WDW Honeymoon Recap- 3/31/13

Sunday March 31st marked Honeymoon Day 9; it was also the last day of our trip.  I was pretty bummed out when that was the first thought to cross my mind when I woke up. Then I remembered it was also Easter Sunday and how we'd be at the Magic Kingdom celebrating Easter in a few hours!

Eliot and I started packing up and getting ready to leave.  We decided to make the most of the day by going over to Epcot in the morning to take pictures of the Flower and Garden Festival.  While I was in the Pop Century lobby waiting for Eliot to get us breakfast, I spotted a line of people next to a small sign.  Minnie Mouse was here at Pop Century- awesome!  I got in line and waited for Eliot there.  A few minutes later he brought me a yummy chocolate croissant!

Then we got pictures taken with Minnie in her spring Easter outfit!  Yay!!!

After, the cast members gave us a huge bag of candy... wait, one for each of us?  Two bags of candy... I might not ever leave!  Then we hopped on the bus and started the beautiful day at Epcot.  We grabbed another picture with Spaceship Earth and our custom Mr. and Mrs. Cady shirts from our wedding week!

Then we made our way around the World Showcase.  Eliot borrowed a wheelchair from Pop Century so he could push me around in it.  After my foot spasm at the Magic Kingdom the night before, it was painful to walk or stand for long periods.  This made it a lot easier to get around.  On our adventure we saw Snow White's wishing well.

Then we saw the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves topiaries in Germany!

Lady and the Tramp were hanging out in Italy.

Lotso and Woody were in the American Adventure section.

We stopped in France when we saw Belle.  We still needed her autograph and photo!

Then we visited the Beauty and the Beast topiaries in France.

We saw Cogsworth and Lumiere, with Mrs. Potts and Chip in the background.

We spotted Prince Charming and Cinderella.  Eliot thought it was appropriate that they were placed at the entrance to our private VIP IllumiNations viewing area.  I agree.

Opposite of the Cinderella topiary were Aurora and Philip.

Here I am in the United Kingdom with Tigger and my wheelchair.  I don't think we would have made it around the entire World Showcase with my sore foot if I wasn't in it!

We also got one more picture with Duffy!  We hadn't bought the autograph book yet when we visited with him before!  And I really wanted to get his autograph!  I love him!!!

We took a picture of the Tinkerbell and Periwinkle topiaries by the Butterfly House.

And we couldn't forget Phineas and Ferb at the Future World entrance.

Then we said goodbye to Epcot and we went back to Pop Century to finish packing and to check out.  Goodbye awesome view from our room of the Art of Animation.  

Goodbye 1950's section of Pop Century!  We've had a lot of great memories here!  (We also stayed in the 1950's section during our wedding week when we occupied an entire room block of the hotel with our friends, family and wedding party.)

After finalizing everything at Pop, we went over to the Magic Kingdom to see the Disney Easter Parade on Easter Sunday!!!  (On my Disney Bucket List.)  We took a few photos by the castle before staking out our parade spots.  I was able to sit comfortably in my wheelchair while Eliot went to pin trade at the Emporium.

An hour or so later, the Easter Pre-Parade started!  We saw Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny once again.  They were followed by Daisy and the Azelea Trail Maids.  I was so excited that they were there!  I've wanted one of their pretty dresses since I was just a little girl!  I remember being glued to the television while watching the Easter Parade.  "I could write a sonnet, About your Easter bonnet, And of the girl I'm taking, To the Easter Parade."

We stayed to watch Disney's Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade which followed the Easter Parade a few minutes later.  It was the perfect way to end our honeymoon!

"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! Legacies and childhood wishes, watch them all come true, forever like a picture in your mind. Make a wish, unlock your memories, look inside your heart, and find the dream that's waiting there for you..."

About halfway through the parade, I was overcome by emotions and lost it.  Tears silently streaked down my face behind my sunglasses.  We'd been so lucky and blessed with our year long celebrations- 3 trips to the Walt Disney World Resort: our wedding planning session, having our dream Disney wedding and our honeymoon!  It was an emotional ending to the magical roller coaster ride we'd been on.  

It was really hard to say "Goodbye" to the Magic Kingdom this trip.  We got a few more PhotoPass photos, (Disney forgot to add Tinker Bell to our magic shot!) then we took one last look down Main Street at Cinderella Castle before passing under the railroad tracks.

We decided to take one last photo in front of the Train Station so we could end our year long Disney adventure with the same photo pose we started it with.

After leaving the Magic Kingdom, we zipped over to Downtown Disney long enough for Eliot to grab our RunDisney stuff.  While there, we got a picture of the Bambi topiaries. Then we went back to Pop Century to catch our Magical Express to the airport.

