Ok...on with the TR...Sunday was a busy day because it was the last day before my parents were going to fly home. My Mom went to Winter Park with Grandma for the day, so it was just Mike, India, Uncle Jack, my Dad and I. We were going to start at Epcot, mostly because my Dad had never been on Soarin', and because my Mom has drooled over mine and my sister's pick a pearl jewelry for years...so we were sent on a mission to do that as well.
Mike and I took the bus and we met Uncle Jack, India and Dad and then we hopped in line for the rope drop. We made it right up to the front and booked it to Soarin', first thing was first...we got FP's, this was where we first ran into trouble with the AP's...the machine didn't seem to want to take them, but a CM came over and got it to work. After we secured the FP's we got in line to ride. As I mentioned before my Dad had never been on this, so he kept asking questions about what it was going to be like...I don't know about you guys, but I cannot accurately describe this ride to someone that has never been on it, so we told him just to wait it out. We only waited about 30 mins, we held out a little longer so we could be on concourse one (to me the effect is different with feet dangling above your head). My Dad LOVED this ride (I kind of figured he would!). After that we did Test Track, we didn't have to wait very long for that which was nice. Uncle Jack wanted to take my Dad over to do the Segway thing, so Mike and I took India to the character connection.
After we saw Mickey and all of his friends, a CM came over and asked India if she wanted to meet Belle, she said yes and they took us around the corner and Belle came out. India was the only one that was there to meet her...it was nice that she could take her time, and Belle was so sweet and talked and walked with India down the hallway asking her questions...so cute.
By now it was time to go to the International Gateway so we could get to Japan. We decided to walk the whole way...and we stopped in France so I could get a coffee and a pastry, everyone else got snacks too, but I don't remember what they got. As I was happily sipping my sweet caffeine, I looked up and Mike was chatting with Rev. Tim Herring. He said he came to Epcot quite often, and it was nice to see him again and say "hi." We made it to Japan and we watched the pearl pickers for a while before we made our way up there to get ours.
I always let India pick the oysters...she is the luckiest kid in the world when it comes to these things. She has one in every color, she has picked twins...so I just let her do the picking. She won't tell me what her strategy is (although she swears she has one) so I can't help you there...but that kid is lucky when it comes to pearls. She picked my Mom's first....it was a white pearl...but that sucker was big 8.5 mm, we had it set into a ring, but I don't have a pic of it cuase she has it now.
India picked mine next, It was a gold colored 8.5 mm. I wanted it set in a certain pin, but they said it was too big, so I settled for a dragonfly pin instead.
Next was India's pearl. They opened it up, and she got this....
Ugh. For years I have tried in vain to get a pearl like that...but India yet again lucked out...they even played the little drum for her. I don't know what it is about Japan, but I love it there, I could spend hours there browsing in the shop and watching the candy lady. After we picked our settings for our pearls we wandered around the rest of the showcase. My Dad and Uncle Jack decided to head to MK early...Uncle Jack wanted to pack my Dad's day as full as he could on his last day there, so they went ahead of us, and we waited for the pearls to be done. Once they were we decided to get on the monorail to head to MK...we had a 4:00 ressie for CRT, and we were hungry.
Once we were on the monorail the clouds started closing in, and I started getting nervous. All of the times my Dad has been to Disney he has never seen the flight of Tinkerbelle during Wishes....and I really wanted him to see it, I figured if it rained that wasn't going to happen. Mike told me to stop worrying about it since it was only 3:00 after all, but it was still there in the back of my mind.
We arrived at MK and wandered around the shops. At this point it was raining, and everyone was trying to get out of it. At 3:30 we went to CRT to check in, and they told us we had to wait a few more minutes. We just hung out there by the awning, and I must say I witnessed some of the worst behavior I have ever seen in those fifteen minutes (and I used to teach pre-school..so that's saying something). Kids were screaming and parents were screaming...boy oh boy was it hectic. At precisely 3:45 Mike went to check us in, and they told India she was going to be honorary princess of the day, they gave her a special sticker and she got to meet Cinderella first by herself. She was self conscious because she didn't have a dress on like most of the other little girls, but she got over it when Cindy noticed that she had on a princess sweatshirt and she made a big fuss over her. After India met with Cindy they sat us by the stairs and told us to sit tight. Then they brought in TONS of people. By the time everyone was done it was 4:30.
So they tell everyone to line up so we can go upstairs to be seated, and then one of the CM's tells everyone to quiet down so that Princess India can lead us up the stairs...India turned beet red and looked like she wanted to run away. She did lead everyone up the stairs, and they took us to a table by the window...it had confetti on it shaped like Cindy's Coach...Oh my gosh...India was in little girl heaven. Our waitress came over and took our drink orders. When she brought our drinks she brought us pretzel bread...it was so GOOD. I think we ate the whole basket in like 5 minutes.
Our apps arrived, I got the corn crab soup....oh geez it was sooooo good!
, India got chicken noodle soup and Mike got the BLT salad.
We got our entrees fairly quickly...I got the cheese tortellini which was just so so, Mike got the Prime Rib which he said was good, but a little dry, and India got the grilled chicken strips with fruit...kinda hard to screw those up. She complained about the selections they have for kids, she ate a lot of my pasta and some of Mike's prime rib...she likes to try new things, and all most all of the kids menu's on Disney property are the same.
For dessert I got raspberry sorbet which was good, nice and light, Mike got the chocolate buckle...he said it was really rich, and India got sorbet as well.
At some point during the meal The Fairy Godmother came out and did her little show...and then Suze and Pearla came around. Now I like to think of myself as a nice, patient person, but we had the family from you know where sitting next to us for this meal. We were trying to politely ignore them...but they had four kids that were absolutely out of control. They were throwing food at each-other...playing with their food, screaming at each-other, spilling things on purpose....I had ignored them pretty well up until this point. Pearla came to the table to take her picture with India...and the youngest child from the family (a girl I guessed was around 6 or 7) ran up to Pearla and pushed India out of the way. I looked at Mike stunned. I thought maybe the little girl's parents would tell her to wait her turn or something...but they didn't. They asked me to get out of the way so they could take a picture.
Like I said...I'm pretty laid back and easygoing...but my blood was BOILING, I mean how rude was that??? I thought Mike was going to go bonkers...Pearla even held her hand up to the little girl as if to say "just wait a minute," but India looked the little girl straight in the face and said "No it's ok...she can go first, my Daddy and Sarah taught me manners." Kind of a snarky thing to say I know, but at that point I didn't care. So India waited and had her picture taken with Suze and Pearla.
So we made it through CRT without major incident...
I like the idea of having a honeymoon shoot there too... i love that street going towards ToT and RnRC, it reminds me of old hollywood too!
That is such a precious story about the hat. I am glad you guys put on a brave face and wore them because if he got the names embroidered and everything he probably thought it was the best find ever. 
