DisneyJedi
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Messages
- 39
My fiance and I were made husband and wife on May 5th. The following day we started our honeymoon adventure at Walt Disney World. After having only slept about 3 hours since the wedding (we were up late packing.. last minute of course) driving was the most difficult part of our departure. We were too excited to fully rest-up, so we left with the little amount of sleep we had. It takes approximately 13.5 hours to drive from Lexington, KY to Orlando, FL. I-75 couldn't be anymore boring. I had to really fight to stay awake while driving.. cappuchino and lots of cans of coke, but it did the trick. We could of driven in 12.5 hours, but we spent an hour stopping for food/fuel and bathroom breaks. Then there were the crumby shortcut directions from www.mapquest.com that lead us on a 25 minute waste-of-time goose chase in Georgia.
So we finally arrive in Orlando at the Marriot at Downtown Disney around 4:30pm and check in. It only costed me $1 because I cashed in the gift certificates I earned from online clicking. After checking out our 14th floor room, we headed out to Downtown Disney since we didn't want to waste a day of our 6-day park hopper plus passes (also paid for by clicking
) We weren't hungry after ingesting junk food the whole day while on the road, so we went right into the Disney Marketplace. We were amaised by the amount of merchandise they sold. I'd been to Disney World 3 times before in my life, but never to Downtown Disney. My wife had never been to Orlando in her life. We mulled around the marketplace until around 11pm when I noticed I had already developed a sore on my left foot from my sandles rubbing my foot. This was upsetting, but easily treated with moleskin. I stuck to my trusty Target-brand tennis shoes the rest of the trip and faired fine. I guess 11pm was a good stopping point for the day. You get amaisingly tired from sitting in a car all day. Running on 3 hours of sleep had much to do with it also, I am sure. 
After setting up my ancient lapop to download the pics off my digital camera (went crazy snapping pics in Downtown Disney), we quickly went to bed eagerly anticipating the next morning since we were suppossed to have early entry privaledges at the Magic Kingdom.
May 7th - our first true day of honeymoon/vacation and incidently my 25th birthday!
We were able to get out of bed fairly refreshed and ready and waiting at 7:30am for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. We had no problem boarding, even though we had only the one night's stay at the Marriot (we got up about 6am to checkout). We quickly learned that the bus transportation is too slow getting to the parks in the morning...
We had a little difficulty at the TTC. The cast members controlling the early entry people wouldn't let us in right away because they wanted to see my hotel key (which we didn't have because we only had one night at Marriot and had to check out). I told them the reservation I paid for said right on it "early entry privaledge to theme parks" and at first the male cm said "sorry, can't let you in", but I had noticed the people in front of us forgot their key and they were allowed onto the monorail. I think the Downtown Disney hotels should provide a special temporary pass good for one day early entry for those like us that only stay there one day. I didn't think we'de get to do our early entry. I'd of been very angry if they didn't let us pass.. especially first day of honeymoon/bday. I don't like being told "no" on my bday.
After it seemed like forever to board the monorail, the doors finally closed (I like the warning in Spanish to keep your hands and arm inside the monorail at all times). It seemed like forever to get to the Magic Kingdom.. we stopped at Polynesian and then Grand Floridian hotels and those people seemed to take forever getting on the monorail. I felt all our time getting eaten up by waiting on Disney Transportation to get us to the park. It seemed like they didn't want us to try early entry.
We finally arrived on Magic Kingdom pavement and traversed down Main St. A gush of early childhood memories flooded my mind. It was exactly the same as I had remembered (except one buidling under construction). The nostalgic feeling was awesome. You all know what I am talking about.
It was great finally getting her down to Orlando after all my stories over the years about Orlando and Disney. I could tell she was very happy to be there.
We immediately headed to the right to Tomorrowland and saw Buzz Lightyear wasn't open yet. I really wanted to do that first since reading all the great talk about that attraction at the DIS. We momentarily passed Buzz for a chance at Space Mountain. I've been wanting to go on this since the early 80's when I was first brought to Disney World by my parents. They wouldn't allow me to ride it back then because my grandma got terribly sick on this ride in years past and they just felt it was too dangerous. There was no line wait.. we just ran up and boarded our "ship". After surviving Space Mountain, I had to laugh. I've been on MUCH worse. Try the Outer Limits ride at Paramount Kings Island in Ohio. Can't believe my parents kept me away from this one.
