Better late than never. Honeymoon Trip Report August 2010

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

ready for our first day in the parks!

after a 20 or so minute bus ride, we arrived at the TTC. this is where the fun started. we decided to wait for a ferry to cross the lake into MK. and there, along with a few others, i got roped into 'entertaining the crowd':

and for my efforts, i was given a pirate scarf!

so all aboard!

we had finally arrived. this was james' first time to disney and my 5th time. it was so good to be back. i hadn't been since 2003 :O

i love wondering down mainstreet. the smells, the sights, the sounds. i love reading all the names on the doors and wondering in and out of the shops. but after a little while, your eye is drawn to one thing:

james didn't look so impressed:

we saw a pin traders on the side of main street and went over for a look. i didn't know about the badges for the 'celebrate today' campain until later in the day, so we bought some 'mr and mrs' pins instead.

i decided that i wanted to head towards pirates of the caribbean first, seen as it's my favourite disney ride, and i wanted to check out the 'new' captain sparrow! buuut, we stumbled upon the jungle cruise first, and as the line was only 15 minutes long, we thought we'd do that first. for some reason, I DIDNT TAKE A PICTURE OF THE BACKSIDE OF WATER!!! actually i didn't take a single picture on that ride on this day.

njDizFan · Jul 19, 2011

Fun report so far...can't wait for the rest.

no ADR's, how did that work out?

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

after jungle cruise, it was straight onto pirates.

i have to admit, the changes they have made aren't too bad. i wish they hadn't moved the parrot at the start, and i'm not 100% sure about the change in the music during the fight between barbossas ship and the fort, but the rest was awesome. i particularly liked getting stuck right infront of the last jack sparrow. hehe.

then we headed for BTMRR. i recall that having a lengthy wait time, but well worth it.:

i think we also queued up for splash mountain too. we got half way round just before you start snaking into the building, and one of the cms (he was a lovely old man, must have at least been in his 70's, with white hair) spotted our pins and asked us about them. we told him we were celebrating our wedding, and he said that we could go and get on the ride through the disabled access. he said it was his wedidng present to us! aww. so we went and joined the people infront of us who had a wheelchair with them. they let them through, and we explained to the cm why we were there. she said congratulations and sent us round. we went and stood by the exit, and another cm came over and said 'can i help you?' so we explained about the elderly cm, but this cm turned round and said 'it doesn't work like that.' we told him the elderly cms name and everything. after a bit of persuasion (i don't think he believed us, he thought we were just trying to skip the line) he let us on.
splash was awesome. everything seemed to be working appart from one goose at the end was flopped backward. but i love the music and the ride so we just laughed about it. he was still swaying backward and forward too hehe.

we just had time for the country bears, where i found out about the badges from some AP holders in the queue. she kindly told me where to find them, because i'd seen a few people with the 'just married' badges on by this point so would have liked one myself. as always, loved the country bears, although they need to turn the sound up!

when we came out, the celebrate today parade was cruising round the park, so we stood and watched some of that. it was a boiling day, i did feel sorry for the friends of the characters <3

we decided wander around after the parade and find somewhere to eat. we went back through the central hub, where the celebrate with mickey show was on the castle stage. i didn't know about the moving eyes and mouths. i thought it was amazing. really enjoyed watching it, and everyone was getting into it.
after that had finished we made our way into tomorrowland because i wanted to see the time keeper (waaah, he's gone! gutted) so instead went to cosmic rays for some luncheon. the crowds had swelled by this point, shown by james face while standing to order food:

i have no quibbles with counter service. we would only be eating lunch in the parks anyway, and weren't even thinking about going into any of the restaurants, so i really enjoyed the food.

after a squashed lunch, we headed towards the indy speedway. this is something i've never gone on because the wait times have always been long, and neither of my parents had wanted to go on. made james happy anyway:

after winning the race at the speedway, we headed toward space mountain. i was SOOO looking forward to this! and it didn't dissapoint. all the awesome upgrades they did we really enjoyed. although, i didn't like the feeling of going at speed in the dark, i kept thinking i was going to whack my head off something hehe.

we then shared a super massive drink:

and headed toward another favourite COP!:

nice to see everything was working perfectly. i was sat there like a loon singing the words.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

njDizFan said:
Fun report so far...can't wait for the rest.

no ADR's, how did that work out?

we just didn't know about them, and didn't go in any sit down restaurants. we didn't even try because we didn't want to. stupid i know but we were only after a light lunch so counter service worked out fine for us.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

ah, stitch! i love stitch. i know a lot of you get annoyed by him but he's so cute, so i snapped a quick pic while he was walking out to a meet and greet. thankfully we met up with him later on in the trip.

then onto another favourite for a 20 minute break. they've taken a lot out of the TTA i thought. i remember there being much more to it, but it was quiet and a welcome break from the heat.

i think we also went on stitchs great escape, which never having experienced alien encounter, or a chilli dog before, was a very enjoyable experience. i thought it was a really well done attraction. i was desperately trying to figure out how they did all the effects, with little success.
and we also tried out the space ranger spin. also a brilliant ride. i won, of course.

