Day 7 continued
I know traditional TR protocol has it that one should resist updating more than every two weeks, so as to garner the most audience participation possible. But. I’ve moved on. You’ve moved on. Britney may or may not be moving on. It’s time to wrap this baby up already.
The PrincessV family had just enjoyed a lovely, front-row ride to Epcot on the monorail and it was time to get back on schedule. It was lunch time and we were headed for a very special ADR… the Garden Grill!
I’d eaten here once before and remembered how quiet and relaxed the place was. Just what we needed on this, our final day of over-stimulation. I also knew the GG to be a guaranteed meeting up of my boy and his very favorite Disney character, Mickey.
So we headed in and were promptly seated. We had a terrific server, (who’s name I didn’t get), who had impeccable timing. Really – everything came at just the right times: he arrived to explain the food deal-i-o and take our drink orders just after we’d settled in; our food arrived moments before the characters started coming by; and dessert came just at the point where our lunches had settled and we found a bit more room in our tummies. My coffee even came before I’d finished dessert! This guy was GOOD.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. The GG wasn’t very busy and the characters had plenty of time to visit. First came Chip… or Dale? I can never remember which is which. But one came after the other. Leo was a little nervous and insisted on sitting on Gramma’s lap at first. But the chipmunks worked their magic and he was soon interacting with them on his own.
Next up was Pluto, and Leo was a little less sure about him. Frankly, so am I. I mean, he's kind of all over the place, y’know? A loose canon of sorts. You just never know what an innocent pat or comment will do to the dog. Leo wisely kept his distance:
But Pluto had his sights set on someone else for his antics……. V. Yep, I was the “lucky” recipient of having my head engulfed in his ginormous mouth while hearing the sounds of a wet, sticky kiss. I smiled and giggled while wondering if my face could handle the power of an antibacterial wipe.
Soon enough, along came our pal, (not Pal – he was once again relegated to a suitcase, poor guy), Mickey. Leo was so happy to see his best buddy again. Unfortunately, V. didn’t get a good picture, just this:
Heading back to the food – may I say this was one of the best WDW meals I’ve ever had?! Everything was terrific, but the vegetables really stood out for me; cooked just enough to be warm but still crunchy and wonderfully seasoned. The turkey and steak were good, too, and the catfish was fantastic. Leo’s selection of mac & cheese and chicken fingers was also well received. Six thumbs way, way up!
But the best was yet to come. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you… Dessert! Gramma’s and my bread pudding was decadent and ooey, gooey good. Leo’s build-your-own cupcake was ‘da bomb! Words don’t do it justice; take a look…
Leo was one very happy camper. Thank you and Have a Magical Day!
We all agreed that the GG would be a Must-Do on any future trips.
But we’re still in December,
(or are we?), and it was time to start some Epcot touring.
Per Leo’s request, we rode Living With the Land while we were, well, at The Land. He really loves this ride, almost as much as Spaceship Earth. I might be in the minority, but I’m happy they added a recording and ditched the live host. It just always creeped me out when the guy or gal was giving the spiel and made eye contact with me. Weird, I know.
We,
(gasp!), passed on Soarin’. Leo and I tried it for the first time in Sept. 2006. He made it through and said it was “cool”, but had no interest in riding again. I think it scared him a bit. I don’t get motion sickness and I’m not afraid of heights, but I do suffer from vertigo when I’m up in the air, and somehow the combination of being elevated with that giant screen really messed me up. I was totally disoriented. And. The pine and orange blossom caused a sneezing fit. Joy.
What I’m trying to say is this: two of us did not want to ride Soarin’ and one of us didn’t care. So we skipped it.
We headed next door to The Living Seas to check out the new Nemo ride. I really thought Leo would be thrilled with this new addition, but I forgot one important thing about 4 year olds: they don’t handle change well. And this was a kid who’s spent some time at The Seas. He knew the routine: walk in through the Exit doors and go straight to the big tank. He knew something was amiss when we went in the IN doors. He fidgeted all through the new queue area, asking to see the fishies. He threw a bloody fit when we got to the cars and had to be forcibly removed from the loading platform and into the car.
I could almost hear the thoughts of the parents around us, “What kind of parent forces their child onto a ride they’re clearly afraid of?” It’s freakin’ NEMO, people! He’s not scared, he’s stubbron! For his part, Leo went on and on about “the shark” and it eating us. He almost convinced me that he
was afraid.
Until we stepped off. And he headed straight to Bruce. AHHHH, he was miffed that we had to go through a stupid homage to Nemo and Pixar just to get to the shark. And take a picture of him eating us. Dontcha just love 4 year old intellect? ((sigh))
Many shark photos were dutifully taken:
I was trying to look scared. But why would I be leaning toward the scary shark??
