Trip Report Orlando Group Honeymoon - The Movie

Greetings friends. This is my first trip report here and it's been many years since I've made one in general, but I had such an amazing time in Orlando last January that I wanted to share it with the world. So, buckle up. This may take a while.



Chapter I - The Arrival
Chapter II - Skewered Banshee Wings
Chapter III - Manic Kingdom
Chapter IV - Better Butter Beer
Chapter V - Self Induced Dehydration and Schnitzel
Chapter VI - The Honeymoon Alliance
Chapter VII - The End
Orlando Group Honeymoon - The Movie


Chapter I - The Arrival

Eleven years ago, Megan and I met while working at Hollywood Video. We spent many years together sharing laughs, gaining valuable life experiences, traveling the country, making amazing friends, eating food, drinking copious amounts of alcohol, and, of course, visiting theme parks. And on October, Friday the 13th of 2017, we enacted a brilliant scheme of getting some of our best friends to spend a week at Walt Disney World with us by getting married.

Our plan went perfectly. Those idiots were suckered in by the lure of being witness to their friends being spiritually joined as one person forever and couldn’t refuse this once in a lifetime excuse to travel to Central Florida for nearly half a month.


Over the course of a year, from engagement to wedding to the big day, planned an unforgettable Group Honeymoon that folks are talking about to this day.

There were eleven of us. Five couples and one lonely, but enthusiastic, man. Most of us originally come from the Midwest, but now many of us, myself included, live across the country in a small town off the Pacific called Los Angeles. There is a prerequisite. Our large group has taken several day trips to Disneyland with great success. But there are those who have never experience the East Beast known as Orlando. The plan was for 10 days in The World.



On January 20th 2018, the plan unfolded.

Meg and I flew out first. It’s our honeymoon, afterall. We were sure to plan a few days for us to be by ourselves, without the crew. But mostly, we wanted to get a lay of the land and prepare the hotel for everyone’s arrival. We also had a hot date planned.

The flight was fine, by the best I could remember. We both were dying to get to the resort. Everything was finally coming together.

What a swanky joint! Would ya look at all that swank.


For the next week and a half, we called Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House our home.


There…

Do you see it?

This happy little guy served as a room signifier and wonderful greeter to our room. He seems to smirk and say, “It’s going to get wild”.

The suite was… well… sweet.

We had a pool table!

We had our own balconies, all three of these!


And it looked down at animals!

King sized bed for us Honeymooners.

Huge bathroom.

And had a kick*** bathtub with jets and Mufasa can watch you while you’re naked!

We didn’t have much time to stick around. We had a bus to catch.

 

[krisri18]

Love the pic of you all in front of the castle with Mickey Balloons!

 

[John Dulmage]

Your assessment of the picture placement on Pirates is spot on. I have NEVER seen a good picture of anyone (sorry folks if you thought you had a good one!). So weird!

 

[DisSplash]

“EPCOT? YEPCOT!” . Hilarious!!! I think I have to borrow that - EPCOT is my favorite park at WDW, and so it has always been YEPCOT to me - I just never knew it until now.
I am loving your trip report, especially as it seems you all have politics of traveling in a large group all figured out! Sounds like everyone is having a blast, with no Debbie Downers in sight!
I can’t wait to hear more! Oh, and Happy Anniversary to you! Did you celebrate in DL?

 

[SandiSmiles]

I'm really enjoying your trip report and your pictures are fantastic! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Director_Guy]

Love the pic of you all in front of the castle with Mickey Balloons!

Haha thanks. We had no idea what they were going to add, they only told us to look up surprised. I wouldn't have covered the castle if I knew.

Your assessment of the picture placement on Pirates is spot on. I have NEVER seen a good picture of anyone (sorry folks if you thought you had a good one!). So weird!

Seriously! Glad I'm not the only one.

“EPCOT? YEPCOT!” . Hilarious!!! I think I have to borrow that - EPCOT is my favorite park at WDW, and so it has always been YEPCOT to me - I just never knew it until now.
I am loving your trip report, especially as it seems you all have politics of traveling in a large group all figured out! Sounds like everyone is having a blast, with no Debbie Downers in sight!
I can’t wait to hear more! Oh, and Happy Anniversary to you! Did you celebrate in DL?

I can say with 100% certainty it will never be NOPECOT.

If there were any Debbie Downers or anyone who got tired they were always welcome to enjoy our awesome hotel room. No blame there.
Thanks for the anniversary well-wishes! We didn't go to Disneyland but we did celebrate our 1 year marriage anniversary in Tokyo! And yes, we went to Tokyo Disney.

I'm really enjoying your trip report and your pictures are fantastic! Can't wait to read more!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it. More to come!

 

[DisSplash]

We didn't go to Disneyland but we did celebrate our 1 year marriage anniversary in Tokyo! And yes, we went to Tokyo Disney.

