We then walked back towards Future World. On the way over, we decided to check out Mousegear definitely one of the best Disney shops, and its always a bad idea to head in when youve vowed not to buy too much Disney merchandise this time! I came out with a rubber mickey head keyring for Rachel here on the DIS, as her old one had broken, and a cute little princess mickey head key topper for myself.
As we were about to leave the shop, I put my sunglasses on and thought something looked a little strange. Id only gone and lost a lens out of my favourite Marc Jacobs sunglasses I was gutted! They were the nicest sunglasses I had found for a while and had worn them religiously since I had bought them last year. I had no idea what had happened but noticed there was a little crack in the frame and I couldnt find the lens anywhere! I hate to sound like a drama queen, but I cant survive without my sunglasses; bright light drives my head crazy! A CM noticed, and pointed me in the direction of the Disney sunglasses available in the store I had a look, but nothing really appealed. I really just wanted something plain and dark, not brightly coloured and covered in Mickeys (sorry Mickey, love you really!) I was out of luck. The CM also mentioned that they did 'higher-end' non-Disney sunglasses over in the Test Track shop he was not sure which ones they were, but I decided to check it out anyways.
*sniff*
Before heading over towards TT, we decided to do Spaceship Earth its another must do every trip! Small fact about me:
one of my most favourite words in the world is geosphere. You cant say I dont give you anything!
I swear, the bit where you come down backwards at the end in all the twinkly lights: if you put your head back, you have the perfect napping conditions!! Naaa, but seriously, I love it it soothes me lol! Jo and I were gutted though our video of the future didnt have our faces in it, just the cartoon ones. Ah well, we werent meant to be the stars of that movie today! I wonder what had hppened
Now we had done SE, we headed to the TT shop and found the sunglasses display case there wasnt much of a selection but they did have a pair of plain black Rayban Wayfarers. I had always loved this style of sunglasses, and have always wanted a pair; now I decided that if I was going to get a new pair of sunglasses, I may as well do it properly and treat myself! And so that's how I ended up with a pair - probably one of the most expensive emergency purchases I have had to make in a park! The only problem, was that my brother saw a photo of them that I had posted on Facebook, and now also wanted a pair. I decided to wait until I headed to the mall though so he would have more of a choice gee, Im a good sister when I want to be haha!
After making my purchase, we were now right on time for our other Soarin Fastpass that we had picked up immediately after riding this morning. This time, the seats were even better; again we were in the middle, but this time on the top row and so no feet dangling above us!
Cetait parfait! I swear, the umpteen times I rode this in three months in 2011, I never got seated in the middle section, and always seemed to be in the bottom row! Its like it was waiting for us to return! I will never, ever get bored of this ride the soundtrack, you guessed it, is another favourite of mine. It fits best when Im driving through the mountains back at home! All I need to add to the experience, is someone sitting in my passenger seat, squirting an orange in my face!
Next we did the Seas with Nemo and Friends there was no line at all and we just walked straight on! I love singing along at the end; in the big bluuuuueee woooorld! And also the little starfish stuck on the tank window that gives you little facts as your clam shell exits the ride! We also decided to do Turtle Talk with Crush none of us had ever seen it before, but I did know that it was some kind of interactive thing. I had remembered reading on here about some funny experiences that people had had there, so I was keen to see it! And we were glad we did; we were in tears! The questions the kids ask really do make this show its all so sweet! One little dude stuck up his hand, and Crush chose him: whats your question dude? There was a pause, and then a few ums and ahs, and then the little boy announced:
One time, I couldnt swim because Tommy had the floatie, but then
but then
but then I went upstairs
and
and
and... and then I swam
There was utter silence for a few seconds before the whole room burst out laughing! Crush thanked him for his story and was pleased that the little dude could swim if he went upstairs!
Kids really do come out with the randomest things, and I miss working with them so much! We vowed we would return the next time we visited Epcot!
Apparently
we are imitating fish!
As we left the show, we stumbled across the pretzel cart they looked so good, especially the cinnamon and sugar ones that I had never tried. Emma and I decided wed use a snack credit for one, and split it for breakfast the next morning good shout Em!
We then headed over to do the Universe of Energy this is getting kinda retro I know, but I love Ellen Degeneres and still find it funny!
Stupid Judy! We sat down to wait the few minutes for the next show. However, I became conscious of the time I realised that by the time it would finish, it would be around 7.30pm and we had already had our Rose & Crown ADR booked for 7.30pm (or so I thought...). On top of that, we wanted to check-in a bit earlier so that we could ask about getting the outdoor seating.
