Day #3 Jan. 6th 2009
So Epcot had MEMH on the day of the 6th and we had a 9:30am reservation at the Contemporary for a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's. The gameplan was to be at Epcot at/near RD scoop up some Soarin's FPs, go back to Chef Mickey's for breakfast and then return to Epcot a little later in the day and ride Soarin'. The entire time we had been at WDW so far I never saw the stand-by line for Soarin' be less than 70 minutes. We got a little bit of a late start but got to Epcot slightly after RD and rushed to the pavillion to get our Soarin' FPs which we did. DGF didn't believe me when I told her that FPs were good for the rest of the day, even after the return time, so I asked a CM in front of her what happens if, "We're late getting back from our Character Breakfast?" and the CM assured us they were good for the rest of the day, "...because of situations just like that." DGF tried to squeeze in a ride at Spaceship Earth even though we were already running late which led to a bit of a fight so not too many photos were taken at breakfast. However is here is one, and yes, I know I look pretty tired...
After breakfast we returned to the Poly to change for a minute. We had dinner reservations at Jiko in the AK that night which we were looking forward to but on the other hand hated the fact that we'd have to leave Epcot early and go all the way to the AK just for dinner and not be able to enjoy the AK park itself. After some negotiating and a few calls to ADR, we cancelled Jiko and made two Epcot reservations. The first was for a personal favorite, the Biergarten in the Germany Pavillion for lunch. The second was for Chefs de France in the France Pavillion for dinner. I wish we could've dined at Bistro de France, the restaurant on the 2nd floor above the Chefs, but they do not accept the
Disney Dining Plan, only downstairs.
When we returned to Epcot we grabbed 2 FPs for Test Track and headed over to Soarin'. We had virtually no wait on the FP line and headed in. Here's the end of the waiting area for Soarin'...
Soarin' was incredibly fun. I love Patrick Warburton (or David Puddy from Seinfeld) doing the intro for the ride. It's a great experience and should be a must for anybody visiting the world in the near future.
After Soarin', we still had some time to kill before our FPs for Test Track became eligibile so we wandered over to Mission:Space. Now let me give you some background. I'm a very large person (as you can see by the photos) yet I'm a bit of a baby. I have a mild case of claustrophobia in the sense that I can be in small places but I'd prefer not to. An example would be if there's an elevator and it's pretty full I'll wait for the next one but I could, if I was in a rush, get on that full one.
With that background I walk up to where they give you the slips to get on Mission: Space and I say, "Orange" and the CM goes, "Good luck with that." Now, that freaked me out a bit so I go back and I ask the CM for a "Green" admission slip. Now I'm getting flack from DGF who is calling me a "wuss" for not going on "Orange." I told her I didn't care and don't want to chance it. Throughout the wait in the line and through the beginning of the instructions from Gary Sinise in the ride I'm feeling fine. I've been assigned the role of "Navigator" for the flight. Through the course of the pre-flight instructions though I did hear Gary warn twice about "walking away if you have problems with small dark spaces." I didn't heed this advice and proceed into the capsule.
Well! Once that capsule was shut I started to FLIP OUT! Full-blown panic attack. I asked DGF if, "There's a way out, like a panic button!" Almost screaming at her which I felt really bad about. It also served the function of freaking her out and alerting her to the fact that there was no way out at this point. I'm pressing all the "buttons" on the flight control hoping one is a legit panic button where a CM would take me out of the ride and no such luck. There's merely fake buttons to "enhance the ride." Luckily I didn't close the restraint too close to my chest so I started to regulate my breathing and once we arched backwards for launch I started to calm down. The feeling of going forward, combined with the air blowing on me began to relax me but just barely. As soon as we "landed" on Mars and the capsule opened, I left tiremarks leaving the ride.
I've ridden tons of rides, simulators and coasters and never felt that way. The problem is that being secured inside the capsule where you cannot see the ground to balance yourself is frightening to me. Even on Soarin, I could always look down and that'd put me at ease, EVEN THOUGH I'm very high up. Needless to say, that'll be my one and only ride on Mission: Space Green, Orange, Purple, you name it. It had such an effect that after the ride we went on Spaceship Earth and me and DGF felt somewhat uncomfortable even though it's such a simple ride.
Anyways, we headed back to the World Showcase for a lunch reservation at the Biergarten where we enjoyed a nice buffet with the Bavarian music. We actually were seated at a table with a woman who is a CM and plays the piano at Rose & Crown. She use to work at PI but after it closed got moved there. She was dining with her friend and we had a good conversation. She even told me that she never had any problem with claustrophobia until she rode Mission: Space. Since she was a musician, she was recognized by some of the men playing in the Bavarian group at the Biergarten and they came over and spoke to us after their set. I don't want to ruin any Disney magic, but sadly, they don't all have real German accents
We rode Test Track again, each time I was just missing where the photo was being taken mid-ride preventing me from posing properly for the camera. We killed a little more time enjoying the day and watching them set up for Illuminations...
We hit up Nemo & Friends again which is a great ride, especially for kids and also did one of my all-time favorites of Living with the Land. I don't know why I enjoy that ride so much. There's something so simple about it that I really appreciate. Finally, our reservations at Chefs de France was up and we returned to France to eat. Our meal was very nice and our waiter was very good. He was very young and just moved to the United States. I closed what was a very fun, exciting, aggitating, and nerve-racking day by taking the photo seen here. France through a glass of Grand Marnier....
Great start so far. I can't believe what a long first day you had - I probably would have fallen asleep on one of the rides! Looking forward to reading more 
