Metcalf Ministries

View Original

The Truth About Our Honeymoon to Disney

I feel like there is a lot of pressure that comes with your 20s. For a lot of people, it’s a time where they graduate college, find a job, get married, buy a house, and maybe have kids. It comes with a lot of changes and sweet firsts and also some growing pains.

It’s safe to say that your 20s come with a lot of changes. Heck, this year alone has come with a ton! I told you about our wedding a few months ago, so I wanted to tell you about our honeymoon and speak into some of these truths that come with this season!

So Tyler and I weren’t really sure what we wanted to do for our honeymoon. Both of us are busy bodies who like to be active, so I didn’t think sitting on a beach for a week was going to necessarily be my preference. After talking with someone at church about it, he recommended we go to Disney. He even said he’d help us plan the whole trip… 

We went for it.

Our man Marc turned out to be a genius when it came to Disney, as he told us all the right places to eat and fast passes to get and all the things. We felt pretty good going into our honeymoon week!

We ended up driving to Minneapolis on Saturday and spending the night with a couple Tyler knew. They were generous enough to let us stay there since we flew out of Minneapolis super early that next morning. 

Day 1

We got up at 3 a.m. on Sunday and made our way to the airport. We made it to our gate in no time - we were stoked.

We landed in Orlando about 3.5 hours later and waited in line to hop on the magical express to get to our resort. After a little waiting, we excitedly hopped on the bus and got checked into the resort. Then it was time to hit our first park!

Epcot was our first stop, and we were pretty darn hungry. We ended up getting some fish and chips from the UK - it tasted so delicious. We then started out with a pretty amazing ride. We went on “Soarin’ Around the World,” and it literally felt like we were flying over a bunch of different countries - Africa, Egypt, China, etc. - it was amazing. We then walked around to the various countries they have at Epcot; we were blown away at how real it felt walking through each one. 

Our next ride wasn’t so great. We went on “Mission Space” and ended up feeling pretty nauseous afterwards. We should have known, as when we were trying to board the first time, there was puke in one of our seats so we had to wait for the next go-round. We tried going on our next ride which was a Finding Nemo one, but we still didn’t feel totally back to normal. :D

We went on a few other rides that day and ate at this Coral Reef Restaurant. It was so, so tasty. We then stayed for the firework show at 9:30 p.m. 

That was pretty magical.

We took the magical express back to the resort, and rested up for another great day.

Day 2

We spent our second day at Hollywood Studios. We had a really good mix of rides and shows that day, which broke up everything really well. We checked out the new Star Wars world and rode a couple of those rides before I kicked Tyler’s butt in Toy Story Mania.

It was awesome.

We ate at the 50s Prime Time Cafe where the servers literally act like they are your mother back in the 50s. Oh, and I had a peanut butter and jelly milkshake that was so darn good.

We checked out the Tower of Terror and Rock and Roller Coaster. Those both were pretty good too, although Tyler and I were a little hesitant after Mission Space… we watched a lot of good shows this day too. The Frozen show was so funny and entertaining, and the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular was also fun to watch!

We ended up going back to Epcot that night, as I was so in love with seeing the countries. We both were super pumped for Animal Kingdom on day 3.

Day 3

Ty and I didn’t get up as early as we were supposed to on this day, so Tyler was a little antsy to start the day. ;) We went on the Na’vi River Journey and then went on a safari, which was really incredible, as you really did feel like you were on a true one. We then went on the Expedition Everest roller coaster, which was pretty sweet. We did a few other rides and ate at Yak and Yeti for lunch. I had the best dessert I’ve ever had there. Man, it was good.

Animal Kingdom was our favorite park - we loved the layout and beauty of everything. It felt like we were truly immersed in nature! We got ice cream cones and watched a couple of shows, including the Lion King before getting in line for Avatar right before park close. 

Avatar ended up being our favorite ride, as it actually felt like we were flying across this magical land like the movie. It was so incredible and felt so real! I wanted so badly to go on it again!!

We ended up getting a quick service at the Animal Kingdom Lodge before heading back to our resort for day #4.

Day 4

I was super excited for this day, as I really wanted to see the castle… and it totally met my expectations. It was beautiful, and I could not believe it was a real thing haha. We went on Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Space Mountain (which was extremely cool, although it broke down twice that day :D). We ate chicken and waffles and then ate at Jungle Navigation and had steaks. The Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor was pretty great too, and then we ended the night with the firework show, which honestly brought tears to my eyes. Call me a baby, but I thought it was breathtaking!!

It sure was awesome having Tyler right behind me watching the magic too. <3

Day 5

This was our last day going to the parks, and we were pretty sad about it that morning. We woke up and had breakfast before heading back out to Magic Kingdom. We went on a couple of rides before going to Tony’s Town Square for lunch. My oh my, it was sure good. One of my favorite meals of the trip - pasta lovers, where you at?

It was delicious.

We did a few other rides and then watched the parade. It started sprinkling during the middle of it, and by the end, it was pouring. We brought ponchos for the week, but I had failed to put them in the bag hehe. So we ran out to our bus and headed back to the resort. We got all comfy and headed back out to Epcot to finish the night… but it rained the whole time… and the ponchos didn’t help haha. However, it was still fun exploring with our soaked shoes and rain-covered faces. :) I wanted so bad to try this caramel-stuffed pretzel, so we ended our night with a quest for it. We found it, and it was worth it. :)

Day 6

And just like that, it was time to go. :( Although we were very sad to leave, we both were excited to be back at home. We boarded the plane, watched the closed captioning of Aladdin (we forgot headphones hehe), and made our way back.

We ended up taking a back road sort-of-way home as the GPS instructed, but we stopped for hot chocolate and finally arrived.

This week was pretty darn magical, but it was not perfect. Sometimes it’s so easy to think that other people have everything figured out and that all aspects of their relationship or job or life in general are just magical and wrapped with a nice, neat, red bow. Let me remind you that that is not the case. There were times I got annoyed, times I felt guilty for leading us the wrong way, times I found myself comparing, times I got impatient in line - no one is perfect.

Yes, it’s easy to feel pressure in this season - like sometimes you have to have everything figured out. But fear of not having what others do or not feeling like you are where others are is a lie. You are where you are for a reason, and God is using you. In the small and big ways.

If we focus on loving God and loving the people around us instead of on insecurities and worries and fears, we’ll find that our lives can be pretty magical too.