When D. and I got maried -- June 28, 1987 -- we argued about where to spend our honeymoon. I wanted someplace exotic and romantic, like Hawaii or the Bahamas. He wanted to go to Central Florida -- his parents and sister had gone to Disney World and Seaworld while travelling in Florida (my in-laws were planning a Florida retirement at the time).
Ultimately we found a solution, and a perfect vacation.
Premier Cruise Lines
this was before Disney owned a cruise line, and Premier was the official cruise line of WDW. The package included: (1) 4 days (Monday to Friday) on the Big Red Boat, with ports of call in Nassau, Bahamas and on a private island; (2) admission to the Kennedy Space Center in Port Canaveral; (3) 3 days at WDW (Friday to Sunday)(remember, there were only two parks in 1987 -- Magic Kingdom and EPCOT); (4) off-site accomodations (ours was a hotel on International Drive); (5) round-trip airfare from NYC to Orlando; and (6) a rental car for the entire length of your stay.
we had friends living in Fort Lauderdale, so we arranged to keep the rental a few extra days, drive down to visit our friends and fly home from Lauderdale.
We had a nice cruise -- we took a tour of Nassau, went shopping and saw a nightclub show. we snorkled on teh private island. enjoyed activities on the ship, including a honeymoon reception with the captain, a photo op with Mickey Mouse, a costume party and a tour of the bridge.
we had a nice tour of Kenedy Space Center.
then we drove from Canaveral to Orlando, checked into our hotel....and watched a tropical rainstorm. decided to wait until morning before venturing over to WDW.
so the first time I set foot on Disney property was July 4, 1987. the parks had extended hours that weekend, of course. We got to Magic Kingdom an hour beofre rope drop, spent some time there and then took the monorail to EPCOT for awhile, then closed out the evening back at the magic Kingdom -- which stayed open until 2 AM. did the same thing the next day -- rope drop until closing. came back Monday morning to ride a few of our favorites one last time.
we "had" to see Carrousel of Progress and Small World, because both of us remembered those rides from the 1964-1965 NY World's Fair. We must have ridden Space Mountain 5 times.loved the Haunted Mansion (that was the year George harrison did a video of his song "Set on You" inside the mansion!) and despite the fact that it was the 4th of July and the parks were way crowded, we managed to see "everything" in both parks. of course, the fact that we got no sleep....and that I fell asleep in the Tiki Birds....is just a minor detail....
and on Monday afternoon we headed over to Sea World. back then Sea World had no thrill rides and was much more "real" than WDW, so it was a bit of culture shock to be there.
ah, yes, fun times.
who would have imagined it would be 11 years until my next Disney vacation?
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