Trip Report COMPLETED! Our First Family Trip...Oh, and My Disney Wedding! A PeoplemoverTTA Trip Report.

sheriffwoody · Apr 22, 2015

PeoplemoverTTA said:
Thank you! And yeah, we're disappointed about the first kiss photo. Our photographer was good, but I wish I had done a little more research ahead of time (and I kind of wish I spent more money to have more time and interaction with my photographer). I'm happy, but a little part of me wishes I had gone all in on photography.

You could always photograph Disney weddings and just build your travel expenses into the cost

I've actually thought about it! haha! I don't know if they allow outside photographers. I have told my husband that whenever we get ready to retire, I'm fine to move to Orlando and continue my business down there

PeoplemoverTTA · Apr 22, 2015

kristiwoody said:
I've actually thought about it! haha! I don't know if they allow outside photographers. I have told my husband that whenever we get ready to retire, I'm fine to move to Orlando and continue my business down there

They absolutely allow outside photographers (mine was one, except for the dessert party) - sounds like you have a solid retirement plan

PeoplemoverTTA · Apr 30, 2015

July 16, 2014 (The Finale)

Okay, so dinner was over, and it was time for Todd, Brandon and I to head to Frontierland for our fastpass on BTMR. It was Brandon’s first ride and Todd’s first since he was a kid - a win all around

Then, we had FPs for Splash Mountain - I think Brandon was scared, but he ended up saying it was his favorite:

Our last FP for the day was at Buzz, so we made our way over to Tomorrowland…

I love Todd’s expression - like what the heck?!

I, on the other hand, was focused (and was clearly the only one in our family who knew where the camera was, lol):

In fact, I maxed out one gun and moved on to the second one, lol:

I felt bad for getting such a high score (both of my scores beat theirs lol), so I didn’t show Brandon mine. It was only his first time riding so he couldn't expect to max out, but he's 10 so it's not like he really gets that.

At this point, the sun was starting to set, and Brandon realized that he was going back to his mom and stepdad’s the next day (he was flying back to Buffalo with my in laws).

I felt really bad - we were having such an awesome time. I think it just kind of dawned on him after Buzz, because the rest of our family pictures for the day…well you’ll see….

And we had been making such progress on the smiling! This is a flat out frown though, lol.

We went for another ride on PoTC before heading back to the hotel and noticed a rainbow. We tried to take a selfie when a CM noticed us and offered to take our picture. This is how it turned out:

Poor kid!

This one, though - Todd was a little miffed because his sulking was really putting a damper on our last night there as a family. We told Brandon that we were having a great time and this was his last night in Disney World - did he want to sulk or have fun? He lightened up a bit and we went on PoTC before heading out.

Another day in the books

PeoplemoverTTA · Apr 30, 2015

Day 7 (Already?!) - July 17, 2014

Today was a bittersweet day - Brandon was heading home with my in laws. On one hand, we had an awesome family vacation and, you know, the wedding. I was obviously sad to see Brandon head back to Buffalo. But on the other, well, you know, it was our honeymoon. So I was time for some one on one time with my new husband (that makes it sound like I had an old one..I didn't, but you catch my drift, lol).

Brandon didn’t have another day on his park ticket because my in laws had the town car coming around 2:30 or so, so we had a relaxing pool morning to start the day.

He was in better spirits this morning:

Did I mention that our new room (the one post-toilet overflowing) was actually another floor up? That actually meant a better view of SSE from our room (the zoom on my camera is on, but still):

I decided to relax on a pool chair while the boys swam:

I actually think it would have been harder for Brandon if we were at MK or another park the morning he left - I mean how many of us like leaving a park to go home? Exactly…

And then it was time for Brandon and my in laws to head to the airport. It was honestly awful - he looked SO sad. He was waving from the back of the town car as it pulled away and I ended up sobbing. Todd actually held it together and I sobbed, lol. I was so ready for our honeymoon to start, but we had such a great time, it was just sad to see him leaving.

But it was time to start our honeymoon, so where to first?

DHS was on the agenda, so we walked over - but made one stop first. The Swan

Apparently it was already time to relive our wedding…2 days later!

We found a hammock on the beach and relaxed a bit:

Nice view!

Some kids came over to the hammock next to us and struggled getting on, lol. They flipped that thing and landed in the sand like three times!

