Orlando, Florida

Saturday, November 3, 2007 - Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Our friends Jen and Bill's wedding had finally arrived, and Jill and I were invited to the festivities! Never ones to turn down a trip to Orlando, we headed out on Saturday so that we could be in Florida for most of the wedding parties and such.

We flew out of Syracuse on JetBlue (flight 661, left SYR at 9:10AM, arrived MCO at 12:02PM; seats 7B and 7C), picked up the rental car from Alamo and headed out 417 toward property. We had to pick up some essentials, so we stopped at a Target to grab those and then went to Chick-fil-a for some lunch. Afterwards we headed to our resort to check in - this trip we were staying at The Boardwalk! Jill and I had always wanted to stay here; it looked like a neat place and many times we found ourselves wandering the boardwalk when we didn't have anything to do on past trips. Although the location was great for both wedding activities and Epcot (we were literally out the backdoor of Epcot), we found that the amenities that we have enjoyed at other resorts didn't exist here.

On Saturday night, we met up with 'the crew' and did a 'Drink and Eat Around the World'. This was especially good because the Food and Wine Festival was still going on, so it increased our drinking and eating options tenfold! After that, a group of us headed to Jelly Rolls to sing and drink some more! (I'll bet you never knew there was that much alcohol at Disney, eh??).

Sunday rolled around, and we slept in a bit (Jelly Rolls is open until 2:00, and we durn near closed the place!). We had trouble finding somewhere to have breakfast at The Boardwalk (hence the poor amenities comment earlier) so considering we had to find a drug store to go to, we drove down 192 and had breakfast at the Waffle House, hit the Walgreens, and then went back to the resort. We met up with Jen and Bill as well as the Orlando Burns' Sheera and Chris in Jen and Bill's room where the girls prepared more wedding stuff and the guys watched the football games on TV. There was a tea for the girls scheduled in the afternoon, so while they went to that at the Grand Floridian, they guys hung out and watched football.

After the tea, Chris and I met back up with Jill and Sheera, as well as Harlan and Tiffany, at the pool bar at the Poly where we hung out and had more drinks while the rest were at the wedding rehearsal. Then we went to the rehearsal dinner at Ohana with the wedding party and out of town guests. After the dinner, it was time for Jill and I to visit the mouse, since we hadn't on this trip as of yet. We took full advantage of the 'extra magic hours', and toured our way around the Magic Kingdom.

Monday morning presented us with the same problem as the preceeding morning - what to do for breakfast. This time, we went in the International Gateway in Epcot and had breakfast at The Land. We toured around Epcot for a bit, hitting our favorite rides and taking in a bit more of the Food & Wine Festival. Then it was on to the wedding!

We met up with a few other wedding goers in front of The Boardwalk and waited for the bus...and waited..and waited...it finally arrived, but the bus driver didn't know Disney property all that well (it was a Disney Cruise Line bus), so he had a bit of trouble getting us to the chapel on time. In fact, they were calling him on the radio wondering where he was because he was holding up the ceremony by being late!

Jen and Bill did great for their ceremony, and it certainly tugged at the old heartstrings since this was the first time Jill and I were in the Wedding Pavilion since we were married there last year!

The reception was held at the Atlantic Dance Hall, which is located within The Boardwalk resort. We had a cocktail hour upstairs and then the main event downstairs. At the end of the reception, we stumbled back to the room exhausted!

On Tuesday, we were up and out of the room early and straight over to Animal Kingdom! Why you ask? To visit the Yetti of course! Three times in the front row we rode Everest, quickly becoming our favorite thrill ride at Disney! Having our fill of that, we went back to Epcot one more time to deliver a couple of Tim Horton's goodies for Haley, a girl that worked in the Canada Pavilion and made Jill and I 'Honorary Canadians' on our last trip down. She was thrilled with the treats from 'home'!

After touring around Epcot a bit, it was off to MCO for the JetBlue flight back to Syracuse (direct - flight 660 - leaving at 5:20PM, arriving SYR at 8:00PM; seats 8D and 8E) and drive back to Binghamton....

Total Driving Mileage: 147 Miles
Total Flight Mileage: 2425 Miles

Total Mileage: 2572 Miles