Monday, July 29, 2013

Destination Disney: Our happily ever after


Once upon a time, this happened...

I now pronounce you...
And with that, we were wed! Need more proof? Look no further than this!

Yay! Mr. & Mrs. Burnell!
Thirty six hour later we went off as man and wife to celebrate our commitment to each other. And where better to celebrate than the most magical place on Earth, Walt Disney World! Eileen and I (but mostly Eileen) had spent months planning every detail of the trip. Seriously, you should see the itinerary. Like minute-by-minute detail from beginning to end! But that's what we were looking for in a honeymoon - on the go from start to finish having a blast!

Bags packed and ready to go!
We knew the trip would be special, but we expected the memories to start when we landed in Florida. Little did we know that Terminal E at Logan Airport would set the stage for the rest of the trip! While I roamed the terminal for breakfast, Eileen - determined to let everyone she could know that we were on our honeymoon - chatted with the ladies at our Air Tran gate. When I returned, these were waiting for me...

First Class upgrades! Thanks, AirTran!
Now we were in business! We boarded early, found our comfy and spacious seats at the front of the aircraft, and prepared for the trip of our lives. Things only got better when I found out that in first class, you get to have drinks and snacks whenever you want! Like on-demand food service. And they serve them in fancy little baskets, not crappy pretzels! Sure, it was only 7am, but how could I pass up on unlimited Milano cookies!? 

This, we could get use to! (seriously, I ate SOOO many cookies SOOO early in the morning!)
With moments to go before we jetted away to Disney, the gate attendant took the microphone from the flight attendant for an announcement. My first thought, "here we go...we're overbooked and not moving until somebody gets bumped from the plane." Prepared for the worst, imagine my surprise when I saw both the flight crew and the ground crew approaching our row. They stopped at our side and proceeded to announce that Eileen and I had just gotten married and were off to Disney for our honeymoon. As the rest of the flight cheered and congratulated us, the flight attendant had one more surprise.

"Umm... do you have any sparking cider we could trade this for?"
It was an amazing start to the trip. Now, we won't actually drink the champagne and considered asking for some Welch's sparking graph juice instead, but it was seriously a tremendous gesture! AirTran has two customers for life after the service they provided throughout our trip. They really did make us feel special as newlyweds and we couldn't stop thanking the flight attendants for getting our honeymoon off to such a terrific start.

Four hours later we had arrived in Orlando, boarded the Disney's Magical Express bus, and arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort. Again, Eileen worked her "we're on our honeymoon" magic and got us checked into the room of our choice. And she got us in five hours early! 

Our home away from home for a week! Room 1323 in Barbados.
The Barbados beach outside of our building
The first day of Mickey towel art!
By noontime, we were settled in our room and ready for a full day at the Magic Kingdom. I kid you not when I say Eileen had scheduled us to stay at the MK until 2am the next morning. Given that we'd risen at 3:30 in the morning to catch the flight, I thought she was kidding... 

She wasn't...

Getting the fun started at the Magic Kingdom!
We hit every ride, attraction, and sight-seeing spot imaginable. And then revisited them. This was not going to be one of those put your feet up and relax honeymoons!

The bride and her castle.
One of my favorite memories from the day actually came before we set foot on a ride. As we entered the line for the Pirates of the Caribbean, an attendant handed us a special red card on a lanyard. Eileen, hyped up on all the honeymoon perks we'd already received that morning, was thrilled. She took the card with glee and started looking for our special entrance where we, the newlyweds, could cut the line to celebrate our wedding in style. As is often the case, I had to bring her back to reality a bit by reading the card we'd so graciously been handed...

That's right, we get to wait just like everyone else! And they're going to time us!!
After a few hours of excitement Eileen and I headed to our first dinner (scheduled, naturally, for 5pm because we're like 73 years old...). To Eileen's credit, she booked each of our meals 180 days in advance - the earliest possible date that reservations could be made. Without that, we would have missed out on some incredible dining experiences. This first meal certainly fit that description.

Be Our Guest, a new restaurant in the revamped Fantasyland, was absolutely stunning. The views from the outside were perfect and the sculptures allowed us to have a bit of fun while we waited for our table...

Married for 2 days and she's still smiling! We're off to a good start!


I'm smiling on the inside, I promise. I was just taking my cues from the gargoyle!
Inside, the scene was even more perfect than outside. Disney does a great job with its dining experiences, but this was like nothing else I'd ever seen. I actually felt like I was in Beast's castle. The food was also fantastic. And I'm not easily impressed by food. But this place got everything right. The drinks, the main course, the dessert, the napkins formed as roses - everything was perfect. It truly was amazing and anyone headed to WDW needs to make a reservation at Be Our Guest.