After lounging for a bit we walked over to “the spot” of our wedding, and noticed that our rose petals were still there - this got me misty again.

I love this pic (those are our rose petals!):

PeoplemoverTTA · Apr 30, 2015

July 17, 2014 (continued)

Time to head to DHS, though…and take advantage of Memory Maker:

I like this one:

First things first, our FP was up for RnRC:

My husband is the world’s biggest Chicago fan and he loves his poster (they were originally called “Chicago Transit Authority” - they were apparently the opening act):

Our expressions are pretty funny (okay, Todd’s is funny, lol), but the guy in the first row is pretty awesome:

It was dinner time, so we headed to 50s Prime Time. I can’t remember our server’s name…it was Cousin something or other. He didn’t get into the act which disappointed me a bit because Todd and I love classic TV. Actually, we we just watched The Dick Van Show on Netflix the other day…the one where Laura opens Rob’s mail? Love that one…oh, did you ever notice they show a Dick Van clip in 50s Prime Time? The show started in 1961, lol. I’m just saying

.

I don’t remember what we ordered for dinner, but it was pretty good. I had the s’mores for dessert and Todd had a sundae. It was good.

We’re weird, lol:

I’m not sure why we went into Pizza Planet - I think just so I could show it to Todd. And since there was a racing game, he had to play:

I personally don’t understand the allure of arcades in WDW. Like we have arcades at home - this is DISNEY WORLD. But whatever, he wanted to play and it was our honeymoon, so he played, lol.

We stopped in a gift shop and perused for a bit too. I miss the old merchandise in DHS - I feel like there used to be more variety. Ah well.

My celebrity crush is Harrison Ford - well specifically, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, so I asked Todd to try on the hat

And for some reason, this dork scheduled ToT fast passes like an hour after dinner, lol!

We walked slowly down Sunset Blvd…taking our time to let our dinner digest!

So on our first dating anniversary trip in May 2013, Todd wasn’t going to ride. But we LOVE the Twilight Zone (we watch an episode on Netflix every Tuesday…we call it Twilight Tuesday - so original, of course). I told him he could walk through the queue and just soak it up, but at the last second he said he’d ride.

And promptly swore, badly, as our elevator dropped

Yet he loved it, and was looking forward to riding again on our honeymoon (we knew there was no way Brandon would ever ride, lol….maybe next time he’ll be a little more daring).

I have no idea what I’m doing here…maybe we were supposed to look scared and Todd didn’t hear? Either way, I look odd, lol:

Another awesome ride - and yes, my husband who rarely swears swore again (luckily everyone’s screams drowned him out!):

After ToT, we went to the Animation Courtyard - I wanted to draw a character and I knew Todd would love it. We just missed the cutoff for one show but were tired, so we grabbed a bench and waited for the next one. There was some trivia that we rocked while waiting

He looks so cute (sorry, I’m a newlywed so cut me some slack on the sappiness, please, lol):

And our resulting drawings? Well it was Donald Duck, and here’s how they turned out (framed by our couch at the BW - mine is one the left):

Not too shabby! Also, I signed my photo with my new last name...first time writing it

Which guests were still in WDW by this point? Just my sister, brother in law and aunt. And they were actually at DHS that day too! Here is another winner from their Memory Maker adventures, lol (I have let my sister know that we are giggling at their expense in this TR and she gives her blessing…hey, we all know they’re funny pics and I look like a dork in many of them too!):

I mentioned the remaining guests because on our way out of DHS we actually ran into my brother in law. I guess he ran back into the park to pick up some gift my aunt for get to buy or something. They drove their rental and we just happened to see him on the way out (their flight left early Friday morning - that’s the next day - I just realized I haven’t been adding days of the week for awhile, lol).

Oh, and I forgot that one of Todd’s “musts” for our honeymoon was…buying a Mickey balloon, lol. He was so excited, because it’s similar to the balloons they had in the 80s.

We said goodbye to the rest of our family and walked to the Swan so we could hop on a DtD bus and do a little shopping.

We didn’t buy much but enjoyed walking around - Todd thought it would be cute to sit under this pic since we were a couple and Mickey and Minnie are a couple, lol (we were really over the top cute honeymooners at this point, apparently - sorry!):

And then we found this shirt at WoD:

We bought some cute themed merch at the new store with all the little stores…what’s it called again? We use them for desserts and stuff - love them! Of course, this was July, and when I was in Orlando for work in December the plates had gone from $4.95 to $5.95 - apparently that’s what happens when you actually make merchandise people want!).

