A Wedding and A Disneymoon - A Disney Adventure

It's been almost three months since I got married, and wow, how the time has flown! I"m really sorry that I've been ignoring this report!

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But back to the Wedding!

After the girls and I took pictures on the beach, we went back up to the lobby to meet up with the rest of the wedding party, the JP, my wedding person from the resort, etc. oh, and my parents too!

Finally it was time to get in line. I had decreed that we were going to start at exactly 7:00 p.m. Somewhere I have a picture of my grandfather and you can see his watch and it said 6:58, so I know we started on time!

We didn't have the traditional wedding march for any of the music. Everyone except me marched in to "Cannon in D", which is fairly typical for a wedding. However, I came into "Close Your Eyes", which is the love theme for Buffy and Angel, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS). It's very pretty, and it suited me.

We had all the typical stuff for the ceremony. We had our friend do a reading from Corinthians. Mark's Best Man #2 (only Mark would have two best men!) read something he wrote about the two of us. As soon as I can find it again, I'll try to post it.

Mark and I "selected" our own vows. We used quotes from BTVS, from Anya and Xander. Most people wouldn't have had any idea what they were from, but Mark and I were very amused by it all!

We walked out to "Kiss the Girl" and "Margaritaville". We had a receiving line so that I could see everyone before the reception and not have to visit every single table..... I wanted to party!

During the cocktail hour, the wedding party and immediate family had a separate room to use. I stayed in there for a little while, but I wanted to see my cousin and his friend playing and singing! They were awesome. It they ever went pro, I'd so be their groupie (in the family related way!)

While we were in this private room, Mark and I got into a fight. A sword fight!
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Doesn't everyone get into a sword fight on their wedding night? Silly us must have gotten that confused with some of the other wedding traditions.

Finally, we were ready for introductions. Amber, Ed and Pat went first, with Under the Sea playing!

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Next was the Haiwiian Roller Coaster Ride with Katie, Carl and Matt (Matt was cranky)!

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And finally, the pirates (Yo Ho, A Pirates Life for Me):
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Last, but not least, was A Whole New World for Mark and I:

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We had the "traditional" first dance.



Okay, so maybe it's not quite as traditional as we led everyone to believe it was going to be. We took like 5 or 6 hours of dance classes to be able to accomplish that! It was a lot of fun, and completely set the tone for the rest of the night! One big party!

We did have a few special guests with us that evening:

Captain Jack Sparrow and William Turner:

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They also rocked out at our party!

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The reception lasted until 12:30 a.m.

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Exactly two weeks after we said our vows, and placed the rings on each others fingers, we were going on our honeymoon. We were going to Disney World. We had the van packed and we were ready to hit the road. We just needed to bring the dogs in the house. I closed the baby gate in the kitchen and Mark let the dogs in. He said "why don't we let them run loose in the house for a minute or two before we go". I didn't want to because I just wanted to leave, but I acquiesced. I opened the gate, and the dogs went flying down the hallway into the living room and out the open front door. I started to scream!

Mark and I chased them out the door. He went after Fred, Blue and Mindy as they ran down the road. I followed George across the street to the neighbors yard. Mr. Clark was in his front yard so he tried to help corral George. I got close enough and George flipped over onto his back and I snatched him up. Then I hear Mark yelling that Fred was coming to me. I saw her, and aimed, and tackled her, landing squarely on my right knee. That will be important later!

Mark was successful in capturing the other two dogs. They don't like to go too far, so he had it pretty easy, no tackling involved. We brought the dogs back in the house and they went directly into their kennels!

I locked up the house and closed up the van. Mark was going to be driving us to Branford to a party supply store so that we could find the final pieces of his costume.

While we were at the party store, we found the paint markers for car windows. I couldn't resist! We needed to announce to the world that we were just married and heading to Disney World.

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After we decorated our mode of transportation, we headed for the Post Mall in Milford. Mark needed to return the perfume he got me as a wedding present. Not at all into perfume. While he was in the mall, I stayed in the van and made sandwiches. His was turkey and myne was roast beast. He ate his very quickly while I only ate half of myne and then saved the rest for later.

