The Honeymoon That Made Me a Disney Convert

[schoen]

Well, I have read several of your trip reports, and I enjoy them a lot! It inspired me to write my own... I hope you find it at least somewhat entertaining! I am new here (as you can tell from my meager number of posts) but I will try to keep the faux pas to a minimum!

The cast is...

Me: 25, newly married and not overly thrilled to be going to WDW on my honeymoon

Matt: 26, could not be more excited about the honeymoon in WDW

I should begin the story with the month long fight over where we would spend our honeymoon. My fiancé Matt and I had never traveled together alone. We had been to WDW several times with his entire family (all nine of us, and we NEVER split up) and we had been on a few short trips with my family to such exciting places as Chicago, and D.C. But when it comes down to it, the two of us have never traveled alone together, so I was looking to go someplace really big for our honeymoon. I am talking a private island with our own 45,000 square foot complex. Actually, I wanted to go to Hawaii, and he agreed. Then I open my mouth…

It should be said that Matt and I live in Michigan. Ahhh Michigan. It is April as I write this, yesterday it was eighty, and today there is snow. The weather here sucks. Winters are long and cold, usually with a fair amount of snow. Summers are hot and humid, and usually pretty dry. I am one of those weird Michigan people who dread the summer. I hate the heat. I do not want to be even a little bit hot, I have no tolerance for it, but I also feel like the winter can get long. My favorite season is actually fall. 50 degree weather that is conducive to a sweater and jeans is the best! But, like I said earlier, the Michigan winters can get long. I feel like part of the reason that I want to go to Hawaii is to enjoy the weather. Our wedding is in July. July in Michigan is exceptionally hot (as a rule, but because it is in fact Michigan there is ALWAYS a risk of snow). I just don’t think I would enjoy the weather in Hawaii in July as much as I would enjoy it in say… February. So………

I suggest to him that instead of going to Hawaii for two weeks in the dead of summer we should instead take a weekend trip just to get away and relax, and then we could jet off to Hawaii in the winter when we would appreciate the 80 degrees and sunny. Matt LOVED the idea. Perfect . My mind is flooded with thoughts of a quaint bed and breakfast in Saugatuck with a window overlooking Lake Michigan; or perhaps a resort in Traverse City, even a trip to Chicago for some awesome food and good theatre… Matt is NOT on the same page. He instantly says that we will fly down to WDW for four days.

This is not what I had in mind. We had been there twice with one another. When he was a kid he went at least once a year (his parents have a ton of DVC points). I had been there twice with various high school groups. For our honeymoon I wanted to travel someplace different. Hawaii wasn’t even really my first choice, it was my first choice that I thought he would agree to. I really wanted to go to Russia (I am a Russian major and have lived there and wanted to share it with him) or maybe Italy or Greece, but he refuses to leave the 50 states until he has “seen more of it”. Bleh. I resist but he is so persistent. I point out that WDW, plane tickets, hotel, park tickets, etc are SO expensive, and that would deplete our vacation fund and make it harder to get to Hawaii! He disagrees, “you can do Disney on a budget.” So much for my indulgent three days at a bed and breakfast. We are gonna stay at a value resort, and enjoy Mickey Mouse. Very romantic.

Our honeymoon plans ebbed and flowed. With the very generous gift his parents gave us (300 DVC points) We had enough points to go for an entire week, longer if we wanted. That would basically eat up our entire vacation fund. I would have to put Hawaii on the back burner and get ready to honeymoon with the mouse. I was not pleased, but determined to make the best of a potentially bad situation, I started planning.

I know it sounds like I am seriously hating on WDW. It should be said that I have always enjoyed WDW. I have never had a bad time there, but I have been there several times, with LARGE groups of people. For instance, I don’t pee often, and I get sick of waiting for people who have to go once an hour. I hate arguing with people about what ride to go on next, or what we should do the next day. I had never been with a small group… This is part of the reason I was less than excited to be going.

We ended up booking a one bedroom villa at the Beach Club Villas. I had stayed in Old Key West several times, and wanted a change. We debated getting a studio and going twice with the points, but I decided that since it was our honeymoon we should enjoy the suite. Matt agreed, bless him. Plus, and this is probably the actual deciding factor… I love baths. I like to take them, and rarely have a chance. I am incredibly excited about the bathtub in our room. We are set. We are leaving early (8:00am) the Monday after our Saturday wedding. We are resigned to the fact that seven days there vs. juts three or four is going to eat up our entire vacation fund, and we put as next on our list of places to visit before we have children.

The Wedding was amazing, but it made me tired. The day after was another large family gathering to watch us open gifts. I was exhausted. It is the only time in my life that I will have dozens and dozens of gifts in front of me, and I didn’t even enjoy opening them! It took forever, and all I wanted to do was get home so I could get some sleep before we went on the vacation that I wasn’t thrilled to be going on. We had a handful of chores to do that night. We had to print the tickets and mow the lawn. I had a beautiful petunia garden that I wanted to dead head before I left for eight days… and it was already late.

