Dec trip report (finally) - Day 4

got2travel

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Recap: Trip Details

Monica (me) – Disney lover, frequent traveler, Disneyland AP holder, 2nd trip to WDW
Trevoy (my 9yr old son) – Disney lover in the making, frequent traveler because Mom drags him around, Disneyland AP holder, 2nd trip to WDW
Tameka (friend) – frequent travel partner, can’t understand my obsession with Disney, 2nd trip to WDW although first trip was only 1 day at MK
Dejante (DJ) (friend’s 8yr old Godson) – first time traveler (never been on a plane, never been in a rental car, never stayed in a hotel, you get the picture), first visit to any Disney theme park


Day 4 – Epcot

Instead of not making good use of the Early Magic Hour, I decided to switch my planned park today since the group couldn’t get moving in the morning. I still got everyone up at the same time, but instead of trying to get to a park by 8am, I was hoping to get to Epcot by 9am and we were pretty close. I’m not sure what time it was, but as we walked into the park the character bus was just leaving signaling the rope drop.

We got Fastpasses for Test Track, then went to ride Mission Space. I warned everyone to follow the instructions and keep you eyes open, looking at the screen. Don’t look down and don’t close your eyes. They don’t repeat those warnings 3 times for nothing! We basically had no wait, just long enough to see all the pre-show stuff. After the ride, we spent over an hour in the play area after the ride. I had to send a few video emails home and the kids had to play the Mission Control game. (OK, I did too!)

Time to use our FP for Test Track. It took about 10 minutes to get on the ride. Afterward, everyone else wanted to ride the virtual reality thing that GM sponsors at the exit of Test Track. I refused to wait in a 30 minute line just to see a GM commercial so they all went on it and I explored other areas of Future World. After they were finally finished, we headed over to Ice Station Cool and tasted all the beverages. There was a lady mixing all the drinks like the kids do and I couldn’t believe she was drinking it and getting more. Then she turned around and I saw she was pregnant. Reminded me of the strange cravings I got while I was pregnant.

After we had enough to drink, we went to Living Seas. We did take time to find the talking drinking fountains first. And were quite entertained when some unsuspecting guests tried to get a drink of water. I was getting pretty bored with Living Seas, but the others were enjoying it. Finally they were ready to go, but we noticed that the next session of Turtle Talk with Crush was filling up. We hadn’t bothered to go before because the line seemed so long and every time we looked at it, it wasn’t moving. We hustled over and made it in the show and were so glad that we did. This is an amazing attraction. While any park with a microphone and hidden camera can make a character talk to you, this went so much beyond that. When Crush is talking to you, he’s got the appropriate facial expressions, has moved over to the side of the screen closest to you, and his lips move in sync to what he’s saying. This is one attraction I’d love to see profiled by the Travel Channel. How do they do that? Crush actually talked to Trevoy twice, which was pretty cool.

By now we were pretty hungry, but I didn’t think I’d be able to get everyone to wait until we made it over to Morocco so I could try the Tangerine Grill. We ended up at the Sunshine Food Fair with a less than stellar meal. Next up is the Living with the Land tour, which I had never done. Wasn’t bad, and got some cool pictures of interesting looking fruits and vegetables.

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Moving on to World Showcase, we got sidetracked by the Innoventions Fountains. The kids had fun pretending they were making the fountains spray. Checking the clock, the characters were about to come out, so we hung around a bit. Once the bus showed up, we jumped into Mickey’s line. Next we visited Donald, Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck and Mr. Smee.

Now on to Cananda. We did a counter clockwise tour of the countries. We did not visit any of the shows or rides, but just checked out some of the shops. On my previous trips to Epcot, I had not explored all the nooks and crannies of the countries, so I was just taking my time wandering around. The kids got bored pretty quickly but maintained quite well. We passed by the first Candlelight Processional as it was just starting. It would have been really nice to have been able to sit and enjoy it but I hadn’t set us up with the dinner package and there was no way I was going to be able to convince my group to wait in line 1-2 hours to get a seat. Put this on my list of future things to do.

By the time we got to Germany we were freezing cold. We didn’t plan on being in the park this long so we didn’t bring our coats, just sweaters. We pretty much breezed through the last of the lands and headed back to AKL. We were pretty hungry and wanted a nice meal, but being a Saturday night with no Priority Seatings, we didn’t have many choices. I tried Boma but was told they wouldn’t have anything until maybe after 9pm, it was about 7:45 now. We decided to just go to Mara again, but my next trip will definitely included a meal at Boma. I had heard all the raves about it, but I was trying to be considerate to my friend and not schedule every meal to be at a high price.

After some animal watching, we called it a night.
 
how was the food at Mara?

enjoying your report and pics!
 
I loved looking at the veggies all upside down and growing with no soil......it was cool.........thanks so much for your report
 
exwdwcm said:
how was the food at Mara?

enjoying your report and pics!

Mara was your typical counter service with burgers, pizza, chicken strips. My son had the chicken strips every night and like them, but then again that's about all he likes. Others in the group had pizza and were not impressed. I had the African Stew one night and it was really good, but not something I would make a special trip for. (I've heard that others like it that much). On another evening I had the African Salad, again good, but not outstanding.
 

I'm glad the boys weren't too board at World Showcase. I can't wait to see Crush!
 
I have never seen the Crush show before. It sounds great and I can't wait to see it!
 















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