Our Magical Honeymoon!

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Our Magical Honeymoon!

We got back late last night. I'm going to try and finish this today, but we'll see. Also, I haven't uploaded any pictures yet but I will post those soon. Especially some super special ones we got from the photo pass!!!!

So day 1, we arrive at MCO around 1030 a.m. and our town car is waiting for us, so after we get our bags from baggage claim we were on our way to AKL. I had reserved a king size room over looking the savannah. We were only staying there one night so we splurged!! I did online check-in so the process was really quick at the resort. We received our happily ever after pins and we set out to find our room. The room was nice, the view was AMAZING!!! We were supposed to have a king bed, instead it was 2 doubles. I was going to go back to the front desk, but Ed reminded me that we were only there for one night. The balcony was such a nice spot and there were zebras and giraffes outside! We were starving and itching to get to a park. We didn't even unpack. We set out to find some food and the dvc pointed us in the direction of Mara. So we grabbed a quick lunch. Basic but good. I had chicken tenders and a salad and Ed had some flatbread. We then went straight to AK.

AK - Day 1. It was a sunday and the place was pretty crowded. someone handed us fast passes for the safari when we walked in. (SCORE!!!) We then walked through a little bit and went over to everest to grab fast passes for there. We then went on primeval whirl and then dinosaur. I loved dinosaur. It was probably one of my favorites. We headed back to everest. That ride was fun, but I thought you were supposed to see the Yeti? I never did. The place was too crowded to walk around so we left and "promised" to come back to explore more. We broke that promise. =( As we were walking out Ed had some questions for me about the hoppers and then was like so then can we just go hollywood studios now, ride tower of terror, come home, nap and then go to dinner. YES! and that's exactly what we did. Plus made reservations at Sci-fi for the next night. We had dinner at Jiko that night. They knew we were on our honeymoon and had a card for us that was very sweet. We ordered a bottle of wine and the taste of africa for an appetizer. Ed ordered duck and I had the peri-peri chicken. for dessert we the "one last cup." We kept getting these little dishes brought to us during the dinner. It started with small samples of cous-cous, then a raspberry sorbet that was placed over a shot of vodka, and ended with cinnamon cookies. It didn't look like anyone else got that stuff so we chalked it up to a perk of being on our honeymoon. the raspberry sorbet was fantastic!!!

Day 2. Halloween or otherwise known as the most magical day ever!!

We checked out of AKL and transferred to POR. This proved to be somewhat of a headache as there were some issues. I'll go into all of that later. Bell services took our bags and we bought ponchos and headed to MK. The rain was coming down in buckets but braved it anyways. I am so glad we did. When I walked in snow white was greeting guests and taking pictures. I ran over really quick. One of my flower girls told me that snow white was her favorite and wanted me to meet her. So i snapped a picture and sent it to her mom (my cousin). We had no idea where we going in MK and we wanted to find things indoors so we went to the information stand to ask a nice looking cast member for a map. he started to talk to us a little and asked how we knew eachother. I told him we had just gotten married and were on our honeymoon. He then asked what we were doing around 3pm. Nothing.....I started to get suspicious and thought maybe we were going to get one of those parade FP. NOPE! we were asked to be the grand marshall of the celebration parade! HOLY CRAP!!!! We had to be back at the fire station by 2:45. so we ran around fantasy land and that surrounding area. We did pretty much every ride in 3.5 hours. We grabbed lunch, but I don't remember where now. And we headed back to be GM of the parade. There was another couple with us. The photopass guy took a ton of posed pictures of us. Then the cast member who picked us gave us some sweet gifts!! we each got Mickey ears with our names one it. THEN he gave each of us bride and groom mickey ears with our names on them!! and we had to wear those in the parade. THEN he gave each of us a coveted "just married" pin. I had heard those were gone and very few resorts still have them. So it's kind of a big deal when you have them. OMG! this couldn't get any better. We climbed in the car and the doors opened and off we went. Smiling and waving! it was absolutely amazing. At the end they have a section when you get out to watch the end of the parade. So every character comes up to and congratulates you. After that we left MK and went to POR to check and change out of our wet clothes.

This is where i'm going to stop. My apt needs a major cleaning after the hecticness of the last 2 weeks. I will finish this tonight or tomorrow!

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Ohh how fun!! Grand Marshall in the parade that is amazing?!?!

Which Just Married pins are you talking about? Those buttons that they give out at the resort or something else?? Can't wait to read more!

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mickey Bella


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The only hand out the "happily ever after" pins at the resorts and the parks now. The Just married pins with cinderella on them have been discontinued. So those are really hard to come by.

