Our honeymoon trip to Orlando! (Updated 7/10, Day 14&15; going home...THE END!)
- Thread starter Marjol
- Start date
kaysmommie
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2006
- Messages
- 6,861
Love your trippie. Your Discovery cove day looks amazing. Soon as DS4 is old enough to do the dolphin swim Discovery cove is a must.
mkluvsmickey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,990
Great updates! I had so much to catch up on.
Even though I'm not a NASCAR fan, the Nascar experience looked interesting. Love all the pictures.
IOA is something else I've never done - haven't been to Universal since the 90's and IOA wasn't built yet. My daughter and I love coasters so we may have to try it someday.
Love the Busch Gardens pictures too! I haven't been there in probably 20 years either and your pictures brought back some great memories. You were there on a great day with low crowds it seems.
Discovery Cove looks like a great experience too - very peaceful and relaxing.
I'm loving your report - you guys got to do so many things on your honeymoon!
Even though I'm not a NASCAR fan, the Nascar experience looked interesting. Love all the pictures.
IOA is something else I've never done - haven't been to Universal since the 90's and IOA wasn't built yet. My daughter and I love coasters so we may have to try it someday.
Love the Busch Gardens pictures too! I haven't been there in probably 20 years either and your pictures brought back some great memories. You were there on a great day with low crowds it seems.
Discovery Cove looks like a great experience too - very peaceful and relaxing.
I'm loving your report - you guys got to do so many things on your honeymoon!
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
Day 12, seeing Disney from "the other side"
After spending 4 days outside Disney, I was really looking forward to going to Disney again! We got up early again, because we had to be in Epcot at 8:45 for our backstage magic tour. I'd heard so many good stories about this tour and I was very curious and also a tad nervous, because I would have to talk in English the whole day... I usually let Gerbert do the talking because I'm very insecure about my English pronounciation, but I would at least have to do some talking today...
Because we were planning on visiting Magic Kingdom after the tour was finished, we drove to the transport & ticket centre to park our car and we took the monorail to Epcot from there. It was very quiet in the monorail, we had the whole compartment for ourselves!
We arrived at Epcot somewhere around 8:20. We walked over to Guest Services, where we were directed to the meeting location. There were already some people sitting there.
In the next 15 minutes, there came some more people and with a total of 19, we were quite a big group (the maximum is 20). Our guide tour arrived exactly at 8:45. Her name was Carmen and she originally came from Puerto Rico, but she grew up in New York. Her assistant gave us all a hea'dset, with which we were able to hear Carmen during the tour. We also got a name tag and did an introduction round. All the other people came from somewhere in the US, but widely spread
Carmen also told us we weren't able to take pictures behind the scenes, but we already knew that. So... I'm giving you one more pictures and after that it's only text for a while!
With everything we needed to know, we walked through the Epcot turnstiles and saw a small piece of the park before we went backstage. Everything looked really different back here. Everything is much closer than it seems inside the park and there are cars and containers everywhere. Our bus came, a Disney cruise line bus with a driver named Julio.
We drove a small bit around Epcot to get to our first stop: the American Adventure in World Showcase. We walked through a completely deserted World Showcase first, because it was only 9 am. Carmen told us a bit of the history of World Showcase, which was very interesting. We also saw a wedding party (wow, these people had an early wedding!) and a segway tour (which looked really cool, I wanted to do this tour too, but Gerbert didn't!
). After walking around a bit, we went backstage at the American Adventure. We got to see how they store the different stage settings and how the system works. It was really interesting to see this, although we really don't like this show
We hopped in the bus again and drove to the castmember facilities building, here we saw a lot of different things, like the cafetaria, a "hall of fame" with pictures of castmembers who earned special rewards and beautifully painted walls, which had been painted by the castmembers in their spare time. They were truly amazing and it was a shame we weren't able to take pictures.
We drove to the second park of our tour, the Hollywood studios. We got to take a peek behind the scenes at my favorite ride here, the tower of terror!
We got to stand in a backstage room where they put a spare elevator and Carmen told us everything we wanted to know about this ride. We were close to the real elevator shafts and we sometimes heard some screaming and the ride music. Very cool!
After ToT, we drove to the costume designing building. Someone annouced us, propbably so they could shut some doors to secret areas
We got to see some really cool costumes, one was the Spectromagic costume of the Queen of Harts, which is actually a guy because of the weight of this costume!