In the main dining room
Bellies full and feet semi-rested, we continued on through the rest of the evening. Remember, Eileen had us staying until the park closed at 2am. By 9:30pm, on our fourth of fifth cycle through the park, I was losing steam fast. But we settled on one more ride - Space Mountain. The sign outside claimed the wait was only 45 minutes. That, I could do...

Two hours later we boarded the ride...

We didn't make it until 2am, but we did make it to midnight. Needless to say, but my run scheduled for the next morning was cancelled during the bus ride back to the hotel. After all, we had to be on a safari at the Animal Kingdom by 8am the next morning!

8am and here we are at the Animal Kingdom!
My favorite thing to do at Disney is the Kilimanjaro Safari. Short of going on an actual African safari, this is the closest you're ever going to get to some amazing wildlife in a "natural" environment. Obviously the animals are not roaming completely free, but they are able to wander and you never see any of the containment barriers. It's nice to see these animals outside of the cages they're normally in at zoos.

A view of the safari landscape
The lion! The first time I've seen him on any of these trips!
The white rhino wandered across the path and forced the tour to stop for a few minutes
Following a trip through the African savannah, Eileen and I made a quick trip over to the Central African rain forest to visit with the gorillas. Here, you stroll through the habitat at your own pace while attempting to spot silverbacks. Fortunately, we saw many - including the coolest gorilla on Earth...

This dude carried towels everywhere he went!
And, at the end of the walk, we were treated to this - not Disney's feature attraction, but fun to watch!

Who doesn't love a meerkat!?
With our morning trek through Africa complete, we set off for an entirely different world - Disney's Hollywood Studios. 

A slightly different setting than our morning trip to Animal Kingdom
Home to adventures like the Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, and Star Tours, Hollywood Studios also features a hidden gem. The Magic of Disney Animation's Animation Station is a 25 minute class where an actual animator teaches you how to draw a Disney character. This interactive experience allows even the world's worst artists to be fairly successful in creating decent works of art. I should know as I'm probably the least artistic person to ever walk through the doors of that studio.

No joke, I was stuck on a couch in the corner with a lap board.
They saw me coming and decided an actual animation station couldn't help me!
During our last trip to Disney we discovered this attraction and visited it four times (consecutively...). Not be be outdone, we went back four more times this year (or maybe it was five, I forget). Even for someone like me that has no idea what they are doing, it's a good time. It's air conditioned, you don't have to stand in line, and you get to leave with a pretty cool drawing. And, again, it's air conditioned!

I eventually earned myself a spot at an actual table!
I was even able to create this:

Not bad for somebody with NO talent!
Eileen, who actually has some ability to draw made all four of these during our trip:

Yeah, I'm not even going to share my people drawings. Those didn't go well.
Eileen, though, seemed to know what she was doing.
In 2008, our post-college graduation WDW trip, Eileen and I ate at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. At this eatery, you sit in booth styled as a car from the 50's and face an enormous movie screen playing old films. The cafe is modeled after a drive-in movie theater and offers a very unique experience. Because of this it was one of the only restaurants we decided to re-visit from our first trip a few years back. 

Married 3 days and still going strong!
The meal was pretty good, but this is what was really worth the trip...

Best. Milkshakes. Ever.
Before I go on, here's a tip for anyone headed to Disney: Get the Disney Dining Plan. Seriously, it's the most worthwhile money we spent during either of our two trips to WDW. I'm not sure how much money we saved, if any, but not having to pull out a credit card for food once during the trip made things much more simple and far less stressful. With the regular plan each person get one sit down meal (drink, main course, desert), one quick service meal (pizza, burger, salad...) that includes a drink and desert, and a snack (pretzel, drinks, ice cream, etc.) for each night you stay at the resort. It's a perfect system. A number of our meals totaled well over $100, but we just handed them our room key and they deduct a meal from your account. It allows you to eat well without worrying about the money. Everything is pre-paid for and it's a no-hassle system.

Okay, back to the fun.

Even Eileen, determined to make the most of every second of the trip, was getting tired after dinner. We agreed that two more rides would finish our day. Granted, that meant about 4 more hours of magic and arriving back at the room by about 10:30...

