My crazy life:
08-24 Got married at Ocean Trails. The wedding was awesome, and we only had a few no-shows. The weather was beautiful, the band was just outstanding, the food was great, and people seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. I hate it when I go to weddings and I’m bored. At least at ours if people got bored they had a kick-ass band to listen to.
My brother also pointed out when we returned from our honeymoon that Ocean Trails was used to shoot parts of an episode of “The OC.” That was pretty crazy.
I really don’t remember too much of the wedding at this point, so I’m really looking forward to whatever the videographer puts together for us. We should also be receiving our photos pretty soon! When we do, we’ll be sure to put a few up over at http://www.tammyandbrett.com/
08-25 Left for the honeymoon. We checked in to the Marriott Orlando World Center late that night and crashed early.
08-26 Disney-MGM Studios. This park was disappointing. It was weird, but it felt very much like Disneyland’s red-headed stepchild, California Adventure. So much of it felt cheap, thrown together, and unfinished. The Tower of Terror was great though, and I can only hope that the scaled-down version we’re getting at DCA next year is as cool as the original. Very fun!
We spent that night watching Cirque Du Soleil’s La Nouba which was pretty good. And I gotta say, the east coast’s Downtown Disney is really enormous compared to ours.
08-27 Magic Kingdom. I don’t remember ever going to this park as a child, but my parents say I did. Tammy and I decided to call it Bizarro Disneyland. It FEELS so much like Disneyland that you would swear that you’re back in Anaheim…except some stores aren’t where they should be, and some rides are hiding around corners that shouldn’t be there! It was a crazy experience for sure, but we had a lot of fun checking out everything. Of all the things to do at this park, the one I was most looking foward to was the Carousel of Progress. Unfortunately it has been downgraded to a ‘seasonal’ attraction, and was therefore not operating in the off-season. That kind of sucked. Everything else was a real hoot though.
A lot of the attractions seemed like abridged versions of their California counterparts. Pirates was shorter (though the queue was much more elaborately themed) and being in Small World’s loading area was like being in a switchbacked auditorium. Some changes were really nice though…Tom Sawyer’s island was very big with lots to do, the train that circled the park actually drove through honest-to-god swampland, and the Peoplemover was still in full effect (disguised as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority). Space Mountain was a fun ride, just different than what we’ve got here.
Interestingly enough, the Magic Kingdom’s fireworks show was embarrassingly bad. If you’ve seen Believe! at Disneyland in Anaheim, you’ll see how good fireworks can really be. If you’ve seen Fantasy in the Sky at the Magic Kingdom, you’ve seen the other end of the spectrum.
Food at the Orlando parks seems to be a lot cheaper than it is here. When it comes to soft drinks, WDW offers a ‘regular’ and a ‘large’ for $1.99 and $2.19, respectively. At Disneyland there is no ‘large’ option. Everything is the size of a regular at WDW – yet it costs $2.19 over here. Food is a lot cheaper over there too! Usually when we go to Disneyland I hate to spend money on food, but at WDW I was buying everything in sight and not feeling bad about it. A $1.99 root beer float at a Disney park? Put me down for three! I’ll never see prices like that in LA.
08-28 Islands of Adventure is Universal’s second theme park in Orlando, and it gives Disney a real run for its money. Spiderman alone is worth the cost of admission. It was one of the coolest theme park attractions I’ve ever experienced. Truly mind blowing.
08-29 EPCOT Day One was fantastic. We did 99% of Future World and got to ride Mission Space, which doesn’t open officially until October. We also took a backstage tour of the hydroponics facility behind The Land pavillion. Dinner in Morocco.
08-30 EPCOT Day Two was great. We finished up Future World and did all of World Showcase. Dinner in Norway. Epcot will probably always be our favorite Disney park out there.
08-31 Animal Kingdom is one of the most elaborately themed parks I’ve ever been to. It was a little light on repeatable attractions, but since this was our first time there it was really fun. Tammy loves animals too, so she was going nuts all day.
That night we went to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Victoria and Albert’s, the most expensive restaurant I’ve ever been to. Luckily the service was excellent and the six-course dinner was phenomenal. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a nicer more intimate restaurant in my life.
09-01 Kickback day. We did some outlet center shopping in the morning, then came back for Tammy’s 1pm massage and mud wrap at the hotel’s spa. That night we hit Arabian Nights, a not-as-good knockoff of Medieval Times, but still it was fun. The food was horrific. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream and miniature golf.
09-02 Our last full day in Orlando we spent at Sea World’s Discovery Cove, which was just amazing. We did the whole dolphin swim thing and all that. That was really something! We got a video and plenty of photos of the whole day. If you ever plan to vacation in Orlando, consider Discovery Cove as a non-optional part of that trip!
09-03 through 09-07 was spent opening wedding presents, unpacking them, cleaning up the mess, reorganizing the house, and making a mess of everything in the process. We’re still not quite done with everything, but we’ve made some progress. Don’t expect to see the inside of our house on the cover of any magazines for a few weeks though.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. How have you been?