Part One: Magic in the Magic Kingdom
Part Two: Animal Kingdom: I LOVE TODAY
Day three of our Disney trip took us to Epcot. We got to the bus stop just in time to see the Epcot bus sitting there, so we hopped right on. Finally! Good bus luck! Of course, the bus took us all the way through the OTHER Port Orleans resort as well, but we still got to Epcot at 9am. But then I picked the worst line ever to stand in. It was so slow but the people we were behind–a dad and his two boys–I swear to you that they were George Bluth with young Michael and Gob. “Michael” and “Gob” just kept beating up on each other. “Gob” would not leave “Michael” alone and they were roughhousing pretty good until “George” finally caught them and made them stop. Entertaining. But not enough for me to stay in the horrid line. We moved over and were in the park within three minutes.
As always, the first pavilion we headed toward was The Land so we could get Fast Passes for Soarin’. But because we’d gotten there so early, Soarin’ only had a ten minute posted wait time. (For that ride, the wait is ALWAYS longer than the posted wait time, by the way.) We got in line behind a French family. Adam enjoyed listening to them talk in French.
Soarin’ was GREAT. It’s one of my favorite rides in the park and I cannot wait to take my mom on it. It’s so relaxing and pretty and the music is lovely as well. I can’t even describe it–it’s definitely something you’ll have to experience for yourself if you get to Disneyland or Disney World.
After Soarin’, we got on Living With The Land. It’s not an exciting ride, but I love going through the greenhouses and seeing all the food they have growing. A lot of it they use in the restaurants right on property!
By then, it was time for Soarin’ again; our Fast Pass window had opened up. We were next to an older lady who was terrified of heights and her commentary throughout the entire ride was almost better than the attraction! “Oh my goodness, oh my, why would anyone ever… oh my goodness.” Her hands were literally dripping with sweat. When I asked her if she liked it, she said she loved it. People are so interesting.
We headed over to the more thrilling rides. Adam and I did single rider on Test Track and both of us got on within five minutes or so. I like single rider because of the fast lines, and most of the people I end up with are nice. But this time I was with a family who clearly didn’t want anyone joining them and it was kind of awkward. I liked the ride anyway. Not as much as I liked the old version, though. I do like the quieter queues but the actual ride re-imaging is not as cool as the original was. I am not sure how Aidan will feel about the changes when we go in June.
Adam didn’t want to do Mission Space (green, always green for me), so I got on single rider for that. This time I got to stand in line by a mom and her daughter from Canada and they were super nice. I rode with I think a three generation group–a mom, a daughter, and a grandma, and the little girl kept yelling out “I’m the NAVIGATOR!”
Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to do orange again, but I did it in 2005 before you had a choice, and well…. let me tell you. It is HARD CORE. Just don’t eat anything before you go on. Or you’ll be tasting it for the rest of the day.
Sadly, Captain EO was closed, so I didn’t get to see any of Hooter’s antics this time. Maybe in June.
They were starting to decorate for the Flower and Garden Festival, and we got to see some sneak peeks!
Then we headed out into the “wild”… OK, just to World Showcase. Adam was hungry and I was curious about the Fish & Chips. Which were expensive but FREAKING DELICIOUS. So good that the birds hanging around the seating area were pretty loud with their begging.
We walked around World Showcase, and did some shopping in the UK, where I got the most awesome Yellow Submarine shirt (you’ll see it in the Hollywood Studios post) and a Doctor Who shirt. Because DISNEY SELLS DOCTOR WHO SHIRTS HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT I LOVE WHEN MY FANDOMS COLLIDE. Anyway, yeah. We made our way through World Showcase, going from UK to Mexico.
More Flower and Garden stuff:
And then a pretty princess:
And then some pretty scenes:
And SHOPPING! I got CDs and incense and a lucky kitty cat and Super Mario Bros. socks and and and …..
Then I got a front row seat to see the Chinese Acrobats, which I’ve never been lucky enough to do in the past!
After that, we walked through the countries, stopping at the America Pavilion because AMERICA WAS HAPPENING. I also had some work to do, so we hung out at the Pavilion while I did that. At some point, I tried on a Viking hat and sword and bought a little white polar bear too. Probably after I got off of Maelstrom. That ride is always fun, especially when I’m on with people who have never ridden it before. Their reactions are always so funny. I remember one year, a college-aged girl went “What’s it even about?” after it was over. Truly, I don’t know. But it’s a neat ride anyway.
We made our way back to The Land for dinner, but on the way ended up in the new Oz section that had games and cute things.
While hanging out in the Oz garden, we ended up chatting with two girls who I decided I liked immediately: Lindsey and Harley. They were so fun. I hope I get to see them again when I go in June.
After hanging with them for a while, Adam headed to our favorite restaurant at Disney World: The Garden Grill. Good, good food, awesome characters, and the server remembered us from last year! Her name’s Lisa and she is from CT–I hope she’s there in June and that we get her again. ANYWAY, we had a BLAST there!
After eating, we walked around a bit more. But the sun had gone down and it was getting chilly. We didn’t stick around for the fireworks because we’d seen them a million times. We did ride Spaceship Earth because that’s what you do when you go to Epcot.
See ya next time, Epcot! The next post will be about our fun day at Hollywood Studios, where I got to dance (again), we drew Agent P, and we got to meet some folks from the movie Wreck-It Ralph!! 🙂