We finally get home (for the first time married-it is not his house anymore, but our home) and it is close to being dark. We fight over the need to mow the lawn (he just doesn’t understand that it needs to be done-our poor neighbors!) It is sweltering in the house because he turned off the AC because he had been gone for so many days. All I want to do is watch TV. We get everything done, and are trying to figure out if we where to sleep. It is hot in the bedroom upstairs, so we considered sleeping in the guestroom downstairs. Then the phone rings. I say to ignore it; it must be one of our parents, or something like that. Thank god he answers. It is the airline. We were set to fly out of Lansing, which is about three minutes from our home (okay it is like 10) but close nonetheless. Our leg out of Lansing to Detroit has been canceled. There is not another flight available until 6:00pm. We have a fireworks cruise planned, and a Tiffany Towncar scheduled…. And what are we going to do in Lansing all day? No, this just will not do. We decide to drive to Detroit and catch our leg there. One problem…. Parking there for a week is expensive, and we don’t want to! I get on the phone and call my parents.

I should take this time to say that the weeks prior had been stressful with our first family wedding. My mom literally made herself ill, and nothing was going right. My family had made it through the wedding, and they did more for us than anyone can imagine. The gift opening party should have been postponed; they were exhausted, as was I. It was an emotional rollercoaster; it was hard for them and it was hard for me. I will be eternally grateful for their financial and emotional help during my wedding.

Okay… So I do not want to call my dad and ask him to wake up at 5:30 so he can drive us to the airport so that we can get there two hours early for our 9:30 leg of the flight. I don’t even know what he has planned. I am assuming he has taken the day off work (I think he took the week off) Even though my dad is the early riser of all early risers-I am assuming he does not want to set an alarm for the next morning. I am also 100% certain that he will be asleep when he receives this wonderful phone call. It makes more sense to ask him though. They live in Ann Arbor; it is only 40 minutes away from the airport. It only takes us an hour to get to their house; their house is also on the way home from the airport. My dad answers the phone with a groggy but humored voice as if to say “what else can I do for you?”
I tell him that I am so sorry, but could he drive us to the airport in nine hours? Of course he says yes after some joking about falsely believing that once I had a husband I would not need him to bail me out. But we have a ride.

I am still unhappy. I am as tired as I ever remember being. I was exhausted from the whirlwind of the last week. I like my 9 hours a night of sleep, and I had not gotten that in a while. It was now almost 12:00 am and in order to get to Ann Arbor by 6:00 we would have to wake up at 4:30 to shower and get there. I am not happy about this. I am in tears at the thought of it actually. I didn’t know it at the time, but I needed the vacation I was going on, despite dreading it. I needed it.

We went to sleep, and I was still too crabby to enjoy my first night in my new house with my new husband. The bed was small and we both woke up often. It was not the good night that I had hoped for when I planned to get to sleep at 10:00 and wake at 6:30. Matt was being pretty wonderful. He let me sleep in the car, and encouraged me to be quiet and get some rest. He enticed me with the info that there is a full service Coney Island in the new terminal at the airport, and so we can have a yummy breakfast if we get there in time. Despite being upset about the flight I am glad I get to see my parents once again before the trip. My mom was up when we got there, but just barley, and dad was pouring himself a cup of coffee. He was ready to go and actually looks pretty relaxed. After I grabbed some last minute medicine and whatnot from my mom we were on our way.

The trip to the airport was actually nice. My dad was in good spirits, and I was fixated on getting through security quickly so we could eat a yummy breakfast. We arrive and checked our bags and made it through security pretty quickly. The terminal at Detroit is very busy usually, but our early morning flight must have meant that there was going to be less traffic in the building. It went quickly and smoothly. We looked around for a long time, and finally located the Coney Island. We sat down to breakfast and began to plan our week. We hadn’t made any ADR since it was just the two of us, and I was reluctant to have too many hard and fast plans. We did schedule two fireworks cruises, a pontoon for Wishes and a Breathless Fireworks cruise for Epcot. We had tickets to Cirque du Soleil on Thursday and dinner at Victoria and Albert’s for Friday. We decided that since this would be our only Honeymoon, and we weren’t going to try to go to Hawaii anytime soon, we would do it up big! We threw around ideas and I took notes on a napkin that never even made it out of the restaurant. I was finally starting to get excited about our trip.

I did have one piece of business that I wanted to tend to before we left. I had no bubble bath for that big tub! I really wanted to take at least two bubble baths a day, and I needed some product to do this. I looked frantically at the shops near our gate and found nothing. Oh well. While I was on the quest of a lifetime for bubble bath, Matt was trying to get our seating assignment. We had not gotten it yet since we missed the first leg of our trip. Matt came back and said we did not have a seat yet. Yikes! They came over the loud speaker and were offering vouchers and lunch for people willing to fly out later that afternoon. I was tempted, but we had a car waiting and a non-refundable Wishes cruise scheduled for that night, and I was starting to feel tired again… I wanted to get on that plane! I called my parents, who were out to breakfast with my brother, and complained to them. They felt bad, but were enjoying their breakfast. They were going golfing later in the afternoon. They didn’t understand my frustration. After what seemed like hours (it was really only like 40 minutes) they finally confirmed that we had seats. They were nowhere near one another, but we would be on the plane. I was not thrilled to be flying without my husband on our honeymoon, but I was too tired to try to get people to switch with me.

