Almost a Grand Gathering, 10th anniversary Trip Report *updated 11/11:Epcot Day 2*

[My2Qtz0205]

TR Episode 1:

Thank you for joining in on my first-ever trip report! We had a wonderful first Disney family vacation from 10/16 to 10/23. If you read my PTR (all 5 of you), welcome back! I will be a good Dis-er and update this trip report frequently so it doesn’t get closed like my PTR did. If I am new to you, welcome! And let me introduce the players in this adventure:

Me: Dawn, 33 years old, loves Disney, hates flying, scrapbook fanatic. All pictures are taken with scrapbooking in mind! My last trip was for the MNSSHP with a few girlfriends while we were in Orlando attending a convention in 2007.

DH: Matt, 34 years old, feels (felt?) “meh” about Disney, but wants to make me happy. Smart man!

DS: Quade, turned 7 on our trip, is growing out of Playhouse Disney, but still likes Mickey & Donald

DD: Camdyn, 3 ½, loves Ariel and the rest of the Disney Princesses. She is our absolute diva!

DMom: “Nanna” to my kids, “Mom” to me. She hadn’t been to Disney since I was 10.

DMil: “Grannie”, Matt’s mom. I don’t think she had ever been to Disney. She and Matt’s dad live 4 hours away from us, so are excited to spend any time with our kids. And yes, we get along.

DFil: “Grandpa”, Matt’s dad. Very laid back guy, but prefers to stay home.

DBil: Dan, Matt’s brother. Hadn’t been to Disney in 15 years, since he went with friends after high school graduation.

DSil: Deb, Dan’s wife. Had been to Disney a few years ago with friends. Loves the Princesses, also, and really any character for that matter.

Yup, we just missed being a Grand Gathering. We took this trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. I know most people go somewhere romantic with just their spouse, but I figured our kids are the perfect ages for Disney—old enough to remember it, but young enough to believe in the magic—and I can’t get anyone to watch my kids for the weekend, much less a week, anyway! So, after some number fidgeting and convincing of DH, Disney it was!

Up next: Arrival Day (with pics)!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Today is our 10th wedding anniversary! Awww!

We jump out of bed at 5am, in order to leave the house by 6. We don't mope about and complain, because we're going to Disney!

Matt & I get dressed. I put on my shirt that says "My Husband Rocks", and we put on our bride & groom mouse ears.

The kids were a little less excited. After crying and moaning a bit about how they'd rather sleep than go to Disney World, they were dressed, in their mouse ears, and in the car.

We made it to the airport in record time. Matt was amazed at how easy the commute was. It's never that easy when he takes that route everyday on the way to work!

This was Camdyn's first flight. She was scared, but excited to take off. Me too! She asked me to hold her hand.

Our flight was a little bumpy due to rain on the East Coast. Our flight attendant was GREAT--very funny. In her safety spiel, she said things such as, "In case of sudden loss of cabin pressure, after you are done screaming and clawing at each other, grab the oxygen mask from the ceiling." "I'm going to dim the cabin lights now. If you are afraid of the dark or of your neighbor, you can turn on the light above you." "If this airship should become a cruise ship, you can put on the life vest under your seat." Her humor kept my mind off the images of plummeting to the ground that kept running through my mind. The kids did great on the flight. They did have some problems with their ears on the descent, but some nice fellow passengers gave them gum to help pop their ears.

After a long line for a rental car (Avis), we finally got our Dodge Nitro. If you've never seen one of those before, they call it a "medium SUV." Try to fit three adults (my mom was with us), and two children in full-sized car seats into a medium SUV. My poor mom had to sit in the middle of the two car seats, since I couldn't locate the LATCH anchors in the middle of the bench. This is the first lesson learned this trip: ALWAYS LISTEN TO YOUR WIFE. I told Matt we needed to rent a minivan, but he didn't want to spend the extra $150 a week. My mom said next time she'll chip in for the upgrade!

Next post: 2pm, and we're famished! Where to eat?

 

[My2Qtz0205]

It was 2pm by the time we left the airport, and we were all famished. I suggested Downtown Disney.

