I’ll Never Grow Up! – Oct 2016 Disneymoon TR

[PrincessAshlee]

Hi! My name is Ashlee and welcome to my first ever trip report! If you didn’t read my PTR ("Love is a Song that Never Ends" - PTR Oct 2016 Trip), here are the basics…

Who: Me and my Prince Charming, Corey
What: Our 8 day, 7 night Magical Disney Honeymoon
Where: Walt Disney World (Caribbean Beach Resort)
When: October 12-19, 2016
Why: We’re Married!!​

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A little background... before our trip, DH was not really a big Disney fan, but he was actually the one that suggested WDW as our honeymoon destination. I guess that I had been talking about my last trip a lot more than I realized. He also has multiple friends at work that go to WDW every year, so having them talk it up really helped to get DH excited about our trip.

I was so excited to go back and be able to experience it together. I spent months planning what I considered to be the perfect vacation. I am very type A and I love planning! DH does not really love my planning. He worries that I stress myself out worrying over all the details and would prefer to go with the flow. When he got tired of hearing about Disney after just a month of planning, I knew that I needed to find a new outlet. That is when I found the Disboards and started my first ever PTR.

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It has now been a few months since our trip and I am ready to tell you all about it! So do you think that we stuck to all of those well made plans? Not a Chance! This trip was such a learning experience for me. I really had to learn how to let go of my strict plans and just enjoy being in my favorite place with my favorite person. Even though it wasn’t exactly how I thought that it would be, we still had an amazing first vacation together as husband and wife!

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Before we go too far, I feel like I should warn you, I’ve been told (mostly by my mother) that I’m a terrible story teller. I go off on tangents and explain details that don’t matter and I often lose my place and forget what I was going to say. Writing it all down will definitely help with some of my issues, but this is still probably going to be a loooong crazy report.

However, if you enjoy long stories with lots of details, then you’ve found the right place! I’m so glad that you are here!! I’ll also try to add lots of pictures to keep it interesting.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Table of Contents

Day 1 - Part 1: Travel

Day 1 - Part 2: Disney Springs

Day 1 - Part 3: Magic Kingdom

Day 2 - Part 1: Magic Kingdom

Day 2 - Part 2: EPCOT

Day 3 - Part 1: Animal Kingdom

Day 3 - Part 2: Caribbean Beach Resort: Old Port Royale

Day 3 - Part 3: Magic Kingdom

Day 3 - Part 4: Polynesian Village Resort: Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 1 – Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Part 1 – Travel​

We were up late packing the night before, so I was really tired when the alarm went off at 6:00am. We got all of our last minute things packed and we were out the door by 7:00am. The plan had been to stop at Subway for breakfast that morning, but I lost the gift card I was going to use and we both agreed that we weren’t really hungry yet. The frantic packing the night before left me really anxious and I actually told DH that I wanted to go back home instead (clearly the lack of sleep caused me to lose my mind).

We parked our car and caught the shuttle to the main terminal. Once there, we went to check our bags. The woman at the baggage desk was really nice, she noticed our “Just Married” shirts and tried to offer us free drink vouchers. Since we had booked the Delta Comfort+ upgrade, we already got complementary drinks, so we told her that we really appreciated the gesture, but she should pass them along to someone else.

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Once we made it through the security check, DH was getting hungry, so we stopped at the airport McDonalds. I was still too anxious to eat, so I didn’t order anything, but then I did end up eating several bites of DH’s food (he’s caught on to the fact that I usually steal some of his food, so he always orders extra even though I say that I don’t want any ). Everyone at the airport was so nice and several more people noticed our shirts and congratulated us. We sat at the gate for a short while and then it was time to board the plane.

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Once everyone had boarded and we got into the air, the flight attendant came around and offered us drinks and snacks. Even though it was still before noon, DH and I both decided to get a cocktail to help calm our nerves; DH was very anxious about flying since he hadn’t been on a plane in several years.

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The seat backs had little television screens and I was able to watch Finding Dory! This was when I finally started to relax and got excited about our trip again. The movie ended just as we were landing.

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We got off the plane and quickly made our way to the Magical Express. (When I went to WDW in 2014, I made the mistake of packing our magic bands in the bottom of one of our three carry-ons, so there we were, 4 girls, sitting on the ground next to the check-in digging through our bags for about 15 minutes in search of our magic bands ). This time I learned and had our bands ready. We had no issues and were directed to a lane to wait for our bus.

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We didn’t have to wait long before our bus arrived and we were on our way to the Caribbean Beach Resort. It was close to 2:00pm by the time we arrived, but since we hadn’t received a text that our room was ready, we went into the Custom House to check-in. There was a large family ahead of us in line (they had four adults and at least five children) and none of them seemed to know what was going on. Thankfully, we were directed to another lane.

The CM that helped us was nice enough, but he didn’t really have the Disney enthusiasm that I was hoping for. He barely acknowledged our shirts and just mumbled congratulations while handing over our pins. Regardless, we made our way to the internal bus stop, so that we could catch the bus to the Jamaica section. Of course, the large family was there too. This time two of the parents were arguing over which one of them was going to walk to the room because for some reason they thought that they couldn’t take the stroller on the bus. They eventually decided that the dad would go, but for some reason the mom kept the baby and he walked alone. While on the bus, the mom complained loudly to the other adults that the dad was the lucky one, because he got to walk alone, while she was “stuck with their kids”. Clearly they were off to a magical start on their family vacation. Then, just our luck, they got off at our stop too. We were worried that we were going to have to listen to them bicker all week, but surprisingly, we never saw them again.