My memory is fading already (which is one of the reasons I am posting this), but I believe we went on Alien Encounter next (which was cool). I think my seat was broken. When everyone else on the attraction was freaking out because it felt like they were being licked in the necks, I felt nothing and wondered what everyone was in a huff about. Still I liked the attraction. I think we went on Buzz Lightyear next and it was exactly what I expected. I did horrible.. something like 40,000 points while my wife was easily in the 500,000 range. I blame it on my gun and the laser not shooting correctly, but I am told it was me. The next thing we did was try to fit in as many attractions as possible. We covered everything except Astro Orbiter in Futureworld.
We briefly visited Fantasyland to go on the teacups from Alice in Wonderland. My wife had been wanting to go on these from as long as I can remember and I feared them with all my life. You see, I am very prone to motion sickness and little rides like this that spin around pack a huge punch. I was prepared though... I took a double dose of dramamene before leaving for the morning. In the past dramamene did not have any affect on me, other than making me sleepy, so I thought I should try a higher dosage. It did the trick! I counquerred my fear of the teacups by spinning the cup so fast, when I went to drip it back I nearly burnt my hands from the friction on the wheel. I'd of loved to have seen how fast we were spinning from an outside perspective. I know from inside, the world became a wall of green and light swirl. I still cannot believe I did this ride. Out of everything at Disney World, I feared this one the most and took care of it right away. Go Dramamene!
We also snagged a fastpass to Big Thunder Mountain Rainroad sometime around now.
A little disoriented, we headed to Adventureland and experienced the Pirates of the Carribean, passing the Swiss Family Robinson tree (that we ignored). After that we took the jungle cruise. I don't remember what we did next, but I think we went back down Main Street to City Hall. I asked for a birthday button and got one instantly. I was told all day "happy birthday". What a cool birthday.. being at Disney with the one you love on your honeymoon. You just can't beat that. We did a bunch of shopping, including getting some embroidered Mickey Mouse Ear caps. The woman that embroidered for us was from Cave City, KY which I have been to. She got all excited when we told her we were on our honeymoon and from Kentucky.
It was still the morning and we really didn't have a game plan to tackle the park, so we went on whatever we were close to. The Country Bear Jamboree fit someplace in here. My wife remembers one of the bears being in a pizza place in Indiana when she was a little girl. I guess Disney built extra bears and one of them wound-up entertaining in a pizza-planet-like place. She recognized the bear. I thought that was cool, since she had never been to Disney, but saw some Disney magic anyway. We both liked the show.
At some point in the day we returned to Futureworld on the way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. A walking/talking trashcan stopped us. It said "they say it is your birthday". I was starled and said "it sure is", so the trash can said "happy birthday" and I said "thanks" and it said "you're welcome". That was neat! I was looking for the person controlling it at a distance, but couldn't find him/her.
I had heard it was wise to leave the EE park mid-day and hop to a new park, but we were having too much fun at Magic Kingdom, so we spent the entire day there going on and experiencing as much as we could. The lines were not bad, except in Fantasyland. We had to return later in our trip to cover Fantasyland (except Peter Pan and the Lion King show which we never got around to doing).
For lunch we ate at Pecos Bill.. my wife some chili and me a huge burger. Good stuff there!
We finally had our fun on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was my favorite ride as a kid. My wife loved it! She made a point for us to come back. I love the part where the coaster almost smacks into an overhead overhang, though I remember it being a closer call as a kid. I didn't feel as threatened by it. The last time I was at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, sometime in the mid-eighties a huge thunderstorm swept through right before we got to go on the ride (again of course). The lightning and purple skies were wicked as anything. The weather truly gave the mountain an ominous undertone, so I can't go by Thunder Mountain without thinking of the thunder and the huge rain shower that ensued.
We grabbed a fastpass to Splash Mountain next (or sometime because we went on this one in the afternoon). Neither myself nor my wife had ever been on this one before, so it was a pleasant surprise. Brare Rabbit was one of my favorite characters as a kid. Wasn't there a "Brare Rabbit and the Tar Baby" story? Or was that part of Song of the South? I don't think I ever saw that movie, but remember the cartoon.. or at least the brare rabbit part of the story and the thorn patch. Maybe I am hallucinating about the tar baby. Oh well.. this was a fun ride. Being up front, my wife and I got the most wet of anyone else. My shoes stayed wet for the rest of the day, but I didn't mind because I was wearing my double-socks.
