals . I can spot a tree frog in the middle of the road when I am in the car. Josh is even better than me. We are really hyper aware of all the little critters around us because Josh is a herpetologist, and that is kind of what they do. We took pictures of maybe 25% of the critters we saw, and I'll post way less than that

 

[ronnmel]

I don't mind sharing . Zoe spiked a fever of 102 degrees F the next morning and she was breathing really fast (which means her heart rate was elevated), so they took her to the hospital. They thought she had a bad infection (she had a white blood cell count of 17), so they kept her in the hospital for observation while they waited for her blood, urine, and fecal culture results to come back. They gave her heavy duty antibiotics that had to be given through an IV. They were possibly going to put in a PICC line (an IV that could go home with her, basically) depending on the results of the cultures. When the results finally came back, it turned out that the infection was already gone. Yeah, I wish they had just taken the lab tests and let her go home, but they wanted to keep an eye on her. Plus, she wouldn't have gotten the antibiotics. Oh well.

You seriously need to try the caramel corn! The American dream is good, too but I don't recommend drinking it with the caramel corn. Too much sugar...

We can't not notice the little animals . I can spot a tree frog in the middle of the road when I am in the car. Josh is even better than me. We are really hyper aware of all the little critters around us because Josh is a herpetologist, and that is kind of what they do. We took pictures of maybe 25% of the critters we saw, and I'll post way less than that

Thanks for all the details, though I meant why she was in the hospital last week. I kind of gathered that it was for some sort of surgery, but that's it.

Obviously I would not eat both at the same time. And if I only get one, I have my eyes on the caramel corn.

I love animals, but I don't work with them and can't spot them as good as you. I do enjoy all the pictures though.

 

[mikenburt]

Nice report........

 

[mikenburt]

Oh yeah, and the pic are great!

 

[KatMark]

Kira, glad to hear Zoe is back home again. I hope this is the last time she has to go back, and that her and your mom are getting some rest.

What great nature pictures. Those guys are just too cute!

Those nachos do look really good. Mark cannot wait to get to the Caramel shop in September (they were still finishing it up when we were there last September).

And I absolutely that picture of you and Zoe.

 

[kcmyluv]

Kira-
Just came a crossed your trip report- LOVED your bridesmaids dresses. Maybe in my next life I will be a wedding planner- Or a Disney planner.
Looks like you guys had an awesome Honeymoon. The first time I took my husband to Disney, he said "we should have came here for our honeymoon!"

 

[DisneyKira]

Thanks for all the details, though I meant why she was in the hospital last week. I kind of gathered that it was for some sort of surgery, but that's it.

Obviously I would not eat both at the same time. And if I only get one, I have my eyes on the caramel corn.

I love animals, but I don't work with them and can't spot them as good as you. I do enjoy all the pictures though.

Oh! Sorry! Zoe was born with bladder extrophy. Her birth defect caused all sorts of problems, but one of them was bladder capacity (her bladder was like 1/4 the size it should have been). The surgery was called a bladder augmentation. They took a small piece of her small intestine and used it to make her bladder bigger. They also repaired the bladder neck, moved and repaired her belly button (which was made for her when she was an infant but was a little too low and wasn't the right shape due to scar tissue pulling down on it), and created a little tube that goes from her bladder through her belly button (they made it out of her appendix).

Nice report........Oh yeah, and the pic are great!

Thanks

Kira, glad to hear Zoe is back home again. I hope this is the last time she has to go back, and that her and your mom are getting some rest.

What great nature pictures. Those guys are just too cute!

Those nachos do look really good. Mark cannot wait to get to the Caramel shop in September (they were still finishing it up when we were there last September).

And I absolutely that picture of you and Zoe.

Thank you! I am so happy that Zoe is back home again. I think we were all getting a little sick of the hospital. She was there for almost 2 weeks !

 

[DisneyKira]

Kira-
Just came a crossed your trip report- LOVED your bridesmaids dresses. Maybe in my next life I will be a wedding planner- Or a Disney planner.
Looks like you guys had an awesome Honeymoon. The first time I took my husband to Disney, he said "we should have came here for our honeymoon!"

Thank you! The bridesmaid dresses were one of my favorite aspects of our wedding. They were just so darn cute . We did have an amazing honeymoon! Disney World was a great idea

 

[dilligaf212]

i could go for one of those caramel apples

 

[ronnmel]

Poor little Zoe, having to go through such trouble as a child! Hopefully this surgery will help her a lot.

Loving your TR so far, when's the next update?

 

[DisneyKira]

i could go for one of those caramel apples

Me too. I really want to try that caramel turtle thing.

Poor little Zoe, having to go through such trouble as a child! Hopefully this surgery will help her a lot.

Loving your TR so far, when's the next update?

It looks like the surgery was a success. She is doing really well.

Thanks! I am going to update here in a minute .

 

[DisneyKira]

Sorry it has been awhile since my last update. My dh and I have been trying to get more active this summer. Last week we went on a seven-mile hike in the temperate rainforest at Carbon River. Here are a few pictures.

