The day after our wedding, we all met at Boatwright’s down the river for a farewell breakfast. We wore our Mickey ears and the server brought us a Mickey rice krispie treat – we were forced to eat it at the same time (we each took an ear) while our family snapped pictures of us. Very funny.
After breakfast, Dave’s brother and his girls began their long journey home to Atlanta. Allie was very sad to see her cousins go, and while she accompanied us to Disney-
MGM Studios, she wasn’t the happiest of campers. She did get Kim, Chad, and Dave to ride Tower of Terror with her, however (I, naturally, sat it out along with my Dad). Eventually, time came for Allie to get on the plane home to New Jersey. It was clear she didn’t want to go, and we didn’t want her to either, but she had school the next day. After many tears and hugs, Allie was off.
That evening we went to Downtown Disney Marketplace with the family that remained, dining at Wolfgang Puck Express. We also stopped in the Adventurers Club afterwards, where Dave’s Dad Fred was chosen to go “on stage” for some light-hearted harassment – he actually danced on stage for everyone during Samantha’s Cabaret! After we returned to the resort, Dave’s parents presented us with a wedding card with a very generous gift inside – thank you so much, Fred and Adele!
Monday morning came and it was time to say goodbye. We drove back to the airport and boarded our plane. Now you might think we were going back to Michigan, or perhaps onto some other interesting destination for a honeymoon. But, no, it was time for us to enter “The Twilight Zone.” At least that’s what Dave called it. (And you'll notice that this is Chapter 13 of our story! Muhahaha!) We had to fly to S. California to attend the Disneyland Media Event for the next two days. That’s right, we interrupted our honeymoon to go work. Aren’t we dedicated? The report of the media event is elsewhere, so I won’t go over that again. Let’s just suffice it to say the trip was productive. The only real problems I had where that it was hot and I had some swelling in my ankles and hands, which was uncomfortable. Also, we had to take a red-eye flight back to Orlando on Wednesday evening that boarded at 10:30 am and arrived at 6:15 am. What a mistake that was! I couldn’t sleep because it was much too uncomfortable, and my doctor had insisted I get up and walk every hour anyway. Plus I hadn’t been able to take a nap that day as we’d checked out of our hotel room at 11:00 am. Not a good day for me, but I did survive.
On Thursday morning, bright and early, we arrived back in Orlando to begin our honeymoon. We’d splurged on a honeymoon suite at the Grand Floridian for three nights. It wasn’t inexpensive and we got no discounts. But we’d promised ourselves a special stay at the Grand Floridian when we sold 50,000 books, and we’d passed that a couple years ago and still had not taken our reward trip (we’re now over 120,000, by the way). So when we factored in the fact that we had this reward coming to ourselves and it was our honeymoon, we felt justified in the indulgence. And what a treat it was! We couldn’t have asked for a better room. It was one of the “turret” rooms in the main building, with eleven windows – we could see Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, and Tower of Terror from our room. Simply amazing. The room also had a huge bathtub, wet bar, walk-in closet, and all the other yummy amenities of a Grand Floridian concierge room.
Jennifer and Dave in their Honeymoon Suite (4021) at the Grand Floridian
I won’t go into all the details of our honeymoon, but I can assure you we didn’t work and we enjoyed ourselves completely. We experienced some typical things (like a character breakfast and some park time) and we also did some new things (like drive Water Mice around the lagoon and play miniature golf at Winter Summerland). I also had a lovely Mother-To-Be Massage at the Grand Floridian Spa. We intend to report on these experiences in future PassPorter newsletters, as they are well worth our readers’ attention.
Jennifer by the suite window, gazing out at Sunset Pointe where we were married a week ago[/i]
When we returned home on Sunday night, we were well rested and very happy. I was amazed at how I’d survived the week with only swollen ankles and hands (and only on a couple of days) to show for it – I believe the daily naps made all the difference in the world. I didn’t even have to rent an ECV while I was there – I did all my own walking, and there was plenty of it. We’d been gone for ten days and had boatloads of work to do, but the time spent on ourselves was well worth it. I think Alexander was happy, too! He’d been only marginally active during the wedding and California portion of the trip (which didn’t overly worry me), but during the honeymoon and the first couple of days after our return, he was extremely active. I think he’s been doing cartwheels. In fact, he was so active that Dave was finally able to feel him kick for the first time on May 10, the day after our return from one of the best Disney trips we’ve ever had!
Now that we’re married, I do plan to change my last name to Marx. But I will do it gradually over the next year to avoid confusion. Other than that, I don’t expect much else will change. Oh, well, other than the introduction of a new family member in three months! Just little things like that to look forward to at this point.
Until the next update!