So for our honeymoon I spent a lot of time trying to convince Devin to take me to Florida for a whole week of Disney magic. He vetoed that. Hard. So the best I could bargain for was one day at Disneyland during our West Coast excursion. I was a bit worried though because Devin had never been to any of the Disney parks - east coast or west coast. I was admittedly nervous he would have a horrible time and then I would hold just the tiniest bit of resentment against him for not enjoying my favorite place of all time. On the way to the park we took a picture of our feelings about driving to Disneyland. Devin is uncertain, my face is about to explode from excitement.
Golly if I thought I loved Devin before we went to Disney, I fell in love with him all over again once we were in the park. To start with, on the shuttle ride to the park I started to lose my shit pretty early on. Smiling like a maniac, waving my hands, and squeeling every few seconds. I knew we were close because I could see the back of the tower of terror. Devin also spotted the structure and said "Hmm that place looks like it's either a really nice or a really terribly hotel." Of course, that gave me a good chuckle and I had to explain that it's a terrible hotel - it's haunted!
Then we were there. Walking up to the park I really just wanted to run and leave Devin in the dust, but since we are married and all I was patient as we proceeded through the gates. We were greeted by a giant Christmas tree and since Christmas is also one of my favorite things I was heaven. Before we got to the park I approached Devin with this statement "I don't want to get into a fight when we get to Disney, so I'm going to say it now. I want is to wear the Mickey ears that are wedding themed."
He agreed with minimal convincing (a Disney miracle in itself). So step one was find hats. They certainly don't make you search. They know what you want.
And we got them embroidered because once you are in Disneyland anything goes.
I kept telling Devin I felt like a kid all over again (which I think is their entire business model). I wanted to run to the rides, look in the shops and hand them all my money, buy snacks, take pictures, scream with pure joy! I couldn't decide where to start. So we took a couple pictures and then hit our first ride.
Oh and side note they gave us these awesome buttons for free.
How cute is that? Ok so we started in tomorrowland and got on space mountain, star tours, Astro blasters, and autotopia in a pretty timely manner. Devin LOVED star tours, and during the ride I kept hearing him laugh with delight. Swoon. Then we got a Mickey shapped pretzel because I was committed to eating anything and everything shapped like mickey's face. I'm a sucker for the mouse - but at least I am aware of it.
Took some more pictures.
And then started our search for a turkey leg. I wanted one. Bad. But I couldn't seem to find a cart that had them. Then we got distracted because we saw a celebrity - Woody!! We stood in line and then when we saw our hats he pointed to them and clapped in congratulatory fashion and I told him it was a pleasure to meet him because it really was.
We continued searching for turkey legs to no avail, so to reward our searching efforts we got Mickey shapped beignets.
Devin hates when I have take pictures of him shoving food in his face but this was too cute to pass up.
Then it was time for my favorite ride. Splash Mointain!!
I was getting pretty pumped for the big drop and a litd nervous about getting soaked because I was in the front. This was my pre-drop face.
And this was my mid-drop face.
Both Devin and I got soaked. Here is evidence.
Poor Devin. I did make him go on one more ride with me soaking wet before we left - Haunted mansion because it's a classic! Then we went back to the Embassy suites where we were staying to get dry clothes and enjoy free drinks during their nightly happy hour. Then we met up with my friend Molly, who I lived with in college and her boyfriend Zach. One of the best things about traveling the country is getting to see old friends. We went to this awesome place right across the street from Disneyland called Pizza Press which is done kind of in the style of Chipotle. You walk them through all the things you want on your pizza (or select a predesigned one) and then they send it through the oven. It was delicious!! I love getting recommendations from the insiders and Devin could quite literally eat pizza for every meal and be completely content, so he was pleased. Then we went back to the park with our friends for round two.
We rode Nemo's submarine ride, caught the phenomenal fireworks show that had us both grinning from ear to ear, and also watched Fantasmic! And I got these sweet slippers.
Of course we needed a sweet treat so we got a dole whip float, which Zach suggested. Damn! It was out of this world. It's pineapple ice cream in pineapple juice and I can't imagine how anyone could take a bite and not be completely overjoyed. Then we bid our friends farewell and Devin and I rode Indiana Jones which they do not have on Disney World. It was so fun I wanted to ride it again!! This was another ride where I heard audible squeals of happiness from my husband. Heart melted into a puddle.
Ok so my this point it was about 11:50. I needed one more ride though, so we hopped on the jungle cruise. Now it was time for Devin to find a way to drag me out of the park. We took more pictures on Main Street as I tried to stall and then as my smile turned to a sad frown Devin said "want to go into one more store before we go?" Which I did! Then it was really time to leave because it was 12:20 am and our shuttle to the hotel was departing at 12:30.
I wished that we could stay forever. But Devin assured me we would be back, in his words I broke the seal. It was such a perfect day and a great place for newlyweds. We watched all the families and talked about what it would be like to come back when we have kids, wondering if we will have kids like me who are overjoyed by anything and everything or kids like Devin who play things closer to their chest. We talked about how we would handle meltdowns, what rides we thought would be the most fun with our kids, and how we would be certain to avoid the World of Disney store because even as adults it was too overwhelming. Devin pointed to families with 4 kids and asked is that really what you want? And each time I nodded and said of course it is.
So Disney, good work. You got my grump of a husband to have fun and willingly admit he will gladly return. We will be back,someday with kids of our own, and we will continue the cycle of making and simultaneously reliving memories all under the watchful eyes of the most famous mouse that ever was.
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