We also were able to walk around the costume making area, very nice to see this. We got some explanation about the latest technologies in costume making and got to wave at the people who were doing the tram tour and passing the window where we were behind!
By now, it was time to get some lunch and we drove to the Wilderness Lodge. Our lunch restaurant was the whispering canyon café and we were seated at two large tables. We got to share a HUGE turning plate with lots of meat and some other things with six people. The sausages and mashed potatoes were excellent. We had a LOUD waitress and somewhere along the lunch, we were told to come to the front of the restaurant to dance, because it was our honeymoon. It's a shame we don't have pictures of this, because it was very funny. We also got a magical moment certificate.
We were allowed to take pictures here, but it was very dark in the lodge and my pictures aren't very good. Here is one of our group. You can see us wearing the headsets.
While we were getting back to the bus, I also took a picture of the resort, which looked very nice. I also took a picture of the bus. Our tourguide Carmen is standing besides the bus.
After lunch, we drove up to the construction hall, where they make, fix and update ride parts. This was very interesting. We got to see lots of ride carts from rides like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Expedition Everest and some horses from the carroussel. We also got to take a look at a new tree that was being constructed for Toon Town. We got to speak and listen to an imagineer who told us everything we wanted to know about audio-animatronics. There were also some AA's out there to play with... gotta love that!
We went back to the bus and drove to one of the laundry facility buildings, where they washed a huge part of the costumes. It was absolutely amazing to see how big these washing machines were!
You really don't think about the laundry facilities when you walk in the parks (at least: I don't)... but they sure wash A LOT of costumes here and it is a fantastic system!!! I was glad to have seen this, there are so many people working here!
As our last stop, we went to the Magic Kingdom to go under the ground!! We were able to take a walk around the utilidors, and I have to say this was one of the highlights of the tour. I loved it! We were able to reach a destination so much quicker than when you're in the park and we saw some characters walking around, including Aladdin, who waved to us! We got a lot of historical information about Walt Disney here. There are lots of beautiful pictures here and I got all teary-eyed hearing all these stories. I already knew Walt died before Disneyworld was opened, but I almost cried when Carmen told us again... surrounded with all of these beautiful pictures!
We also got to take a peek in some storage rooms, where they keep the stock of souvenirs. We wanted to walk around there, but we weren't able too... too bad!
This was the end of the backstage part and we went back up to the Magic Kingdom, where we watched the 3 o'clock parade in a special reserved area.
After the parade, we took a stroll along Main Street USA and Carmen told us about all of these little interesting facts that you can see by looking really close! All the names of the people who were important to Walt, are printed somewhere along Main Street USA. She also told us some details about the castle.
The tour was finished at 4 pm and we drove back to Epcot (too bad we weren't able to stay in the MK!), where we thanked Carmen for the excellent tour. We all recieved a special backstage magic pin.
Continued in next post
After spending 4 days outside Disney, I was really looking forward to going to Disney again! We got up early again, because we had to be in Epcot at 8:45 for our backstage magic tour. I'd heard so many good stories about this tour and I was very curious and also a tad nervous, because I would have to talk in English the whole day... I usually let Gerbert do the talking because I'm very insecure about my English pronounciation, but I would at least have to do some talking today...
Because we were planning on visiting Magic Kingdom after the tour was finished, we drove to the transport & ticket centre to park our car and we took the monorail to Epcot from there. It was very quiet in the monorail, we had the whole compartment for ourselves!
We arrived at Epcot somewhere around 8:20. We walked over to Guest Services, where we were directed to the meeting location. There were already some people sitting there.
In the next 15 minutes, there came some more people and with a total of 19, we were quite a big group (the maximum is 20). Our guide tour arrived exactly at 8:45. Her name was Carmen and she originally came from Puerto Rico, but she grew up in New York. Her assistant gave us all a hea'dset, with which we were able to hear Carmen during the tour. We also got a name tag and did an introduction round. All the other people came from somewhere in the US, but widely spread
Carmen also told us we weren't able to take pictures behind the scenes, but we already knew that. So... I'm giving you one more pictures and after that it's only text for a while!
With everything we needed to know, we walked through the Epcot turnstiles and saw a small piece of the park before we went backstage. Everything looked really different back here. Everything is much closer than it seems inside the park and there are cars and containers everywhere. Our bus came, a Disney cruise line bus with a driver named Julio.