The plane ride was painless enough. I like to sit by the window, and I did. I like to hold Matt’s hand, because flying is scary for me, but I couldn’t. I actually closed my little eyes and fell asleep. When I woke up there was only a few minutes of the flight left. I hadn’t missed Matt, and my ears weren’t even all that popped! It seemed like there was some force trying to keep us off that plane, but we made it to Orlando! Finally!

Up next... our first day, Wishes cruise and Beaches and Cream..

 

[dmaz]

Sounds like the beginning of our honeymoon!
At least from your title it sounds like you wound up having a great time. Can't wait to hear what made you a convert.
Congratulations!

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent start

 

[pumba]

fantastic start and CONGRATULATIONS

 

[tkd lisa]

I'm really enjoying this!

I went to college in Flint MI, and I actually know what you mean by a Coney Island in the airport. You probably have a few folks confused though. To me, Coney Island meant a coney dog. You know, hot dog with chili on top?

We spent many, many late nights having breakfasts in various Coney Islands in Flint. I even remember one night where my date ordered fried smelt. Oh, the joys of college life!

Looking forward to the rest of the report.

 

[lindakmonty]

Love your report so far! I hope my DH converts as well. He hates amusment parks. since we're so close to Cedar Point he thought they were all the same. He couldn't believe how different...and how HUGE WDW is! I know what you mean about the weather Ohio weather is unpredictable. He said we should check into the DVC so that means A LOT coming from him Good luck and congrats. We had our honeymoon there as well. We got married on the beach just the 2 of us and my ds5...no stress.. that was wonderful. Hope you got some nice bath time in !! We were there April 25-May 6... we stayed the last night w/his aunt 2 hrs north of Disney..

 

[schoen]

Thanks to all of you that have replied! I am glad some of you are enjoying this!

Matt and I rendezvoused at when we got off the plane (remember, we almost didn’t make it on the plane… had to sit apart…. We made the obligatory pit stops, and called both sets of parents to let them know our plane had landed. We made our way to baggage claim. We met up with our Tiffany Towncar driver, who was a little impatient because our flight had been slightly delayed, but was nevertheless pleasant and very accommodating.

Transportation was something that Matt and I went back and forth about when we were planning. I wanted to rent a car. He did not. He sees Disney Transportation as perfectly fine. While I am a very patient person, I hate waiting for those busses. I always seem to arrive at the bus stop just as they are pulling away. Magical Express was too new, and I didn’t trust it. Also, one of my main reasons for wanting a car is because I wanted to be able to drive to the grocery store. We had a full kitchen after all, and I planned on stocking it! We settled on Tiffany because they provide the very handy grocery stop.
BTW, I did all of this planning with the help of the Unofficial Guide, I wish I had found these boards when I was planning. Although… I was student teaching during that school year, and I may have been forced to show a movie everyday because I was spending all of my time on DIS instead of writing lesson plans.

Anyway…

Our driver was clearly behind schedule, but did stop for us. He just politely asked that we not dawdle. We understood, and made a point of being speedy. We stopped at a beautiful Publix. It is new, and the prices were just like those at home. We were happy with the stop. We bought all of the fixings for elaborate and fattening breakfasts and a few snacks.

I had had one priority for our honeymoon, and it was eating whatever I wanted! After dieting and watching what I ate for 18 months before my wedding I had no interest in counting calories on this trip. I had deprived myself of my two favorite sweet treats since we got engaged, and so I was bound and determined to buy them and eat them on this trip.

I quickly found the Oreo cookies, and even though I was not sure it was a good idea I picked up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby ice cream for myself, and I even got Matt a pint of their Strawberry Cheesecake. He thought it was silly because it was broiling outside, and we still had to check in and get into our room which would not be ready for a long time, but I insisted. It was better to temp the ice-cream gods than to close off the option of Ben and Jerry’s altogether. We also got some frozen pizzas and pizza rolls. There was kind of a lot of stuff that needed to be refrigerated. We thought about buying ice and a cooler, but decided we would just chance it. After picking up our snacks and pop (we are both diet coke fiends) we got back into the car and got ready for our stay.

I could not have predicted how wonderful the Beach Club would actually be. I knew it was a deluxe hotel, and I knew there would be a cool swimming pool, I had looked at the pictures on allearsnet.com, but I was just not prepared for the wonder I would feel when we pulled up. It was immaculate, and breathtaking, and everything was just lovely. Our driver helped us with our bags and we talked to the bell staff. I explained to them that we had many perishable and frozen items with us and asked if we could possibly refrigerate them, they accommodated us immediately. They even took me to the room so I could be certain that it was cold enough for our groceries. Once I was happy, Matt went inside to check in.

The lobby of the Beach Club is impressive. It is homey and elegant at the same time. It is massive, but has a quaint feel to it. The people who walk through are casual, most of them are in bathing suits ready for Stormalong Bay. I would say that half of them carried gelatos, while the other half carried huge resort mugs. These guests inspired me to start the relaxation part of our trip. We checked in with no problem, our room was not ready (we were early) but would be in an hour or so, we just had to call. Now we had to deal with tickets.

