Our Magical Disney Honeymoon!

[sarahrebel]

A quick preview - my husband & I were married on May 12, and put off our honeymoon because we had to attend a convention in Orlando in August anyway, so we stayed after the convention at the GF We were at the Caribe Royale for the 7 nights for the convention.

Saturday, August 10, 2002 - Sea World

Sea World today – what a blast! We saw 3 shows – Shamu, the dolphins, and the sea lions & otter. The killer whales were amazing – absolutely huge! They had baby dolphins there too which were incredibly cute. Kinda hot though, I had a headache by the time we left. We left the hotel at 10 am and left Sea World at 3:30, which was plenty of time for me. Didn’t get on the water ride which I wanted to do, because the wait was 50 minutes and we didn’t have that much time. They had Budweiser Clydesdales there which were gorgeous, and a foal too! I bought a little stuffed Clydesdale that is adorable!

Our villa is awesome. The hotel isn’t too hot though. The staff has been kinda rude and the whole place isn’t terribly well maintained. The villa is great for us though because there’s plenty of space for 8 people, and Steve & I have our own bedroom for a little privacy too. Poor guy, he’s rooming with 7 women! The two pools are a blast. I wore my new cute shoes today and have blisters to show for it… ouch!

Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - Magic Kingdom!!!

WOW what an amazing day. Spent all day at Magic Kingdom and had an absolute blast. We rode EVERYTHING. The lines were amazingly short too. Space Mountain was probably my favorite – the only roller coaster I like! We were stuck for 15 minutes in Splash Mountain; that wasn’t fun. Our whole group of 18 mainly stuck together all day which was cool. We left Caribe Royale on the 8 am shuttle, which was incredibly packed and we had to stand, which sucked. They need to make some major improvements to their shuttle system. Arrived at the TTC at Disney World and walked to the Magic Kingdom monorail, and had to wait 20 minutes before they would let everyone on. We finally got on the monorail and arrived at the park (saw the Grand Floridian from the monorail and got butterflies in my stomach, I’m so excited to go there!). We headed straight for Tomorrowland with plans to get a Fastpass for Space Mountain. However, the wait was only 15 minutes so we got on! After that was Buzz Lightyear (kinda fun for me, but Steve LOVED it!) and the Alien Encounter which was pretty dumb. We also saw the Time Machine show which had cool scenery, but my feet were tired already and we had to stand. Then we headed for Fantasyland, and got on Snow White right away, only a 10 minute wait! The ride, however, wasn’t too impressive for our group of college students. Then we had to ride Small World because you just have to Nice cool ride. After that, we were all hungry and we had to meet the rest of the group on Main Street, so we had hot dogs and fries at Casey’s Corner – unimpressive. Did a little shopping on Main Street, and then we took the train to Adventureland and got Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain Railroad. Then we headed for the Haunted House, which was also only a 15 minute wait, yay! Somehow I remember it being a lot scarier a few years ago… then we wandered around a bit and then got on Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was awesome! We loved it. Then we managed to find some shade to sit in to watch the parade – very cool. After that was Pirates of the Caribbean – we literally walked right in with no wait at all – I was shocked! After that was the Jungle Cruise, the Tiki Room, and the Swiss Family Treehouse. All rather unimpressive. I remember the Jungle Cruise being much more fun... After that we used our Fastpass for Splash Mountain (except Steve who lost his ) which wasn’t too great, because we got stuck right before the climb for the big drop for over 15 minutes! I don’t know what happened but it wasn’t fun. After that, Steve & I had a light dinner at the Plaza Restaurant, which was delicious. I had the turkey sandwich and he had the club sandwich. Then we took the monorail to the TTC and took the shuttle back to the Caribe Royale. Overall we were fairly disappointed in their shuttle service, it was frequently late and extremely full – we rarely got to sit down.

At 10 pm, after a nap, we took a van to Pleasure Island. PI was a blast! Walked into the Adventurer’s Club but the crowd was a little too old for us. Went into Motion and we stayed there several hours dancing – it was a lot of fun. They played great music. We also checked out Mannequins (cool revolving dance floor) and the Beach Club (the tri-level thing was neat) and BET Soundstage (boring). Ended up at Motion again for the rest of the night.