We drove a small bit around Epcot to get to our first stop: the American Adventure in World Showcase. We walked through a completely deserted World Showcase first, because it was only 9 am. Carmen told us a bit of the history of World Showcase, which was very interesting. We also saw a wedding party (wow, these people had an early wedding!) and a segway tour (which looked really cool, I wanted to do this tour too, but Gerbert didn't!
). After walking around a bit, we went backstage at the American Adventure. We got to see how they store the different stage settings and how the system works. It was really interesting to see this, although we really don't like this show We hopped in the bus again and drove to the castmember facilities building, here we saw a lot of different things, like the cafetaria, a "hall of fame" with pictures of castmembers who earned special rewards and beautifully painted walls, which had been painted by the castmembers in their spare time. They were truly amazing and it was a shame we weren't able to take pictures.
We drove to the second park of our tour, the Hollywood studios. We got to take a peek behind the scenes at my favorite ride here, the tower of terror!
We got to stand in a backstage room where they put a spare elevator and Carmen told us everything we wanted to know about this ride. We were close to the real elevator shafts and we sometimes heard some screaming and the ride music. Very cool!
After ToT, we drove to the costume designing building. Someone annouced us, propbably so they could shut some doors to secret areas
We got to see some really cool costumes, one was the Spectromagic costume of the Queen of Harts, which is actually a guy because of the weight of this costume!
We also were able to walk around the costume making area, very nice to see this. We got some explanation about the latest technologies in costume making and got to wave at the people who were doing the tram tour and passing the window where we were behind!
By now, it was time to get some lunch and we drove to the Wilderness Lodge. Our lunch restaurant was the whispering canyon café and we were seated at two large tables. We got to share a HUGE turning plate with lots of meat and some other things with six people. The sausages and mashed potatoes were excellent. We had a LOUD waitress and somewhere along the lunch, we were told to come to the front of the restaurant to dance, because it was our honeymoon. It's a shame we don't have pictures of this, because it was very funny. We also got a magical moment certificate.
We were allowed to take pictures here, but it was very dark in the lodge and my pictures aren't very good. Here is one of our group. You can see us wearing the headsets.
While we were getting back to the bus, I also took a picture of the resort, which looked very nice. I also took a picture of the bus. Our tourguide Carmen is standing besides the bus.
After lunch, we drove up to the construction hall, where they make, fix and update ride parts. This was very interesting. We got to see lots of ride carts from rides like Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Expedition Everest and some horses from the carroussel. We also got to take a look at a new tree that was being constructed for Toon Town. We got to speak and listen to an imagineer who told us everything we wanted to know about audio-animatronics. There were also some AA's out there to play with... gotta love that!
We went back to the bus and drove to one of the laundry facility buildings, where they washed a huge part of the costumes. It was absolutely amazing to see how big these washing machines were!
You really don't think about the laundry facilities when you walk in the parks (at least: I don't)... but they sure wash A LOT of costumes here and it is a fantastic system!!! I was glad to have seen this, there are so many people working here!
As our last stop, we went to the Magic Kingdom to go under the ground!! We were able to take a walk around the utilidors, and I have to say this was one of the highlights of the tour. I loved it! We were able to reach a destination so much quicker than when you're in the park and we saw some characters walking around, including Aladdin, who waved to us! We got a lot of historical information about Walt Disney here. There are lots of beautiful pictures here and I got all teary-eyed hearing all these stories. I already knew Walt died before Disneyworld was opened, but I almost cried when Carmen told us again... surrounded with all of these beautiful pictures!
We also got to take a peek in some storage rooms, where they keep the stock of souvenirs. We wanted to walk around there, but we weren't able too... too bad!
This was the end of the backstage part and we went back up to the Magic Kingdom, where we watched the 3 o'clock parade in a special reserved area.
After the parade, we took a stroll along Main Street USA and Carmen told us about all of these little interesting facts that you can see by looking really close! All the names of the people who were important to Walt, are printed somewhere along Main Street USA. She also told us some details about the castle.
The tour was finished at 4 pm and we drove back to Epcot (too bad we weren't able to stay in the MK!), where we thanked Carmen for the excellent tour. We all recieved a special backstage magic pin.
Continued in next post
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
This day starts in previous post
We walked to the monorail station and took the fist monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. We started off with some icecream in Adventureland. I, ofcourse, had a pineapple float!
Timon and Rafiki came up right behind where we were seated, so we got our picture taken with him after we finished our ice cream.
