Cast of characters:
Me (23), WDW vet, map reader extraordinaire, could draw a map of all parks and all attractions at any given moment
Spanky (23), WDW vet, knows where ALL the bathrooms in the parks are
Celeste (26), WDW vet, Epcot lover, would live in the World Showcase if possible
Rosie (21), WDW vet, really needs to publish Smoker's Guide to Disney by finding all the smoking places in all the parks
Day 4 - Is that Jiminy?!?
So after our e-ride night, we decided to sleep in this morning and set the alarm for 8:30. Luckily, we made it out of the room and ate breakfast by 9:30. We then set off to take the boat to Epcot. The wait was not long, but it does take a while to load people at the other stops. We ended up getting to Epcot around 10:15 or so. After going through the closed pavilions in UK, we headed into Canada. We all lamented that hey, if we want to see Canada, we would take the 15 minute drive and go there. Well, it is 15 minutes to Niagara Falls and we can walk over the bridge from there, so yeah, we can see Canada any day we want to. That pavilion has always been skipped by us. We have nothing against Canada, but we would rather see the real thing, which could be done any time we want.
We headed off to TT and got FPs for later. Since the single rider line is always short, we have the motto of "if you can go single riders, forget your friends, you can meet up with them afterwards." It took about 10 minutes total, including the video to get in. We then headed over to Cranium Command, stopping along the way to stare at Mission:Space and vow to ride this ride when we go in August. We got lucky and it opens 2 days before we leave. I think this is Disney's way for apologizing for closing the Maelstrom the day before we got to Epcot last year. We were thoroughly entertained by the Command, as usual. We then went over to the Making of Me, which is disturbing if you think of what the attraction really is. We all vow to bring our children here to teach them about this instead of having to give them the talk. Why do it ourselves when we can have Martin Short do it? So, now our FP window is open for TT so we take a spin. Everyone claims that this ride is really good, but maybe it is the way that I drive that makes the outside part not that new to me. I watched the speedometer and could tell you that if it was me controlling the car in my new car, I would be going at least 10 - 15 mph faster. 65 is the slowest that I go on the Thruway. If I open all the windows and the sunroof of my car, it is almost the same as the convertible and I go much faster. Granted there are no curves like that, but I think I would flip my SUV if there were. But it is fun and we did try to all pose for the picture. We all had some really good horrified faces, but Rosie missed the camera so she was not posing. We vow that we will get a good pic here in Aug. Plus, we will have more people, so we will take up the entire car. No strangers in our pictures here! After the ride, Celeste wanted to do the GM Dream commercial or whatever that is called and could not talk her out of it. Oh joy, GM is great, look at all the things it is doing. Wow. They also showed my car in it so basically I get to see a commercial for my car. Yippee. I like some of them, but it really is not worth any sort of wait.
After this, we determined that it was time for lunch, so we headed over to the Land, with a stop at Ice Station Cool that we just breezed through for the shortcut in the AC. We got our FP for the Land and then ate our lunch at a variety of places. Always nice to be able to choose from many different places. After lunch, we went to see Food Rocks, which we had never seen before. That is too cute. Definitely on the list for August. It was time for our trip on the Land so we rode through the greenhouses. What was really weird was the fact that they use all the fish there in the restaurants. So basically you could point to a fish and say "I'll see YOU later for dinner?" Mental note, no fish at Disney, not that I would eat any anyway, mind you. They were doing free tours of the greenhouse, but we could not see any point in doing this, so we passed on that. We went over to JIYI, where we got to see figment. I have seen 3 versions of this ride and personally this ranks #2. The original was so much better. Oh well, can't do anything about that. We had a choice next. It was character caravan or HISTA. Obviously, the characters won. Good thing too! We saw Jiminy! That made the entire trip. After stalking him to get him to stop for autographs and a picture, we called our friend Pea Head at home and of course had to brag. (note: we are rather obsessed with JC and implemented a program of WWJD What would Jiminy Do? Such as turn off your lights, and other ways to live to be 103) We also saw Gideon, who was a new catch for us. We had everyone else, including Mickey and Minnie. We did miss out on Pluto since we got practically a photo shoot with him last year. We had 4 different cameras and 4 different poses with him last year. So it was time for the countries!
