Love, Death and New Life through the lens of Disney

[spurk5532]

We slept in and eventually made it down to the Pepper Market for breakfast. We wanted to take advantage of all the resort amenities so first up was renting a searaycer. We had it for an hour I believe. It was fun just to zoom around the lake and get a different view of the resort.

Ben loves to fish so we decided to do some cane pole fishing. This was so much fun. We each caught quite a few amount of fish. Ben caught a suckerfish and I accidentally caught a snapping turtle. That was pretty frightening. I had no clue how I was going to get him off the hook. Thankfully he got himself of the hook and jumped back in the water. Once the turtle got off the hook we felt like we were finished.

We returned our poles and got a Surrey to ride around the lake. Wow it was a lot more work than I expected. It was fun though and we got to see a lot of the resort.

We were pretty hot after that so we headed to the pool. A pool has never refreshed me so much in my life. It was pretty humid so it felt good to jump in the water and cool down. I really loved the main pool at Coronado Springs. It was fun.

I think I could have laid in this waterfall all day, it was so refreshing

Lunch was fast approaching so we went back to the room freshened up and headed to Downtown Disney. We didn’t really know what we wanted to eat but we ended up choosing Wolfgang Puck Café. We didn’t realize that it was going to use two of our Gold Plan points. Had we known that we would have never gone there. We actually were really disappointed. The food was not all that great and the service was horrible and for two meal credits it wasn’t worth it.

Then we just shopped around for the next couple of hours. Our plan was to go to Pleasure Island that night so we would just stayed in Downtown Disney. We ate dinner that night at the House of Blues. There was some show going on and the line to get in went right past our table so it wasn't the best dining experience but I remember the food was good.

Pleasure Island was so much fun. I wish it were still around. We stopped at the Jazz club first. The music was fabulous we had one drink and then headed on out. We didn’t want to spend the entire evening in one place. Then we headed over to the Adventurer’s Club. Oh that was so much fun. I don’t quite understand why they ever got rid of it. After that we headed to the comedy club. The improv wasn’t all that great but there were still some laughs. I wanted to actually go to another showing just to see if it would be better with a different crowd but Ben didn’t want to wait in line again, so we went and got one of the drinks that comes in a sand bucket. It was delicious.

Ben had to go to the bathroom so he left me in this little dark corner at a table by the water. After he left I thought this really isn’t the safest place to be by myself. It was pretty secluded and kinda back behind the buildings. But I couldn’t move because he wouldn’t have known where I was when he came back. It ended up being okay but I just realized that just because we were at Disney did not mean that we could forget about safety. We spent the rest of the night just hanging out on the street and then counting down till midnight before heading home. I really enjoyed Pleasure Island minus the creepy people on stilts. They terrified me and I kept feeling like they were chasing me. Ben just laughed every time I would see one and scream.

A picture of the creepy stilt people!!

We had scheduled a bass fishing trip and parasailing for the next morning so we headed home and went straight to bed.

 

[spurk5532]

The next morning we headed over to the Contemporary Resort to meet up with our fishing guide.

This was a picture we took before our fishing trip. It was Ben's favorite picture and the only one from our trip that we framed.

We had so much fun. Our guide was about the same age as us and we had a lot in common. It just made for better fishing. I caught the first fish, the biggest fish and the most fish.

That made me happy because Ben is the one who is the fisherman not me.

We got to go over by the Grand Floridian and the Wedding Pavilion. I bet it would be pretty to get married there but I am still happy I had my church wedding. We also went by the old water park. Ben remembered going there when he was a kid and said it was awesome. The only reason we were able to do the fishing trip was because of the Gold Plan. We really wanted to take advantage of it and felt blessed to do all these activities that we never would have been able to afford on our own. After the fishing trip we went parasailing.

The castmember working at the parasailing office told us that most people who get the Gold Plan don’t really take advantage of all the things they could. He said it was an amazing deal and really the best one. He thought we were doing a good job using it. Parasailing was a lot of fun. There were some other people who were in the boat with us. They weren’t too friendly but they did offer to take pictures for us while we were up in the air. The photographer decided to take a picture of himself as well.

We didn’t even notice it though until we got back to our hotel room that night. We thought it was pretty funny though. We figured he didn’t want us to forget him.

When we were done Parasailing we remembered that when we were at Epcot we had forgotten to make our Leave a Legacy Tile. As part of our package we were given a free Leave a Legacy Tile in Epcot. So we headed over there and got our picture taken. We debated on just writing a message but then decided we would rather have a picture so that when we came back in the future we could remember what we looked like and how young we were on our honeymoon. The tile wouldn’t be up for quite awhile but if we were to come back they would give us the location and we could find it. It didn’t take very long to make the tile and then we were off to the Magic Kingdom

Here is a picture of the Epcot Ball with the Leave a Legacy pillars underneath. I think if I didn't have a tile on one of these I wouldn't even notice them as I enter the park every time. Now it is the first thing I do as I enter Epcot.

