So when I last left off, we were having a little relax in our room before heading to Epcot for the evening. Oooh, and look who was waiting for us in our room!!
So cool! We loved our little monkey! We called him Manny the Monkey and added him to our growing towel animal collection!!
At around 4.30, we headed out and caught the bus to Epcot. But bad news - I really had a bad stomach ache. Before that, it had felt a bit yucky and queazy - but it had now turned into a fully fledged stomach ache. Ick. I really wasn't in the mood for dinner - or anything really!! I really just felt like curling up under the covers in bed. But... we had another ADR to get to!! I was determined to use our Deluxe Dining credits!!
Epcot was probably our least favourite park when we went to Disney in 2006. It has some great rides (like Soarin' and Test Track), but it just seems so vast and kinda empty! And dare I say it... a little bit dull!! I just didn't feel the Epcot love in 2006. We really wanted to explore it more this time - especially World Showcase, which we only saw a teeny bit of last time. This night, we planned to eat at Chefs de France and go drinking around the World, before Illuminations!! But would my stomach handle it?! Aghhh!
When we arrived at Epcot, we stopped for the obligatory Photopass shots near Spaceship Earth...
See my Boo top?! I just have to show it off. I made it on Zazzle!! I was so proud of myself. Hehee. It's a website where you can choose your own image and writing on your top, then they print it and send it to you. I made two tops - this Boo shirt, and another one which I'm wearing in the next chapter! I just love Boo, from Monsters Inc. She's just so cute!! Conan and I watched Monsters Inc together not long after we started dating, and from then on, he's always called me "Boo". So I just had to make a Boo shirt!!
Cuddles!!!
We didn't get very far before I had to stop and take a photo of Conan...
And a close-up!
From there, we headed straight to the World Showcase. We were also heading to Epcot the next day for the whole day, so there was no mad rush to do all the rides that night. That night was to be our World Showcase exploration!!
So we wandered through Future World and headed towards Canada. Before we had left Australia, I'd printed out a big list of all the drinks we wanted to try in the World Showcase... and do you know what? My aching stomach didn't want me to have any!!
I'm not going to go into great detail here, because otherwise this whole chapter will go something like this. "We walked through Canada, and my stomach hurt and I had to sit down." and... "Then we walked through the UK and my stomach still hurt." Basically, just know that my stomach really ached with a horrible crampy, queazy feeling, and we didn't have any drinks at all!!
Seriously, it was all I could do to keep walking without having to sit down every 2 minutes. Booooo. Feeling terrible at Disney sucks!!!
After stumbling around WS for a while, we eventually headed to France for our ADR at Chefs de France! Here I am in France. Can you see my aching tummy? No. But you can see my Boo top!!! Hooray!
So Chefs de France was nice, but I don't think we'd go back again. There was nothing bad about it in particular, but there was nothing truly fantastic either - and there's just so many other restaurants in Epcot to try! The highlights of my meal though, were definitely the Onion soup with the 68 pounds of melted cheese on top....
And the fancy Mac & Cheese, with 72 more pounds of melted cheese!!
I know what you're all thinking. "Julie's such an idiot!!! She had a queazy stomach, and she ate 688 pounds of cheese!?!" What can I say!? I love cheese!!! And I had waited so long to try these two dishes... I couldn't order something else just because of my stinkin' sore tummy!!!
Of course, I regretted it later. Heh. If you were walking around World Showcase later that night and saw a strange girl in a Boo top holding her stomach, bending over and groaning, that was me. Yep. Not fun.
But I soldiered on!! We were in Disney World, by gosh!! And I wasn't about to be defeated by my stomach!! We still had lots of time before Illuminations started, but I knew I couldn't stomach any alcohol. Conan was full from dinner too and didn't feel like anything else either, so we skipped the drinks and went for a slow wander instead.
We wandered back the way we came, through the UK and Canada again, and headed across to Mexico. It seemed shorter than going all the way around the World Showcase! Our mission? The Gran Fiesta boat ride thingy!!!
There was a 10 minute wait for the ride - not too bad, really! The ride was fun, but kinda weird. I really can't remember much about it actually, and I think that's because I didn't really understand what was going on throughout the ride! Heh! Nevertheless, it was dark and I got to sit down for a while. That always good!!
Next up, we popped in next door to Norway, and rode Maelstrom! We waited about 20 minutes to ride this, but that was okay. We both quite like Maelstrom! It's fun and bizarre!
It was time then to find a spot for Illuminations. Places were filling up pretty quickly - but we found a great spot in front of the fence near Mexico. Yay! Nice and close to the park exit for afterwards, too. And so, we waited! Brrr, it was chilly that night! And you'll all be pleased to hear that I made a trip to the bathroom and afterwards, started to feel a bit better!! Yayyy!
Here we are, waiting for Illuminations to start...
It finally started with a bang! Kapow!
Illuminations is so pretty!! We saw it in 2006, but I really couldn't remember much about it for some reason. I was looking forward to seeing it again. And look, there's Australia!! See!?
Pretty fireworks!!
More pretty fireworks!!
I like this part. Doesn't it just remind you of sci-fi movies when the alien spaceship opens up and zaps out a huge lazer beam of light!? No? Maybe just me then....
And the finale!! So many bright fireworks that nobody can see anything apart from the smoke! Yayyyyyy!!!
Heheee, seriously, I really enjoyed Illuminations this time. The fireworks were amazing! I'm so glad we stayed to watch it!
We didn't hang around afterwards though - we joined the mad rush for the exit and waited in line for the WL bus. And waited. And waited. And waited. Oh dear! I think that was actually the longest we waited for a bus throughout our time at Disney - probably a 25 minute wait. Which is frustrating when all the other resort buses seem to be coming and going like flies!! Especially Pop Century buses - there seems to be more buses to Pop than any other resort, I'm sure of it!! Heh!!
Anyway, we eventually made it home to WL, and I finally got to curl up under the covers for a big sleep! Yay! On one hand, I was glad that we still got to do some rides, enjoy dinner, and see Illuminations, but on the other hand, I was disappointed that we didn't even get to have one drink around the World! Not even a Grey Goose Slushie in France!!
But oh well... there was always the next day! We were off to Epcot again the next day!! Yayyyy!! Would my tummy be better!? Would we get to have lots of drinks!? I'll tell you all about it the next chapter!!
I remember you too!! I'm glad you stumbled upon my trip report! Wow, 8 hours of reading - you must be so sick of me by now!! 