after that we had a wonder into fantasyland! the land i thought we would least enjoy because a lot of the rides are, well, not really us. we're more into the being scared and being on rollercoasters, but i wanted to experience everything so we carried on regardless.

now, this was one of the biggest bummers of the trip. i haven't been on this ride for YEARS and i was so looking forward to it. so when i saw this, i thought NOOOOOOOOOO. i then found out from a CM that it would reopen a week after we left

very sad, but it's something for next time:

i then dragged james on the teacups. i have never had so much fun on a teacup than i did riding this time:

we then went into philharmagic. i didn't know what to expect seen as it's something else we've never done. loved the whole thing. apart from being sat right at the end of a row. i don't care what they say, you do not get as good a view on the end than in the middle. still, at least i got to notice donalds bum out the back of the auditorium.

i think we did peter pan after this. it said a 45 minute wait, it was only 20, score! but we had one of those annoying kids behind us kicking our legs. fun fun.

(i'm not sure whether this was the exact way of doing things because it seems we went back and fourth a lot, but it's the order my pictures are taken and i can't really remember almost 12 months ago, so excuse the strange descrepencies)

then, to yet another favourite, haunted mansion! this was before they had started work on the new queue, so nothing was being scrims. although , i do remember going up to the ride a few times during the day and it being closed. we definately did it a few times though.

then it was round to mickeys toontown fair (see what i mean about the photos being out of wack). again, i knew nothing of it's pending demise, so i wish i had taken more time to take pictures and look around more. i know that donalds boat wasn't in use at all while we were there. i did get this smashing photo of me by mickeys post box though.

and his bedroom, which hadn't changed pretty much at all since my visit in 1997! fair play.

we'd done all my favourites for that day, and we knew we'd be coming back maybe 2 or 3 times during the trip, so decided to call it a day. we hopped on the train back to the front of the park

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

on the way out, we saw a vendor giving out the 'celebrate today' badges! YES we could finally get our 'just married badges'. 'oh, i'm ever so sorry but we don't have any left, and i don't think we're getting anymore'. bum. oh well, at least we had our pins. he'd given us some badges that said 'happily ever after' though, which was good enough.

anyway, we ended up getting a bit confused as to where the taxi rank was, and went over to ask the bus information guy who sits in the booth by the bus depot. WHAT DID HE HAVE IN HIS WINDOW?!!?!?! 2 'just married badges'!! i asked ever so nicely and he let us have them, aswell as providing us information on what we needed to know. brilliant CM.

that night, we went to another favourite on I - drive, Wild Jacks. the place was empty, but the food was awesome. look at my awesome ribs:

after dining and wondering around i drive for a bit, we turned in.

following day, it was time to hit up typhoon lagoon! we rented out a locker, and boughtt he minimal with us. it was quite a trip to get our shuttle bus, then get another bus over to typhoon lagoon but we didn't mind.

we didn't take too many pictures during the am because we were having way too much fun. although, by lunch time i had suffered the wrath of the wave pool:

we grabbed a seat over by the lazy river to eat our lunch (another CS) and watched people sail by. i love the lazy river. it's the best part of the whole park. just chill, and get soaked every so often.

as we were walking back to our locker to collect some stuff, we encountered stitch again!

i just had to meet him this time so we followed him and went and got in line.

after, we had a wonder around the park. i sent james into the wave pool to take some pictures. he looked a bit lost, the park was quite busy, but nothing too bad.

a few rides later we spotted lilo! she was being really interactive with all the kids. while i was waiting in line, i got chatting to one of the cms about where you can find the characters. he reeled off almost every single character and exactly where to find them. he was very informed. and lilo was awesome:

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

after getting an icecream to cool down (it was about 4pm and we had decided we'd had enough sun),

a not so hidden mickey,

a boat,

and a crocodile later,

we headed back to the TTC.

by the time we got back to the hotel, the heavens had opened:

the next day we decided to hit epcot

i do like these photopass people, and the fact that they don't mind using your cameras. we got some great photos off of them.

of course, it was straight to the main attraction:

disneygirl1 · Jul 19, 2011

Better late then never is right. Great TR so far. You are quickly approaching your anniversary I see.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

gone was jeremy irons, but arrived had judy dench. it was like we were back home. lol!

although i probably prefer the old ending, the new screens were hilarious. james pulled a stupid face and it just looked funny with him running around looking all jolly when his picture looked all angry. i don't think it worked properly the first time because we hugged together so our pictures looked like a 2 headed monster. hehe.

our next port of call was test track, but at a 40 minute wait, we decided to get fast passes for later.
we instead went toward universe of energy, which didn't have a wait. i love the dinosaur portion of this ride. i wanted to show james so we went on to rest our feet and get out of the heat.

then we saw marie, out on her own! without a queue... hmm!

then we headed toward captain EO. i know, i know, but i'd never seen it. i'd seen a preview on the opening of euro disney when i was young but never got to see it. i LOVED it. even the cm at the beginning explaining what it was seemed really into it.