Woohoo!

I had read good things here on the DIS about both Earl of Sandwich and Wolfgang Puck's Express. They were right beside each other, but we came to Earl of Sandwich first, so that was it! Oops, I must admit I told a tiny fib in my intro. I do not take ALL pictures with scrapbooking in mind. There are some pictures I take just for you DIS-ers.

Food porn:

My choice, Earl's Cobb Salad. I loved the chunks of chicken, cucumber, and cheese in my salad. I hate when someone gives you a bowl of lettuce and calls it a salad.

Mom's choice, the Holiday Turkey Sandwich without the gravy. Oh My Gosh. Oh so good. You must try this if you are heading to the World in the next couple of months. It had sliced turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing, sandwiched between two slices of warm, crusty bread. I am kicking myself for not getting that one.

Matt's choice, the Italian sandwich

What I chose for the kids, the pizza sandwiches. They just ate the cheese off of it.

After lunch, we walked into Once Upon a Toy.

The kids were dumbfounded, I think. Quade reacted by standing in one place and staring,

while Camdyn flitted from one corner of the princess room to the other.

They got their first souvenirs here--a light-up Mickey wand for Quade, and a Little Mermaid dress-up doll set for Camdyn. We have such bad luck with these things. This is her fifth such set. The first three (two Ariels and one Jasmine) met their demise at the mouth of our dog, and the fourth was lost. This particular one lost her head on our first night. Never again.

After our bellies had been filled and we had taken in the sights of Once Upon a Toy and World of Disney, we headed for our home sweet vacation home in Davenport. DMil and DFil were there awaiting us, as they had driven to FL and had arrived the day before.

Some of the sights as we walked into our master suite:

Aww, we get towel animals, too!

and

Niiice! Of course the kids wanted to be in it immediately, so I gave them their first "Mickey gifts"--a Mickey swim float, Ariel arm floaties and beach ball, and away they went to play with their grandparents while I unpacked.

My original plan was to hit Epcot for Illuminations, but we were pretty pooped. Flying gives me a headache, so we sat in the hot tub after the kids went to bed and toasted to 10 years of marriage with a couple of glasses of wine. Bliss.

Next chapter: Day 2, our first MK day. Kids never react like you think they will.

 

[redsunfish]

Hi Dawn,

I'm joining in on your trip report! I spent your anniversary (my birthday) enjoying wishes from Main St

I'm watching out to see if were ever nearby eachother on our stays Looking forward to reading!

-Sarah

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Welcome, Sarah!

Happy belated birthday!

I'll work on getting more photos up on Photobucket today, between actually cleaning this house!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

This segment is light on words, heavy on pics! I downloaded 57 just from this day. I guess I’ll have to break it up a bit.

I just could not sleep. I got up at 6 a.m. on the dot. This is very unlike me. If Matt tries to get me up before 7 a.m. at home, he gets The Evil Eye. We had an 8:25 ADR at CRT, and I could not wait for Camdyn to meet the princesses!

Look who is waiting for us to catch up:

We all got to the Tickets & Transportation Center, and started walking towards the monorail. I remember just being sooo happy! I had been planning this trip in earnest since January, and here we all were, just as I envisioned it, about to enter The Happiest Place on Earth.

We get on the monorail, and I look around. Where is my camera?

​

“Matt, did you pick up the camera bag? “

​

“No, you didn’t?”
Argh!! I cannot believe I forgot my camera! Luckily we are Almost a Grand Gathering, so there are four other people with cameras in our group. So, I’ll just enjoy the day without looking through a camera lens. It’s ok.

As soon as we entered Main Street, I headed right for Town Hall for our buttons. Matt was a bit miffed, as he was ready to head to the castle. Hello, I’m the planner, I know what I’m doing! I very quickly got 2 Happy Anniversary buttons, 1 First Visit button, and 1 Happy Birthday button, and we were on our way to get our pictures in front of the castle.