Once we finally made it to our room, I was starting to get a headache (likely from not eating anything but a couple bites of an egg mcmuffin and some pretzels all day), so we relaxed for a bit, but then it was time to get changed for dinner. Unfortunately, this is when we realized that in the packing frenzy, I had packed both of DH’s belts in the checked bags. Oops! I don’t know why, but my sleep deprived brain thought that we were not allowed to have any metal in our carry-ons, so they had to go in the checked bags. We waited around a little bit longer to see if the checked bags would show up, but they didn’t and we really had to leave to make it to our reservation, so DH had to go belt-less and hope that his pants didn’t fall down.

DH searching for his missing belt. Not sure why I thought that would be a good time to take a picture.
At least he wasn't too upset with me!​

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 1 – Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Part 2 – Disney Springs​

We caught the bus to Disney Springs and I was really surprised at how different it looked compared to when I went to Downtown Disney in 2014. I had read about the changes, but it is just sooo different!

We had originally planned to wander around Disney Springs and go to the House of Blues or Raglan Road for Happy Hour before dinner, but since we had spent the extra time in the room hoping that our bags would come, DH and I made our way straight to STK for our 5:00pm reservation.

We still arrived about 15-20 minutes early and were told that we could come back later or that the bar was open. Even though I wanted to see more of Disney Springs, DH had no desire to walk around, continuously pulling his pants up, so we decided to get a drink at the bar.

DH got the STK Mule (purity vodka, lime, ginger beer) and I got the Cherry Poppin’ (the botanist gin, luxardo cordial, limemade fizz, and fresh muddled cherries). They were $15 each, which I thought was pretty high, even for Disney standards, but we were on our honeymoon, so why not. Well, DH hated his Mule! I tried it too and agreed that it was awful. The ginger beer was some fancy kind and the ginger was way too strong; it tasted kind of like if you drank a tree! Mine was ok, but I had never had gin before and it seemed to really make my headache much worse.

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I really wasn’t feeling well and would have preferred to go back to the room , but I knew that DH was really looking forward to eating there, so we stayed. The bartender was nice and really chatty, she tried telling us about her favorite things at the Food and Wine Festival, but she couldn’t remember the names of anything so it was more like “the France slushie” and “that one thing from Mexico”; not particularly helpful, but she tried.

Also while we were at the bar, it was really strange, someone came in and ordered a Coke to go. This was so strange, because they obviously sell Coke at numerous different places in Disney Springs, most notably the Coca-Cola rooftop bar, why would someone come into a bar to order one that was likely smaller and more expensive?

Anyways just after 5:00pm, we went back up to the hostess stand and they seated us at a table on the first floor near the DJ. I was disappointed, because I had requested a table on the second floor, specifically to be away from the DJ . They said that the second floor wasn’t open and it was easy to understand why, they were completely dead! I mean no one else was there at all! They did end up seating 3-4 other tables in the hour or so that we were there, but that was it.

First, they brought us out some fresh baked bread that had some sort of bleu cheese on top and a neon green pesto sauce (maybe it was melted butter). It was good but not great. DH still couldn’t bring himself to finish his mule, but he decided to order a regular beer with dinner and he enjoyed that much more.

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For dinner, we ordered the 24 oz Porterhouse with STK and Béarnaise sauce to share. We did not care for the STK sauce, but the Béarnaise sauce was great! We both agreed that it was probably the best steak that we’ve ever eaten! We also ordered the parmesan truffle fries and the mac & cheese. I really liked the mac & cheese, but I thought that the fries were pretty dry and not particularly flavorful; I tried dipping them in both of the sauces and the pesto butter stuff, I even tried dipping them in the mac and cheese sauce (the best of the options), but I still didn’t care for them. I had originally planned to order dessert, but we were so full that we couldn’t even eat all of our steak.

Our waiters (we had two because they didn't seem to have anything else to do) were very nice, but they kept hovering and asking us if we needed anything. It made it hard to just enjoy our meal together. To top it off, my headache still had not gone away and the DJ started to play some loud music; it probably wasn’t really that loud, but it seemed loud since there were so few other customers and the ones that were there were pretty quiet. The whole atmosphere was just weird. It really felt like someone was hosting a party, but no one showed up. The steak and mac & cheese was really good, but due to the weird atmosphere, I don’t really care to go back.

The Empty Dining Room
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We finished our meal and headed to the bus stop to wait for a bus back to our hotel. DH mentioned that he would like to come back and see more of Disney Springs another day, once he had his belt, so his pants would stay up. As we sat and waited for our bus, the sun was starting to set and there was a nice breeze. It felt so nice to finally let go of all the wedding stress and just be on our honeymoon.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 1 – Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Part 3 – Magic Kingdom​

After dinner, we went back to our room to rest for a little bit. I took some aspirin and my headache was FINALLY starting to go away!

Around 8:00pm, we caught the bus to the Magic Kingdom. I thought that it was amusing, we got on the bus full of exhausted people returning from a long day at the park and there we were fresh and rested and ready for our first trip to the park!