I checked the itinerary though and had a horrible shock
I was completely on the wrong day! We should have been at Hollywood Studios today, which meant we had missed our lunch reservation at 50s Prime Time this afternoon. I had booked the Rose & Crown ADR for tomorrow. I double checked my reservations in the My Disney Experience app on my mobile it confirmed what I had just read on my beautiful, colour-coded itinerary that I had now failed! I no longer had the right to call myself a Monica!
Ummmm
. Girls
. There's been a bit of a mess up Im afraid
Luckily, the girls were completely fine with it; easy mistake they said! Although they made me promise that Id go and actually check the plans every night rather than just guessing them from memory! It was just before 7pm now, so we decided to head over to the R&C anyway to see if they were accepting walk-ins. On our trek over, I cancelled tomorrows R&C reservation using the app, and made a new one for lunch at 50s Prime Time.
We got to the R&C stand, explained the situation, and they said that at the moment, they were able to accommodate walk-ins, and that we should be able to get a table in around 40 minutes. Phew this wasnt long after our original planned reservation anyway! Whilst waiting, we decided to head into the pub for a drink big mistake! Despite having the pleasure of minimal certain tour groups visiting in April/May (as opposed to the masses you get during the Summer), WDW had been taken by storm by a tonne of dancing and cheerleading groups. There had been a huge World dance competition at Epcot today, and every member of those groups that was over the age of 21 seemed to have descended on the R&C. The atmosphere wasnt the greatest they were all extremely loud, drunk and roudy. They were all over each other, and had no regard at all for any of the guests around them! They were disgusting Im from the valleys, and am used to seeing some pretty horrendous sights, but even I didnt want to hang around in this pub. Lots of guests came in, saw what was happening and left again. However, the girls wanted to sit it out, as they wanted to introduce Tanya to a pint of cider and black
We found a spot as far back in the corner as we could and got the drinks in whilst the girls had their cider, I decided to try the Welsh Dragon cocktail mmmmmm!
Fifty minutes later, we were called for a table inside. Tanya was intrigued by the British menu, and ordered the shepherds pie. Emma went for the fish and chips, whilst Jo and I ordered the steak and fish. At the moment, I was a firm fan of ordering the most expensive thing on the menu! I really enjoyed the meal, but had never been so full! Id never had gravy on fried fish before, but it was nice haha! Our table was pretty close to the pub area, and so it was still crazy loud during our meal, albeit a bit less so than earlier. The Hat Lady came over to our tables and apologised numerous times throughout the meal.
Grilled tenderloin and fried fish with Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, Cashel blue cheese butter and red wine sauce
We asked for dessert to go it probably wouldnt last very long, but it was worth a try. I opted for the yoghurt, fruit and granola. I should have chose something that would keep better to have for breakfast, but I had the yummy cinammon pretzel to look forward to! We really must learn to just say no to dessert if we dont want it!
After we finished our meal, our server came over to drop off the check and we got chatting. We had mutual friends: two girls that Emma and I had known from the UK who did the ICP with us, were now on the Cultural Represantitive Program at the UK pavillion. I also noticed that our servers (Emma) name tag said that she was from Cardiff I would never have guessed though, as she didnt have a Cardiff accent. Luckily for her! She really was trying to persuade us to do the CRP I would honestly love to do it, more than anything in the world, but I know that in my career now, it would be impossible to take a year out and do something non-medical related and then return back home to a job. Sigh. After we finished chatting, she asked us if wed like to watch Illuminations from the R&C viewing area! YES!! It was quite an OK spot and I started to get excited. A family came and stood next to us at the wall. At first their child just sat on the wall, but I still could see most of it. However, the child then got down and the father decided to lean forward on the wall, completely covering my view. Thanks for that sir! Unfortunately, I didnt quite get the shots I wanted this evening.
View across the Word Showcase towards Mexico
I still adored Illuminations though who doesnt?! It really is a tie between this and Fantasmic for my top nighttime show! If you were to ask me my favourite tonight, Illuminations would just tip it; if you were to ask me tomorrow night though, it would probably have switched back to Fantasmic!
As the fireworks finished, it started to pick to rain. As soon as we exited the park, the heavens really did open. Luckily, a bus was already there. We soon got back to OKW, but it was now raining even harder which I didnt think was possible! We now also had the joys of lightening and booming thunder! Oh Floridian storms, how we have missed you! I whipped my shoes off, and hobbled back to the room whilst trying to keep my camera dry!
We all dried off, got ready for bed, and were fast asleep by 11pm, praying that this weather would calm down!