Our honeymoon and all the zebra butts you could ask for!!!

[Lbg206]

Trip dates - March 21-28
Resort - Animal Kingdom Lodge
Who - Me, 26 yrs. old and my husband, 29 yrs. old

Let's start with a quick background......My husband and I had just gotten married in January. We went on a short two day stay at a really nice hotel nearby, but were saving up for a bigger trip. Then in Febuary we had a HUGE ice storm hit, the worst in Kentucky's history so we decided we needed some warm weather and started planning our trip. I hadn't been to Disney in 14 years and DH hadn't been in 19 years.....we were quite overdue! We had the bride and groom ears all ready, but unfortunately DH has kind of a big head and couldn't wear his. haha, but he did wear his "just married" button all week at least.

I've never stayed in a deluxe resort before, but we got an insanely great deal so decided to splurge and go all out and stay at the AKL.

Day 1 - Sunday

We woke up early and got all the last minute things together. My dad was giving us a ride to the airport so we wouldn't have to leave our car in lot. All was good, but when it came up in conversation with him that we were using the ME and having our luggage sent to our room he had serious doubts and said he's be worried they'd lose our luggage. DH got a bit concerned and stressed about it for a bit, but I figured we'd be fine.

We had the first nonstop flight I've ever been on so just two short hours later we were arriving in Orlando and I caught my first glimpse of palm trees out the plane window and got SO excited.......yes palm trees excited me THAT much! Haha

We arrived at AKL around 4:00 pm and checked in within minutes. Just walking into the lobby took our breath away.......it is amazing!!! So SO very beautiful, I highly recommend everyone check it out even if you aren't staying there. So anyway, we dropped our things off in our room, a VERY tiny room by the way, but oh well all we used it for was sleeping and showering so it was fine. After a few minutes of looking around the hotel and a few animals we left for MK. I would have stayed longer, but had to be "subtle" and get my DH to MK quickly since I had a surprise in store for him and we were already running a bit behind.

After arriving at MK we were walking through the gates about 5:30....which is the time I was supposed to have him at the wishing well for his surprise. The Celebrations show was going on so it made it quite crowded getting through the streets, but we made it and I pretneded to want to make a wish. I think it took him nearly five whole minutes, but he FINALLY saw the sign laying on the bench. There was a brass genie lamp and a note with my DH's name written in huge bold letters.........poor guys...they can be so dense sometimes. lol

picture actually taken a few days later, but this was where it all started at the Wishing Well.

The note was from "Genie in Training, Goofy" My DH was sent on a scavanger hunt all over the aprk to different shops and attractions, sometimes having to search the trees in the Christmas store, other times having to look behind the biggest Eeyore at the Winnie the Pooh store, etc. Along the way he collected Disney candy bars, a soundtrack of Wishes and other various goodies. In the end he finally received two large sponges (yes I said sponges) tied together along with a key. The note was from Goofy again and said how he'd tried to make us a sponge cake for our honeymmon, but it didn't turn out quite right and instead to use the key for one of the lockets up front on our way out of the park as well as a surprise waiting back at our hotel and that his new wife (me) would supply the fireworks for him that night!!


after all that running around we were starving so we stopped for dinner at Pacos Bills and then it was on the the park. My husband is in a wheelchair so we weren't sure just how many rides he'd be able to do, but wow were we surprised. He was able to do not everything, but quit e a few which was great. We covered pretty much all of the rides seeing as there were EMH that night and the park was open until 3 a.m.. Yep, 3 a.m.!! We had no plans of closing the place down, but next thing we knew.......whoops. Somewhere around 2:50 we noticed the CM's beginning to usher people casually toward the front of the park, but on our way we got REALLY lucky and spotted Pluto and Mickey and Minnie....which we were told by other CM's that this is rare for them to be out that late....so we got a few pics to end our day.

Is it just me or do Mickey and Minnie look more awake than we are?

We wanted to get a picture with Goofy as well seing as he's my favorite, but he was busy riding the teacups with a little girl who asked him if he would.....it was quite sweet and cute, wish I'd gotten a picture of that.


Upon leaving the park we stopped at the locker with the key Goofy left us and inside were two Disney wine glasses and some candles. By this point i was so tired I vaguely remember the bus ride back to the hotel and the walk to our room. Inside our room, however, we found a bottle of wine, confetti, and decorations. SO cool!!

Next thing I know I fell into bed and was dead to the world. DH claims he fot up out of bed twice as he was getting ready to go to sleep, but I never heard him, I was exhausted.

Well, that wraps up day 1 and well into the next morning. Thanks for reading so far and more to come soon.