Thursday, August 15, 2002 - Animal Kingdom & MGM

We got up bright and early again on Thursday to see Animal Kingdom. We booked it right away to the Kilimanjaro Safari to see the animals first thing, and there was only a 10 minute wait! The Safari was REALLY cool, and I would have gone on it again if we had had time. The ostrichs were RIGHT next to the jeep – if I had reached out I could have touched it! After that we went on the walking trail in Africa which was pretty cool too, especially the hippos underwater. Then we had to meet some other people at the Tree, so we then saw the Bug’s Life 3D show which was cute. It was nice to sit for awhile too. Then we headed back to Africa and got on the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. The coolest part of that was on the train, seeing the backstage stuff like the barns and holding areas. The Conservation Station was neat too, they were examining an owl and we watched. The petting zoo was a huge disappointment, all they had was your typical goats, sheep, donkeys, and a cow. Overall it was worth taking the train to see the Conservation Station.

We went on the Kali River Rapids after that, which was SO short! When it ended, I thought it would be 3 times that long. It did get us SOAKED to the bone though. A tip – the containers in the middle of the boats don’t work terribly well for keeping your stuff dry when there’s a lot of stuff in them. And take your shoes off if you aren’t wearing sandals. We learned the next day that the people standing and watching the ride can control the animals that spit water and shoot the people on the ride – that would have been entertaining J

Then we had to leave to catch the hotel shuttle at 1 pm. Took a short nap and then headed to MGM at 4:30 pm for a little while. I had made a PS for Brown Derby for 6:50 pm so we didn’t have much time. We saw the Drew Carey thing which was dumb and not funny. Dinner was AWESOME though. The atmosphere was nice, the staff was wonderful, and the food was heavenly. I had the rotisserie chicken with spinach and yams – it practically melted in your mouth. Steve had the filet mignon which was excellent too. We had an absolutely wonderful waiter named Fonzie there. We hadn’t signed up for the Fantasmic dinner package because when I made the reservation, the latest time was 3:30 for it. But Fonzie gave us the little blue card that we needed to get in the Fantasmic reserved seating, without us even asking. AND, when we left, I forgot my camera. Fonzie actually came running down the street and found us towards the entrance for the Fantasmic reserved seating! He truly made our evening special.

Fantasmic was truly amazing. They project images onto a spray of water, and there are floats, characters, and fire! It was completely packed. If it wasn’t for Fonzie, we would have been standing, but thanks to him we had fantastic seats! I highly recommend doing the Fantasmic dinner package.

After Fantasmic we had to literally run out of MGM to the hotel shuttle – we were exhausted when we finally got there.

That night Steve & I swam for a little while and then just did laundry, packed, and said goodbye to everyone.

Friday, August 16, 2002 - Disney Quest, Animal Kingdom & Polynesian Luau

On Friday morning, I checked out of the hotel, which was a pain in the **** because the hotel completely screwed everything up. Steve & I had breakfast and then got a towncar to take us first to Eckerd drug store for more Kleenex pocket packs (Steve had a cold when we first arrived and I caught it about Thursday, yuck!) and band-aids for my poor blistered feet.

Then we arrived at the Grand Floridian – what a fabulous feeling! I LOVE this hotel. I got butterflies as we drove in. I had made very specific room requests in advance, and we got most of them except a king bed. We got room 5508, which is on the top floor of Sago Cay, at the very end of the hall, with a view of the monorail (we had a garden view). I love the dormer window room. The painting in the room of the hotel is GORGEOUS and I want it very badly. I settled on a smaller $20 print of the hotel in the Sandy Cove gift shop.

Steve was very impressed with the minibar, it’s very well stocked. I love the new décor. There are swans on the bedspreads. And as always I just love the little bathroom supplies, they’re so pretty.

