Wedding Trip Recap- September 26, 2012

They say that all good things must come to an end, and sadly, our wedding trip was no exception.  Eliot and I woke up Wednesday morning with heavy hearts that our trip would soon be over.  I wasted no time jumping up to go look out our window hoping that seeing the animals would put a smile on my face.  Alas, the savannah matched my mood and I was greeted with a hazy morning and no animals.

We had decided the night before to end our trip with Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, the two places were we'd made many memories over the past week.  We got ready in our Mr. and Mrs. Cady shirts that we'd saved for our last day and we headed over to Epcot.  We took a bunch of photos with Spaceship Earth before we made our way into the park.

We walked around the park one last time and I took a few photos of the Terrace des Fleurs, where we had our IllumiNations Dessert Party for our wedding.  We went into Mouse Gears one last time to grab a few of the wedding items that we'd waited to buy and we left with a Minnie and Mickey wedding picture frame and a snow globe to remember our wedding when we got home.

After that, we said good bye to Epcot and went back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to do our final luggage packing and to checkout.  We'd asked the front desk if we could have a later checkout since we were leaving Disney so late in the day.  They had agreed to let us checkout at 1:00, so we still had a little bit of time to relax before we had to leave.

After we'd packed and double checked everything, I went outside to sit on the porch for a while.  I was struggling to come to terms with returning to the "real world" after the amazing two weeks that we'd had at Disney with our friends and family.

Eventually, it was nearing the time to checkout, so we took a few last minute photos of us with the savannah in the background and then we said goodbye to the beautiful view and all of the animals.  We checked our luggage into storage, checked out of the hotel, and made our way over to the Magic Kingdom for our last Disney hours.

On the bus ride over, I made sure to take pictures of the gate entrance to the Magic Kingdom as well as the sign for the Wedding Pavilion.  Once we arrived outside the Magic Kingdom, we looked back across the Seven Seas Lagoon to the Wedding Pavilion where we had so many magical memories this trip.

Inside the Magic Kingdom, we caught part of the castle show "Dream Along With Mickey." It was hard to believe that just two days before we were standing right over there taking our Bridal Portraits.

We made our way over to the Haunted Mansion and then Pirates of the Caribbean.  We always start our trip with these, and I've made it a point to try to always end our trip with these as our last two rides as well.  We went on the Haunted Mansion before heading over to Pirates.  However, when we arrived at Pirates, the Cast Members were sending guests away. The ride was temporarily closed for some reason, so Eliot and I waited outside for 20-30 minutes hoping that they might re-open it.  I took a few photos of the empty entrance while we waited.

Ironically, the same exact thing happened the last time we went to Pirates for our last ride.

Finally, we couldn't justify sitting there anymore so we left Pirates and made our way back over towards the castle.  We took a few photos there with our t-shirts and got one last good look at Cinderella Castle.

Then we made our way down Main Street through the Emporium.  It was getting close to 3:00 so the "Celebrate a Dream Come True" parade would be starting soon.  We decided that we'd stay long enough to watch the parade.

Eliot and I hadn't actually stood to watch the parade at all this trip and we'd only seen parts of it in past trips.  It was fun to actually watch the entire thing.  I always love seeing the designs of the floats.  The music really expressed how I'd been feeling the entire trip.

"Celebrate A Dream Come True, and you might just find a wish for you.
When you close your eyes, then you realize, any dream is possible!"

It was overwhelming and I ended up tearing up at the end.  We'd wanted this trip and our Disney Wedding for so long I felt as if I was in someone else's dream coming true.  But we did wish on a star- on a lot of stars.  And it had come true.  (To this day, I still have moments when I think that I was simply dreaming the whole thing.)

Finally, we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom, to Cinderella Castle and to the magical place where dreams come true.  I left the land where you enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy in tears, but they were happy ones.  We had to get back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge so we could get our Magical Express to the airport and catch our flight home, but there was time for one more photo.

I pulled it together so we could take a few last photos in front of the Train Station.  It was appropriate that this was the last place we took photos since it was also the first place we took pictures on the most incredible trip to Disney that I've ever had.  So we took it all in: we had come to Disney as a couple planning to make a commitment to each other, and we were leaving as husband and wife.  We'd had the Disney Wedding that we thought we could only dream of.  And we'd made many magical memories with all of our family and friends.

It was time for the memory making of this trip to come to an end.  But with that, came a new adventure as husband and wife, a whole new set of dreams and possibilities for us.  Let the Memories Begin.  °o°

Wedding Trip Recap- September 25, 2012

Tuesday morning, we gathered our luggage together so we could move over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We had to check out of Pop by 11:00 am and we couldn't get into our room at AKL until after 3:00, so we decided to check our luggage into holding until we had to make the switch between hotels.

As excited as I was to move over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, I was sad to leave Pop Century and all of the fun memories that we had made over the last few days behind.  It also meant our last night at Disney, boo!  But I was sure that it would be a fun adventure.  We were even staying in a room with a savannah view- for FREE!  