 

[Lbg206]

Day 2

After not getting ot bed until nearly 4 a.m. the night before it's no surprise that I slept in longer than I had intended. My DH however who is NOT a morning person was already awake and up when I got up. Our plan was for Animal Kingdom that day since it had EMH in the morning, but since it was already 9:45 we quickly made a change and headed off to Epcot.

First though we took a little time to explore our beautiful amazing hotel we'd barely seen yesterday. We stopped at a couple overlooks to check out the animals. My favorite are the giraffe and DH likes the Zebras. Upon checking out the zebra overlook, however, we discovered they were all the way across the field away from us and with their backs facing us. All we could see were their backsides....not the best for a picture. LOL

So off to Epcot...

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Now I'll be the first to adit Epcot isn't either one of our favorite parks, but it's always worth a visit, especially since neither of us had been there is so long. Test Track was awesome but sadly not something my husband was able to do. He's a HUGE space nut though so Mission space was a much do. He wanted to do the full version, but I can get motion sick in simulator rides so we did the tame version. This ride really wasn't very accessible which is why he and i had to do the same version so I could help him although I found out it was bit much for me and almost gave up, but thankfully there was another couple in our group and they were able to help DH into the "shuttle" and off we went. I was SO glad we did because he LOVED it!!

Next was a walk around WS and lunch. DH had quick service meal at Japan, but seeing as I'm a bit of a picky eater I chose to go a different route.....I ate American. Hahaha DH still teases me about this, but it IS a country in WS so I still claim that I ate at one of the countries!!!

Up next was The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush. Duuuuuddddde!!!! That was swwweeeeeeetttt!! We had WAY to much fun talking turtle the rest of the night.

WE had such perfect weather that day, only about 70 degrees and breezy....what a great first full day. Up next will be our dinner at 50's Prime Time at HS....please stay tuned

 

[Cafeen]

Sounds like you're off to a great start!

Epcot is my personal favorite and has been since it opened. Although, I will say that I didn't care for WS when I was younger.

My DH however who is NOT a morning person was already awake and up

I know all about this. I too am not a morning person at all. However, at Disney in Sept, I was up by 6:30 every morning (and I come from Central time, so it was bodily 5:30am)! There's just something about the place that gets me awake.

 

[Lbg206]

Yay!! I have a reader! It's funny because my husband is not a morning person, but got up early or before me every morning of the trip. At home I'm the morning person, I'm always up with the sun but on vacation it's the one time I allow myself to sleep in a bit.

 

[Believeinfairytales]

I'm in! Loved your title.

Congrats on getting married!

 

[evan.orwin]

I'm here! Thanks for responding to my post too!! Cant wait to read/see more....

 

[cmr154]

I love the orange castle pic! Can't wait for the rest of the report!

 

[Lbg206]

I'm in! Loved your title.

Congrats on getting married!

Thank you! Since this is about our honeymoon I thought I'd include a few wedding pics just for the fun of it.

 

[Lbg206]

Ok, so we were still on day 2 and on a bus headed to HS for our 5:30 ADR at 50's Prime Time Cafe...

We arrived a couple minutes early, but still had to wait nearly 30 minutes to be seated....busy place that night. We ended up having a really great server that night who was very into the whole "act" even checking to make sure my husband had washed his hands after returning from the restroom. I was apparently the problem child of the night though having to be told about 15 times to take my elbows off the table. I tried, I really did but i guess it's a bad habit I have a hard time breaking. I had the meatloaf and DH had the pot roast and we were both very happy......WONDERFUL meatloaf by the way! Even though I didn't eat every single green bean I was still allowed dessert and had the brownie sundae and wow was that a sugar rush, really good though.

HS was open until 11 that night and we'd alway sheard it was the best park to do at night and that was certainly true, very pretty and magical in the dark with all the lights and Hollywood feel. We did a couple rides: Great Movie Ride and MuppetVision 3D then I went to do ToT while DH had a Mickey ice-cream. This was another ride that was accessible and would have been easy for him to do, but he checkened out and wouldn't ride with me. He's never met a roller coaster he didn't like, but yet hates that "free fall" sensation and is terrified of doing ToT so I rode myself, which was quick and easy with only a 10 minute wait. After that we just walked around the park together enjoying the cool night and just being together seeing the sites.....very fun!

Around 10:30 we headed back to AKL and had just enough time to do the night vision animal viewing. That was fantastic! You should definitely try it if you get the chance, we were lucky the giraffe were right up near the fence and we had a great view even including the baby giraffe in the group. We walked around the pool a little and then to the zebra overlook on our way back to our room. Even though it was dark we could still see the savannah pretty well, but guess what the zebras were still doing? Yep, that's right they were ALL standing with their backs to us so all we got was a wall of striped rear ends again. Oh well, maybe tomorrow, still a beautiful night to just sit out by the firepit and relax.