I met my first PhotoPass photog, got our pic, and headed up to the castle for our ADR. Somewhere in the checking-in chaos, I lost my PhotoPass card! We only had our castle shot on there so far, so it was not a major cause of panic. After a short wait, we were escorted in, and stood in line to meet Cinderella.

At this point, Camdyn has a melt-down. She does not want to meet Cinderella. What? Seriously? In fact, she makes such a fuss that Matt has to take her to the back of the room and sit on a bench in the corner. Quade and I move on anyway, and get our picture taken with our first princess of the day.

As we arrived in the castle, we were told that we would be broken up into two tables right beside each other. That wasn’t my ideal situation, but I guess it was to be expected. Our server was very funny and nice. He gave us three options for breakfast: a garden omelet, strawberry yogurt with caramelized fruit, or stuffed French toast. Matt chose option #2, and everyone else chose option #3. I didn’t take pics, but the food was sooooo good! I would do this breakfast again in a heartbeat! We also had two fruit bowls to share, and our choices of juices, milk, and coffee.

Soon after the waiter took our orders, the characters started making their rounds. Snow White was first. Here is where we got an inkling of how this breakfast was going to go for Camdyn:

and there she goes, under the table, for the rest of the meal

Quade enjoyed it, though.

still there

I really loved Belle. She made a great effort to try to make Camdyn comfortable with her.

As I said, the food was GREAT, so I didn’t feel like we wasted our money on this meal, even though my Princess did not enjoy it as I thought she would.



Continued in next post.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

After our royal feast we headed to FantasyLand for Dumbo. The line probably had about a 10 minute wait. It wasn’t too bad. I rode with Quade, while Matt rode with Camdyn, and Mom and Deb rode together.

After Dumbo we headed to Ariel’s Grotto. The wait was about 10 minutes at 9:40, so they must be opening her grotto before 10 a.m. I was still hopeful that Camdyn would recover from her princess anxiety, since Ariel is her very favorite princess! She is practically obsessed with anything Ariel. The kids played around the fountains while we waited.

plotting our strategy

Notice we’re all still wearing coats. When I heard about the record highs in Florida the week before we arrived, I prayed and prayed for a cold front, as I do not do well in heat. God answered, and he answered big! The high that day was in the mid-to-upper 70’s. It was absolutely beautiful by noon.

We finally make our way up to Ariel, and little Miss Camdyn tries to scale down my back. I was talking to Ariel, and trying to convince her that this little girl LOVES her, but I don’t know if she believed me, since Camdyn eventually made a break for it and sat by the PhotoPass photographer.

After thoroughly traumatizing my daughter for the day, we headed out of Ariel’s to ride some rides: Winnie the Pooh, then fastpassed Peter Pan, then this little boat ride:

Next was Philharmagic. I worried a little bit about this one, as Camdyn does not care for 3-D movies. I held her in my lap and covered her ears with my hands, and took off her 3-D glasses. She hid her face for the first couple of minutes, until she heard songs from her beloved Disney movies. All-in-all, not so bad. The grandparents loved it.

Matt wanted to ride Haunted Mansion, so he, Quade, Dan and Deb took off for that while Camdyn, Nanna, me, & Grannie rode Cinderella’s Golden Carousel. I pointed out Cinderella’s horse to her, but she decided on an Indian horse instead. Whatever. As long as she was happy (and she was).

Coming up: Part 2 of our first day. The first of my money-saving plans goes down the tubes.

 

[bgohre]

Ok, hiding under the table...that is hilarious.

 

[My2Qtz0205]

After we used our Fast Passes for Peter Pan, we were ready for some lunch. My plan was to pack in sandwiches so we could save money by not buying lunch at the park. I ran out of time getting myself & the kids ready that morning, so I assumed Matt had made the sandwiches. Nope. He packed water and some snacks, but no lunch. Okay, no biggie. I heard Columbia Harbour House was good, so let’s try that. Matt got the clam chowder, I got the tuna salad, and the kids got Mac ‘n Cheese. It was crowded and loud downstairs, so we headed upstairs and practically had a room to ourselves!

