Emma's Dad
DIS Dad #115 Virginia Beach, VA
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2008
- Messages
- 4,560
Day 2! Oh, how I was looking forward to this day! The day when I get to visit my most favorite theme park in the whole wide world... the park that combines imagination with engineering... history with future... Epcot!! I remember the first time I ever came to EPCOT Center... even the name is reminiscent of changing times. The year... 1991... and I had just finished US Navy boot camp in Orlando. Operation Desert Shield had just been declared a cease fire by President Bush and we considered that part of the war over. Disney was offering a free day admission to any theme park for active duty service members and I figured why not go check out Disney World? Until this point in my life I had never experienced what Disney World had to offer... I had NO idea what an impact it would have on me. I don't have a picture of myself at Epcot, but I do have one from Magic Kingdom from the same time frame:
What a dapper young man! LOL! Ah... the good ol' days.
Anyway, it didn't take us long to get ready this particular morning. I think we were all ready to get a fresh start to a new day at Epcot and leave our worries of yesterday behind. After a short wait for the bus we were shuttled successfully to Epcot's bus stop. One of the more fascinating and memorable images I have of Epcot is the monorail station. The first time I saw it I thought how futuristic it seemed... especially for a young man who's entire life was spent growing up in a rural town in Ohio. I still recall running my hands down the hand rails and feeling the stainless steel construction and wondering how long it would have taken to build the whole thing (station... not the railing! lol!). Anyway... I digress here.
While I'm reminiscing... anyone remember what it was like to get to the front gates of a theme park without having your belongings rifled through? This world has changed so much so fast! So.. after the bag search is done, we make it through the ticket booths with flying colors... Yay!!!
And my first picture of the day:
So the plan of the day is to enjoy Future World until lunch... eat... then head back to CSR for some swim time. The evening would be spontaneous except for making sure we caught IllumiNations. So... like every other visitor at Epcot, we started making our way to The Land for our Soarin' fast passes. As we were walking, my eyes were suddenly blinded by sunlight bouncing off of The Land pavilion. Thinking this would be a good shot to have, I stopped for a quick photo... and here it is:
Pretty cool, eh? Sometimes I wish I owned a better camera than a simple point-and-shoot. But the thought of lugging around all the extra equipment keeps me from going any further than just a thought. I've had good luck with the Sony so far. Anywho... I grab the KTTW for DW and DD and I hoof it to the FP machines for Soarin'. Return time.... 11:15... only an hour away. Plenty of time for other rides. Back through the building maze...up the escalator... and return to my peeps in just a few short minutes. Where to next?
You may not have been able to make it out from the picture, but the info board was indicating a 5 minute standby time for Mission: Space and 20 minute standby line for Test Track. Those times are low enough to warrant a walk across the park!
We decided that TT would be better to try first since MS always seems to have a shorter, faster line anyway. Besides, TT was actually working, so better go now!
By the time we get to the queue, the wait time had actually dropped to 15 minutes for the standby line. Can I get a WHAT? Yeah... 15 minutes standby for TT. Sweet. My Disney magic was growing by the minute. We were able to walk all the way through the queue, up the ramp, and to the corner of the wall. Not bad. 10 minutes later we were getting thrown around, hot, cold, and breezes through our hair. It was really nice to have an uninterrupted TT experience 
DD always enjoys the high speed run!
On to MS... and our timing is just perfect. We grab our Orange passes and run through the queue. Score! We are able to walk right up to Team Dispatch and get our crew teams. After the pre-game show with Gary, we get our marching orders and on-board roles. DD INSISTED that we all get the same roles we have the year before. She did NOT want to have the same mishap this year (click HERE for reference). I try tried to assure her that she would be able to reach the controls this time, but she was still hesitant. No way did she want to be the pilot... and that's the assignment the CM gave her. I was going to give her a hard time about it, but I could tell she was already starting to get anxious. No need to make her want to stop going on the ride due to some ribbing. Once we get settled into our seats and the door closes DD appears to be ok... well... she's at least smiling She starts giggling at the liftoff, so I knew all would be good. She was indeed able to reach all the buttons this time! 
With Mars conquered it was time to start heading back to The Land to use our Soarin' FP. DD was really getting excited for the ride. Although this is not her favorite ride at WDW, it is a close second. The standby line wasn't that bad as we were walking through the FP queue. I even mentioned that we could probably get through the standby line in about 20 minutes then use the FP for another ride, but the ladies were not interested in waiting any longer. So the flight attendant assigns us to Concourse 1 and wait to get our seat assignments. Our timing in the line put us at the end of the load cycle... so by the time we got to the attendant we knew we were going to be placed in row C. Hmmm... I don't want dangling feet in my way this time. I wonder if I can have a talk with the attendant.
Me to CM: "Excuse me, Miss. Is it possible that we can wait for the next flight so we can get a seat in row A?"
CM to Me: "Of course. Please step over here and wait for the next flight."
Me: <Ahhhh... more Disney magic>
DW to me: "I can't believe you just asked her to do this!"
Me to DW: "Never hurts to ask... hehe"
So as I'm standing there with my family and while the CM is just standing around waiting for the next crowd of passengers it occurred to me that we were standing at an awesome spot for a photo. So I pull out the camera....
Me to CM: "Would you mind taking our picture?"
CM to Me: "Not at all."
DW to Me: <sends a look that says "you're such a dork">
ME: <SMILING>
And here's the proof:
I kind-of felt like a VIP at that point. We were escorted to row A before the rest of the passengers arrived. It's little things like this that keep me going back to Disney. Know what I mean? We were able to enjoy Soarin' in the best seats of the house... in the middle and on the top. Life is good
After Soarin', we start moving towards the fairy stuff by Innoventions East. My next installment is going to be picture-heavy with what we did in that area, so ... I'll go ahead and wrap this one up. More Epcot to come!!
