Debra + Richard's Disney Wedding 2014

[djsmith]

Honeymoon day 2
Friday 6th June 2014-Magic Kingdom Day

Today we had planned to meet up with Richard's parents, sister and brother in law and nephew Connor at Magic Kingdom for the day. I was a bit nervous about this as me and Richard's sister had had an argument via facebook about the wedding planner telling everyone not to take pictures or video during the ceremony and she hadn't agreed with our decision to do that. She had been told that we had a few sneak peeks that Vicki Arndt had sent me the night before and once we had been able to show them to our grandparents from both sides of the family then i would post them on facebook for all to see. His sister still couldn't get over us not wanting anything but professional pictures taken during the ceremony and it took fellow uk disbrides to step int othe facebook argument to defend my decision and put an end to it. I love disbrides . I didn't want people seeing photos on facebook and possibly bumping into our family members that couldn't make it and saying anything about the photos. It wouldn't be fair to them they deserved to see them first before our wider circle of friends did. I think his sister just didn't like being told not to do something despite me already discussing it with them in brief during the planning stages. Anywayz so we found ways to send the pictures to family members who would be able to show grandparents and i showed everyone the pictures at MK today and i sent my mum the pictures so my side of the family could also see since we wouldnt see them until sunday.
Back to today, not wanting an atmosphere i tried to pretend everything was ok and me and Rich had breakfast at garden grove. While there wasn't much to my taste i am a fussy eater and stuck to cereal and toast and muffins etc. Our server was brilliant, a lovely kind lady who was thrilled to hear we were on our honeymoon (thanks to our just married badges for giving that one away) and chatted just enough but also gave us privacy and time to eat. She offered us some mimosas when she came to clear our first round of plates and ask us if we wanted a refill on drinks but conscious of time and remembering how slow the disney buses could be i explained how we had to go for the bus but thanked her for her kindness. we finished up and headed for the bus, giving us an hour until park opening.
We got MK about 10 mins before opening and text the family to see how they were getting on. We had told them before how long it would take to get into the parking lot and then get on the monorail or boat to the park entrance and that if we wanted to make the most of our full day at magic kingdom then we needed to be there for park opening especially if we wanted to get on the day fastpasses for anna and elsa and the seven dwarves mine train. we had to try to get these fastpasses on the day because everyone apart from me and rich were buying tickets at the transport and ticketing centre on the day. The text I got back was that they were just parking the car. So still tickets and monorail/boat to queue up for before we could even get into the park. they decided to get the boat over the seven seas lagoon so we waited at the boat dock for 45mins!!!!!! for them!! Knowing they were going to be late i wish we'd stayed for the mimosas!!!!!

Connor was over the moon that he got a first visit badge and couldn't wait to show me it as soon as he got off the boat!

we got through the turnstiles and i collected everyones tickets in, me and Sarah (Richard's sister) headed to the town hall to get fastpasses. We were only able to get fastpasses for mickey's philharmagic and dumbo and haunted mansion. Not what i would have liked but it was the best still available almost an hour after opening. So we headed up main street usa towards the castle and into new fantasyland at quite a slow pace (bearing in mind this was everyones first time in magic kingdom apart from me and rich).

we stopped to watch the castle front show that was just beginning as we reached the stage then turned to our left and walked into liberty square where we took pictures with the liberty bell (laughing at all the newlywed Bell jokes from Richard's dad) and got ourselves a few christmas tree decorations for our tree.

mickey and minnie bells for the Bell's xmas tree lol

Next we headed into New Fantasy Land. We stopped by cinderella's wishing well and got some great pics of the back of the castle and at the sword in the stone before having a go on the carousel.

i just have to say, these walls that disney put up between new and old fantasy land are just stupid in my opinion. they look so out of place because at the end of each wall is there is a big massive gap between these walls and any other buildings. You know when you play a game like sims or something similar and u just build a wall with an arch in it in the middle of nowhere. its like that. So they don't really serve and purpose, guests not in the know have no idea what they are for and they just dont look good to me. i get that the gaps are for crowd flow etc but really its just so pointless.

Anywayz. when we got off the carousel mother in law asked me what philharmagic was and pointed to it. I explained what it was and that we had fastpasses for it in half an hour but the theatre is so big that a fastpass is pretty pointless because you never wait more than 10-15mins for it unless its really busy. So we decided to just go standby for mickey's philharmagic and we waited 5-10mins tops for it. Everyone really enjoyed this attraction and came out with big smiles on their faces.
We then headed round towards the seven dwarves mine train, in case, by chance, it might have an ok sized queue. But nope not only was it broken down but the cast member said that once it restarts the level the line is at right now was over 2 hours and they did not know how long it would take to fix. So no mine train for us. I did try later in the honeymoon to convince Rich to come back to magic kingdom and see if we could get fastpasses or just wait in line but he wasn't up for going to a park just for one ride.
So it was on towards winnie the pooh. We took a second to sit and get a drink of water here before me and Sarah(sister in law) and Connor queued up to meet tigger and pooh. I have to say Connor loved this character meet and greet and they had great fun with him, stealing his hat and playing other little games with him.

