Disney World 1999: Lessons Learned from Honeymooners

1999 Honeymoon at Animal KingdomThis month, I’m writing a series titled 31 Days of Disney! In this part of the series, I’m reviewing past Disney trips and lessons learned along the way. Today’s post is a review of our first trip to Disney World as a married couple. If you’re considering honeymooning at Disney, love Disney or just want an entertaining read, this one’s for you!

Quick Summary of our 1999 Trip to Disney World

We got married in June 1998 and promptly made a big move from Minnesota to Indiana for work and graduate school. So it wasn’t really a great time to embark on a traditional post-wedding honeymoon. After we got into our new apartment in Indiana, we headed straight for Louisville, Kentucky, for a couple nights away. Louisville was nice, but as you might imagine, wasn’t very “honeymoonish.” Nine months later, in March 1999, we decided to take a second go at a honeymoon and booked our first trip to Disney World as a married couple!

Someone generously gifted us their time share for the week, so we stayed off property at a beautiful resort. While we were at Walt Disney World, we visited the Magic Kingdom, Disney MGM Studios (now known as Hollywood Studios), Animal Kingdom, and Epcot. We also spent quite a bit of time at Downtown Disney, including a night at Cirque du Soleil’s show La Nouba, permanently located in the heart of Downtown Disney.

We had a great time, including lots of relaxation back at our two-bedroom time share suite, which I can see now was entirely too big and grand for two newlyweds. It’s safe to say we had no idea how good we had it! No kids. A huge suite to ourselves, generously gifted to us by someone else. And a whole week at Disney World? Sweet!

(My apologies for the off-color photos. 1999 was so long ago, we were still photographing with film then, so I had to take pictures of pictures for this post!)

Lessons Learned From Honeymooners

The Beast

Lesson 1: Take lots of pictures of each other when you’re at Disney!

We have 44 photographs of our week-long Disney World honeymoon in 1999. Only 5 of those photos are of the two of us together. Let’s be real. When you’re traveling as honeymooners (or as a couple) you’re not going to have a lot of photos of the two of you together unless you’re totally into selfies, have a selfie stick, or are willing to ask people to take your picture all the time. Here’s the thing. It doesn’t really matter. Definitely make sure you get some awesome pictures of you as a couple. But go wild taking pictures of each other, too! Just make sure you get a diverse sampling of photos with characters and Disney-themed backgrounds. They’re fun to look through, and many years from now will remind you of simpler days when it was just the two of you! Those photos will remind you how thin you were, how overweight you were, how silly you dressed, how much fun you had, and how in love you were (and are) with your spouse. It doesn’t really matter if you’re photographed together or alone, just be sure to take pictures. They’ll bring back great memories someday.

Downtown Disney

Lesson 2: Stay up and do all the late-night adult activities you can!

As I mentioned earlier, we took full advantage of Downtown Disney as honeymooners. If you’re traveling to Disney as honeymooners (or as a couple, just the two of you), I highly recommend late nights at Downtown Disney. There are a LOT of things to do, including fabulous restaurants, bars, clubs, movies, shopping and entertainment such as Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba. We’ve been to Disney World several times since our honeymoon, but we’ve never been able to take advantage of Downtown Disney the way we did when we were honeymooners with no kids. While we’re talking Disney night life, I also definitely recommend taking advantage of Disney’s late-night Extra Magic Hours. Extra Magic Hours are select dates where Disney parks are open extra early and extra late for guests’ extended enjoyment. As honeymooners, you have the distinct opportunity to take Disney up on their offer. Research which parks have late Extra Magic Hours the week you’re there, and go all out! Stay up late! Enjoy yourselves! Have fun! Disney is just as awesome late night as it is during the daytime.

honeymooning at Disney World

Lesson 3: Raise your hands when they ask for honeymooner volunteers!

There are a few live shows at Walt Disney World that recruit volunteers to participate! One of those shows is “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular” at Hollywood Studios. Guaranteed. They’ll ask for a whole host of volunteers, including a honeymooning couple. This is your chance. This is your big break. Whether you like it or not, you could be in a live show at Disney World. I’m not sure whose idea it was for us to volunteer (probably my husband’s since he’s the extroverted performer), but we did and found ourselves dressed like this in front of a crowd of several hundred Disney guests. We became part of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. It was certainly out of my box, but definitely fun and a great memory and photo op, of course! So if you’re honeymooning anywhere Disney? Listen up, friends! Listen for cast members’ calls for honeymooner volunteers. You might have this one chance to be in a stunt show, or maybe you’ll get some other cool Disney perks you never would have received otherwise. Disney loves honeymooners!

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31DaysofDisney_medium2This post is part of a month-long series titled 31 Days of Disney! If you’d like to read more posts from the series, click here and you’ll be directed back to the 31 Days of Disney landing page. ALL posts from the series are linked within the body of that post. Find a title or topic that intrigues you, click on it, and the post will pop up for your Disney reading adventure!

I also placed the series graphic on the right sidebar of my blog’s home page, so click it anytime and it’ll bring you back to the 31 Days of Disney landing page where all 31 posts are listed and linked.

You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AmyBPederson where I’ll tweet links to all 31 posts using hashtag #write31days, and I’d LOVE to connect on Facebook at facebook.com/AmyBPederson. You can also find me on Instagram at instagram.com/AmyBPederson, and I might even do a few scopes live from Disney World, so follow me on Periscope at @AmyBPederson to see if I get brave!

So glad you stopped by! Make yourself comfortable. Take a peek around the place, and know you’re welcome back anytime.

  1. Traci says:

    I also honeymooned in WDW. We were married a year when we went. My husband fell in love with Disney on the trip. (I already loved that place.)
    We would ask other couples to take our picture and then would take their picture for them.

    • Amy says:

      Great idea, Traci!! It feels like an equal exchange when you can do something for one another! So awesome you were able to honeymoon at WDW.

  2. Rachel G says:

    So cool you guys got to be in the show! What cute pictures. I wanted a Disneyworld honeymoon, but we couldn’t swing it at the time (we actually had a Mammoth Cave National Park honeymoon instead, and one of those days we drove up to Louisville!). I’d love to go to Disneyworld with the husband someday–I went by myself with my family a couple years ago.

    • Amy says:

      Hi Rachel! Looks like we have something in common with the Louisville honeymoon! 😉 Mammoth Cave National Park sounds cool, though! Sure hope you get that Disney World vacation with your husband someday. It’s a great trip no matter what season of life you’re able to go. Blessings!

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