Back at the Magic Kingdom we headed on over to Mickey’s Philharmagic. This was another attraction that made me cry. I loved it and thought it was the coolest 3-D attraction I had seen. We decided to ride Pirates again. On our way to Pirates we spotted an alligator in the river.

There weren’t that many people around but it seemed like out of nowhere there started to be a big crowd. Somebody told a castmember and they were like yeah this happens sometimes. As long as he is in the water it is okay. It was just strange to see a wild alligator swimming around. After Pirates we went and found a spot to watch Wishes.

This is my favorite picture from our trip. I think it is crazy that both Ben and my favorite pictures come from the same day. I guess we just must have been having such a good time that day and it showed in the pictures.

I was craving something sweet so Ben went and got us ice cream to eat while we waited. It was some yummy ice cream. Wishes was great, but after seeing all the parks night shows I still think Fantasmic is my favorite.

Honestly I don’t remember where we ate lunch but we ate dinner at Planet Hollywood. After Wishes we went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner. I don’t remember what we ate but the waiter convinced Ben to order bread pudding for dessert. I was so full so I didn’t even order dessert. Ben did order the bread pudding. He loved it, I did not. We had a free game of miniature golf burning a hole in our pocket so we headed off to play. It was pretty late so we were the last people they let on the course. It was kinda fun to play mini golf in the dark. It did add another level of difficulty. We finished the game around 11:30pm and decided it was time to call it a night.

Ben trying to copy Sorcerer Mickey.

The next day would be our last day in Florida. We had an evening flight so we figured we would spend the morning at Animal Kingdom before heading back to the hotel to catch Magical Express.

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

I was so happy to see you'd updated. You crammed a lot into that day! And you're right... the happiness you were feeling is just oozing out of both of you!

 

[blue and green]

great report!

 

[MAJ RN]

So glad to see that you started updating our TR!! Hope your recent trip was wonderful. Can't wait to read more.



Melissa

 

[tinytreasures]

I'm in

 

[GriswoldDisneyMom]

New reader, both interested in your experince and dreading the outcome. Trying to guess, but save me the trouble- just tell us now!!

 

[rndmr2]

Enjoying your TR, thank you for sharing your experiences.

 

[Pooh667]

I am in. Your pictures are great!! Your happinees and love are so evident.

 

[Pembo]

New reader, both interested in your experince and dreading the outcome. Trying to guess, but save me the trouble- just tell us now!!

Did you see her sig?! Great report...

 

[spurk5532]

I was so happy to see you'd updated. You crammed a lot into that day! And you're right... the happiness you were feeling is just oozing out of both of you!

Thanks, it is fun to look back at these pictures and just remember how extremely on top of the world we were with just having gotten married and being in Disney. Does it get better than that. ha ha

So glad to see that you started updating our TR!! Hope your recent trip was wonderful. Can't wait to read more.

Melissa

My trip in December was so amazing. I can't wait to write about it but I still have so much to get through before I get to it.

great report!

I'm in

New reader, both interested in your experince and dreading the outcome. Trying to guess, but save me the trouble- just tell us now!!

Enjoying your TR, thank you for sharing your experiences.

I am in. Your pictures are great!! Your happinees and love are so evident.

Welcome to all the new readers. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy.

 

[spurk5532]

We woke up early got all of our stuff packed up and then headed down to the main building to check out and drop off our bags.

We took this after checking out.

We decided that morning to eat at the Maya grill instead of the Pepper Market. The Maya grill was a buffet and it was just okay. We figured it would be better than the Pepper Market but it was about the same. After eating we headed off to Animal Kingdom.

I was super excited for this day. We went straight to the safari. I remember liking it but I don’t remember what animals we actually saw. After the safari we stopped at a kiosk that was selling leather bracelets that you could get your named engraved on and a charm added. I really liked them and Ben decided that he wanted to get me one. I have very few things with my name on it because my name is an unusual spelling. He picked out a little turtle charm. Ben and I were not big in buying things for each other so this was extra special. We wandered around the park not really having a plan. We happened to pass by an area where you could see Expedition Everest. They had just started construction. I was so bummed that once again I was at a Disney Park when they were building a ride and I was not going to be able to ever go on it. After the trip I would watch any special on TV about EE or read any news stories. I was so envious of all the people who I knew that had gone on it. It was Splash Mountain all over again.

