Here we gooooo! A November 2013 TR {Update 4/23: The Last Installment}

[kayemgi]

By now it was a little before 6:00 and we were getting hungry. Thank goodness Tower of Terror is right next to the Fantasmic! theater entrance and that I’m a DIS reader. We had a FP+ reservation for F! (scheduled to start at 7 pm that evening), but from recent DIS posts, I knew that probably meant next to nothing. I could see that the line was snaking all the way up and onto Sunset Boulevard, past Beauty and the Beast. This made me extremely nervous! I explained to DH about FP+ not really meaning anything when it came to F! and he agreed we should grab some dinner from nearby Fairfax Fare and head into the theater. First we rushed down to the locker as fast as we could without running to grab our sweatshirts and take a bathroom break.

We grabbed dinner quickly (hot dogs and chips, with a cupcake for me and a beer for DH) and brought it over to the FP+ line. We scanned our bands at about 6:10 and got green so we went in. The standby line was being allowed in as well but was still very long.

Two different CMs directed us to the Pocahontas section to the left, but when we got there, the CM guarding it said it was full and to sit elsewhere. I pressed him, saying, "Two other cast members directed us to come here because we have FP+." He didn't budge.

We looked further left and it was filling up fast, so we headed back the way we came to the emptier right side of the amphitheater. There was a rope blocking access to the right side, but my DH noticed a small opening at the very end of it (it stretched from the seats back towards where the standby line enters) so we went around. I was cringing, waiting to get yelled at (I am a terrible rule breaker!), but no one said a thing. We easily found seating in the Sebastian section that we were happy with. The middle and entire left side (from Mickey to the Beast) were completely full. There was still a good amount of empty seating on our side, but it was filling up quickly.

Image from studioscentral.com

All in all, I would say it wasn't a complete waste of a FP+ because it did allow us to skip the long standby line. But it was pretty close to a complete waste. If we had waited for our window to open up at 6:25, we would have been hard pressed to find a good seat. It seemed like if you got there super early that Pocahontas might have been for FP+, but isn't the whole point of FP+ for a show to not have to get there super early? Same as with FOTLK the day before. Pretty dumb in my opinion. We won't use FP+ for shows again unless this changes.

In any case, we did get in and get a seat, and we ate our dinners while waiting for the show to begin. DH surprised me by totally getting into the pre-show! I wasn’t so much into it, but when the person you’re with gets into it you can’t help but do it too. Except for the Wave. DH HATES the Wave with a passion and refuses to do it at sporting events and he refused to do it here as well. I’m with him on the Wave dislike, so I abstained as well, haha.

Finally it was time for F! to begin! We both really enjoyed it. I tend to be a back-of-the-theater person for most things; movies, shows, etc., but for F! I wish we had tried to find a closer seat. Not at the front I don’t think, but closer to the front of the middle would have been better. It was hard to see everything that was going on from so far back, plus I had forgotten the good camera today, so I only had my phone to take pics, which didn't turn out very well. But we really liked the show, and ended the day with big smiles!

We slowly walked back out to the entrance, knowing we’d probably have to wait awhile for a bus anyway, and took photos of TOT and the Sorceror’s hat all lit up. We also stood and watched TOT for awhile, and we finally did see a flickering light and a shadowy figure in one of the windows! It was a long day, but also our shortest park day of our trip.

We were feeling pretty tired, but also super excited because it was Magic Kingdom day tomorrow!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

That cupcake looks GOOD!!!

We haven't seen fantasmic for quite some time. DH wasnt thrilled with it when we saw it but I remember liking it. We'll have to go again so the kids can see it (DH can't say no to them, right?).

 

[missangelalexis]

I agree, the Backlot tour isn't anything special.

I'm glad you were able to sort out the FP+ situation!

That's so frustrating about FP+ and Fantasmic. The point of it really should be so you don't have to get there early and can still get a decent seat. Nonetheless, I'm glad it worked out for you guys!

