- Joined
- Aug 7, 2000
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- 24,430
The Cast...
DH-Closet Disney Freak...blames all our trips on me when he's just as bad
DSs- 9 (Cam) and 6 (Colt)-WDW & DL vets, not very adventurous and can be difficult at times
DM(Mother)- The one I got the "Disney gene" from She loves to come along on our trips since we can't get DF(Father) to go anymore, and she is a great help with the kids
DN(neice) 13- This was her 4th trip and we were so happy so could come along with us this time. Shes more daring than DS, but still a bit cautious.
And me....well, lets just say I love all things Disney and during this trip Cam referred to me as "Freaky Disney Person".
Wednesday 8/30
This morning our wake up call was for 6:00. I immediately went outside to check out the weather Yes, I was the crazy lady in my pajamas outside the 90s building at 6:00 am.
It wasnt even raining at this point. DH and I experienced Hurricane Erin in WDW during our honeymoon in 1995 so I wasnt too concerned. It seemed the forecast had been toned down a bit since what was originally predicted and as long as the parks remained opened, I knew it would be ok. By checking on the resort tv station (19 I think???) I saw things were still going on as planned except evening EMH at AK had changed to 7:30-9:00 this morning.
We started off with breakfast at the food court about 7:30 and by 8:15 we were on a bus to Epcot. We had planned to go to Epcot today anyway, but I think that is a good park to be in in the rain since a lot is inside.
By now it was raining and we all had on the ponchos that we bought yesterday to prepare. We made it to Epcot around 8:40 and they let us in about 8:50 up to the ropes. Now the rain had stopped. Ill note here all morning the rain came in little spurts for 5-10 minutes then it would stop for say an hour. Even when it did rain it was very light
.not exactly the hurricane weather we expected for today. 
At 9:00, they made the opening announcement and dropped the ropes. We headed right to Soarin in the Land. DSs had never done that here (only in DL) and DN had never done it at all. We all love it, so this was our priority. We walked in with a group lead by a CM and as we came down the stairs in the Land and walked through the open area, there were CMs on either side, cheering us on and waving with Mickey Hands. What a great touch that was. We got right on and rode with no wait. Before leaving we got FPs for later.
Since we thought the hurricane rain might close Test Track, we went there next. Only DH, DN, and I rode here, again with no wait.
Next it was on to Mission Space. DH & I were able to convince DSs to ride the toned down version, but no one else. Here we got inside with no wait and only had a 5 minute wait for the capsule while inside (where the 2 lines split off). For kids who werent thrilled about riding this they had a blast! After Cam hit his button he was yelling WHY did I have to hit that??? They laughed and had a great time for the whole ride. Afterwards they both had fun playing in the play area and the video games at the exit.
We met up with DM & DN in the exit area and then went to ride Soarin with our FPs. I was glad we got those as there was NO line whatsoever in the standby line.
When we came out it was so bright I actually needed my sunglasses. We couldnt believe it! 
Next we went next door to the Living Seas to see Turtle Talk With Crush. We had all seen this before, except DN. This is such a cute show and really is creative. We got some laughs here then checked out the Manatees for a bit, before heading to the Imagination Pavillion.
I love the photo ops at Living Seas.(note you can see some of the blue sky to the right of the picture)
At Imagination, we rode Journey Into Your Imagination and spent a few minutes in the What If Labs. We were able to email a picture home from here.
Since it still wasnt really raining I figured we should try to get in a few of the countries before lunch. The kids wanted to make the masks so we had our work cut out for us. We started in Canada, UK, then France. While in France it started raining so we decided this was a good time for lunch.
We walked out of Epcot through the International Gateway and headed to the Boardwalk where we went to ESPN. I know this is just a sports pub, but for some reason we really enjoy it here. We feel this is a cool and relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of Epcot so we like to have lunch here on our Epcot day. We were here from 1:20-3:10, a bit longer than expected.
We then returned to Epcot and continued with the countries Morroco, Japan, USA, Italy, Germany, China, Norway and Mexico. The kids added on to their masks at each stop. By the time we got to China the rain had started at a good rate. Ernesto was here, but luckily not in the full force originally predicted. In Norway we rode Maelstrom and visited the bakery so I could get some school bread for later (too full to eat it then). In Mexico DH & I got Margaritas.