Our next stop was Adventureland and Frontierland. We grabbed Fast Passes for Jungle Cruise, then split off. Camdyn and Nanna got in lines for the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, while Matt, Quade, Dan, Deb, and I checked out the wait time for BTMRR: 60 minutes!! Oy! Since we already had valid fastpasses, we decided to get in the stand-by line. I’m sure the wait won’t be that long. About 20 minutes into our wait, we bailed. We had been moving pretty steadily until the CM stopped the stand-by line to let FP people go. 2nd lesson learned: If You Don’t Have a Fastpass, Don’t Bother.

It was too cold for Splash Mountain, so we decided to meet back up with the rest of our crew, and explore Tom Sawyer Island.

After that we used our fastpasses for Jungle Cruise. It was very cute. We love corny jokes in our family.

At this point we decided to take a break. We went to the train station in Frontierland so we could get off at the front gates. We had our double stroller with us, so we decided to take the handicapped ramp up to the top. A CM saw us and told us to wait at the bottom of the ramp until all of the passengers got off the train that had just come in the station. We waited about ten minutes while this happened. Finally we were escorted to the train. There was a man in a wheelchair in front of us. The CM led him to a wheelchair-accessible gate, while telling us to go ahead through the turnstiles. With our jumbo double stroller (a Graco DuoGlider, if you’re curious). Sure. We had to pull everything out of the bottom, then lift the daggone thing over the turnstiles. Lesson learned #3: Unless you have a very compact stroller, just hike it to the front of the park. It would have saved us a lot of aggravation.

Back at the house, the kids played in the pool (heated for free), the adults decompressed, and we ate our leftovers from Earl of Sandwich for dinner. Our plan was to get back to the park around 7 to watch Spectromagic and Wishes. We ran a little behind, and arrived on Main Street at 7:55. I had wanted to make it to Frontierland to see the parade, but there was no way we were going to make it through this crowd, so we just found an open spot around the flagpole and enjoyed.

After the parade, we made our way to the Tomorrowland bridge to watch Wishes.

We situated ourselves right under Tinkerbell’s wire, so she flew right over our heads! Unfortunately, no pics, because I wasn’t expecting that until the end of the fireworks, and Matt didn’t have the camera ready. Our fireworks view was partially blocked by a tree, but I loved the theming of Wishes. I see why so many people get emotional during them.

The kids were very close to melting down, so instead of walking around for a while while the crowds dispersed, we got right in there with them. What a madhouse. We decided to walk through the Emporium for a while, but we could barely maneuver the stroller. By the time we got to the entrance, Quade was sleeping. We decided to skip the tram lines and hike the two blocks to the car, and I guess the cool rushing wind on her face knocked Camdyn out as well.

It was a great first day, and I couldn’t wait for the next day!


Coming Up: Day 3, DHS. There’s not much to do there for young kids, so a half day should be plenty, right?

 

[praisehisname]

Hi! Just wanted to let you know I'm following along!

Denise

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Thank you, Denise. I hope to have the next installment up soon!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

My intention today was to make it to DHS for Rope Drop. I think we missed it by five or ten minutes. Still not bad, considering we were wrangling seven adults and two children. By the way, the high temperature this day was 63 degrees! It was OMG cold that morning.

I had handy dandy index cards I had been referring to for our tour plans. They worked great at MK! Today, however, I could not find them! I felt so lost and disorganized. I had researched the times of all of the shows and put that info on my index cards, but fat lot of good it did me now.

I knew the general consensus was to ride Toy Story Mania first, then fastpass it. We found our way to Pixar Place, to the long fastpass line, only to be told by a CM that TSM was down, and the fastpasses now available were for 1:30 or later. We only intended to do a half day at DHS, since we didn’t really think there was much there our kids could do. So, we decided that TSM would have to wait for another trip. We don’t know what we’re missing.

We passed this on our way to Pixar Place,

and I knew Camdyn would love it. She was a little nervous about it, because she thought it was 3-D, but she did great. We all enjoyed it, though it was a bit like the movie was on extreme fast forward. I guess that's what happens when you try to summarize a movie in a seventeen minute show.

