Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Honeymoon

We headed off to Florida the day after our wedding. Our friends Jessica & Tony hooked us up with the trip. We got it for a great price. It was a time share trip and we knew we would have to sit through a time share presentation but were excited nonetheless. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into!
Us at the airport in SLC!
We wore our hats that we ordered and got alot of attention from them. When we got to Ft. Lauderdale to pick up our rental car the guy gave us a free upgrade and we got to drive this the whole time: Ryan was stoked.
Saturday was the day we had to go to the time share presentation. We drove down to Palm Beach to the resort where it was held. We were told it was only going to be 2 hours, but it ended up being more like 3 1/2 to 4. Our "guide" took us to breakfast and took us for a tour around the property. He knew we weren't going to buy anything so he took his time. He was really cool about it when we told him no, but when his supervisor came over she was horrible! She kept trying to force it on us and wouldn't let up. I wanted to punch her in the face!After the presentation we were allowed to hang out on the resort all day so we went to their private beach for a few hours.
It rains all the time down there it seems. It was so cool, we got to watch a thunder and lighting storm out at sea. Kind of scary though cause it looked like it was coming for us!
The next day we drove down to Miami and found a private beach and played there for awhile.
We drove around Miami exploring for awhile and then headed back to the room. Everyday we were in Ft. Lauderdale we were in our room by 7:30 and just ate a ton of candy and treats and watched TV! It was great!
Monday was the day we went on our cruise! Since this was a time share trip everything was of course bottom line. They told us when we set up the trip that we would have bunk beds in our cabin. Ryan of course embraced it and called top bunk right away. We were kind of hoping however that our hats would help us get a free upgrade. No bueno. But fortunately it wasn't bunk beds just two twins that we pushed together! Anyways, when we checked in they told us that we had to sit through this thing when we got on board for about an hour and we would get free lunch. I don't remember how they worded it exactly but they made it sound like it was just a welcoming lunch. Well to our surprise it was ANOTHER time share presentation!! It ended up taking about 2 hours , again longer than they said. I was so annoyed and upset! No one should have to do this on their honeymoon!! We said no thank you and went on our way and enjoyed the rest of our day.
We decided since it was our honeymoon that we would spoil ourselves a little. We went to a really fancy dinner later that evening. The idea was great... but the food... not so much. Raw salmon with mustard sauce and a goat cheese cake?? Who eats like that?? It was a lovely atmosphere and we had a great view... too bad we both got sea sick and had to leave early. Since they waited 15 minutes between each course we couldn't handle it anymore. So before our salads even came out we asked if we could get it right away. They offered to box it up and we could take it to our room. So that's what we did!! They also made us a cute honeymoon cake that tasted like soap. The only thing we liked about the meal was the filet mignon. I have never had a steak so juicy in my life! We cruised to Nassau Bahamas and we only got to be there for the day. Again we decided to spoil ourselves and pay a little extra to go have full access to the Atlantis Resort. This included their water park. SO MUCH FUN!!! Since September is their off season and we were the only ones from our cruise to go we walked on to pretty much every ride. There was one that shot you straight down through a shark tank. Most of those pics are on my water camera I have yet to develop.
We spent most of the morning there until my nose couldn't handle any more water going up it and my butt couldn't handle any more wedgies.
We then wandered around and looked at their aquariums. They had so many cool fish and other sea creatures.
They had one where there were baby sting rays and hammer head sharks! Cute!
They even had a Manta ray. This thing was HUGE! We had some time after that we headed to the beach for a minute. As soon as we sat down we got bombarded by a local lady selling jewelry that she had made. We felt too bad not to buy..
We had to be back on the boat by 5. I think we might have gotten heat exhaustion cause when we got back to our room we fell asleep till about 8!
Wednesday we got off the boat and headed to Orlando. When we got to our hotel we found out that we had to sit through yet ANOTHER time share presentation. I was furious and ready to kick someones butt. I thought that the one on the cruise ship was going to be the last and that we were going to get to enjoy the rest of our trip. So we went to it on Thursday morning. I went in ready to fight. Then this little old lady comes up and is as sweet as can be. There was no way I could have been rude to her! So we just honestly said, "Look, we are on our honeymoon, we were told we only had to sit through one of these and this is our third, we cant afford to buy a vacation home when we are barley getting by with rent. We don't want to waste either of our time". So she looked at us and said.."Ya know I don't even care. I am retired and do this just to pass the time. So lets go get you some breakfast and get you back on your honeymoon." So we had breakfast and chatted for awhile and then she took us back early.
Then we headed to Universal Studios. It was so humid and hot it was ridiculous! Universal Studios was okay. The one big crazy ride we really wanted to go on closed down as we were walking up to it. Call it dumb luck. We went into one ride and when we came out it was POURING. Everyone was hiding inside, but we just walked right out into it we were so hot. The rain was still pretty warm.
We then headed over to the Island of Adventure. We had alot more fun here. They have lots of fun roller coasters. We realized however that we aren't little kids anymore that we cant handle the crazy twisty rides like we used to. Our heads hurt so bad afterwards.
WE went on this one ride in cartoon town that is like Splash Mountain at Disney World, but this one gets you absolutely SOAKED!!!
My favorite ride was the one that shoots you up really fast. Like the Rocket at Lagoon! We went on it probably 5 times!
We went and ate at Hard Rock after. After attempting to go there for New Years here in Utah and finding out that it had left, it was about time that we got to have it.
The plane ride home seemed longer than the one to get there. We just wanted to be home SO bad. When we got home, my mother came to pick us up and then take us to Ryan's brothers house to get our car. Ryan had Jake (his brother) use it for the week. I now think that was a dumb idea cause this is what we came home to:
No one had tried to mess up the car at our wedding and we thought we were safe! We made the best of it though. Jake was silly enough to leave the keys to his house. So... we had revenge:All in all the trip was fun regardless of the unexpected mishaps and paying more than we were expecting. Now we are just happy to be home starting our new life together. Not to mention even more grateful for these!!!!:

4 comments:

Ben and Ashli Paynter said...

oh my gosh so fun it looks like you guys had so much fun.

CJ & JESS said...

I am so glad that you guys had fun! You are so adorable. and I am sorry about all the stupid presentations. Honeymoons never seem to be 100% perfect but most definately memorable. :) congratulations to the both of you!

Rose said...

HOW FUN!!!! What a Honeymoon!!

Jacquie Lyn said...

Love love love this post! The pics are so fun! I'm so jealous! My favorite is of you two on the beach with the big thunder clouds...that is SOO cool!!
xoxo