What to do about tickets? Matt remembered that his mother had given him an envelope of old Disney stuff from our previous trips. There were some unused tickets. We had no idea if any of them had days left on them. We also weren’t sure how to find this out. So we trotted up to guest services with them. I was feeling tired again, and found a seat. I sat there until I realized Matt was taking a long time. I went to see what was going on. The woman helping him was going through the myriad of MYW pass options, and Matt finally said, “well, we have these tickets, can we use them?”

I am so glad we did this. Matt and I had planned to get a seven day park hopper with water option ticket for both of us, because I love water parks, he likes DQ etc. This was going to cost us kind of a lot of money, like 600$ish. I knew it, and he knew it, and we were prepared for it, but we weren’t thrilled. So we asked about the tickets. It took a long time to go through all of them but we did discover that by using these tickets we had more than enough park hopping days and even enough plus passes to go to a water park everyday if we wanted to. God bless tickets with no expiration date! We just saved a ton of money! All we did was switch to Geiko… Wait, no, we still have AAA. Anyway, this put us in an excellent mood!

We still had some time before our room would be ready so we decided to relax in the Solarium until the room was ready. We had all sorts of literature to go through, and would easily be kept busy. I would have liked to have sat outside, but it was far too hot in Florida on July 25th at 2:30 in the afternoon to just sit outside. We found a cute little couch area with a coffee table.

I swear the second my butt hit the cushion I finally realized I was on vacation. I don’t know if it was feeling like we were almost settled, or excitement for the upcoming days. Maybe it was the sunny and cozy atmosphere of the solarium, but a wave of relaxation rolled over me. Suddenly I could not imagine vacationing anywhere but here. See! I told you I was a convert!

I might have fallen asleep there in the Solarium, but there was couple in there and they were both asleep. They were not snoozing; they were like, 3:00 am fast asleep! The man was snoring very loudly! It was actually pretty funny. Matt and I wondered if we should get them a couple blankets to curl up with! By the time we were ready to check in they were still there.

When our room was ready we went and unpacked quickly. There were so many things we wanted to do, and we had to be at the CR at 8:30 for our cruise. I decided that since we hadn’t eaten in 8 hours maybe we should grab a bite to eat. We practically ran to Beaches and Cream. I had heard all these amazing things about the burger joint, and while I was not disappointed I was also not particularly impressed. Our lunch was relaxing though, and the food was good. I ordered a milkshake, cheeseburger, and fries and I did so with no thought to my waistline! Score one for me! That part was wonderful.

After our lovely lunch we made the trek back to our secluded room on the fifth floor. The room was FAR from the elevator, and had Matt not been with me I would have gotten lost many times trying to find it. While we were gone we received a delivery! A huge bouquet of flowers and a lovely basket filled with beer, wine, and other snacks waited for us. We knew Matt’s parents were going to send us something, but we did not realize that it would be this extravagant. At this point our full size refrigerator in the hotel had more stuff in it than ours at home does!

Matt was anxious to hit the pool. He loves to swim, and he rarely gets a chance to at home. Plus, the weather is unbearably hot. The heat index for the day was well into the 100s. This obviously did not make me happy, as I am a person who does not like the heat, but I just figured it was something we would have to deal with for our trip. We were in Florida in July, and that is just what happens.

We quickly changed into our suits and did not fight at all about which pool to visit. The quiet pool was really the only option as far as we were concerned. Neither of us are big on crowds, and while we wanted to experience Stormalong Bay, this was just not the time. We took a very cozy swim with few others, so it was actually fairly private. We were starting to feel like we were on our honeymoon. After our dip in the water I got into the tub for the first of seven million times during my eight day stay. We both cleaned up and got ready to head over to the CR for our cruise.

We weren’t sure which would be the best way to get to the CR, but we decided that we would just take the bus to MK and we would either get on the Monorail or walk depending on how far it was (neither of us are very familiar with that area of the world). Once we arrived at MK we decided to walk. It was a pleasant walk, and it was treasured by both of us because we both knew we had our whole trip ahead of us, and also that it was a time when we were basically alone and without crowds, but still out and about.

Upon arriving at the CR we were not sure where we should go. We went to the docks, and they seemed closed, so we entered the busy hotel.

We were impressed by the size and the sheer number of people in the hotel. We made our way up to the fourth floor and after asking several CMs we discovered that we had been in the right place earlier, but we were just a little early. We decided to grab a quick drink at the Outer Limits bar. I had a white Russian (yummy) and Matt had a beer. After we enjoyed our beer we decided to meander around the hotel and enjoy the theming. Both of us decided that it was a cool hotel, but not one we would like to stay in. Finally it was time to make our way to the docks and get on our boat.

When we found our captain we discovered that he was a few years younger than us, and he seemed less than thrilled to be at work. We didn’t care too much. I enjoyed the cruise, but I have to say I think they are better suited for larger crowds. Matt and I are very private, and so it was hard to get a romantic feeling with some strange dude in the boat with us. We didn’t snuggle under the stars and watch the shows counting our blessings. We just watched (and certainly enjoyed) the show.