We walked over to Frontierland to get a fastpass for splash mountain, which we eventually didn't even use! We rode Big Thunder Mountain and took the train to Toon Town after that. We walked around those little houses and the souvenir shop for a while and decided to go to Tomorrowland after that. The carroussel of progress was open (I can't remember seeing it open before) so we went in. It was a nice and relaxing show, although it needs some updates
We also rode the tomorrowland transit authority and Buzz Lightyear. After those rides, it was time for our reservation at Crystal Palace. It was very busy there and we had to wait 40 minutes to get in... I was glad we had a couch to sit on!
We got in at 7:40 and were directed to our table, where they had made a heart with all these little Mickey heads. Very nice!
We enjoyed the dinner buffet here. The food was very nice and we got to see four of my favorite characters; Winnie, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet!
As a surprise, we also got a dessert cake with a candle, which we had to blow out together. A friendly castmember took a picture while we did this.
We finished our dinner just before 9 and were right on time for Wishes!
From Crystal Palace, you're almost immediately in front of the castle, our favorite place to see Wishes. I took this pictures of Main Street USA while we were waiting.
And Wishes was amazing again...although I must say the Music & Mayhem fireworks were somewhat better.
After Wishes, we followed everyone else to the monorail and were at the TTR pretty soon. We got some gas for the last two days and were back at the hotel around 10 pm, where we fell asleep pretty soon. It was a great, but tiring day!
Up next: Our last Disney day....
We walked to the monorail station and took the fist monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. We started off with some icecream in Adventureland. I, ofcourse, had a pineapple float!
Timon and Rafiki came up right behind where we were seated, so we got our picture taken with him after we finished our ice cream.
We walked over to Frontierland to get a fastpass for splash mountain, which we eventually didn't even use! We rode Big Thunder Mountain and took the train to Toon Town after that. We walked around those little houses and the souvenir shop for a while and decided to go to Tomorrowland after that. The carroussel of progress was open (I can't remember seeing it open before) so we went in. It was a nice and relaxing show, although it needs some updates
We also rode the tomorrowland transit authority and Buzz Lightyear. After those rides, it was time for our reservation at Crystal Palace. It was very busy there and we had to wait 40 minutes to get in... I was glad we had a couch to sit on!
We got in at 7:40 and were directed to our table, where they had made a heart with all these little Mickey heads. Very nice!
We enjoyed the dinner buffet here. The food was very nice and we got to see four of my favorite characters; Winnie, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet!
As a surprise, we also got a dessert cake with a candle, which we had to blow out together. A friendly castmember took a picture while we did this.
We finished our dinner just before 9 and were right on time for Wishes!
From Crystal Palace, you're almost immediately in front of the castle, our favorite place to see Wishes. I took this pictures of Main Street USA while we were waiting.
And Wishes was amazing again...although I must say the Music & Mayhem fireworks were somewhat better.
After Wishes, we followed everyone else to the monorail and were at the TTR pretty soon. We got some gas for the last two days and were back at the hotel around 10 pm, where we fell asleep pretty soon. It was a great, but tiring day!
Up next: Our last Disney day....
punkin413
feel the magic, dang it!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
- Messages
- 9,581
that tour seems really cool! did you feel like it was worth it to spend most of the day doing it? i've read about it before but didn't do it because i didn't want to spend the whole day doing it, but it seems like it may be worth it!
the food at crystal palace is so good for a buffet, huh? i love that place!
the food at crystal palace is so good for a buffet, huh? i love that place!
mkluvsmickey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,990
The tour sounds like it was lots of fun - thanks for sharing! What a busy day you had!
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
For us, it was totally worth it! It something different from being in the parks, but we really thought it was great!
Yep, we loved it! The character interaction was great as well.
Yes, it sure was a busy day. We would have been better off planning a quiet afternoon and evening after the tour, but we were OK now, just very tired!
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
Day 13; Our last Disney day in the studios
Unfortunately... the day had come! Our last day in Orlando!
Last year we were very tired on our last day, but this time we really didn't feel like going home. But there was one day left, so we decided to make the best out of our last parkday and got out at 7, to be in the park at rope drop.
We had our breakfast in the hotel again. Gerbert made his regular waffle and I had my peanut butter toast. While we were making breakfast, we heard someone saying (in Dutch, but you can't read that... ): "Well, we thought we wouldn't see Marjol... but there she is". Turned out those were people from the same Dutch messageboards as well. Small world.