We had originally planned to use our fastpasses before watching the fireworks, but when they extended the hours for the Magic Kingdom, I moved our fastpasses to after, so that we would have more time to relax after dinner. Therefore, once we got to the Magic Kingdom, we made our way straight to the the Castle to watch Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. It was sooo crowded!! (DH suffers from claustrophobia and he told me later that he was scared that it was going to be like that all week.) We found an ok spot to stand behind the fountain in front of the Crystal Palace. There was a really nice couple behind us that was celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. They told us about all of the trips they had taken to WDW together and even gave us some marriage advice.

Before long, it was time for the show to start. This was DF’s first time seeing Celebrate the Magic and Wishes and I really enjoyed seeing his reaction. I thought that he would really like Wishes, because he loves fireworks, but he was actually more interested in Celebrate the Magic and trying to figure out how they projected all of the images onto the castle. I really enjoyed Wishes though. I even teared up a bit when I remembered how I stood in front of that castle in 2014 and wished that I would meet my Prince Charming and now we were there together.

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After Wishes, thankfully, the park cleared out A LOT!! We made our way Adventureland to use our FPs for Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Then, we went to Liberty Square to use our FP for the Haunted Mansion.

After we had used all of our fastpasses, we were actually starting to get hungry again, so we went to Pecos Bill’s. We got the fajita platter to share and a couple of waters (If you haven’t noticed already, I really like to share food. It works out best for us, because I get full pretty quickly, but I’m hungry again in a couple of hours, so we get to try lots of different things.) The fajitas were really good and plenty for us to share as a snack; especially since they have a toppings bar. I would definitely eat here again.

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After we ate our fajitas, we went to explore Fantasyland. I had wanted to meet Minnie, Daisy, Donald, and Goofy at the circus, but hadn’t realized that they are not there during EMH. We did get to ride Dumbo though, there was no line and we walked right on. We also rode the Barnstormer, which we both really enjoyed. It wasn't the thrill coasters that we are used to from Cedar Point, here in Ohio, but it was fun. Then we got to ride Mad Tea Party; which is my favorite! By then it was almost 1:00am, we checked the line for Space Mountain, but it was an hour long and that would put us right at park closing, so we decided to wait, since we had a fastpass for it later in the week.

Also, when I went to WDW in 2014, it was a tradition that I would ride the Carrousel last every night before we would leave MK, so once we decided that there was nothing else that we wanted to ride, we headed back through the castle to ride the Carrousel. I just love how magical it looks all lit up!

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On our way out, we stopped at the Plaza Ice Cream Parlor for a treat. I got a mint chocolate chip kids cone and DH got a root beer float. DH really enjoyed his, but after two bites, I realized that I shouldn’t have ordered anything. I was still too full from the fajitas and only ate a couple more bites before throwing it away.

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We caught the bus back to our hotel and made it to bed around 2:00am. The plan was to be up bright and early the next day to see the MK Welcome Show... will we make it?

 

[eskskick]

Enjoying your TR so far! I just happened upon it, and went back and read your PTR as well. Congrats on getting married! My husband and I went on a Disney cruise for our honeymoon in 2015. Nothing like going to a place where it's whimsical and fun after planning a wedding!

 

[Raeven]

Following along!

We were up late packing the night before, so I was really tired when the alarm went off at 6:00am.

We always do this too! Stay up too late the night before a trip. Then I get too excited to sleep.

but they didn’t and we really had to leave to make it to our reservation, so DH had to go belt-less and hope that his pants didn’t fall down.

DH searching for his missing belt. Not sure why I thought that would be a good time to take a picture.
At least he wasn't too upset with me!

It really felt like someone was hosting a party, but no one showed up. The steak and mac & cheese was really good, but due to the weird atmosphere, I don’t really care to go back.

I told Josh about this and we decided we're still going to try and he's going to bring earplugs because he's prone to migraines I really want to try the steak and mac and cheese though!

 

[thumper*]

Congratulations. Following along.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Enjoying your TR so far! I just happened upon it, and went back and read your PTR as well. Congrats on getting married! My husband and I went on a Disney cruise for our honeymoon in 2015. Nothing like going to a place where it's whimsical and fun after planning a wedding!

and
I'm trying to talk DH into a cruise for 2020. They look like so much fun, but he is not too excited about the idea yet. Good thing I have a couple of years to work on him.

We always do this too! Stay up too late the night before a trip. Then I get too excited to sleep.

I am really trying to start to pack earlier this time. I've already set aside a bunch of stuff that I know we will need for the trip, but won't need here before then.
I'll still probably be too excited to sleep, but at least our flight isn't until the afternoon this time.

I told Josh about this and we decided we're still going to try and he's going to bring earplugs because he's prone to migraines I really want to try the steak and mac and cheese though!

I really hope that you have a better experience than we did! Hopefully they will be busier, so that you can sit upstairs. The steak and mac & cheese was amazing! I would definitely go back if I could sit upstairs, especially if we could sit on the second floor patio. It looks so nice!

Congratulations. Following along.

and

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 2 – Thursday, October 13, 2016
Part 1 – Magic Kingdom​

Have any of you seen those shirts that say “I’m only a morning person the day I go to Disney”? Well those people are not us! We are not morning people EVER! Not even for Disney! I knew that it was going to take some convincing to get DH out of bed, but I thought that I would be excited and jump out of bed at the first alarm. I was wrong… sooo wrong!