Up next is Day 3 at AK and HS again.

OH...one last thing.....when we returned to our room we founda nice surprise waiting from Mickey and Minnie....an autographed congratulations photo and a gift card to be used on the PhotoPass site. So neat!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Aww....what beautiful wedding pics! Congratulations to both of you!

How in the world did you pull off that surprise scavenger hunt?!! Do the CM's help you in advance? Or do you have your own private fairy working behind the scenes? What a great first day at MK!

I love Epcot and only tried the mild version of Mission Space. Maybe I'll be brave and try the Orange side next time.

 

[Lbg206]

Aww....what beautiful wedding pics! Congratulations to both of you!

How in the world did you pull off that surprise scavenger hunt?!! Do the CM's help you in advance? Or do you have your own private fairy working behind the scenes? What a great first day at MK!

.

Thank you so much!!

As for the scavenger hunt it was not easy to pull off without my DH finding out and also trying to coordinate the timing of everything. I used the Gifts of a Lifetime site. They aren't CM's at Disney, but Disney does allow them to work their pixie dust magic. It's on the pricey side, but very well worth it, it's something we still talk about all the time and SO much fun and romantic.

 

[Kelrykengab]

WOW! I am afraid I am going to forget all the comments that I thought of while reading. First! Congrats! Loved you wedding photos. Beautiful dress! Second, how did you arrange the scavenger hunt?? I so want to do that for my family next time! How cool! I love that Goofy was riding the teacups! Third, what nice surprises you found in your room. I would love to do AKL someday. Oh, and I can't believe this b/c DHS is possibly our favorite park, but we have never gone there at night! So, we will def being doing that next time too. Can't wait to read more and thanks again for joining in on my TR!

 

[Kelrykengab]

Oh and I just noticed that you answered my scavenger hunt question above.

 

[Lbg206]

WOW! I am afraid I am going to forget all the comments that I thought of while reading. First! Congrats! Loved you wedding photos. Beautiful dress! Second, how did you arrange the scavenger hunt?? I so want to do that for my family next time! How cool! I love that Goofy was riding the teacups! Third, what nice surprises you found in your room. I would love to do AKL someday. Oh, and I can't believe this b/c DHS is possibly our favorite park, but we have never gone there at night! So, we will def being doing that next time too. Can't wait to read more and thanks again for joining in on my TR!

Thank you so much. I definitely getting interesting responses to my wedding dresses. Most people seemed to have loved it, but toher are just like WOW...it's......red! LOL What can I say, it was a Christmas wedding and i don't look good in white.

As for the scavanger hunt you can check out their website if you're interested or let me know if you have any more questions. As I said it's a bit pricey, but I saw in your TR where you did the "In room celebration" so I think it's about comporable to this in price. They give you several different scenarios you can choose from based upon your family and what it is you're celebrating.

Oh and as for the Teacups I thought that was so cool too. Some of the CM's told us that if the crowds are particularly light of if you just happened to be at the end of the character greeting line and your child asks then sometimes the characters will ride the carousel or teacups or somethng with them. It's just that most people don't know to ask....I would have never thought of it. I know the little girl (approx. 3 or 4) riding with Goofy sure looked happy and excited. I bet that made her entire vacation for her.

 

[Believeinfairytales]

Oh, your wedding pictures were beautiful. I love the red dress, even if it isn't traditional. It suited you perfectly! Hubby looked very handsome, as well!!! And you look so happy together.

Looks like a fun evening at DHS! I love it at night, too. Your hat picture turned out great!

 

[Lbg206]

Oh, your wedding pictures were beautiful. I love the red dress, even if it isn't traditional. It suited you perfectly! Hubby looked very handsome, as well!!! And you look so happy together.

Looks like a fun evening at DHS! I love it at night, too. Your hat picture turned out great!

Thank you, that's sweet to say about our wedding pics. I liked our "big hat" picture too!

 

[Lbg206]

Day 3

Well it took 3 days, but I finally was able to drag myself out of bed early enough to get to AK right at opening. We've heard so many people say to do the Safari ride first thing in the morning when it's cooler and there are less animals and less crowds so that's where we went straight to first. There was hardly a line and they pulled us out what little line there was and brought us on the other side to the front so my DH could get on first to be strapped into an accessible seat....what luck! We had an awesome time, tons of animals, no zebras though which was starting to become a trend with us.