I know this isn't a great picture because of the lighting but it is the one we took of Expedition Everest under construction.

This picture makes me laugh every time. For some reason Ben had an obsession with this fake door. I think he took like 4 pictures of me in front of it. Someone noticed him taking all the pictures and offered to take a picture of the both of us in front of it. I was so embarrassed at my goofy husband, but now it gives me a good laugh.

Just another picture of the two of us at Animal Kingdom.

That day we also went to It’s Tough to Be a Bug and headed to Dinosaur land. The weather had been so nice our whole trip. There was some humidity but it wasn’t overwhelming. I was so happy that we hadn’t had any rain on our trip so far. That was until we decided to ride Primeval Whirl! While we were in line it began to sprinkle. The waiting area was under cover though so it wasn’t too bad. It seemed like the second we got on the ride the skies opened and poured down water on us. Lightening was even spotted while we were on the ride. We ended up being the last people on because they had to shut it down due to rain and lightening. We were soaking wet but laughing because there was nothing we could do to get out of the rain. The last ride we had left was Dinosaur. I had been on Indiana Jones at Disneyland and thought the ride was amazing so I was super excited for Dinosaur. Wow is that ride intense. I loved it. At the end when we looked at our picture we laughed so hard. Both Ben and I were looking at the t-rex like what the heck is that? And then in the row in front of us were two little kids whose faces were in their parents laps crying. It was a great picture and we debated buying it but then decided it wasn’t worth it.

Here is the final picture we took in the parks. Sorry about the blurriness. It was taken as we were leaving and we took it to show how bad the weather was. We were truly blessed with some amazing weather while we were there.

It was getting late and we had to get back to the hotel so we wouldn’t miss the flight. We had such an amazing time and were so sad to be leaving and going back to our normal lives. It was a vacation we never would forget.

Our puppy Riley with the souvenir we brought him back. He finally chewed it up completely about a month ago.

When we chose Disney we chose it based on thinking that we would never go back let alone take our kids. Leaving was completely different. All we could talk about was how cool it will be to take our kids one day. We dreamed of our future and realized that we were just at the beginning and we had so much to look forward too. There was so much hope and opportunity staring us in the face. We really had the world in front of us.

 

[disneyloveNY]

What a wonderful trip report!

 

[spokanemom]

It is cool to see a TR from a fellow Spokaneite! I'm in!

 

[spurk5532]

So I came across some trip memorabilia today and thought some of it was kinda fun. So here is a random post with stuff from that trip.

One of the things I found was our check out envelope that was left on our door. Our room number was 4426. When I looked at the checkout document I laughed because our total charges were $24.59. I can't imagine ever going to Disney World and only having charged $24.59 to the room. Part of the reason is because everything was truly included in the Gold plan so our only expenses were souvenirs. When we got home and figured out how much money we actually spent while we were in Florida we realized it was only $180 and that included the hotel the first night and souvenirs.

I also found our miniature golf brochure and scorecard from Fantasia Gardens

I can't believe I won. This may have been the only time I beat Ben at miniature golf.

When I saw this brochure I laughed. This was given to us in 2004 but looks like it was made in the 80s. Also it looks like that is Tower of Terror under construction in the background. Hopefully they have updated the Fantasia Gardens brochure by now.

I also came across this. It is our Leave a Legacy tile locater. So now you can see what it looks like and if you are at Epcot you can find it. The location if you can't see in the picture is West 4-E-19-8-15. If you are at the entrance looking towards the Epcot Globe it is on a pillar on the right side towards the middle. I believe how you find them is 4 is the row of the pillars, E is the actual Pillar, 19 is the board that the picture is on, 8 is the row of pictures on the board and 15 is what location in the row the picture is.

Do you have a Leave a Legacy tile or know somebody who does? I always look at the other tiles and wonder what the story behind the person in them is. It would be fun to know somebody else who has one too.

 

[spurk5532]

What a wonderful trip report!

Welcome and thanks!!

It is cool to see a TR from a fellow Spokaneite! I'm in!

Another Spokane person, how exciting. I always feel like there must be more of us on here but have never come across any till now. So jealous that you have a trip coming up so soon.

 

[MAJ RN]

I am really enjoying your report! I can't wait to read about your other Disney trips that you have taken and how they differ from your Honeymoon. Looking forward to more!


Melissa

 

[KatMark]

I am so thoroughly enjoying your trip report, and such a great update. I love that fountain at the CSR...it is one of my favorite picture spots there.

 

[SeptemberGirl]

Hi! New reader. I'm really enjoying your TR. Reminds me of my honeymoon years ago!

 

[MelMel11]

New Reader! I truly enjoyed your stories and will be looking foward to the next post..