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We were both sooo tired and sore from night before. I was so excited that I had completely forgotten to pace myself and we had walked all over the Magic Kingdom; over 12,000 steps in less than 5 hours. We finally rolled out of bed, got ready, and made it to the bus stop by 8:15am. Unfortunately, we must have just missed the bus, because the next one didn’t come until 8:40! Needless to say, we missed the Welcome Show. (At the time, I wasn’t too upset, but now that they changed it, I am sad that DH won't get to see it how it was at the entrance with the train. I’m still holding out hope that maybe they will change it back.)

Once we did get into the park, DH decided that he didn’t want to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, so he went to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich from the Main Street Bakery/Starbucks and I went to get in line by myself. Well, by the time that I got back to 7DMT, the posted wait was already 75 minutes. I didn’t want to wait in line all that time by myself and I was worried about being late to our early lunch ADR, so I decided to skip it (maybe next time).

I sat down at the tables near the carrousel, to try and figure out what we were going to do now, since we had over an hour until our Be Our Guest reservation. While I was waiting for DH to join me, the Tremaine sisters appeared and I had really wanted to meet them. DH showed up with a large Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino (to share, of course) and we got in line so that I could meet the evil stepsisters! They were really fun and asked me if I had any sisters that were looking for a job, since they were in need of a new servant.

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We wandered through the gift shop by Gaston’s Tavern and while we didn’t have time to wait in line to meet Gaston ourselves, I wanted DH to see how entertaining he is (he was one of my favorite characters that I met in 2014), so we watched him interact with people for a little bit.

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Then we had just enough time to ride Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid, before checking in for our 10:30am lunch ADR at Be Our Guest.

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We had pre-ordered our meals on the bus ride that morning, so we just had to wait for them to officially open; which seemed like it took forever! We were asked whether we wanted to sit in the Ballroom or the West Wing (the Gallery room wasn’t open yet) and since I had eaten in the Ballroom last time, I chose the West Wing. I would not choose this again ; it was cool to see the rose and the other decorations, but it was really dark in there! It felt odd to be eating in the dark, so early in the morning.

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I had ordered the Braised Pork (Coq Au Vin Style) and it was just as good as I remembered. DH ordered the Croque Monsieur with Pommes Frites (Ham and Cheese with Fries) along with the French Onion Soup. French Onion Soup is his favorite and he said that it was very good. He also liked his sandwich, even though he could only eat half. (We took the other half back to the room and he ate it as a snack on a different day). We also shared the Master’s Cupcake, which was good, but I really only order it because it is topped with the famous “Grey Stuff”, which is delicious.

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After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 2 – Thursday, October 13, 2016
Part 2 – EPCOT​

We woke up from our nap around 2:30pm. The plan was to be ready and waiting for the bus around 3:00pm. Unfortunately, DH woke up with a terrible backache! (He sees a chiropractor at home and we had both gone in for a checkup the week before, but he was clearly in lot of pain.) This was really bad! We had only been there for 24 hours and now he could barely walk! I panicked a little, not knowing how this would affect our plans for the week; the plans that I had spent months and months making!

He decided to take some Motrin and put some ice on it and hope that he would feel good enough to go in a half hour or so. The ice did seem to help , so we got ready and were out waiting for the bus by 3:30pm. There was no way that we were going to make it to our 2:50-3:50 fastpass to meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy, but luckily I was able to move it to later that night.

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We did use our fastpasses for Soarin’ and it was fantastic! I love the new show! Then, DH wanted to sit and rest for a bit, so we stopped at the cart outside of the land and got a Mickey pretzel and cheese to share and DH got a beer (the one thing he never has to share, because I don’t like beer ).

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When we were ready, we headed over to Mission SPACE. We had already planned to ride the green (less intense) version, even before DH hurt his back, so that wasn’t an issue, but neither of us really enjoyed this ride. We had another fastpass for this ride later in the week, but we ended up cancelling it.

After Mission Space, DH back was bothering him again, so we decided to stop at First Aid, before dinner, to see if they had icy hot or anything that would help. They did not. They offered him a couple more aspirin and told him that they had a room where he could lay down, but that was all they could do. We asked the man working there if he knew if any of the gift shops or other stores on property sold icy hot, since we didn’t have a car and he said no, but gave us a card for a pharmacy that delivers. It would probably cost us at least double, but at least DH wouldn’t be in so much pain. (We later found Bengay, which is very similar to Icy Hot, at our hotel gift shop! I don’t know if the guy we ask didn’t know about that or if he works for the pharmacy, so he lied to us. Either way, he wasn’t very helpful ).

After our stop at First Aid, we made our way through the World Showcase to the Italy pavilion for our ADR at Via Napoli. I was hot and sooo crowded! Drunk people were constantly bumping into us. I had read that the Food and Wine Festival was really busy on weekends, but I hadn’t expected it to be so bad on a Thursday.

We finally made it to Via Napoli and checked in for our reservation. DH loves pizza, so he was really excited about this reservation. We only waited maybe 10-15 minutes to be seated. The woman that seated us had the highest pitched voice that I’ve ever heard. I remember wondering if everyone from that part of Italy spoke that way. It would sure be interesting if they did. Once we were seated, our waiter came over to take our drink order. He introduced himself and then went into a monologue of sorts in Italian (like not just that he spoke with an accent, he was speaking completely in Italian), he continued this throughout our meal, even though it was obvious that we couldn’t understand him ; it got a little annoying after a little while. I get that it is authentic and he is from Italy, so that is his first language, but having someone continuously talk at you in a language that you don’t understand is frustrating and definitely not fun!