Your cupcake looks delicious btw!

 

[kayemgi]

We woke up on Magic Kingdom day super excited because it was finally Magic Kingdom day! Or at least I was super excited. I don’t think I’ll ever plan another WDW vacation and not visit MK first. It just didn’t feel like we were at Disney until we arrived at MK. I didn’t think I would ever be one of those MK first no matter what people, but after experiencing it, I definitely am!

Today was the first day we were going against easyWDW’s advice, but this was the only day of our vacation that MK had the Main Street Electrical Parade — which was precisely why MK was not recommended. But I just NEEDED to see MSEP.

We arrived pretty early and finally we could secure a locker before entering the park! So we did that right away and then waited for the Welcome Show to begin. Good morning, good morning! I love that show, and it definitely brought a small tear to my eye — I was just so happy to finally be at MK!

We entered and immediately headed to Adventureland to ride Jungle Cruise. We always do that first at MK. We had a great skipper and a great ride first thing in the morning!

Then we headed over to Pirates but it was down, so we moved on to Frontierland. We decided to ride Splash Mountain even though it was a cool and grey morning. I told DH I was definitely wearing my poncho for the ride and he thought I was crazy until we watched a few runs and he saw how wet it was possible to get! So he finally got on board and wore his poncho too. If we had had a sunny morning, we wouldn’t have, but I didn’t want to be dripping wet with no way to get dry and warm again first thing in the morning! So on we went, ponchos and all. We got stuck several times and it took awhile to finally get to the end. It was an omen for the rest of our day, unfortunately.

We headed over to ride Big Thunder Mountain and after we rode DH realized he had dropped his hat on Splash! So we walked back over there and luckily they had found it in the log and had it for him. Then we decided we were ready for breakfast so we went over to Sleepy Hollow for Mickey waffles. The lady working the register there had a tough time figuring out how to give us just plain waffles with our QS meal credits. I couldn’t understand why it mattered. Just ring up the waffles and tell them to leave the fruit off! I guess it does matter for their system but I just wanted our freakin’ waffles.

After breakfast we walked over to do our favorite, Haunted Mansion. I’m so glad DH loves that ride as much as I do! Unfortunately it broke down for awhile while we were on it, in the hallways scene where there’s not much to look at. Then again just as we were leaving the music room, so again couldn’t see much. It was kind of a bummer.

Then we decided to ride it’s a small world since there was no line as we were passing by. I love that ride too. I just love all of the colors and the details and the dolls. It’s so great and the song really doesn’t bother me. After iasw we strolled through the Tangled rest area. They really did an amazing job with it. I almost wish it was more than just a rest area, but then again, it's kind of nice just how it is too.

After thoroughly exploring that, we got in line for Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid. What a mouthful! And it doesn’t seem like people can agree on a shorter name for it — JOTLM gets confusing with Voyage of the Little Mermaid at HS, and Under the Sea just doesn’t sound like a ride, does it? Anyway, I thought this ride was really cute. The interactive queue with Scuttle and the little crabs was adorable and I loved all of the details of Ariel’s treasures and the seashells embedded in the floor and I LOVED the part of the ride where it showed that you were headed under water. I felt like that was a really cool detail. The Under the Sea song room was also really fun. But overall, I do feel like this was a bit of a cop-out ride. They could have done something much cooler I think. But then again, what do I know. I’m not an Imagineer!

After Little Mermaid we walked over to Storybook Circus and decided to ride Dumbo. I asked the CM handing out pagers if there was anyway to skip the playground part since we didn’t have kids with us, but she said no. After seeing it I wasn’t too upset! It had a ton of benches to sit and the area was pretty cool looking, and it was fun to see the little kids having so much fun. And our pager went off pretty quickly, so it was no big deal. And WOW did I love the redesigned ride. It’s just gorgeous now with the rich colors and the cool water feature and the little paintings around the base. It was so beautiful. I knew I was going to need to come back and see it at night.