What? WHAT?? I see another Trip Report in your future! At least I am hoping I do ...

 

[Director_Guy]

What? WHAT?? I see another Trip Report in your future! At least I am hoping I do ...

Haha! I've been debating it. It was a great trip and I have a lot of thoughts, but I didn't take nearly as many pictures! Hmm...

 

[darthcarranus]

a few people in our group heard a ping sound coming from their pocket. It was a notification on their phones for a trivia game called HQ. If there’s anything to date this trip in a specific time period it’s us all stopping to play HQ in the middle of Magic Kingdom.

omg 2018 (and '17)- the year of HQ - our crew would stop @ 3 everyday for this -

 

[Rista1313]

So there's a room where all 11 of you fit? Sorry if you mentioned it and I missed it!

Following along!

 

[sheriffwoody]

Really enjoying your report! You guys seem like a fun group

 

[Director_Guy]

omg 2018 (and '17)- the year of HQ - our crew would stop @ 3 everyday for this -

So True! Even at my work, everything would STOP when it was HQ time.

So there's a room where all 11 of you fit? Sorry if you mentioned it and I missed it!

Following along!

Yes! We booked a 3 Bedroom Grand Villa.

This is what one of the other two rooms looked like.

The other room looked exactly the same, but a mirror image.

And we had two people on the pullout sofa bed.

Really enjoying your report! You guys seem like a fun group

Thank you! It is quite a fun group, I love going places with these folks.


Chapter IV coming soon!

 

[Director_Guy]

Chapter IV - Better Butter Beer


Today’s good morning “Jambo” sounded a little less enthusiastic than usual. It wasn’t for a lack of interest, but I could tell the early mornings were starting to get to our crew. I let them know that this would be the last day we needed an early arrival.

The reason I got everyone of bed so early was because we were going to tackle both Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure and we only had this one day to do it. The crowd projections were on our side, but I knew there’d be a lot to cover.

Everyone just needs a nice Butterbeer pick-me-up.

And our first stop was indeed the Wizarding World. We rushed to Escape from Gringotts and made it through with nearly zero wait!

I must say I enjoy this ride, but, like many Universal experiences, the queue is better than the actual ride. I’m know much has been said about their over reliance of screens and projections, so I will spare you my thoughts (as you probably know what they are), but I’d like to add another issue I have with this ride.

It’s clear to me that whoever directed the actors did so very poorly. The acting from Domhnall Gleeson as Bill Weasley and Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix LeStrange are stilted at best. Gleeson gives a completely flat and un-whimsical performance, seemingly because it was, like, their second take and it’s shot in a way he may not be comfortable with. Carter has the most glaring issue, to me. There’s a point where it seems like she forgets her line or at least misses her cue.

Am I crazy? Check out a video of the ride:



It all seems awkward and unrehearsed. Maybe they only had the actors for a very limited time.




After a deposit at the wizard bank, some of us were feeling a bit peckish and decided to drop in for some brekky at The Three Broomsticks.

Megan tried the hot butterbeer for the first time.

We now both agree that this is the preferred form of butterbeer. Liquid form, that is; the ice cream is superior. It’s so damn sweet, I love it. Speaking of, does anyone know if they changed the butterbeer recipe since around 2011? I remembered it being a lot sweeter! It’s still cloyingly sugary, but not enough for my big ol’ sweet tooth.

We enjoyed our nosh and continued exploring the land.

I love the detail here. We haven’t had any chance to check out what I affectionately call WestPot, at Universal Studios Hollywood (we usually only go to the park for Halloween Horror Nights, and it has yet to open for that). I was able to visit the original in 2011 and Diagon Alley once before, in 2015, and it’s my favorite theme park land to date. I am a big Harry Potter fan, but I think I’m a bigger theme park fan and the land itself satisfies all of my requirements. So many details to uncover, so many sounds and smells and tastes to take in. It’s really wonderful.

I do have some issues with it, of course. For one, I mentioned earlier, the ride leaves some things to be desired. More built out environments instead of reliance on screens would be great. They have cool animatronics in the queue! Why not the ride?

But, the biggest issue I have is it’s whole premise. You are a muggle visiting the Wizarding World. Excuse me? Disregard the breaking of the source material’s continuity, nobody who reads or watches Harry Potter wants to be a Muggle. It makes less sense too that we are buying wands and other magical things that wouldn’t work for us if we were Muggles. It’s a really messy premise they have set up here. Why not simply just let us be wizards and witches?

There’s also a similarly weird concept where the characters and Team Members of the land will ask if you go to Hogwarts and what house to which you belong, despite myself having an obviously not English accent and being 30.

My house is Gryffindor, by the way, and Slytherin can stuff it!

