Day 6 ~ Wednesday November 29, 2006 ~ Epcot
Ok, now I start dragging in the morning. The end of the vacation is getting closer and closer, the long days and nights are starting to take their toll, and its so dark in the room when I wake up each morning I would swear its 3 a.m.!
The wake up call goes off at 8:15, I think. I dont remember as I didnt wake up then. We hang up on Stitch before his little speech and I dread getting out of bed to pack and move all of our stuff.
I finally roll out of bed at 8:45 and shower and pack. Colton is sad leaving and told me he was considering paying the difference to stay but I told him he would like POR. We say good bye to our ducks (they showed up on our patio every morning) and say good bye to our room. It was good to us.
We get more depressed as we see new people coming in to stay (obvious by the leis) and we wished it was our first day again.
Anyways we had to move on. There was my favorite park Epcot to get to!! We loaded up the car (I did express check out so no waiting in line again to check out) and drove to Port Orleans Riverside.
This is where the day starts to turn for the worst. Checking in with the CM I asked her if we were able to get our request of Alligator Bayou and she said we did. I was happy about that as we had stayed in the mansions last time and I wanted to try these out too. I then asked her if we got a king size bed as well and she said no that they were all taken.
Side note: I dont really understand the whole king size bed is a request thing in the first place. Cant they reserve them and then when theyre gone theyre gone? Are the king size beds going to die therefore leaving less king size beds? Im confused but if I tried to understand every companys policy I would go insane, so I try not too.
So a little disappointed as my huge boyfriend would be sleeping in a double bed for the next three nights, I could tell he was irritated (even after I told him it was just a request). We got our room keys and all of our paperwork and I happened to notice as were walking away that my balance is higher than my Moms remaining balance (by about $60). I asked why that was and she said that When you request a king size bed you are requesting water view as well so you pay the difference but you may or may not get a king size bed. Since your rooms were booked together we figured you wanted to stay together so we comp'ed your parents room for a water view. Now Colton is irritated but he just goes outside. I didnt really care about a water view and was irritated I was paying it but we had already spent so much time getting our keys and paperwork together that I really just wanted to get out of there and I thought it was nice of them that they gave it to my parents. Note to self: Book rooms separately next year so were not next to Mom and Dad the whole week.
We get to our room and I then find out that our wonderful water view is of a quiet pool which was a little disappointing as I figured if I was paying for a water view at least it would be of the river. But hey, it was nicer than looking at the parking lot and I really did like the location of our rooms.
We unloaded our stuff as our rooms were ready (Yay for that!
) and I think I like the décor of the rooms better at Alligator Bayou. Its a little Wilderness Lodge meets POR. We had a few towel animals which were neat but I didnt take them as they werent small or that cute but it was still neat.
After this we headed to the West Depot bust stop to go to Epcot. It might be hard for me to ever get Colton to agree to a moderate or value again. He hated the busses. He looked like he needed a drink every time we got off of one. We get to Epcot at about 11:30 a.m. We have 12 p.m. ADRs at Chefs De France so we head towards France.
On the way we stopped at Club Cool and there were just a few other people in there. Colton and I went to a soda section and started trying some. I picked and chose the ones I knew were good and then I suggested he try Beverly as everyone says its really good. He poured some in his cup and took a huge gulp of it. At first I thought he might have liked it as he had no reaction on his face. Then his face turned and he looked at me and said Everyone was wrong and made the grossest face. I laughed so hard and I still dont think he knows that I knew it was gross. I walked away to see if I could trick my parents but they already knew (darnit!
) so I went back to Colton who had just tricked some poor old lady into drinking it! They were both laughing so I guess he picked the right person to do it to.
We left there and headed towards World Showcase. We get to France at about 11:50 a.m. and they dont open until 12. There were about a dozen people outside waiting so we checked in.
We had the best server (couldnt tell you his name!) and the best lunch ever!! We had a great window table so we could see the sights of Epcot (it had also started raining outside). Colton and I ordered the goat cheese and tomato tarte which was sooooo good! I didnt even want to share it after I started eating it. We all had the French Menu ($17.95 for a bowl of French onion soup, ham and cheese sandwich (hamless for me!), and crème brulee for dessert). It was so divine! The soup was the best Id ever had, the sandwich was warm and crispy, and the crème brulee was phenomenal. I wish I was eating there right now. Weve eaten here twice (once for lunch and once for dinner) and it steadily becoming one of my favorite places to eat at WDW.
After lunch we decided to go back to Future World and hit some rides!! We stop at Journey Into Imagination (which makes me sad every time I ride it thinking about what it used to be) and were all less than impressed as usual but I feel like I have to pay homage to the original ride by continuing to ride the new one.
We then go to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I do not and have not ever cared for this show. The show itself is ok but by the time you get into the theater you want to strangle someone and I have always felt this way. It starts out as a casual Hey! We havent seen that in awhile! Lets give it another try! and then you walk in and get in the horrible line, stand for 20-30 minutes with the constant announcement that in a few minutes youll get to go inside, get crammed in like sardines at the longest preshow in the history of preshows having to stand with strangers getting closer to you than anyone that you have ever known getting close to you, and then get pushed and shoved going into the theater. I was just happy to have my personal space and to sit my butt down in a chair. They didnt even have to play the show. And then we leave and wonder why we even wanted to do this in the first place for a movie that was popular 138 years ago (
). And then next trip someone suggests Hey! We havens seen that in awhile! Lets give it another try! And the cycle continues
But after that traumatizing event we head over to the Land to FastPass Soarin and ride Living with the Land. I took the four passes to the FP kiosk and every one of them would work except my Dads. It kept saying invalid pass. We got a CM to help us and she printed us out one. The Stand By time was 50 minutes at this time.