Up Next: Be Our Guest!

 

[missangelalexis]

The welcome show definitely brought a tear to my eye too!

Sounds like you guys had a productive morning so far. That stinks about the rides breaking down though!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I agree--what's with the breaking down, rides?! Oh well, I'd rather be stuck on a Disney ride then at home!

You guys got a lot in already! Rope drop is such a good idea--too bad we can never make it...glad you got to see the show though!

 

[ZehnJahren]

I'm joining in - I am staying at ASMu for the first time in May! Enjoying your TR so far! I am also a fellow ToT fan; but I'm a big TSMM fan too and ride it as many times as possible in a day! I don't care if it tires me out, I love it.

 

[scrpbookr]

This last entry has me SO excited to explore New Fantasyland!! Just about a month to go until our trip!

Your Tangled restroom pics are some of my favorites that I've seen! What type of camera do you have?

I'm looking forward to your next post!

 

[kayemgi]

The welcome show definitely brought a tear to my eye too!

Sounds like you guys had a productive morning so far. That stinks about the rides breaking down though!

The ride breakdowns just kept happening too! It was still a great day though.

I agree--what's with the breaking down, rides?! Oh well, I'd rather be stuck on a Disney ride then at home!

You guys got a lot in already! Rope drop is such a good idea--too bad we can never make it...glad you got to see the show though!

Rope drop is so great for getting lots done in the morning. I'm so lucky my DH (who works nights at home) thinks the same and is on board with changing his sleep schedule for vacation! I imagine with kids it's much harder though.

I'm joining in - I am staying at ASMu for the first time in May! Enjoying your TR so far! I am also a fellow ToT fan; but I'm a big TSMM fan too and ride it as many times as possible in a day! I don't care if it tires me out, I love it.

Welcome! ASMu was great, we really liked staying there.

This last entry has me SO excited to explore New Fantasyland!! Just about a month to go until our trip!

Your Tangled restroom pics are some of my favorites that I've seen! What type of camera do you have?

I'm looking forward to your next post!

Thanks! New Fantasyland is awesome and you are in luck because I read they just took the construction walls down around the Seven Dwarves Mine Train! Even if it's not open yet you'll have great views of it.

The camera I used on our Magic Kingdom day was just my cell phone! An iPhone 4S. I forgot to bring the DSLR that day and I wasn't disappointed in the photos I got at all so I may not even bring it on future trips!

 

[kayemgi]

After riding Dumbo we decided to check out the Storybook Circus area for a bit. I thought the Casey’s Splash Station was really cute, and I loved the posters they had up for the different “acts.” I remember Lambert the Sheepish Lion was one of my absolute favorites as a little girl, so I was delighted to see him featured!

Then we took the back way around to Tomorrowland and decided to check out the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor since we had never done it before. It was fun and they put us up on the screen for quite awhile! I’m having trouble now remembering the questions they asked us, but I remember they asked me first who I was with, and I said my husband, and then they asked him how long we had been married, and they made a joke out of that that I can’t remember, and they talked to us for a little while longer before moving on. I wish I had taken notes afterwards so I could remember what they said! But I do remember that it was really funny and we laughed a lot and came out of it deciding we would definitely do it again on future trips.

After that we had just a little time to kill before our Be Our Guest FP+ reservation, so we decided to ride the People Mover. A great little refreshing break, as always. We also explored the inside of Gaston's, which is so wonderfully themed. I was loving it!

Then it was time! Time for the most anticipated portion of our entire trip! Be. Our. Guest!!! Yaaay! I was so nervous about checking in because I was one of the people that followed how to get the reservation from the DIS, I didn’t get an email invitation. But our reservation was in the system and there was no problem at all! Whew! I was really really glad it worked because the line to get in standby was INSANE. So so long. There’s no way my original plan of getting in line at 1:30 would have worked.