We also returned to Tomorrowland to check out the Carrosel of Progress. I was telling my wife how this was a classic ride that Walt actually had his hand in designing. She liked the animatronics a whole lot. She and I really like robots and things programmed to move lifelife (like the robot in Alien encounter.. he moved so fluidly.. I was totally impressed). I noticed the little girl animatronic all the way on the left side of the first stage that never appeared again in the entire attraction. Has anyone figured out where this blonde-haired little girl went? Anyway, I'm glad Carrosel is still around. It made me think of the late Horizons attraction at Epcot.
Later that afternoon, we waited about 5 minutes and got right in the haunted mansion which is one of my favorites. I had read www.doombuggies.com and had been in the mansion many times before, so I was looking for the secrets behind the illusions and didn't really find them, but knowing how they worked was enough. The effects are simply incredible! We looked for the suppossed ring in the cement outside the mansion gates, but could not find it. I heard it was a marking from an old pole anyway and not really a ring imprint in the cement.
We toted ourselves back to Adventureland to watch the Tiki Tiki Room Under New Management. I miss the old show, but the new one is still enjoyable. The show seemed awfully short. I wish they kept the original song intact. My wife liked it, so that is all that mattered.
We did alot of walking around and through Cinderella's Castle throughout the day. There is just something really magical about that place.
Around 6pm or so, we got hungry, so we left the park and went to Red Lobster. Again, I whipped out a wad of gift certificates and dinner was free. I ordered lobster which I would never ordinarily do, but it was my birthday, so why not? We returned to Magic Kingdom again after a long bus/monorail trip (again) and had all of 5 minutes before the park closed, so my wife and I sat in front of the castle and watched the twilight go to night and the castle change colors. We spoke much about our totally enjoyable day and how we wanted our honeymoon to last forever, so we would never have to go back to work. About 45 minutes after the park officially closed and it was about empty, we heard Mickey and pals on the loudspeakers and the goodbye message from the Disney Cast. I guess this was the "kiss goodnight" that you Disney folk spoke about. It was very peaceful and pleasant being alone with my wife in front of the castle. We watched the Disney cleanup crew do their work and called it a day.
We had to find our new hotel. With a quick look at the map and some random driving, we found our stay at Buena Vista Suites on International Drive. We didn't plan to stay there, until a messup with my bidding at Priceline commanded we stay there. There was no refund at Priceline, so we had to stay there. The hotel was basically the same as a Marriot. We got a room super close to the front door, which made coming and going a breeze. We didn't really think we'd be in the hotel much anyway, so it really didn't matter where we stayed. Boy, were we right! I'd like to post all about our trip and commit it to memory. We did and saw EVERYTHING (well not everything), but a super huge amount of Disney. We needed more time, much like I need more time to finish my report, so more to come...
So we finally arrive in Orlando at the Marriot at Downtown Disney around 4:30pm and check in. It only costed me $1 because I cashed in the gift certificates I earned from online clicking. After checking out our 14th floor room, we headed out to Downtown Disney since we didn't want to waste a day of our 6-day park hopper plus passes (also paid for by clicking
) We weren't hungry after ingesting junk food the whole day while on the road, so we went right into the Disney Marketplace. We were amaised by the amount of merchandise they sold. I'd been to Disney World 3 times before in my life, but never to Downtown Disney. My wife had never been to Orlando in her life. We mulled around the marketplace until around 11pm when I noticed I had already developed a sore on my left foot from my sandles rubbing my foot. This was upsetting, but easily treated with moleskin. I stuck to my trusty Target-brand tennis shoes the rest of the trip and faired fine. I guess 11pm was a good stopping point for the day. You get amaisingly tired from sitting in a car all day. Running on 3 hours of sleep had much to do with it also, I am sure. After setting up my ancient lapop to download the pics off my digital camera (went crazy snapping pics in Downtown Disney), we quickly went to bed eagerly anticipating the next morning since we were suppossed to have early entry privaledges at the Magic Kingdom.
May 7th - our first true day of honeymoon/vacation and incidently my 25th birthday!
We were able to get out of bed fairly refreshed and ready and waiting at 7:30am for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. We had no problem boarding, even though we had only the one night's stay at the Marriot (we got up about 6am to checkout). We quickly learned that the bus transportation is too slow getting to the parks in the morning...
We had a little difficulty at the TTC. The cast members controlling the early entry people wouldn't let us in right away because they wanted to see my hotel key (which we didn't have because we only had one night at Marriot and had to check out). I told them the reservation I paid for said right on it "early entry privaledge to theme parks" and at first the male cm said "sorry, can't let you in", but I had noticed the people in front of us forgot their key and they were allowed onto the monorail. I think the Downtown Disney hotels should provide a special temporary pass good for one day early entry for those like us that only stay there one day. I didn't think we'de get to do our early entry. I'd of been very angry if they didn't let us pass.. especially first day of honeymoon/bday. I don't like being told "no" on my bday.
