Day 4 found us doing what most people recommend against – spending the ENTIRE day at Epcot – from rope drop until after Illuminations. However, we were doing the Seas Aqua Tour in the middle of it, which we thought would work somewhat as a break. Plus since we’d be getting there so early, we’d have a good parking place for running back and forth to the car and getting out after Illuminations. This part worked out well – we were about as close as you could be to the entrance other than handicapped parking. This isn’t always the case by getting there early since sometimes they seem to start as FAR down the rows as possible, but we were close.
However, even though we were there as early as we’d been the last couple mornings, we were quite a bit back from the turnstiles. I think Epcot has a lot fewer entrances than other parks do. However, we were finding that it wasn’t THAT important to be first because as long as you moved quickly once you did get in, there was always another rope and a lot of the people in front of you would be stopping for strollers, bathrooms, pictures, etc. so we usually had no problem getting to the front of the rope anyways. Did our usual hanging around at the rope out in the main area and met a nice CM named Daniel who was working the Land pavilion for his last week before heading back to college. He was really enthusiastic about working there and was certain he’d return the next summer.
Well, it was finally rope drop. We did the standard “run with the crowds to Soarin’, grab FP’s, and then ride” thing. Got the first FP window (I think they start at 9:42 for some weird reason), then on the ride quickly. One thing I noticed over and over at Epcot, however, (compared to say the MK), is how LONG everything takes to ride. Everything seems to be in much bigger venues and there always seems to be a preshow and then loading a whole theater and unloading, etc. At MK in the first half hour we could do six rides. At Epcot, pretty much one.
So by the time we got off of Soarin’ (we were in the front row luckily, and in the first theater), it was at least 9:25. We went right over to the Land ride, which everyone really enjoyed. This was closed on our last visit (Soarin’ construction) so the boys hadn’t seen this since 2000. They pleaded to let us buy the little plant kits they sold, but we persuaded them to wait for our last day at Epcot.
By the time we exited it was into our FP window. But rather than waste the opportunity, we had Royce sprint over to Test Track and grab us a set of FP’s for later. They had a return time of around 10:30, which we thought would be fine before the Seas Aqua Tour (had to be there at 12:15).
Meanwhile we did a bathroom break and marveled at the now 70 minute Soarin’ line. Royce got back and we rode with the FP’s, which still takes a good chunk out of your day. But we enjoyed this ride and looked for all the hidden Mickey’s we’d been told about. Got out of here after 10 and all ran over to Mission Space. Here we hit our first “real” line, since we wanted to ride the orange side. Said about a 20 minute wait, and it was. But we all had our fanny packs with snacks and drinks so that kept the kids occupied (as did smacking one another with the “tickets” they give you for the ride until I collected and held them all!).
We all enjoy this ride, but DH can only handle it once so we decided since it was about 10:45, it was time to quickly use our TT FP’s and go get lunch before going to the tour. Well, TT was down. Not sure what the reason was besides “mechanical difficulties”. The weather was fine at this point. We debated running out to Norway to ride Maelstrom as soon as it opened, but were concerned about time so headed back to the car. However, we at least picked up another set of TT FP’s for later in the day.
Since we knew we’d be here all day, we didn’t want to have to do 2 meals here and didn’t want to worry about lines before the tour, so we’d just packed lunches. Cranked the A/C in the car, kicked back and ate. Of course we were done by about 11:30 and didn’t have to be at Guest Services (outside the park) until 12:15, but we couldn’t see how we could have done anything else at that point. Probably would have been fine going to Maelstrom. Too bad we hadn’t been able to do TT or that Spaceship Earth hadn’t been closed, etc. because these would have been good fillers.
According to the other 4 members of our group, the Seas Aqua Tour was awesome. I’m not a big “fish/sea” person, so decided to sit out and wave at them from the Living Seas area and try to do some taping/photography. They met up with the tour leaders outside Epcot, and there were 2 other families doing the tour. I explained I wasn’t doing it and they told me where to meet them inside the Living Seas pavilion so that I could see them come out in their wetsuits.
I quickly went in and waited. And waited. Asked some CM’s if I was in the right place. Quite a long while later they came in – but not in wetsuits. Nope – they weren’t near that point yet. At this point the tour guide just told me to come in with them and I could do the backstage tour part rather than sitting and waiting. This part was moderately interesting. Mostly looking at the areas where they feed the fish, treat sick fish, introduce new ones in a tank, etc. Saw charts and graphs and they got to ask questions, etc. Then we went to a room and saw a movie which pretty much focused on the tour and how to wear your equipment and what you could/couldn’t do.