We go over to Living with the Land and Im shocked that there is no wait. I remember winding around up and down for 40 minutes or more before to ride this ride. We hop on our boat for good times.
We start and I immediately notice theres no CM on the boat anymore! When did this happen?!? That was my dream job! Thats what I wanted to do at WDW more than anything else! My job was terminated as now they have a recorded message. I could do it so much better than she can.
Colton loved this and I did too. I dont know why but this is such a favorite of mine. We got off and still had lots of time until our FP window opened so we went to SpaceShip Earth.
I love this ride too and will cry if anything ever happens to it. Colton liked it too and thought if the seats were a little bit more comfortable then it would be the perfect place for a nap
. My Dad said at the top where the Earth and stars are reminds him of being camping in the mountains and I couldnt agree more. Makes you just think what a short amount of time we have here on Earth and how lucky we are to be healthy and able to go to WDW. It was a nice moment.
Afterwards Colton and I abandoned my folks and we did Test Track. I like this ride but think the line area is a little disorganized. Every time the preshow doors open nobody can get out because the lines so backed up. This ride also cracks me up because youre like WooHoo! Were going 67 mph!!
when actually you go faster driving to Disney than you do on that ride but its still fun.
We went back to the Land at this point and waited about 10 minutes before boarding Soarin (BTW the Stand By time was now 1 hour and 10 minutes). We all loved this ride. I would love for them to do more Soarin' movies over other states. Its so good and nobody in my family gets motion sick to this.
We headed back to World Showcase at this point. It was about 4:15 and we wanted to catch the Candlelight Processional at 5 and knew there would be a line (we did the Dinner Package last year but decided with the raised prices, new rules, and gratuity not being included that we would not do it and take our chances getting a seat). We go through Mexico to head to the United States pavilion. After walking a good ten minutes we get to the bridge and its up to let the firework boats through! It took forever but we finally got going and it was already 4:40. We get almost there and can see the huge line forming. We get to the end of the line and it just constantly moves! We waited no joke about 5-10 minutes and got great seats.
Then it started to rain.
People started to put up there umbrellas so we couldnt see much of what was going on for the first 5 minutes but thankfully it stopped raining and people put them away. John OHurley was our guest narrator and he did a great job. The show was good but I think Ive had enough of it. Colton didnt really like it (as hes a little boy and cant sit still for 45 minutes
) and was getting annoyed at the people behind us talking on their phones loudly and to each other through the entire performance. Its really good if youve never seen it and I know some people could watch it every night but I think well skip it next year.
After that it was almost time for our 6:30 ADRs at Le Cellier in Canada. We walked around World Showcase and checked in. We had a great booth in the back corner (as its a small and loud restaurant and most of its tables are out in the open I thought this was great). Colton and I ordered Bloody Caesars which were fantastic Bloody Marys. Colton got the Cheddar Cheese soup which he said was good. My parents split a steak, Colton got the NY strip, and I ordered the Free Range Chicken which was pretty good. I also ordered the Chocolate Moose for dessert and thought it was the best part of the meal. I love mousse though. Our bill came to $96.11 after the 20% discount with the DDE card for the four of us.
When dinner was over it was about 8 p.m. Our plan was to check out the Epcot resorts that night, get some ice cream at Beaches N Cream, and then go to Downtown Disney. We exit through the International Gateway and go to the Boardwalk first. I love this resort and the actual boardwalk was fairly dead. We entered the lobby of the Boardwalk and checked out the decorations.
We continued walking around to the Yacht Club and Colton loved this resort. I was going to surprise him by staying here for the first night but one standard room for the four of us was $444 with tax so I decided against that.
Everyone was getting dog tired at this point. You could just tell everyone was drained. We walked through the lobby of the Yacht Club and then headed over to the Beach Club. We walked around the lobby and then went to Beaches N Cream. There was a 5-10 minute wait for a table. We got seated and it was SO LOUD in there!! It opens up to the arcade next door and there was nothing blocking the noise from in there plus BNC is small and there were a lot of people stuffed in there. I got a chocolate milkshake, Colton got a Mud Slide sundae, and my parents split the Milky Way one. Im glad I tried this place but will not go back again. I really wished we had just ordered the ice cream at the to go window and eaten at the tables outside. It was crazy how loud it was in there.
After this we all had pretty bad headaches and we were tired so we decided to skip Downtown Disney and go back to POR. We took a bus from BC to Pleasure Island to transfer but the bus broke down when it unloaded a wheelchair and the ramp wouldnt come back in. Another bus picked us up about 20 minutes later (one guy who waited maybe 5 minutes kept complaining to the bus driver that picked us up and told him since he had been inconvenienced that the bus driver should take him directly to his resort
(Saratoga Springs). The bus driver told him he was actually off and came by to help the other bus driver out and he was just going to Pleasure Island and Marketplace.) We get to Pleasure Island and wait for another bus to take us to POR. We finally make it back in the room at 11:15 p.m. We were exhausted and I plopped in the spacious double bed (
) and went to sleep.
Up next: Pictures!!! I get them back tomorrow and will post some as soon as possible. Also, the day of the Proposal, Colton and I get an alone day, Typhoon Lagoon, laziness, and Hoop Dee DoooooWhereDidAllOfThesePeopleComeFromAtThe9:30Show Revue!!
Also, if you want to see more pictures go to
www.collages.net to see our Engagement Pictures taken at World Showcase.
UserID: Maston HM
Password: 1971
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Okay, I'm gonna get back to reading that great TR!! Congrats again!!
