Jfsag123
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2013
Day 3 – June 8: Epcot, part 1
We got up early again this morning because we had a pre-park opening reservation at Garden Grill. Of course, being at BCV made getting there early much easier, as we didn’t have to factor in travel time. However, we hit a snag almost immediately. We walked toward the International Gateway entrance of Epcot and once we got past the bridge that leads toward the Boardwalk, we were greeted by this:
We couldn’t actually get down to the IG entrance to line up to be let inside. There were a few other groups also waiting. We’ve never come from the IG before, so I’m not sure if this was normal, but from the reactions of some of the other people waiting, I’m going to guess it wasn’t. One couple actually had a photography appointment scheduled and were supposed to be in the park by 7:40. I’d heard that they start letting people in for PPO breakfasts at the front gate at about 7:45. It wasn’t until around that time that we were able to get someone’s attention and have them come open the gate. We excitedly made our way up toward the entrance – back on track!
Except, not so fast. They held us there and told us they had to receive a call from the front gate in order to let us in. They even gave us a little speech about how we wouldn’t be penalized for being late to our breakfast reservations. I wasn’t worried about being penalized – I was worried about being behind the front gate crowd! We booked the reservation hoping to be able to not only have breakfast and meet the characters, but be able to ride Soarin’ with a minimal wait as well. I didn’t have a FP for it and I had seen pictures of the crazy lines right after RD. I know all having a breakfast reservation guarantees is having breakfast, but come on – they’re in the same building!
A few minutes before 8:00 we were finally let in. I have never walked so fast in my life, and on a bum toe no less. However, I still managed to snap a couple of empty World Showcase pics along the way because of course!
We showed up to GG and there were already several people there. We were given a pager and told to have a seat while we waited. I began to feel a little discouraged at this point, figuring we may have a bit of a wait, which would likely kill the Soarin’ plan. However, the pager went off within a couple of minutes and we were seated. We got an upper level table and I’d kind of been hoping for the bottom level, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.
This was our first time eating at GG and I must say we loved it! I have no pristine food pics, as we dove in the second it arrived. I had been dying to try the sticky bun skillet and it did not disappoint! You can see how much is left of it in the first pic and this is about 5 minutes after we had sat down.
Alex wanted to be sure I got a picture of the Mickey waffle. Please excuse the mouth full of food!
Not long after we sat down we had the pleasure of being visited by our first character – the big cheese himself!
The trip hasn’t truly begun until we get some face time with Mickey. Next up was Pluto, one of Cora’s favorites. This time she has the mouth full of food!
Pluto was a lot of fun. Here they are scratching his nose.
We met Chip and Dale in between more stuffing ourselves with as much as we could stomach. Dale danced with the kids and was quite silly.
When we first sat down, our server asked if we had FP scheduled for Soarin’ that day. I told her we didn’t and she asked if we were interested in trying to get to it before the rope drop crowd arrived. I enthusiastically told her yes and she said she’d go ahead and bring our check and try to get our stuff to us as quickly as she could so we could make a break for it whenever we were ready. She was great and really on top of things! We got to see all the characters, ate as much as we wanted, and didn’t feel like we had to rush through our food (we are naturally fast eaters, though). We got up and were headed down to Soarin’ by about 8:40. This is what we saw when we got there.
No one in line yet! Not even from the breakfast! The CM’s commented on what an achievement it was to be first for Soarin’, and encouraged us to take photos and videos of the empty queue, as so few people ever see it that way.
It’s blurry because they’re dancing.
A CM walked us through the empty queue to the loading area, which looked like this.
There was one other family of 2, also from Garden Grill, who showed up in time to share our flight. We were placed in B1 for optimal viewing, and had the entire row to ourselves, as the other people elected to fly in B2 since they liked the height better and knew they would not have to worry about dangling feet this time. So we rode Soarin’ with a total of 6 people on our flight, including us. It was a great way to say goodbye to the old version of Soarin’, as we all loved that ride, especially Alex. As we made our way out of the pavilion, we saw all the people streaming in as wait times were already building. When we got to the exit doors for The Land, we noticed that someone had drawn a Mickey in the condensation.
