England to Endor (via WDW!) - June 2010 TR UPDATED 02/19 - THE WAVE!

Great parade pics! I wonder if they're going to change the parade soon since they've changed the theme.
Thanks for the T-Rex pics, as well. We've never been there and we've been wondering how it was and what it is like inside. I'd love some dinosaur-shaped ice cubes!!:)

Hi Fantasyland Mom! I would thoroughly recommend T-Rex, although I'm not sure everyone in the restaurant appreciated the theming! Over some tables there are animatronic velociraptors, pterodactyls etc. which move at regular intervals: an older couple near us called over the CM, to say they couldn't eat with "that dino thing looking at us" - :lmao: I figured they were joking but noooo.....I guess you can get a little too close to the action! :rotfl:

What a great view of the parade you had! Great pictures, too!

Hi wlake! Thanks for reading - yeah, I was so surprised it wasn't busier on Main Street! We normally try to watch parades from Liberty Square, but will try MS again!

Just enjoying your trip report. Love the photo of you on your first ride on BTMRR. :)

Hi pookersmom and welcome! Thanks for reading along - there is more BTMRR trauma to come!!
 
Hi Fantasyland Mom! I would thoroughly recommend T-Rex, although I'm not sure everyone in the restaurant appreciated the theming! Over some tables there are animatronic velociraptors, pterodactyls etc. which move at regular intervals: an older couple near us called over the CM, to say they couldn't eat with "that dino thing looking at us" - :lmao: I figured they were joking but noooo.....I guess you can get a little too close to the action! :rotfl:



:rotfl2::lmao:BAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Hmmm...you'd think the name of the restaurant *might* have tipped them off that there could possibly be "dino things" in there!!:rotfl:
 
DAY EIGHT: June 10th

We did some serious sleeping in this morning an didn't wake up til 09:30!! On holiday, this is almost unheard of from me - so I will blame Sal for our late(ish) start :rolleyes1 When we finally made it down to the bus stops around 10:20 we were greeted by the longest queue in the world. ever. at the EPCOT line! :eek: I guess there must have been a problem with the earlier busses as there were maybe 100+ folks waiting for EPCOT whilst all the other lines were near empty. :confused3 Sooo....we hopped aboard an MK bus and decided to take the scenic route!

At MK we transfered to the Express monorail for EPCOT, but not before going via bag check first! Is this the only transport junction where they do a check? It sure held the crowds up a bit, so I'm not sure how express we were in the end! Finally we were on our way to the giant golfball, aboard another tronorail- arriving in EPCOT at 11:20:

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Our first stop was Test Track, where we picked up a couple of FPs for later that afternoon:

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You can see how crowded it was, but the FP times weren't too bad (return time of 14:50 I think) - yey! Next up we decided to hunt out an early lunch and made our way to World Showcase via Mexico. It was sooo hot and the lizards were out in force, sunning themselves at the lakeside:

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Now where to eat? We'd already enjoyed offerings from Germany and Norway this trip, and I was fancying something which at least resembled a vegetable! Soon we happened upon an old favourite...Morrocco! (Apologies for the blurry photo, I guess I was running towards Tangerine Cafe in hunger!):

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It was really quiet out this side of World Showcase, with only 1 or 2 other families sitting in the shaded outdoor section. We grabbed 2 vegetarian platters and headed out to enjoy lunch overlooking the Showcase lagoon - bliss! Or was it??? A couple who were leaving warned us they'd been beset by a hungry squirrel intent on stealing olives in this area:eek: - so we were then on the look out to guard our lunches! Sadly there were no sightings of the stealthy squirrel, and the most ferocious thing we witnessed was a very tame duckling:

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After lunch we walked over to France, with a mission in mind! In our past 4 trips we have yet to see the Impressions de France film, and as we had loads of time before our TT FPs this seemed like the ideal time for un petit film:

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Our verdict? Well, we weren't expecting much but....we really enjoyed it! :thumbsup2 So much so that Sal said it made her feel homesick: as the castles, coastline and music are so similar to those back home. We would definitely go again - a very relaxing interlude! As we came out of the cinema, we saw the French acrobats finishing up their chair stacking display:

