December 20
Every morning pretty much started out the same way - with regards to Jeff at least. He'd wake up and call Kelsee before getting out of bed.
We had a wonderful Mousekeeper who arranged our stuffed animals in a cute way each day. So today I did a little something different with our tip envelope - hopefully to give her a giggle!
We were on a definite deadline to get going today! We had Segways waiting for us! Last year it had been the highlight of our trip and we couldn't wait to do it again! And Kelsee was anxious to try it for the first time. We had to be at Epcot by 8:15 and after worrying to death we were going to be late last year while waiting for Disney transportation we were definitely driving ourselves today
We got to Epcot and through security without any delays. And it was a beautiful morning!
Oh, did I mention we were all wearing our matching Segway t-shirts?! Yep! We were a sight to behold! After doing the paperwork at Guest Relations they told us there was a very hard to find hidden Mickey in there. We looked all over and I think somebody found it after they gave us a clue to look down. I thought it was a bit of a stretch to call it a Hidden Mickey but they said it was and they're the experts! Nope, didn't think to get a picture.
We went outside and I started to take a picture of everybody when the CM from inside came out and told me to get in the picture too. Nice guy!
Very soon our Segway instructor rolled up on his transporter. He was the same guy we had last year. Can't remember his name but he said he's the only CM that does the Segways full time. When he saw our matching shirts he proclaimed them "HORRIBLE"!!! I honestly don't know if he was kidding or not! But we did get lots of other comments throughout the day (positive ones) so I felt better. We started out keeping track of how many people liked our shirts but then lost count.
First stop - classroom training where we were given helmets and instruction. Paul insisted on putting his helmet on over his baseball cap and I told him he was going to get in trouble, until I noticed our teacher had the same set-up.
After the short class period we left the room and were told to choose a Segway. This was in Innoventions West (I think, the one closest to the Land). We lined up in rows and learned different skills starting with the very basic of trying to stay in one place. Then we turned in a circle without running over our neighbor and went forward and back about 3-4 feet. All this was a repeat of what we did a year ago. As we progressed we broke into two groups and learned to go around cones, walk our Segway over a barrier, go up and down a hill, etc. I was proud of myself because last year I never mastered getting on and off without feeling like something tragic at the most, embarrassing at the least, was going to happen any second! This time I had no problems whatsoever! Wahoo!
Of course the most fun of all is when we got to go outside! Our first stop was the restrooms and afterwards we formed a large semi-circle and had a group photo taken by a Photopass photographer. Nice idea but by the time 12 people fan out the photographer had to stand quite far back to get us all in the shot. I wish he had been able to take individual parties instead of everyone together.
After our photo we rolled along like duckies, one behind another towards the Christmas tree. We passed the earlier class coming back in and one lady said "nice shirts!"
We headed for World Showcase starting with Mexico. After we got past Norway we were no longer in any areas where we might encounter guests. The second of our two instructors would have us stop at each country and give us a short history or trivia lesson about the area we were in. We did this last year also with a lady CM. Both were very good however this CM's little lessons were longer than before.
Also in each country we would have little challenges that our practice had prepared us for such as weaving in and out of the columns in Italy, going up and down ramps in China, etc. Most fun of all was riding through Japan and Morocco!
When we were in Germany and stopped for our mini-trivia lesson our CM asked us a question: "Which of the lands in the Magic Kingdom has the same style of architecture as the German pavilion?" Last year we didn't get a chance to answer questions!
Immediately after the question was asked and before anyone else could respond someone in our group shouted out FANTASYLAND!
I told myself that if any more questions were asked during our tour I would give someone else a chance.
And by the way my answer was correct. Duh.
When we were by Italy we were given some free space to ride around on the Segways. However, there were some workers leaning up against the railing looking at the water along with two service vehicles about the size of large golf carts parked in our "free space" area! They didn't seem to be in any hurry to move and told our instructors that they would move "when we were done." I imagine they were told otherwise because they quickly left. Most of the time we were required to stay single file. The free space area isn't that big and you really can't get too creative other than going around in some big circles or figure 8's but its still fun.
Laura's feet hurt so she used the time to sit down and give her feet a break. I got off my Segway and took some photos. Our free time seemed much shorter than last year and I think that's due to our trivia lessons being a bit longer than before.
All too soon we were on our way. In the USA pavilion we had the opportunity to answer another trivia question and true to my word, I kept my mouth shut. Actually I wasn't 100% positive of the answer.
The question was "Who are the two hosts of the American Adventure"? After a short pause and when it became obvious no one was going to answer, I said "Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin?" Our CM instructor said "once again the correct answer goes to the lastname family!"
When our time was up we headed back to the Innoventions pavilion where we received our way cool Segway pin and turned in our wheels for the next set of guests!
Just a tip to anyone doing the Segways, if you are prone to sore, tired feet (and who isn't at Disney World) I strongly suggest doing the tour early in your visit. Last year we did it on our second day as opposed to almost the end of our trip this time. The Segways make your legs tired and I really noticed a difference between starting out with fresh feet & legs and starting out already tired.
Up next! The rest of our Epcot day!
Stand for Something.
Hopefully I can get caught up in the next couple of days.
...and I thought I was hooked before!
I hope its worth the wait! 
It didn't bump to the top when I added my most recent post so I'm shamelessly posting this to get it back to page 1! 
Tomorrow for sure the next one will be up! In the meantime enjoy the new pics! 
