disneyfan1313 Posted June 1, 2007 Posted June 1, 2007 Wow! It's hard to believe it has been over 3 weeks since we got back from our Honeymoon. It was amazing and we fit in quite a bit over the 3 and a 1/2 weeks we were gone. Our itinerary looked something like this... Drive from FL - NY Cruise from New York to Southampton, UK on the Queen Mary 2 Drive from Southampton to Wales Wales - Blackpool Blackpool - Alton Alton - London (for 5 days) Fly to Shannon Ireland (for 2 days) Back Home! ...I'll let the pictures speak for themselves! Stacey had to try the Moscow Donkey - it involved Ginger Beer and was very tasty! Everything was very *british* - Note the first few drink names.. Moscow Donkey?!! WTF? With the cold windy weather it was not like a normal cruise. The outdoor pools did not get used at all! The ship even has a kennel for folks who take their animals on the crossing. The dogs did not seemed bothered by the rocking of the ship! For most of the time the fog was so thick you could only see a few feet off the side and the front of the ship. This was the first trans-atlantic crossing of the year so we were not allowed out on deck due to high winds for most of it. One of the best meals I have ever had - short ribs with horseradish foam....OMG to die for. The first day at sea was *very* rocky - we decided to eat lunch in the specialty restaurant "Todd English" - it was deserted! The line is *very* elegant. Here I am trying to fit in by opening a bottle of champagne with my teeth! The dining room was beautiful - although a bit "Titanic" - the ship still has a class system with the main dining room for the commoners and nicer grills for the suites. We were supposed to depart before it was dark but the ship was a bit delayed. Here we are passing under the Veranzano Narrows Bridge by less than a foot! The flag on the back of the ship is bigger than me.. SCARY! The view from our balcony in our stateroom was the Statue of Liberty! This is the last land we will see for 6 days! We finally make it to NY and to our home for the next 6 day - the Queen Mary 2! A transatlantic crossing is an amazing experience. We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us - but we decided to stop by South of the Border.. It's still pretty scary! The theming is great there - they even have a mascot dog - Shadow. You see his footprints and markings all over the resort. ...And a directional sign to the nearest DVC resorts! Complete with a hidden mickey in the Fire Pit! The first night we drove to Disney's Hilton Head Resort. It's a DVC resort in South Carolina. It's like a little bit of WDW!
disneyfan1313 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Posted June 1, 2007 And more! Our servers got so PO'd that we ordered 20 iced teas every night - they finally started bringing them in Pint Glasses.. Rock ON! Here I am outside of #6's house - which is also a shop that sells Prisoner memorabilia. Worst. Server. Ever. - It was shocking how bad/creepy our servers were on this luxury ship. They would have been average on a carnival cruise to Nassau - but for this.. WTF?! Here is the grand lobby in the ship. The public areas on the ship were plentiful and beautiful - here is the "Winter Garden" Here I am outside of #6's house - which is also a shop that sells Prisoner memorabilia. The have a full sized british post box right outside the pub... how fun! We also did the theater backstage tour - here is stacey on stage!
disneyfan1313 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Posted June 1, 2007 Argh - I can't delete the doubles in the last post without deleting both! WTF?! Next Stop - Ticket Scalper Central! We walked all the way down to the tower (which was closed) and then took a trolly back to our fab hotel - The Big Blue! The park closed at 6pm (although the friggin rides closed at 530) so we decided to walk along the scary closed strip in blackpool. This ride is SO a clone of the Calico Mine train ride at Knotts! Damn you infusion for opening late. There was A LOT closed in the park while we were there. Kinda disappointing. This would have been awesome... IN 1992! We loved the fun dark rides at blackpool - this one had a nemo that someone had thrown in the water.. Funny! Damn my stacker addiction. I'm going to win it somewhere. Noahs Ark was creepy, felt dangerous and I thought it would never end. It is really bizarre. Valhalla is seriously one of the best rides either of us have been on in the entire world. It's just insane! You *know* its a great water ride when they have to wet-vac the seats! ...giant rodents you can ride! This magic mountain is MUCH better than the 6 Flags one! This is a scary dark ride with... What on earth is this scary, rusty thing? The even have the worlds largest carousel horse! This was an awesome hedge maze! I love how everything is on top of each other in this park. It was cool to see the steplechase go overhead. Stepelchase was our first stop - Fun, Scary and Painful!