Then they went down to get fitted into their wetsuits. They’d already taken sizes for everyone and it took about 5 minutes for all of the guys in the group to be out waiting. Got some good pics then. But it took forever to get the women in the group into wetsuits that fit them. TIP: Ladies – if you do this tour and really wear a size 14, don’t tell them you’re a size 8. It won’t fit!
Finally they were ready to go. They let me go at this point (I guess you’re not allowed in the tank area to take pics), and I went down to the main viewing area. Still took a long time until they appeared – they had to get fins, the tanks/masks, etc. and practice using them and getting them one. But finally you could see them down there.
The boys had a blast swimming around, but probably even more fun waving at kids watching them. They could see me and I quickly figured out that pictures were pretty useless. With the flash you got too much glare, without the flash you couldn’t see much. The video function on our digital camera worked pretty well, however, so I stuck with videotaping instead. However, it’s really hard to figure out which person is who in the tank! Easiest to find DS12 since he was the smallest and had a long-sleeved wetsuit, unlike anyone else. Every now and then one of them would come over and wave to me and I’d know it was one of them so I’d tape. I did have a lot of fun though when kids ran up and pointed them out, saying “That’s my son/husband!”
They swam for about 45 minutes and all thought it was wonderful. But then they had to get everything off and away, get pictures, have a snack, get their t-shirts, and be released.
It had said on the tour that they’d release them outside the park again (you didn’t need park admission for this tour), but they ended up letting them just go at the Living Seas pavilion. However, it took a good hour after the swim until they were done. It said the tour would finish around 2:30, it was much closer to 3:30. I decided while I was waiting that I would run over to Maelstrom and get a set of FP’s there, but when I got to the exit of the Living Seas, I found that it was once again STORMING like crazy. Even though I had a poncho, I knew if I ran to Norway and back in this I’d end up soaked. Decided I’d just get comfortable and found a seat on the carpet near the exit. Now, I’d been planning on them telling me where they were by phone (since I still thought at this point they’d let them out outside the main gate), and quickly found that I had no cell service in the Living Seas. (We have Sprint/Nextel). I found if I sat right by the exit, I could get enough coverage to call out (checked messages at home, etc.), but I still didn’t get their calls when they tried calling me. Finally I called them and got DH who told me they were wandering around the pavilion looking for me.
I’d been watching the Turtle Talk queue while waiting and realized that there was virtually no line – the theater would fill, but you’d always get in the next show. Since my kids aren’t young enough to have to be in the front, we just wanted to see the show (for DH who hadn’t seen it on our last trip). So when they finally found me, it was about 3 minutes until the next show so we ran in there and watched. By the time we got out, the rain had stopped, and it was about 4pm. We checked the main time board, but it showed that Test Track was still closed, to our disappointment (certain it was due to the weather at this time). We needed to go to the car to put all the wet swim stuff away, along with the photos, so we left the kids exploring at Innoventions while we ran out there.
When we came back in, we decided to go check Test Track one last time before heading out to the World Showcase. Well – surprise! It was finally open. We rode it twice in a row with our FP’s – probably waiting 10 minutes each time, but this is DS14’s favorite ride.
Of course by the time we were done, we were STARVING! We’d decided to “eat our way around the world”. The goal was to at least try something from each country in which it was feasible (some don’t have any counter service places) and just have the kids experience a little bit of different tastes.
We headed to Canada first. No food here that we saw, but we enjoyed exploring the area and getting some pics. If some of these pics are from the wrong country, sorry – I’ve forgotten by now what goes where!
Then we went onto England and got a couple orders of fish and chips. My boys don’t normally eat fish that often, but enjoyed this (and as I said, we were hungry!). They also picked out candy bars in the shop which they liked and enjoyed seeing the toys and all the soccer stuff.
We went onto France, where finding something to eat they wanted was NOT a problem – limiting them to 3 was! They loved all the desserts we tried and definitely wanted to get more! We then went onto Morocco, where we shopped a bit, but didn’t see anything to eat that wasn’t a major meal, which we weren’t quite up for at this time.
Onto Japan, which was our main destination in World Showcase. Matt had loved the Pick a Pearl here on our last visit, and was determined to get one for his girlfriend now (made into a necklace) for their upcoming 6 month anniversary (the week after we returned home). So he got his pearl and chose a setting for them to mount it in. Everyone enjoyed shopping here – they’re into origami and bonsai, which was fun to see. We were disappointed to find that Miyuku (the candy lady) was on vacation the entire 2 weeks we were here. I’d read she usually was on vacation in July, but was hoping we’d be okay in August. However, we went back to the restaurant in Japan (all the TS ones were closed for renovation). We all had the ginger salads, and DH tried the tempura shrimp soup/noodle dish which was REALLY good.