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Anyways, I ordered the Peach Bellini and DH had a beer. We then ordered an individual pizza with prosciutto to share and they had some breadsticks on special, so we got those with marinara to dip. Our waiter insisted that the individual pizza would not be enough to share, but we wanted to try some of the F&WF snacks later, so we told him that it would be fine. We ended up really not liking the pizza, so I’m really glad that we stuck with our instincts and didn’t order a larger one. The prosciutto was pretty gross; it was put on after the pizza was cooked, so it was kind of slimy.

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I should have known that we wouldn’t like it, because now that I think about it, we don’t really like authentic Italian pizza. It was just that all of the reviews that I read said it was soooo good. The breadsticks were good and we mostly filled up on those and didn’t even finish our pizza.

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After dinner, we headed over to the France pavilion. It had been a long day and I really wanted a La Passion Martini Slush (Vodka, Grey Goose Le Citron Vodka, Cranberry and Passion Fruit Juice). DH also got a Frozen Daiquiri Ice Pop (Strawberry Puree with French Caribbean Rhum Clément).

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They were both really good, but it was still really hot outside and they melted fast, creating a pretty big mess. We made our way to the bathrooms in the England pavilion to clean up.

As it got closer to Illuminations time, the World Showcase got even more crowded. We were both tired and feeling pretty claustrophobic, so we decided to just leave and not watch Illuminations.​

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We did stop to meet Baymax and Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy on the way back to the buses. Even with a fastpass, the line for Mickey & Friends took almost 45 minutes. ​

Minnie Mouse tried to steal my husband!!
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The original plan had been to leave the park and go to the Boardwalk to watch the dueling pianos at Jellyrolls, but we were both tired and I could tell that DH was in a lot of pain, so we hobbled our way to the front and caught the bus back to our hotel.

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We made it back just in time to watch our favorite Thursday night crime drama, How to Get Away with Murder, before going to bed.​

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[eskskick]

and
I'm trying to talk DH into a cruise for 2020. They look like so much fun, but he is not too excited about the idea yet. Good thing I have a couple of years to work on him.

Haha, good luck! I was the one who had to be talked into the cruise. I was nervous about feeling like I was trapped on a boat. In reality, I didn't even get to see the whole ship during our 7 day cruise. The boat is huge and there's so much to do and see. I hope you're able to convince him!

 

[eskskick]

Alright, I am going to attempt more than one quote in a message for the first time. (My first time quoting was above lol.) They might be a little out of order compared to your update... sorry lol.

I was so excited that I had completely forgotten to pace myself and we had walked all over the Magic Kingdom; over 12,000 steps in less than 5 hours.

Wow, that's a lot of steps! I just got a step counter last week and my highest for a day is 5,000 steps so far. I can't imagine what 12,000 would be like in 5 hours!!

I panicked a little, not knowing how this would affect our plans for the week; the plans that I had spent months and months making! ​

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Oh no! I'm glad he felt better this day. I hope he was okay the rest of the trip!

DH got a beer (the one thing he never has to share, because I don’t like beer ).

I had to laugh at this, I don't share drinks with my DH, but that's because he doesn't like to share drinks with me lol. Apparently I drink "too slow" so he feels guilty sharing with me and finishing off the drink.
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(We later found Bengay, which is very similar to Icy Hot, at our hotel gift shop! I don’t know if the guy we ask didn’t know about that or if he works for the pharmacy, so he lied to us. Either way, he wasn’t very helpful ).

I want to believe in the goodness of people and that he maybe didn't know Bengay was similar to Icy Hot, but if he's working the first aid booth...

I should have known that we wouldn’t like it, because now that I think about it, we don’t really like authentic Italian pizza. It was just that all of the reviews that I read said it was soooo good.​

I did the same thing with Palo on the cruise. Read all these wonderful reviews, got there and really didn't enjoy the experience. The food was okay, but I ended up preferring the casual dining. Which makes sense because I don't enjoy going to fancy restaurants.

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Ok, that's enough of the quoting for this attempt. Too bad you didn't get to see Illuminations, or go to Jellyrolls. But I think you probably made the right choice, not point burning yourself out on vacation.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

I was nervous about feeling like I was trapped on a boat.

I think this is one of his his fears too. I'm going to show him some youtube videos, so he can see how big it really is.

I did the same thing with Palo on the cruise. Read all these wonderful reviews, got there and really didn't enjoy the experience. The food was okay, but I ended up preferring the casual dining. Which makes sense because I don't enjoy going to fancy restaurants.

Good to know. I have read great reviews of Palo too. If I do talk DH into the cruise, I'll have to remind myself that we probably won't like it and should just stick to the casual dining.

I want to believe in the goodness of people and that he maybe didn't know Bengay was similar to Icy Hot, but if he's working the first aid booth...

It is possible that he didn't know about the resort store either. We didn't look for it at the parks.

I was just generally disappointed in the first aid station. We had to walk completely out of our way and it took us forever to even find it, because it's basically hidden on the back side of an empty building. Then when we did find it, he wasn't really helpful. We would have been better off using our time to rest on a bench somewhere.

Too bad you didn't get to see Illuminations, or go to Jellyrolls. But I think you probably made the right choice, not point burning yourself out on vacation.