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What a great honor to be grand marshall. Looking forward to reading the rest.

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ok so let's finish day 2. I promise I'll go back and edit all my typos.

We got to POR around 430, we had 830 reservations at Sci-fi for dinner. So were hoping to get in our room, shower and relax a little. When we checked in we were told our room wasn't ready...? Seriously at 430 in the afternoon. I didn't pout though I just said ok. But then the CM realized we were on our honeymoon and still wet and freezing from MK. He found us another room. It wasn't a refurbished room and actually we were quite disappointed in the quality of our room. the bathroom floors were pretty gross, the paint was peeling in the main room, the water pressure was pretty awful. I did leave a message with the front desk and asked to be moved but I never heard anything. Oh well! we didn't spend much time there. When we checked out of AKL and into POR I was told by both resorts we would have absolutely NO PROBLEM transferring our hopper passes to the new room keys so we wouldn't have to carry both around with us. However, the concierge at POR couldn't do it. So we said forget it and went on to our room. We left for DHS around 630pm. When we got there everyone was leaving because the park closed at 7. However, we couldn't get in. Not only could they not transfer our hoppers but they got deleted off the cards all together. We had to go wait in line at guest services at DHS for what seemed forever. They had to reprint everything. For our troubles we were handed 5 fast passes for anything in the park (except toy story). WOO HOO!!! So first we went on the great movie ride since there was no wait. Then we went to Rockin Roller Coaster. I have never been on it and neither has Ed. OMG we loved it. Ed used the just married pin to his advantage and talked them into giving us the front row. I wasn't too happy with this, but I survived. We loved it so much the CM who greets you when the ride is over let us go in a scary hallway and ride again with no wait. and AGAIN we got the front row. It was awesome!!!! we were now running late to our ADR at sci-fi. OH well! we were seating abut 15 minutes after we got there. the food was good, we enjoyed the milkshakes and burgers. Ed really liked the sci-fi them. I didn't tell him what it was like in there. He thought it was so cool. After that, we rode star wars and tower of terror again and then rockin roller coaster again (I think in total we rode that ride 6 or 7 times). Then we got in line for toy story. It was about 1030pm and the wait was only about 40 minutes. In reality it was maybe 30. however just as we got our scores the ride broke down. so we had to evacuate the ride and the whole group of us were priveliged enough to walk the the entire ride out. When we got out the emergency exit and CM apologized and handed us a fast pass for toy story that was good until Nov. 15!!!! FP CITY!!! we had one of the 5 original FP last. so i talked the CM at the FP lane to let us both in. (Those just married pins work like gold!!) we left the park right around midnight and crashed in our beds at the resort.

I went into this honeymoon not expecting any special treatment from Disney. And that day alone was so exceptional I am actually going to draft a letter to Disney thanking them. We never asked for anything from anyone (except when we only had the 1 FP left). And it was just fun to get the congratulations.

Day 3 will include:
Breakfast with characaters at Chef mickeys
Epcot
MNSSHP

Day 4 will include:
Downtown Disney
Epcots world showcase and food and wine fest

Day 5 will include:
Universal studios/ IOA
Big River at the Boardwalk and Jellyrolls

Day 6 will include:
Spa Day at Saratoga springs and dinner at Shulas

Day 7 will include:
Check out, DHS,

See ya real soon!

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Omg your trip report is amazing. Love your story about being the grand Marshall. Jeff is going to be so jealous of you

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Wow!!! Parade Grand Marshal!! I am so completely jealous. But the tasting plates at Jiko too! Score! Sounds like even with the bumps in the road you had an amazing time, I can't wait to hear more!

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That is amazing to be the Grand Marshal! That had to be a blast. So sorry to hear about the difficulties you had at POR. That's our favorite moderate resort. We've NEVER had problems like that when we've gone. Pls be assured that is a very rare thing. Glad you had a wonderful time despite that setback. Anxious to see some pictures!

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Ok sorry it's been awhile.

On to day 3.