We did wait about 10 or 15 minutes once we got inside, and I was slightly disappointed to learn that since we had Magic Bands we wouldn’t be getting a rose to bring to our table. But we placed our orders on the touch screen (how cool is that by the way?) and went to find a table. It was pretty crowded but we scored a table near the big windows in the ballroom which was great because the view was awesome and also we were right next to an outlet! I didn’t discover the outlet til towards the end of our meal but it still gave my phone enough extra juice to make it through the rest of the day. While we waited for our food to appear DH went to grab us drinks while I waited at the table, and when he got back I left my MB with him (since mine was the one we scanned for the servers to know where our table was) and went exploring.

They really outdid themselves on the ballroom and the West Wing, but I felt like the Rose Room was kind of thrown together. But it was still pretty neat. The West Wing was truly amazing, with the sound effects and the changing portrait and the rose dropping petals. Sucks for anyone eating in there though, to have to deal with tons of random people weaving around your table to see everything! The snow falling outside the windows in the ballroom was really magical and the whole room was just stunningly gorgeous.

I went back to our table and after a few more minutes, our food finally arrived. I had ordered the roast beef sandwich and the lemon cupcake and DH got the turkey sandwich with the grey stuff cupcake. Everything was so delicious! My sandwich was so tender and the flavors were so good. We will definitely be returning to Be Our Guest on our next trip. I hope they keep doing the lunch reservations.

After lunch it was time for our first MK FP+ use for Enchanted Tales with Belle. I was disappointed that the FP line skips going through Maurice’s cottage, as I really wanted to check that out, but I figured I could probably find a video on You Tube and I was glad we didn’t have to wait in the 40 minute line. We pretty much went right in. The magic mirror effect was just as awesome as I had been hearing about and I loved the little part with the Wardrobe as well. And Lumiere was just amazing, I don’t know how they got him to look so real! The little show was cute, but I had really wanted to do this to see the special effects and I was glad that we did it but we probably won’t do it again until we have age appropriate kids.

After ETWB we decided to walk back down to Pirates to see if we could get on this time. We could! The wait was a little longer than I would have liked (about 15-20 minutes) but really not bad considering it was about 2:30 or so on a non-recommended day. Unfortunately Pirates also broke down while we were on it, and then the boats got all backed up. But Pirates has always been one of my favorite rides, so I was glad we got to do it anyway.

Then we decided to go down to Main Street to meet talking Mickey! I was so excited about this meet. Unfortunately the wait ended up being twice as long as listed — 30 minutes instead of 15. It was pretty annoying at the time, especially since that queue is so boring. But finally we made it in and it was worth it! Mickey asked us if we had been to the Haunted Mansion today, and when we said yes, he asked us if we had seen any hitchhiking ghosts. When we said yes he got very scared and ran around the room checking to make sure the ghosts hadn’t followed us in! Haha it was freaking adorable and I felt like a little kid again. He finally calmed down and asked if we should pose like the hitchhiking ghosts for our photo and we agreed. I was grinning too much but I couldn’t help it! So so much fun, everyone should see talking Mickey if they can!

Up Next: More exploring and the Tomorrowland Terrace Wishes Dessert Party

 

[STLMickeyMom]

how did I totally miss this update?!

your lunch at BOG sounds great! I think we'll try lunch next time we go there. the lunch menu sounds so good!

ETWB sounds fun. we haven't tried it yet--mostly because I never want to stand in the line or use a fp for it. I don't think our girls really even know it's there, but I guess we should try it out sometime.

awww--talking mickey sounds adorable! he wasn't talking when we were there....maybe he picked up on our grouchy vibe and wanted us to get the heck out! I think your picture looks great! you can never smile too much with mickey!

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm glad you enjoyed BOG!

Your experience with Talking Mickey sounds SO great, love the photo!!

