WDW Honeymoon Recap- 3/30/13 (Part 1)

Saturday the 30th, we planned a super busy day.  We had one full day left at Walt Disney World and we were going to do as much as possible!

It started out with my least favorite part of every trip (other than leaving the Magic Kingdom and officially leaving Disney property) the Magical Express packet.  Boo!  After that lovely reminder, we decided that it was time to make every single second count! Thus, we decided to start the day by finally taking our walk around the lake!

Eliot and I had packed a small amount of running gear with the intention of starting our training at Disney.  We knew that the path around the Art of Animation and Pop Century Resort would be perfect.  We started out by walking from the 1950's where our room was over to the bridge.  Then we examined the Art of Animation Resort map.

We decided that we'd wander through each of the sections since it was our first time there.  We doubled back so we could see the Cars section.  It ended up being more of a brisk walk than a run.  We stopped to take a lot of pictures with the Cars.

Then we went to visit Nemo at the Big Blue Pool.

We continued on our journey to see Timon, Pumbaa and Simba on a log (like in Hakuna Matata).  Then Mufasa was on Pride Rock and the hyenas and Scar were another rock.

When we entered the Little Mermaid section, we walked through all of Ariel's gadgets and gizmos.  At the end of those I took a picture with the Prince Eric Statue.  Then we went over to Ariel so I could get another photo.  We also took a few photos of the movie facts along the walkway near the water.

We kept walking back over to Pop Century.  I made sure to take a picture of the Generation Gap Bridge.  The Art of Animation was originally supposed to be another section of Pop Century.  (That's why our section is called "The Classic Years.")

When we got closer to Pop, I took a picture looking back at the Art of Animation Resort and it's sections: Cars, Finding Nemo, Lion King and Little Mermaid.

Back at Pop, we learned a few facts about the 1950's.

Eventually, we made it back to our building.  We ended up walking just over 1.25 miles!

It was a great workout and fun start to the day!  We even wore our RunDisney shirts!

After we worked up an appetite, we showered and headed over to enjoy brunch at Chef Mickey's!  Neither one of us had ever been!

We got our picture taken before getting seated.

We enjoyed having the characters visit us throughout our meal.  I haven't been to a character dining experience since I was probably 7 years old!

The food was so yummy!!!  I finally got my Mickey Waffle, along with 3 plates of absolute deliciousness!!!  I loved the buffet and tried to eat as much as I could.

Eliot LOVED Chef Mickey's and the all you can eat buffet.  I'm pretty sure that he ate at least 20 pieces of bacon.  He's usually super picky with food, so I'm glad that he enjoyed this and got his money's worth out of it!  We'll have to go there every trip to WDW now. But I've gotta say, I was a big fan too.  I love me some Mickey Waffles!

Our waiter saw our "Just Married" buttons and he gave us a celebration cupcake!  It was quite a surprise!  The frosting was superb!

Disney had a few chocolate Easter Eggs on display here as well.

There was even a special Chef Mickey's Easter Egg outside of the restaurant entrance. It had a large piece of chocolate with Contemporary Resort written all over it.

After our brunch, we decided to go over to Downtown Disney.  Eliot really wanted to go to DisneyQuest to design his own roller coaster.  He'd never been there before, and I promised him that we'd go this trip.  We went on a few of the rides together, and then we set off to make his design.  The first time around, it wasn't as wild as he wanted it to be. After riding the first one, we made another one and it was crazier.  He had a great time.

I went for the more tame experience and had fun playing with the picture maker.

After we left DisneyQuest, we decided to leisurely explore Downtown Disney on our way back to the Marketplace bus stop.  We went to check out the Vinylmation at D Street.  I love their Vinylmation chandelier.

Then, we passed by the Characters in Flight hot air balloon.  We were planning to try it on this trip but we ran out of time.  But, we'll do it another trip!

We went to the Lego Store and admired all of the Lego sculptures.  I enjoyed the Woody and Buzz Lego sculpture with RC on the bottom.

There was also Snow White with Dopey and some forest friends.

Of course the other Seven Dwarves were there as well!

We went back to Team Mickey to see the RunDisney stuff.  While there, we went into the connecting store, Tren-D, to try it on so we'd know what sizes we would need. Apparently, Edna Mode thought that we looked fabulous!

Next, we had fun playing with the Potato Head bins in Once Upon a Toy.  On the way in, we took a picture of Eliot with Buzz!

I love this giant Monopoly board!  (And I think I take a picture of it every time we go.)

Finally, we decided it was time to go back to Pop Century.

We needed to drop some stuff off and prepare for the next half of our day!  °o°

WDW Honeymoon Recap- 3/29/13

Friday March 29th, we set out on a mission to cross things off of our honeymoon trip "to do" list.  We really wanted to eat at Be Our Guest for lunch.  I was also dying to go over to the Wedding Pavilion to take a few photos.  We wore our "Bride" and "Groom" shirts from our wedding week, I grabbed my custom headband and we were off!

We knew we'd need to know if there were any weddings or rehearsals going on at the Wedding Pavilion.  If there aren't any, Disney allows guests on the private island to look inside the pavilion.  Before anything else, we headed over to the the Grand Floridian so we could check the schedule for the day.

We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then hopped on the resort monorail.  I was pretty excited to go back to visit where we had our wedding festivities!  The Grand Floridian was a sight for sore eyes.  It was how we started our wedding day since we took photos there before the ceremony.   I stopped to reminisce at the staircase with Cinderella's coach where I had my pre-ceremony Bridal Portraits done.

While we were walking around the Grand Floridian lobby, we stumbled across the Easter Egg display.  It was incredible!  I couldn't believe it was all made with candy!

Eliot and I both took a ton of photos.

Then, we headed over to the Wedding Pavilion.  We passed where Cinderella's Coach picked me up to take me to my wedding.  On the walk over, we passed the construction of the new DVC location between the Grand Floridian and Wedding Pavilion.  We arrived at our destination and got the Wedding Pavilion's schedule.  We decided that we would go back that afternoon or evening.

Next up: crossing of getting lunch at Be Our Guest!  By the time we got to the restaurant, it was about a 30-40 minute wait for lunch.  Not too bad!

While we were in line, I took some photos with the gargoyles.  One of the cast members also gave us a lunch menu so we could decide what we wanted.  (This also helped everyone order faster when they finally reached that point.)

We finally got inside and were given our "enchanted rose" so the waiters knew what table we sat down at.  We ordered our steak sandwiches, drinks and dessert and then went to hunt down a table.  We had been told the West Wing was the best room to sit in. It was fun and interactive, but also hard to see your food because it was so dark in there!

While we waited for our food to arrive, we looked around at the Prince's (Beast's) Portrait and the Enchanted Rose.  The Enchanted Rose was beautiful and the petals actually drop!  We also enjoyed watching the Prince's Portrait when lightning strikes!

A few minutes later, our lunch was served.  We enjoyed our steak sandwiches with french fries.  Our desserts were delicious!  Eliot got the lemon raspberry cupcake and I tried the strawberry.  We loved the awesome souvenir goblets we splurged on. We hadn't bought any drinks on the trip- except for Eliot's slurpie at Downtown Disney.  We decided we would have spent at least that much on regular drinks anyways. It was more fun to get the awesome New Fantasyland goblets to take home.  They light up too!

After we finished lunch, we went to explore the rest of the restaurant.  The Ballroom was really beautiful!  It's just like you're walking through the movie!  The ceiling and chandeliers are breathtaking.  There's even snow "falling" through the windows at the end of the Ballroom.  We also went into the Rose Gallery to take a few photos.  It's a lot more quiet in there.  The walls are lined with paintings and tapestries of Beauty and the Beast. There's also a giant Music Box in the center of the Rose Gallery.

It was definitely worth the 30-40 minute wait to have this experience.  Before we left, Eliot and I stopped to take a picture with the Beauty and the Beast mosaic.