By now we wanted to catch the American Adventure show, so hurried over there. I am hearing impaired and use the reflective captioning wherever possible. Well, this time they brought us right into the theater ahead of everyone else to set it up (normally they just bring you a stand when you’re in there). There was one other family already seated in there, who informed us they were the “First Family” that day at Epcot. However, once they got us all settled so we’d have the best view of the captioning, they determined that the captioning didn’t work. So they brought me out a thick binder that had the entire script in it, along with a flashlight! This was quite hard to use because the captioning goes in front of you so you can follow the action on the stage at the same time. In this case I had to keep looking down. Plus it’s very dark in the theater and it was very hard to keep the flashlight from lighting up too large of an area. But Eric enjoyed reading along with me and we still loved the show, which is one of my all-time favorites in WDW.
By the time we got out, it was getting on 7:30. We knew that Maelstrom closed at 8, so decided to start working our way there, doing just some brief stops along the way. DS is a percussionist, and enjoyed the drums they had out to play!
We got to Maelstrom around 7:45, and it had a 40 minute wait. We decided there was no way we could do that and get a good view for Illuminations, plus we were still hungry, so we decided to go onto Mexico and see what the line and food situations were there!
I was concerned we’d hit a big line since this was the newly opened Mexican ride (Gran Fiesta Tour), but it was a walk on. We enjoyed this immensely and got out right around 8pm. Decided to try to find a spot in the restaurant seating area. Well, of course all the tables with a view of Illuminations were full, but we found a couple areas with trees surrounded by large concrete barriers that were about a foot high and a foot wide and made for comfortable seating right up against the fence. We quickly staked out a spot for us on one of these and left the kids protecting it, while we went to get some food for all of us.
We got in line, and were discussing our options, when we were approached by another DIS’er who’d seen us at the MK earlier but hadn’t gotten to talk to us. We socialized about the boards, our trip so far, her cruise, etc. Which was good, because the line took FOREVER! I mean, we really had a nice long conversation while we waited – and there were about 3 people in front of us. Well, we decided to get the kids’ meals for all of us – which consisted either of tacos or quesadillas, chips/cheese, and a drink for about $4, which was a good deal. I pointed out to DH that we could get away with ordering them, since nowhere on it did it say that it was for kids 9 and under or anything, and probably some people wouldn’t realize that Plato del Nino meant it was for kids. DH (who doesn’t know any Spanish) asked how I knew! Well, we got our 5 meals, along with some churros, and headed back to the kids.
We were surprised that no one had tried to invade our space at all or move the kids in. It was about 8:30 at this point and another family had settled in next to us, but we still had plenty of room. We asked the kids if they wanted us to sit on the ends so we could kind of keep people from moving in next to us, but they didn’t want to sit next to one another (what a surprise!) and then there were poles in the way, etc. So we climbed between them and everyone ate their food.
By this point the weather was really getting iffy. It was lightning with some regularity, but seemed to be a distance away. We had fun watching and filming the lightning, and we dug out some of the chem lights (party type lights – not sure what they’re called in the real world) for the kids to play with.
The show started at 9 – and still no one had come anywhere near us. We were amazed and had a comfortable seat and lots of room to watch the show. We enjoyed the show – and probably moreso the fact that it kept lightning and thundering more and more as the show progressed. Guess Mother Nature wanted to chime in with some fireworks of her own!
As soon as the show was over, we made a break for the exit. I was stressing out about this beforehand – how bad it would be getting out. But it really wasn’t any different than leaving any theme park at the end of the day, or a football/baseball game after it ended. The kids knew where the car was (since it was close) and we told them if by chance they got lost to just go there. I held onto Eric and told the older two to keep dad in sight and we weaved our way out without a problem. Didn’t have to deal with the trams and got out quickly. The show ended at 9:23, we were back at our house in Emerald Island by 9:45. No problem!
), we really thought they might enjoy this as well. Decided because of the crowds at this time of year to spend one night at Royal Pacific in order to get the Express Passes, even though we were paying for the house for that night as well.
Thanks for all the notice! I tried to see about switching flights, but the only option was a very early morning one and since we were flying out of Milwaukee would necessitate either an overnight stay or a 4am morning! We decided to just sleep in and start on a more leisturely day. 
- how old fashioned! 
- were you a quarter master?