I have Illuminations on our "maybe list" for our trip in May, but it's not my favorite Disney evening show, so we will see if we actually make it there this time.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 3 – Friday, October 14, 2016
Part 1 – Animal Kingdom​

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We woke up fairly early on Day 3 and while we still didn’t make it to rope drop, I think we were pretty close. We got a doughnut at the Joffrey's stand before we went into the park and ate it as we walked back to the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was delicious!!

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The wait for the safari wasn’t very long; less than half an hour. DH had never been to the Animal Kingdom, so I was excited to see his reaction, since everything was new to him. He really liked it!

Side Note… DH’s sister went to South Africa last year and kept bragging about the real safari that she went on and I have to say my pictures are much better than hers! Plus it didn’t take us a 14 hour plane ride to get there. I love how amazing Disney is at making you feel like you are really in a different part of the world.

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After the safari, DH’s back was starting to hurt again, so we decide to sit for a minute to rest at the Harambe Market. There was a really nice breeze and it wasn’t open yet and so we basically had the whole place to ourselves. It was very relaxing.

Well it was relaxing, until I realized what time it was and panicked. The plan had been to ride the safari and then see the 10:00am showing of Festival of the Lion King before heading over to EPCOT for our lunch ADR at Garden Grill, but it was already 10:15!! So we had to decide whether to skip the show and head to EPCOT now or skip our ADR and stay for the 11:00am FOTLK. We decided to stay and just pay the no show fee, since it was too late to cancel our reservation.

We then had a half hour before the next FOTLK show and changing plans stresses me out, so we decided to get some drinks at the Dawa Bar to help me relax again. I got the Lost on Safari (Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, Pink Pigeon Mauritian Rum, and our refreshing Pangani Punch) and DH got the Tikiti Punch (Snow Leopard Vodka and thirst-quenching Watermelon Lemonade), but then I liked his better, so being the great husband that he is, he traded with me.

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People were starting to line up for the show, so we decided to take our drinks with us and join the line. We finished our drinks and before we knew it, they were letting us in to the show.
Festival of the Lion King was amazing!! It is now my favorite WDW show! I had wanted to see it on my 2014 trip, but we were busy being Wilderness Explorers, so we didn’t have time. I’m so glad that we decided to stay and see it this time!

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We couldn’t find any QS that we wanted to eat at AK, so we decided to head back to our hotel. On the way out, we ran into Tarzan and he taught me how to tree surf.

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[PrincessAshlee]

Day 3 – Friday, October 14, 2016
Part 2 – Caribbean Beach Resort: Old Port Royale​

After our morning at the Animal Kingdom, we took the bus back to our hotel, but this time, we decided to get off at Old Port Royale (the shopping and food building).

We were really hungry by that point, so we decided to get some lunch at the food court. I got the jumbo slice of Meat Pizza (which is the size of two regular slices) and DH got the Cuban Sandwich (Pork, Ham, Cheese, and Pickle-Dijon Spread with Wedge Salad or Jerk Chips). While we were there the sign said the sandwich came with Pasta Salad and Jerk Chips, so he got both.

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We decided that it was too hot to eat outside, but we did choose a table inside with a nice view of the lake. We ended up sharing (of course!) and I had half of DH’s sandwich in exchange for half of my pizza.

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I hadn’t heard great things about the food court, so I was surprised by how much we enjoyed our food! The Cuban was really good and I even liked the jerk chips, once I tried them (that is considered adventurous for me). The pizza was more like what we were used to from home and I liked it. When I asked DH if he liked that pizza better than the pizza we had at Via Napoli, he picked up the empty paper plate, took a bite, and confirmed that it was much better!!

After lunch, we decided to look around the gift shop. DH found some fun Halloween merchandise that he wanted to get; he loves Halloween!

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We also found a few other things that we liked and debated getting them, but decided to hold off, since we didn’t know how much space we would have in our bags; they were pretty full on the way there. I had downloaded the Shop Parks app the day before, so we ultimately decided that we would place an order and have it directly shipped to our house, once we had picked out everything that we wanted. We scanned all of the items that we liked into our virtual shopping bag.

This is also when we discovered that the shop had Bengay for DH’s back!

Finally, we walked over the bridge back to our room in the Jamaica section for a quick break before we headed back out to the parks that evening.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 3 – Friday, October 14, 2016
Part 3 – Magic Kingdom​

After our break, we were back out at the bus stop by 3:30pm to go to the Magic Kingdom. We had a 3:00-4:00pm FP to meet talking Mickey at Town Square Theater. Of course it took longer to get there than I had planned and the bag check/entrance was really crowded with people coming in for MNSSHP that night (really poor planning on my part ), but somehow, we made it! Thank goodness for the extra 15 minute grace period that they give you!!

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I really wanted a picture with Mickey in our Just Married shirts, so this was really important to me and I was really glad that we made it!

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We then stopped on our way to Tomorrowland and got some nice pictures of us with the castle. Lots of people noticed our shirts and stopped to congratulate us. It made me feel very special.**

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While in Tomorrowland, we saw Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor and used our FPs for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Space Mountain. Monsters Inc was really funny and we both really liked it. This was actually the second time we had ridden Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (I forgot to mention it in my post about our first night) and DH loved it. We did not really like Space Mountain, as it was really jerky. Even my back hurt after riding it.