We got in our car and drove to the last Disney park on our list; the Hollywood studios. Gerbert wanted to take the highway, but I wanted to see the Downtown Disney road one more time, so I convinced him to take that road. When we got to the parking lot, we realised we made the right choice, because we got two free pins (one to keep & one to trade), didn't have to pay parking money and got a preferred parking spot. What a nice way to start a day!
I put my new pin next to the other two I already had and with that, a late pin addiction had started...
We saw Marco, Sandra en Michael when we were entering the park and watched the opening ceremony with them. I really like these actors!
We walked over to Tower of Terror and waited in the short line that had already formed. We shared our elevator with Marco, Sandra and Michael and I took a picture of our picture. We're on the right.
After ToT, we said goodbye to the other three and walked over to the Rock & Rollercoaster, which was a walk-on.
After RnR, we had something to drink and I bought a set of 4 different park pins (one of each park).
We walked over to Animation Academy, where the second surprise of the day was awaiting us! A castmember let us pass a rope and behind that rope was someone from the dream squad who was handing dream fastpasses to everyone! And we got one as well!
What a great start of the day! Free pins, free parking & free fastpasses!
We saw the ainmation show with Mushu and got our picture taken with Mickey after that. We were the first in line!
The Incredibles would arrive within a couple of minutes, so we decided to hang around and wait for them too. They were so great! Mr. Incredible made Gerbert do the propose-position and he did the same! I love this picture, it's one of my favorites!
We also took part in a drawing lesson. We got to draw Mickey with his sorcerer's hat on!
Mine was really too bad to show here (I'm such a bad drawer...), but Gerbert's was pretty good and he doesn't know that I'm showing his drawing, so he can't complain about it!
When we got out of the Animation Academy, I saw some characters around the sorcerer's hat. And one of them was Daisy, a character I hadn't met yet!
So, we hopped in line. Unfortunately, there wasn't a photopass photographer there, but we had our own camera to the rescue!
We walked over to the new attraction Toy Story Mania (which would open the week after we left...
), but unfortunately they put large things in front of the scene, so we really couldn't see anything. Bummer.
Continued in next post
Unfortunately... the day had come! Our last day in Orlando!
Last year we were very tired on our last day, but this time we really didn't feel like going home. But there was one day left, so we decided to make the best out of our last parkday and got out at 7, to be in the park at rope drop.We had our breakfast in the hotel again. Gerbert made his regular waffle and I had my peanut butter toast. While we were making breakfast, we heard someone saying (in Dutch, but you can't read that...
): "Well, we thought we wouldn't see Marjol... but there she is". Turned out those were people from the same Dutch messageboards as well. Small world.
We got in our car and drove to the last Disney park on our list; the Hollywood studios. Gerbert wanted to take the highway, but I wanted to see the Downtown Disney road one more time, so I convinced him to take that road. When we got to the parking lot, we realised we made the right choice, because we got two free pins (one to keep & one to trade), didn't have to pay parking money and got a preferred parking spot. What a nice way to start a day!
I put my new pin next to the other two I already had and with that, a late pin addiction had started...
We saw Marco, Sandra en Michael when we were entering the park and watched the opening ceremony with them. I really like these actors!
We walked over to Tower of Terror and waited in the short line that had already formed. We shared our elevator with Marco, Sandra and Michael and I took a picture of our picture. We're on the right.
After ToT, we said goodbye to the other three and walked over to the Rock & Rollercoaster, which was a walk-on.
After RnR, we had something to drink and I bought a set of 4 different park pins (one of each park).
We walked over to Animation Academy, where the second surprise of the day was awaiting us! A castmember let us pass a rope and behind that rope was someone from the dream squad who was handing dream fastpasses to everyone! And we got one as well!
What a great start of the day! Free pins, free parking & free fastpasses!
We saw the ainmation show with Mushu and got our picture taken with Mickey after that. We were the first in line!
The Incredibles would arrive within a couple of minutes, so we decided to hang around and wait for them too. They were so great! Mr. Incredible made Gerbert do the propose-position and he did the same! I love this picture, it's one of my favorites!
We also took part in a drawing lesson. We got to draw Mickey with his sorcerer's hat on!
Mine was really too bad to show here (I'm such a bad drawer...), but Gerbert's was pretty good and he doesn't know that I'm showing his drawing, so he can't complain about it!
