Ok, so i finally got unlazy (thats not true, im actually procrastinating about master’s classes homework), and uploaded honeymoon pics.
whoo!
while at some point soon i will have a graphics heavy page with pics and descriptions only, for now we have a test description of honeymoon with links to pics. hopefully, whatever the hell i just said made sense.
text and stuff is behind the cut.
Day 1 – Disney/MGM Studios
we were just getting to the resort (Pop Century, for those who might care), and decided to use the lovely disney dollars natalie and dave gave us to upgrade our tickets to parkhoppers. whee!
so, because it is a sunday, and therefore still Stars Wars Weekends at MGM, brandus and i, who are, in fact, really huge star wars geeks, head out to mgm. and could that sentence get longer with more commas? no? moving on..
so we bounce irritatingly over to the park, where we meet Chewie and some Ewoks, who must have been dying in the heat; a couple of clone troopers (with random man in the picture. hi random man!), and some tuskan raiders.
we also met Aurra Sing, who was so fucking cool. she was really getting into character, and i got some really cool shots of her on my b/w camera, which hasnt come back from developing yet. i will scan and post when they get here. we also went on Star Tours, which, while extrmely cheesy, was a lot of fun. i got some cool pics of the kiddie Jedi Academy too. its just so cute. all these tiny little bits wearing jedi robes, lightsaber fighting against Vader! eek! i wanted to play too, but they said none of the robes would fit me. *sigh*. we also saw some random jedi walking around, as well as Vader, Palpatine, and his imperial guards. i tried to get pictures, but people kept getting in my way. Star Tours had replica lightsabers for sale for something like $300, which we couldnt have afforded even if we wanted to, but they were nice enough to lend me one long enough to pretend that i was a jedi.
we talked about going to one of the star wars talks that day, but decided against it, because neither of us really wanted to hear those characters talk about stuff. we should’ve gone, because we found out later that Kermit and Miss Piggy had shown up unexpectedly!
after we annoyed everyone, including Pricess Leia and the Cantena Band, we headed over to other parts of the park. we grabbed fastpasses for Tower of Terror and wandered around a while. We saw the Muppets 3D show, which was fun, because Sweetums is in it. He’s my favorite muppet! Im sure we did other rides and things around MGM, but to be honest, nothing is coming to mind…
so we started to head for the Tower of Terror (which i was pretty damn nervous about. gah.), but we had to stop because we finally found our hats! thats the tower in the background, by the way.
we did, in fact, wear the hats pretty much the whole time there, which got us lots of attention and some free desserts as well.
Day 2 – Magic Kingdom
we had soo much fun in the Kingdom! we rode most of the traditional rides, Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, the Jungle Cruise…i love the kiddie rides, so we did Peter Pan’s Flight and Snow White’s Scary Adventure. Brandus loves the shooting galleries, so we went through Frontier Land and shot things, and then headed over to Tomorrowland so we could shoot more things in Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. Which is just as silly and fun as it sounds.
We also went over to the Toontown Fair, went through Minnie’s house, and got our picture taken with Mickey. He was very impressed with our rings too! we also met Cinderella, who sent balloons to our room with a note and a picture of her and Prince Charming to congratulate us on the wedding.
Mickey and Minnie also called our room, by the way, and sang to us. they did!
One of Brandus’s favorite characters is Baloo, so we had to get a picture with him and Uncle Louie. we also ran into Gepetto on Main Street USA.
Look! Its the castle!
we saw a lot of other newleywed’s wandering around..and you could tell, because they were all wearing the same silly hats we were! one couple was nice enough to get a picture of us with the Sword in the Stone.
we ran out of time and patience, so we didnt ride Dumbo, which i really wanted to. so we went and rode Aladdin’s Flying Carpets instead, and got spit on by one of the giant camels.
we also went and saw Philharmagic, which is really incredible. Its a 3D show, but they incorporate wind and smells and bubbles and water. you do, get wet. its amazing. brandus liked the part where Donald is in the “Be Our Guest” scene, because the whole places smells like apple pie. i liked the “Part of Your World” and “Whole New World” the best. In “Whole New World,” youre riding on the carpet with Donald, and the wind is in your face and your swooping everywhere. i think its the best show they have.
we then went back to the room, napped hard for about 3 hours, then went to Downtown Disney, where we looked very cute having dinner, and we got the best cake ever for free, and then brandus dragged me into the lego store.
he was very excited about the lego boba fett, so i had to get a picture.