We set off about 45 minutes before Wishes was set to begin. He drove us over to one end of the lake and we were able to see the WL and the GF and we actually got an excellent showing of the electric water parade, which was fun since I had never seen it. The captain was pretty funny during this part giving us various pet names he had made up for the animals in the parade.

I did enjoy the captain in that he gave us a lot of historical information about WDW that we both found interesting. He pointed out that the WL is meant to look like a bear from the water, and it certainly does. He talked about Discovery Island, and the various fish, birds, and even mammals that lived in Bay Lake. While this did not foster romance, it was interesting and very enjoyable.

Wishes was awesome to watch from the boat. There were no crowds to fight and we were in a somewhat private setting. I enjoyed watching it with Matt, but it just felt like our families should have been there with us. It almost seemed a waste to have me and Matt all alone on that big boat. But that is what our honeymoon was about; me and Matt enjoying the parks and one another.

I am writing this months after the trip so there are small details that are eluding me (for shame! A good trip report writer takes notes! Lots of them! With minute details!). I know that Matt and I asked the captain how to get back to the hotel. He told us to take the Monorail (I don’t remember where he told us to take it) I do know that the stop he told us to get off on did not take us to Epcot, which would have put us right near our hotel, and so we ended up taking a bus back from the Magic Kingdom after messing around with the Monorail, but I had never been on the Monorail before so I didn’t even mind!

It was late when we got back and we went right to sleep. We set the alarm for 9:30 since MGM didn’t open until 10:00 and that was where we wanted to spend our first full day in the parks.

Up next... I start a fire at WDW (and I don't smoke), The best hotdog in the world, and MGM and AK in one day! Oh My!

 

[DisneyWorld Delight]

Yeah!! Another great trip report. Keep going!

I'll try to forget your from M-M-M-M-Michigan.

 

[PrincessNED]

great report

waiting for more

 

[MagicMe]

Congrats on your marriage! I'm really enjoying your report...can't wait to hear more!

 

[schoen]

Day 2

I was tired, and I am sure that contributed to it. I was also crashing from the emotional rollercoaster that was my wedding. Whatever the reason, that night, in a strange bed, next to this man that I love but was not yet used to sleeping next to; I had one of the best nights of sleep I can remember. I think I was just happy to be at WDW with Matt, and at this point our whole vacation stretched before us. I woke up much earlier than our alarm was set for and I had a brilliant idea! I would make Matt a wonderful breakfast. I am talking bacon, sausage, egss, toast. Yum. I got up and set the bacon to high, and then I called my mom. I went outside and was sitting on the terrace, bragging about how great our room was, and how fun WDW is, and then it happened. The smoke alarm was blaring from our room.

Oh My Gosh! They are going to kick us out! We are going to wake people up! We are going to burn down the hotel!
Of course Matt is up at this point, and is a little angry with me for being so careless.
“you don’t cook bacon on high!”
“You don’t walk away from greasy bacon cooking!”

Blah, blah, blah

There was no actual fire it was just smoky. We just opened up the door and let the place air out for a bit. I didn’t plan it this way, but now we have an awesome story to tell about the first home cooked meal as a married couple. Really I am usually a pretty good cook, my mind was just elsewhere.

So we ended up not having breakfast. We got ready and headed out to the parks. Now…another issue that was a cause for argument before we left was the mickey ears. We had heard that if you get the bride and groom ears that you will get all sorts of various privileges, such as free appetizers, champagne, and other privileges. Matt and I were both skeptical about the rewards, and also felt we would look like idiots. His parents had included a set of them in their basket though, so we decided that we would give it a try, despite looking sillier than we ever would at home.

We caught a Friendship cruise to MGM. We could have walked, but given the extreme heat we were already feeling at 9:45 am we felt we should expend as little energy as possible! The Friendship boats are nice, and certainly a better way to get around than the buses, but they move like molasses! I swear we would have walked there faster. It was early though, and I was enjoying seeing the Boardwalk Inn and Villas, and the Swan and Dolphin, and the beautiful landscaping in between.

When we got to MGM we had our first encounter with the biometrics. Fun. I was using a ticket that had like, five days left on it, and Matt was using one of the the really old ones that had fewer days left. I got in the park no problem, but there was some glitch with Matt’s ticket, and so we had to go to guest services. Matt was taking care of the problem when a sweet CM saw I was carrying my Ears. She asked if I was on my honeymoon, and I told her yes. She immediately pulled out a small gift for us! She gave us two pins that indicated that we were here on our honeymoon, and a couple of stickers. She told us to wear the pins and we might get some special treatment. Matt and I were all about special treatment so we ditched the ears and put on the more subtle pins.

I wish I could say I like to slowly take in the parks and meander around and appreciate the magic, but I don’t. I like to get on the rides and get all the big things out of the way early so I can avoid lines. Unfortunately, that means rushing from attraction to attraction. Oh well. It is what we do when at WDW. We went to RR first and thought about getting a fastpass, but the line wasn’t too long, so we hopped in line… We were in line for all of three minutes when a young CM approached me and asked if I was on my Honeymoon. I gushed that we had just gotten married on Sat. and we were so happy…. He immediately gave me two fastpass return tickets and Matt and I were screaming our heads off within minutes.