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It was really hot that day, so we got a frozen cherry Icee from the Lunching Pad and sat down to people watch. It was really crowded, because they start letting people in for MNSSHP at 4:00pm, but it was fun to see the all the kids (and adults) in their costumes!

After we finished the Icee, we got on the People Mover for one last look around Tomorrowland, before we headed out of the park. We had tickets for MNSSHP on a different day, so we had only planned to stay from 4-7pm. Looking back, this was not a very good plan. It was probably the most crowded time to go to the Magic Kingdom, because you had people coming in for the party and people not going to the party that hadn’t left yet. Even though we had fastpasses for almost everything we did, so we didn’t have to wait in any long lines, the park just felt extra hot and crowded.

Once we made it out of the park, we had a decision to make. Did we want to go to Hollywood Studios to see the Star Wars Fireworks (we don’t actually like Star Wars, but we like fireworks and this was the only night that we would be able to see them) or go to the Polynesian Resort and have some drinks at Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto? I left the decision up to DH and he decided on fireworks at HS. So we walk all the way over and get in line for the bus to HS and then he tells me that he doesn’t really want to go walk around another park. I was so annoyed! We had walked all the way over to the buses and now we had to walk all the way back to the monorail! This was our first married fight. DH claimed that he didn’t understand the options and I remember snapping at him that he would have if he had read my PTR! We ended up choosing to ride the boat over to TTC, because it was a shorter walk than the walk to the monorail. I was still upset and sulked for the entire 15 minutes that we waited for the ferry.

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I guess taking pictures at odd times is kind of our thing, because DH decided that this was a good time for a picture. Likely he just wanted to make me smile and not be mad at him anymore. He knows that I can’t not smile for a picture. I have this automatic reflex to smile when someone is taking a picture; even if they are not taking my picture. Well it worked, because we got on the boat and I wasn’t really that mad anymore.

And so we were off to the Polynesian Resort… and an hour later we finally made it! Ok, it wasn’t an hour, but it sure felt like it. Those boats are soooo slow! Between loading and sailing and docking and unloading, it really does seem like it takes forever!


**Side Note: While the other guests were so kind in offering us their congratulations, I was a little disappointed in the lack of interest from the Cast Members concerning the fact that it was our honeymoon. I had read about honeymooners getting free desserts and extra fastpasses and other special surprises from the Cast Members. I also read that it was solely up to the Cast Members to decide when they wanted to hand out these surprises and so I didn’t really expect anything, but I was still a little disappointed by their attitudes. Most of them didn’t even acknowledge that it was our honeymoon, even though it showed up in big letters on their screen (we saw it) every time we scanned our magic bands for a fastpass or checked in at an ADR. I’m sure that they see lots of honeymooners and everyone seems to be celebrating something, so they can’t go out of their way all the time, but to not even offer a simple congratulations, seemed pretty rude to me.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Day 3 – Friday, October 14, 2016
Part 4 – Polynesian Village Resort: Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto​

Once we finally made it to the Polynesian Village Resort, it took some searching but we eventually found Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto down a long hallway on the first floor. We went to check in and were told that the wait would be over an hour. I gave them my phone number and they said that they would text me when a table was ready. I was also able to get a wristband, so that I could purchase one of the special hitchhiking ghosts tiki mugs. I had seen that a couple weeks earlier, people were camping out in line all morning just to get these wristbands to come back later and buy the mugs, so I was shocked that they still had some available. The bartender later told me that every other day that week, they had been out of wristbands by the time they opened at 4:00pm. It was a total fluke that they still had some so late on the day that we went.

While we waited for our table at Trader Sam’s, we were really hungry, so we decided to go to Capt. Cook’s. DH ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger with Fries and I ordered the Pork Fried Rice. Unfortunately, they were out of the Pork Fried Rice and nothing else appealed to me at the time, so we decided to just share the Cheeseburger and order more food at Trader Sam’s later. DH also got a Bud Light Lime, which came in a bottle that you need a bottle opener to open, so he then had to go back up and ask if they could open it for him. We have no pictures of this meal, because we were so hungry that it was all gone in about five minutes.

Since we still had time to kill before our table would be ready, we decided to go down to the beach. It had cooled off a little and it was very enjoyable sitting by the water. Before too long, I got a text that our table was ready and we headed back to Trader Sam’s.

What we found out when we got there was that Trader Sam’s doesn’t assign tables. They simply count the number of people in the room and when they had room for two more, they texted us. We were left to find our own place to sit. There were a couple of chairs open at a table with another couple, but we are not particularly outgoing and I don’t really like sitting with strangers. I really wanted my special tiki mug though, so we decided that we would just go up to the bar and order a couple of drinks so that I could get my mug and then we would leave.

Well as luck would have it, as we were approaching the bar, two ladies were paying their check and getting ready to leave, so they said that we could have their seats. I was so relieved. The ladies were really nice and when they noticed our shirts, they congratulated us.

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Once we sat down, I ordered the Fog Cutter (Rhum Clement VSOP, Beefeater London Dry Gin, Courvoisier VS, and fruit juices) which was the drink that came in the special mug. Usually the drink comes in the souvenir cup for you to drink, but then they take it back and give you a new one in a box when you leave. However, since the hitchhiking ghosts mug was so popular, all of the mugs were being sold, so they didn’t have any extra to put the drinks in, so they just put it in a regular hurricane glass. DH ordered the Krakatoa Punch (Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum, Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, Orgeat (Almond), Sam’s Gorilla Grog, and Hibiscus Grenadine). He was really amused by the glow cube and was sad to find out later that the souvenir cup that we took home didn’t come with the glowing cube. We both really enjoyed our drinks!