Day 3 – Epcot
For some random reason, i took absolutely no pictures in Epcot. for my defense, we only were there about 3 hours total, and we didnt even make it over to the World Fair, so there were no characters where we were.
we rode Mission:Space, even though im not big on the lose your lunch rides. we fast passed it, and ohmygoditwassocool. its not a roller coaster at all, it is a simulation of take off and a trip through an asteroid field and a landing on Mars. there are so so many warning announcements before you even get to your pod. Standing in line, they repeated over and over not to ride if you had trouble with enclosed spaces or get motion sick easily. and then while standing in “training”, they repeated it 3 more times!
the worst part, stomach wise, is the take off. deep deep breaths, and its not a huge deal. the simulation is gorgeous, and everyone in the pod has a “job” to do at a certain time, like the navigator turns on the thrusters and the engineer puts everyone into coldsleep.
we rode it twice and i love it.
we played around in the Advanced Training Lab afterward, which has some fun space games.
we headed over to “The Living Seas”, where i DID get some pics with my b/w camera of a giant Nemo and Dory. we did Spaceship Earth at some point, because i couldnt remember what it was like. it was pretty cool, but they stopped the ride twice for some reason.
i wasnt feeling too good by that point, so we went back to the room and slept some more. then we went swimming in the bowling pin shaped pool. hee!
Day 4 – Keys to the Kingdom
I have no pictures from this, as we werent allowed to take any, but it is a behind the scenes tour of the Magic Kingdom. it took most of the day, and was incredibly cool.
the guide showed us some of the windows on Main Street (including Walt’s), we got to go underneath the park into the tunnels, we got to see some of the characters out of costume! at one point, i passed a girl who was dragging a Daisy Duck costume in a plastic bag, with the head sticking out. it was a little traumatic. our tour guide had been Mickey for a while, as well as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and sometimes a chipmunk. we got to see pictures, and she talked about how people were chosen for characters (its based on height first, then acting/singing ability).
i cant tell you too much more..partially because i dont remember, but we did get to learn a lot of really random things about different rides, like the fact that the top of the Haunted Mansion has a full set of chess pieces on it, and where to look for Hidden Mickeys.
we also ran in both the Genie and Jafar before heading out. Aladdin and Jasmine were there too, but they left before I could get to them.
we went and took a nap, then headed back to Epcot for dinner. after looking through the World’s Fair resturants forever to find somewhere that had anything decent for vegitarians, we ended up (with a very grumpy Brandus), at Japan’s Steak House.
Brandus cheered up once he found out it had sushi. i tried an avacado sushi, and it was pretty good.
we also got to talking to the couple sitting next to us at the table. we were telling them it was our honeymoon, and how excited we were to be able to come during star wars weekends, and how cool it was to see all the characters…
and then, natuarally, the woman kind of grins, and tells us her husband is Mike Quinn. who is also known as Nien Nunb in Return of the Jedi.
no shit, we had dinner with a Star Wars cast member. poor brandus was so confused, at first he thought that Mike was playing Nien, at the park, like Aurra Sing and Chewie were. No, baby, he was IN THE MOVIE.
he was amazingly nice, and signed an autograph for us on a napkin, and we also got a picture with him. i didnt find out until later that Mike was also involved with Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal, two of my other favorite movies. we walked out of the resturant and *freaked out* in excitement. hey, i told you we are geeks.
E Ride Night was going on over at the Magic Kingdom, so we headed BACK over there to ride the rides a few more times.
we also got to see Minnie and Pluto too. although Pluto knocked my hat off twice.
we rode some more rides, with no waits at all! it was fabulous!
E Rides is only available to people staying on property, and it goes on hours after the park is supposed to be closed, so you dont have 8000 tiny kids running around, and the damn strollers arent running you over.
it was a great trip. im hoping we get a chance to do it again in a few years.