Sorry for the delay in getting the next post up. In the meantime, I ran for president. I didn't win, though.
For a day that would end up as the Best. Day. Ever. ®, it didn't really start off that way. We were headed back to Epcot, this time to take our time touring the World Showcase side of the park. Since it was a non-EMH day and the WS didn't open till 11:00, we didn't feel the need to rush in the morning. We were sick of Pop-Tarts at this point, so I suggested heading to the Kona Island coffee bar in the Polynesian for breakfast.
We rustled ourselves out of bed and waited at the bus stop for a MK bus. One showed up after a few minutes, but we were hit with another
scooter delay. I decided to take advantage and ran into Fulton's General store to look for mini-DV cassettes...again, no luck.
As I came back out, they were still loading the first scooter onto the bus. Thankfully, another MK bus showed up, and we piled onto that one.
Dave had spotted the Tron-o-rail a couple of days earlier and had his heart set on riding it. So, the plan was to take the monorail from MK to the Poly, grab breakfast, then (hopefully) catch the Tron-o-rail to Epcot. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the inside of the Tron-o-rail would look exactly like the other monorail cars.
When we got to the MK, we headed straight for the monorail station, only to have our path blocked by two large men that Disney apparently borrowed from the Miami Dolphins and put into ill-fitting monorail uniforms. The Disney Brute Squad informed us that the monorails were down, and they didn't know when they'd be operational again.
So, we turned around and got on the resort boat. This took some extra time, as it went to the Red Roof Inn (i.e. Grand Floridian) first. Eventually, we arrived at the Polynesian Resort. Good thing we weren't in a hurry.
We got our coffee and pastries (they were out of the big cinnamon rolls
) and sat by the window, eating and watching the apparently repaired monorails going by. I think the Kona coffee they serve there is the best I've had on WDW property (from an admittedly small sample size). Still, it's nice to have some real coffee in the morning, and not just Nescrape you could get in bulk at your local K-Mart. K-Mart sucks.
Here's a picture for trennr from the counter at the coffee bar:
Even though it was a short walk to the TTC, we decided to ride the monorail all around the loop just to give the kids extra time on Old Band-Aid.
We chose...poorly. (this has already been identified as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, so no points....sorry)
The monorail slowed to a stop halfway between MK and the Contemporary, with just a brief announcement that we were holding for clearance from the station. After 10 minutes and 4 repeats of the announcement, our amazing mental deductive skills told us we might be holding for more than just routine clearance. Finally, we got moving again and limped into the TTC. As we walked to the Epcot station, we saw the green monorail pulling out. I secretly got excited for Dave--the Tron-o-rail would have to be next!
We waited in line for a while, and finally were rewarded as we looked to our right and saw:
The yellow monorail approaching. The Tron-o-rail had the day off. Sorry, Dave.
Thankfully, he likes the monorail so much that this was quickly forgotten, and we enjoyed the ride. I love the loop inside the park. Great way to show it off and get the anticipation building.
By the way, look at that picture of Spaceship Earth. I've always felt the triangle-canopy things are a little bit of an eyesore, and that the park would look better and cleaner without them. Is it just me?
It was around 10:00 a.m. when we finally got into the park, and we asked the kids if there was any ride they wanted to do again. Dave immediately begged for Test Track. According to the boards, there was a 5-minute wait, so we headed off in that direction. When we got through Innoventions, the kids said they needed a pit stop. As we turned towards the restrooms, we saw the board over Test Track now said the wait was 20 minutes. By the time we'd finished taking care of business and emerged, the wait was 40 minutes. I've never seen a wait time go up that fast before. We decided to try again later. The kids wanted to do Spaceship Earth again, so we backtracked to the Big Golf Ball.
Julie and Sarah opted for the Classic Fish Face for the cartoon at the end:
Apparently my face was so hideous that the computers couldn't process it, and instead replaced it with a generic cartoon. Imagine if I'd actually been making an ugly face. Uglier, I mean.
Oh, and you'll be happy to know that Julie correctly identified Delaware on the map this time.
By this point, we'd killed enough time that the World Showcase was open.
We had one goal for this area: the Kim Possible spy missions. We headed past Mexico to the top-secret recruitment station next to Norway.
I told the kids to approach casually, so as not to draw attention. I handed one young guy, barely out of his teens, our assignment ticket in a slick move disguised as a handshake. I also mentioned to the recruiters that we had dressed like Disney World tourists for the day, so we'd be able to blend into the crowds.
<crickets>
Sigh. Youth is wasted on the wrong people. I guess they've heard that one before. We were handed our super-secret cell phone. The kids punched in our super-secret spy code of 4-8-15-16-23-42. Hmm. Maybe I shouldn't have published that on a public message board. Well, just promise not to tell anyone, ok?
We finally had our first mission: we were going to China.
To be continued...
Coming Up Next: Our first mission as undercover agents. Plus, lots and lots of cheese.
I can't remember when I earned it, but I am sure you have not made any mistakes!!
and 
Too bad they didn't appreciate your seriousness for the task at hand - saving the world!! Are those Wall - E tshirts on the kids? I loved that movie