Please forgive my hair in this one, it was extremely windy!!


Next we did a lot of the walking trails to check out the animals......SO neat. I especially adore tigers and meerkats so it was great. Unfortunately as far as rides go this wasn't the most accessible for DH, but we still had a great time. This was the first time either of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom. He started getting hungry and I wasn't so he went and got Yak and Yeti counter service while I did Expedition Everest and Dinosaur and may I just say WOW, two of my absolute favorite rides. Quick story" when I was riding EE it was so cute because they put me with this 9 year old boy who was also riding alone. His grandmother would walk him through the line then just wait for him at the exit. He was from Norway and had a VERY thick, but adorable accent and this was his 7th time in a row riding that day. As we went along he was narrating the entire ride for me like "ok we're going to go up a really big hill now, but don't be afraid" and "we're getting ready to go backwards, hold on" and "The Yeti is kinda scary, but not real" LOL He was just too cute!!

Also I'm sure some of you have ready this on the funniest comments thread, but those of you who haven't.....While standing in line to ride Dinosaur there were a group of three teenagers who were on Spring Break and although I tried not to pay attention to them I couldn't help it, one girl in particular was just so ditzy and "blonde" it was almost painful. So after twenty minutes of this we finally got near the front of the line and just as we're about to go in to the pre-movie area the girl says "Wow, with all the bones and and statues etc. I really feel like I'm back in the time of the dinosaurs...back in the 1800's" I kid you not!!! And the girl was dead serious too, I wasn't sure whether to laugh uncontrollably or be horrified at our public school system. I wanted to turn around ot her and say please get back to school and quick.

What makes it even worse is one of the guys with her started laughing at her and told her she was a moron and the dinosaurs were "way older than that...more like in the 400's" Oh geesh!!!

After meeting back up with DH we did the "It's a Bugs Life Show" which was great. By then it was getting pretty crowded so we grabbed an ice-cream before heading back to yep you guessed it, HS.

SIDE NOTE/WARNING - If you get one of the Mickey ice cream bars that come in the blue wrappers do not, I repeat do NOT wad them up in a ball and carry them around in your hand until you come across a trash can. This is exactly what I did and paparently when they get warm the ink runs. I turned my whole hand blue and what's bad is I didn't notice at first and had apparently touched my face at some point. Over 20 minutes later when we were on the bus on the way to HS my dear sweet hubby starts randomly laughing and i can't figure out why until he tells me to look in a mirror. OMG I had blue EVERYWHERE!!!! LOL

So nothing much to report on HS since I don't believe we did any rides that night. We tried to do Toy Story Mania, but there was a 90 minute wait and they were out of FP's so we said no thanks. We did wander through several of the stores and this was where DH began his crazy pin trading addiction. I also think this night at HS included his 4th, 5th, and 6th visit to the Star Wars store. Haha He's a big Sci-Fi fan!

To wind things up for the day though we did get a few good pics as a joke

DH is very addicted to sodas and I'm always trying to get him to slow down on them so of course he had to find the biggest bottle around!!

I am NOT a hot weather kind of girl. I like the winter, snow, and Christmas best time of the year so of course even in Florida I can find a snowman.


That night ended up with more night vision animal viewing at the hotel then up to our room where we ordered room service just for the fun of doing it. lol Join me again soon for Day 4 at MK and DTD. Thanks everyone for following along and sharing our wonderful trip with me. I really appreciate all the great comments and feedback.

 

[Kelrykengab]

Great day at AK! Sorry to hear that there were not many rides your DH could do. I wonder if there is a way they could change that? The story about the dinos in the 1800s is hilarious and frightening. I might have some questions for you about AKL because we may be going in November (long story I just reported on in my TR). Thanks for sharing!

 

[Lbg206]

Great day at AK! Sorry to hear that there were not many rides your DH could do. I wonder if there is a way they could change that? The story about the dinos in the 1800s is hilarious and frightening. I might have some questions for you about AKL because we may be going in November (long story I just reported on in my TR). Thanks for sharing!

MK and Epcot were great, tons he could do and even HS as well, Animal Kingdom was just the only one with issues....part of it is they just don't have as many rides, but oh well we still had a great time. And as for the Dino conversation it was hilarious and disturbing all at the same time. DH and i still make jokes about it all the time and we wonder if Abraham Lincoln kept a pet Dinosaur at the White House. LOL

I read on your TR last night about your possible visit to AKL, but hadn't gotten the chance to respond yet. Please feel free to use me as you wish for information, ask anything. having just been there and it being my favorite resort yet I'd be glad to help you in any way possible.

