Saturday December 15th-Part 2
So when I left off, we had gone back to our room at WL to take a nap and rest, since I was feeling badly. We had closed the curtains and laid down to sleep for a little bit, hoping I’d wake up much better, to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening at Epcot.
Well, I did wake up feeling MUCH better, but we slept longer than we’d meant to!!! I woke up first, and went to look outside, and realized it was darker than I expected. I looked at the clock and we’d been asleep for close to THREE hours!!!
It was after 6, and I really wanted to have a lot more time at Epcot before Illuminations! So I jumped on DH to get him up, and we quickly cleaned up and ran out to the bus to Epcot. Ordinarily we’d have ridden the boat to MK, then monorail to Epcot…much more fun that way…but I was in a hurry!!!
Thankfully we got to Epcot pretty quickly. On the way in, I was telling DH how sad I was, again to be walking in and not going straight to Spaceship Earth. Before we’d left I had read on the Dis that there was a good chance it would randomly open sometime during the week of our honeymoon, but that obviously hadn’t happened.
Anyway…we walked up towards SE, and saw people running….and then a CM standing in front of the wall waving people in. IT WAS OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t think I’ve ever run that fast…I pulled DH behind me and TOOK OFF! For some reason I was worried if we didn’t get in RIGHT THEN, it would suddenly close again and we’d miss our chance!!! Oh my gosh words cannot describe how excited I was. Apparently they had JUST opened up, bc the line was pretty short, and began growing longer and longer after we went in. I had to call my mom and brag about how awesome it was that we were getting on Spaceship Earth!!!
I know that the rehab is more complete now…so things are different, but I really liked the changes. When we got home and I was reading on the Dis about some people’s reactions, I was surprised. I liked the new narration, and the new scenes were AWESOME. Great updates…the ride was just old and needed that freshening up. I took a TON of pictures, lol, so here’s a few…
The end was weird b/c it obviously wasn’t finished and we didn’t get the whole finale with the screens in our car. But it was a cool idea and I liked the concept. I think I probably talked DH’s ear off the whole time, yapping about how excited I was and pointing out all the changes to him, since he’d just been on it once, the May before.
Anyway, we got off and didn’t really spend any time in Futureworld b/c the plan was to spend time in the countries before Illuminations started. So we walked pretty fast to the back, discussing where to eat dinner.
We were both feeling hungry, and knew we were running out of time. We had talked about Mexico…but weren’t really feeling it. We did stop in for a few minutes to look around, I LOVE that pavilion. So pretty.
I had actually made an ADR for the TS there, but dropped it after reading reviews and realizing we’d MUCH rather use credits on a better restaurant. We walked to Norway, I wanted to ride Maelstrom since DH had never ridden, but it was closed. BOO. On to China….hmmm…DH LOVES Chinese, and I knew he is WAY too picky to go for the rest of the WS restaurants except for American Adventure, and that’s boring. So, Chinese it is. We both got the Orange Chicken, I’d had it before and really like it.
We both also got the ginger ice cream for our dessert, bc that’s all they really have! But we were both really too full to eat it so we just had a few spoonfuls. It was pretty good, interesting, but good. So on we went, didn’t really hang around China too much, did a quick walk thru the big store there. I was noticing all the people already lining up for Illuminations, which was making me anxious. We had SO much left to see, and really no time. This was by far the most stressful part of the week. DH had never seen the show, I hadn’t even seen it it prob 3 years, we just always missed it. And probably the MOST important thing I wanted to do that week was spend a lot of time exploring World Showcase, and we just didn’t have time. So I was not the happiest camper that night unfortunately. I wish I’d just let it go and enjoyed myself more. End of rant.
So we walked through the countries, didn’t really stop a lot, although we did spend some time in the big store in Japan, I LOVE. I got a few little Hello Kitty things, some pens and a water bottle, I’m obsessed and there is really no where around here to buy that stuff. Oh and we did stop for a few minutes at the AA, the Candlelight Processional was just starting and I REALLY wished then that we’d done it. Again, even a week isn’t enough time! And I didn’t think we’d be into it…I’d seen it years ago, when I was like 12 and wasn’t crazy about it. But I realized that my interests have changed drastically since I was a kid and we really should have, bc DH really thought it was cool too. We got to see Andy McDowell as the narrator, which was cool. We watched for a few minutes, but there were SO many people standing in the back it was hard to see, so we kept on walking.
Now another one of my goals for the night was to try at Drinking Round the World. Yeah, obviously wasn’t going to happen. But I DID want to try one of the frozen drinks in France I’d read about. And DH LOVES Sapporo Japanese beer, and we looked EVERYWHERE for it, I could have sworn they sold it, but no. So we made it to France and I got my drink…it was a lemon Citron vodka slushy…YUM.
And DH wanted his beer, so we made it around to the Rose and Crown and went to the bar inside. Bad decision. Apparently it was college drinking night or something. This same group had been a the slushy stand, about 10 kids, girls and guys. While we were waiting, one of the girls started talking about some crazy stuff, stuff I wouldn’t be talking out loud about in front of children at Disney. Some of her favorite leisurely activities and pasttimes, such as with who/how she likes to shower and other sexual preferences. ???!!!!. Gross. The woman in front of us was with her two small children and turned around to us and was like "Seriously? Are you kidding me…she seriously just sad that?" HILARIOUS. She started getting louder so the girl could hear her. It was nuts, and so awkward. So onto the Rose and Crown…same group of kids lined up at the bar taking shots. Multiple, large shots. Strange, or is that just me?? Anyway, we had to wait FOREVER, the place was PACKED, and DH finally gave up, after being ignored by the bartender who was only serving all these college kids.
We went outside, and finally found a beer stand b/w there and Canada. By this time, I was grumpy, tired, hot, and just sick of the annoying people. It was only like 30 more minutes till Illuminations, and I had NO idea where to go, all the good spots were taken. I’ve always watched it w/my family from the front of the lagoon, near those 2 gift shops. We passed the stage in Canada and saw an empty bench, so decided to park it there. There was a tree in front, but we could see the ball on the water and I figured we’d still have a good view. So we just sat and chilled for awhile, talking, me getting sadder knowing we only had one day left, and this one just wasn’t all I’d hoped it would be. And we really wanted to get to MK and MGM again, so coming back was kinda out of the question. So, I shook it off, told myself we would be back sometime, and not to worry. It was nice though, to just sit and relax and think about how much fun we’d had.
The show started, and I realized we didn’t have the best seat, but it wasn’t too bad. I hate having to sit and wait for 2 hours just to get a great place to watch, so it wasn’t back for getting it 30 minutes before the show. DH really loved it, I didn’t expect him to but he said afterward it was his favorite out of all the nighttime shows. So YAY for that. I really loved the holiday finale as well, fantastic. I tried taking pictures but they just didn’t come out that great….
Afterwards, we sat for awhile, watching the crowds swarm by. I get claustrophic and I wanted no part of that. We sat for maybe 10-15 minutes, and then decided to walk the reverse way around World Showcase to let the crowd really slow down. LONG walk, but great idea. I’d read about other people doing it, and I really recommend it. We were already tired, but we walked slow, and just enjoyed the quiet and all the lights around the water. Since we walked so fast through France before, I really enjoyed seeing all the lights there. The longer we waked, the less people we saw since almost all of them were going the opposite direction, and looking at us like we were nuts. Oh well.
cont...