Marriage: Week One

     The Honeymoon

     Week one of marriage was blissful.  Blissfully humid.  It was both of our first time's to Florida.  Getting off the plane in Orlando, the airport, air conditioned, had to have been about 85 - 90% humidity.  We got off our plane at about 10:30pm and after getting our baggage and making our way to the Disney Magical Express, we arrived at our resort at 12:00am.  We hadn't thought to eat all day so when we got to the Port Orleans: French Quarter resort, cast member Mariah gave us the number to Dominos as well as buttons stating that we were her favorite guests of the day.  We finally got our pizza at 1:00am and we were asleep by 2:30am.

I was like a five-year-old child on this trip.  After a fifteen hour day of travel the previous day, I was up and ready to go to the Magic Kingdom by 9 in the morning.  Jacob dragged a little bit more.  After some breakfast, we headed to the Magic Kingdom along with what I can only assume is half the population of the United States.  We run into a parade right in the gates of the Magic Kingdom and we slowly make our way to Tomorrowland to Space Mountain.  The first day, we didn't utilize the Fast Passes and waited in line for two hours.  Nope, never again.  I am an impatient person and if it hadn't been my honeymoon, I am fairly certain some children would have been kicked.  We ride Space Mountain and it wasn't worth the two hour wait but it was still okay.  After that we were both pretty beat and decided to go back to the hotel to rest before our dinner reservation at Whispering Canyon Restaurant in the Wilderness Lodge resort.  Whispering Canyon was so fun.  The waitresses and waiters play these rude and annoyed people.  I knew to expect it, so I thought it was fun, but I think if someone were to come in there not expecting it, they could be taken aback at first.  Food was excellent and there was alot of it.  After dinner, Jacob suggested that we go to Downtown Disney to see a movie.  We headed to Downtown Disney where the other half of the  population of the United States was and headed to the AMC 24 theaters to see Now You See Me.  During the movie, I drank a much needed Angry Orchard and settled into the plush seats with my husband.  The movie was phenomenal.  One of the best movies I have seen in quite a while.  See it.  Right now.  After the movie, we went to the hotel and fell into much needed sleep.

On Tuesday, I made the mistake of scheduling a breakfast reservation at 7:55am.  Okay, I didn't think about the fact that it was my honeymoon, I only took into consideration that I wanted to meet my favorite character of all time, Minnie Mouse.  So at 6:30am I get my begrudging husband out of bed and we head to breakfast.  Breakfast was okay and I did get to meet Minnie (which was awesome) as well as Donald Duck and Goofy.  After breakfast, we headed back to the hotel and rested the rest of the day and cancelled our dinner reservation because we were taking a much needed day and evening of relaxation.  I don't recall doing anything else that day other than sleeping.  Reasonable though!  It was a vacation!

On Wednesday, we finally got to sleep in and didn't get out of the hotel room until about lunch time.  We decided we wanted to check out Disney Hollywood Studios for lunch.  We had lunch in this fifties diner complete with waitresses that called you, "Sweetie," and reminded you to keep your elbows off the table.  I had old fashioned meatloaf and a boston cream parfait for dessert, both were absolutely divine.  Jacob had the fried chicken and had a strawberry sundae for dessert.  We wandered around Hollywood Studios and I got Jacob to ride the Hollywood Tower of Terror, (he wasn't a big fan of the idea of free falling in an elevator.)  We utilized the Fast Pass on this ride and got into the ride within fifteen minutes of entering the line.  After the Tower of Terror, we went to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt show and we both were chosen to be extras on stage.  The show was packed (about 1000 people) and nine extras were picked, so it was pretty cool that both Jacob and I got to experience that.  I met the man playing Indiana and although he wasn't Harrison Ford, it was still really cool.  We also went on the Star Tours ride which was a 3D virtual ride through Tatooine and the Death Star.  On that ride, come to find out that I was a rebel spy for the republic and Darth Vadar was after me...so that was exciting too!  We also utilized the Fast Pass on this ride and got in within ten minutes.  Then we headed to Epcot for the first time because our dinner reservations were there.  I have to say:  I was not very impressed with Epcot.  I think that it would have been a little better if we weren't walking around in the rain, but there isn't much to do if you aren't planning no shopping.  I definitely wouldn't recommend it to families because there isn't much to keep the kids entertained.  We went to Tokyo Dining for sushi, which was a really cool experience because a Japanese woman was serving us and I got to experience the kindness and humility of the culture. 