We offered no time to explore the rest of the park and hopped right aboard the Hogwarts Express.

This ride is great, I have no real issues with it, either. Especially since, apparently, they can fit ten of us in a single compartment!

This picture is clearly mid-Jambo.

We hopped of the train and dove right into Forbidden Journey.

Great ride! Still too much reliance on screens, but a great experience that combines a lot of techniques. Love it.

I really should just go to WestPot. I don’t have to fly 2,000 miles away to ride this, why do I?!

It took me so long to realize that this is the Gryffindor common room! The switchbacks kind of mess with the illusion of it. And all the people.

 

[Director_Guy]

Austin is just impressed that the man in the back can magically drink from his cup without his hands! Wooooooww!

After a very Harry morning, we continued on to Jurassic Park.

With a few exceptions, this ride is quite superior to the Hollywood version! The lush greenery is enough to make me say so. It’s much more immersive than seeing the Frankenstein parking lot behind a brachiosaurus. Points I would give Hollywood over Orlando: The T-Rex head you see before the drop.

That, of course, is irrelevant now due to the Jurassic World conversion.

Megan and Austin insisted on staying dry.

Kong was new for everyone. I must say I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I kind of hate the Hollywood version where Peter Jackson tells you to put on your 3D glasses and then you have to hang onto them for another 40 minutes. This one was enjoyable. Had some great practical effects mixed in. I was very surprised to see the driver on the vehicle was fake.

And this thing was one of the best animatronics I’ve ever seen. It was so believable in its movements and it had a real “goopiness” to it. It could have been on set in a movie, it looked so good. Yes, I know this ride has a giant animatronic Kong, but this one is the one that wowed me.

I’m not sure what Brian and Vanessa were saying here. I can only assume they were asking for change.

Around this time I was getting a little nervous. The crowds had started to pick up. Wait times were getting longer and longer and my party grew hungry. We stopped at the closest place to eat, which was in Jurassic Park. I wanted people to eat something nice in CityWalk, but we were trapped in the back of the park and I didn’t want to interrupt the circuit.

We finished eating and hit up Spiderman and Hulk. While walking past, those who fear no water hopped onto the Popeye rapid ride. Myself and a few others passed on this opportunity.

Natalie, would you like to go with them and have water in your socks all night?

“$@%& that!”

Once we finished the Islands of Adventure loop, a handful of folks, who planned for a second day at Universal, went back to Jambo house to rest.

As for those who remained, we hit the Studios park. Mummy and Men in Black, back to back.

There was a parade going through…

Jen noticed that Squidward was having a bit of a wardrobe malfunction.

The sourpus face really sells how uncomfortable this must have been.

I wouldn’t let anyone leave without going for a bike ride with E.T

Oh man, this is the nostalgic ride of my youth. I never got why Peter Pan has a crazy long line, but if people feel about Pan how I feel about E.T., then I totally get it.

I’m endlessly bummed that we have a crappy version Revenge of the Mummy over this.

The sun began going down and we knew it was time for our last rides.

I suggested Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, but those who weren’t too interested wanted to get one last look at Diagon Alley and spend time in the bank vaults of Gringotts.

DJ, Vanessa, and I hopped in line for HRRR and had an amazing night time ride. It was probably the best ride I’ve had on it, it didn’t even feel rough. When we got off, Dj and Vanessa wanted to ride again, and I feel bad, but I told them we should meet our friends, who were probably already off Gringotts.

But it was minutes until closing…

Could we make it to ride Gringotts one last time? We ran to Diagon Alley. Well, more like we theme park ran, which is running while making your upper body look like its just walking.

We made it with seconds to spare! I threw my camera in a locker and we escaped from Gringotts! After our ride, our friends were waiting, surprised to see us walking out of the exit.

That’s right guys, we got a HRRR ride AND a final Gringotts. Okay, I need to sit down, I’m out of breath.

I limped my way back to the rideshare pickup.. Three days of theme parking during all daylight hours had finally caught up to me.

The next day would have a later start, but definitely more walking…

 

[queenofthehill]

Such a great TR..I'm hooked

 

[Director_Guy]

^Thanks! More coming soon!

 

[Director_Guy]

Chapter V - Self-Induced Dehydration and Schnitzel

There are many benefits to staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The animals, of course, but also the access to stellar food, a magnificent lobby, and large carts of plasticised feces for your close examination while you wait for a bus.

Yes, and only later do you realize these are the same bowls they use in the restaurants.

Meg and I struck out early this day, leaving our exhausted crew behind.

We had FastPass reservations early on for anyone who wanted them, but most decided they’d have a nice sleep in and meet us for lunch. It actually wasn't that early, this time, it was like 11 o’clock.

But Meg and I couldn’t wait, knowing that Walt Disney World was right outside our door.