We were pretty tired by this point, so we hopped back on a Boardwalk bus and headed back to the hotel. This trip is flying by!

FlaggNL · May 13, 2015

Again great pictures

Love reading the TR! Thanks for the share!

mrdrift · May 13, 2015

Sorry to see Brandon head home but you do have to start the Honeymoon. Great pictures at Hollywood Studious. Following along.

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 10, 2019

I used to be so active on people's TRs, and I miss it. I also feel guilty that I never finished my wedding TR! I have no idea if people care, but in the next week or so, I'm going to try and walk through the rest of my wedding trip (well, I left off on my honeymoon). A LOT has happened in the last 5 years (imagine that!

), and we're getting ready to take a Christmas trip in December, so the time feels right.

I have no idea if anyone will be interested, but I'm going to do it for me. I can't believe I never finished!

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 10, 2019

Here we go!

July 18, 2014

Now that my stepson was back at his mom and stepdads, it was officially our honeymoon! We went to Epcot, and really wanted to slow down our pace at this point.

I love this one:

Not sure at what point during the day this one came in!

This morning was something VERY special — we were doing The Seas Aqua Tour! I’m not sure if I shared this story somewhere else in this thread, but we originally signed up for Dolphins in Depth. A few months before the wedding, I received an email from a CM at the Living Seas, explaining that the tank would be refurbished during our trip and that we had been refunded. As an AP at the time, I ironically hadn’t done any tours until this trip. I asked for a recommendation of something “special” we could do instead for our honeymoon.

She replied, suggesting the Seas Aqua Tour, and said she had registered us for the same date as our original tour, and that it was a wedding present from the Cast at the Seas. Isn’t that awesome! It was SO amazing, and we were so touched!

I highly recommend this tour to anyone. We snorkeled in the big tank, and I had a stingray follow me around the entire time - my little buddy! He kept tickling my legs. Just an amazing experience. Not sure if they give you a digital photo now or if it’s the same, but we did get this:

Afterward, we wanted to get some pictures with the head honcho himself:

And the rest of the gang:

As a car guy, I knew my husband was itching to design his own car at TT (since I shamed him into letting Brandon design the car the first time!), so off we went:

To this day, my husband still makes that same face on TT!

Shall we head to Mars? Why not!

I wish I remembered what happened during the gap in pictures - sorry! But I love this one:

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 10, 2019

July 18, 2014 (Part 2)

The time stamps on these are out of whack, so let’s just say “middle of the day at Epcot”

After the Peoplemover and SSE, the American Adventure is my favorite attraction in WDW. Nice story — Lonnie, the CM there who knows every fact possible about the AA, noticed our buttons and hats. He told us he had a call for us, and gave us the phone in a CM area — it was an adorable congratulations message from Mickey and Minnie. Then, Lonnie walked us over to the restaurant and rang a bell, so that everyone looked at us. He asked everyone to cheer for the newlyweds, then gave us some free dessert.

Lonnie is THE BEST. We look for him on every trip now. Sadly, I think he may have cut back his hours in recent years, because it can be hard to find him. He is a GEM.

It appears we did Le Cellier for dinner that night!

I remember we headed back to BW so that we could sit out on our balcony and just have a quiet evening.

We had a cool view!

Oops, found one more on our way out of Epcot — I do remember we rode SSE one more time for good measure (I typically ride at least 3 times per trip):

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 10, 2019

Argh, are the new pictures not showing up?! I’ll have to see what’s going on in the morning!

Nunu · Oct 10, 2019

PeoplemoverTTA said:
Argh, are the new pictures not showing up?! I’ll have to see what’s going on in the morning!

I thought it was only me who couldn't see your pictures. No pictures showing from post #129 on.

Oh, here too, btw!

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 10, 2019

NunuBelle said:
I thought it was only me who couldn't see your pictures. No pictures showing from post #129 on.

Oh, here too, btw!

Bummer - I’ll fix them tomorrow, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a TR and I apparently lost my touch

Nunu · Oct 11, 2019

PeoplemoverTTA said:
Bummer - I’ll fix them tomorrow, though. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a TR and I apparently lost my touch

No worries, rookie Trip Reporter and TR follower here!

