Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

On the Wednesday of our honeymoon, The Gryphon and I got up early to swim in the resort swimming pool. It was the only time when we thought we'd get a chance, and it was early enough that it wouldn't be crowded.

We weren't the only ones in the pool: a young couple was swimming, as well. We did several laps and then hopped in the hot tub, before reading the sign that said the hot tub wasn't open until 8.

After about 45 minutes, we got out and headed back to the room to get showers and eat breakfast.

Even though it was fun, I wish now that we had gotten The Gryphon ear plugs first, because he developed swimmer's ear that day, which plagued him the rest of the week.

That day, we didn't have any hard and fast plans, except that we were planning to spend the day in Disney parks, since we had one day left of our three-day park hopper passes. I wanted to ride Soarin' at Epcot, so we caught a bus there.

In Soarin', you experience what it's like to handglide over parts of California. We got there as early as we could, but there was already a wait, so we grabbed a Fast Pass and then looked for away to occupy ourselves.

Some musicians caught our eyes, and our ears. As we drew closer, we saw they were percussionists dressed like custodial workers and playing trash cans! They called themselves the Jammitors, and they were a lot of fun.

When the performance had ended, one of the drummers handed out stickers to all the kids watching, and seeing our "Just Married" pins, he gave one to me, as well.

We still had some time before our Fast Past window, so we went in the Innoventions building, where you could interact with new technologies. Just inside the door, we played with some robots that play music. Then we walked in a little further to see what else was there.

These Disney staffers, or cast members, were recruiting people to participate in a fire safety game. They seemed enthusiastic about it, so we agreed to join. They gathered us all behind a rope, counted us, then leaned in and told us they were really giving us some special prizes.

First, they gave us pin collector's sash with two rare Disney pins on them. Pin trading and collecting seems to be big at Disney, with pin trading stations all over the parks. Sort of like sticker collecting back in the day.

They also gave us something called a Dream Pass, which is a plastic pass that can fit on a lanyard around your neck. It has tabs on it, each of which is labeled with a different ride. You can use it as a Fast Pass any time you want, and when you get to the front of the ride, they break the tab off.

So the rest of our day was set: we would stay in Epcot a second day.

We headed straight for Soarin', since we no longer had to wait. In this ride, you're seated in a bench type device with a shoulder bar, which lifts you off the ground. You're then immersed into a large, rounded screen which shows video of swooping over the countryside. They blow scented air to complete the experience, such as the smell of pine when you fly over a forest.

I had a little trouble with queasiness but not as bad as with Mission: SPACE. I guess any ride that incorporates both a video screen and movement has the potential to make me queasy. This one, however, was mild and I enjoyed it.

Next, I believe, we went on Living with the Land, which was nearby. This ride is a boat voyage through greenhouses and a fish farm, which teaches you about efforts to develop alternative forms of agriculture, designed to address dwindling resources. First, you are taken through different scenes about the history of agriculture. Then you ride through actual working greenhouses where they are developing new forms of agriculture, such as low-soil growing, where nutrients are sprayed on the roots, or alternative forms of pest control. It was a very educational experience.

Since we had Dream Passes, The Gryphon wanted to ride Mission: SPACE again. I told him I'd take the Green Team this time and he was on his own with the more intense Orange Team. That was fine with him. The Green Team was much gentler and didn't produce the sort of nausea I'd experienced the previous day.

So again, if you ride Mission: SPACE and have ever experienced motion sickness, or if you're prone to migraines, I'd suggest opting for the Green Team instead.

We also did the Test Track again. It's one of the rides where they take your picture. Now that we knew where it was, I tried to make a funny face, but interestingly, they were having technical difficulties and the picture-taking equipment was down.

As we were trying to decide what to do next, we walked by the character spot, where you could meet Mickey and his pals and have their photos taken with you. A lot of the children also had autograph books they were having signed.

Part of my really wanted to meet them, because I'd never seen any of the Disney characters up close (though we'd seen them in the parade). But I also really wanted pictures of us with them as a keepsake of the trip. I thought this would be a terrific keepsake. After all, if you spend your honeymoon in Disney World, why pass up the opportunity to meet Mickey Mouse?

So we walked inside, and I saw the line was primarily made up of people with children. I began to have second thoughts. As we were leaving, The Gryphon asked me if I really wanted to leave, and I said I wasn't sure. I did want to meet them, but I didn't want to be the only adults waiting in line.

As we were undecided, we spoke to the cast member who was posted outside the door, and I asked him if this was something that adults did, as well. I told him I'd seen mostly people with small children.