This was right across the street,

so we decided to let the kids see that with their grandparents, while Dan, Deb, Matt, and I checked out the wait time for Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. It was a 60 minute wait, so we decided to fastpass it. At this point I was lost. We wandered to Indiana Jones. No show yet. We walked to American Idol. No show yet. We went into a couple of shops while we waited for Playhouse Disney to let out. We had no idea how long that show was! I took these pics as we walked around:

These guys gave me kisses and the greatest hugs!

After Playhouse Disney finally let out, Mom told me how upset Quade was that he didn’t meet the height requirement for RnRC. To cheer him up, Matt, Dan, Deb, and Grandpa took him on Star Tours while the girls went shopping. I wanted to see if we could get in to Beauty and the Beast, but when I finally found a show times guide, I knew we wouldn’t make it in time. We went into the Villains shop, and I got a long-sleeved t-shirt and some M&Ms for the kids at Goofy’s.

From there we walked back into Pixar Place to look around and wait for the call that the rest of the crew was done. I saw this guy standing around,

and a meet and greet for Woody and Buzz. I didn't want to wait in long lines for characters, and Quade wasn’t with me anyway, so we skipped it. On our way past that, Deb called to say that they were done and that Jedi Knight Training was just about to start. We got there too late, so Quade didn’t get picked, but he did get to build his own lightsaber.

It was time to use our RnRC fastpasses, so we walked the family to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. We saw this on the way:

RnRC was totally awesome! I am so glad we didn’t wait an hour for it, though! We bought the ride photo because Deb’s face is priceless!

We met the family at The Magic of Disney Animation. We walked through the auditorium and met Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and Frozone.

I really wanted to go to the Animation Academy, but once again we had bad timing.

Next time we come we will most definitely spend an entire day at DHS. We want to ride TSM, ride RnRC again (maybe with both of our kids next time!), see the Indiana Jones show, take part in the Animation Academy, and I want to walk through One Man’s Dream. There is just so much we didn’t do. I took these pics on the way out, though:

Matt posing with Walt Disney's Oscars

This painting brought tears to my eyes, especially since we were going to MNSSHP that night!

At right about 1:30 we headed for the exit, stopping along the way to get the kids Mickey bars. This made for great PhotoPass pictures.

We headed back to the house for a break, and to get ready for MNSSHP!

Next chapter: MNSSHP. Would the kids make it? Would we make it? Will people even see our costumes under our coats?!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

After some quick family photos back at the house,

we got to the party around 6pm. They had closed the monorail to arriving guests, and were herding us all onto the boat.

We went through the turnstiles and got our wristbands,

and then headed straight for BTMRR, since we didn’t get to ride it the previous day. This time there was only a 20 minute wait.

After our runaway train adventure, we decided to grab dinner at Pecos Bill’s. I had no idea what a good decision what this would turn out to be (but not because of the food). The food was just ok. The self-ordering kiosk did not give us the option to order drinks for the adults, so we cancelled our order a couple of times trying to figure it out, then just gave up and got drinks from a cart outside. I don’t remember what Matt and the kids got, but I got a taco salad. I don’t eat beef, so I dumped that out and just filled my taco shell with toppings from the topping bar.

By the time all nine of us got done eating, it was 7pm, and the Boo to You Parade was to start at 7:30. There were already people sitting on the wall at Pecos Bill’s, staking out their spot, so we hung around behind them so we could stand on the wall and see the parade. It was a great spot. The Headless Horseman rode right by us, but my camera was not fast enough to capture him. The parade was so much fun, and Matt really loved the music. So much so, that he bought the CD from the Emporium before we left.

This wench sauntered right up to my husband and winked at him!

After the parade, the grandparents decided to go back to the house to relax, so the rest of us headed over to the dance party at Ariel’s Grotto. We passed lots of long candy lines on the way, but since we could Trick-or-Treat at home, I decided we would skip that. The dance party probably had about 30 people there when we arrived, but there was still plenty of room to move. Camdyn was nervous at first, with her character anxiety, but once she saw that we were pretty much just dancing around the characters, she allowed us to hold her.