 

[kayemgi]

I don't know how my longest entry in my trip journal ended up being my shortest entry in my Trip Report! I think because we had been to MK before I didn't take so many photos. Anyway, here's the end of day 4!

After Mickey we were feeling pretty tired but we still had a good amount of day in front of us, so we decided to take the train over to Storybook Circus instead of walking. We had a FP+ for Buzz Lightyear to get to. The train was very relaxing and even though it probably would have been faster to just walk to Tomorrowland, it was nice to get a break on our feet but still feel like we were doing something. We got off the train at Storybook Circus and took the “back way” over to Tomorrowland.

I remembered Buzz as being really fun the last time we were at MK, so I was looking forward to doing it again. Well I guess it was fun before I had ever ridden Toy Story, because this time was not so enjoyable for me! I couldn’t hit anything and I was really getting frustrated with it. I know it’s just a ride and it’s silly to get upset over, but it just wasn’t fun. DH had 544,900 points and I had 45,000. I’m getting annoyed just looking at those scores again! And then at the end we got stuck AGAIN and had to wait awhile before getting off.

After Buzz we had a FP+ for Thunder Mountain, but since we had been able to ride it earlier and there was a long line for Space Mountain, we decided to try to switch it. I was easily able to and we got right onto Space! It was awesome. We were both nervous about Space because we remembered really getting tossed around last time, but we decided to give it a try because I had read that the ride was much smoother now after its recent refurb. And it was! It’s still a bit of a rough ride, but it definitely did feel smoother than we remembered and we had fun.

Then we decided to go over and do Mickey’s Philharmagic, and it was delightful, as always. That’s such a great little show. Then we tried Haunted Mansion again, hoping for better luck this time. We should have known that it wasn't going to be good when we got stuck just outside the doors for what seemed like forever, and then again in line after the stretching room. But we were there so we rode anyway and even the ride getting stuck yet again (in the graveyard) couldn’t sway my love for Haunted Mansion. It’s always first in my heart! I hope they never decide to change it in any way.

Finally it was time for some dinner, and we wanted to keep it light because we had the Tomorrowland Dessert Party to go to later. We went to Pinnochio’s Village Haus and opted to share one pepperoni flatbread and breadsticks. They let us get that as one meal credit and we just paid for an extra drink, which I thought was pretty nice but maybe is just normal. Maybe I was just hungry but the food was really delicious. I was pretty impressed since I was expecting Pizza Hut drive-through level pizza. It wasn’t the best pizza ever either, but it was definitely better than I thought it was going to be.

After dinner we had some time to kill so we wandered around the shops on Main Street for a little while and then decided to walk back up to Storybook Circus to see Dumbo all lit up at night. I was beautiful! I am newly obsessed with that ride now.

Then it was time for the Dessert Party! We walked over to Tomorrowland Terrace and got in a really long line. Happily it moved very quickly. While we were waiting this woman came up to us (barely even pausing) and pretty rudely demanded to know what we were waiting in line for. I told her the Dessert Party, which clearly, if she couldn’t read the sign at the start of the line and/or didn’t know about already wasn’t going to be very helpful information but I wasn’t about to elaborate for someone who was so rude, and she was already walking away again anyway. Even the people in front of us turned around after she walked away and were like, wow, that lady was rude. Let me say it again: rude!

Haha anyway, we made it into the party and we were so excited to find we had a seat right up front! Not that it matters since everyone gets up and stands at the railing anyway, but it felt nicer to be closer to the outside and not surrounded by other tables. We unfortunately weren’t feeling very hungry even after our light dinner so we just had a few deserts each. They were delicious, but we just weren’t hungry. We ate our desserts and once Wishes began and people started coming up to the rail we left our seat and snagged a spot as well. It was nice and even though we would have preferred to sit, it didn’t feel crowded at all, which was exactly the reason why I wanted to book this in the first place, so we were happy. Sadly, my favorite part, Celebrate the Magic, you could barely see, and it was a good view for Wishes (GREAT view for Tinkerbell) but everything was off center, which I felt like did take away some of the magic of the fireworks. We enjoyed it for what it was but I doubt we’ll ever do the dessert party again.