It was now my turn to drive because this was the actual beginning of our trip. Until this exact point, we were still running errands! So I climb into the drivers seat of the van and hit my right knee on the dashboard. The same knee I landed on tackling the dog. And don't ask me how I hit it on the dashboard. I've tried to re-enact it, and it fails every time!

I whined about my knee for about a minute, and then pulled out of the parking space. We were on our way to Disney World! We took I-95 south until New York State, where we got onto another road to another road that took us to the Tappen Zee Bridge. I will not drive through New York City, or go over the George Washington Bridge! My brother has done it with me in the vehicle, but I will never do it. And I like the view of New York from the TZB. **Side Note: I drove the WDW on September 15, 2001 and all you could see as you looked down the river was the smoke and dust. I'll never be able to look down the river and not remember that sight.**

We got onto the Garden State Parkway, and stopped at the first rest area. This is also a tradition for me. Anytime that I am going this way, I need to stop here. It's a great place to either grab a bite to eat or to take advantage of the restrooms. Mark and I did take advantage, and then we decided that we needed to document it!

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It was Mark's turn to drive. The traffic was getting heavier, and more and more people were appreciating our newlywed status and our destination. They showed their support by honking horns, and waving and giving us the thumbs up!

We had one gentleman pull up next to us at a toll booth and share with us that he was on his way to WDW also. His kids were in the car with him. I hope they had a great trip!

Mark, while stuck in traffic, decided that this moment needed to be captured for posterity:

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Because everyone needs to have pictures of themselves sleeping in the van, with their rolls of fat outlined by their t-shirt! He was going to pay. I didn't know how yet, but I would make him pay!

Eventually we made our way to Virginia by was of Delaware, Maryland, and the beltway around Washington DC. We spent the night at the Comfort Inn in Lorton, VA.
 
Hi,
just found this tonight. l your wedding looked really pretty. looking forward to hearing all about Disney.
 

The next morning we woke up bright and early (well, early for my standards!) around 7:30 a.m. We packed up the few belongings that we had dragged into the hotel for the night, and ate breakfast in the van. We had brought cereal and milk and yogurt and all kinds of food. You'd think that Disney didn't have any food the way we were packed!

We were on the road by 8:30 a.m. It wasn't a very eventful day. I don't have any pictures of anything, because nothing fun happened. We drove, we ate, we drove some more. We stopped at a Waffle House in Georgia for dinner because Mark had never been to a Waffle House before. He's informed me that he has fulfilled that goal and never needs to eat at one again!

Our reservations at PO-R wasn't until the next day (Sunday) but there is just something comforting to be able to stay on Disney property. We decided that instead of trying to find a room at any of the "questionable" motels on 192, we would try to stay at one of the All Star Resorts. It was in the cards for us to stay at All Star Sports for the night. Apparently, the other two All Stars were full! *shrug*

We parked and made our way to the lobby. We were able to get a first floor room for the night for less than we paid at the Comfort Inn in Virginia. This made me very happy because Mark had been arguing with me about the merits of staying on-property that night. His reasoning was that it was going to be more expensive to stay there. I proved him wrong! :cool1:

I decided that I was going to walk to our room and Mark could drive the van over to the parking area. I was so tired of being in that van, i just couldn't face getting into it again!

And that's the end of Day 2!
 
The day of newness!

We woke at about the same time, but this morning it was my turn to shower. I needed to get the dust of the road off me! We packed up the van again, just what we needed the night before, which included my own personal pillow and blanket. I like the room to be cold when I sleep, but the Disney blankets just don't keep me warm!

We had breakfast at the Sports End Zone Food Court. We both had Mickey Waffles, myne with bacon and Mark's with Sausage. I had bottled water and since he wasn't there to choose his own drink, I got him chocolate milk and orange juice. Those go well with waffles, don't they? :confused3

After we ate, Mark went to Sport Goofy Gift and Sundries and bought himself an "All Star Sports" t-shirt. He has a shirt from every Disney Resort he's stayed at. Then we got back into the van, and headed to Port Orleans Riverside.