Daisy and Donald were our hosts for this party. Quade had a blast! That boy loves to dance. So do Dan & Deb. We stayed there for quite a bit. We danced to a few hip hop tunes, then the DJ taught us the Monster Mash, and we did the YMCA.

We eventually tore ourselves away from the dance party, and headed over to Toontown Fair. The wait time for Goofy’s Barnstormer was five minutes, so we took Camdyn on that. It was her first rollercoaster, and she was so excited to be tall enough for it! She was excited/nervous, but she loved it. She did great. It was at this point, though, that I realized my eye felt strange—kind of like pressure was building behind it, and it felt really dry. I wear contacts, but I didn’t pack anything in my park bag to take care of them, so I figured I would just tough it out until we got home.

The waits through Mickey’s and Minnie’s houses were pretty long, so we decided to head back to the Tomorrowland bridge for HalloWishes. The soundtrack was not as well broadcast as the Wishes soundtrack, so we couldn’t get the full effect.

The crowds were not nearly as bad as the previous night, so we leisurely made our way towards the castle, got some PhotoPass pics,

then wandered through the Emporium again.

On our way out of the gates, the same sweet CM that put wristbands on my children was handing out candy. We could only find one of treat bags, since we just threw them under the stroller, so she gave us double candy. By the way, it was about 53 degrees at this point, so she handed us all chocolate!
The kids were much more energized this night when we left the park than our previous night, so they enjoyed dancing around the projected Mickey heads on the sidewalk.

This was such a fun night. Matt, in particular, really enjoyed himself. We played the Boo to You soundtrack from the trunk of our car at Trunk-or-Treat last night, actually.

By the time we left, my eye was really killing me. All I could think about was getting home to take care of it. The next day I had planned for us to do Epcot’s World Showcase, so we could sleep in and arrive at the parks at 11. What is wrong with my eye?! Would we make it to WS as planned?

Next chapter: A day for the adults! Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival, and a quick search for Urgent Care centers.

 

[mla1977]

Hi! I'm enjoying your TR so far and look forward to reading more. I hope that your DD eventually warms up to the characters (even if it means another trip before it happens).

 

[praisehisname]

Sounds like you had a great time at the party! Hope your eye is OK; don't keep us waiting too long!

Denise

 

[My2Qtz0205]

Thanks for popping in, mla and Praisehisname! It's nice to know someone is reading.

I've written my next installment. I just have to upload my pics to Photobucket. Hopefully I can get those up tomorrow while Matt is at work.

 

[eeyoregon]

Notice we’re all still wearing coats. When I heard about the record highs in Florida the week before we arrived, I prayed and prayed for a cold front, as I do not do well in heat. God answered, and he answered big! The high that day was in the mid-to-upper 70’s. It was absolutely beautiful by noon.

I guess I should have had you pray for me too! We were there October 2-11 and it was beyond miserable hot/humid. We made the best of it but it almost killed me! We couldn't even get a rain shower to cool us off! That's just the type of luck I seem to have.

Loving your trip report!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

My friend was there from Oct. 3rd to 10th with her family. They had been to Sea World at the beginning of August and had endured awful heat and humidity, and she had told her girls that when they went to Disney World in October, the weather was going to feel so much nicer. Imagine her mortification when her daughters announced their mom had LIED to them while they were standing in line for a ride on their trip!

 

[My2Qtz0205]

When I got home after MNSSHP, I immediately went to take care of my eye. It was really red and watery, and it looked awful. I knew it must be the dreaded pink eye, which requires prescription eye drops to heal. That meant that Matt would have to take me to an Urgent Care in the morning. So much for sleeping in. I looked in my Unofficial Guide, and found the closest Urgent Care to us, and dog-eared the page so I could refer back to it in the morning. It opened at 8am, so maybe we could still make it to World Showcase by 11am. I just-so-happened to bring some prescription eye drops that I had left over from an eye infection I had when Camdyn was a baby, so I went ahead and put a drop in before I went to bed.