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Next we hi-tailed it to the American Pavillion where Voices of Liberty were scheduled to perform. I just LOVE their show - and they seem to vary the song list each time, depending on the season. As we arrived the fife and drum core were just finishing up, they must have been boiled in those overcoats and wigs - phewey!:

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Then we headed into the aircon to enjoy Voices of Liberty: they gave a fab show, including Old McDonald Had A Farm (assisted by kids from the fourth grade who helped out with the all-important E-I-E-I-O!):)

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The only downside? After sitting on the floor cross-legged I had such a dead foot! Seriously, I couldn't move it and had to wait whilst everyone moved off to the American Adventure show as I tried to knock some life back into it - how embarrasing! (Sal made this even worse by taking a photo of the offending foot!):

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By the time I could hobble about again, we'd missed the start of the film so decided to head back towards Japan to explore the gift store and gardens:

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Looking around the koi pond, Sal found an excellent hidden mickey:

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And we then spent far too much time (and money!) in the gift store - isn't this the coolest?! Sal's best friend, La, is really keen on Japanese anime so we hunted about for some books, and I then got hooked on the really cute stationary. The only problem is, it's way too pretty to write on! By now it was around 14:00 and we were able to get another FP, so we decided to head back towards TT to see if any more FPs were available for later that evening (can you tell we enjoy this ride?!)

On the way Sal somehow managed to get the biggest ice cream known to man (the picture was taken towards the end of eating it....):

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And we made our way back towards Futureworld!

Next Up: The Final FP!!

 

:surfweb:So nice to wake up in the morning and get to read an Epcot update first thing!
This whole update is pretty much things I haven't done at Epcot but are high on my list. I've been there twice, but have yet to do TT or eat at Tangierine Cafe. I didn't get to ride TT the first time because my kids were small and we didn't know about the rider swap thing:headache:, and the second time I was 31 weeks pregnant. Next trip, I am riding it no matter what! And I've been wanting to eat at Tang. Cafe, but I've never been able to work it in. I have to this time! I think from now on, I'll just come and read what you've done and then add it to my PTR, cause you guys have had some great food and great times:goodvibes!
 
What a great World Showcase tour! Where was the ice cream from? We didn't notice it, otherwise my boys would have been all over that! I'm very jealous of your hidden Mickey spotting!
 
Great day at Epcot! We could have passed on the monorail since we rode to Epcot and back that morning! You have to watch out for those pesky squirrels....one took my margarita over by Test Track!

DH agreed on the movie in France. He has been all over Europe and said that movie represented France well! (Which only makes me want to go more! :rolleyes1 )

oh and Yum! I love the food in Morocco too!! :love:
 
I didn't get to ride TT the first time because my kids were small and we didn't know about the rider swap thing:headache:, and the second time I was 31 weeks pregnant. Next trip, I am riding it no matter what! And I've been wanting to eat at Tang. Cafe, but I've never been able to work it in. I have to this time! I think from now on, I'll just come and read what you've done and then add it to my PTR, cause you guys have had some great food and great times:goodvibes!

Hi Fantasyland Mom! Sorry it's been so long between posts - crazy work, Halloween happenings and a visit from Sal's folks have tied things up loads. Will get on with the TR ASAP! Would definitely recommend Tangerine Cafe: they do really great sides as well - yummy olives!

What a great World Showcase tour! Where was the ice cream from? We didn't notice it, otherwise my boys would have been all over that! I'm very jealous of your hidden Mickey spotting!

Hi wlake! Many thanks for reading! The icecream was delicious and MASSIVE! We got in from France (and I'm sorry to say that we had scoffed the lot before we got round to Futureworld!)

Great day at Epcot! We could have passed on the monorail since we rode to Epcot and back that morning! You have to watch out for those pesky squirrels....one took my margarita over by Test Track!

