With every new summer day in Florida comes new hope and new promise. Excitement and possibility. Magic and Wonder. Heat and Humidity. And the standard 50% chance of thunderstorms. I guess you take the good with the bad. And today's good: EPCOT!
We had another late arrival day - not getting there until after 10. This puts a serious cramp in our usual Soarin-FastPass-ride-TestTrack routine, but we stuck with it. Soarin FastPasses safely in my pocket, I joined up with the family in the TestTrack queue. The wait time showed 45 minutes, but I don't know how I believed that, since the line of people actually snaked outside of the building and around a few chained off switchbacks. But we decided to stick it out because who know how long the line would grow to later.
A little boost from big sister...
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I only took that last picture as a reminder to dress Evan exactly like that next time we go to TestTrack. Just to see if he notices.
Guest graffiti or Imagineer with a Sharpie and a sense of humor?
After probably and hour or more in line (and sneaking our way right up to the doors while everyone else was distracted by the preshow video) we were finally strapped in and ready!
Why does our car have three headlights?
Well, it doesn't. The top one is the flash from my camera. I was trying to see if we were actually going fast enough to beat the flash to the mirror. It appears that we were going faster than sound, but not light. How do I know we were going faster than sound? Simple: Put your ear up to the picture. Did you hear the shutter click? No? Well then we must be going faster than sound!
TestTrack was always right up there, but I think it just jumped up a position or two on my "favorite attractions" list.
Since Evan isn't in the driver's seat, he can safely take his eyes off the road to smile. Seeing Madison in the driver's seat reminds me that I only have 9 years to start stocking up on Tums and Pepto Bismol.
After successfully Testing their Track, we headed over to the Seas with Nemo & Friends.
We stopped over at Sunshine Seasons for lunch, then used our Soarin FastPasses. Next stop: Journey into Imagination.
The kids really like this ride, but don't like the "smell lab" where you get blasted with skunk spray. Eventually they wised up and started plugging their noses. They took it to a whole new level this time.
I don't know about you, but hiding from skunks makes Evan thirsty.
That's right - it's BEVERLY TIME! Madison appears to have learned her lesson and refuses to drink it anymore. Party pooper.
After 5 1/2 cups of Beverly, I was ready to stumble back out into EPCOT and hurl. I noticed that the fountain was misaligned and spraying water all over the sidewalk.
Upon further review, not only was the fountain spraying all over the sidewalk, but all over Mouse Gear, SpaceShip Earth - in fact, all of Future World and World Showcase! Quick, someone turn off that fountain so we can enjoy our time in the park!
Evan found a way to -
entertain? - himself.
As we rode out the storm under the roof overhang by Club Cool, we started to hear an odd banging sound. We looked around and finally saw it was a man hole (mouse hole?) cover rattling. My best guess is that the water was pouring into the storm sewers so fast, that the air was being forced out so hard that it was lifting the cover. Video proof:
https://picasaweb.google.com/bsommer55/Summer11?authkey=Gv1sRgCIuizID46vLheQ#5655644947152565010
So, it's pouring down rain in EPCOT. Where do you go to ride out the storm?
I'll tell you in the next update...