After it seemed like forever to board the monorail, the doors finally closed (I like the warning in Spanish to keep your hands and arm inside the monorail at all times). It seemed like forever to get to the Magic Kingdom.. we stopped at Polynesian and then Grand Floridian hotels and those people seemed to take forever getting on the monorail. I felt all our time getting eaten up by waiting on Disney Transportation to get us to the park. It seemed like they didn't want us to try early entry.
We finally arrived on Magic Kingdom pavement and traversed down Main St. A gush of early childhood memories flooded my mind. It was exactly the same as I had remembered (except one buidling under construction). The nostalgic feeling was awesome. You all know what I am talking about.
It was great finally getting her down to Orlando after all my stories over the years about Orlando and Disney. I could tell she was very happy to be there.
We immediately headed to the right to Tomorrowland and saw Buzz Lightyear wasn't open yet. I really wanted to do that first since reading all the great talk about that attraction at the DIS. We momentarily passed Buzz for a chance at Space Mountain. I've been wanting to go on this since the early 80's when I was first brought to Disney World by my parents. They wouldn't allow me to ride it back then because my grandma got terribly sick on this ride in years past and they just felt it was too dangerous. There was no line wait.. we just ran up and boarded our "ship". After surviving Space Mountain, I had to laugh. I've been on MUCH worse. Try the Outer Limits ride at Paramount Kings Island in Ohio. Can't believe my parents kept me away from this one.
My memory is fading already (which is one of the reasons I am posting this), but I believe we went on Alien Encounter next (which was cool). I think my seat was broken. When everyone else on the attraction was freaking out because it felt like they were being licked in the necks, I felt nothing and wondered what everyone was in a huff about. Still I liked the attraction. I think we went on Buzz Lightyear next and it was exactly what I expected. I did horrible.. something like 40,000 points while my wife was easily in the 500,000 range. I blame it on my gun and the laser not shooting correctly, but I am told it was me.
The next thing we did was try to fit in as many attractions as possible. We covered everything except Astro Orbiter in Futureworld. We briefly visited Fantasyland to go on the teacups from Alice in Wonderland. My wife had been wanting to go on these from as long as I can remember and I feared them with all my life. You see, I am very prone to motion sickness and little rides like this that spin around pack a huge punch. I was prepared though... I took a double dose of dramamene before leaving for the morning. In the past dramamene did not have any affect on me, other than making me sleepy, so I thought I should try a higher dosage. It did the trick! I counquerred my fear of the teacups by spinning the cup so fast, when I went to drip it back I nearly burnt my hands from the friction on the wheel. I'd of loved to have seen how fast we were spinning from an outside perspective. I know from inside, the world became a wall of green and light swirl. I still cannot believe I did this ride. Out of everything at Disney World, I feared this one the most and took care of it right away. Go Dramamene!
We also snagged a fastpass to Big Thunder Mountain Rainroad sometime around now.
A little disoriented, we headed to Adventureland and experienced the Pirates of the Carribean, passing the Swiss Family Robinson tree (that we ignored). After that we took the jungle cruise. I don't remember what we did next, but I think we went back down Main Street to City Hall. I asked for a birthday button and got one instantly. I was told all day "happy birthday". What a cool birthday.. being at Disney with the one you love on your honeymoon. You just can't beat that. We did a bunch of shopping, including getting some embroidered Mickey Mouse Ear caps. The woman that embroidered for us was from Cave City, KY which I have been to. She got all excited when we told her we were on our honeymoon and from Kentucky.
It was still the morning and we really didn't have a game plan to tackle the park, so we went on whatever we were close to. The Country Bear Jamboree fit someplace in here. My wife remembers one of the bears being in a pizza place in Indiana when she was a little girl. I guess Disney built extra bears and one of them wound-up entertaining in a pizza-planet-like place. She recognized the bear. I thought that was cool, since she had never been to Disney, but saw some Disney magic anyway. We both liked the show.
At some point in the day we returned to Futureworld on the way to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. A walking/talking trashcan stopped us. It said "they say it is your birthday". I was starled and said "it sure is", so the trash can said "happy birthday" and I said "thanks" and it said "you're welcome".