Next up: Day 2, Part 2: EPCOT - "Behold the power of the crayon!"
What a dapper young man! LOL! Ah... the good ol' days.
Anyway, it didn't take us long to get ready this particular morning. I think we were all ready to get a fresh start to a new day at Epcot and leave our worries of yesterday behind. After a short wait for the bus we were shuttled successfully to Epcot's bus stop. One of the more fascinating and memorable images I have of Epcot is the monorail station. The first time I saw it I thought how futuristic it seemed... especially for a young man who's entire life was spent growing up in a rural town in Ohio. I still recall running my hands down the hand rails and feeling the stainless steel construction and wondering how long it would have taken to build the whole thing (station... not the railing! lol!). Anyway... I digress here.
While I'm reminiscing... anyone remember what it was like to get to the front gates of a theme park without having your belongings rifled through? This world has changed so much so fast! So.. after the bag search is done, we make it through the ticket booths with flying colors... Yay!!!
And my first picture of the day:So the plan of the day is to enjoy Future World until lunch... eat... then head back to CSR for some swim time. The evening would be spontaneous except for making sure we caught IllumiNations. So... like every other visitor at Epcot, we started making our way to The Land for our Soarin' fast passes. As we were walking, my eyes were suddenly blinded by sunlight bouncing off of The Land pavilion. Thinking this would be a good shot to have, I stopped for a quick photo... and here it is:
Pretty cool, eh? Sometimes I wish I owned a better camera than a simple point-and-shoot. But the thought of lugging around all the extra equipment keeps me from going any further than just a thought. I've had good luck with the Sony so far. Anywho... I grab the KTTW for DW and DD and I hoof it to the FP machines for Soarin'. Return time.... 11:15... only an hour away. Plenty of time for other rides. Back through the building maze...up the escalator... and return to my peeps in just a few short minutes. Where to next?
You may not have been able to make it out from the picture, but the info board was indicating a 5 minute standby time for Mission: Space and 20 minute standby line for Test Track. Those times are low enough to warrant a walk across the park!
We decided that TT would be better to try first since MS always seems to have a shorter, faster line anyway. Besides, TT was actually working, so better go now!
By the time we get to the queue, the wait time had actually dropped to 15 minutes for the standby line. Can I get a WHAT? Yeah... 15 minutes standby for TT. Sweet. My Disney magic was growing by the minute. We were able to walk all the way through the queue, up the ramp, and to the corner of the wall. Not bad. 10 minutes later we were getting thrown around, hot, cold, and breezes through our hair. It was really nice to have an uninterrupted TT experience DD always enjoys the high speed run!On to MS... and our timing is just perfect. We grab our Orange passes and run through the queue. Score! We are able to walk right up to Team Dispatch and get our crew teams. After the pre-game show with Gary, we get our marching orders and on-board roles. DD INSISTED that we all get the same roles we have the year before. She did NOT want to have the same mishap this year (click HERE for reference). I try tried to assure her that she would be able to reach the controls this time, but she was still hesitant. No way did she want to be the pilot... and that's the assignment the CM gave her. I was going to give her a hard time about it, but I could tell she was already starting to get anxious. No need to make her want to stop going on the ride due to some ribbing. Once we get settled into our seats and the door closes DD appears to be ok... well... she's at least smiling
She starts giggling at the liftoff, so I knew all would be good. She was indeed able to reach all the buttons this time! With Mars conquered it was time to start heading back to The Land to use our Soarin' FP. DD was really getting excited for the ride. Although this is not her favorite ride at WDW, it is a close second. The standby line wasn't that bad as we were walking through the FP queue. I even mentioned that we could probably get through the standby line in about 20 minutes then use the FP for another ride, but the ladies were not interested in waiting any longer. So the flight attendant assigns us to Concourse 1 and wait to get our seat assignments. Our timing in the line put us at the end of the load cycle... so by the time we got to the attendant we knew we were going to be placed in row C. Hmmm... I don't want dangling feet in my way this time. I wonder if I can have a talk with the attendant.
Me to CM: "Excuse me, Miss. Is it possible that we can wait for the next flight so we can get a seat in row A?"
CM to Me: "Of course. Please step over here and wait for the next flight."
Me: <Ahhhh... more Disney magic>
DW to me: "I can't believe you just asked her to do this!"
Me to DW: "Never hurts to ask... hehe"
So as I'm standing there with my family and while the CM is just standing around waiting for the next crowd of passengers it occurred to me that we were standing at an awesome spot for a photo. So I pull out the camera....
Me to CM: "Would you mind taking our picture?"
CM to Me: "Not at all."
DW to Me: <sends a look that says "you're such a dork">
ME: <SMILING>
And here's the proof:
I kind-of felt like a VIP at that point. We were escorted to row A before the rest of the passengers arrived. It's little things like this that keep me going back to Disney. Know what I mean? We were able to enjoy Soarin' in the best seats of the house... in the middle and on the top. Life is good
After Soarin', we start moving towards the fairy stuff by Innoventions East. My next installment is going to be picture-heavy with what we did in that area, so ... I'll go ahead and wrap this one up. More Epcot to come!!
Next up: Day 2, Part 2: EPCOT - "Behold the power of the crayon!"
I wonder what's going to happen this year? 
It was fun!
More to come!
But from what I did see, it is a classic Disney movie with all the right stuff. And, yes, that is NKOB worthy... 