A margarita stealing squirrel? That must have been one tipsy critter!! Thanks for reading - another update is coming soon! :thumbsup2
 
A margarita stealing squirrel? That must have been one tipsy critter!! Thanks for reading - another update is coming soon! :thumbsup2[/QUOTE]

Yes! DH was waiting for us to ride Test Track and sat my margarita on the ledge while he waited. The next thing he knew, he looked over and a squirrel had come out of the bushes and was enjoying my margarita! So I paid $9 for a squirrel to get tipsy!! :lmao: :sad2:
 
DAY EIGHT cont.

Sorry for the delay in updating this folks - I am determined to get my TR finished up before Christmas, so we're back on where I left off at day 8! After eating our way around World Showcase we headed back to use our FPs for TT. Seeing that we were eligible to get another FP (and as TT is my all-time fave ride in EPCOT :thumbsup2) I got in line at the FP ticket machines, where the return time was now showing as 8:30-9pm. I get to the front of line, put my KTTW card in and receive a FP. Next I put Sal's card in and get.....nothing! :scared1: Nowt! Nada. That's right folks: the FPs had all been distributed, and I had got the last one...

A CM came over to shut off the machines, so I told her about my dilemma: just one ticket wasn't going to work for the two of us! :confused3 She was super nice and swapped my one FP for a Switch Pass: valid for up to 3 people to ride TT at any time - score!! Now we didn't even have to wait until 8:30pm, how lucky were we?!

We headed over to the TT entrance and saw that the single rider line was only 20 mins so decided to ride first off in that. With all those FPs it would have been easy to loose my head:

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Sal rode first, with a group of Brits:

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And I followed in the car behind (looking slighty apprehensive - I always get scared when the car goes through that barrier wall - argh!):

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We met up in the exhibition centre just beyond the ride and tried out some of the cars on show there:

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These cars are so much larger than anything we have at home and I'm such a shortie that I practically needed a step ladder to get in! Perhaps this is more my style!:

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After we checked out the gift store, we headed straight back round to the front of the ride and went through again using our original FPs! :woohoo: This time we rode together in the front row which made it even cooler!

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After our second lap on TT, we took a few minutes to decide what next to ride, before we used our imaginations and went for...yep, you've guessed it... Figment!

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Every year we visit this but never before have we encountered a queue!! I couldn't believe it - I guess you know it's a busy day in EPCOT when Figment isn't a walk on. Here we are waiting in line:

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I know it's been said before but seriously - what was Disney thinking with this ride?! I do love Figment's little yellow jersey though - and it's so cute when he keeps popping up:

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The woman riding in front of us was obviously a massive Figment fan (or just a really dedicated trip reporter?) - she must have taken over 50 photos of the ride! :rolleyes1 I'm sure her family will be thrilled to see those!

Next up we headed into Innoventions, where we stumbled upon a great new game called Don't Waste It:

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This is just the coolest thing: you become a recycling team (Sal and I opted to be called the City Recycling Team - next year we will know to think of a witty team name in advance!), and are equipped with a push a long electronic lorry:

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You move this between stations to play a series of different games (e.g. sorting rubbish, lifting things with a grab arm, and steering tow trucks). Depending on how well you do at each game you earn points which determine how much you can recycle. Sal and I got uber-competitive at this and were soon sorting, lifting and steering with the best of them....and our efforts paid off! :thumbsup2 At the end of the game we were the proud recipients of a recycling team certificate, plus we'd recycled enough stuff to create a whole ball park!

Coming Up: Yesterdays Newspaper and Going Off Kilter!
 
DAY EIGHT cont.

After our recycling success we headed over to the Coke Wash zone for a couple of frozen cokes - bliss on such a hot day! The only problem was that the vendor had run out of straws so we spend a good few minutes going from snack cart to cart, trying to find some!

Next we decided that a prolonged spell of air con would be welcome - so we headed in to Ellen's Energy Adventure, which was practically deserted (I was amazed - how come this is so quiet when there was a queue for Figment?! :confused3) We ended up being the only ones in our tram.

