Sometimes I surprise myself! I got a wild hair and finished up day two of the report this evening. But no way I'll do anything for the rest of the week, no kidding; I'm away from my home computer where all the photos are.
Speaking of which, these photos are a mix of three sources: mine, Susiecat's, and Memory Maker. I hadn't ever gotten PhotoPass or anything before but I figured, hey, why not give it a try this trip? I wanted lots of pictures of the three of us together and getting ride pictures was the cherry on top. I'm glad we did it, although I don't think we'll do it again until we go down with my brother and sister-in-law and their kid.
Epcot With a Side Order of Family: 1/19
Sunday was scheduled for every available family member within a 300 mile radius to go do Epcot together. Susiecat's family had come down from Jacksonville for the long weekend on I think Thursday, and was leaving Monday, making this our full day of overlap. Their traveling party included her dad, her mom, her brother, and our four year old nephew. Our sister-in-law was home with their new child, as the timing of the birth didn't work out exactly as we'd thought it would.
The joint excursion explains why there are a few less pictures this time around: Susiecat's family wisely avoids social media exposure, particularly for the children and lots of our photos involve them. You'll have to just believe me when I tell you that my nephew is adorable, my brother-in-law is manly, and my parents-in-law are wise and generous. Great people in all ways. I should also mention that my brother and sister-in-law are Auburn fans so you'll understand the joke I'm gonna make in a few paragraphs. War Eagle!
Anyway, I woke up bright and early at 6 AM, which is my usual wake-up time. Nobody else was up so I snuck out via the bedroom patio to explore a bit. The sun had just come up and the Beach Club was gorgeous.
Eventually I worked my way out to the beach to just bask in the morning. For my money there's no more relaxing place in Walt Disney World than the boardwalk and beach around Crescent Lake. I love the way the Boardwalk looks from across the water. I love the lighthouse where the boats stop. I love the Dance Hall sign. I even love the Swan and the Dolphin from this angle; there's something charmingly ludicrous about those huge concrete statues. It'd be silly to come to the parks and just spend all the days sitting around there, watching the world go by, but I'd enjoy it if I ever did. It's my favorite place; I can't put it any better than that.
Then I headed back, passing a guy with a New England Patriots jersey on the way. Unfortunately us Patriots fans don't have a catchy battle cry like Auburn fans. The closest thing we've got is "Man, I am so tired of people talking about those Manning brothers" and really that's just awkward. Thus, I just nodded at the guy and continued onward, finding Mom and Susiecat awake in the room. We puttered around a bit in the room getting ready before heading off at 9 to meet the rest of the party at Kouzzina. I'm so fond of the atmosphere in that place -- it's especially peaceful earlier in the morning.
Much good cheer ensued. Our nephew has recently discovered that milk makes him hyperactive so I got to see how Disney deals with allergies first-hand. I was really impressed: as you probably know if anyone in your family is allergic, the chef comes out and takes notes and marks the allergic guest's slip with a special marker and all. It was really cool that he treated the nephew like an adult; said nephew reacts well to that.
I had the breakfast skillet. It comes with an immense pile of arugula on top but I like the contrasting flavors of the robust eggs and the arugula with vinaigrette. Susiecat had the golden waffle, also very tasty. At this point I had become resigned to the fact that I don't know how to take food pictures with an iPhone. Sorry! It's not going to get any better this trip report, but I'll work on it for the next go-round.
Around 10 AM we all caught the boat to Epcot. Mom decided at this point that she was going to need a wheelchair. We'd talked about it before the trip and I made sure she knew that it was totally OK with me. She's still rehabbing her knee and isn't up to walking more than a mile or so at a time. I did some research and it sounded like it'd be fine to use the wheelchair for most of the in-park travel but stand up for lines and shopping and such. In practice this worked out really well and nobody looked at us funny.
I can't even remotely pretend I really understand what it'd be like being a full-time caretaker or being in a wheelchair all the time, but I'm thankful I got the brief look into that world so I could understand it a little bit better.
Renting the wheelchair was super-easy and Mom settled in nicely. I pushed.
We also took our first stab at FastPass+. The other half of the family didn't have access, or if they did we didn't realize it, so it was just the three of us. This turned out to make logistics pretty insane and if the situation ever came up again I'd just skip FastPass+ to make it easier. The three of us got FP+ for Soarin' for between 2:05 and 3:05 and we all tromped over towards the Land so everyone else could get normal FastPasses.