I got up at 7am, with my eye glued shut. I quietly got in the shower and did my best to care for my eye. When I got out of the shower, my eye was still red, but it didn’t feel dry or like pressure was building, as it had the previous night. I put another one of my prescription eye drops in it, and resigned myself to wearing glasses the rest of our trip. I thought I could get by without going to Urgent Care though, thank goodness!

During our break the day before, Deb had gone online and researched what exotic foods & drinks would be available at the Food & Wine Fest. She and Dan are great fans of good food and drink. We all went through what she had found, and highlighted the areas we wanted to make sure we hit.

We left on time, and arrived at World Showcase right at 11am. We posed for some pics, then got Quade signed up for the Kimpossible mission.

It was very bright that morning. LOL

There was some psychological debate going on between us: would the rest of the crowd be more inclined to go right rather than left, or clockwise rather than counterclockwise?

We headed off to our trip around the world counterclockwise, skipping the Puerto Rico and Chile kiosks. From there we moved on to the Athens, Greece kiosk. Mom tried the Spanakopita, a spinach and cheese popover. I had just a corner of that, but I found it good. I don’t think I would have wanted to eat a whole one by myself—too much spinach for me.

We came to Canada next. We got Maple Candy (me), Maple Glazed Salmon with Lentil Salad (Matt), and Spicy Chicken Sausage with Sweet Corn Polenta (Dan). I don’t eat salmon or sausage, but I sampled the Lentil Salad and the Sweet Corn Polenta, and I found both very good. We all sampled the Vidal Icewine, and we LOVED that. It was very sweet.

We stopped at the Canada KidCot spot so the kids could make their masks.

Camdyn is very artistic, and wanted to cover every inch of her mask with a color. Can I just say—permanent markers?!—really? Sharpie, if you want my business, make washable markers for kids and stock those at the KidCot stops! Camdyn’s brand new Sleeping Beauty shirt was ruined after our second stop.

Once we pulled Camdyn away from the markers, we stopped at New Zealand for a Vila Maria Reisling and Seared Sea Scallops with Vegetable Slaw and Lemon Oil for Matt, then went straight for Ireland. I saw a cheese plate that I wanted to try. Officially, it is Aged-Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Ivernia Cheese with Apple Chutney and Brown Bread. All of the women in our group had also marked the Warm Chocolate Lava Cake with Bailey’s Ganache as a must-have. Ohmygosh, Heaven on a Plate. We explored the UK for a while.

On a funny note, we kept hearing the phone in the phone booth ringing, eliciting strange looks from passersby. Dan & Quade went to investigate, and found that one of the girls sitting nearby was calling the phone in the phone booth, waiting to see if someone would answer. Hey, whatever entertains you, I guess!

We found Tigger & Pooh in the toy shop. Quade & Matt got their pics taken, but Camdyn wanted to color more on her mask.

Mom, too.

We also saw Mary Poppins, but since my kids haven’t seen that movie yet, we bypassed her line.

We finally found the Kimpossible station, and picked up Quade’s Kimmunicator right before we headed over the bridge to France.

As we crossed the bridge with the Kimmunicator, we discovered that Quade’s first mission was in the UK, so Matt took him back to do that while the rest of us forged on towards France.

While we waited for Matt and Quade, we saw these guys:

And I posed with this princess, my favorite!

She really tried hard to get Camdyn to pose with her, but Camdyn wasn’t having it.

I convinced Dan & Deb that the Chocolate Croissant from Boulangerie Patisserie was a must, so we all tried that. I think we were all nonplussed. It seems that a Chocolate Croissant should be a lot more, well, chocolatey.

Once Matt & Quade caught back up with us, we headed off towards Morocco. We all had falafels on our lists, but we decided that we weren’t hungry enough yet! I absolutely love the architecture of Morocco!

It’s got to be one of the prettiest in the World Showcase. We explored the market a bit, got the kids’ masks signed in Arabic, and stopped for some photo ops.

We saw Jasmine and Aladdin walking through, but did not see where they would be signing autographs.