After we'd headed to the Land before Time...and back again with Ellen and the Science Guy, we returned to TT: this time to use our sneaky Switch Passes :cool1::cool1: We rode up front again, which was fab:

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By now it was around 17:30 and we were getting hungry! As we didn't have any ADRs scheduled, we decided to head back over to World Showcase and try out some counter service. We walked round past Mexico where the cantina was closed for refurbishment, and then came across the UK: a home from home! We have never eaten here before and so decided to try the fish and chips:

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These were really flavourful and pretty autentic-tasting! Plus we both loved the fake British newspaper that they were served in!! The only problem was that the whole eating area was beset by birds so we spent most of our meal alternating between scoffing chips and warding off the wildfowl! :laughing: Whilst we were eating, some planes were busy in the sky overhead:

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This was our second experience of sky writing on our trip, and I thought it was really cool! I still don't quite know how they do it...

After we finished up our food, we decided to head over to Canada where Off Kilter were playing at 18:30. This is a real treat for me, as I LOVE their music and combined with a pint of Moosehead beer, it made for a really relaxing evening:

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Off Kilter rock and we really enjoyed their show! :banana: Afterwards, we decided to mosey on over to the US pavillion, where they serve Funnel Cakes. Now I have never tried one of these and it was on my list of 'new stuff' to do this trip. I opted for one with chocolate sauce and it turned out to be mahoosive: way bigger than I had bargained for!

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Nevertheless, Sal and I managed to polish it off between us - and very tasty it was too!! After we hung out for a while at the American Gardens theatre (is that the right name? I mean the place just across from the American Adventure attraction), we decided to go see the final showing of the American Adventure film. If you recall I had missed this earlier in the day due to having a dead foot - which was thankfully now back to life!

We enjoyed the film (as always!), especially the montage at the end and then decided to call it a night - we'd had a fun, long day at EPCOT!! We headed out before Illuminations got underway and arrived back at POP around 21:00. We grabbed some drinks and watched TV for a while before bed - we had a mega early start planned the next morning: Star Wars weekend take 2!!

Coming Up: Banks on fire, and does Sal slap a power ranger?!
 
The recycling thing looks great! I wish we had seen that, but we skipped that whole pavilion. That's one of the things I love about TRs -- I keep learning about things that I've missed, despite reading guidebooks and planning ahead. Thanks! :)

Aren't frozen Cokes the best?

Before Christmas sounds like a good goal for finishing a TR -- maybe I'll adopt that goal too!
 
When I saw the fish and chips I was wondering how you would say they compare! I always wonder how authentic some of the food actually is to the country it represents. Funnel cakes are so good! My kids demand them at baseball games and they want to got o the state fair each year just to get a funnel cake with chocolate and caramel syrup! YUMMO!!!

I love Off Kilter! We missed them on our trip....along with a lot of other things at Epcot! I have many priotirites for "next time"! :goodvibes

I have a picture of the sky writing just like yours but I took it from the Poly!
 
The recycling thing looks great! I wish we had seen that, but we skipped that whole pavilion. That's one of the things I love about TRs -- I keep learning about things that I've missed, despite reading guidebooks and planning ahead. Thanks! :)

Hi wlake! Many thanks for reading - I know it's really easy to skip the Innoventions area (I don't think we made it in there until our 3rd trip to WDW), but they have so many cool interactive games :thumbsup2 Glad you're still enjoying the TR - although I think my Christmas deadline may have been a bit ambitious! We are making our Christmas cake today so it feels as if there isn't much time left!

When I saw the fish and chips I was wondering how you would say they compare! I always wonder how authentic some of the food actually is to the country it represents. Funnel cakes are so good! My kids demand them at baseball games and they want to got o the state fair each year just to get a funnel cake with chocolate and caramel syrup! YUMMO!!!

I love Off Kilter! We missed them on our trip....along with a lot of other things at Epcot! I have many priotirites for "next time"! :goodvibes

I have a picture of the sky writing just like yours but I took it from the Poly!