It felt like it was going to be a good day.
To be continued!
We got up early again this morning because we had a pre-park opening reservation at Garden Grill. Of course, being at BCV made getting there early much easier, as we didn’t have to factor in travel time. However, we hit a snag almost immediately. We walked toward the International Gateway entrance of Epcot and once we got past the bridge that leads toward the Boardwalk, we were greeted by this:
We couldn’t actually get down to the IG entrance to line up to be let inside. There were a few other groups also waiting. We’ve never come from the IG before, so I’m not sure if this was normal, but from the reactions of some of the other people waiting, I’m going to guess it wasn’t. One couple actually had a photography appointment scheduled and were supposed to be in the park by 7:40. I’d heard that they start letting people in for PPO breakfasts at the front gate at about 7:45. It wasn’t until around that time that we were able to get someone’s attention and have them come open the gate. We excitedly made our way up toward the entrance – back on track!
Except, not so fast. They held us there and told us they had to receive a call from the front gate in order to let us in. They even gave us a little speech about how we wouldn’t be penalized for being late to our breakfast reservations. I wasn’t worried about being penalized – I was worried about being behind the front gate crowd! We booked the reservation hoping to be able to not only have breakfast and meet the characters, but be able to ride Soarin’ with a minimal wait as well. I didn’t have a FP for it and I had seen pictures of the crazy lines right after RD. I know all having a breakfast reservation guarantees is having breakfast, but come on – they’re in the same building!
A few minutes before 8:00 we were finally let in. I have never walked so fast in my life, and on a bum toe no less. However, I still managed to snap a couple of empty World Showcase pics along the way because of course!
We showed up to GG and there were already several people there. We were given a pager and told to have a seat while we waited. I began to feel a little discouraged at this point, figuring we may have a bit of a wait, which would likely kill the Soarin’ plan. However, the pager went off within a couple of minutes and we were seated. We got an upper level table and I’d kind of been hoping for the bottom level, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.
This was our first time eating at GG and I must say we loved it! I have no pristine food pics, as we dove in the second it arrived. I had been dying to try the sticky bun skillet and it did not disappoint! You can see how much is left of it in the first pic and this is about 5 minutes after we had sat down.
Alex wanted to be sure I got a picture of the Mickey waffle. Please excuse the mouth full of food!
Not long after we sat down we had the pleasure of being visited by our first character – the big cheese himself!
The trip hasn’t truly begun until we get some face time with Mickey. Next up was Pluto, one of Cora’s favorites. This time she has the mouth full of food!
Pluto was a lot of fun. Here they are scratching his nose.
We met Chip and Dale in between more stuffing ourselves with as much as we could stomach. Dale danced with the kids and was quite silly.
When we first sat down, our server asked if we had FP scheduled for Soarin’ that day. I told her we didn’t and she asked if we were interested in trying to get to it before the rope drop crowd arrived. I enthusiastically told her yes and she said she’d go ahead and bring our check and try to get our stuff to us as quickly as she could so we could make a break for it whenever we were ready. She was great and really on top of things! We got to see all the characters, ate as much as we wanted, and didn’t feel like we had to rush through our food (we are naturally fast eaters, though). We got up and were headed down to Soarin’ by about 8:40. This is what we saw when we got there.
No one in line yet! Not even from the breakfast! The CM’s commented on what an achievement it was to be first for Soarin’, and encouraged us to take photos and videos of the empty queue, as so few people ever see it that way.
It’s blurry because they’re dancing.
A CM walked us through the empty queue to the loading area, which looked like this.
There was one other family of 2, also from Garden Grill, who showed up in time to share our flight. We were placed in B1 for optimal viewing, and had the entire row to ourselves, as the other people elected to fly in B2 since they liked the height better and knew they would not have to worry about dangling feet this time. So we rode Soarin’ with a total of 6 people on our flight, including us. It was a great way to say goodbye to the old version of Soarin’, as we all loved that ride, especially Alex. As we made our way out of the pavilion, we saw all the people streaming in as wait times were already building. When we got to the exit doors for The Land, we noticed that someone had drawn a Mickey in the condensation.
It felt like it was going to be a good day.
To be continued!