When we got out of the Animation Academy, I saw some characters around the sorcerer's hat. And one of them was Daisy, a character I hadn't met yet!
So, we hopped in line. Unfortunately, there wasn't a photopass photographer there, but we had our own camera to the rescue!
We walked over to the new attraction Toy Story Mania (which would open the week after we left...
), but unfortunately they put large things in front of the scene, so we really couldn't see anything. Bummer.Continued in next post
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
More in previous post
We decided we wanted to have an early lunch and we came across ABC Commissary. After the fries and burgers we walked to Muppet 3D, which is still pretty funny. I also love the miss Piggy fountain.
After our 3D adventure, we went to the Light, Motors, Action stunt show. I think this show is pretty boring, but Gerbert is a car freak, so he likes it.
After the show, we got our picture taken with Woody & Buzz. We stood in line waiting for them with some huge complainers behind us. Nothing was right, according to them. It was way to busy in the parks... I felt the urge to reccoment the Christmas season to them...
After seeing Woody and Buzz, we found ourselves a nice place in the shade to watch the new parade. I have to say I didn't really like it.... it took those cars way to long to move.... we were in the back of the parade and it took them over 30 minutes to reach us. We also didn't have some nice characters in front of us when they stopped. I did like this Mr. Potatohead... I'm still wondering what was wrong with his eye...
We did some more shows and rides we hadn't done today: Sounds Dangerous, the Great Movie Ride and One Man's Dream. We walked back to ToT to use our dream fastpass for the first time today, but the line was so short there was no use using it. Our elevator wasn't more than half full!
It was almost 5 pm by now and I really wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast show. Gerbert wasn't too keen on that, but since I sat through that boring stunt show for him, I decided he should come anyway. We found ourselves some nice spots, had some ice-cream (I loved my frozen banana) and took some pictures of the show.
After the show, it was time for our reservation at 50's prime time café. We were very curious about what our waitress would do and say, because we read so many stories about this place... but she actually didn't do anything! The food was great and we loved the theming with the little tv's.
My chocolate sundae was the best!
After dinner, it was time to use our dream fastpasses. We walked over to Rock & Rollercoaster. When we were almost inside, we were told to go back, because they were experiencing some technical difficulties...
Well, over to ToT again and we saw the waiting line was now.... 50 minutes! Yes, we could finally use our dream fastpasses!
After we rode ToT for the third time today, we decided it was time to find a nice spot for Fantasmic. We had 50 minutes left before it would start, but we heard the place would fill up easily. It didn't last year, but we had some rain on that day... so we wouldn't take the risk.
Well, we got a nice spot, but people were still coming in one minute before the show started, so we really didn't have to sit there so early. But we had fun anyway, and the popcorn was good.
Fantasmic was a great way to end our honeymoon, I liked it even better than last year!!!
With this picture of the ToT sign in the dark, we said our goodbyes to Disneyworld...
With a stop at Goodings for some last minute shopping, we were back in the hotel around 22:15, where we started our last night in Orlando!
Up next: Flying home....
We decided we wanted to have an early lunch and we came across ABC Commissary. After the fries and burgers we walked to Muppet 3D, which is still pretty funny. I also love the miss Piggy fountain.
After our 3D adventure, we went to the Light, Motors, Action stunt show. I think this show is pretty boring, but Gerbert is a car freak, so he likes it.
After the show, we got our picture taken with Woody & Buzz. We stood in line waiting for them with some huge complainers behind us. Nothing was right, according to them. It was way to busy in the parks... I felt the urge to reccoment the Christmas season to them...
After seeing Woody and Buzz, we found ourselves a nice place in the shade to watch the new parade. I have to say I didn't really like it.... it took those cars way to long to move.... we were in the back of the parade and it took them over 30 minutes to reach us. We also didn't have some nice characters in front of us when they stopped. I did like this Mr. Potatohead... I'm still wondering what was wrong with his eye...
We did some more shows and rides we hadn't done today: Sounds Dangerous, the Great Movie Ride and One Man's Dream. We walked back to ToT to use our dream fastpass for the first time today, but the line was so short there was no use using it. Our elevator wasn't more than half full!
It was almost 5 pm by now and I really wanted to see the Beauty and the Beast show. Gerbert wasn't too keen on that, but since I sat through that boring stunt show for him, I decided he should come anyway. We found ourselves some nice spots, had some ice-cream (I loved my frozen banana) and took some pictures of the show.