We were at DHS late on Monday because of the EMH till midnight. We had 9:20 reservations at Chef Mickeys for breakfast so we had to get from POR to the Contemporary. We got down to the buses at around 815 or so. There was a rep from disney trans there and a bus showed up that said VIP cast member on it. We didn't think anything about it and all these people got on. I asked the rep where it was going and she said contemporary just as it was pulling away. She tried to stop it but couldn't. We didn't mind though. We were going to take the bus to MK and then the monorail to contemporary. She told us to just walk. When we got to MK we asked our bus driver how to walk over there (obviously with our feet, i'm not Ariel you know) he said don't walk stay on the bus and he drove us over there. So naturally we were like 40 minutes early for our res. the contemporary had a a nice little coffee shop so we got the closest things to the americanos we are accustomed to drinking at work. (we are both store managers for starbucks.) and then we checked out their gift shop. That's where i finally found the Mr. and Mrs. pins I had been looking for. they are so cute. We checked into our res early and surprisingly we were seated almost immediately. They had a really nice table for 2 set up with a view of the Bay I believe. It was great. Breakfast was ok. our server was fantastic Ed ordered chocolate milk and mentioned to me in front of her that he was going to get a coke later in the meal. She remembered and brought the coke when he finished his milk. The families around us were nice enough to take pictures for us so we could be in some together. At the end of breakfast they brought out some cupcakes for us as a congrats! After breakfast we headed on to the monorail to get to Epcot. They had only been open for an hour so it wasn't too busy. We wandered around a little because we didn't really know where to go. I had forgotten how big that place was. We started with test track. When I was there 15 years ago it was the week before it opened. I was so upset that I couldn't go on it. The ride was great. the beginning is a little outdated with all the tests and the hot and cold room. (being from the midwest I believe they could really make that room colder.) however the high speed "test" at the end was great. We had so much fun on it! We wandered around a little more, watched the fountains, looked at pins, got something to drink and headed over to Mission:Space. Another ride I was super excited to ride. We did the intense version. The ride was pretty neat. I liked the zero gravity part. However, I WILL NEVER GO ON IT AGAIN. I enjoyed and maybe i'll try the less intense version next time. The take off though made me so sick with all the spinning. I was nauseas for like 2 hours after that. And I do not get motion sickness. Ed, who is the king of thrill rides, was also feeling pretty crappy. We decided to chill out for a minute after the ride and we got a pretzel to calm our stomachs. We headed over to "the land" after that and went on Soarin'. I was still feeling pretty sick and so was Ed, but neither of us wanted to admit it. Let me say this about Soarin'. I have a weird feeling towards ski lifts and gondola type rides that are in the air. I guess I didn't realize that Soarin was kind of like a bunch of giant ski lifts that get lifted in the air. We were seated in the middle row and I almost fainted with it lifted us to the imax screen. It took me a good 45 seconds to calm my self down. I didn't want to admit that too Ed. I white knuckled my handle bars the whole time. It was amazing though! once i calmed down and I really enjoyed and wanted to ride it again. HA! typical.

After that I really wanted something calm so we headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush. I love finding nemo, probably my favorite pixar movie. I loved every single minute of it. Ed wasn't too thrilled going to that, but he laughed the whole time as well. The kids are so cute when Crush starts talking to them.

After turtle talk we decided to leave. We were going to MNSSHP that night and we wanted to relax a bit. We go to the hotel, and decided we were hungry and went to grab lunch at the resort and then decided to go to the pool to sit in the whirlpool for a bit.

MNSSHP. The resort couldn't get our tickets to print so we had to get them from guest services the MK. We didn't bring costumes so we just wore our mickey ears. We actually realized half way through the night that our costumes from last year would have been perfect. (Santa Claus and the Mrs. on vacation complete with hawaiian shirts and fanny packs.) the party was fun. We got dinner at pecos bill. we rode the rest of the rides we missed the day before. POTC, big thunder mountain, dumbo, aladdin. Splash Mountain was closed both times we were there. We didn't get any candy, the lines were NUTS! We did watch the parade, which was great! Then we got some ice cream. Orange dole whip for me (not a fan of pineapple) and a coke float for Ed. We then headed over to the castle with everyone else to watch the AMAZING fireworks. For those alone I would go back to MNSSHP. We left after the fireworks. We were going to try and stay all night but we were beat.

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Cool..I did not know that about the buttons! We got so many of those on our honeymoon because SOMEONE would forget to wear his and we'd go to Guest Services and get another. I think we ended up with about 6 all told!

I love the special treatment you go at HS! They treat honeymooners so well..

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mickey Bella


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Bella - If you still have those I suggest putting a couple on ebay. CM's told me they were going for big bucks. I am keeping mine since we only got the 2, but if you really have 6 you may be able to make some money off collectors.

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so moving on to day 4!

We were so tired after the 3rd day we left MNSSHP a littler earlier than we wanted and went back to the resort. I'm pretty sure that was one of the nights we hit up the lobby bar at POR.