Thursday came with rain.  It was a relief from the humidity...but not fun to walk around in.  We didn't get out of the hotel before lunch time again, we finally got the hang of the sleeping in thing.  After lunch, we lounged around for a little while and then headed to Animal Kingdom for our dinner reservations at Rainforest Cafe.  It was a very fun experience with delicious food.  I ate a steak with chocolate death cake for dessert and Jacob had steak and coconut shrimp with cheesecake for dessert.  After dinner, we went out to explore the Animal Kingdom only to find that they closed at 8:00pm.  So we headed to the Magic Kingdom that night hoping the crowds may have thinned a bit.  We arrived once the Electrical Parade began so many of the people were centered on the center of the park, so we headed to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Carribean.  Pirates is always a fun ride.  It isn't necessarily the most amazing, but it's cool to see the ride that inspired the movies.  After Pirates, we went to Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain.  Splash Mountain was a blast.  Both Jacob and I really enjoyed it.  Thunder Mountain was a lot of fun too, but we got stopped twice the first time we rode it which took away from the experience.  As we were leaving Magic Kingdom, we saw the "Celebration" show on the castle which was aboslutely amazing.  They had projectors set up all around the park pointing at Cinderella's Castle and they had a show projected onto the castle.  If I get a chance, I will post it because it was phenomenal to watch.

Our last day in Disney, we decided to lounge around until that evening, just spending time as husband and wife.  Once we got out, we headed to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Tony's Town Square Restaurant, the restaurant made famous by Lady and the Tramp.  I had a spare rib over orzo pasta and Jacob had the strip steak.  Jacob ate key lime cheesecake for dessert and I had the pistachio creme brulee which was to die for.  After dinner, we went and met Mickey Mouse and then headed back to Frontierland and grabbed a Fast Pass for Thunder Mountain and braved the line for Splash Mountain again.  We only waited about 45 minutes for Splash Mountain and had lots of fun on it again.  Then we went and waited for our fast pass time for Thunder Mountain.  Once our fast passes hit, we were on Thunder Mountain within twenty minutes.  It was much better the second time because we didn't get stopped that time.  After Thunder Mountain, we headed back to the hotel and got to see the "Celebrations" show again.  Once we got passed all of the people, we decided we wanted to go to Downtown Disney to get last minute gifts.  We got back to our hotel at about 11:00pm only to find that Jacob had accidentally left his phone on the bus.  After calling it a few times and sending texts, Jacob filled out a lost and found voucher and we went to bed at about 1:00am only to have to wake up at 3:45am to get ready to go to the airport.

As we were checking out of our hotel, the cast member that was helping us handed Jacob his phone saying they had just brought it by.  We had safe flights both to Chicago and to Wichita and were home by 2:00pm on Saturday.

The honeymoon was great.  All in all, I think that I prefer Disneyland in Aneheim, CA to Disney World because the weather is much more agreeable and I am a huge fan of the Universal Studios in CA.  The best part of the trip, planning wise, was the Disney Dining Plan.  With the DDP, both Jacob and I got one quick service meal, one table service meal, and one snack per day.  With the meals, we got a non-alcoholic drink, an entree, and a dessert.  I think this was so great because had we saved money to go out to eat, we still would not have been able to eat the way we did at the prices they have.  At the Rainforest Cafe, I was able to order a $35.00 steak dinner as well as a $10 dessert and Jacob was able to get $30.00 steak and shrimp with his $10 dessert as well.  It is an awesome deal and I recommend it to anybody who is planning a trip to Disneyland or Disney World.

Sorry this is super detailed, I just wanted to recount the amazing time that I had with my new husband.

-Mrs. Atchley