True fact that I just discovered: you can look up your old FastPass+ times if you're confused about when you did a ride! Nice.
On the way there we paused to watch the
United States Naval Academy Silent Drill Team. Super-impressive. My father-in-law was a submariner so it was particularly interesting for him but we all enjoyed watching for a few minutes until we got itchy about FastPasses and moved on.
One of the things about Epcot is that everyone gets the same pictures, but one of the other things about Epcot is that those pictures are worth taking. I like the 1980s vision of the future effect that holds sway, with big geometric buildings standing off among the trees.
Mom was also happy as a clam about all this. She really liked the reverse fountain. Her last visit to Walt Disney World was within a couple of years of Epcot's opening, so this was bringing back all kinds of memories.
By the time we got to the Land, the normal Soarin' FastPass window had slipped back to 7:10 PM. This did not distress the in-laws who love Soarin' to pieces and they got their FastPasses for then. Through some pixie dust which I didn't quite see happening, they also got us FastPasses for Living with the Land for 11:00 to 12:00. In retrospect, this was the beginning of the end for any hope of sane, efficient Epcot touring. Well, no; the beginning of the end was showing up with seven people, one of whom was four years old, with different levels of FastPass availability and no pre-planning.
I do not complain. One reason we like to do a full week at Walt Disney World is so that we don't stress about being efficient and seeing every last thing. It just cracks me up even thinking about it three weeks later.
Keep track with me: this was our first visit to the Land. We now had at least half an hour to kill so we left the Land and hit The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Cool for me, as I hadn't ever ridden it!
I enjoyed it in a low-key kind of a way. I really liked the queue with the fish forming up various shapes. It doesn't take much to keep me occupied. Oooh, the fish made a picture of a monorail! The nephew enjoyed the whole thing a ton which was really the goal. We had three or four stoppages right at Bruce the shark but fortunately Crush's ride stoppage spiel isn't stuck in my brain forever, coo-coo-cachoo. I was briefly worried, lemme tell you.
We spent a little while gawking at the aquarium before tromping back up to the Land and boarding Living with the Land. I have a soft spot for this ride as a tech geek. I don't know that I believe it's the future of agriculture any more but it's still neat. My high point, as always: the tomato tree. Even though I don't like tomatoes.
The nephew then pointed out that he'd been doing an admirable job of staying patient but that it was now time to sign up for Agent P's World Showcase Adventure. This was true and fair and we obeyed the four year old. I did not explain that he was missing out on the one true World Showcase Adventure experience involving Kim Possible since it's not his fault he didn't know. Also I may be a bit old to have strong opinions about which Disney Channel spy-themed cartoon is the best. I'm still right, mind you, but I don't need to convince my nephew or anything.
(Keeping track? That's the second visit to the Land.)
We signed up Agent J at the pavilion between Future World and World Showcase. He was inexpressibly excited. To further satisfy his needs and to get some food in our tummies, we headed to the United Kingdom and the Rose & Crown.
This was about the point at which I realized that Epcot was a ton more crowded than I expected. Yeah, it was Martin Luther King Day weekend, but my last four trips had included that weekend and it was never quite this crowded. My working theory is that after 2001 attendance really dropped, and by 2012 the recession had kicked in, keeping crowds relatively low. I'm glad to see the crowds back up whether I'm right or not. Also, next time I'm going to be more conscientious about making table reservations.
Given the immense line at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop and the lack of seating at the Rose & Crown dining room, we headed into the pub and did what we could for a seven person group. I have big admiration for the bartender, who handled a lot of grumpy people and us (there's a little bit of overlap between those two groups) with grace. Everyone got beer and/or Diet Coke, everyone got fish and chips, and everyone got fed. Most of us even got to sit!
I took the opportunity to carefully explain to Mom how the Rose & Crown has three exterior styles of architecture in order to capture three different types of English pub, and so on and so forth. I'm an Anglophile so I always try and eat there at least once and geek out about this stuff. Mom was tolerant. Meanwhile, Susiecat picked up some tea to help control the persistent coughs we were fighting.
After lunch we split up. The nephew needed to continue around World Showcase doing missions so Susiecat's family went that way and we had our Soarin' FastPass+ reservations. We headed back to the Land, but first... the legendary Epcot cronut.