I still wasn't quite ready to say goodbye.  At the airport, we went to both the Earport and Magic of Disney stores.  I saw a large ad outside of one of them and had to get one more Disney picture before we boarded the plane for home.  I'm happy it was with Duffy!

We had a really amazing Disneymoon.  It was a great trip and were incredibly thankful we were able to go on it.  And I want to give a big thank you to Disney Fairy Tale Weddings for our Walt Disney World annual passes as a wedding gift!  We definitely got a good amount of use out of them!!!  °o°

WDW Honeymoon Recap- 3/30/13 (Part 2)

Our second half of Saturday the 30th was spent at our favorite Walt Disney World parks: Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.

We headed over to Epcot so we could catch IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.  We got there early enough that we had time to take a few pictures on the way over to the World Showcase Lagoon.

We ended up getting a short photo session with the PhotoPass guy at the Spaceship Earth location.  He even had us pose with our Just Married buttons.

Then we made our way over to watch IllumiNations.  It seemed appropriate to end the last night of our honeymoon with the same show that was the ending to our wedding day.

The show was amazing as always.  We underestimated the crowd and didn't get the best view, but it was still awesome.  It's always one of my favorites.  People around us ended up copying my camera movements because they realized that I'd seen the show and knew all the appropriate moments to be ready.  (And I may have been quietly humming along with the music too!)

I still get chills every time I see it!  After the show, our first dance song "Promise" played over the World Showcase Lagoon.  We danced at the edge of the water.

We waited to let the crowds pass, then we slowly made our way back towards the front of the park.  We stopped to take a picture at the Monster's University topiaries.

I also took a photo of the Lion King topiaries on the walk back to Future World.  You can see how packed it was!

We took one more photo with Spaceship Earth at night.  It ended up being the same photographer from our mini photo session!  Then we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to go on all of our favorite rides one last time!

When we got to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to get more autographs for our book.  I was pretty determined to fill it at this point!  We went to meet the Princesses at City Hall. First we met Cinderella.  She was ok with letting me borrow her coach for our wedding.

Then we met with Aurora.

And finally Rapunzel!  She taught Eliot "the smolder" Flynn does.

Then we made our way over to New Fantasyland one more time.  We passed by Be Our Guest at night when the Beast's Castle was all lit up.

We stopped by Gaston's Tavern for a quick picture.  The area was basically empty.

We went on Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid one more time.

After, we continued on our quest for autographs and met Ariel in her grotto.  She was pretty spunky and told the guy in front of us a thing or two!  (He was trying to hit on her.)

I took another picture of Prince Eric's Castle before we left New Fantasyland.

We continued heading towards Liberty Square but we stopped to get pictures of Rapunzel's Tower and village lit up at night.  The lanterns were beautiful.

And I guess it was officially time for my bathroom creeper adventure since Eliot got photos of the thugs in the men's restroom.  I went inside and got pictures of the ceiling where Rapunzel painted it.  Her paint supplies are on a shelf near the ceiling.  And Disney even themed the doors to the stalls!  There are actually little grooves in the Corian so it looks like they're wooden doors.  It's a really beautiful restroom.

My absolute favorite part is the painting in the entrance way to the bathroom.  It wraps around the outside door and then there's a mural on the wall.  I love it!

I also took another photo of Rapunzel's Tower as we walked by.  I like how it's lit up pink and purple like her dress.

Of course, we had to go on the Haunted Mansion one more time!

I took a few photos around the graveyard and inside since it was quiet.

Our last ride this trip was Pirates of the Caribbean!  And the ride wasn't broken this time! Did we break our Pirates curse?  (I think so, but we got another one instead!)

Disney had added new mermaid features since we were there in September for our wedding!  There are mermaids projected on the water in the cave now, as well as them singing.  And this is a very dark picture of the mermaid skeleton that they added to the shipwreck scene!  It's a subtle change, but it ties in well with the newest Pirates movie.

I stopped for a few moments to take one more glance at Cinderella Castle at night time.  I always like to take a few minutes to reflect on how blessed I am to be there.  And this time, it was really necessary, because I physically had to stop walking.  Ok, I'll share the story:  We might have broken the Pirates ride breaking curse, but I think that I picked up another one! After our ride on Pirates, I broke myself right outside the ride!  My left foot had a spasm in it and I barely made it back to the end of Main Street. 

Once I hobbled down Main Street, I took a few photos in the windows of the Emporium while I was waiting on Eliot.  I thought that he'd gone into the Emporium to trade a Vinylmation or some of his pins.

But apparently, he left me for a mission...

When he returned a few minutes later, he had a wheelchair for me so I didn't have to keep hurting my foot every time I stepped down.  He pushed me all the way to our Pop Century bus stop!  (Which is the farthest possible stop at the Magic Kingdom.)

He's a good husband- "in sickness and in health" right?  °o°