I especially like this one:
Yeah, never put your
hand in a shark’s mouth, but go ahead and put your entire
head in there.
We were in there for freakin-ever before I made the call, “Leo, 2 more minutes, then we move on.” To which he replied “Okay!” Yeah right. When we actually left, Leo pitched another fit. Taking a lesson from UtahMama, I thought to capture it forever on film:
He recovered quickly, though. We decided to forego Imagination this trip and headed over to one of my all-time favorite places – Wonders of Life! Yippee!, it was open, possibly for the last time in it’s current incarnation. I’ve heard others describe its current state as “sad”, but it honestly didn’t strike me that way. I enjoyed not battling crowds to try out the nifty stuff on the floor. And I never enjoyed Body Wars,
(I do not like seeing the inside of a body under any circumstances, thank you very much), so I wasn’t bummed about its aged status. The one thing I missed was the CS palce that used to be there. They made a mean waffle-fruit-frozen-yogurt thingie back in the day. Mmmmm….
Back to 2006, we tried out the X-ray machines:
And Leo spent quite some time hanging out in what I call the Funky Proportions Room:
We finally emerged and set off for the World Showcase. Leo was, again, not interested in seeing the dinosaurs in Universe of Energy or taking a trip on Test Track. It’s okay – more new things to introduce in the future.
We began our world tour in Mexico. And, in retrospect, I’m so glad we did the ride once last time. Because I hear tell it will emerge from it’s current refurbishment with Donald Duck at the helm. No thanks. I’ll take the cheesy 1982 cliff divers over DD any day.
While in MX, I felt the need for a margarita. Remember? I was still a POV (Person on vacation)! I got me one of those Fiesta Margaritas the size of a bus and filled with lime, mango, strawberry and some other flavor. I was pretty sure this baby would last all the way around the lagoon!
And it would have.
But for the lack of sanitary places to store a drink in the ladies’ room. Leo and Gramma were watching the trains in Germany and I needed to visit the little girls’ room. My ultra-sleek stroller does not have a solid cupholder, so ‘rita came with me. I leaned it up between the two toilet paper holders, so that only the bottom of the cup was touching anything, pushed down my pants and took a seat. Seconds later, a woman slammed the door to the stall next to me and ‘rita tipped right over….. into my lap. “CARP!” loudly escaped my lips, as my thighs froze. Only it wasn’t Carp. If you or your child was in there that day, I do apologize. But there’s really only one thing you can say when most of a frozen margarita lands on your bare thighs, and that’s “CARP!” I got the cup back up to it’s holding spot, (AND saved at least ¼ of the ‘rita!), and used about a mile of TP to clean myself off. It’s a good thing my pants were down or I’d have been in a pickle.
Anyway, crisis resolved, I regrouped with my team and we set off.
It was late by then. Past our scheduled departure time. I mentioned this to Gramma and she said, “Don’t you have tomorrow off? Why don’t we just stay until we feel like leaving? We’re having such a nice day.”
Who
was this lady?
Did I accidentally swap mothers somewhere around the WS? Gramma hates crowds, dislikes most of Disney, and had spent a good part of the previous 6 days complaining about all the walking.
But. She was suggesting that we stay longer?? She may really be coming over to the DIS side!
So we wandered around some more, buying Leo some Power Rangers junk in the Japan store, and headed over to France for my beloved
Impressions de France. I loved this movie before my trip to Paris, but I love it even more now. I’ve had a France fetish for as long as I can remember and it was utterly unsurprising to find out that our family lines from both England and Bavaria were of French descent. Hi, my name is PrincessV and I’m Francophile. Bonus for me: Leo also really likes this film. So we watched it and decided to follow it up with a twilight dinner at the Boulangeri. Oh there
is a Disney god and he is French, I tell you….. FINALLY a cup of real coffee!!!! Accompanied by a nice little quiche and a pastry of some sort. C’est parfait!
It really was time to head out after that, so we strolled leisurely back to the Big Ball and took one last ride on Spaceship Earth. We said good-night to Epcot and promised we’d return real soon.
This is the end…. Beautiful friends, the end…
-The Doors
Coming soon: But wait – there’s more magic!
This might go down as the best, funniest multi-post response ever!
Plus, I'm bummed I can't join you guys in August. 
Everyone has to have a drink for me!!!
15 days and NOTHING??? I'm sorry, there's nothing at all Dreamy about that. That's just cruel and unusual.
LOL!!