First up was Rock 'n' Rollercoaster. This Aerosmith-inspired ride feathers an acceleration of 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds. But first, you need to navigate the line. Normally not an issue as we became quite good at keeping ourselves entertained in line, but this was different. Apparently, the ride broke down when we were about 5 minutes from loading. Damn! No big deal, except nobody was notified! So an hour later we hadn't moved and had no idea why. Eventually gravity won the battle and we ended up camped out on the floor until it was announced that the ride was re-opened. 

"Great! Wait, was it closed?"

Zero to sixty in two seconds with some great music blaring! 
The line wasn't an issue for us at the Tower of Terror. We'd used a FastPass earlier in the day, allowing us to skip right to the front of the line. Sweet! Because even though I'm a well-conditioned athlete, my legs were minutes from giving out!

Almost no ride makes me nervous - even the most extreme thrill rides -
but this gets me every time!
When my alarm when off at 6am the next morning, I was positive I wasn't going to make it through another day. But I laced up my running shoes and headed out the door for 6 miles around the hotel grounds anyway. That hurt. Eventually I warmed up and was able to get a few decent miles in at 6:30/mi, but the first five minutes were brutal! My legs and feet were far more sore here than after any race I've ever done. Oh well, you only get to honeymoon once!

We spent all of day 3 at Epcot touring the World Showcase, Soarin' over California, and taking a trip to Mars (the tame version, because as we found out in 2008, Eileen is, in her own words, "lame").

YES! We found someone to take our picture together!
Let's take a step back and talk more about the lameness Eileen has now come to accept... (I've asked for permission to share this, so no need to come to her defense!)

When Eileen and I were in our pre-dating stage in the final few weeks of high school, she'd go on any thrill ride out there! She was shy, quiet, and certainly didn't give off the impression of being much of a thrill-seeker, so I was impressed by her ability to handle herself on every attraction theme parks could throw at her. We've been to Six Flags multiple times and she's hit every ride they threw at her. Even on our first trip to Disney in 2008, she was pretty tough. But now.... wow... She struggled on EVERYTHING! Like she looked at me during (the pretty mild) Star Tours ride with the "Please help, I'm not going to make it to the end without throwing up" look. On Expedition Everest - which we road three or four times - I kept saying, "Did you see that!?" and got back, "No, my eyes are closed!" every single time. She claims she's just getting older, but I think she's always been afraid of rides and she was just trying to impress me in the early days. Now that we're married, her true colors are starting to show! 

Photographic evidence of just how well she now handles rides.
And this was how she looked the entire way, not just for the picture.
We roamed Epcot for many hours and walked like 10 miles in the process. By the end of our 11 hour day at Epcot, this was the scene:

Me - absolutely exhausted! Struggling to keep my eyes open.
Over the course of the next few days, we criss crossed our way through the parks for a second and third time. Every morning I got up and ran - struggling to drag myself out of bed and get my legs moving after spending so many hours on my feet throughout the week. By mid-week we'd figured out that breakfast was mandatory. We'd been hoarding many of the quick service meals on our meal plan in order to make sure we didn't run out, but eventually we had so many that this became a morning fixture...

poolside breakfasts!
The waffle breakfast was fantastic. Nothing complicated or fancy, but it certainly got each day off to a good start. I mean, you get up and run in the heat and humidity of Florida, the least you can do is throw down a few pieces of bacon and a waffle in Mickey's likeness before heading out for 14 hours of Disney fun!

On Thursday, though, we took breakfast - by far my favorite meal - to a whole new level! Not only did we get to dine with Disney characters at Chef Mickey's, but it was also a buffet! I ate SO MUCH FOOD! In my first trip through the line I took the following: 3 waffles, 3 pancakes, 7 pieces of bacon, scrambled eggs, and 2 hash browns. I then went back for 3 more waffles and another serving of eggs... Throw in a few glasses of chocolate milk and the special cupcakes they brought us because we were on our honeymoon and you have quite a breakfast!

We got a special desert for free at every meal!
In between bites, we were visited by Mickey and all his friends! It was a great time and we had a ton of fun. I went in expecting to enjoy the food and experience, but I left even more pleased than I could have anticipated. I have to say again, Eileen did an outstanding jobs picking our reservations (which, by the way, isn't easy given how few foods I like!). 

Minnie & Eileen giving kisses on the cheek! 
Goofy!
If you see this pair walking down the street, you get out of the way!
After filling up on breakfast, it was time for a little friendly competition back at the Magic Kingdom. So off we went on the Monorail (where Eileen repeated the doors opening saying like 893 times. And then bought a shirt with the quote...). We made our way through the crowds to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, a game that requires you to shoot laser guns at all kinds of targets. The reason I share this little bit of the trip is that I feel the picture sums up the honeymoon (and our relationship) perfectly...