The next morning we let ourselves sleep in a bit. We woke up and decided to take it easy. Originally we were going to go back to AK but instead we headed to DTD. We took the boat from POR to DTD. the ride was nice and we enjoyed the quiet. Once in DTD the first place I wanted to hit up was the Christmas store. In about 30 minutes I spent about $100. HA! I did buy souvenirs there though. We then headed over to goofys candy store and got some chocolate covered pretzels. After that we wandered around. In and out of stores. We ended up having lunch at Trex. I totally forgot about Raglan Road and was pretty disappointed in myself over that. Trex was ok, the food was decent. We headed back to the resort shortly after that. We decided to hit up the pool once again.

After a quiet afternoon we got dressed again and headed to epcot. they had extra magic hours until midnight. We got there around 7, the parks normal hours were until 10. We jumped right on spaceship earth. I like the changes they made. Then We quickly grabbed another fast pass for test track and then kept walking to World Showcase. When we were there the day before We skipped that part so Ed had no idea what to expect over there. We started at the craft beer booth and walked in over there. I don't remember which country that is. Canada? I didn't pay too much attention to the menu before we went and I didn't realize how much seafood it was. I don't really eat seafood so that was a little disheartening. Ed, however, ate at pretty much every booth. I did try the belgium waffles, the sausage stuffed pretzel, the cheese ravioli with bolognese sauce and a canoli. The only thing I didn't like was the ravioli. It was very bland. We stayed by the world showcase to watch illuminations. I had really high expectations for this and i was slightly disappointed. It was very good but not as incredible as people made it seem. we then went to enjoy the EMH. We rode test track again. However the FP lane was just as long as the regular line. So Ed and I jumped over to the single rider line and waited like 5 minutes. We then walked over to the other side because I really wanted to go on Nemo and friends. It was super cute. after that we did Soarin again. This time I wasn't sick so I enjoyed it much much more. The take off still made me nervous, but it was so incredible. We headed back to the resort around 11pm. the line for the bus was extremely long so we decided to splurge a little and take a cab. it was a good choice we were back at POR in like 5 minutes.

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honeymoonin wrote:
Bella - If you still have those I suggest putting a couple on ebay. CM's told me they were going for big bucks. I am keeping mine since we only got the 2, but if you really have 6 you may be able to make some money off collectors.

Hmm..perhaps to put towards the Disney fund!! I checked my box today and I do have six! I just looked on Ebay and saw someone selling them for about 8 dollars..I'll have to hold on to them for awhile and see if they get higher and maybe I'll put up two and see what happens!

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mickey Bella


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yeah some of the resorts still have them. but they are rare. give it a few more years when they are completely gone.

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Since i'm home alone I'm going to try and get this finished tonight. I'm almost done.

Day 5!!

We woke up early, i'm talking like 630a.m. We got ready and called a taxi to take us to Alamo to get our rental. We were headed to IOA and Universal Studios. We got to Alamo around 715 and the car was ready. it was 2011 Sebring with 14 miles on it! Plus a convertible. We were super excited. It was slightly drizzling so we didn't put the top down right away. the first thing we did when we found our way off of property was find a Starbucks. HA! the coke and red bulls weren't cutting it anymore. We needed espresso. clapping we hung out on the patio at a store for awhile. We had no idea if this starbucks was even in the right direction, but we didn't really care. Once we finished our coffee and had a nice conversation with the baristas working there we got back in the car. We looked up directions to Universal on the GPS and off we went. The park opened at 9am. We arrived around 830. By the time we parked and walked over there it was just about 9. a very good friend of mine and his girlfriend gave us tickets to universal/ioa as a wedding present. with those was also a gold GAP pass. GAP means guest assistance pass. It's basically a pass that people with disabilities use or celebrities. My friend works for NBC which is owned by Universal. So the passes came from there. The best part about that was, the express pass you can buy didn't include the Forbidden Journey. Ours did. The lines were pretty low in the parks that we didn't really use it that much. We started by superhero section. Since we had those passes we didn't feel the need to run to WWOHP. I was really the only one super excited about Harry Potter. Ed has never seen the movies. I've read the books a few times each and seen the movies. We started with Spiderman. Loved it. We then went to Dr. Dooms fear fall. I passed on that ride. I don't like free fall rides that much. I do go on ToT, but I think because I can't see the fall I don't mind it. We then wandered through there went on the Cat in the Hat ride and a few others. We skipped the water rides so we wouldn't be wet all day. Wandered through Jurassic park and then on to WWOHP. My heart skipped like 10 beats when I saw the castle up close. I took like a 100 pictures and then locked up my bag and got on the forbidden journey. I think even Ed was impressed by the walk through the castle. The talking pictures, Dumbledores office, the sorting hat. It was so incredible. I had no idea what to expect with the ride, and I was impressed. It was so fun, I loved the dementors and flying through the Quidditch pitch. after the ride we got a butter beer to split. We opted for frozen. We should have each gotten our own, it was so good. We tried to find somewhere for lunch but IOA had nothing open yet. So walked over to Universal Studios. We scoped the park out first and ended up getting some pizza somewhere. We watched some street performers and went on Disaster!, Twister, Jaws, MIB, The Simpsons and Shrek. Ed went on Rock It, but I chickened out. We went back to IOA because Ed wanted to go on the Incredible Hulk, and the Duelling Dragons and I wanted to go on Forbidden Journey again and get another butter beer. We did all of that! We were then beat and decided to head home. It was only about 3pm. (that's how empty the place was). On the way home we decided to stop at the Outlet mall. We were both getting crabby and we needed to go somewhere with out tons of kids. (no offense to children, we both love them and can't wait to have our own). While at the outlet mall I bought some crocs because my feet hurt so bad and ed bought a bunch of nice stuff at J. Crew. We got some more coffee and headed back to Alamo to return the car.