I loved Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto! It was probably my favorite part of our whole trip. Anytime that someone orders one of the specialty cocktails, the skippers have a fun action that goes along with it. They really get into it too! When DH ordered the Krakatoa Punch there was a volcano eruption and they all tossed around hot lava (glow cubes). Later when I ordered the HippopotoMai-Tai, one of the skippers ran around the room with a small hippopotamus pull toy. And whenever someone would order the Uh-Oa!, they would pretend that there was a storm and mist the guests with water from spray bottles. It is really fun!!

We were still pretty hungry, so we decided to order the Pan-fried Dumplings and they also had Sticky Wings on special, so we ordered those too. They were both really good, but I enjoyed the Sticky Wings best, so I hope that they put them on the menu permanently.

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We decided to order another round of drinks. As I said, I had the HippopotoMai-Tai (Coruba Dark Rum, Bacardi Superior Rum, Bols Orange Curaçao, Orgeat (Almond), Organic Agave Nectar, and fresh Lime Juice) and DH had the Shrunken Zombie Head (Gosling’s 151 Black Seal Rum, Appleton Estate Reserve Rum, Bacardi 8 yr Rum, Tropical Juices, Falernum, and Cinnamon). The HippopotoMai-Tai was my favorite of all of the drinks that we ordered. DH said he liked them all, but if he had to pick one, he’d pick the Fog Cutter; he isn’t usually a fan of sugary drinks and that one was more sour than sweet.

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While we were enjoying our drinks, the nice ladies that gave us their seats came back. I had noticed earlier that they were wearing these really nice authentic flower leis. I had wondered where they got them from, but just assumed that they went to the dinner show or something. Well they decided that they wanted to come back and give the leis to us! They explained that the ukulele player on the terrace had given them to them and that he only gives out a couple of them a day. They explained the lei traditions that had been explained to them and wished us a long and happy marriage.

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When I made our budget, I had actually planned for another round of drinks, but we both decided we were done after round two. We paid our bill and collected our four souvenir mugs from the reception desk.**

After we left Trader Sam’s, we considered going back out to the beach to watch the fireworks, but ultimately we were too tired, so we took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. We then caught the bus back to our resort and got ready for bed.

It started off a little rocky, with our argument, but this was my favorite night from our trip!

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** Side Note – You are not required to purchase the souvenir mugs at Trader Sam’s. You can just purchase the drinks, but I thought that the additional cost wasn’t really that much and they made for really fun souvenirs.

 

[Raeven]

Side Note… DH’s sister went to South Africa last year and kept bragging about the real safari that she went on and I have to say my pictures are much better than hers! Plus it didn’t take us a 14 hour plane ride to get there. I love how amazing Disney is at making you feel like you are really in a different part of the world.

It does seem much easier than going to a "real" safari, and I agree I bet you see more/get better pictures too.

I got the Lost on Safari (Captain Morgan Original Spiced Rum, Pink Pigeon Mauritian Rum, and our refreshing Pangani Punch) and DH got the Tikiti Punch (Snow Leopard Vodka and thirst-quenching Watermelon Lemonade), but then I liked his better, so being the great husband that he is, he traded with me.

I always wanted to try a Lost on Safari.

Monsters Inc was really funny and we both really liked it.

We love it too!

We did not really like Space Mountain, as it was really jerky. Even my back hurt after riding it.

I always seem to hit my back or something on it.

left the decision up to DH and he decided on fireworks at HS. So we walk all the way over and get in line for the bus to HS and then he tells me that he doesn’t really want to go walk around another park. I was so annoyed!

Ugh so frustrating

**Side Note: While the other guests were so kind in offering us their congratulations, I was a little disappointed in the lack of interest from the Cast Members concerning the fact that it was our honeymoon. I had read about honeymooners getting free desserts and extra fastpasses and other special surprises from the Cast Members. I also read that it was solely up to the Cast Members to decide when they wanted to hand out these surprises and so I didn’t really expect anything, but I was still a little disappointed by their attitudes. Most of them didn’t even acknowledge that it was our honeymoon, even though it showed up in big letters on their screen (we saw it) every time we scanned our magic bands for a fastpass or checked in at an ADR. I’m sure that they see lots of honeymooners and everyone seems to be celebrating something, so they can’t go out of their way all the time, but to not even offer a simple congratulations, seemed pretty rude to me.

We weren't expecting anything either, but for Josh's birthday we didn't even have a lot of people wish him a happy birthday. At Hollywood Brown Derby they did bring us champagne which was nice, but most people didn't say anything at all.

 

[PrincessAshlee]

I always wanted to try a Lost on Safari.

It was good, but I've found that I don't really like Spiced Rum, so I preferred the Vodka drink.

I probably need to do a better job of looking at the ingredients before I order, but at least I have DH to trade with, he's not very picky at all.

We love it too!

I was really glad that the Monsters Inc show was better this time! When I went in 2014, we were really disappointed, because as you know, a good portion of the show is when they pick an audience member to talk to. Well the child that they chose only spoke Spanish and the CM clearly didn't speak Spanish at all, so it was just really awkward and not funny.