After the show, it was time for our reservation at 50's prime time café. We were very curious about what our waitress would do and say, because we read so many stories about this place... but she actually didn't do anything!
The food was great and we loved the theming with the little tv's.My chocolate sundae was the best!
After dinner, it was time to use our dream fastpasses. We walked over to Rock & Rollercoaster. When we were almost inside, we were told to go back, because they were experiencing some technical difficulties...
Well, over to ToT again and we saw the waiting line was now.... 50 minutes! Yes, we could finally use our dream fastpasses!
After we rode ToT for the third time today, we decided it was time to find a nice spot for Fantasmic. We had 50 minutes left before it would start, but we heard the place would fill up easily. It didn't last year, but we had some rain on that day... so we wouldn't take the risk.
Well, we got a nice spot, but people were still coming in one minute before the show started, so we really didn't have to sit there so early. But we had fun anyway, and the popcorn was good.
Fantasmic was a great way to end our honeymoon, I liked it even better than last year!!!
With this picture of the ToT sign in the dark, we said our goodbyes to Disneyworld...
With a stop at Goodings for some last minute shopping, we were back in the hotel around 22:15, where we started our last night in Orlando!
Up next: Flying home....
mkluvsmickey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,990
What a great last day with all the dreams you received! Last days are so hard but that made it extra special. I'm sad to see your report coming to an end.
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
Day 14&15, Going home...
Today was the day... the day we had to leave Orlando! I felt really sad, I could have stayed one (or two) extra weeks...
On this last day, we got out of bed a little later than usual and had our breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast, we packed our suitcases. We put everything we bought during this trip on the bed. Not too bad, eh?
We also put all the tickets we used on the bed... just to see how many things we did in the past two weeks.
When the suitcases were packed, we checked out and took some pictures of the hotel. We had a great stay here for only $60 a night!
We drove back to the airport and went to the car drop off place. This went really quick, we only asked ourselves why we got our receipt in German instead of English...
We checked ourselves in at the airport and have a couple of hours left before we had to fly. I really like this airport, so that wasn't a big problem. While Gerbert spent some time at Starbucks, I walked around in the Disney store...
About an hour and a half before boarding, we went through customs and spent some time at the boarding gate.. which looked really..eh... different during this remodeling phase.
We had a bite to eat and after that, it was time to say goodbye to Orlando and to board the plane.
The plane left exactly on time this time (although we were kind of hoping for a n offer to fly the next day... ) and we had an uneventful flight to Washington DC. When we landed in Washington, everything went smooth as well and we were in our second plane pretty fast.
The second flight was OK too. Unfortunately, we noticed the United service wasn't as good as in 2006. We didn't get a lot of drinks, we didn't get the wet towels to wash our hands with anymore and we had a very cranky stewardess. But there were good movies, so we got through our time anyway.
We landed at Schiphol airport a couple of minutes before 7. We called our friends who were at the airport too, because they would fly to Vienna in a couple of hours, but because it took our suitcases quite some time to arrive, we weren't able to meet up with them.
An hour and an half after we landed, we were in a train to our home town and another hour later, we were drinking tea and coffee with my parents, who picked us up at the train station.
I had an afternoon nap later on and we had a lot of washing to do which kept us busy during the day.
We had an excellent honeymoon, with lots of highlights! We loved Disney again and Discovery Cove was just amazing!
When I complained with United about our flight on the first day, we got a $200 flight voucher each, and with that, the ideas for a next trip came around!
We looked at our finances and decided there would be a possibility of going to Florida one more time next year, because I had another 2 week holiday in april/may of 2009! I made some plans, we would do a round trip around Florida with a couple of days at Disneyworld at the end of the trip.
We went looking for flight rates early june and all of a sudden, another idea got into my head. We'd done a trip in the west of the USA in 2006 and we said we would definately go back there one day, because we didn't have enough time to see everything! Plus, we would be able to see Disneyland, which we missed in 2006!
Flight rates to Los Angeles were only like $50 higher than the ones to Orlando, so that was an option too! I told Gerbert about my plans and he was really into that. So, we booked our tickets to Los Angeles!
We'll be flying to L.A. on april 25, 2009 and we're flying back to Amsterdam om may 8. Our plan is to do a round trip, including Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, San Francisco, Highway 1 and ofcourse Disneyland! I'm really looking forward to this trip, only 9,5 months of waiting to do...