If you have a Wedding Room Block and use 25 room nights, you get a free night anywhere on property.  So of course, we wanted to use our free night at one of the Deluxe Resorts! Eliot and I debated going to the Grand Floridian, but since we'd been there so much for our wedding, we decided that it would be fun to try something else.  After finding out that we could in fact get one of the savannah view rooms for free, we were sold!

We got ready and packed up our belongings, and made our way to the hotel lobby.  We'd decided to go to Blizzard Beach again while we were in limbo between hotels.

After spending a few hours at Blizzard Beach, we went back to Pop Century to get our luggage and made our way over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  I was completely overwhelmed when we walked into the main lobby.  The design details were amazing.  We checked in to the hotel and made our way to our room.  We could even see part of the savannah along the way.  I was so excited to see our view!

Our room was amazing.  I love how the moderate and deluxe resorts have the theme continued so well in the hotel rooms.  The decor in our room was amazing.  Of course we were happy to see a familiar face made in towels on our bed.

The detail of the hotel rooms was incredible.  One of my favorite parts was that the curtains had the characters from the Lion King designed into them.  With a quick glance, they just look like white sheers, but when you take a closer look, the characters are in the pattern. Mousekeeping also left a guide in each room so you can figure out which animals you're looking at!

But the real treat at the Animal Kingdom Lodge is obviously the view of the savannah and the animals.  I was not disappointed when we opened our curtains and immediately saw giraffes and zebras right below us.  It was breathtaking!  Eliot and I spent quite a while sitting on our porch and watching the animals roaming around.

Eventually, I dragged myself away from the view so I could take a shower and get ready for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  I guess I didn't make it too far though, while Eliot was showering and getting ready I apparently passed out on the bed.  He got a cute photo of me curled up with my Halloween Duffy.

After a little rest, we got moving so we could go to the Magic Kingdom.  Eliot and I had decided to go to MNSSHP a second time since we didn't get to take pictures with any of the characters that we'd wanted to.  They dress up for Halloween and you can get your picture with some characters that you usually can't take them with.  The last time we'd gone, we got our pictures with all seven dwarves and it was awesome!  We'd gotten quite a few Disney Gift Cards for our wedding so we used one of those to pay for our tickets.

We got to the park in time to watch the first "Boo To You" parade so we watched it from the top of the Train Station.  After that, we made our way to the character locations.  We bolted over to meet Mickey and Minnie as soon as the parade was over since we figured that we could beat everyone to it.  We were right; the line wasn't as long since everyone else was so busy watching the parade.

We got big hugs when it was our turn with Mickey and Minnie.  (Eliot was so excited he knocked his hat off center and didn't even realize it until we got our photos back.)  They noticed our Bride and Groom Ear Hats and were pointing at them.  We told them that we just got married at Disney the other day and they were all excited.  I thanked them for coming to our reception as we took a photo with all of us.  After, they took photos with each of us individually.

Then they had us both come back together so we could do a special photo.  Mickey and Minnie kneeled down in front of us and had the two of us kiss behind them.  It was so much fun.  The picture came out great and it's one of my favorites from our PhotoPass.  It's like the magic from our wedding just kept coming back to us.

We made our way down Main Street and got a few photos at the castle before heading over to where Halloween Duffy was taking photos with guests.  We just missed him so we had to wait for his next session.  In the meantime, we went on the Haunted Mansion and took our photos outside of it once again.  

Then we stood in line to wait for Duffy.  We were second in line and we had to wait for the second "Boo To You" parade to pass before they'd bring Duffy back out.  We could see the parade pretty well from the landing of the Liberty Belle so it made the time go by faster.  It was well worth the wait though!  I brought my mini Halloween Duffy to meet Big Duffy and it was so cute.  We got photos with all of us together.

Then once more, we took a few individual photos.  Of course I had to make sure mini Duffy was in my picture too!

After that, the only other characters that we really wanted to get pictures with were the Winnie the Pooh characters.  We'd just missed them when we went to MNSSHP in 2010 and Eliot really wanted a picture with Eeyore.  So we made our way over to Fantasyland to their new Meet and Greet area outside of the Winnie the Pooh ride.  We had to wait a while for them to come back out as well, but again, it was worth it.  We got a really cute group photo with them.

After that, we walked around the park enjoyed the Halloween decor.  We took a few more photos in front of the castle before making our way down the Jack o'Lantern decorated Main Street.  

I love the decorations, special lighting and the Halloween themed music that they play at MNSSHP.  It definitely puts you in the Halloween spirit!  

Once we passed under the "See You Real Soon" Jack o'Lanterns we decided to take a few more photos in front of the Train Station before exiting the park.  It's lit up for the Halloween Party as well.

We got a few photos of me with my mini Halloween Duffy and then we called it a night.  

When we got back to the hotel we hung our eat hats up and passed out.  We wanted to get up early to make the most of our last few hours the next day before flying back home.   °o°