Now, I've had a more faithful replica of the original, which has cream inside and frosting on top. It was pretty good. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this croissant donut they're selling at the Refreshment Port even if it has neither cream or frosting. I would completely recommend these. Here's two photos, one of the uneaten pastry and one half-eaten so you can see the layers.
This killed just enough time for us to mosey onward to the Land (third and final time). Our first experience with FastPass+ was painless. The woman in front of us was pushing her window a bit; she was seven or eight minutes early and the cast member politely told her to come back later. Seems only fair. After 20 minutes of line and preshow, we boarded Soarin'.
Mom was really nervous about falling out for the first couple of minutes. We'd joked a lot about thrill rides before the trip but this was really about as much as she was interested in handling. She had a great time, though! Loved the view, loved the scents and all. It was a total success. Although Susiecat and I are a little less amped about Soarin' now that we live in California, it's still an excellent ride in any park.
On the way out we got a book for our niece -- this is my brother's child, not Susiecat's side of the family. I was mildly surprised that even in 2014 with Magic Bands you've still got to fill in forms to get purchases delivered to your room. Maybe next year this'll improve. If not, I'll keep making Susiecat fill in the forms so that people don't have to read my illegible handwriting.
We then wandered southeast through Mexico and into Norway. I will admit that I sort of did not encourage Mom to want to stop off in Mexico. The pyramid is right up her alley and we were supposed to be meeting Susiecat's family in Norway, so I was nervous about an extended pause. I made up for this towards the end of the trip by doing the full Epcot circle with her, freeing me from guilt.
As it turned out, the nephew and the family were still in Germany when we got to Norway. Being Agent P's sidekick is time-consuming, it seems. We hung out and took some pictures of the crowds waiting to meet Elsa and Anna, as well as the World Showcase Lagoon. I bumped into another guy wearing a Patriots jersey, and since I had some time to kill we talked about how annoying quarterbacks named Manning are. Satisfying and prophetic.
While we were waiting, the Maelstrom stand-by time went from 50 minutes to 25 minutes to 50 minutes. The sign seemed unreliable enough so that, when everyone finally showed up, me and Susiecat and Susiecat's brother decided to make everyone wait while we went and did the ride. (25 minutes was accurate for us.) We all like trolls and Scandanavia so it's a no-brainer. It also has Susiecat's brother's favorite Hidden Mickey. We forget where it is each time and he always has the pleasure of making us try and find it again. This time we got a picture.
Apparently the World Showcase Adventure does not require any time in Mexico so we moved on to Mouse Gears for a bit of shopping. Susiecat found some nail polish she'd been hoping to buy. I considered the cool retro
Walt Disney World Four Logos T-shirt (link will probably die when the shirt goes out of print). I like the design a ton but the yellow is not my color and the red is an an applique, which I dislike in a T-shirt. In the end I passed it up regretfully. I also avoided getting sucked into the
Indiana Jones Vinylmation set. All in all it was a triumph of willpower.
After shopping, we paused to let Mom see the Innovention Fountains.
And we got our first PhotoPass.
And we saw ducks. Honestly the ducks may have been earlier, near Norway? Not sure.
Finally, all kinds of exhausted, we all tromped back to the room. We figured it'd be nice to let Susiecat's family relax for a while since they were going back to Epcot for Soarin' and IllumiNations. This meant two late nights in a row for the nephew. Rest was definitely in order.
Toy Story 2 was on television. It makes the nephew cry for completely understandable reasons. We watched a bit of that before they headed off for their FastPass time slot and we relaxed further. Oh, wait, gotta get food!
I took this as a reasonable excuse to foray out to the Boardwalk Bakery and get some sandwiches. I myself went a little bit further and got myself a foot long corn dog. Very tasty! Everyone knows what a corn dog looks like; there's no picture of that. Salmon sandwiches look like this:
On my way back to the room I gave in and got a picture of the cool knick-knack shelves in the Breezeway. This is so perfectly Disney to me: meticulous attention to detail forming a perfect whole. I could spend some serious time hanging out there reading. Someday.
Mom and Susiecat greatly enjoyed their sandwiches and we went to sleep pretty quickly thereafter. On to the next day.
My sister-in-law could herd cattle, five children, and a bus-full of Disney first-timers without breaking a sweat. She is, in a word, amazing. The rest of my family happily follows in her wake, and without her, sort of flailed around adorably. I love them to pieces, and yet I could see the vein pulsing on Thanlis's forehead when we went back to the Land the third time.
