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• The first time I went, I challenged Disney to make me smile all day.  I kind of went into the park with some skepticism at the time, and Disney won me over – they made me smile all day.
• The second time I went, I went with a friend who develops theme park rides, developing the stories, etc…  We had gone for his birthday and he tipped me to the wonderful services that are found at the City Hall on Main St – in the form of his Birthday pin and the I’m Celebrating pin that I wore.  Almost every cast member and even visitors called out, “Happy Birthday”.  That was magical.

Neither Scott nor I had been to Walt Disney World in Florida. Well, technically I had – visiting Epcot on a business trip for 1.5 hours and riding the monorail.   Technically that visit really didn’t count and while I was enamoured with Spaceship Earth and the Monorail (always had been as a kid), I didn’t see the magic behind the park and the magic that is Walt Disney World.

When Scott and I were planning our honeymoon, I figured it was time to do something fun like Walt Disney World.  We’ve needed it given our own life ups and downs and the last real vacation we took was 12 years ago.  It was magical. That place is magical.

When we arrived at the All-Star Sports Resort, Scott and I were given two pins – “First Visit” and “Happily Ever After” celebrating our first visits and our honeymoon.  The number of cast members that said congratulations, asked us where we were from, etc… was awesome.

When we arrived in the room I had a gift waiting for us – a bottle of Wishes sparkling juice and two sets of bridge and grooms ears, embossed with our names, glasses and a box of chocolates for us.

We drank the bottle of juice, confirmed the hats fit and then we were off to bed.  We had a busy day head of us as we had to switch to the All-Star Music Resort (the first night was a last minute add-on), which was next door.

Waking up and packing, Disney was able to transfer our bags effortlessly to Music, so that all we had to do was go and check in, have breakfast at the Intermission Cafe (what a nuthouse – really busy at breakfast) and we were on our way.

The quote of the day was, “Disney doesn’t give parking tickets.  That wouldn’t be magical, would it?” – when I had asked about where we had parked in the “Guests Checking In Lot”

The service was impeccable everywhere.  We had absolutely no complaints.

We donned our brides veils and set out for the Magic Kingdom.  Disney’s Transportation system by bus was not bad and quite convenient.  I still think it would be awesome for Disney to extend the Monorail to some of the more distant resorts and parks.

Through the gate and we were at Main St.

Throughout the day what was awesome was the number of people who smiled at us, congratulated us, told us about family of theirs that were getting married, who took our picture because they wanted to show their gay brother or sister what was possible for them.  That’s some really powerful stuff in a country where gay people are told by too many states that it’s not right to love one another, who can’t get married, etc…  Were glad we could be that symbol of whatever people thought of us in a positive light.  No one said anything negative and if they did, we responded positively.

• Sorted out our PhotoPass+ (Disney needs to arrange clear lines for activations versus purchases)
• Watched the morning parade
• Had heaps of pictures taken by the PhotoPass folks – And what’s really cool is they will take pictures with your own camera as well!  Amazing service and much much appreciated!
• Went on a lot of rides

The highlight of the day was taking Scott to Crystal Palace to meet Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet!  It’s something I know he wanted to do and had found another place to meet the characters, but I was well ahead of him, and thankfully Scott did not look up anything online about Crystal Palace.  *GRIN* He was pretty moved.

The food at Crystal Palace is not bad at lunch.  I’ve heard that breakfast is fantastic.

We walked around the park, went on the Tea Cups – and specifically chose the purple ones that go the fastest, headed back to Tomorrowland and went on Astro Orbiter, before heading to Tony’s Town Restaurant for our “Lady & The Tramp” dinner and the fireworks.

Since the park was open late, we finally got on “It’s a Small World” and then headed over to the “Country Bear Jamboree”.

All in a day – we headed back to the resort, had a drink and went to bed.

Day 2: Animal Kingdom & EPCOT Center

Today was grooms ear day for us.

Scott and I had decided to look into Disney Vacation Club to see what was on offer.  It is, actually, a fantastic program and you can get some amazing deals for 50 years in what is essentially a time share program.   You’re also not limited to just Disney properties, but also other hotels and resorts around the world – which appeals to Scott and me as we want to travel a lot more.  So we’ll see – it is a sizeable investment.

As a result of going to the DVC meeting, we got a $15 gift card to spend at the park and 3 immediate FastPasses for any ride that supports FastPass.

Perfect because we were quite late getting to Animal Kingdom but on time for The Lion King show and then we see the FastPass for the safari tour – which is stunning.

Quite honesty, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Animal Kingdom.  It blew us away, and we’d love to spend more time there seeing everything.  And that goes for EPCOT and Hollywood Studios.

We were both pretty exhausted and were in need of food by the time we had completed all that and we found the BBQ and Rib place which is tasty.  On the way we ran into Dug and Russel, and I committed to Scott that we would stop and get pictures – and we did.

We headed to EPCOT and jumped on Space Ship Earth and then headed to the Food and Wine Exhibition.  After getting a snack, we saw Micky, Goofy and Minnie.  They all congratulated us on getting married – Minnie pouted because she still hasn’t had a ring yet from Mickey.  Hmmm!

Going through the various buildings, the coolest experience I had at EPCOT was the roller coaster simulator that essentially puts you on the end of a massive robotic arm with a virtual reality screen.  Cool!

We headed over to Captain Eo – Which I had seen in California, but it seemed better in Florida complete with all of the interactive lighting and effects.  Such fun!

From there we started walking around the International Showcase, stopping at Hawaii for Tuna Poke, Canada for the movie, New Zealand for Lamb Meatballs, and then Tokyo for dinner and shopping.  Amazing food there!

One last fireworks show, and we headed to the Monorail for Scott’s first ride on the Disney Monorail.  From there, we headed back to the All-Star Music Resort for a swim and packing our bags.

Day 3: Kona, Disney Hollywood Studios, Tea

We woke up, packed the car, and we were on our way to Kona at the Polynesian Resort.

Now, initially, I was not impressed.  The restaurant had a lot of empty tables, heaps of customers waiting and despite having a 10:00am reservation, it wasn’t until 10:20am that we were seated.  That said, the food was very good and I highly recommend the Kona Coffee.  We also got cupcakes for celebrating our honeymoon.

Much like Animal Kingdom, neither of us were sure what to expect from Hollywood Studios.  We loved it!  Star Tours ride, Yoda and R2D2 ears, and American Idol show later we were hooked.

There is a GREAT museum at Hollywood Studios dedicated to the vision of Walt Disney, the inventions, and the vision he had for EPCOT.  I found a new respect for what he was trying to do and the technology he developed.

In many respects, Walk Disney World as a whole is EPCOT – the Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow; though quite different from the plans that Walt and Rod Disney had.  It would have been really interesting had the EPCOT plans actually been put into place.  Would it attract the crowds that WDW gives?  Probably not, and EPCOT the park took a while for people to figure it out.  And with International Showcase, it is somewhat disjointed.  None the less, I still really do like EPCOT the park.

We met Frozone and Mr. Incredible at Hollywood Studios – and I teared up.  Don’t ask me why, but I do really like The Incredibles, so… 🙂

We headed out of the park, to find the ‘entrance’ of Monsters University where we had our pictures taken, and then we headed to the Grand Floridian for tea at the Gardenview Tea Room.

What a beautiful hotel, amazing service and food at the Gardenview!  I highly recommend it!  A perfect cap to part one of our honeymoon.

Stopping for gas, we headed back to Fort Lauderdale to being part two – our cruise on Royal Princess.

 

A few more photos from Disney’s PhotoPass service: