Happily Ever After: The conclusion

Catch up on the past wedding & honeymoon recaps by clicking "Our Wedding" at the top of the page!

Though I haven't shown you all 600-something pictures we took on the honeymoon, I figure I should wrap this thing up. I start grad school next week and it will be good to start posting about real-life things! I hope I haven't bored you too much with random Disney things, and I promise they are not paying me to advertise for them (no matter how much it sounds like it). I'm just a huge Disney fan and think some people don't fully understand that it isn't just another Six Flags. But I digress...

Matt & his star cruiser Star Wars thingymajig

Would I recommend to anyone to have their honeymoon at Disney World? YES! But I would want them to know it is not your stereotypical honeymoon, though I guess it could be. For the most part, we got up somewhat early to hit the park when it opened, stayed fairly active in the morning, came back for a rest, then went back out to the parks in the evening. It was none of this relaxing-on-the-beach the entire time. That's not what Matt & I wanted-- I know I can only take sitting still like that for an hour, 2 hours tops.

The view from our room the last day

The castmembers really do go out of their way to make sure you have a magical vacation. All of their smiles & congratulations was worth way more than any other attention/free stuff we received.

The theming in the parks allowed you to just relax and escape to another place. No more thinking about random wedding details or the fact that we were about to move as soon as we got back.

We visited Epcot one more time on the last day... Mine! Mine!

But move we had to do, so we flew back Saturday evening. My parents picked us up at the airport, we opened all the wedding gifts, and then the next morning moved 4 hours away to the Dallas/Ft Worth area.

Boo... we didn't want to leave!

So many gifts!

Overall- Disney World was an amazing place for our honeymoon. Our resort, the Boardwalk Villas, was the perfect location, the perfect view, the perfect room for us and there is nothing we would change about the whole week. Well, maybe the leaving part!

***Thank you so much for reading along with all these recaps, especially to those that commented! I tried to make a follow-up post with each comment, but if your's escaped, I'm sorry! Know that each and every one made me smile! And to those that read but didn't comment, don't be shy!

Happily Ever After: The Food

Catch up on the other honeymoon/wedding posts by clicking "Our Wedding" at the top!

As I talked about here and here, part of the appeal of Disney World is the dining experiences! We ate and drank amazingly well and the cast members took note that it was our honeymoon so often times we got a free dessert or other special treatment.

Have to have a Premium Mickey Ice Cream Bar!

Our favorite restaurant by far was California Grill. It is one of the nicest restaurants on Disney property, located in the Contemporary Resort adjacent to Magic Kingdom. We made our reservations so we would be able to watch Wishes towards the end of our meal. Thankfully the table we got was right near the window, so it was truly a magical night! Plus, the food was AMAZING!

Have to do the self-portrait!

Our view

Appetizers-- various flatbreads

Matt's entree-- some of the best steak ever

My entree-- some seafood pasta thing. I know, horrible memory. I can assure you it was delicious!

Us with our desserts (and yes, we ordered milk with our dessert)

The fireworks from our table!

Basically, the whole dining experience from the service to the food to the atmosphere at every place we ate was amazing! When you're at Disney World, you do not feel like you have to eat your normal Six Flags park food. You can, sure, but there are so many other options and they are all fantastic!

Up next... the final honeymoon post!

Happily Ever After: Animal Kingdom

Catch up on the past recaps by clicking "Our Wedding" at the top and scrolling down to the bottom! :)

I know when some people go to Disney World, they tend to think badly of Animal Kingdom, regarding it as just another zoo. I have bittersweet emotions about this-- it is way more than just a place with animals. The theming and rides are pretty amazing! However, if they don't want to go, that means less people taking up space! :P

In my opinion, Animal Kingdom & Epcot are tied in terms of how good the theming is. The Disney Imagineers (those that design the parks/rides) traveled to several African & Asian locations in order to talk to the locals and really get a since of the geography, architecture, and culture. And it can definitely show in the result!




Animal Kingdom definitely has some good rides (Expedition Everest, anyone?) and amazing shows! Both the Finding Nemo Musical and Festival of the Lion King are absolutely amazing!

Expedition Everest: The Tallest Mountain in Florida

One of our favorite things to do from both our past trips is to just walk around, enjoying the little details, and find the reclusive animals. It's so fun and a nice break from running around trying to get one fastpass after another. But enough talking, here are more pictures!

Let me tell you about this-- this is DiVine-- the human grapevine. She walks on stilts, wrapped around vines, and generally looks very cool. She really blends in with the environment & so many people will just walk by without seeing her!