Oh! And someone forgot that Cinderella's Dream Lights weren't supposed to come on for another couple of days and we got to see them for about 20 seconds! It was such a treat since I haven't been to Disney for Christmas since I was a little girl. They are so beautiful.

After Wishes we had time to do one more ride before the Main Street Electrical Parade began, so we fought the masses of people who were exiting to get across the Hub and scooted over to Jungle Cruise. It feels like such a different ride in the dark! We loved it. Then we came back into the Hub and walked down Main Street just a smidge to get a perfect spot for the parade.

The parade was as awesome as I remembered and waiting for the second one is definitely the way to go. There was practically no one left as we were leaving, and it was helped by the fact that it started drizzling just before the parade ended, so a lot of people who were left just got up and went right then. It has never been easier to get out of Magic Kingdom than it was that day!

At that point we still hadn’t decided which park we were going to go to for our bonus fifth day, and I was so sad thinking this could be the last time we got to see MK for years to come. We had pretty much decided that this was our last trip to Disney until we have kids that are old enough to enjoy it, so for a probable minimum of three or four years plus the time it takes to actually get pregnant. All of these thoughts completely overwhelmed me as we were leaving and I just started crying. DH was completely baffled and worried that I was sick or that I had had a terrible day or something. I explained it was just the opposite and he couldn’t help but laugh a little at his overemotional wife! Luckily that made me laugh and all was not ruined, and we agreed that unless Food & Wine the next day at Epcot was just the most amazing experience ever that we would return to Magic Kingdom for our last day. Yay!

Bonus real life update: I feel I can share this with my internet friends even though we can't with our real life friends yet. After being so upset and worried that it would take us forever to have a kid and get to come back to Disney, I'm pregnant! It happened really fast so I guess I was pretty silly to worry. And I'm glad we decided to wait until after the vacation to start trying considering how fast it happened! I'm a little over nine weeks. We're so excited and it puts TRs with kids in a whole new perspective. We cannot wait to bring our little nugget to Disney someday!

 

[missangelalexis]

OMG CONGRATULATIONS!! That is such wonderful news for the two of you

How awesome that you got to catch a glimpse of the dream lights!

Haha I can totally understand becoming emotional, it's sad not knowing when you'll be back to MK!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

CONGRATULATIONS!! I am so excited for both of you (all three of you)!! That is wonderful news!! And clearly you'll be awesome parents since I'm sure you're kids will have lots of Disney trips in their futures!

I am HORRIBLE at buzz also. I don't know how anyone knows where they are aiming! If I get any points I consider it a victory! If I beat the kid I ride with, even better!

I can't wait to do dumbo at night! It looks so pretty!

Minus the rude lady, I'm glad you enjoyed the dessert party and got to see MSEP! All the pictures are so pretty!!

 

[kayemgi]

OMG CONGRATULATIONS!! That is such wonderful news for the two of you

How awesome that you got to catch a glimpse of the dream lights!

Haha I can totally understand becoming emotional, it's sad not knowing when you'll be back to MK!

Thank you! We are so excited.

CONGRATULATIONS!! I am so excited for both of you (all three of you)!! That is wonderful news!! And clearly you'll be awesome parents since I'm sure you're kids will have lots of Disney trips in their futures!

I am HORRIBLE at buzz also. I don't know how anyone knows where they are aiming! If I get any points I consider it a victory! If I beat the kid I ride with, even better!

I can't wait to do dumbo at night! It looks so pretty!

Minus the rude lady, I'm glad you enjoyed the dessert party and got to see MSEP! All the pictures are so pretty!!

Thank you!! I cannot wait til this kid is out and old enough for a Disney trip! I can't wait to see it through a child's eyes.

 

[Miss Potts]

Congratulations!!!!