It was then time for our dumbo fastpass so we headed over to it and got into the fastpass entrance. We were on the ride within 10mins so this was a lot quicker than waiting the the standby queue of over 1hour. I think Connor would have really enjoyed the play area though so it was kind of a shame he missed out on this. Richard's mum and dad decided to sit dumbo out in favour of a seat in the shade. Father in law isn't good with things that spin so dumbo was a no no.

 

[djsmith]

Connor loved being in control of our dumbo and giggled as he moved it up and down. We then headed to barnstormer which Connor the adrenaline junkie also loved. If it hadn't been for needing to go and find richard's parents he would have had us on it several times.

we found their shaded seat and decided to give the many adventures of winnie the pooh ride. Richard's mum and dad were gonna sit this one out again. It took some convincing but they eventually agreed and came on it, and actually really enjoyed it, including the interactive queue.

We then headed to cosmic rays for some food it was really busy and we got pretty annoyed about the layout and the way they manage tables when its busy. basically when busy your whole party must be together before being allowed into the seating area. which is fine except in cosmic rays the order bays are split into several different bays for different foods.This meant our group was split up so we could join different queues from the different foods we wanted. which meant we got our food at different times because of smaller or longer queues at the different bays. To me its not fair to make people stand and wait while their food gets cold while they wait on other people in their group that are taking longer because they wanted a different thing off the menu that required a different bay. It just doesnt make sense to me.
We ate then headed back out to main street to wait on the parade. Rich was not pleased about waiting for the parade its not something i think we've done is sit in the hot sun waiting on a parade. Connor loved the parade though he got to see Anna and Elsa! and several other characters he loves.

it was great to see the ceilidh dancers as part of the brave float. Being scottish its great to see how well Brave is represented and is a true representation of Scottish things not untrue representations.

Now it was time for our last fastpass so we headed to the haunted mansion. To find that we were half an hour late for our fastpass window. Did i mention before that i don't like fastpass+?! so we joined the standby queue making that 2 unused fastpasses for the day and one while it saved us a big wait Connor missed out on something he would have probably really enjoyed. Luckily the standby queue which was at over 90mins is an interactive one which again everyone enjoyed.

Everyone enjoyed the haunted mansion ride and i thought maybe getting the in laws to try the rides i loved a child and still enjoyed now was getting easier. Then Mother in law decided she wanted to go on the big river boat. So Richard's parents and his brother in law went on the riverboat and me, Rich, Sarah and Connor headed for splash mountain. We loved it! It was nice waiting in the shaded line for an hour then we cooled off a little with a little splash. After that we met up with everyone else and got everyone except Richard's dad and brother in law onto big thunder mountain. Connor decided to sit between me and Rich, leaving his mum(sarah) to grip onto the bar with both hands and his nana (Richard's mum) to scream for her life while gripping on. It was hilarious and Connor loved it. He wanted to go on again but as we tried to convince everyone to go on it the second time we found the line had doubled in length! So we went for ice cream, headed to aladdins carpets and then Connor queued up to meet jasmine and aladdin. As they were half way through the line to meet them the characters had to take a break. So while we waited for them to come back we took Connor on the enchanted tiki room while Sarah kept his space in line. I knew the song but had never actually been in the show and now i see why. Its ok for the first song, maybe the second but after that we couldn't wait for it to be over. Connor enjoyed singing and dancing along to it all though and as further punishment for Sarah once they were done with the meet and greet we told her she'd love it and Connor thought it was brilliant so she had to come see this show. It was hilarious and while connor loved it again we were all rolling around laughing at each other being stuck through this again. It's not something i'll be going back to in a hurry lol!

We then all went on the jungle cruise Connor was quite rightly getting tired now and got kinda grumpy in the queue (and it was kinda a long queue) he was getting picked up a lot and requiring a lot of attention up on the shoulders, playing games like i spy etc. His mood can change within seconds though as these two pictures were literally taken 30seconds apart.

After the jungle cruise it was beginning to get dark and it was almost time for the night time parade. One thing we hadn't done yet was ride space mountain and thinking it would be quieter while the parade was on me and Rich headed over into tomorrow land and got in line. The line was longer than we thought and took forever but i love space mountain so we both had a great time when we finally got on it. We then headed back toward the castle to stupidly try to find everyone to watch wishes. We popped into cosmic rays for a quick bite to eat too, eating it as we walked. I was sad we didn't get time to do the monsters inc laugh floor because its hilarious but i wasn't missing my favourite fireworks show. As you can probably expect we couldnt find everyone else so settled on just finding a good spot for the fireworks and arranged via text to meet them after the fireworks.

I would've been happy to get the monorail or bus back to the hotel but they had the hand luggage case in their car for me to pack my dress back into so we had to meet them back at their car so we could get the case and they gave us a lift back to the swan. We got the monorail back to TTC and the little parking trams to the right area of the carpark they said they parked in then waited around half an hour for them. They had decided to get the boat back to TTC which i would'v thought would have taken longer than just getting the monorail and i can't imagine not getting the monorail to and from magic kingdom but each to their own everyone has different preferences.

