Honeymoon Day 11: The Early Birds Get The Royal Treatment

Today was the day I said "see ya" to all those well rested mornings. We woke up at 5:00 am (yes, it was as horrible as it sounds) to board a shuttle back to the airport so we could hop on the Disney Magical Express to our hotel. Thankfully we had our choice of seats.

Why so empty? Two reasons really:

1) Mid-January is one of the least crowded times of year at Disney
2) Who in God's name wants to be up and on the Magical Express at 6 am? Jürgen, that's who!

We arrived at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort in no time, and shockingly (note the sarcasm) didn't have to wait at all to check in. Of course our room was not ready as someone (not me!) was probably sleeping. After checking in they gave us our park passes and two buttons with the images of Prince Charming and Cinderella emblazoned on the front of them with the words "Just Married!" We were advised to wear these during our stay. Best. Advice. Ever.

We had some time to kill before we could catch the 7:45am bus to MGM...oh wait...I'm sorry it's Disney's Hollywood Studios...ridiculous new name. So here are some photos Jürg snapped. He likes to do that.

Not quite PSV....but it certainly had it's own special flair.

When we arrived at MGM (I refuse to conform!) we were the FIRST people in line. Yes it's true. Have you ever heard of such madness? We had over an hour before the park actually opened which gave us plenty of time to chart our course of action for the day. At about 8:30 two Disney crew members approached us and offered their congrats (this is what happened everywhere we went due to the magical powers of our buttons). Then, much to our surprise, they asked "Would you like to open the park for us?"

Being attention whores we said yes, and were immediately let through the gate into a VIP waiting room. This is how I felt about all of this:

"What is going on??"

We were informed that we would have lines we would have to say in front of the entire crowd, but it would be easy and we would be told what to do. For the next half hour we had no idea what was going on, but we did get to stare at everyone behind the rope while we had access to the empty streets of Disney. Freakin' sweet!
Getting ready to be stars. Maybe they had seen my Zune commercial?

A candid moment caught while we waiting for our close up.

It had been years since I had been to Disney World, in fact the last time I was there I couldn't drive and Bill Clinton was in office. Suffice to say, times have changed. Nowadays before they let anyone into the parks they put on some kind of "show" just to rev you up and make you irritated (I don't think that's the actual intention...). The premise of the MGM show is an old Hollywood actress turns the corner in a white car and she will be starring in a new film called "Celebrate You!" (you have to say that with TONS of energy). We were to be the young Hollywood Couple alongside a "famous" film director and his quirky assistant. We were introduced, the crowd cheered for our newlywed status and we were prompted to say our big line:

"Hollywood Here We Come!"

This woman was very intense.


Can't you just sense their irritation?



The whole thing took at least seven minutes, but in the end we were driven to the Rock and Roller Coaster where we got to ride the coaster all by ourselves.


That will certainly wake you up! After our solo ride, we were given fast passes to any ride in the park and told there would be a gift waiting for us at the hospitality suite on the way out.

My Advice: Get thee a "Just Married" Button. Honestly when we go back with my family in August we are gonna rock them all over again. Don't tell anyone!

The rest of the day was a blast. We rode the Tower of Terror three times and the Rock and Roller coaster twice. We saw the car stunt show, the Indiana Jones show, Fantasmic, the Muppet 3-D movie and so many others. However, without a doubt, our favorite ride of the day was the Toy Story Midway Adventure. An amazing 3-D experience of all kinds of Midway Games. We rode it three times that day and came back a few days later to ride it again. Jürgen always beat me, but I excelled in the accuracy department. Now I ask you, which is more important?

Mr. Potato Head entertains you while you wait (longest personal wait time: 90 mins)



Tomorrow: Epcot!

Honeymoon Day 10: From one world to another...

I have to say, one of the best decisions we made was to add on a trip to Disney World after our stay in PSV. I think I would have suffered a breakdown if I had to go straight back to the land of the real life from such a remarkable place. Disney was a perfect outlet: fun, fast paced (but in a good way) and equally relaxing (in a totally different way).

Today was another long travel day with three plane rides and one boat ride. We are jet setters what can I say? The managers at PSV sent us off with a packed lunch which was beyond nice of them, and was put to good use while waiting to check in at the Barbados airport.

First step: A boat ride to Union Island.



Second Step: A 45 minute flight from Union Island to Barbados in that god-forsaken plane.

After we arrived in Barbados's we were excited to be able to spend the four hour layover in the airlines executive lounge, which boasted free drinks and snacks along with continuing coverage of Obama's soon to be Inauguration and best of all....free Internet!