Enough about our room! We headed out right away for Disney Quest, via a bus to Downtown Disney. We walked all the way from the bus stop at the Marketplace (didn't know it stopped at PI too), and it was really hot. We stopped first to get our tickets to Cirque de Soleil, since with the Discovery Magic package you have to buy them in person. We got great seats!

Disney Quest was a lot of fun! Steve absolutely loved it. I loved the Pirates of the Caribbean. I decided against the roller coaster building thing because I’m pretty sure I would have gotten sick! We ate at the Cheesecake Express and I was very disappointed because I couldn’t find any actual cheesecake! The food was good though. We arrived at DQ at opening at 11:30, and left about 2. We were able to do everything we wanted to in that time.

After that we wanted to see the stuff we’d missed at Animal Kingdom. We had to take a bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to get there, which was cool because I’d wanted to see AKL anyhow. We just walked through the lobby – it’s really a beautiful hotel. Caught the bus from there to AK, and got on the Primevil Whirl which was neat but nothing too special. Then we got on Dinosaur which was AWESOME! I loved it. Our favorite ride photo was there – I was hiding my face in Steve’s shoulder from the dinosaur! He was grinning. I wish we’d bought that one. After that it happened to be time for the parade so we watched it, and I’m really glad we did because it was beautiful. Amazing costumes and floats.

Then we walked over to the character trails and got a photo with safari Mickey with no line at all! After that it was closing time and we hopped on a bus to go back to the Grand. We showered and changed and then walked down the walkway to the Polynesian for the Luau. We both really enjoyed it. The food was absolutely delicious and there was lots of it, and beer and wine were included. We felt this was the best value for the Discovery Magic wishes. The dancers were great too, especially the fire dancer. We had seats front and center! Plus they asked all honeymooners or couples celebrating anniversaries to come up front, and then they had us all dance one song. It was really neat.

The Luau (we went to the 8 pm show) got out at precisely 9:55, which was perfect because the MK fireworks were at 10! We had a wonderful view sitting on the beach just outside the luau exit. The walk back to the Grand was so romantic. We saw a bunch of ducks waddle out of the lagoon and into the pool! There is nothing in the world that can compare to just walking around the Grand Floridian after dark.

Saturday, August 18, 2002 - MGM & Epcot

This morning we got up fairly early and had breakfast at the Gasparilla Grill, and hopped on a bus for MGM to see everything we’d missed. The lines were amazingly short, and we managed to do the Rock’n’Roller Coaster (my first inversion coaster, and it was awesome!), Tower of Terror (not a big fan, but Steve loved it), Who Wants to be a Millionaire (don’t miss this), Star Tours (I could have skipped this but Steve is a diehard Star Wars fan and he loved it), Muppets 3D show (very cute), and the Beauty and the Beast show (wonderful, don’t miss it!). Then we took the bus back to the Grand for a quick rest.

We did Epcot this afternoon and evening. First we saw Innoventions, which Steve loved and I was kind of bored. Then we had PS for Biergarten so we walked over that way. Again, Steve loved this and I was lukewarm. I’m not a fan of German food. The entertainment was okay. If you like Oktoberfest, you’ll like this place.

After dinner, we got on Spaceship Earth just so we could say we’d been “in the ball”. We literally walked in and got right on a car because it was during the parade. Then we headed slowly for Morocco because we had reserved seating at the boat landing as part of the Discovery Magic package. However, when we got there, the guy there pointed out that there were actually better spots over to the right of the landing, because the view from the reserved seating is partially obstructed by the canopy over the boat dock. So don’t do the reserved seating, it’s a waste of time. I had thought that they had chairs or benches to sit on but they don’t. We stood in Morocco right between the water wheel and the henna artist, and had an almost perfect view – highly recommended. It was so romantic. Illuminations was wonderful, just like I’d remembered. Undescribable! We had thought about taking the boat over to the Boardwalk afterwards to see Jellyrolls & the Atlantic Dance Hall, but we were just too tired and my feet were tired & blistered.