 

[Lbg206]

Day 4

We woke up fairly early and got ready for our breakfast ADR at Boma. It didn't take long to get there since we were staying at AKL and upon arriving were seated immediately. It was a really nice place, some people say it's a bit dark, but I just thought it was a nice atmosphere, very pretty if you like dark woods and the African feel. Most of the breakfast buffets are about the same, but honestly Boma seemed so much nicer. Everything wad delicious!!! Half American traditional and have African dishes although I did have one little problem......Upon wandering over to the African section there was a tray labeled "curried sausage" Now I personally can't stand curry, plus the face that the sausage had this green sauce (which was the curry part) made it just look unappealing, however, above this was a tray of fresh biscuits so I took one and went on my way to filling up my plate. A biscuit....seems safe enough, but wow one bite told me this was not your normal buttermilk biscuit. they actually had a TON of curry baked into them as well. ICK!!!!!! Just a warning to any of you not fond of this spice because wow were they strong and quite disgusting, but that's just me. FYI they have regular ones over on the bread station....learned that the hard way! As for the rest of the food it was fantastic.

Just as we were finishing up our server came back to us and asked if we had any room left. We both looked at hime a bit odd I suppose and told us the chef wanted to send out something special for us in honor of our honeymoon so we gladly accepted. How neat, I love all the special touches of pixie dust you find at WDW!!

Sorry it's a bit blurry. I love how even the blackberries in the center of the plate look like a Mickey head.



After breakfast before heading to the bus stop we headed over to the giraffe savannah...my favorite! They were WAY in the back of the field and could barely be seen so we were just about to leave when the sprinkler system kicked on. Now apparently giraffes hate getting wet so all six of them came running full speed toward us. They stopped just shy of the fence and were grazing on some leaves on a tree along the fence row. What luck!!

So then it was off to Magic Kingdom again. Why is when you're trying to get to a park there are three or four buses that come and go for the other parks, but not yours. But then of course when you're to one of those parks you'll see numerous buses for the other park you had done the day before. Haha Just something I noticed. Anyway, we arrived at MK and this was the first day it was truly HOT and as always much more crowded than the other parks seem to be. We took things slowly and just wandered around taking in the site and pictures. We did Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor for the first time, it was great!! We also did Philharmagic for a second time...loved it! Also did Stitch's Great Escape which I never liked even when it was Alien Encounter in the past, but DH wanted to do it so I agree.....mostly just for the air conditioning.

We tried to get a picture with Snow White to take back home for my uncle since he had a bit of a crush on her when he went back in the 80's ;-), but unfortunately she had a 90 min. wait and we weren't willing to wait that long. We did, however, get some other good pics....

Our favorite picture of the trip!!

Us being rediculously goofy!!! In our defense the Photopass CM told us to.

I love that every time my niece and nephew see this pic they always ask what it felt like to hold Tinkerbell. We just tell them she was very light weight and had a lot of pixie dust. :-D


By mid afternoon it was getting extremely hot and crowded so we decided to head back to the hotel and swim for a bit. AKL is great because they have a zero entry pool and also a water wheelchair available so DH was able to swim......how fantastic!!! After a lessiurely (sp?) afternoon we went back our room and got showered and dressed and headed to Downtown Kisten where we were seeing Cirque du Soliel, La Nouba. I was SO excited!!! It was our one big splurge that we had chosen to do. All I can say about it is if you haven't seen it you really should at some point, it's amazing!! I loved every act, but I think the Diablo girls and the guys on the German Wheel were my favorites, but they wer eall fantastic. This show was worth every single penny.

After the show I had originally made ADR;s, but cancelled them since it would be after 8 pm and wasn't sure we'd want a big heavy meal so late....I was wrong. We were starving having not eaten anything since breakfast that morning and some popcorn during the show. Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe, and T-REX all had a minimum two hour wait for walk ups so that wasn't going to happen. As much as I hate to admit this we ended up eating at McDonald's....yes that's right we went all the way to WDW to eat McDonald's....pathetic. Oh well, it was food. To make up for it we went to Ghiradelli's for ice cream. I think I spent the next two days on a sugar high from it, but wow was it gone.

Afterwards we walked down along the water, listened to the band play, and browsed through a few shops. All in all an incredible night I must say. Finally it was back to AKL where we sat out on one of the viewing balconies for a while just talking and enjoying the quiet since we were the only ones out there. There was a big group of zebra standing nearby which was great, but guess how they were standing?!?!? That's right.....with their backs to us AGAIN!! Seriously, do zebra even have faces in WDW? I'm starting to have my doubts. Haha

Up next our day spent entirely at HS. Stay tuned.