No smiles here. This was all business.
When competition was involved, all romantic notions of what a honeymoon ought to be flew out the window. We were both in this thing to win. I mean, look at the determination and focus on those faces! The bad news, for me, at least, is that I lost something like 47,000 to 6,000. Ouch. It was so bad that a few days later we went back to make sure I hadn't just gotten a bad laser the first time. Nope. I lost by just as much the second time around. Which is REALLY bad, because Eileen can't see anything without her glasses on.

Licking my wounds, I followed Eileen off to a few stores where I tried to lift myself up off the ground after the pummeling.

Bride & Groom ears! Which we didn't buy, but had to try on!
While checking out later, the cashiers started asking us if anything cool had happened to us while we were on our honeymoon. We told them about the plane ride and said that everyone (like 1000s of people) had congratulated us. They didn't seem to think that was enough, though. So...one of them walked to the middle of the Emporium - a super huge store - and screamed at the top of her lungs for everyone to freeze. They did. She proceeded to announce us as newlyweds and made everyone cheer for us. It was awesome (and slightly embarrassing). While thousands of newly married couples walk around Disney every day, not many get that kind of recognition! Our faces glowing red, we thanked them many times and left smiling!

A day later, we found ourselves at Downtown Disney. It was an unscheduled stop but we decided going off-script might result in some fun finds. We were right! Not only did we get amazing milkshakes  and visit a candy store, but we also met an animator who was able to do a special drawing for us! For days Eileen had been on the lookout for some unique Disney art for our house. Never did we expect to find something so unique, though. After speaking to him about all of our options, we left and allowed him to get to work on a Mickey and Minnie wedding scene that would celebrate our wedding. As you'll  now see when you enter our house, we couldn't be more happy with the result!

A custom drawing to commemorate our wedding!
In the mood for customization, we headed to a Christmas ornament shop where we picked out a custom painted wedding ornament. That, however, is in the attic and as much as I'd like for you to see it, I don't feel like braving the 150 degree temperatures up there for a picture!

The next day we had our final character dinner of the trip. This time we visited the Crystal Palace to eat with Pooh and his buddies. This, like Chef Mickey's, was a buffet and I was in luck because there was no age limit on the kid's section! I got all the mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, and dinner rolls I could eat. Plus unlimited desert...

Round 1. There was a LOT more mac and cheese consumed.
Hopefully no little kids wanted any, because I sort of emptied the tray. 
While there, Pooh and friends came around to take pictures at each table. I'm not sure what it is about me and Disney characters, but they all wanted to take serious arms-crossed "don't mess with me" photos. Maybe men that eat mac and cheese and chicken nuggets are intimidating...

Maybe I was initiated into some sort of secret Disney gang...
Pooh seemed pleased that we'd gotten married
While making my third trip to the dessert bar, I managed to stumble into the Tigger-led conga line for kids. And I'm talking little kids like 4 and under. Oops. After getting a few strange looks from some of the spectating moms, I realized I was right in the middle of the party and decided I should probably make a quick getaway before I drew any more attention.

Me, Tigger and the three year olds making our way around the restaurant!
As a bonus photo, here we are in Epcot with Tigger and Pooh! Amazing how we ran into them at two separate places!

Seriously, what are the odds we see them twice! ;)
I wish I could go on, telling you about every moment from our vacation, but that would take days. As I sort through the pictures we (read: Eileen) took, I'm reminded of all the fun we had. But, like our honeymoon, this report has to end at some point. I hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip and welcome any questions or comments.

While we were certainly sad to leave, we were also excited to return home. Nala had spent the week with my parents and we missed her badly. We didn't want to leave WDW, but what we wanted even more was to see our little buddy again. 

We didn't return empty-handed...
Nala loves her Mickey hands!
We spent one final morning in Epcot before setting off for the airport aboard Disney's Magical Express. Once in the airport, Eileen went to work making friends with the gate attendants. We were, after all, still technically on our honeymoon. Whatever she said worked because when she returned, she had two first class boarding passes in her hand! 

Ask and you shall receive! 
After a few packs of complimentary Milano cookies later, I was out. We'd vacationed hard and I was paying the price on the flight home! 

So tired!
We made it home sometime in the 1am hour. Or maybe it was 2am. I was too tired to look at the clock. It was an amazing trip, full of memories that we'll cherish forever.

And with that we lived...

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