Sunday, August 20, 2002 - at the hotel & Downtown Disney

We had planned to get up at 7 am and do Typhoon Lagoon, but when the alarm went off at 7 we were just way too tired and both a little sick still with sinus congestion. So we went back to sleep, got up at 9, and had a nice leisurely breakfast at the Grand Floridian Café. Breakfast was yummy, and we had a wonderful table by the window. Our server was very nice as usual! After that we put sunscreen on and rented a Water Mouse, because we had 2 wishes left and I was going to get a massage with one, so this was Steve’s wish. When we were renting it the lady told us that it would go slower with both of us in one, but we went ahead anyway. We wished we hadn’t, because it REALLY went slower with both of us in it… I should have stayed behind and just let Steve go, but oh well. It was a nice time, went around the islands for awhile.

Then we decided to try out the pools. Started at the new pool with the waterslide & waterfall. It was nice, and the waterslide was fun, but it was pretty crowded with kids. We went over to the other pool, which was less crowded, but the water was practically warm! Not comfortable for swimming in the middle of the day. So we went back to the room for a nap. I had a sinus relief treatment scheduled at the spa for 3:30, so I walked over there and Steve just wandered for awhile. The sinus treatment was wonderful, and the spa was very nice. Next time I’ll definitely try something longer like a massage or aromatherapy. Overall, Sunday was a nice relaxing break from the theme parks!

We had PS for Wolfgang Puck’s Dining Room at 6pm, so we went to the bus stop about 4:30. I’m glad we allowed that much time, because the bus had some kind of problem that it wouldn’t go above 27 mph! Anyway it got us to Pleasure Island and then the driver got another bus. But it took longer than it should have!

We were seated at Wolfgang Puck’s upstairs Dining Room at what I think was the best table in the whole place, in front of a window facing the lake and fairly private. Dinner was FABULOUS!!! We were using our Discovery Magic wishes, and it was only 1 wish per person – our bill was $175!!! I had duck napoleon for an appetizer (delicious), chilled cucumber & dill soup (heavenly), and gulf shrimp and chicken pasta, which was also good but I was full by the time it came! Steve had heirloom tomato salad and the surf & turf ($50!!!), which he said were both awesome. I had carrot cake for dessert, and he had the ice cream sampler – both were delicious. They wrote Congratulations on my plate in chocolate J Overall it was probably the best (and most expensive!) meal either of us has ever had. I HIGHLY recommend the Dining Room, especially with the Discovery Magic package!

After that was Cirque du Soleil! This was absolutely undescribable. I can’t say enough, GO to it! It was the best show we’d ever seen. Afterwards we rode the bus back to the GF and took one last stroll around after dark before bed J

Monday, August 19, 2002 - Magic Kingdom

Monday morning we got up at 7 am and packed everything – it took amazing feats to get it all in our suitcases! We called a bellman to come and put our luggage in storage, and we had breakfast at the Gasparilla Grill again. I love their iced cappuccinos and cinnamon rolls! Then we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom for a few last hours of Disney magic. We did Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear again, and then Peter Pan’s Flight. Then we got a Fastpass for Splash Mountain and had lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern while we waited. Lunch was absolutely delicious – one of our best meals at Disney. I had some kind of chicken sandwich and Steve had a burger. After lunch we wandered down to the gift shop outside Pirates of the Caribbean, and just happened upon Captain Hook! Got a great photo of Steve J Then we got on Splash Mountain – and got stuck AGAIN! This time was only about 5 minutes, but still – I rode it twice in 4 days and got stuck both times! Afterwards we walked slowly back to Main Street and reluctantly got on the monorail… arrived back at the GF and I changed out of my sweaty clothes. The whole time we were there, I kept saying we’d have our photo taken in the carriage that sits outside the GF, and just kept putting it off, and of course, the afternoon we left, it was gone – someone must have been getting married. Oh well, I got a photo with the adorable little old man who stands outside the front entrance J Got on the Mears shuttle and headed for the airport! I can’t wait to go back!

 

[pumba]

and have gone I think 9 times to it...the food and entertainment is awesome.....thanks so much for your report....