Day Three! Today was our day at EPCOT, so, as usual, we got up early in order to be at the park by rope drop. Based on the weather report for that morning, we were in for another wet day with a forecast of 100% chance of rain.
Once we realized what we had in store for us, we considered changing around some of our plans, and Mom and Dad werent even sure if they wanted to spend the morning at French Quarter and not join Buzz and I at EPCOT until World Showcase was open. In the end, we all decided to just go ahead and all head to EPCOT or rope drop- or, at least, that was the plan.
We had breakfast over at the Floatworks. No beignets today, but I did get myself a cheese Danish, something I seem to have to get at least once a trip. As we were eating, the skies seemed to get darker and darker and by the time we were all ready to head to the bus stop, it began to pour down rain. Not wanting to rush out and wait for the rope drop in the pouring rain, we changed our plan a bit and just hung out in the lobby for a while, checking out the Christmas decorations again and looking through the gift shop. Im a bit surprised that I took no photos from this time, but it was dark raining so maybe I thought it wasnt that photogenic of a moment. After a while, the rain began to let up, and we finally made it to EPCOT. It looked like we were going to make it there for opening after all!
The entrance to the park was decked out in Christmas regalia. The globe ornaments seem very fitting, dont they?
A Christmas topiary display just beyond the turnstiles. This was our first time going to EPCOT at Christmastime in three years, and Im pretty sure theyve really expaned this garden from then, if I can remember correctly.
Something a little different than your standard Spaceship Earth shots, I guess.
By now, the weather seemed to be letting up some, or at least just enough to where the characters were coming out. Daisy and Stitch were hanging out near Spaceship Earth, so since I hadnt seem Miss Daisy yet this year, I decided to pay her a visit.
We must have missed the rope drop ceremony due to being distracted by the topiaries and characters (either than or they didnt do it because of the weather), because when we made it past Spaceship Earth, Future World was completely open. Buzz and I had been hoping to hit some of the thrill rides in EPCOT this morning since we tend not to do them a whole lot, so we went off towards Test Track while Mom and Dad headed to The Land to ride their favorite attraction, Soarin.
When we got to Test Track, it turned out to be closed due to technical issues, so we just grabbed some FastPasses for later and headed off to Mission SPACE.
Buzz and I had only done the spinning version of Mission SPACE (Orange) once before after it first opened, so we decided to try it again. After a slightly less than magical experience with the CM at the entrance who literally scoffed when I asked to do the more intense version of the ride and then claimed that neither version is intense (What is it with CMs at Mission SPACE? I think Ive experienced more snarky or disinterested CMs there than any other attraction.
), we headed in to find absolutely no line for the ride!
A tribute to Horizons, the attraction that use to be where SPACE is now. I actually never went on it when it was open, and I kind of regret that now since Ive heard so many good things about it from other Disney fans. I always thought it looked kind of creepy from what I had heard about it when I was a kid, so I wouldnt try it.
The ride turned out to be fun and, regardless of what the CM at the entrance said, it was intense- more so than I remembered. You really do feel those g-forces bearing down on you!
A few shots of the Mickey statue in the gift shop on the way out. First a more artsy one.
And then a more standard shot.
We still had a little more time before out FastPass time at Test Track, so we decided to hit up the new Sum Of All Thrills, the new design-your-own-thrill-ride attraction in Innoventions. I figured that we would build a roller coaster, but Buzz thought that since we were just did Rock n Roller Coaster the day before, we should do something different that we wouldnt get anywhere else at Disney. Since it was Christmastime, we picked a bobsled ride. It turned out to be pretty fun.
By the time we were done with Sum of All Thrills, it was time to use our FastPasses for Test Track. In the end, we didnt really need them. There was pretty much no standby wait at all! I was pretty shocked at how empty the park was, especially considering how busy Hollywood Studios was the day before. It seemed like the rain was really keeping people away that morning. The ride was fun. It had been five years since we had last done it (cant believe we hadnt been on it in that long!) so it was nice to be able to rediscover it. The loop around the building at the end was still great, and its neat to get those different views of the park (both onstage and backstage) that you can see from it. Having accomplished the three main thrills on that side of Future World, we decided to call up Mom and Dad to see what they were up to.
Next chapter: A surprise sighting of a rare character!
I love the pics you took there!
Our Christmas trip was roughly a week and a half before Chriatmas. Can't remember the exact dates off the top of my head. It was fairly crowded but not nearly as crowded as Christmas week or New Years week. We tend to go there almost every year around that time and really love how festive it is. If you can manage to go a week or two before that though the crowds are even lower, but we really couldn't manage it this year due to everyone's schedule. Glad you're enjoying the pictures. 
What a great shop... wish it was a bit bigger, though!
Glad you didn't get totally rained out.