We were both pretty excited after that ride. The buttons had paid off and we had gotten to go on the best ride at WDW (in my opinion) with literally no waiting. We were just dreaming that this would be what our entire vacation would be like. The park had only been open for about 45 minutes at this point, so we decided we better get over to TT before the lines grew too long. We got a fastpass with a return within the hour. In the meantime the Little Mermaid show was going on soon, and I had always wanted to see that. Matt was kind enough to come with me. Neither of us were too impressed by this show, but it was a good way to spend the time waiting for tower of terror.

After the show we both decided we were hungry and we tried to get in at 50s PTC, but we didn’t have ADR, and it wasn’t going to happen. We decided to hold off on lunch and get to TT. It should be said that this is a favorite of mine. I love the ride, I enjoy it immensely. Matt, on the other hand, was a little weary. He doesn’t like drops, and if you continue to read this you will learn that he is a wimp about rides in general. He was willing to go with me, but he was less than thrilled. I told him to suck it up, and that he would have a good time. When we finally get on the ride we are grouped with a large group of teenagers. They are very irritating. We are hot, we are tired, and these people were driving not only us nuts but also the CMs running the ride. They kept insisting that they switch seats, and were holding up the process so much that the CM finally said that they could sit where they were seated or they could get off the ride. He told them that if anyone else got up they would not be welcome at the hotel. Well… That was interesting. They were a little annoying during the ride, but for the most part we were far too busy concentrating on our own fear and dropping stomachs to worry about those kids.

Matt had an awesome time on the ride, and is no longer afraid of it. I was glad he didn’t hate it because I would have felt bad for making him go on it. He remembered it differently. He didn’t want to endure one long drop, but he enjoyed the random short drops and trips back up. We both had a ball. The pictures were always fun to look at, but we never purchase them.

Okay, it was now after 12:00. I had burned our breakfast and we had not really eaten since about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday. On our way to find lunch we noticed that we could fastpass the 1:00 show of Lights, Motors, Action. Of course we decided to do this. After we obtained our fastpass we noticed two things. First, there were Power Rangers roaming around, I didn’t know that Power Rangers were Disney… Also, that we could get right into the Muppets 3D movies! Well, so much for lunch! I want Muppets!

The show was entertaining as per usual, and then once we got out it was time for LMA. Yikes, I guess lunch is going to have to wait. The temperature is now in the high 90s. I am VERY hot, and I am not really looking forward to sitting in the open-air theatre to watch cars (I am not a fan of cars or action). I actually almost bailed on the show. It didn’t really interest me at all, and it was so hot. The crowds to get to our seats were oppressive, and all of this was compounded by the heat. The show was interesting. Matt loved it, The kids around us loved seeing Herby. I loved it when it was over!

This is when the heat really just felt like too much. No food and the literally brutal heat was making me crabby, and I had had enough at that point. Matt agreed. We decided to go back to the room and relax and get some food at the resort.

We made our way out of the park and to the boat Once again the boat was going SOOO slow, but was better than walking in the heat. We decided to get off at the Boardwalk stop, so we could see if there was anything to eat. Matt suggested ESPN Zone, and I felt like this was a terrible idea. I was secretly very upset that our hotel was so close to this place, because as sports nuts go, Matt is a special breed. He is obsessed. I like basketball (Go Pistons! Go MSU Spartans!) But for the most part I do not care about sports at all. I had been to ESPN before, and I did not like the guys that talk in the middle of the room, and I remember not finding anything that looked too good on the menu. But… It was Matt’s trip too, and we decided to stop in and see if it was busy. At 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon the place was dead. They told us that they could seat us, or we could find a booth in the bar and seat ourselves. The bar booths do not include the annoying men talking and you can also play video games at the TV in your booth! I was hooked.

We sat at a booth, and got our game controllers, but there was a problem. After being inside in the air conditioning for more than ten minutes I still felt super hot, like sick hot. I went in the bathroom and splashed some cool water on my face and legs and arms. I did this until between the cold water and the high air conditioning I was literally getting goose bumps. I have never ever been so overheated that I had to do this, and was really weirded out by the whole incident. I did feel better though. When I got back to my booth there was a tall diet Coke waiting for me. Thank God Disney has a contract with Coke. I was starving, and was really torn about what to get. I decided that the hot dog sounded good to me. I have never ordered a hot dog at a restaurant before, and I never dreamed I might. But it was a half lb. and I was starving, and for whatever reason it sounded delicious. The bar area was quiet, and it was terribly relaxing after our long morning. We had a blast playing some kind of Golf game, and when the food came I was reluctant to stop playing. Of course I did.

That hot dog was literally the second best meal I have ever had in my life (the best meal I have would happen on Friday). I was so hungry, and it tasted so good to me at that moment, I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. Even though it was hot out, and the hot dog and fries were a pretty heavy meal, I just loved it. On an average day the hot dog would have been alright, but on that day the hot dog was amazing. Matt liked his burger and fries too.

We took our time walking the Boardwalk back to our Villa, it was really dead and it was nice to feel somewhat secluded. We changed into our suits and hit the quiet pool. We didn’t stay long though, because we were both tired and it was so hot, and the water was not altogether refreshing, because it was so hot. We relaxed in the hotel room for the remainder of the afternoon.