We always for some reason go in the same order, so it is off to Mexico. After a nice cool boat ride, we spend some time in the shops where the one CM asks Celeste if she has graduated HS. Of course, being 26, she says yes. Then he asks what college she goes to and her major. She answered that she went to Canisius and majored in biology and got her masters in education. She goes on to say that this was 2 years ago that she finished. I really think that he was hitting on her and really could not tell how old she was, but to be mistaken for a teenager was quite nice for her. On to Norway. We waited with baited breath to see what they did in the renovations. This is a major favorite with my friends and we were quite worried that they would change either the ride or the movie. Luckily, they just did some touchups to the ride and really only changed the queue. That was okay for us.
{getting up on soapbox} Actually, I liked the fact that wheelchairs would go through the line with everyone else. It is only fair that they wait in line with everyone else. I think that all rides should be set up this way. That way, everyone gets to experience all of the queues and themeing and there are no people who get mad at them for skipping in line. I have seen people who need this system and use it justly and I do not mind this in the least. The problem is that I have seen others who abuse it. Since the FP has been implemented, this has eliminated a lot of the abuse, but there are still some people out there that try to take advantage of others' disabilities and the generosity of Disney. By changing the queues, this can be avoided. The entire family can wait in line together. Good job Disney, I commend you on this! This is much much better than the way the system was in the past. {sorry about that} Loved the movie. Tried to tape it, but I was not getting a good resolution on the screen since it was alternately dark and light. Camera did not like that much.
We stopped in China and Celeste wanted to watch the acrobats. I had seen them before and since there were no spots in any shade, we gave her a 2-way and kept on going. We stopped at the outpost to buy a new Tribal Goofy for Pea Head. I was tempted to buy her another Safari Goofy, but she already has three of those so we got her the new one instead. We breezed through the countries, looking in the shops, but not finding anything to buy. Either it was too expensive or we really didn't need it. We ended up in America and watched the Voices of Liberty before going into American Adventure. That is okay. Nice to nap in the next time I go in there. We met up with Celeste and headed over to France. On the way, we stopped in Morocco to see if the Genie was there. Aladdin was there but there was no one in line so they asked if we wanted a picture. We didn't really need one, but said yes instead so that he would not feel bad. After leaving, there was another family that when asked if they would like to see Aladdin, they flat out said no. That's just mean. Take the picture, even if you don't care about it. We shopped in France for a little while when it started to rain. Rosie and I decided to head back to the hotel and took the boat. Celeste wanted to check out the shop at the gate, so she and Spanky went there and then walked back. They beat us by a good 5 minutes! We went back to the room, showered and changed and went downstairs for dinner. We had stuff from Tubbi's and the ice cream place and were really stuffed! We headed out to catch the bus to DTD. It was done drizzling now. It really only rained for like 5 minutes. Enough for Spanky to buy a poncho, put it on, and then take it off and leave in the hotel.
We split up at DTD, agreeing to meet at World of Disney in an hour and a half. I went on my missions. First up was the scrapbook store, where I bought a few sets, but really was unimpressed. There is so much they could do here. I personally found some better stuff at the local craft stores for a lot cheaper. I went into Disney at Home, did not see anything that I liked. I was in the middle of redoing my bedroom. I bought one poster and framed it, but other than that, the theme is Mickey and friends, so I will look more in August. I went into Once Upon a Toy, debated over Haunted Mansion Clue and decided to get it in August and ship it home. Not too much extra room this trip. I went into the pin store and picked up a couple of limited edition pins for a friend at work. It was time for the biggie: World of Disney. It started to pour at this moment in time, so I, and just about every other person in DTD headed inside as fast as possible. Despite being wet, I could still shop. Its a skill of mine. I got 2 picture frames, figuring that I would use one for this trip and one for August. The princess one is saved for later. We already have PS for the Norway breakfast and are hoping to get CRT. We should get a good pic there, hopefully. I also go a couple of other things, 2 cds, a few pens, among other stuff. I was ready to check out so, I went for it, got my AP discount and brought the total down under 200. Always a fun time. I went outside after finding Rosie, Spanky, and Celeste, where I waited for everyone else to finish up. It was around 10 by the time everyone was done and we got back to the bus. By 10:30, we were back in the hotel and went to pick up all our packages that we had sent to the resort over the days. Now came the fun part. It was the fit everything I bought into my suitcase game. In August, I am planning on 2 suitcases, but now I only brought an extra bag to use as a carryon so I could check my backpack. I actually got everything to fit, including my sneakers, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. We watched a little TV after we all finished and got ready for our last day. We all were asleep by 1 AM.
Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom, home
Me (23), WDW vet, map reader extraordinaire, could draw a map of all parks and all attractions at any given moment
Spanky (23), WDW vet, knows where ALL the bathrooms in the parks are
Celeste (26), WDW vet, Epcot lover, would live in the World Showcase if possible
Rosie (21), WDW vet, really needs to publish Smoker's Guide to Disney by finding all the smoking places in all the parks
Day 4 - Is that Jiminy?!?
So after our e-ride night, we decided to sleep in this morning and set the alarm for 8:30. Luckily, we made it out of the room and ate breakfast by 9:30. We then set off to take the boat to Epcot. The wait was not long, but it does take a while to load people at the other stops. We ended up getting to Epcot around 10:15 or so. After going through the closed pavilions in UK, we headed into Canada. We all lamented that hey, if we want to see Canada, we would take the 15 minute drive and go there. Well, it is 15 minutes to Niagara Falls and we can walk over the bridge from there, so yeah, we can see Canada any day we want to. That pavilion has always been skipped by us. We have nothing against Canada, but we would rather see the real thing, which could be done any time we want.
We headed off to TT and got FPs for later. Since the single rider line is always short, we have the motto of "if you can go single riders, forget your friends, you can meet up with them afterwards." It took about 10 minutes total, including the video to get in. We then headed over to Cranium Command, stopping along the way to stare at Mission:Space and vow to ride this ride when we go in August. We got lucky and it opens 2 days before we leave. I think this is Disney's way for apologizing for closing the Maelstrom the day before we got to Epcot last year. We were thoroughly entertained by the Command, as usual. We then went over to the Making of Me, which is disturbing if you think of what the attraction really is. We all vow to bring our children here to teach them about this instead of having to give them the talk. Why do it ourselves when we can have Martin Short do it? So, now our FP window is open for TT so we take a spin. Everyone claims that this ride is really good, but maybe it is the way that I drive that makes the outside part not that new to me. I watched the speedometer and could tell you that if it was me controlling the car in my new car, I would be going at least 10 - 15 mph faster. 65 is the slowest that I go on the Thruway. If I open all the windows and the sunroof of my car, it is almost the same as the convertible and I go much faster. Granted there are no curves like that, but I think I would flip my SUV if there were. But it is fun and we did try to all pose for the picture. We all had some really good horrified faces, but Rosie missed the camera so she was not posing. We vow that we will get a good pic here in Aug. Plus, we will have more people, so we will take up the entire car. No strangers in our pictures here! After the ride, Celeste wanted to do the GM Dream commercial or whatever that is called and could not talk her out of it. Oh joy, GM is great, look at all the things it is doing. Wow. They also showed my car in it so basically I get to see a commercial for my car. Yippee. I like some of them, but it really is not worth any sort of wait.
After this, we determined that it was time for lunch, so we headed over to the Land, with a stop at Ice Station Cool that we just breezed through for the shortcut in the AC. We got our FP for the Land and then ate our lunch at a variety of places. Always nice to be able to choose from many different places. After lunch, we went to see Food Rocks, which we had never seen before. That is too cute. Definitely on the list for August. It was time for our trip on the Land so we rode through the greenhouses. What was really weird was the fact that they use all the fish there in the restaurants. So basically you could point to a fish and say "I'll see YOU later for dinner?" Mental note, no fish at Disney, not that I would eat any anyway, mind you. They were doing free tours of the greenhouse, but we could not see any point in doing this, so we passed on that. We went over to JIYI, where we got to see figment. I have seen 3 versions of this ride and personally this ranks #2. The original was so much better. Oh well, can't do anything about that. We had a choice next. It was character caravan or HISTA. Obviously, the characters won. Good thing too! We saw Jiminy! That made the entire trip. After stalking him to get him to stop for autographs and a picture, we called our friend Pea Head at home and of course had to brag. (note: we are rather obsessed with JC and implemented a program of WWJD What would Jiminy Do? Such as turn off your lights, and other ways to live to be 103) We also saw Gideon, who was a new catch for us. We had everyone else, including Mickey and Minnie. We did miss out on Pluto since we got practically a photo shoot with him last year. We had 4 different cameras and 4 different poses with him last year. So it was time for the countries!