Hi Tinks! I would certainly give the fish and chips 9/10 - the only non-authentic thing about them is the newspaper: that would definitely be real newsprint at our local fish and chip shop! Glad you agree on funnel cakes: I really enjoyed it but wow was that sweet or what?! Thanks for reading!
 
DAY NINE: June 11th

We were woken up at 06:30 by our phone alarm, playing the joyous sounds of the Stars Wars theme! Because today we were returning to Endor (well DHS...) for our second helping of Star Wars Weekend - and were we excited or what?! :cool1: :cool1: As we hurried to get ready, Sal was grabbing stuff for her daypack - including the suncream, KTTW cards and of course - most importantly - our camera (note this point: it will come back to haunt us later in the day!)

We made it down to the bus queue by 08:30 where we were surrounded by jedis, storm troopers and even an ewok! People from POP had really gone to town on dressing up today:darth: It was so busy that Meers had sent in extra buses for DHS, so we boarded a massive coach (instead of a regular Disney transport bus) and we were on our way!

We arrived just a few minutes before 09:00 and people were flooding into the park! With no time for photos, Sal headed off to the bag check area - whilst I rushed ahead into the park with a cunning plan. I figured it would take Sal at least 10 mins to get through bag check (all that jedi paraphanalia does take a time to search, and there were lots of 'characters' in line!) so I grabbed her KTTW card and went in figuring that I could run to TSM, get us both FPs and then head back to the park entrance to hand her back her KTTW. Sound like a plan?

I legged it over to TSM where the FP queue was already 200+ people long and (as always seems to happen at the busiest times...) there were individuals with 20 or so KTTW cards trying to get FPs for whole tour group! :headache: Still, I eventually made it to the head of the line and put in my card - one FP for 11:15, score! Then I put in Sal's card - but all I got was an error message noting that this KTTW had not scanned in to the park yet so a FP couldn't be issued! Argh! :scared1: I explained my (not so cunning...) plan to a CM who took pity on me and issued another FP. I guess this is designed to prevent tour leaders going on ahead and grabbing all the FPs - well, I'll know better for next time!

Eventually, I made it back to the park entrance where Sal was waiting having navigated the bag check and we made it into the park together, woo hoo!! With loads of time on our hands before our TSM FPs we decided to go hunt out some Star Wars characters and get some pics. So first off we headed over to the speeder opposite Star Tours. Sal hops on, I get out the camera, press down the shutter and.....nothing! Zilch! Our camera doesn't respond to anything. I'm a little perplexed by this as it's a fairly new camera and is normally very reliable (having survived various bangs, drops and high levels of humidity). :confused: So we step away from the speeder and check the camera over...then it dawns! We had taken the battery out of the camera to charge overnight and in our hurry to get ready this morning had forgotten to put it back in. Doh!

Now at this point I was kind of mad :mad: :mad: as I had asked Sal just before we left the hotel room if the camera had it's battery...but neither of us had checked! Humph, we had planned a whole morning of Star Wars character greeting and it seemed a real shame not to have the camera. So....Sal, being a total hero, offered to go back to POP, pick up the battery and then re-run the gauntlet to meet me back at DHS. Deal! Sal headed off back to POP and I sulked around the park for a bit before spotting One Mans Dream - which is enough to cheer anyone up!

After that I took a turn on the Great Movie Ride! :thumbsup2 Now, as I may have mentioned earlier Sal and I have ridden this over 10 times and always get the gangster version. This time, for the first time, I ride on my own and - of course - it's the cowboy route!! :banana: I definitely prefer this: it was so cool when the bank set on fire. Just a shame I didn't have the camera.....

By the time I left the GMR it was 10:00 and Sal was back with camera battery in hand! :thumbsup2 It turns out that by the time she queued for bag check a second time, there were Storm Troopers out on patrol - pretty cool:

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I was still a bit miffed as by now the park was packed, and there wasn't a coffee to be had anywhere (those Star Wars fans sure love their caffeine!) So we decided to forgo breakfast and head towards Lights Motor Action for the first show of the day:

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Just as we were heading across the Streets of America, we saw the power ranger car appear! :thumbsup2

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Sal has a long-standing (and slightly bizarre) wish to get a photo op with the pink power ranger - this was surely the best opportunity ever, so we hopped in line! The CM running the queue was a real stickler for the rules, she kept informing everyone that "the power rangers MUST leave whenever the car calls" - which meant those at the back of the line (including us) may not get a chance to pose! In light of this, we let a few smaller kids go in front of us and then stayed at the back of the queue whilst everyone got photos and autographs at lightening speed!