I don't know what kind of this flower is, but I thought it was pretty.

We also went for a hike a few days ago to a creek by our apartment. It was about a 2 mile hike. We caught a few critters.

Red Legged Tree Frog. Very common where we live.

Western Redback salamander. Also very common where we live.

Okay, now back to the TR!

So we last left off with Josh and I heading to Test Track to use our FPs. As we approached the FP line, we could hear someone screaming. It was a very angry woman. She was yelling at the CM standing in front of the FP line. I couldn't quite make out what she was saying (she was so upset that she was throwing in curses every other word), but it sounded like she was angry that the CM wouldn't let her through the line. I thought I heard her say something like, "All these people! They don't have Fast Passes and you are letting them through!" but with more swear words. From what I could tell, I think that the woman was confused by the rider switch passes (she kept saying that not everyone going through had a fast pass, and you only need 1 rider switch pass for your party). She also might have been one of those people that just hates FPs. Who knows? All I know is that the woman was screaming F bombs at the top of her lungs, and making threatening gestures (she kept lunging forward like she was going to punch the CM). The CM just kept telling her, "Mam, please don't swear" over and over again. I think she might have mentioned security escorting her out of the parks. We watched the whole thing for a few minutes before a male CM (not security) took the woman aside. As we walked by the female CM manning the FP line, I quietly told her that I was sorry, and that I hoped she had a better rest-of-the day. She said thank you, but that she was used to that kind of behavior. The poor CM sounded so tired. I felt so bad for her. I worked at a concert amphitheater before, and I had been in situations with aggressive guests, but I had never dealt with one as angry as that.

By the time we were off of the ride, the woman was gone. We assumed that security escorted her out of the park. I was surprised by how long it took them to deal with her! From my experience, the security at DW is usually on top of things like this within minutes of it happening. This whole thing probably lasted more than ten minutes.

After that little dilemma test track, we headed to Malestrom. Josh really enjoyed the ride (like every other ride we went on). Then we decided to go back to the hotel for some rest. It was too hot to walk around Epcot.

I took a little nap while Josh explored the hotel. We stayed at the hotel until it was time to go to dinner. Teppan Edo! We were seated next to a very nice older couple, who chatted with us the entire dinner. It was really fun to meet new people. We actually ran into them several times on the trip. They were staying at the same hotel as us.

Okay, here is the food porn:

Josh's chicken and steak combo

My steak and shrimp combo

Josh's very boring dessert. Chocolate and vanilla soft serve.

My green tea flan. It looks gross, but it is actually pretty good!

After dinner, we watched a little bit of Illuminations. Josh wanted to go back to the pond in China and look for more critters. Here are some pictures:

The pond in China

Another Southern Toad

Me holding the toad up. I think it looks like I am about to drink it!

And here is a breeding pair of southern toads. Josh almost went over the pond fence to get them, but he managed to grab them before they hopped too far. The male is on the back. The way these guys mate is pretty cool. The male will grab onto the female's back. She will then start hopping around like crazy, trying to buck him off. If the male can hold on, it proves to her that he is strong enough to be the father of her babies. He then holds on tight until the female hops to the breeding pond of her choice. According to Josh, the male will not let go until his "duty" is done. So picking them up will not disturb their mating habits.

After we were done with the toads, we wandered to the front of the park. We still had quite a bit of energy (we got to sleep in and we got to take a nap), so we decided to hop over to MK, which was open until midnight. We got on the monorail to the TTC, then transferred to the MK express monorail. Josh and I really enjoyed riding the monorail all the way from epcot to MK.

We entered the park just before the Magic, Memories, and You! show. I asked Josh if we could watch it, and he said sure. It was really cool! I love the different scenes that they project onto the castle. It is a must-see!

After that, we headed to Space Mountain to see how bad the line was. It was closed. I wanted to know if it was going to open anytime soon, so I asked a CM. He told me that it had been closed all day, and he didn't think it would open that night. I asked him what had happened and he said, "Well, I can't tell you too much or I'll get fired. But let's just say it involved a little blue monster". Josh said "Stitch?" and the CM said, "Oh, no! I've said too much". It was a funny little exchange, but I was still curious as to what happened with Space Mountain. We did a little research on Josh's smart phone later and found out that a woman had passed out on the ride, and they had to run tests all day to make sure the ride wasn't malfunctioning. The ride was fine, and I think the woman was fine, too. I am pretty sure she just had heat exhaustion (it was a really hot day, which was probably a factor in the crazy lady's outburst at Test Track).

We wandered over to the other side of the park and went on Thunder Mt. Railroad, POTC, and a few other rides I can't remember. After that, we got on the bus and headed home. We had a long MK day ahead of us!

We found this little guy on our way to the apartment. I think we stopped taking pictures of them eventually because we saw so many!

 

[ronnmel]

The rainforest looks ethereal, very cool.

Lol at the mating toads.