And with this news, I'm ending this TR. It was nice to write everything down in English too. Everyone who has been reading... thank you very much!!!
Today was the day... the day we had to leave Orlando!
I felt really sad, I could have stayed one (or two) extra weeks...On this last day, we got out of bed a little later than usual and had our breakfast in the hotel. After breakfast, we packed our suitcases. We put everything we bought during this trip on the bed. Not too bad, eh?
We also put all the tickets we used on the bed... just to see how many things we did in the past two weeks.
When the suitcases were packed, we checked out and took some pictures of the hotel. We had a great stay here for only $60 a night!
We drove back to the airport and went to the car drop off place. This went really quick, we only asked ourselves why we got our receipt in German instead of English...
We checked ourselves in at the airport and have a couple of hours left before we had to fly. I really like this airport, so that wasn't a big problem. While Gerbert spent some time at Starbucks, I walked around in the Disney store...
About an hour and a half before boarding, we went through customs and spent some time at the boarding gate.. which looked really..eh... different during this remodeling phase.
We had a bite to eat and after that, it was time to say goodbye to Orlando and to board the plane.
The plane left exactly on time this time (although we were kind of hoping for a n offer to fly the next day...
) and we had an uneventful flight to Washington DC. When we landed in Washington, everything went smooth as well and we were in our second plane pretty fast. The second flight was OK too. Unfortunately, we noticed the United service wasn't as good as in 2006. We didn't get a lot of drinks, we didn't get the wet towels to wash our hands with anymore and we had a very cranky stewardess. But there were good movies, so we got through our time anyway.
We landed at Schiphol airport a couple of minutes before 7. We called our friends who were at the airport too, because they would fly to Vienna in a couple of hours, but because it took our suitcases quite some time to arrive, we weren't able to meet up with them.
An hour and an half after we landed, we were in a train to our home town and another hour later, we were drinking tea and coffee with my parents, who picked us up at the train station.
I had an afternoon nap later on and we had a lot of washing to do which kept us busy during the day.
We had an excellent honeymoon, with lots of highlights! We loved Disney again and Discovery Cove was just amazing!
When I complained with United about our flight on the first day, we got a $200 flight voucher each, and with that, the ideas for a next trip came around!
We looked at our finances and decided there would be a possibility of going to Florida one more time next year, because I had another 2 week holiday in april/may of 2009! I made some plans, we would do a round trip around Florida with a couple of days at Disneyworld at the end of the trip.
We went looking for flight rates early june and all of a sudden, another idea got into my head. We'd done a trip in the west of the USA in 2006 and we said we would definately go back there one day, because we didn't have enough time to see everything! Plus, we would be able to see Disneyland, which we missed in 2006!
Flight rates to Los Angeles were only like $50 higher than the ones to Orlando, so that was an option too! I told Gerbert about my plans and he was really into that. So, we booked our tickets to Los Angeles!
We'll be flying to L.A. on april 25, 2009 and we're flying back to Amsterdam om may 8. Our plan is to do a round trip, including Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, San Francisco, Highway 1 and ofcourse Disneyland! I'm really looking forward to this trip, only 9,5 months of waiting to do...
And with this news, I'm ending this TR. It was nice to write everything down in English too. Everyone who has been reading... thank you very much!!!
Lifelong_Dreamer
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2007
- Messages
- 15,138
Sounds like you had an amazing honeymoon and your trip to CA sounds like it will be just as wonderful!
Marjol
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2006
- Messages
- 622
Thanks, we did!
I'm really looking forward to our CA trip... only 9 more months of waiting to do....
mkluvsmickey
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,990
Not sure how I missed your final post - but I did. I love the pictures of all the loot you bought on the trip - lots of goodies! I'm sorry to see your report end but glad to hear you have another trip to the US planned. I really hope you'll do a report of your trip next year!
-
Scuba-Clad Thief Steals Thousands from Paddlefish Restaurant at Walt Disney World
-
New Resort-Specific Merch with Mickey Mouse at Disney's Contemporary Resort
-
A Quick Guide for Disney World's Transportation System
-
Skip the Gifts and Take Your Family to Disneyland for the Holidays
-
New PhotoPass Magic Shots for Disney World's Magic Kingdom
-
See the Trailer: 'The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland - A Special Edition of 20/20'
-
What Types of Staterooms Are Available on Disney Cruise Line Ships & How Are They Different?
Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE
