Day 2, Thurs 2/15/01
Beautiful sunny day, high of 85
For our first few days, we decided to try to get early starts. Today we were heading to Epcot. I would have preferred going to Magic Kingdom our 1st day, but since the 2 surprise events were planned for Friday at the MK, I knew I would hear objections if the plan was to go to MK our first 2 days. So it was off to Epcot. We got there around 10. (I know - not so early!) The line at Spaceship Earth was pretty short, so we did that first. Then we headed to Test Track. We got fastpasses, then did the singles line. While in line, we heard the announcement that the ride had temporarily shut down. (what else is new?
) We decided to wait, & the patience paid off because about 10 minutes later, the ride resumed. The ride was fun, as always.
Because we had some time to kill before our Fast Pass return time, Sleepy & Happy headed for Innoventions to do some email postcards, and Doc & I did some browsing. We picked up a couple of souvenirs & then came across the Jammitors doing a performance. They are great! Then it was time to meet Sleepy & Happy, so we headed back to Test Track & found them. We used our fast passes & this time the ride didn't break down. After this, we walked through Ice Station Cool - which is, of course, cool.
Then we went to the Electric Umbrella for lunch.
We headed to the countries. We had a great afternoon by taking the time to watch the different entertainment going on. We saw the Mariachi Cobre in Mexico; road the Maelstrom in Norway; watched the very talented Dragon Legend Acrobats in China; saw the Alpine Trio in Germany singing Edelweiss; saw some great costumed mimes in Italy (who also posed for pictures with us afterwards); and saw the American Adventure, which always chokes me up. Before the American Adventure, we listened to American Vybe. They are very talented, but I prefer the Voices of Liberty. Next up was the Living Statue in France. One word: Fantastic! Doc got an ice cream outside France; & the rest of us got deliciuos snacks from the bakery. We sat and & relaxed while eating. Also, I had started collecting pressed pennies, & Happy was a big help locating them for me. We were getting a little tired, so we sat & watched the British Invasion, & then watched the street players & their performance of King Arthur & the Holy Grail. That was a lot of fun too. By this time, we decided we needed a break, so we left Epcot & took the bus back to OKW.
After taking a swim, & using the hot tub, we changed & Doc & I headed back over to Epcot. We rode Test Track singles line again, & then headed over towards the United Kingdom to watch Illuminations. We found an excellent viewing spot just before the Rose & Crown. Before we sat down, we went & bought popcorn & a couple of beers from a cart outside Canada. We went back to the viewing spot we'd found before, & it was still open. So we sat & enjoyed our snack. In fact, it was so good, that Doc went & got us more. Illuminations was, as always, a wonderful, beautiful show. By the time it was over, I admit it, I was a little on the silly side, thanks to the 2 (!) beers. We sat on a bench watching the seemingly endless crowds of people go by. After a little while, we headed out.
Old Key West has a new bus stop ... it is closer than it was last year & it is now shared with the Disney Institute. I followed what I thought was the right arrow to the OKW line. Within a couple of minutes, the OKW bus pulled up & I told Doc what a great idea that was to wait a while, because that was the quickest I'd ever gotten on a bus after Illuminations. Imagine the sinking feeling I had when I saw the OTHER line filing into the bus, and the line we were in not moving an inch. I asked the woman in front of me "Isn't this the OKW line?", and she told me no, that we were in the Institute line. I looked at Doc & did what I had to: started laughing. I told him come on we have to go back to the end of the OKW line. He said no way, the people will understand that we've been waiting & have just been in the wrong line. And I'm thinking to myself: yeah sure - at Epcot's closing time people will understand ??? I don't think so!! So I walked all the way to the end of the OKW line, with Doc waiting for me where he had "cut in". I was smiling, while he had an exasperated look on his fact. I think he was regretting buying me that 2nd beer! Anyway, we were the last 2 waiting to get on the bus & I kind-of sweetly begged the driver to make all those people standing up to make more room for just 2 more people. It worked.
Now, as soon as the bus took off, I noticed that a seat right next to us was occupied by a very large stroller. Now I understand that people don't like to rent strollers at the parks because of the expense & I fully sympathize; but, what's wrong with umbrella strollers? Wait, wait, don't get mad at me all you big stroller owners! I think I already know the answer. Those big strollers have room to carry all sorts of stuff, & I'm sure they are incredibly handy. And yes, I'm probably a little envious when I'm lugging stuff around of all those people that have a good excuse to have such a stroller! I admit that my need to continue my silliness could just not shut me up, so I made the following statement quietly - or so I thought - into Doc's ear: "I think it is very inappropriate for that stroller to be taking a seat." As I was appreciating my silly remark, (more than Doc for some strange reason), that sinking feeling came over me again (gosh - twice in a mere 10 minutes - only this time felt worse), when the man sitting next to the stroller picked it up, moved it to the floor & offered the seat to Doc! Had he heard me? I felt terrible! And then Doc makes things worse by pushing ME into the seat! Now I felt double terrible! Me & my mouth. I KNEW I shouldn't have had that 2nd beer.
Needless to say, it was a LONG ride back to OKW as I tried to make small talk with the son of the stroller man in a feeble attempt to convince them that I truly was a nice person. At one point, I looked up at Doc for some sign that someone near me liked me; but darn him, I could read him like a book: he was enjoying my misery!
We got back to our room, & Happy & Sleepy got back around 11:30. They had passed on Illuminations in order to go to Downtown Disney by boat.
Lights out. Tomorrow was our big day with Jane from Gifts of a Lifetime & I couldn't wait!