Quade’s next assignment was in Japan, so I took him around for that while the rest of the family explored. Matt tried sake, but it was too strong for him. Coming from our last Kimpossible mission in Japan, we saw these guys:

Matt is a big fan of Sam Adams beer, so he stopped at the Hops & Barley cart and got a Boston-style Crab Cake with Cabbage Slaw, and an Octoberfest beer. Dan stopped at the kiosk in America, and got a turkey leg and a pretzel.

The notes I made on my index cards said that the Fife & Drum Corps should be playing, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Continued in next post.

 

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Our next kiosk stop was Bologna, Italy where I had the Cannelloni (typical Italian food—nothing extraordinary), and the Primavera slush (strawberry, banana, and peach). That was very good. We were all impressed by the architecture in Italy, and we stopped to watch this guy for a bit, while the kids stood in line for KidCot.

The kids also ran off some steam in the plaza.

On the way to Germany, we admired the tiny model town for a while, then we headed to the Munich cart. We tried the Essence and Reinhart Reislings,

and Mom shared her Apple Streudel with Vanilla Sauce with me.

We saw Snow White out for a Meet-and-Greet, but since we met her at CRT, we just waved as we passed by.

Our next stop was the Bangkok, Thailand kiosk. The Chicken and Coconut Soup with Mushrooms, Lemongrass, & Ginger sounded interesting, so I gave that a try. That was actually very spicy! I took a few sips, then had to throw it away.

We stopped at the African Outpost to let the kids play the drums,

then moved on to China, where Quade had his next mission. We explored China for a while as the rest of the family rested.

The temple in China is absolutely gorgeous, inside and out! The CM at the KidCot stop was also very kind, and stamped the kids’ Chinese years on their masks. On our way to one of the missions, we saw Mulan. Camdyn had received a Mulan doll as her Mickey gift that morning, and had brought the doll with her to the park, so she was semi-interested in meeting her. She hung back for a while, as Quade got Mulan’s autograph and got his picture taken with her.

Mulan tried to convince Camdyn to come see her, but Camdyn shied away. We moved on to watch the acrobats,

then tried to meet with Mulan again. At first Camdyn hightailed it away from her, so that the first thing I saw was Deb in a dead sprint to catch up with her. Matt picked her up, and convinced her to meet Mulan with him holding her, so we had a breakthrough! Mulan was so patient and sweet with her. Camdyn wouldn’t look at her, but at least she had her picture taken, so we’ll take what we can get!

Having thoroughly explored China, we headed on to Norway.

We waited in a short line for Maelstrom,

then went through the Kringla Bakery. I had the School bread (and it lived up to the hype!), and Mom got the ham, cheese, and apple sandwich. That was also very good, and we determined that would be our lunch on our second Epcot day. We had a brief rain shower as we were eating, but it only delayed us about ten minutes or so.

At this point, the grandparents decided to call it a day, so our family of four, plus Dan and Deb moved on towards Mexico. It was at this point that we decided to cancel our last minute ADR for Tutto Italia for 8pm, as we would not be hungry enough for a full meal! It was also becoming apparent that the kids would not last that long.

Quade’s last KimPossible mission was in Mexico, so we explored that pavilion a bit and rode the Gran Fiesta boat ride.

On our way out, Dan & Deb tried the Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri and Boniato Puree at the Argentina kiosk. Our last stop was the Dessert and Champagne kiosk that we had heard wonderful things about at the beginning of our day. Dan bought all of us champagne and Strawberry Shortcake. The champagne was filled right up to the top of the glass, so much so that it spilled a bit when you moved.

At this point, it was about 7:30, and the kids were melting down. I sipped my champagne as we walked, then had to chug it so that I would be allowed out of the park. I wasn’t about to toss a $10 glass of champagne! We knew we would miss Illuminations, but we had one more day at Epcot planned, so I knew we could see it then.

All in all, it was the adults’ favorite day by far! The KimPossible missions kept the kids from being too bored, as they were disappointed to hear we would not be riding rides that day. I am also hoping that maybe some educational benefit was gained by Quade as well, in touring the different countries and exploring their architecture.

Up Next: A day at Animal Kingdom, and a very special anniversary dinner.
DMil and I were both very much looking forward to AK. Would it meet our expectations?