Friday was supposed to be our first unscheduled day, to give us time to move from Beach Club Villas to the Contemporary and relax before our reservation at California Grill. But in the weeks before our wedding people started getting us all these cool experiences on our Disney Honeymoon Registry, so the free days quickly filled up with activities.
We got up and finished packing, then drove our stuff to the Contemporary and checked in. I’d secretly hoped for a little more honeymoon magic, like a Tower room upgrade or even an early check-in, but they were sold out that night so we got nuthin’ but a baggage claim ticket from Bell Services.
We hopped a monorail to Epcot, where we had reservations for the Behind the Seeds tour of the Land Pavilion. We must be getting old, cuz we loved it! It is what the Land ride should be – educational but fun, interesting and interactive. We got to see all the crazy hydroponic growing systems and ginormous vegetables, plus the fish tanks (where we induced a feeding frenzy with pellets our guide distributed) and parts of the Living with the Land ride from the other side. I highly recommend it!
Afterward we took the monorail back to the Contemporary and ate a quick hot dog in our room before our appointment for… parasailing! We met our two, uh, boat dudes at the dock and hopped on a speed boat. It was disconcerting and yet mildly comforting how casual they were about the whole shooting-into-the-air-on-a-parachute thing.
They gave us these frighteningly simple harnesses to wear and had us take off our shoes and sit down at the back of the boat as they unfurled the Jolly Roger-bedecked parachute. One minute we’re sitting there chatting about the weather and the next thing we know we’re 300 feet in the air as the boat grows smaller and smaller below us.
It almost wasn’t scary til I started to think about how our only connection to the tiny boat below was a 2-inch wide cable and the only thing attaching me and DH to the chute was a pair of metal hooks.
We picked the 600-foot, 12-minute deluxe tandem parasailing package, and we were so glad we’d gone together. I know I would have spent the whole flight trying to memorize every detail so I could tell DH about it when I got back to the boat. When we got up there, DH said, “There’s nobody else I’d rather be up here with than you” – so cute!
We tried to pick out landmarks (easy to do cuz Florida is so flat!) and wished we had a camera to take pix of the DVC resort they’re not building next to the Contemporary. Originally 12 minutes had sounded kinda short, but it turned out to be just right – and maybe a tad too long!
My feet started to get kinda cold, and I noticed that one of the clasps on my harness looked like it was about to come undone (it wasn’t, but it sure looked that way!). They’d given us a chicken signal to make if we wanted to come in early, but we were trying to be tough so we waited til they reeled us in. Apparently they had been having a party onboard in our absence – the frat rock was cranked way up and all that were missing were the Budweiser Babes…
After that we took a break in our room. We hung out with our duck buddies, who came right up to our patio and then tried to come inside after we fed them Cheetos. (This became our favorite pastime at the Contemporary.)
I used the slooooooow free Internet access to hop on the Boards and read all the nice messages people had posted on my planning journal and check out the preview pix the Roots had posted on their blog (thanks, Heidi!). Here is a picture of me posting a message from my honeymoon, like a dork.
We got all gussied up and went upstairs to the California Grill for dinner. Originally I’d perfectly timed our reservation so we could catch the second showing of Wishes during the Pirate & Princess Party from our table. But right before our trip they cancelled Wishes during PP and suddenly we were stuck with a 9:30pm dinner reservation. The only time I was able to switch to was 5:50pm, but it turned out to be really nice because it was so uncrowded.
I’d heard horror stories about waiting 45 minutes past your ADR time to be seated, but we got in right away. We had a nice, mellow dinner. I’d had Disney Dining put “honeymoon” on every single ADR, and at this one they’d sprinkled confetti on our table.
DH made this for me!
When the waiter made the obligatory sushi pitch, I was like, “We’re from California – we can get sushi at the laundromat,” and he backed off. I had the filet, which cannot be obtained at the laundromat and is delicious (but why the teriyaki sauce on a perfectly fine piece of meat?). DH’s scallops were better than the ones I had at Flying Fish.
And we got a free dessert to go! Oh, and speaking of going, I made DH take pix of the Sonoma Room on the way to the bathroom so I could post them on the boards if necessary. Nerd!
Because we finished dinner so early, we had time to go back to our room and change into warm clothes, then ride the elevator back to the California Grill to watch the regular Wishes from the observation deck. At that point we’d seen them three times, and never from in the hub! After the fireworks we dashed downstairs and along the path to the Magic Kingdom to catch SpectroMagic. Neither of us had ever seen it and we’d heard sooo much about it (well, OK, Tour Guide Mike goes on about it constantly). We staked out a spot in Liberty Square and pretended that the CMs pushing carts full of light-up necklaces were the first floats of the parade. While we waited we got a call from the Roots, who wanted to do another photo shoot with us, this time inside the parks. We made plans to meet them in Celebration for breakfast the following Tuesday and then hit Magic Kingdom, and Jensey told us her favorite place to watch SpectroMagic (which isn’t Liberty Square – whoops!).
So the parade came by, and Cinderella pointed to our bride & groom ears and wished us congratulations, but…. I don’t get the big deal (no flames, please). I’m not a huge parade fan, but I guess I thought Spectro would be different cuz of all the lights. Maybe someone can esplain it to me….
Then we rode Haunted Mansion – whohoo! And then we walked back to our room, back to the ducks pressing their beaks against the glass and quacking “Cheetos! Cheetos!” and pooping all over our patio to thank us.
Welcome back!
at the BM (hehe, BM...) speech!! I'm surprised they didn't offer him a job! 
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I was there Saturday and the water looked normal to me, silly lady! 
(It was red, I swear! 
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We beseech your forgiveness!