We had no idea where we were having dinner that night. We had no ADR's and didn't want to waste another day on our hopper pass. (we needed to save the last day for Saturday because our flight wasn't until 7:40). So we decided to dress ourselves up and head to the BoardWalk. We went to Big River and were seated right away. The food was pretty good, the beer was better. I was craving pasta and got had a really nice alfredo dish. After that we walked around the boardwalk, got some ice cream and watched a magician. I took Ed over to Jellyrolls. He had no idea it was a piano bar. We got a couple drinks and hung our for about an hour or so. We then took a cab back to our resort.

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When I was at the Magic Kingdom November 9, a pair of newlyweds were grand marshalls of the parade (along with a family). I was thinking that must've been an awesome thing to do on your honeymoon. So glad you got to experience it.

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It was awesome. I need to finish this trip report, but I've been so busy. I'll get there tomorrow maybe.

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Great TR! First off - I think it's so neat that you mention shopping at the Contemporary! It's one of my favorite places to shop on property. I always seem to find neat things there. Second, I'm a bonafide Starbucks fanatic (even worked as a barista briefly) so I love that y'all were Jonesin' for it too! It drives me crazy how far away the closest one is to WDW!

I'm so glad you had a terrific time on your honeymoon. What great memories Smile

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ok lets finish our last 2 days. they were lowkey and short so it shouldn't take me long.

Day 6:

We still only had one day left on our park hoppers and we wanted to save that for saturday. So we let ourselves sleep in late this morning. We woke up somewhere around 9. Ed has never had a massage and we were both sore and exhausted from the week so we decided to spring for one. I was able to get an appointment for a couples massage at Saratoga Springs for that afternoon. When you make an appt. there you also get to use all the facilities at their spa as well. So we headed over to saratoga springs early. We grabbed lunch there and went to the spa. It was nice to spend a couple hours just relaxing in the saunas and hot tubs. We met up in the lounge in our big comfy robes and about 20 minutes later we were whisked away for a WONDERFUL 50 minute aromatherapy couples massage. Best decision we made. It was definitely pricey, but well worth it. After that we headed back to POR to shower and relax some more. we had an ADR that night at Shulas Steak House. We headed over to the Dolphin at around 7:30 and grabbed a drink in the lobby first. This was Eds pick for dinner. If you haven't been there, it was very good. Ed got some big steak and I just had a filet mignon. We split the double baked and the broccoli. The chocolate lave cake was to die for!!! We talked about heading to the boardwalk again that night but instead we just went home and finished packing for our departure.

Day 7:
our flight wasn't until much later that evening. And we weren't taking the magical express. We decided to spring for the taxi. We checked into our flights early that morning and checked our bags. The resort held our carry on and we headed to DHS. This was definitely our favorite park. We love the thrill rides. I also felt like since we were really only there for EMH we never got a chance to really explore the park. We went back and rode Star tours again, rockin roller coaster, ToT, saw the cars stunt show, and used our fast pass for toy story from when the ride broke down. We got lunch at the ABC commissary since we din't have any ADR's. We went to one mans dream, explored all the hidden corners and rode rockin rollercoaster and ToT like 3 more times. HAHA, we are ridiculous. I wanted to go to the muppets in the 3D but we ran out of time. Ed is a huge fan of cars and talked about the stunt show that whole week. So I had to make sure we did that. We were both let down and agreed we should have gone to the muppets. We then watched the pixar parade and got our last mickey premium bar and headed out of DHS. =( it was so sad to leave but so good to be home.

I don't think either of us can wait to go back.

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honeymoonin wrote:
I don't think either of us can wait to go back.

I'm sure EVERYONE here feels the same way. I'm less than two weeks from the end of my trip, and I would go back NOW if I could.