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 11, 2019

July 19 - Universal

We wanted to do something a bit different on our honeymoon, so we went to Universal today. Not IOA, but good ole Universal Studios. I hadn’t been since, I believe, 2002, and Todd had never been, so it was pretty fun!

Some observations, though — by the end of the day, our brains were scrambled. It was just a lot of screen-based stuff. We didn’t do everything, because we were just tired from it all. We had fun, and we’ll probably go back in a few years (spoiler alert: Brandon is now a 15-year old, lol, and he would really love to go).

Anyway, to the pictures!

Obligatory shot:

Similarly obligatory:

If there is a classic car, I am obligated to take a picture of it with Todd -- there were a bunch here (sad -- aren't they all gone from DHS now?)

Now I remember for sure that we went on Transformers first. Todd grew up in the late 70s and early 80s, and LOVES Transformers. It was very cool. We also met Optimus Prime and Megatron:

We went into the store afterward and Todd bought a red Transformers shirt. He still has it and wears it once in awhile (he tends to save "trip shirts" so they don't wear out as quickly).

Omg I think that's my bra again -- I don't remember having so many difficulties on this trip

My apologies for my flagrant showcasing

I know we did Rip Ride Rockit afterward. I have always loved roller coasters, but that one completely whipped me. They offered to let us ride again (seeing our “Just Married” buttons), but we declined — we’re getting old, apparently

Of course, then we went over to the Mummy, so our brains were scrambled a bit further — plus, this terrified me! Those bug things from the movie…omg. Todd never saw any of those movies, but I did. It was cool, but yeah — I’m a chicken!!

We went into the arcade afterward, and Todd saw one of his favorite games (he still plays this when we go to Dave & Busters!), so we spent a bit of time in here:

We were hitting rides at a pretty good clip by now — we bought the unlimited pass thing for the day, so it was really easy to go on nearly everything.

I hadn’t seen Twister in a long time — it was fine and fun (I never saw the movie — I’m guessing this is gone now?)

And interestingly, we enjoyed “Disaster” (which I still call Earthquake, and which I believe is now Fast and the Furious? I don’t keep up with Uni stuff) more than nearly any attraction in Uni, which was pretty surprising.

Todd's expression here

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 11, 2019

July 19 - Universal (Part 2)

It was time to get some food, so we stopped to appreciate more classic cars along the way:

The car from American Graffiti:

We went out to CityWalk and stopped by this cool hot dog place. They had actual stadium seats outside, and the Yankees game was playing on a big screen — very cool! I had a Chicago-style dog, since I had never had one that way before.

Back inside the park, we meandered through shops and peeked our heads in everywhere to soak up some of the ambiance and play around a bit:

Then, we went to Springfield. I'm not a huge fan of The Simpsons, but remember watching the premiere when I was 8, and watching it every Sunday when I was a kid. We had fun around here for sure.

I enjoyed the Duff beer:

And of course I had to do a weird pose

I so rarely find anything with my name on it -- I wanted this!

And we had to meet the crew. I don't know why Marge was giving the peace sign, but I went with it

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 11, 2019

July 19 - Universal (Part 3)

I am confident that I don't have these rides and areas in the right order, but I feel like I'm close -- sorry about that!

We rode The Simpsons Ride, and I was missing Back to the Future for sure. I am a HUGE BttF nerd.

So I was SUPER excited to see that they still had evidence of it being in the park!

The train from BttF 3:

And of course, the Delorean (yeah I have the beer here so it's definitely out of order

):

After leaving Springfield, we went over to MiB. I loved this ride when I was on it back in 2002. We had fun!

Then we headed over to another one of my childhood favorites. I remember being BLOWN AWAY when ET said my name at the end of this ride back in 1990 (I was 10). It was still fun, but was definitely showing its age.

Todd's not into Harry Potter, and we had the unlimited pass thing that didn't work there, so I didn't want to drag him over to Hogsmeade. Still, I did want to have some Butterbeer and show him around, since he has watched one of the movies with Brandon.

When we finally go back with Brandon, him and I will geek out, and visit both US and IOA!

I know we wanted to see Despicable Me before we left, so we headed back toward the front of the park. This was the old Hanna Barbera ride before, right?

Had to meet a minion!