We were now heading back to Future World when we had a hilarious experience. I wish I could post videos here, because words just can't explain this. While walking out of Mexico we ran into a CM with a pirate hat and in full Pirate character. He grabbed us 6 and another little girl about 3 and her mother. He asked if we wanted to go on a tresure hunt and find pirates and we all agreed. He gave the kids pirate hats, guns, swords, etc.. He brought us to the lagoon and showed us the Pirate Ship across the water. He noted there must be Pirates around here, lets go find them. He then walked on his tip toes, crouched down
, snarled "Arrrrgh!" and had us all copy him. Soon he threw his umbrella in a bush and brought us all in a store, asking if we thought there were Pirates in there. We went in and huddled in a corner. The Pirate grabbed sunglasses off the rack for us to put on and gave the rest of us swords and pirate hats, etc
Before long, another group of Pirates was in the other corner of the store and the 2 lead Pirates had us all running around to get the other Pirates. 
In the end they opened up a treasure chest and each kid got 2 chocolate coins. Then we had to give back all the pirate attire and we were on our way.
So if you are ever approached by a Pirate in Epcot, play along, it's lots of fun.
We were now making our way to Innoventions, but had to detour to the newly redone Club Cool. We all missed the theming of the old Ice Station Cool. This seemed a bit boring now.
We then went to Innoventions West (I think it was West) where we all played a fire safety game and the kids did a few others games.
We were starting to wear out now it had been a long day. We still wanted to do Universe of Energy so we headed over there knowing it is a relaxing ride. We walked in right as the preshow was starting. Perfect! I was right about this being relaxing as I felt I was ready to doze off during it, LOL!
By the time we exited that ride it was really pouring out. We had a couple of strong gusts, where the ponchos flew in the wind, but again, nothing major the trees were barely moving. The reason I have periodically updated the rain situation was to show just how great our weather turned out when we really were expecting the worst If you have to have a hurricane or tropical storm or depression or whatever it finally turned out to be on your trip, this is what you want!
I should add, by Thursday morning everything was clear.
We were heading out of the park but first had to ride Spaceship Earth. All day Colt kept telling us this was his favorite ride. He hasnt ridden it since he was 4 and it certainly isnt his favorite ride, but we did finally ride it.
We headed to the bus and were on our way back to PC around 8:15. Over 11 hours at Epcot! I agree with the acronym Every Person Comes Out Tired. We returned to our rooms had a snack (the school bread, some crackers we had in the rooms) and the kids played cards for a bit. We made sure the kids were in bed by 9:30 as we had an early morning ahead of us and they were having trouble getting up every morning now.
DH-Closet Disney Freak...blames all our trips on me when he's just as bad
DSs- 9 (Cam) and 6 (Colt)-WDW & DL vets, not very adventurous and can be difficult at times
DM(Mother)- The one I got the "Disney gene" from She loves to come along on our trips since we can't get DF(Father) to go anymore, and she is a great help with the kids
DN(neice) 13- This was her 4th trip and we were so happy so could come along with us this time. Shes more daring than DS, but still a bit cautious.
And me....well, lets just say I love all things Disney and during this trip Cam referred to me as "Freaky Disney Person".
Wednesday 8/30
This morning our wake up call was for 6:00. I immediately went outside to check out the weather Yes, I was the crazy lady in my pajamas outside the 90s building at 6:00 am.
It wasnt even raining at this point. DH and I experienced Hurricane Erin in WDW during our honeymoon in 1995 so I wasnt too concerned. It seemed the forecast had been toned down a bit since what was originally predicted and as long as the parks remained opened, I knew it would be ok. By checking on the resort tv station (19 I think???) I saw things were still going on as planned except evening EMH at AK had changed to 7:30-9:00 this morning. We started off with breakfast at the food court about 7:30 and by 8:15 we were on a bus to Epcot. We had planned to go to Epcot today anyway, but I think that is a good park to be in in the rain since a lot is inside.
By now it was raining and we all had on the ponchos that we bought yesterday to prepare.
We made it to Epcot around 8:40 and they let us in about 8:50 up to the ropes. Now the rain had stopped. Ill note here all morning the rain came in little spurts for 5-10 minutes then it would stop for say an hour. Even when it did rain it was very light
.not exactly the hurricane weather we expected for today. At 9:00, they made the opening announcement and dropped the ropes. We headed right to Soarin in the Land. DSs had never done that here (only in DL) and DN had never done it at all. We all love it, so this was our priority. We walked in with a group lead by a CM and as we came down the stairs in the Land and walked through the open area, there were CMs on either side, cheering us on and waving with Mickey Hands. What a great touch that was. We got right on and rode with no wait. Before leaving we got FPs for later.
Since we thought the hurricane rain might close Test Track, we went there next. Only DH, DN, and I rode here, again with no wait.
Next it was on to Mission Space. DH & I were able to convince DSs to ride the toned down version, but no one else. Here we got inside with no wait and only had a 5 minute wait for the capsule while inside (where the 2 lines split off). For kids who werent thrilled about riding this they had a blast! After Cam hit his button he was yelling WHY did I have to hit that??? They laughed and had a great time for the whole ride. Afterwards they both had fun playing in the play area and the video games at the exit.
We met up with DM & DN in the exit area and then went to ride Soarin with our FPs. I was glad we got those as there was NO line whatsoever in the standby line.
When we came out it was so bright I actually needed my sunglasses. We couldnt believe it! Next we went next door to the Living Seas to see Turtle Talk With Crush. We had all seen this before, except DN. This is such a cute show and really is creative. We got some laughs here then checked out the Manatees for a bit, before heading to the Imagination Pavillion.
I love the photo ops at Living Seas.(note you can see some of the blue sky to the right of the picture)
At Imagination, we rode Journey Into Your Imagination and spent a few minutes in the What If Labs. We were able to email a picture home from here.
Since it still wasnt really raining I figured we should try to get in a few of the countries before lunch. The kids wanted to make the masks so we had our work cut out for us. We started in Canada, UK, then France. While in France it started raining so we decided this was a good time for lunch.
We walked out of Epcot through the International Gateway and headed to the Boardwalk where we went to ESPN. I know this is just a sports pub, but for some reason we really enjoy it here. We feel this is a cool and relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of Epcot so we like to have lunch here on our Epcot day. We were here from 1:20-3:10, a bit longer than expected.
We then returned to Epcot and continued with the countries Morroco, Japan, USA, Italy, Germany, China, Norway and Mexico. The kids added on to their masks at each stop. By the time we got to China the rain had started at a good rate. Ernesto was here, but luckily not in the full force originally predicted. In Norway we rode Maelstrom and visited the bakery so I could get some school bread for later (too full to eat it then). In Mexico DH & I got Margaritas.
We were now heading back to Future World when we had a hilarious experience. I wish I could post videos here, because words just can't explain this. While walking out of Mexico we ran into a CM with a pirate hat and in full Pirate character. He grabbed us 6 and another little girl about 3 and her mother. He asked if we wanted to go on a tresure hunt and find pirates and we all agreed. He gave the kids pirate hats, guns, swords, etc.. He brought us to the lagoon and showed us the Pirate Ship across the water. He noted there must be Pirates around here, lets go find them. He then walked on his tip toes, crouched down
, snarled "Arrrrgh!" and had us all copy him. Soon he threw his umbrella in a bush and brought us all in a store, asking if we thought there were Pirates in there. We went in and huddled in a corner. The Pirate grabbed sunglasses off the rack for us to put on and gave the rest of us swords and pirate hats, etc
Before long, another group of Pirates was in the other corner of the store and the 2 lead Pirates had us all running around to get the other Pirates. In the end they opened up a treasure chest and each kid got 2 chocolate coins. Then we had to give back all the pirate attire and we were on our way. So if you are ever approached by a Pirate in Epcot, play along, it's lots of fun.
We were now making our way to Innoventions, but had to detour to the newly redone Club Cool. We all missed the theming of the old Ice Station Cool. This seemed a bit boring now.
We then went to Innoventions West (I think it was West) where we all played a fire safety game and the kids did a few others games.
We were starting to wear out now it had been a long day. We still wanted to do Universe of Energy so we headed over there knowing it is a relaxing ride. We walked in right as the preshow was starting. Perfect! I was right about this being relaxing as I felt I was ready to doze off during it, LOL!
By the time we exited that ride it was really pouring out. We had a couple of strong gusts, where the ponchos flew in the wind, but again, nothing major the trees were barely moving. The reason I have periodically updated the rain situation was to show just how great our weather turned out when we really were expecting the worst If you have to have a hurricane or tropical storm or depression or whatever it finally turned out to be on your trip, this is what you want!
I should add, by Thursday morning everything was clear. We were heading out of the park but first had to ride Spaceship Earth. All day Colt kept telling us this was his favorite ride. He hasnt ridden it since he was 4 and it certainly isnt his favorite ride, but we did finally ride it.
We headed to the bus and were on our way back to PC around 8:15. Over 11 hours at Epcot! I agree with the acronym Every Person Comes Out Tired. We returned to our rooms had a snack (the school bread, some crackers we had in the rooms) and the kids played cards for a bit. We made sure the kids were in bed by 9:30 as we had an early morning ahead of us and they were having trouble getting up every morning now.