The Tree of Life

Up Next-- our night at California Grill

Happily Ever After: Hollywood Studios

Catch up on the previous honeymoon recaps by clicking "Our Wedding" at the top :)

Another one of the parks is Disney's Hollywood Studios. Back in the 80s and early 90s, when it was MGM, it used to be the location where they filmed some TV shows and had Disney animators working on films. That has all since moved to California, but they still have some very cool things. My personal favorites:

Tower of Terror

Beauty and the Beast show

Rock 'n Roller coaster

They also had the new Star Tours open, which was a lot of fun to do. It is a simulator ride with 4 sections and each section has the possibility for a different sequence. For instance, the beginning has three possible clips they could play. It is all randomly chosen so each ride is completely unpredictable.

They were also having Star Wars weekend while we were there (which you can read about here), but though we didn't go to that park on the weekends, we still saw some special Star Wars stuff!

Little kids learning to be Jedis

And then Darth Vader came! Each kid got to fight and defeat him, so that was good

And now for more random pictures :)

I had to recreate this picture from when I was young

We had lunch at Sci-Fi Dine In, a restaurant where you watch these cheesy 50's sci-fi movie trailers and eat in 'cars'

Always have the get the picture with the Toy Soldier!

Up next-- Animal Kingdom!

Happily Ever After: Epcot

Catch up on the previous honeymoon recaps by clicking on the "Our Wedding" tab at the top of the page!

The second oldest park at WDW is Epcot, or Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney himself envisioned it as a place where people would live and work. That obviously didn't come to pass, but it has turned into an amazing park! It has two 'worlds' inside-- Future World and World Showcase. Matt and I really enjoy this park, especially World Showcase. Being able to walk from (idealized versions of) one country to the next, eating and drinking along the way was a pretty nice way to spend several evenings!

Future World has most of the rides, such as Soarin' (where you're hang-gliding over California), Mission: Space, and Test Track. But I know you just want to see the pictures!

Before park opening one morning

Cars 2 was about to be released, hence the awesome topiaries

A delicious caramel shop in Germany. We ate very well :)

Also in Germany, at the mini train station they have set up. Can you spot Godzilla?

Then we moved on to Japan!

Oooh I do have to tell you about this new thing they have in Future World-- Sum of All Thrills. Now Disney World already had a build your own roller coaster and ride it attraction at Disney Quest, but this is new, different, and in my opinion, better. It teaches you basic physics and engineering principles as you build your roller coaster. For instance, if you are going too fast, your test dummy will crash. And you ride it on these cool robot arms. Basically-- it's pretty cool!

Part of the Sum of All Thrills-- where you design your ride

Another day, grabbing pastries in France. NBD

We had lunch in Morocco one day as well

My husband, embracing his Norwegian roots

Though there are only four parks at WDW, Epcot is definitely one of our favorites. It is also gorgeous at night (sorry, no pictures-- doesn't come out well on my little point-and-shoot) so it's so nice and relaxing to just walk around and look at all the details of the architecture.

Up next-- Hollywood Studios!

Happily Ever After: Magic Kingdom

[Side note-- I start grad school in one week from today! Eeek! Hooray for blogger being able to schedule posts!]

Magic Kingdom is of course the quintessential Disney park. When you hear Disney World (or Disneyland, for that matter), Cinderella's Castle was probably one of the first things you think of.

But you don't think of us with the castle. If you do, I don't want to know. Creeper.

Magic Kingdom is great for kids, but also for anyone of all ages. The three mountains-- Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain-- are fun 'thrill' rides with great theming. Sure, other roller coasters may go a lot faster, but they don't have the story or theming that Disney rides do. Classics like Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean are also a blast!! But enough talking, here are some of the pictures!

Some of the new theming in the Haunted Mansion queue line-- you touch one of the instruments and it makes that sound!

Inside a gift shop... I just LOVED the colors

Had to get a picture with Stitch!

We explored Tom Sawyer Island some, which is something I haven't done ever in all of my trips to WDW. It was tons of fun and a nice break from the crowds


Matt 'shooting' at the riders on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad


Good view of Haunted Mansion!

Our strategy each day at the park was to get there early (to beat the crowds AND the heat), leave after lunch, then come back in the evening. It really worked well because going at the end of May/beginning of June meant it was pretty hot and humid.

A delicious snack that evening before the Disney's Electrical Parade

Right after this picture was taken we had a nice Magical Moment! Cinderella looked over on our side of the street, saw our hats, and drew a heart with her finger, wishing us congratulations! Later on, one of the step sisters also saw we were on our honeymoon and motioned for me to show her the ring. It was so cute and fun to get that special attention in the middle of a parade!

Next I'll show you the highlights from our time at Epcot, our favorite park!