My name is Blair and I am an Internetaholic.

It's true. As much as I enjoyed being "away from it all" oh how I missed my Internet. My connection to the world. My gmail. My facebook...the list goes on.

After several hours of world wide web-inducing bliss we hopped another plane to Atlanta (3rd step). "The Duchess" was our in-flight film and I am pleased to report that is one of the most forgettable films of the decade.

When we arrived in Atlanta we made our way through customs and needed to feed ourselves. This was the first, harsh, kick-you-in-the-stomach-back-to-real-life moment: airport food. This picture sums it up nicely I think.



After we finished our food, and I wanted to run away forever, we still had a two hour wait until our flight to Orlando. It occurred to me that I have an American Express card which allegedly grants me access to Airline Clubs. I wanted to test the theory, and I passed! However it must be said that the woman who checked us in stared and me and asked "You are 21 right?" We spent the next few hours drinking some more and I enjoyed being able to use my crackberry once again.

We finally landed in Orlando around midnight, checked into a nearby hotel, and slept for a grand total of four hours. More on that later....

Honeymoon Day 9: That Darn Cat

Remember how I fondly recollected our time with the Hobie Cat? We aimed to recreate this romance again today, only to discover we were missing a vital element: wind.

Yep not so much wind today. We had high aspirations of sailing around the island but without the wind we found ourselves going no where fast. We had our moments of glory, but they were fleeting and our joy came to a schreeching halt.

Today was our final day in PSV and we enjoyed it as much as all the others. It really was a perfect place to honeymoon. That evening there was another island cookout, this time complete with a steel drum band and of course lots of yummy food.

One of the few pictures of the two of us that we have! We are so bad about taking pictures.

While we were of course a bit despondent about leaving la-la land, we were also very excited for the adventures that lay in store for us. No the honeymoon did not end here! We were going to Disney World!

Honeymoon Day 8: Not all Cats are Afraid of the Water

As we entered the home stretch of our stay at PSV we were eager to eek out whatever we could from the island. At dinner the night before one of the managers suggested we take out a Hobie Cat and give it a whirl. Well whirl we did! We LOVED the Hobie Cat! It’s easy to maneuver and very relaxing. We sailed back and forth from Petite Martinique to PSV for over an hour. Our only regret? We didn’t discover it sooner.



The rest of the day followed our standard protocol, except we did decide to have our afternoon tea served at our west end hammock while we played games. One thing to note was today marked a change in the weather…humidity season began to descend and with it brought bugs.

My entire life I have been like a walking neon purple light flycatcher. Bugs….what can I say?…. they love me. This love affair was none to sweet and left my legs covered in welts.

That night we got before dinner drinks once again and enjoyed tuna, avocado and artichoke beignets along with sautéed Kingfish filet and slow braised Veal Osso Bucco


Now I leave you with more photos from the Jürg:
The yoga studio. We never actually took a class but it would have been an ideal place if you wanted to get up at 6am.


More unique shrubbery.
A portrait of the artist.

Honeymoon Day 7: It's a small world...

Today was back to the daily grind....no no we didn't head back to reality, just no major adventures planned for the day.

We attempted to wind surf after breakfast, which proved to be a smashing failure. Jürgen managed to get up for a bit, I however fell twice and promptly threw in the towel. I do not like to be bad at things, which prevents me from learning new skills. I must improve this flaw within myself. Today was not the day.

We received an invitation in our room from the mangers inviting us to their cottage for cocktails that evening. What a nice surprise. We gussied ourselves up and walked down the hill to their beautiful place with an open air kitchen and yummy hors d'oeuvres. It was at this cocktail party where we met Sue and Tex, a lovely couple who also reside in Chicago! As luck would have it they had even seen Jürgen in Rabbit Hole at the Goodman Theatre. Amazing how you travel to a remote island only to meet your fellow neighbors. I promised them we would email....which I have yet to do, but I will as soon as I finish this entry! Shame on me.

That evening proved to be the least eventful dinner of our stay in PSV. We started with golden crusted chicken fingers and a green salad, Jürg had a baked stuffed lobster with lump crab meet and scallion butter sauce, and I had the St. Vincent curried conch stew which I ate three bites of.

Since today wasn't a super eventful day I wanted to take this time to share some of the beautiful photos Jürgen took throughout our stay at PSV. Sit back, relax, enjoy.

The hill near our cottage

The spot on the West end beach where you could order food...or.....
Have a Banana!


All kinds of interesting shrubbery


More photos to come!