 

[kayemgi]

Congratulations!!!!

Thank you!

 

[kayemgi]

Somehow, after three and a half very full and long days on our feet, we still manage to wake up with plenty of time to make it to AM EMH at Epcot. We opt to skip breakfast first thing and just head to the bus. I think we actually ate some of our treats from DTD to hold us over til our Fountain View breakfast later! We get on the bus with no problems but are shocked when we arrive at Epcot at how many people are waiting to get in! We were about 20 minutes early too. We choose a line and it’s a poor choice. The CMs for some reason are holding a rope across when they finally start letting people in, and people from the right side of our line are going around the rope and getting in front of us. I don’t know why or how this is happening, but it’s pissing off everyone in our line. The line jumpers are clearly in view of the CMs, but they do nothing. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen trying to get into a Disney park.

In any case, we finally get inside, rent our locker and head right to Test Track. Our plan for the day is to quickly get Future World done so we can spend the majority of our time sampling Food & Wine items once the World Showcase opens. We walk straight through into the design room and have so much fun creating our car. I’m not kidding, that was the best part for us! It’s a hideous thing, but it does well until the final test I think! We want to go back in and design another car, but the line is already growing and the ride wasn’t fun enough to justify it. We are ready for breakfast, but there’s still 20 minutes before Fountain View opens, so we head to Spaceship Earth. One of my favorites, still a great experience!

After SE, Fountain View was open (now a Starbucks location) so we ordered what turned out to be teeny breakfast sandwiches and OJs. We were ok with the small meal because we wanted to fill up at Food & Wine, but if we hadn't had that planned I'd probably be pretty bummed out! We decided to eat outside as it was the first truly sunny morning we’d had at a park, and sadly, the outside tables had no chairs! So we stood and ate quickly. We had 11 am FP+ reservations at Soarin’, so that’s why we hadn’t rushed over there yet. After breakfast we headed for The Seas with Nemo & Friends. We rode and it was cute as we remember. I didn’t notice if certain effects aren’t working even though I had read on the DIS that several were not.

After Nemo DH wants to check out the manatees. They are his favorite. Unfortunately there is only one on this trip and he is sleepy, just hanging out and not doing much. He was enormous though, the white board on the wall said he weighed 1507 lbs! We asked the CM how the manatees get along with the fish in the tank and she said that usually they are just fine but because this guy was so large the fish seemed to be afraid of him and avoided swimming in his space.

We had some time to kill before the next Turtle Talk with Crush show, so we wandered around the aquarium exhibits a bit. I found some more Hidden Mickeys!

Full version

Close-up of Hidden Mickey

Full version

Close-up of Hidden Mickey

We had never done Turtle Talk before, and it was adorable! So fun even for adults with no kids. After that was done it was time for our Soarin’ FP, so we headed in that direction. We waited about 20 minutes in the FP+ line, in a dark, boring hallway. Not fun, but better than the crazy standby wait for sure. I’m a take it or leave it person when it comes to Soarin’, I’d never wait in the crazy long lines it accumulates, but I was glad we got to ride it this time. The smells were in full working order and it really is such a relaxing ride. I especially love when it goes over Disneyland. I’ll be bummed on future trips when we have to choose between a FP+ for Soarin’ or TT.

After Soarin’ we really wanted to get moving up to the World Showcase, so we skipped Living with the Land. I’ve always loved that ride, but it was fine to skip it this time. We checked the wait time for Mission: Space (the only other thing DH wanted to do down there) and it was only five minutes, so we decided to do that quickly. Green side of course!

Finally it was time for Food & Wine! We stopped in the Festival Center so I could get a passport for stamping. You would have thought they’d have those out for the taking, but I had to ask a CM for one. Lame! Anyway we grabbed that and a map of the different booth locations and we were on our way!

Up Next: Food & Wine Exploring

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a good morning at Epcot, you guys got a lot done!!