disneyfan1313 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Posted June 1, 2007 Photos R Us! Eating soup in Wagamama in London. I could eat there every day. That night we decided to eat in the "Rose and Crown Pub" - because we missed Epcot! We didn't realize how beautiful the gardens were going to be - we really wished we had more time to explore. We had 20 minutes to hit Air and then run across to Oblivion before the park closed. Air went down with the folks stuck in dogystyle. We made it to Oblivion with 30 seconds to spare! Why on earth am I humping the dino bones? Rita was a lot of fun - we did the single rider line to avoid the 90 min wait and we ended up being seated together! Luck! We spent quite a bit of time exploring the castle - no line there! Unfortunately it is in horrible shape. This was one of our fave rides in the park - I am almost too tall to ride! Alton was fun - but really...really... busy. We wanted to buy their "Fastpass" but they were not selling it because "it was not busy enough" Sigh.
disneyfan1313 Posted June 1, 2007 Author Posted June 1, 2007 London Calling! What an amazing journey! Thanks for joining us! Kiss the Blarney Stone! The next day we took a 2 hour bus ride to Blarney Castle to do the typical tourist thing.. Ireland also still had fried apple pies in McDonalds which always makes my heart happy! They had donkey's there also! This castle however had a dinner show in it - kinda like a real life medieval times..but not lame. Stacey's goal was to see 1 castle on the trip.. I think we saw 30. Next day we flew to Ireland and went to Bunratty Castle - it was kinda like a renaissance festival We got to eat at one of Gordon Ramsey's (Hell's Kitchen on Fox) restaurants - La Noicette - it was amazing! We got our London Eye Credit - It was a lot of fun and a great view! Best. Airport. Code. Ever. Look Elissa - It's a cute PLAGUE RAT! WTF?! And it's a hand puppet too! The changing of the guards was a bit disappointing - until the played the theme to "Pirates of the Caribbean" - no really..they did. I *heart* 99 Flakes! Tower of London was really cool and worth a visit. Here is part of the towers armory. GIANT BEAR ALERT!!!! HIDE YOUR CHILDREN! Tower Bridge in the backround...not London Bridge as most think. London has awesome Indian food - here we are with Cold Sweet potato with Pomegranate seeds covered in cinnamon, ginger and cardamon. There are lots of beautiful brides in London and I think we walked across all of them! We also stumbled upon them filming "Antiques Roadshow" - Cool! I'm taller than the guard! SIGNATURE SHOT!
Meteornotes Posted June 1, 2007 Posted June 1, 2007 Those are some awesome pictures. I still say London is the greatest city in the world. And thanks for posting all those pics of the Village. I hope you are with me in my campaign to keep them from re-making that TV show like they're planning. There is no way it will turn out well! dt
IceDragon Posted June 1, 2007 Posted June 1, 2007 Congrats on your honeymoon! If you think food is good in London, next time you're over, take a trip to Camden Market. It's full of goths, emos and scene kids, but the food court is simply the best ever!
Louise Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Reed, that was Red Dawn Awesome!! I'm so glad you guys had fun!! A few random comments: * SUCKS that Alton was busy but not selling the fastpasses. WTF!!! * Also sucks that no everything was open at BPB. Which coasters did you get to ride? Valhalla rocks. * LOL at your "wtf is this rusty thing" about the moving chair. There are pictures on here somewhere (maybe the Southport update) of Ryan riding one of those on the UK trip. ROTATING CHAIR. * I'm so jealous that you got to eat at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant!! I love "chef's" restaurants, but they're generally so overpriced for what you get, even though the food is often outstanding. * Wagamama's is orgasmic. Chicken katsu curry is like my favourite meal ever. * The cruise ship looks beautiful. Shame the service wasn't what it should have been. * Antiques Roadshow makes me joygasm. * I love that you have a random mini-obsession with comparing your height with other things. Really great pictures, thanks for sharing!
Ed Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Chicken Ramen > Chicken Katsu Curry. Big lol to the guards playing Pirates theme.. Everyones so commercial these days..
SharkTums Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 The Plague Rat Hand Puppet must be mine!!! Someone send me one or seven NOW!
cfc Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 You two sure crammed in a lot! London is a wonderful city. Although I liked most of Blackpool's coasters, Valhalla and the dark rides make that park really stand out.
DerekRx Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Description: There are lots of beautiful brides in London and I think we walked across all of them! Dude, that sounds like it could possibly be the BEST selling point about a trip to London, walking across a bunch of brides! Seriously, great pictures, glad you guys had a wonderful honeymoon, despite some of the coasters being closed or having long lines. Congrats on getting hitched.