Finally it was our turn and Sal rushed in for a picture, but evidently got the 'power ranger' stance wrong! As the ranger tried to correct her stance, I got a snap - I know it looks as if Sal is about to slap the power ranger but I promise that wasn't really the case...:rotfl2:....

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After much re-arranging of arms, they were ready:

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And then the car called! Like a shot, the pink power ranger was off - talk about a hectic schedule:

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This was really silly, but I'm so glad that we got to see the power rangers! :woohoo: Mission accomplished!

Continued in next post...


 
After they headed off in the car, we went to see a few more vehicles in action at Lights Motor Action. It was boiling hot and we managed to get some good seats fairly high up in the bleachers, under shade. Whilst we waited for the show to begin, they flashed trivia questions up on the big screen which kept everyone amused. Does anyone know the answer to this one? :

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After a short wait the show got underway and it was just as good as(or possibly better than!) I had remembered. We managed to get some good shots of all the action:

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And here's the answer to that earlier question (just in case your were wondering):

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We both really enjoyed Lights Motor Action, and it was nice to see a morning show which seemed a little less crowded that the afternoon performances. By this time it was around 11:40 - which meant time to use up our TSM FPs, woo hoo! So we headed over to Midway Mania. I still love the queue area for this ride, and I seem to find something new each time we visit. Like Sammy Squirrel:

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We had a lot of fun on midway mania :3dglasses but...the screens stopped working towards the end of the ride so our enjoyment was cut short a little - as was our scoring:

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A rabbit?! I couldn't believe it! Here I am looking not so happy at the end of our ride:

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We left TSM, and decided it was time to Star Wars it up - after all it was now around 12:00 and we hadn't seen a single character! Was all that about to change?

Coming Up: I see no Vader, and the Golf course that nearly killed us off...
 
DAY NINE cont.

So I FINALLY have an update on our near-death golf experience and Vader encounter - apologies this has been so long in coming, I know I'm been a fairly bad DISer of late!

After we finished up on TSM, Sal decided that it was time I took a turn in chains with Jabba - charming!

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Then as we'd done remarkably little in the way of Star Wars stuff, we decided to head over to Star Tours to right that straight away:

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When we arrived outside the ride the wait time was posted at 15 minutes but there were literally hundreds of folks waiting outside, milling around. It seemed that an Indiana Jones show had just turned out, plus some people had got confused between the FP and regular lines and were now trying to join the right Star Tours queue. We got in line and waited for about five minutes watching the wait time rise from 15 minutes to 30....then 45....then 70: WHAT?! :scared1: Er, no thanks!

We headed over to the back of the FP queue (which was also backed up, but nowhere near as bad) to see a Dad trying to manage his 2 kids. It seemed the younger child had decided there was no way he was going to Endor, whereas the older boy was super keen to ride. The solution? The Dad decided to wait at the ride exit with his younger son and really kindly offered their Fastpasses to us. Result! We agreed to keep an eye on the older boy (who was already running in towards the space craft...), and we were off! What a nice guy: I'm really grateful that he enabled us to ride Star Tours one last time before the refurb! :thumbsup2

Inside the ride Sal spotted this tourist poster for Endor:

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I think I heard that the refurb is going to enhance the queueing area and maybe have some fake video commercials for intergalaxtic destinations? Not sure on the details but it sounds great to me! We both enjoyed Star Tours (as did the kid) - and we rode in the back row, left side which is a great location as there's no one directly in front of you, woo hoo! :cool1:

We headed out and decided to walk around and see if we could spot some characters. Walking away from Star Tours, we saw a FP photographer who asked if we'd like to pose with Vader - er, you bet, where is he?! Turns out this is one of the magic shots they offer at SWW, which Sal was more than happy to take part in:

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We had to laugh when we got our FP CD - the photographer had slightly overestimated Vader's height, so he kept telling Sal to look up - higher, higher...this was the end result:rotfl2::

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After Sal had defeated Vader, we headed over to Sci Fi where we had around 15 minutes until our ADR time so hoped that we could check in early. At the counter, the CM was pretty grumpy and made it quite clear that No we couldn't check in and that there was NO WAY we'd be seated early :confused3 I wasn't too bothered by this but he seemed to be having a really bad day and he clearly didn't want us to stay seated in the waiting area so we headed back out....

....and sat on a rock. For 10 minutes. There really wasn't much point in doing anything else as the park was really busy by now and all the ride times were 30 minutes plus! We did get to sit opposite the American Idol audition area, which was pretty cool so we were kept plenty entertainend by the CMs working there and the would-be singers who dropped by. After that, it was back into Sci Fi where we were finally allowed to check in on time:

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The grumpy CM at the entrance was more than made up for by the really friendly waiters and waitresses inside - they did a great job and we both enjoyed our lunch in the back seat of a car:

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I opted for the reuben sandwich, whilst Sal had the burger (sorry no pics!) and - of course - the movies were a hoot:

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After lunch we decided to call it a day at DHS: it was absolutely boiling and really busy, so we headed back towards the hat and then down towards the exit getting a few more FP shots on the way out (we really should endeavour to get some earlier in the day so we look less hot and disheveled!):

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Continued in next post...





 
We left DHS without any firm plans for the afternoon and were about to catch a bus back to POP when Sal spotted the 'ant boats' departing from the DHS dock

On our last (slow) boat trip to EPCOT we'd sailed past the Swan and Dolphin Resort, which brought back a distant memory from something I'd read on the Disboards.....:surfweb: Could it be that the Fantasia minigolf course was within walking distance of the Swan? If so, how could we possibly turn down the chance of 18 holes of crazy golf - the perfect way to spend a free afternoon!

We hopped aboard and disembarked at the Swan and Dolphin, which seems to be such a cool resort. We looked around a little (well, got lost a little you could say...) and finally, after getting some directions from a CM at the gift store, we headed over the road to the mini golf course. By now it was around 96 degrees, but undeterred we signed up for a round of golf along with a family of ducks:

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This is such an AWESOME course - I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially those with a musical interest as loads of the golf holes produce sounds (and / or melodies):

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A word of warning though: this course has NO shade! And the small bottle of water that we were sharing between us soon ran out - so we were parched and boiled! Needless to say, Sal was thrilled to come across a water feature on one of the golf holes:

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We finally finished up out game (I won - but it sure was close!), and headed for a well earned drink at the cafe. Then it was back to POP for a quick change before our dessert-tatsic evening ahead!

Coming Up: Special Summer Wishes!
 
I have been a slow Disser here lately too, so very understandable!!

Great pictures of Lights!Motors!Action! That is one of our favorite shows at DHS! I do remember the heat was so very hot!!!

That was super nice of the guy to give you the two FPs! I always love scoring FPs like that and try to do the same for others when I have unused ones.

We were thinking of doing mini -golf on our next trip. Fantasia looks fun...I have never seen that movie! :eek: But I just ordered it so it will not be long!! :banana: Great update!

Oh and we always share those funnel cakes because you are correct...they are so sweet!!
 
Hi Tinks! Many thanks for your comments, really glad you enjoy Lights Motor Action also - I always find something new in that show, that I missed or have forgotten from the previous year! This last time it was the car that reverses at speed - so it was a great surprise all over again, :)

I'd really recommend the Fantasia golf - although we've also enjoyed the Winter Summerland course near Typhoon Lagoon (and found this a bit easier to get to as well!). I haven't seen Fantastia either - will be interested to hear what you think of it, those brooms look a little scary to me! :scared1:
 












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