I wanted to see the Shrek show, but at this point we were really fried from all the screens. Neither one of us was up for it. We decided to check out the Blues Brothers show and call it a day. Todd used to have two "star cars" -- replica cars from TV shows. Specifically, he had the Charlie's Angels Mustang II (Cobra) and KARR (the evil version of KITT from Knight Rider). He used to do appearances with them back in the day, and one of the other cars there was the Bluesmobile. So we enjoyed that show. Actually, we waited awhile for it, and the show was literally like 3 songs -- 10 minutes! Kind of a bummer, but it was still fun.

On our way out, we stopped for a hamburger (waited forever and it wasn't great, but meh), and had to stop in the Lucy exhibit. I LOVE Lucy (no pun intended!), and it was nice to keep slowing it down a bit.

Todd told me to try the trivia -- TRY?! Oh please, there was no contest

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 11, 2019

July 19 - Universal (Conclusion)

We also ran into Scooby and gy.

Can someone tell me what's with the peace sign? Because at this point, it's a little weird. Marge AND gy?!

And I'm just going to leave this right here, because...I....don't....know. Don't ask, because I cannot tell you why I am doing this. Am I attempting to steal the Mystery Machine? Have I injured my foot? As Judi Dench would say, the answer lies in our past

That was our short day at Universal. We headed out, because we had tickets to see Blue Man Group that night! We were in the first non-splash row, and we had a blast.

I thought it was like Cirque and all the shows were different, so when the BMG tour came to Buffalo a year later we went again -- it was the same show. Still fun, but I was hoping for something different.

Anyway, Todd wanted to hang around and meet one of the BMG - sorry it's blurry!

This was a Saturday night, I believe, so our cab back to the Boardwalk took forever while stuck in traffic. We stopped at the hotel to drop off our stuff and went to DtD again to hang out for the night.

More coming soon -- I promise I'm going to finish this thing!!

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 14, 2019

July 20

We're getting close to the end of this trip - it has gone by so fast! (Yes, I realize the irony in that statement, since I started this TR over 5 years ago

).

Let's get to it, then - shall we?

Since we were on the dining plan and wanted to try some new places, we walked across the way (from BW) to Beach Club for a character breakfast at Cape May (I think, right?). It was pretty good, and we had some nice character interactions -- it was pretty quiet in there, and the characters came over several times during our meal.

First up was Donald:

Good ole Goofy:

Todd looks extremely uncomfortable here with Minnie. Like a kid being forced to smile and pose with some old aunt he doesn't really know and is somewhat terrified of

Oops, I just realized I forgot Mickey -- oh well, we saw him

All fed and raring to go, we walked to DHS for a morning of fun:

At this point, we were crossing things off our list that we hadn't been able to do earlier in our trip. First up -- Backlot Tour (makes me so nostalgic -- this had to have been our last time on it!).

I miss looking through all the old props and stuff. Does anyone know what this is, because I have no clue...

This is from Home Improvement, right? Binford Tools?

Yay, Muppets!

Next up, some pictures from BLT (RIP!).

PeoplemoverTTA · Oct 14, 2019

July 20 (continued)

Some fun shots from BLT, since we can't ride it anymore...

Good ole Herbie:

I always thought this was SO cool:

I deliberately told Todd to sit on that side so I could get this exact picture

Just cause:

We checked out the AFI exhibit at the time -- it was always so quiet back there, and we enjoyed looking at all the cool movie artifacts.

I'm a big Indiana Jones fan, so Todd made me post with his whip:

Very cool:

Todd really does love his cars, so we had to head here next:

Little factoid. I think I shared pics of this in my 2013 TR, but in May 2013, a Twitter acquaintance saw I "checked in" at LMR on Foursquare. He asked if we'd like a private tour after the show - he was a LMR CM. Of course we said yes! So after that show, he literally gave us a backstage tour of the show. Todd sat in a ton of the cars -- it was amazing.

One factoid he shared with us during the tour was that the yellow awning (as seen in the picture below) is "golden" because that's where the Golden Girls house used to be on Residential Street. I LOVE the Golden Girls (and challenge ANYONE to GG trivia), so this was a very cool fact for me

Up next: Lunch time, more DHS fun, and off to another park.

Trip Report COMPLETED! Our First Family Trip...Oh, and My Disney Wedding! A PeoplemoverTTA Trip Report.

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