He said that yes, it was all ages. After all, it's not how old you are; it's how you feel on the inside. I thought this was a good answer, and I told The Gryphon I wanted to wait and meet all the characters.

After we got in line, I looked around and realized that I'd been mistaken about the line consisting only of people with small children. Just in the line waiting with us, and that doesn't count who comes through over the course of a day, we saw two other couples with Just Married buttons. We saw a family of adults who appeared to be visiting from somewhere in Asia. And we saw one or two others who didn't seem to be accompanied by children. So I relaxed.

We joked around while we were in line. I had a lot of fun people watching, especially in a place like this. Some of the kids were really worked up and really excited, while one little boy kept crying. He was just ahead of us in line, and his mom told us that he didn't understand why he had to wait. He wanted to run right up to everyone. As soon as he got a chance, he ran up to Mickey and Minnie, Chip and Dale and Goofy, and hugged every one of them. I'm sure they got great photos.

They gave you an option of having your photos taken two different ways. They will take a photo with your camera, but they also take photos with their official PhotoPass cameras, then hand you a card that you can use to access the photos, either at locations on the Disney properties or online. I think this is a great idea, because that way you're guaranteed good photos, even if those on your personal camera aren't great.

I actually got a little nervous when we got to the front of the line. First, we met Mickey Mouse. The camera assistant announced to him that we were newlyweds, and he took my hand to admire my ring. Then he reached for The Gryphon to shake his hand in congratulations, drawing us together by the hand for a group picture. It was so smooth I hardly knew what was happening.

When you meet the Disney characters, they interact with you in character, albeit in mime. That's part of why the smiles in all these pictures are so genuine.

They had Pluto, but neither one of us are Pluto fans, so we skipped him and moved on Minnie. Once you get to the section where you can greet the characters, there are very short lines of two or three groups waiting to meet each of them. This makes it a little less awkward if you're only there for specific characters and bypass the rest.

We moved on to Minnie Mouse, of course, and when she learned we were newlyweds, she gave me a congratulatory hug and marveled at my ring. Then she leaned outwards to look down at Mickey. The PhotoPass photographer said, "Oh, that's right. He never gave you one of those."

"Don't worry," I assured her. "He's committed to you."

The PhotoPass photographer was being mischievous, and he suggested that if she gave The Gryphon a kiss on the cheek, it would make Mickey jealous. She shook her head and I agreed with her: "She doesn't play games like that."

Instead, she drew her arms through both of ours for a photo.

We moved, then, to Chip and Dale, who are some of the silliest characters. I told them they're my favorites. When they learned we were just married, they got so excited, so deliriously happy for us that I was all smiles when the photographer took our picture.

The last character we got to meet was Goofy. When he learned we were just married, he gave The Gryphon a high five. He was definitely the tallest character there, towering over us.

As we were leaving, somehow outside the exit, we were met by the same cast member who'd encouraged us to wait in line for the photos. "Now, did you feel silly?" he asked.

"No, not at all," I admitted.

"See, it's a good thing you followed your heart," he said. One of the many valuable lessons you can learn at Disney World!

Next, we went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride, one of Disney's boat style rides that takes you through different scenes, telling a story. This story was told primarily through video projection, so it was a little different, colorful and fun. To me, one of the best aspects of the ride was that after you get off it, you're in an aquarium with tanks.

There is information on the tanks about the fish from the movie, and the children were running around finding the clown fish in all the tanks (the orange and striped fish like Nemo). I had fun, myself, taking photos, without a flash, of course.

Then we saw much larger tanks, which contained scuba divers, swimming amidst the fish and doing maintenance. Another tank featured several dolphins, who are extremely hard to photograph because their tank was so dark. I only got one shot that was even close to being good.

Next, we headed for the Norway section of the World Showcase to ride Maelstrom, which is a Viking boat ride where you learn about the history of Norway. There are a few water ride features, such as some water spouts and small drops.

Instead of taking you back to the entrance, you disembark in an area that looks like a modern Norway coastal town. People who had arrived before us were milling about, and we joked that this was how Norway tricked people into moving there. "The ride where we trick you into moving to Norway," however, doesn't sound as enticing as Maelstrom. When a few more boats full had arrived, they let us into a theater to watch a 5-minute film about Norway.

I think this was one of the original Epcot attractions, and some of the people in the movie had distinctly '80s hair.

We wandered around the World Showcase, listening to street musicians and sampling some more wines. My favorite musicians were in the Morocco section, featuring a belly dancer, of course.