Louise Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 The Plague Rat Hand Puppet must be mine!!! Someone send me one or seven NOW! Lazy, order 'em yourself. http://www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk/13544.aspx Edited to add: It'll give you hours of fun, apparently!!
disneyfan1313 Posted June 2, 2007 Author Posted June 2, 2007 A few random comments: * SUCKS that Alton was busy but not selling the fastpasses. WTF!!! Yeah, it was kind of weird. They have signs up all over the place so we asked at the ticket booth for them and got the "No... it's not busy enough" They have the tip board you can see from there and I told her that the waits on the tip board were 60 and 90 minutes. I just got a blank stare. Oh well! We ended up doing everything we wanted - just had to rush a bit. * Also sucks that no everything was open at BPB. Which coasters did you get to ride? Valhalla rocks. It was weird... it seemed like everything had operating hours other than the park and there was no signage or info to reflect this. Lots of the dark rides seemed to close at 4pm and good luck finding food and merch places open. Perhaps we were just there on an off day. In many ways though - even with the issues we enjoyed it more than Alton. * I'm so jealous that you got to eat at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant!! I love "chef's" restaurants, but they're generally so overpriced for what you get, even though the food is often outstanding. It was *amazing*. We had a set meal at lunch that was only 37pounds per person - and worth EVERY penny. Dinner the same meal would have been 60 per person. It was our one food splurge of the trip. * The cruise ship looks beautiful. Shame the service wasn't what it should have been. It was just kinda odd. It was if there was a McDonalds in a 5 star luxury hotel and your maid usually worked at the Motel 6. Everything else was amazing... the service just seemed...Unfinshed? * I love that you have a random mini-obsession with comparing your height with other things. Stacey thought it was funny that in every castle we went into the doors were 5 or 6 inches to short for me. (i'm 6'2). So we have about 30 pictures of me walking through doors. Random!
disneyfan1313 Posted June 2, 2007 Author Posted June 2, 2007 The Plague Rat Hand Puppet must be mine!!! Someone send me one or seven NOW! Lazy, order 'em yourself. http://www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk/13544.aspx Edited to add: It'll give you hours of fun, apparently!! 11.99 is a good deal! Where we saw them they were 16pounds or so. We were thinking about getting you one but figured you already had it... sorry!!
BeemerBoy Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Awesome report guys! Culture and coasters = the perfect mix. So do they wipe the stone off before every kiss?
shesaidboom Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 I loved London and I loved this TR [even though some of the pictures weren't working for me. Is it just me?]! So were you guys not allowed outside at all for the entire time you were at sea?! I would go stir crazy inside a boat for that long! It sucks that some of the rides were closed and that you couldn't get a fast pass at Alton, but it looks like you guys had an awesome time anyway. I wish I had seen the plague rat puppets while I was in London, those are hilarious!
Chrissie Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Congratulations Reed and Stacey!! Awesome TR, Im glad u guys went to Ireland. Its beautiful there. My bf lives around 45 mins from Shannon and I love going there, Ive still to kiss the Balarney stone however. So maybe I'll get to do that soon
arrowfanman Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Reed! Stacy! Thanks for posting! Great PTR, really. What a unique trip! I envy you two, much! And congrats on the marriage, again! You two are beautiful! -Jahan
larrygator Posted June 2, 2007 Posted June 2, 2007 Oh man, that wasn't the real Blarney Stone, it was just a way for the Irish to get some credits. I can't believe tourists still fall for that one.
moinab Posted June 3, 2007 Posted June 3, 2007 Congratulations! What a great honeymoon trip. Your food pictures have me drooling. The Pop-Tart I just ate pales in comparison. We never had a honeymoon - got married on a whim, during a long weekend in Manhattan. (Not recommended, BTW, but 8 1/2 years and three kids later, we're still )
tp2215 Posted June 12, 2007 Posted June 12, 2007 YOU SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT YOUR BROTHER WITH YOU!!!! Im just kidding, it me Tommy (Staceys brother and well.. Reeds brother in law I just wanted to say that Im glad you guys had a great time on your honey moon and congratulations. I did just joined the site and I have to say its great, hopefully soon ill have some pics to post! See ya all later!
mcjaco Posted June 12, 2007 Posted June 12, 2007 Mmmm, McDonald's fired apple pies. They should of never gotten rid of them!
verticalzero Posted June 12, 2007 Posted June 12, 2007 Congratulations on your wedding day and Honeymoon, Hope you did not get 2 bored on the ship, shame they don't have a "Drop Tower" or mini stand-up on board. Glad you enjoyed the "english" way for a couple of days, AT should of given you some "fast track passes" for free. Gordon Ramsey's restaurant is not for me, it's 2 much of designer food, a MD's (kids meal £1.99) will do me. How long did it take you to drive from FL to NY..?
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