Beautiful sunny day, high of 85
For our first few days, we decided to try to get early starts. Today we were heading to Epcot. I would have preferred going to Magic Kingdom our 1st day, but since the 2 surprise events were planned for Friday at the MK, I knew I would hear objections if the plan was to go to MK our first 2 days. So it was off to Epcot. We got there around 10. (I know - not so early!) The line at Spaceship Earth was pretty short, so we did that first. Then we headed to Test Track. We got fastpasses, then did the singles line. While in line, we heard the announcement that the ride had temporarily shut down. (what else is new?
) We decided to wait, & the patience paid off because about 10 minutes later, the ride resumed. The ride was fun, as always.Because we had some time to kill before our Fast Pass return time, Sleepy & Happy headed for Innoventions to do some email postcards, and Doc & I did some browsing. We picked up a couple of souvenirs & then came across the Jammitors doing a performance. They are great! Then it was time to meet Sleepy & Happy, so we headed back to Test Track & found them. We used our fast passes & this time the ride didn't break down. After this, we walked through Ice Station Cool - which is, of course, cool.
Then we went to the Electric Umbrella for lunch. We headed to the countries. We had a great afternoon by taking the time to watch the different entertainment going on. We saw the Mariachi Cobre in Mexico; road the Maelstrom in Norway; watched the very talented Dragon Legend Acrobats in China; saw the Alpine Trio in Germany singing Edelweiss; saw some great costumed mimes in Italy (who also posed for pictures with us afterwards); and saw the American Adventure, which always chokes me up. Before the American Adventure, we listened to American Vybe. They are very talented, but I prefer the Voices of Liberty. Next up was the Living Statue in France. One word: Fantastic! Doc got an ice cream outside France; & the rest of us got deliciuos snacks from the bakery. We sat and & relaxed while eating. Also, I had started collecting pressed pennies, & Happy was a big help locating them for me. We were getting a little tired, so we sat & watched the British Invasion, & then watched the street players & their performance of King Arthur & the Holy Grail. That was a lot of fun too. By this time, we decided we needed a break, so we left Epcot & took the bus back to OKW.
After taking a swim, & using the hot tub, we changed & Doc & I headed back over to Epcot. We rode Test Track singles line again, & then headed over towards the United Kingdom to watch Illuminations. We found an excellent viewing spot just before the Rose & Crown. Before we sat down, we went & bought popcorn & a couple of beers from a cart outside Canada. We went back to the viewing spot we'd found before, & it was still open. So we sat & enjoyed our snack. In fact, it was so good, that Doc went & got us more. Illuminations was, as always, a wonderful, beautiful show. By the time it was over, I admit it, I was a little on the silly side, thanks to the 2 (!) beers. We sat on a bench watching the seemingly endless crowds of people go by. After a little while, we headed out.
Old Key West has a new bus stop ... it is closer than it was last year & it is now shared with the Disney Institute. I followed what I thought was the right arrow to the OKW line. Within a couple of minutes, the OKW bus pulled up & I told Doc what a great idea that was to wait a while, because that was the quickest I'd ever gotten on a bus after Illuminations. Imagine the sinking feeling I had when I saw the OTHER line filing into the bus, and the line we were in not moving an inch. I asked the woman in front of me "Isn't this the OKW line?", and she told me no, that we were in the Institute line. I looked at Doc & did what I had to: started laughing. I told him come on we have to go back to the end of the OKW line. He said no way, the people will understand that we've been waiting & have just been in the wrong line. And I'm thinking to myself: yeah sure - at Epcot's closing time people will understand ??? I don't think so!! So I walked all the way to the end of the OKW line, with Doc waiting for me where he had "cut in". I was smiling, while he had an exasperated look on his fact. I think he was regretting buying me that 2nd beer! Anyway, we were the last 2 waiting to get on the bus & I kind-of sweetly begged the driver to make all those people standing up to make more room for just 2 more people. It worked.
Now, as soon as the bus took off, I noticed that a seat right next to us was occupied by a very large stroller. Now I understand that people don't like to rent strollers at the parks because of the expense & I fully sympathize; but, what's wrong with umbrella strollers? Wait, wait, don't get mad at me all you big stroller owners!
I think I already know the answer. Those big strollers have room to carry all sorts of stuff, & I'm sure they are incredibly handy. And yes, I'm probably a little envious when I'm lugging stuff around of all those people that have a good excuse to have such a stroller! I admit that my need to continue my silliness could just not shut me up, so I made the following statement quietly - or so I thought - into Doc's ear: "I think it is very inappropriate for that stroller to be taking a seat." As I was appreciating my silly remark, (more than Doc for some strange reason), that sinking feeling came over me again (gosh - twice in a mere 10 minutes - only this time felt worse), when the man sitting next to the stroller picked it up, moved it to the floor & offered the seat to Doc! Had he heard me? I felt terrible! And then Doc makes things worse by pushing ME into the seat! Now I felt double terrible! Me & my mouth. I KNEW I shouldn't have had that 2nd beer.Needless to say, it was a LONG ride back to OKW as I tried to make small talk with the son of the stroller man in a feeble attempt to convince them that I truly was a nice person. At one point, I looked up at Doc for some sign that someone near me liked me; but darn him, I could read him like a book: he was enjoying my misery!
We got back to our room, & Happy & Sleepy got back around 11:30. They had passed on Illuminations in order to go to Downtown Disney by boat.
Lights out. Tomorrow was our big day with Jane from Gifts of a Lifetime & I couldn't wait!