We parked in front of the Sassagoula Steamboat Company to check-in. We had a very sweet woman check us in. She gave us our Just Married pins (we were wearing our Wedding Ears), and Mark requested a King sized bed. She told us that she was unable to accommodate us in a King room, but choose "this" one very specially for us. Mark wasn't very happy. I told him to just check it out and if we didn't like it, we could always see if they could change us tomorrow. We then went to the Lobby Concierge to upgrade our tickets to 6-day Park Hopper Passes with the Water Park and Fun option. While we were doing this, Mark decided that he would go talk to the Luggage Services so that they could meet us at the room. I told him that we would need to call them when we got to our room, but he insisted that this was better. :rolleyes1 A few minutes later, he came back and told me that we would need to call them when we got to the room! Hmm, didn't I just tell you that honey?

We got back in the van. At this point I was beginning to feel like the kid in Jurassic Park - we're back in the car! Mark drove around to the parking area nearest our room. We actually could see our car from the door of our room if we looked, but it wasn't so bad. We were in room 2808, which meant that we were first floor of Building 28 in Alligator Bayou. I've never stayed in the mansions. Someday I will though!





SURPRISE! We did have a king size bed! Granted, it was a handicap access room which means our bathroom looked like this:





Mark made sure that we took pictures of the room before we messed it up with all our luggage and stuff! And let me tell you, we had so much stuff, and it was only going to get worse!

After we unpacked and rested a little while, we decided to head to the Magic Kingdom. We had to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad today because tomorrow they were shutting it down for refurb. So we were gathering our belongings that we would need for the park, such as Wedding Ears, sunglasses, cameras, etc. "I don't want to get on a bus yet, can we take a boat to Downtown Disney and then go to the Magic Kingdom from there?"

"Well, kinda. Disney no longer provides buses from DTD to any of the parks, so we would need to take a bus from DTD to one of the resorts, probably the Contemporary or Polynesian and then take the monorail or walk," I said in my best tour guide know-it-all voice.

"Okay!" We walked back to the Sassagoula Steamboat Company to the marina where we waited only just a few moments before we were allowed to board.

The captain of the boat was interesting. He pointed out all the requisite sites such as the mansions:



Disney's Port Orleans - French Quarter Resort:

The Treehouse Villas from the Disney Institute that are now being used by the International Staff:

Saratoga Springs:

And Downtown Disney itself:



To be continued......
 
great update. I love POR. The pics look great.
 
(Read this part as a James Earl Jones voice over – or Julie Andrews, which ever you prefer!) When we last saw our adventurers, they we debarking at Downtown Disney Marketplace. They were not there to shop, they were not there to party, they were not there to um, see a movie, what were they there for? Actually, nothing. They were there because that’s where the boat brought them! (End Voiceover!)


I told Mark that we were not going to buy anything our first day! It would be silly of us to spend our money that early in the trip! We walked to Pleasure Island to catch the bus to a resort to take us to the Contemporary Resort. Our ultimate destination: Magic Kingdom. “Can I buy a pretzel?” “No, Mark, keep walking”. “I’m hungry”. “Then find a place to eat, try to find a counter service restaurant.” Did he? Nope, why would he do as I requested… he chose Raglan Road. Our waitress was awesome. She completely understood the whole small lunch concept. I had the Colpulcinno soup – it was so yummy. Even months later, I can remember how creamy and frothy it was! Mark had the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. It was also good. I tried some of it!
After lunch we found the bus stop.
“Why do we have to go to a Resort?”
“Because people abused the parking at Downtown Disney and would use it as free parking for the parks, so Disney made it a hassle to get to the parks from here!”
“Well, that’s stupid!”
“You’re the one who wanted to take the boat, not me!”
“What resort should we go to?”
“The Contemporary Resort so that we can walk from there to Magic Kingdom.”
“Okay.”

We caught the bus to the Contemporary and then walked our butts to the MK. We had our pictures taken by the photopass photographer
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and headed over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because it was going down for refurbishment the very next day! However, the wait time was ridiculous so we took advantage of the Fastpass! While we waited for our time to get in line, we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. This is Mark’s favorite ride, and comes in a close second or third. We love the additions to connect the ride with the movies, although Mark mourns the absence of Elizabeth Swann. I am quite content with the number of times Jack Sparrow shows up!