We always for some reason go in the same order, so it is off to Mexico. After a nice cool boat ride, we spend some time in the shops where the one CM asks Celeste if she has graduated HS. Of course, being 26, she says yes. Then he asks what college she goes to and her major. She answered that she went to Canisius and majored in biology and got her masters in education. She goes on to say that this was 2 years ago that she finished. I really think that he was hitting on her and really could not tell how old she was, but to be mistaken for a teenager was quite nice for her. On to Norway. We waited with baited breath to see what they did in the renovations. This is a major favorite with my friends and we were quite worried that they would change either the ride or the movie. Luckily, they just did some touchups to the ride and really only changed the queue. That was okay for us.
{getting up on soapbox} Actually, I liked the fact that wheelchairs would go through the line with everyone else. It is only fair that they wait in line with everyone else. I think that all rides should be set up this way. That way, everyone gets to experience all of the queues and themeing and there are no people who get mad at them for skipping in line. I have seen people who need this system and use it justly and I do not mind this in the least. The problem is that I have seen others who abuse it. Since the FP has been implemented, this has eliminated a lot of the abuse, but there are still some people out there that try to take advantage of others' disabilities and the generosity of Disney. By changing the queues, this can be avoided. The entire family can wait in line together. Good job Disney, I commend you on this! This is much much better than the way the system was in the past. {sorry about that} Loved the movie. Tried to tape it, but I was not getting a good resolution on the screen since it was alternately dark and light. Camera did not like that much.
We stopped in China and Celeste wanted to watch the acrobats. I had seen them before and since there were no spots in any shade, we gave her a 2-way and kept on going. We stopped at the outpost to buy a new Tribal Goofy for Pea Head. I was tempted to buy her another Safari Goofy, but she already has three of those so we got her the new one instead. We breezed through the countries, looking in the shops, but not finding anything to buy. Either it was too expensive or we really didn't need it. We ended up in America and watched the Voices of Liberty before going into American Adventure. That is okay. Nice to nap in the next time I go in there. We met up with Celeste and headed over to France. On the way, we stopped in Morocco to see if the Genie was there. Aladdin was there but there was no one in line so they asked if we wanted a picture. We didn't really need one, but said yes instead so that he would not feel bad. After leaving, there was another family that when asked if they would like to see Aladdin, they flat out said no. That's just mean. Take the picture, even if you don't care about it. We shopped in France for a little while when it started to rain. Rosie and I decided to head back to the hotel and took the boat. Celeste wanted to check out the shop at the gate, so she and Spanky went there and then walked back. They beat us by a good 5 minutes! We went back to the room, showered and changed and went downstairs for dinner. We had stuff from Tubbi's and the ice cream place and were really stuffed! We headed out to catch the bus to DTD. It was done drizzling now. It really only rained for like 5 minutes. Enough for Spanky to buy a poncho, put it on, and then take it off and leave in the hotel.
We split up at DTD, agreeing to meet at World of Disney in an hour and a half. I went on my missions. First up was the scrapbook store, where I bought a few sets, but really was unimpressed. There is so much they could do here. I personally found some better stuff at the local craft stores for a lot cheaper. I went into Disney at Home, did not see anything that I liked. I was in the middle of redoing my bedroom. I bought one poster and framed it, but other than that, the theme is Mickey and friends, so I will look more in August. I went into Once Upon a Toy, debated over Haunted Mansion Clue and decided to get it in August and ship it home. Not too much extra room this trip. I went into the pin store and picked up a couple of limited edition pins for a friend at work. It was time for the biggie: World of Disney. It started to pour at this moment in time, so I, and just about every other person in DTD headed inside as fast as possible. Despite being wet, I could still shop. Its a skill of mine. I got 2 picture frames, figuring that I would use one for this trip and one for August. The princess one is saved for later. We already have PS for the Norway breakfast and are hoping to get CRT. We should get a good pic there, hopefully. I also go a couple of other things, 2 cds, a few pens, among other stuff. I was ready to check out so, I went for it, got my AP discount and brought the total down under 200. Always a fun time. I went outside after finding Rosie, Spanky, and Celeste, where I waited for everyone else to finish up. It was around 10 by the time everyone was done and we got back to the bus. By 10:30, we were back in the hotel and went to pick up all our packages that we had sent to the resort over the days. Now came the fun part. It was the fit everything I bought into my suitcase game. In August, I am planning on 2 suitcases, but now I only brought an extra bag to use as a carryon so I could check my backpack. I actually got everything to fit, including my sneakers, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. We watched a little TV after we all finished and got ready for our last day. We all were asleep by 1 AM.
Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom, home
