Day Two: Magic Kingdom!

Our first full day in Disney World!!!! We spent this day in the Magic Kingdom themepark. We started the day out with breakfast on Main Street USA, Johnnie had what he said was the best breakfast ever....some sort of fabulous breakfast pocket! Next we were off to our first ride of the day, in Tomorrowland, we started out on Space Mountain. What a great, classic ride! Then we headed over to the Buzz Lightyear Ride, where Johnnie got to help Buzz out as an assistant Space Ranger-called on to ward of the evil Lord Voltron! At the end of the ride our scores were Carolyn 3800, and Johnnie 363,000...it was close, though.

After Buzz Lightyear we spent the rest of our morning in Fantasyland, where we met our first Disney Character, Alice in Wonderland. She was meeting with guests outside of the Tea Cup ride. Carolyn had her photo taken with Alice, and we got her autograph! We spent the morning riding Winnie-the-Pooh, Disney's Philharmagic, SnowWhite's Adventure, and Small World.

Next we took a quick tour through Mickey's Toon Town, where we got to walk through both Mickey & Minnie's house, in Minnie's backyard, we met up with Pluto, again for photos and autographs. After our tours, we were running to catch the steam train to Frontierland, when we spotted Pinnochio and King Louie off to the side. So, of course, we decided on the later train, and went to have our photos taken with them. We got Pinnochio's autograph, but sadly, Mowgli, never sent King Louie to school, so we couldn't get his autograph, but Johnnie got a fantastic picture with him!

So, we hopped on the train, and rounded through Main Street USA, over to Fronteirland. We picked up some fast passes for Thunder Mountain Run, and went for some lunch. We went to Pecos Bill's - a great lunch! Pulled Pork sandwiches, fries, and Chocolate Cream Pie for dessert...Mmmmm. After such a big meal, we couldn't do any crazy rides, so we did some quick shopping, where we found one of our best buys. Inside of a cute little Christmas store, we found a Christmas Ball Ornament with the words, "Just Married" painted in gold glitter paint. We had it personalized, with, "John & Carolyn's Magical Honeymoon - May 2005".

After our great shopping trip we headed over to Thunder Mountain and fast-passed pass all of the guests waiting in the Stand-By line, why or why, don't they use the FastPass!

After Thunder Mountain, we got a fast pass for Splash Mountain, and then headed to one of Carolyn's favourite rides, The Haunted Mansion! Just so everyone reading this is clear, Johnnie is not a big fan of scary things....any scary things....bugs even....so a ride called Haunted Mansion, was not at the top of his list to try, but after some coaxing, he tried it. We both loved it, it's still the only ride in Magic Kingdom, where the cast members refuse to smile! We visited with all 999 ghosts and then headed over for our Splash Mountain ride time.

Again...all those people in the Stand-By line....FastPass is fantastic! Even though Carolyn had never been on Splash Mountain, due to her fear of heights, and well, mostly, her fear of getting wet, and ruining her hair.....she rode it this day, to return the favour of Johnnie going through the Haunted Mansion. It wasn't so bad...some strategic placement of her hat, the Disney Bag, and the Backpack, provided ample shield from the water!

After Fronteirland, we went over to Adventureland where we ran into Princess Jasmine and The Genie. Again, autographs and photos were had, and we moved on to the Flying Carpets of Agribah! We rode the Jungle Cruise, and of course, everyone's favourite....The Pirates of the Carribean! And yes, for all those curious minds out there...the hairy leg is still there, dangling over the bridge. The ride has been made much more politically correct, the women of the village are now chasing the pirates! After the Pirates, we went to hang out in the Tiki Room, also renovated and under new management! After visiting the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room, we went outside and right there was....Chip N' Dale!

We then took a quick turn and ended up behind Cinderella's castle, right near the carasoul, where we had some great photos taken at Cinderella's Fountain. After a very busy day, we decided to head out, and try and catch some dinner. So back to the hotel we went, got changed and bussed it down to Pleasure Island/Downtown Disney for some dinner. We ate at Wolfgang Puck's Cafe, where John enjoyed Muscles and then a main course of Weiner Schnitzel and Carolyn, once again, enjoyed a wonderful Fillet Mignon, in a green Peppercorn sauce. John had Key Lime Pie for dessert, while Carolyn had a Creme Brulee Sampler.

After dinner, we walked through Downtown Disney and then took the bus home, and got tucked in and ready for our next day, at Epcot!

Our Magical Honeymoon.

We stayed up packing until 2 AM, and Carolyn's parents were here to pick us up at 5 AM and drive us to the airport. We arrived and checked in at the gate for our 10:30 AM flight to Orlando on Westjet Flight #926. The flight went great, except for some turbulence, not Carolyn's favorite! At the end of the flight the flight attendants got on the microphone and congratulated the newleywed couple in row 9 - that was us!! They gave us a care package assembled from everything they had at their disposal on the plane, some cookies, pretzels, bandaids, latex gloves, and my personal favorite, the airsickness bag.

the Westjet 'care package'

We landed safely in Orlando and headed to the Disney Magical Express Bus for our drive to the resort. We arrived at Disney's Animal Kingdom lodge and checked in to our Honeymoon Room, room #3023.

Disney's Magical Express

Our first afternoon at Disney, we spent wandering around the hotel, and checking out the views of the animals on the savannah from the different lookouts. Then we spent the next hour taking a much needed nap. When we woke up, we headed to our dinner reservation at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, at Citricos, one of the restaurants on site.

We travelled by Disney Bus to the Magic Kingdom, where Johnnie got his first glimpse of Cinderella's castle, and then transferred to the Monorail to head to the Grand Floridian. Once we arrived at the resort, we spent some time browsing in the gift shops, we ended up buying 'Bride and Groom' Mickey and Minnie ears. Then, we headed upstairs to Citiricos for our dinner. To our surprise, when we arrived upstairs, Citricos was CLOSED!!! At first, we were shocked, didn't know what to do, but we headed down to the concierge desk of the hotel, and they took great care of us. They ended up getting us in to another restaurant on the resort grounds, called Narcoosee's. Narcoosee's ended up surpassing all of out dining expectations. It was built in a giant gazebo, out onto the water of the Seven Seas Lagoon, all lit up in the dark. It had a magnificent view of Cinderella's castle from the wrap around porch, where we watched a fabulous fireworks display, called, "Wishes", in honor of Disney's 50th anniversary party.

For dinner that first night, John started with crabcakes, and Carolyn started with the Lamb Lollipops in a vanilla sauce. For his entree, John enjoyed a Surf n' Turf dinner, of two lobster tails, and two fillets, along with a cheese potatoe. Carolyn had the Fillet Mignon, also served with the cheese potatoes and asparagus. For dessert, John had seasonal fruit sorbet and Carolyn tried the Chocolate ganache with wafers and raspberry coulis.

After dinner we headed back to our lodge, to get a good night's rest for our big day at Magic Kingdom!