That was neat! I was looking for the person controlling it at a distance, but couldn't find him/her.I had heard it was wise to leave the EE park mid-day and hop to a new park, but we were having too much fun at Magic Kingdom, so we spent the entire day there going on and experiencing as much as we could. The lines were not bad, except in Fantasyland. We had to return later in our trip to cover Fantasyland (except Peter Pan and the Lion King show which we never got around to doing).
For lunch we ate at Pecos Bill.. my wife some chili and me a huge burger. Good stuff there!
We finally had our fun on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This was my favorite ride as a kid. My wife loved it! She made a point for us to come back. I love the part where the coaster almost smacks into an overhead overhang, though I remember it being a closer call as a kid. I didn't feel as threatened by it. The last time I was at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, sometime in the mid-eighties a huge thunderstorm swept through right before we got to go on the ride (again of course). The lightning and purple skies were wicked as anything. The weather truly gave the mountain an ominous undertone, so I can't go by Thunder Mountain without thinking of the thunder and the huge rain shower that ensued.
We grabbed a fastpass to Splash Mountain next (or sometime because we went on this one in the afternoon). Neither myself nor my wife had ever been on this one before, so it was a pleasant surprise. Brare Rabbit was one of my favorite characters as a kid. Wasn't there a "Brare Rabbit and the Tar Baby" story? Or was that part of Song of the South? I don't think I ever saw that movie, but remember the cartoon.. or at least the brare rabbit part of the story and the thorn patch. Maybe I am hallucinating about the tar baby. Oh well.. this was a fun ride. Being up front, my wife and I got the most wet of anyone else. My shoes stayed wet for the rest of the day, but I didn't mind because I was wearing my double-socks.
We also returned to Tomorrowland to check out the Carrosel of Progress. I was telling my wife how this was a classic ride that Walt actually had his hand in designing. She liked the animatronics a whole lot. She and I really like robots and things programmed to move lifelife (like the robot in Alien encounter.. he moved so fluidly.. I was totally impressed). I noticed the little girl animatronic all the way on the left side of the first stage that never appeared again in the entire attraction. Has anyone figured out where this blonde-haired little girl went? Anyway, I'm glad Carrosel is still around. It made me think of the late Horizons attraction at Epcot.
Later that afternoon, we waited about 5 minutes and got right in the haunted mansion which is one of my favorites. I had read www.doombuggies.com and had been in the mansion many times before, so I was looking for the secrets behind the illusions and didn't really find them, but knowing how they worked was enough. The effects are simply incredible! We looked for the suppossed ring in the cement outside the mansion gates, but could not find it. I heard it was a marking from an old pole anyway and not really a ring imprint in the cement.
We toted ourselves back to Adventureland to watch the Tiki Tiki Room Under New Management. I miss the old show, but the new one is still enjoyable. The show seemed awfully short. I wish they kept the original song intact. My wife liked it, so that is all that mattered.
We did alot of walking around and through Cinderella's Castle throughout the day. There is just something really magical about that place.
Around 6pm or so, we got hungry, so we left the park and went to Red Lobster. Again, I whipped out a wad of gift certificates and dinner was free. I ordered lobster which I would never ordinarily do, but it was my birthday, so why not? We returned to Magic Kingdom again after a long bus/monorail trip (again) and had all of 5 minutes before the park closed, so my wife and I sat in front of the castle and watched the twilight go to night and the castle change colors. We spoke much about our totally enjoyable day and how we wanted our honeymoon to last forever, so we would never have to go back to work.
About 45 minutes after the park officially closed and it was about empty, we heard Mickey and pals on the loudspeakers and the goodbye message from the Disney Cast. I guess this was the "kiss goodnight" that you Disney folk spoke about. It was very peaceful and pleasant being alone with my wife in front of the castle. We watched the Disney cleanup crew do their work and called it a day. We had to find our new hotel. With a quick look at the map and some random driving, we found our stay at Buena Vista Suites on International Drive. We didn't plan to stay there, until a messup with my bidding at Priceline commanded we stay there. There was no refund at Priceline, so we had to stay there. The hotel was basically the same as a Marriot. We got a room super close to the front door, which made coming and going a breeze. We didn't really think we'd be in the hotel much anyway, so it really didn't matter where we stayed. Boy, were we right! I'd like to post all about our trip and commit it to memory. We did and saw EVERYTHING (well not everything), but a super huge amount of Disney. We needed more time, much like I need more time to finish my report, so more to come...
Only 11 more days to go!! 