we also did figment, which offered the first, 'what the heck' moment of the trip. the butterfly effect was cool, the rest, meh not so much. it was just nice to see eric idle lowering his standards so much that he was willing to be a singing moon. lol. also, none of the screens at the end were working.

then, the awesome fountain:

a hidden mickey:

a cooling off:

and onto mission:space! again, one we hadn't done before. we were heading toward the orange line when we were stopped by the cm at the door. he said 'do you know, the names of daisy's nieces?'... well, i like to think i know some disney trivia but i did not know this. we must have stood there a good 5 minutes with him giving us hints. i eventually got it (april, may and june if i remember correctly) and he gave us 2 fast passes! awesome.
so straight onto the ride. when we saw the sick bags we were a little worried but the ride was epic.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

disneygirl1 said:
Better late then never is right. Great TR so far. You are quickly approaching your anniversary I see.

lol.

yeah i know. it's come around very quickly. only seems like yesterday i was waking up and getting ready.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

i also liked the hats at the end: hehe

our fastpass time had arrived on test track so we headed over and joined the queue. the fastpass line wasn't much quicker than the proper line tbh. they need to sort out the timing on the doors, also. the doors were opening so you could be let into the briefing room, but there were still people the other side of the exit doors, so no one could go anywhere. people were piling into the briefing room, and the doors were automatically shutting, and people were being hit by the doors! madness.

we liked the cars at the end though. james was particularly taken by 'bumblebee'....

i liked the big monster truck...

after that, it was onto world showcase. i had no idea there were rides in some of these pavillions!

the merch they were selling was awesome. i liked this hat because it was bigger than me.

we headed toward malestrom. i remember this being better than it was, i have to be honest. but this guy was cool. i remember him being there in 1997.;l

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

we saw a huge line for aladdin and jasmine but didn't queue. not sure why but i find the face characters a bit creepy. i wouldn't know what to say to them.

we also saw this guy in frace. he was very impressive:

we continued around world showcase, arriving at england. we had to have a look and see what you yanks think of the uk. the beatles tribute were very good. lots of people were watching them. we stayed for a song, and then carried on moseying around.

these made us laugh. fruit pastles. yummy! but in the uk they are sold in tubes. we've never seen them in boxes before lol.

and we had a peek in the pub. very good.

and opened the door to this, but no one rang us

we then decided to go and queue for soarin'. dear me, we looked at the queue and thought that CANT be 180 minutes, but by heck, it was. 180 minutes of this:

and everyone soon got bored of the interactive games. fail. when we did eventually get to the front, we were sat on the bottom row. we didn't think it was worth the wait.

we then headed for nemo and friends. i liked the seaguls outside, and the sign outside, but other than that, i wasn't really impressed.

i remember when it was seabase alpha and it was awesome. in my mind, you were going under water. you were actually entering a working seabase. nemo has sucked the life out of it. anyway, the animatronics during the ride portion were quite good. the fish that everyone always says is broken, wasn't broken. he was very well done. but that's about all i can remember from the ride.
when we got inside, there was nothing. just a lot about nemo. no interesting factoids or anything. we also missed turtle talk with crush by about a minute.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

i also found a hidden mickey! i was so impressed with myself.

after a bit more of a wonder, and a few pics later, we decide to call it a day.

we had a wonder around the gift shop by the bus stops before we left. i found these lovely earrings for $15.

sadly to say, they are already in the bin. the paint on them bubbled and flaked off, and although i managed to get the rest of the paint off one of them, when i tried to get it off the other, the diamonds started falling off. gutted because i loved these.

right that's it for now. i shall continue later on in the week

Steve-B · Jul 19, 2011

pumpkin7 said:
sadly to say, they are already in the bin. the paint on them bubbled and flaked off, and although i managed to get the rest of the paint off one of them, when i tried to get it off the other, the diamonds started falling off. gutted because i loved these.

Wow - that's a shame. One expects more from Disney.

pumpkin7 · Jul 19, 2011

Steve-B said:
Wow - that's a shame. One expects more from Disney.

yeah, they looked ok with no paint on them, but once the diamonds started falling off i gave up. it was a real shame because i loved those earrings

PineapplePrincess · Jul 19, 2011

I'm enjoying your trip report! You are a lovely couple! I must admit it's fun to read it in my head with a British accent.

catnrob · Jul 20, 2011

PineapplePrincess said:
I'm enjoying your trip report! You are a lovely couple! I must admit it's fun to read it in my head with a British accent.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one doing that. haaa

PolynesianPrincess · Jul 20, 2011

Great TR!! I have some extended family in the UK.. They live in Great Yarmouth. I've never been but I would love to visit sometime!!

Looks like you guys are having a blast so far!! You know those phone booths @ Epcot actually have numbers so you can call them? I think it'd be cool to call sometime and talk to someone random in Epcot!!

Cant wait to read more!! :wave:

PolynesianPrincess · Jul 20, 2011

catnrob said:
I'm so glad I'm not the only one doing that. haaa

Me three!!! haha :ROFLOL:

Better late than never. Honeymoon Trip Report August 2010

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