Up next Animal Kingdom!!

 

[Disneysnel]

I am loving your report so far! I feel like I am right there with you - thanks for sharing it and congratulations!
Kelley

 

[DaniDownUnder]

Love the report... waiting for the next installment!

 

[scanne]

Ah, a commando style approach to the parks! My DH and I honeymooned in WDW and were commando - probably worse than you b/c we didn't go back to the hotel a lot. We kept going and going and....

I love your report! Can't wait to read the next installment.

And I can't wait to read your Victoria and Albert's review.

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Loving your report, thanks for posting, can't wait for the rest. Love, love, love V&A's. Sadly, haven't been in about 13 years, LOL

 

[fizz13]

Great report! I am going with DH in August and have never dealt with a Florida summer before so it will be interesting to see how you cope. I am usually a commando type while DH wants to tour for a couple of hours, leave for a rest, then stroll round in the evening Think hes gonna have the right attitude for August. keep posting, can't wait to hear more,
Claire xx

 

[schoen]

Around 4:00 the planner in me started to get anxious. If we were going to go back to MGM we should probably get back there. Matt argued that it was silly though, because we had done everything we wanted to do at MGM, and we should just go back for Fantasmic. Hmmm, interesting. We could see Famtasmic all week, twice on a lot of nights. I turned on the television and saw that Animal Kingdom had Extra Magic Hours… That is a smallish park, I thought we could probably do all of the major attractions in the rest of the afternoon. I decided to convince Matt to spend our night there. Even with EMH the park was closed by 9:00 and I was tired, and didn’t want to be out too late. All of the rides I was interested in were included in EMH so… With a little persuasive talking I was able to get my new husband on board, and we made the long trek to the bus stop. We were in the park by five.

We waited for awhile to get our wrist bands, there was a very angry man screaming at some poor cast member because they didn’t have the room keys for their children. The happiest place on earth was not working it’s magic for this man. We got our stamp and headed straight to the safari (like everyone does in this park). There was little to no wait, and we got right on.

The animals were the same as they ever were. We were held up for awhile because one of those African cows with the super big horns decided to take a nap in the road, but that was fine with me, it gave me lots of time to look at the animals around us. We saved Little Red (Thank God) and once we were out we headed straight to Kali River Rapids.

Matt and I had not been on this ride yet. It was not open the last time we were there. The extreme heat was still fairly brutal so we looked forward to getting wet. There was just one problem. I had spent the whole day being hot and crabby and it was still very hot, but the sun was going down now. I was going to be very wet, and the sun would not be drying my clothes. It was still in the 90’s but I was a little concerned that I might be cold and uncomfortable in my wet clothes. Oh well! You get wet on this ride.

The ride itself was fun. I like the one (well, basically the same ride, without theming and gorgeous vegetation etc.)at Cedar Point better, it seems like you get wet more often, or maybe I just enjoyed the water more when I was in seventh grade, which was the last time I went on that ride. We were in a raft with a fun little family, and we of course all got very wet. I didn’t mind being wet too much, but I was certainly no longer hot.

I had two more attractions I wanted to see before we left Animal Kingdom, but first I had a food mission. I had read somewhere that you can get pot stickers at some food store in Animal Kingdom, and I needed those pot stickers! We actually found them with little effort, and they were very tasty. A very nice little snack. We went to see It’s Tough to be a Bug (I was freezing in the AC. I know, I am only happy when it rains!). I remember that movie being more fun, the dark part kind of freaked me out this time. It was certainly enjoyable though. We set off for Dinosaur.

This is a favorite of mine. It always terrifies me. I am always convinced that the dinosaurs will get me, or that I will not make it out in time. It is one of my favorites. The park was essentially empty. We walked directly on to the other three rides that we had been on. For some reason though, we waited kind of a long time for this ride, maybe 25 minutes. It doesn’t seem like a long wait, but we had had very minimal waits all day, so 25 minutes seemed like a very long time. We finally got on, and with the exception of a slight glitch in the ride at the end (we were stuck for about six minutes) the ride did not disappoint.

I should say at this point that I had not been to Disney since fastpass became available. This combined with EMH made this trip a dream for me. I had just accomplished everything I wanted to do at AK in about two hours. I was defiantly enticed by EMH and planned to take advantage of them for the rest of the trip. Since we had gotten everything done so early we just kind of took our time and walked around a little bit. We spent a long time walking through the paths and looking at the little animal exhibits. Just as the park was getting ready to close we decided that we should go off to dinner. We decided to go to Rainforest Café.

We were a little reluctant, because we have been there before several times (There is one by his parent’s house in Michigan), and we have never been impressed with the food, but it was our only table service option at Animal Kingdom, so we went. There was again no wait! Matt got a burger and three beers, I got Pastalaya (amazing! I have been back to the one in Michigan twice for this dish) and a Diet Coke. We spent dinner talking about how amazing the day had been. We were both really excited that we had basically done everything that we wanted to accomplish at two of the four parks. We talked a little bit about that we would do the next day, and we really enjoyed just being together and relaxing. We had a lovely time at dinner, and it was an amazing way to end our first full day at the parks.

 

[schoen]

Day Three

At dinner the night before we decided that we would spend the next day at Epcot. Epcot is Matt’s favorite park, and he has big plans to spend the entire day there. I am already sick of the heat at this point, I feel like a few hours in the morning will be more than enough. We can always go back later in the evening.

In the morning just wake up and get to Epcot. I do not screw around with breakfast. What a debacle that was! I insisted that we get to the park entrance very early so that we can get in ASAP. We ended up waiting at the World Showcase entrance for a long time, and it was already sweltering.

There was a family standing in front of us with two beautiful children. They were literally some of the cutest kids I have seen in my life. They both had the mist bottles. They were gratuitous in spraying themselves, and sine we were standing behind them we were beneficiaries of their squirts. I was fine with this, but their mom and dad kept yelling at them. They said they shouldn’t get the people behind them wet. I was fine with getting wet, and I told the parents. They still yelled at the kids. Oh well.

They finally did the rope drop walk thing, and we were officially in! We joined the herds of people running (but we are far too lazy to run) to Soarin to get a fastpass. It was amazing to see so many people in such a large area all going to the same place. It was as if this was the only part of the park that was open. Amazing. We got our fastpass without too much hassle and decided that we would go over to the Test Track/Mission Space area to get onto those rides in the interim. I had also never been on Test Track because in years past there was always way too long a line. We decided to wait until the fastpass started for Soarin, and then we would get a fastpass for test track, do Soarin and then come back for TT. It was a good plan, even if it did require a lot of back tracking. We went and got on Mission Space immediately. I almost didn’t get on this ride, there were so many warnings! I figured that it might kill us. The ride was fun, but a little tough to take. It didn’t make me sick though, so that was good.

We had about 20 minutes until we could get our fastpass for TT so we went and had breakfast at Electric Umbrella. It was good, I was hungry, and it was effective in tiding me over. We then went on TT and Soarin’. Both of them were fun. Even though we had a fastpass there was still a short wait. Matt and I had a good time trying to impress one another by naming the movie that the music that was playing was from. When we were there they played the score from Steel Magnolia’s and Forest Gump. We finally got on the ride.

Soarin’ was amazing in that “I wish the rest of my family were here too so they could experience it too” kind of way. And TT was fine. I had been a little nervous about going on this ride, because I didn’t know what to expect. I was in a car accident when I was 16 and I was in bed for a week with whip lash, so I am always a little bit afraid when I go on a new ride that there might be an abrupt stop that could give me whiplash. I felt like if any ride at WDW would do this it would be TT. It was fine though. We went to Honey I shrunk the Audience, and then headed over to Living Seas because we had ADR for lunch at Coral Reef.

Living Seas was under construction, and I missed the ride portion of it, but whatever. We looked at the fish and saw Nemo, and the manatee (they are my favorite) We were then off to lunch at Coral Reef. The place was dead! We were one of the only tables there. We could see the tank very well, and it was fun to watch the fish while we ate. I was excited about the seafood on the menu, and Matt was excited about the fish in the tanks. I ordered shrimp, and matt got chicken with mushroom risotto. I loved my shrimp and Matt’s risotto. We also got free champagne to celebrate. I would go back, but I felt the menu was limited. I wished that I had asked for the shrimp with the risotto! The risotto was pretty amazing, and the shrimp was good too.

After lunch it was about 1:00 and the world showcase would be open. I wanted to go through it. In the many times that I had been there I had never really spent time walking through the WS. We wandered for a few minutes through each of the countries. Matt was a real trouper he stayed with me and did very little whining. He was hell bent on getting a Labatts in Canada. In Michigan Labatts is a mainstay on tap at restaurants, but he could not find any in Florida, and it was making him sad. I was enjoying the countries, but again, the heat was starting to take it’s toll. Once we hit England we both decided that it might be smart to head back to the resort.

It was still pretty early, so we decided to give Stormalong Bay a try. It was fun, but crowded, and we only hung out there for a little while. I really didn’t enjoy swimming on this trip too much, the pool water was just so warm, it just wasn’t refreshing.

When we go back to the room we had to decide what we were going to do for dinner and we had to be back for our breathless cruise by eight-thirty I took another bath, and we relaxed and debated what to do for dinner. We decided that we would eat at Italy, because I had heard that the alfredo was good. It was alright. I wasn’t too hungry though. Between breakfast, lunch, and egg rolls in China, I didn’t feel like eating too much. I did box up my meal, and figured it would make a good snack at some point during my trip.

The breathless cruise was pretty fun. We had one extra person with us, because he was training. It didn’t bother me too much. The boat was fun, and we got going really fast. I liked watching the fireworks from the boat, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Wishes cruise. Our view of the fireworks was not as good. We decided that instead of leaving the resort we should probably just go back to the room. We rented a movie, and promptly fell asleep watching it. We had decided to go to a water park in the morning, and we would decide which one when we woke up.

 

[tlinus]

- We did part of our honeymoon in WDW as well......cannot wait to read more!

 

[stich626]

As another Michigan native. I feel Matt's pain about the Labatt's . Last time we were in WDW my hubby was searching for a good beer. He had a blast in Epcot. I love your report!!