At my insistence, we then waited in line for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, decribed as an "in-your-face 3-D adventure film." In addition to the extraordinary 3-D, there are little surprises I won't ruin. The newest 3-D technology is a cut above any previous type, the most realistic I've seen. I found it very entertaining, in part because Eric Idol of Monty Python was prominently featured. Definitely one of my favorite attractions at Epcot.

Since our dinner reservations were late that evening, we stopped in the France section of the World Showcase for a snack. After checking out the options at the various food vendors, we selected a cheese and fruit plate that included Brie, along with Port Salut cheese and a type of Swiss. Delicious.

Before leaving, we checked out the wine shop in the wine festival center to see if they had any of the wines we liked. We couldn't find them, so we didn't buy any.

We headed back, then, to the Port Orleans - Riverside resort and took a short nap, then got changed to go out again. We made it back to the Magic Kingdom with time to do a little shopping before their evening parade and fireworks display. We walked by Cinderellas Castle on our way to Fantasyland, and I got a nice twilight shot.

We looked around for a shop I remembered that sold a lot of princess-related merchandise. I was hoping to find something appropriate for my 1-year-old niece. All the princess attire they offered, including head gear, however, was for ages 3 and up. So that's why we got her a Cinderella plush doll instead.

Next, we stopped in Tomorrowland to purchase a keepsake we'd spotted the other day, by a business called Crystal Magic. They take your photo and then, using lasers, create a 3-D portrait in a crystal block of various sizes, with text of your choice. The person at the booth took our picture, had us fill out the necessary information, and then told us to pay at the counter.

But in addition to paying for the item, we also wanted to arrange to have it delivered to our resort. You can do this from any Disney store if you're staying on the Disney property. Typically, it's delivered to the gift shop of your resort or hotel by afternoon the next day. We'd used this service a couple times previously: once for the photo taken of us at Splash Mountain and once for an item we bought in the Japanese department store at Epcot on Tuesday.

However, the cast member behind the counter had a lot of trouble understanding what we wanted, so we went to another cashier for help. He was having problems with his printer, and even moved us to a different register, until a manager came over to show him what he'd been doing wrong. They were very friendly, though, and we did manage to make it to Cinderella's Castle in order to catch the tail end of their light parade.

The parade was so beautiful, and I was so overwhelmed with all the kindness we'd encountered in the last several days, both through Disney cast members and other guests, that I was moved to tears. I never would have expected this, and I'm sure it might sound ridiculous. Disney truly is magical, and celebrating our honeymoon there was like celebrating it amongst a million friends.

We worked our way to the front of the park where we would watch the fireworks, so we could leave in time to make our dinner reservations. In the meantime, we were thirsty, so we waited in long line at a popcorn vendor right by one of the gates. A bunch of Disney cast members up on a second floor balcony were waving good-bye to those who were leaving. They did things like call out, "Hey, popcorn line!" and have us wave at them.

When we go to the front, we only wanted a Diet Coke to split between us. Perhaps because she saw our "Just Married" buttons, the vendor gave it to us free of charge.

As time arrived for the fireworks, we found a good spot, peering between some little kids who were riding on their dads shoulders. The fireworks display was intricately timed to music, and everyone "oohed" and "aahed." When The Gryphon's alarm went off, we had to leave, though.

Coincidentally, a surge of people left at the same time. We determined they must be people who had driven and wanted to beat the traffic. As we walked to the monorail, we saw behind us the grand finale, with all the fireworks shooting off at once. So we could have stayed a little later, but as it was we caught a monorail shortly after arriving at the platform.

We had reservations in the California Grill in the Contemporary Hotel, a contemporary restaurant with California-style cuisine. It's a fairly exclusive restaurant, and in order to check in for our reservations, we had to go to a desk in the lobby. Then we were escorted up in an elevator.

The reservations, though, aren't for a table. They're simply for an arrival time for you to wait for a table. You're not guaranteed to be seated right away. We weren't in a hurry, so when they gave us our pager, we took a seat at the bar and enjoyed a glass of wine while we waited.

For my main entree, I ordered the Roasted Free Range Chicken Breast with heirloom tomato panzanella and tomato-sherry vinaigrette. I found the chicken to be very tender.

The restaurant featured an open kitchen, which fascinated The Gryphon, who was seated so he could watch the chefs at work.

Our waiter was friendly and knowledgeable. When we were considering dessert, he offered a special dessert on the house, and we accepted. He brought out a delicious chocolate layer cake with raspberry filling, topped with a chocolate "congratulations".

When he saw me photographing the cake, he offered to take our photos, and we thanked him for doing so.

All in all, a four-star experience, to be sure.

More Musings on Alyce's honeymoon:

Honeymoon Index

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

October 2007 Index

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