After PotC, despite my resolve, I did it. :eek: I purchased something. I bought a new autograph book. I had left my old one home because it was just about full and not worth the room it would occupy. Then it was time to ride BTMRR! This is my dad’s favorite ride. That really surprises me because he’s not really a ride person, but I think he’s really into the queuing area because it has antique engines and assorted parts. :confused3We experienced the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness!” and then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. It had just been refurbed. I had read about the changes, and was really excited to experience it! Mark was so into the changes! The park was a bit crowded and it was hot! I hate being too hot! I like the heat, but not when it’s so hot that I don’t feel well.

After HM we headed to Tomorrowland with the thought of going on Space Mountain, but the line was too long and the fastpass time wouldn’t work for us! I looked around.
“Hey, wanna go on the Carousel of Progress?”
“Sure.”
“I promise I won’t sing too loudly!” :rolleyes1
“Okay?!?”
As we were walking across the plaza, a CM congratulated us. We were wearing out buttons and our ears. (Myne kept trying to blow off my head – the ears catch the wind!) We thanked him and continued on our way to COP. The CM came running after us with a set of PotC beverage mugs. Our first free stuff because we’re married! :wizard:


After COP we headed out of the park. We took our time, but it was time to head towards Epcot for dinner. Our ressies were for 8:00 p.m. and it was now after 5:00. We went up the ramp for the monorail.
Mark asked “Do you want to ride in the front of the monorail?” “Yeah, that’d be fun. But it may take longer because we might have to wait for other people to ride.”
“That’s fine. We have lots of time before dinner”.
We did get to ride up front.
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It was so cool. The driver wasn’t really exciting, but he did his job and got us to Epcot safe and sound.
By this time we were getting tired, but not so tired that we wanted to forgo our coveted Le Cellier ressies. We found another photopass photographer:
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Then we headed over towards the World Showcase.
“What do you want to do?”
“ I don’t know”.
“Oh, hey! I read that there is a new movie in Canada”.
“Really? And you didn’t tell me? Let’s go see it!”
We headed towards Canada and “O Canada”. I enjoyed the new movie much more than the previous one. Martin Short is great! I love the snow. They just need to add actual snow to flurry down on the audience and it would rock! After the movie, we went and checked in for our ADR. It was early, but we were tired. We wanted to sit down. Once we were sitting down inside, I got cold too! I knew that I should have thrown a hoodie into Mark’s backpack, but I didn’t. I was silly!


The hostesses were great and kept the large group of kids that were waiting to be seated entertained. They played 20 Questions with Disney Characters. We were seated only a little bit after our reserved time. We were in a corner booth. Our server, Jason, was good. He suggested the Beefsteak Tomato Stack for the appetizer. I decided to take his advice and Mark had the Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup. I also had a yummy drink – Niagara something or other. It was so good! Mark asked for the Pirate Punch. He got the light-up Captain Hook! He didn’t want Tinkerbell. pirate: I had the Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon and Mark had the 7 oz. Filet Mignon. I loved mine. The risotto was a bit salty for my taste, but the meat was amazing. I love red meat that’s very rare, and it was! Mark liked his food as well, especially the mashed potatoes. He was actually too full for dessert, but I told him to order something anyhow since it was included in the dining plan. He ordered the Warm Spiced Apple Crumble. I had the Crème Brulee.


Once we finished dinner and emerged from Le Cellier, Illuminations was in full swing. We slowly headed for the exit, however, once the last explosion happened somewhere behind us, I told Mark to pick up the pace and get out of the park. We made it on the first bus headed for PO-R! It was about 10:00 by the time we got ourselves settled into bed. We knew we had to be up early the next day!
 
Glad you started up your trip report again! Just read it all. Congradulations on getting married!!!!

I was at Disney the same time your were and stayed at POFQ. Who knows....might have seen you on the bus. I hope you keep up writing the trip reports. I always like reading about people's visits when I was there at the same time.
 
great update. I just got back and was in AB building 18.

Loved it.
 


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