On the way out, we took a few more photos of the beautiful waterfall and stream.  I also snapped a few close ups of one of the gargoyles!

We decided to go back to Pop Century to prepare for our Wedding Pavilion photo shoot! On our way out, we stopped at Cinderella Castle for another photo.  I really wanted a few photos with my custom ear headband!

We also stopped at the Train Station.  Cheers!

We got back to Pop Century and took a break.  Eliot napped and I worked on project ear hat until both of the hats were completed!

Back to the Wedding Pavilion we go!  We took a few photos over on the pathway while the last rehearsal of the day finished up in the Pavilion.  

On our wedding day, we didn't have time to take pictures with the pavilion in the background so I wanted to get a few for our album.  We also took some fun shots with our wedding rings and handprints in the sand.

We headed over the bridge to the private island and Disney's Wedding Pavilion!  The space is absolutely beautiful.  I got shivers when entering it.  We're SO lucky to have gotten married here!!!  We took a few photos of the architectural design details.  I love the hearts on the end of the pews and the hidden Mickeys in the air vents.  (My inner designer got the best of me yet again!)

We set our hats up at the altar and took a few photos with them.  I had brought one of our invitations and a small Cinderella slipper as photo props.  (I also wanted photos of the hats for Happily Ever Hatter.)

It was a nice to be back at the place where "Happily Ever After" started!  It was a great experience during our honeymoon trip.  We even got to talk to another Disney bride and groom while we were there.  They were so excited about our custom t-shirts that they insisted taking pictures of us.  (It was a little bit awkward, but flattering!)

We finished up with our hat photos and took a quick "selfie" together before heading out. Goodbye until next time Wedding Pavilion!

Back at the Grand Floridian, we passed by the windows where I had the rest of my bridal portraits taken.  I took a quick picture of it, but it was getting dark out at that point.

We went back to Pop Century to drop off Eliot's nice camera and our hats.  While we were there, we caught some of the fireworks from IllumiNations from our hotel room.  

We grabbed our sweatshirts and headed back over to the Magic Kingdom.  In the Pop elevator, our little mascot friend decided he was hungry and wanted a sandwich! (Eliot leaned up against the wall and this was the result.)  It was pretty funny.

Then we went back to the Magic Kingdom to see Wishes!  (And I channeled my inner Katy Perry and made a creative status for Facebook.)

Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.  
I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish, I wish tonight.  
We'll make a wish, and do as dreamers do, and all our wishes, will come true.

We wanted to have a good view for Celebrate the Magic- the nighttime spectacular that replaced the The Magic, the Memories and You.  So when Wishes was over, we pushed ahead through the crowds leaving to grab a good spot near the Partners Statue.  We took a PhotoPass picture on the way over.

We got a place to sit right at the statue.  I was pretty pumped.  Eliot got his camera ready to record the show and we made sure our stow away was secure in his bag.

The show was beautiful.  The castle was transformed into a paper canvas as Walt Disney appears sketching Mickey Mouse in his iconic Steamboat Willie appearance.  It shows scenes from many Disney films.  My favorite part was the Tangled lanterns being released!  And I got major chills at the end when Walt Disney says "I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse".

After Celebrate the Magic, Eliot, Eeyore and I made our way over to Dumbo.  Eeyore was so cute in the bag that I had to take a picture of him.

I love the Dumbo ride at night.  The lights and fountains are beautiful.  My favorite part is when they light up like a rainbow.

We decided to go on it since there wasn't a line.  Eliot and Eeyore rode together and I had the pink elephant behind them!

After, we went to browse through the new Big Top Circus store.  We took a photo with our little stow away.

Of course, I had to stop to admire the treats.  Yum!

At that point, we were completely exhausted to we decided we better go back to the hotel to get some sleep.  Before we the left the Magic Kingdom, we took one more photo with Cinderella Castle at lit up!

And that's the end of Honeymoon Day 7!  °o°