But it turned out to be a bust! What we thought would be a nice leg up on the day by heading out a bit early turned into us being stuck on Mission: SPACE for far too long.

I’m not really a fan of being trapped in this ride vehicle, so we made the best out of it while annoying our other two riders by pressing every button!

“Meg angry!”

We were finally pulled out of the Mission: SPACE coffin and beelined it straight to Mexico for recovery.

Ahh, that’s the stuff.

We enjoyed our margaritas… and another… and met with our friends who had arrived at the park: DJ, Jackie, Mikey, Natalie, Austin, and Jen. They too got margaritas and thus began our day drinking around the world.

DJ with Tajín in his beard.

DJ realizing that’s why I took the last picture.

Starting so heavily in Mexico, “uh-oh” you say. Well, we had a big lunch planned, so this'll all soak right up, right? Right?

But before lunch, we climbed aboard a boat and toured the Arendelle pavilion.

I was a big fan of Maelstrom and very sad when it went away. The Frozen ride, despite me not liking the movie very much, was great! The effects and environments all looked wonderful. That Olaf animatronic blew me away when I saw him walk over to us. That was nuts. Now I have another reason to be upset at Disney. They keep taking away favorite rides and replacing them with IP related attractions and, dammit, they’re actually good. I miss the days where I could complain about a classic replaced with crap when it goes under new management.

Jackie, seen here getting reprimanded for the unforgivable crime of spilling beer.

Lunch time had arrived.

No, Jen! In the building behind you!

 

[Director_Guy]

Biergarten for lunch!

Here’s the reason DJ insisted on going to Biergarten.

I liked it. The atmosphere was very nice. The gentlemen performing for the crowd killed it. During the show, Mikey and Jackie got up to dance.

The food was just okay, in my book. I did feel very full afterward, but unsatisfied with what I ate. I don’t see myself returning to Biergarten any time soon, despite having a good time. The food is not worth it.

While we were fattening ourselves up, a few other people showed up at the park.

Nick hopped aboard Not-Maelstrom as the only lone adult man on the boat…

And we discovered Brian and Vanessa (not pictured, whoops!) had arrived, too!

They were just in time to continue our tour around World Showcase.


We stopped for a moment in America to try these drool worthy cups of chocolate:

Wow is all I can say. These count for drinking around the world, right?

Things got serious once we hit Japan.

Our bellies were full on schnitzel and we needed to drown it with some alcohol.

And thus began DJ’s Wine Quest.

“Wine Quest!”

“WINE QUEST!!”

Our quest move us on into Morocco.

Oh my god, look out to the right!


Morocco is a beautiful pavilion. I love walking around through it and seeing all the shops. There is texture everywhere you look. This pavilion is worth walking all the way around World Showcase for. That’s not to say the booze along the way isn’t worth it!

Ah, booze. Right! So far I barely feel a tingle. Let’s stop in and grab something…

There we go. And now to continue calmly around the lake.

Wait, what’s… happen… hap… happening happening…. happening… Do you hear that music?

OH hey there’s DJ! DJ is here! hiccup Excusme.

My friends are all here. We are going around Disney World with all my friends because they are here and DJ is here and we have to get him more wine!

 

[Director_Guy]

Is it just me or are things a little blurry right now?

This drink is tasty.

Oh, how long have I been talking to my buddy Brian?

Brian is a very good friend of mine from all the way back in middle school. He would never meet me at Six Flags Great America growing up, but we went to Disneyland and I gave him a Dolewhip and now he’s my friend at Disney World, too.

Oh no! What did I say to Brian to make him make this face? He must be an Citrus Swirl guy now.

These drinks are goooooooood. How many have I had? We're in France now? When did...?

Oh! We’re moving... we’re moving out!

Oh not them, they stopped… why?

Let’s listen in…

“NO. MORE. HQ!”

I sure am enjoying Epcot.

Oof I’m dizzy…. Where am I?

Okay, I think we’re almost there. Just keep looking down, maybe you won't thro-

Nope. That's not working, okay look up, look up.

Hey, my buddy Brian is here!

Brian is a very good friend of mine from all the way back in middle school. He would never meet me at Disneyland because it was too far from Chicago.

Oh no… how long have we been drinking?

“I can see my own soul”

RRRrrrrriiiiiiiing…….

Ahoy?

“WINE. QUEST.”

Oh boy, folks. I think we all need to go home and lie down. Let’s get us there the fastest way possible.

As far as I can tell, the Test Track cars did, in fact, drive us back to Jambo House...

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Such a fun report! Looks like a fun crew to hang out with too.

 

[Director_Guy]

Such a fun report! Looks like a fun crew to hang out with too.

Thank you for reading! They are quite the crew. I'm so happy we actually pulled it off, one giant trip to Orlando. I wonder if we could do it again...