Today:my family went to Animal kingdom and downtown disney and back to their villa. I think they may have went to planet hollywood tonight too.

 

[djsmith]

Saturday 7th June
Honeymoon Day 3

Today we again decided not to set the alarm and just have a relaxing morning in the room. When we finally left the room and decided to spend the rest of the morning at the pool we were too late for breakfast at garden grove. So we thought we'd try get an early lunch type thing at the fountain restaurant in the dolphin hotel. strolling through the hotel was really relaxing compared to the rushing around we did the day before. here's some pics from our balcony and around the hotel.

The fountain wasn't very busy at all and our server was great attending to us. She congratulated us on our wedding and asked a few questions about it. She was excited that we'd got married at the swan and seemed genuinely interested. We ordered burgers and drinks (i think i had a nice milkshake and Rich had an coke ice cream float if i remember correctly) and the food was great
Then our server surprised us with this mmmm it was delicious!

Oh and my husband can pull the most attractive of faces when a camera is in his face lol

After our early lunch we headed out and found the pool area. We grabbed chairs next to the length pool and bar and had a little dip and relaxed for a bit. Can you tell Rich is getting a bit bored of me taking pics of everything and us lol

while we were at the pool a kinda unusual thing happened. A family of ducks decided to go for a swim too! its not often you see things like this and while most people just let them be and kept away from them they weren't in any hurry to get out the pool.

Richard soon became bored sitting at the pool so we decided to pop back up to the room to switch our things over and head to animal kingdom. since it was only around half 12 we decided to take a walk around the boardwalk and get the bus from beachclub resort. I'd never actually walked around the boardwalk before so it was a enjoyable new experience.

 

[djsmith]

honeymoon day 3 continued

We arrived at animal kingdom and headed in with our tickets after a few photos at the entrance.

We toured animal kingdom at a relaxed pace just going where we wanted, exploring the tree of life gardens first of all then heading to dinoland usa. Richard loved dinosaurs when he was younger and still was quite interested in them and i was looking forward to introducing him to one of disneys a little more intense rides.

Rich enjoyed the ride and said yeah it was alright. that is a good enthusiastic response to something disney from him lol. The only thing that annoyed me about waiting in line for dinosaur was the amount of fastpasses coming up the line. There was no wait for them at all either which was incredibly frustrating for me. I get it they've taken the time to get fastpasses but they shouldn't just be able to walk on. They should be let in in controlled groups so maybe 10-15 people from the fastpass line then let the regular queue line advance for a few minutes before stopping and letting more of the fastpass through. To me this would be more fair than the standby queue not moving at all for 15mins because of a constant flow of fastpasses. After dinosaur we had a go on the twirl and whirl with its 10minute queue and then headed for everest. I think we waited about an hour and a half for expedition everest. it passed slowly but wasn't too bad once we got inside and had things to look at. I really like expedition everest and I'm happy to say it was a disney favourite with rich too along with mission space and test track. Not bad for someone who disliked anything disney and felt like he only tolerates it for my enjoyment in my book!

After getting off Everest we wandered around animal kingdom looking at the animals. we considered a go on the river rapids to cool us down but 5 mins into the queue the ride broke down. we waited another 5 or 10mins before deciding to leave the queue. we looked at more animal exhibits before heading for the kilamanjaro safari which had a 5min wait.

a few metres down the track one of the rhinos was so close that had he pivoted his body on the spot to the right he would'v hit the truck. at this moment the driver says if the rhino rammed the truck it could easily tip us over. well now i feel safe! We moved on and a group of zebras then decided to block our path. they grazed and slowly crossed the road for several minutes until we could pass. It was quite magical seeing them so close that u could literally touch them.

After the safari we headed round to Harambre to find the new lion king festival stadium but we were just too late for the last showing (4:30). They were beginning to set up the area for the first harambre nights event. I wish we'd known about this before we went to florida and got tickets as the lion king is up there as my favourite disney film (although its so hard to just pick one). It would'v been a nice honeymoon treat especially since we ended up at animal kingdom that day anyway. It was not to be though. So we got the bus back to the hotel where we showered and changed for dinner. We originally planned to eat at Shula's steakhouse tonight but when we looked at the menu (and the prices) we decided it wasn't worth it. So we went to garden grove instead.

We both opted for chicken and mash and veg and gravy and i can say I it was absolutely amazing. Most delicious chicken and mash and gravy i'v had in a long time. My only regret is only getting one dinner at garden grove. We also tasted some of the buffet which was nothing special but was nice and all cooked well.
It wasn't long before we had some characters visit us at dinner too! Goofy and Pluto to be exact.

After our lovely dinner we decided it would be nice to watch epcot fireworks from the boardwalk. we found spot on the bench outside of atlantic dance hall and waited the 15mins or so until the fireworks started. After the fireworks we headed back to the hotel room.

I'm not 100% sure what everyone else did this day we didn't really hear from anyone today and i never asked what they'd done on specific days while we were at the swan unless it came up in conversation. I think a good guess is they were at universal studios or islands of adventure judging by photos that our family have.