Epcot opens at 9am 6/30. We get to the T&TC and discover hoards of people boarding MK monorail & we are the only ones walking up the Epcot ramp. Hurray for us! We ask to ride in front and our driver is originally from Honolulu. At Epcot we are still amazed that crowds are not heavy. We do every country and 11 yr. old Alissa is thrilled at hunting pressed penny machines in every country. Note to Disney: Put a place in the passports to store the pressed pennies from the countries - this is fun for kids. Got my picture taken w/ a moving statue in Italy. It was funny and free. When I was in Rome they expected you to drop Euros in their baskets if you wanted a photo w/ them 
Had a tangerine daquiri in Morocco - yummy. Saw the American Adventure show (not sure if that's what it's called??) and am impressed at how much it is. I always thought it was just Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. Another note to Disney: Put more women in it. They only had Rosie the Riveter and Susan B. Anthony - women have contributed a great deal more to the heritage of our country. Rode Malstrom w/ a 7 minute wait and am convinced Disney is hiding the people somewhere - for goodness sakes where is everybody? The line at The Land said 25 minutes wait, but we were through it in about 15. Really liked that attraction. There wasn't even a line to get my picture taken w/ Pooh & Tigger in UK.
Decided we'd like to try dinner at Le Cellier in Canada even though we don't have PS. We called from a guest services booth & couldn't get PS but I told my sister to ask about walk-ups knowing that they save some tables for those. They said we had a real good shot that night. It turned out the wait was less than 10 minutes at the height of the dining hour. Very good dinner. I had ginger maple salmon, my sister had a mushroom filet mignon and my brother-in-law had a non-mushroom filet (he doesn't like mushrooms). 11 year old Alissa had the kid's steak and pronounced it good. She is fading fast and barely makes it through dinner. For dessert my sister & I split the maple creme brulee (delicious!) and my brother-in-law had the chocolate cake. We rolled out of the restaurant fully full. Alissa perks up a little and insists we go on to MK for Spectromagic. I told my sister if we flat out tell her no we will have a youth rebellion on our hands - so we give it a shot.
Now we know where the crowds are!!!! MK is packed. I'm thinking the 9pm parade will draw off the crowds from back in the park. Big wrong! We ride the Travel Authority. Carousel of Progress is closed for the night - disappointed me! Fight our way back to Haunted Mansion (I'm getting claustrophobic from the people on the sidewalks). HM is great at night - the cast members are more in spooky character. I scream at the exit when a gruesome cm startles me from around a corner. It must have been a zoo at that park that day. I'm so glad we had done our big riding there the day before. The upshot is I finally get to see Tinkerbell fly over the castle. Corny as it sounds there are tears in my eyes. I always missed that event before. Even w/ all the crowds it was the one defining moment of magic for me at MK when I actually believed again in all the magic. We snag great seats for the parade right in front of the barbershop. We like this spot at the very front of the parade and no one is there now b/c it's out of the line of vision of the fireworks. Beautiful parade and we collapse in bed very tired.
Had a tangerine daquiri in Morocco - yummy. Saw the American Adventure show (not sure if that's what it's called??) and am impressed at how much it is. I always thought it was just Ben Franklin and Mark Twain. Another note to Disney: Put more women in it. They only had Rosie the Riveter and Susan B. Anthony - women have contributed a great deal more to the heritage of our country. Rode Malstrom w/ a 7 minute wait and am convinced Disney is hiding the people somewhere - for goodness sakes where is everybody? The line at The Land said 25 minutes wait, but we were through it in about 15. Really liked that attraction. There wasn't even a line to get my picture taken w/ Pooh & Tigger in UK.Decided we'd like to try dinner at Le Cellier in Canada even though we don't have PS. We called from a guest services booth & couldn't get PS but I told my sister to ask about walk-ups knowing that they save some tables for those. They said we had a real good shot that night. It turned out the wait was less than 10 minutes at the height of the dining hour. Very good dinner. I had ginger maple salmon, my sister had a mushroom filet mignon and my brother-in-law had a non-mushroom filet (he doesn't like mushrooms). 11 year old Alissa had the kid's steak and pronounced it good. She is fading fast and barely makes it through dinner. For dessert my sister & I split the maple creme brulee (delicious!) and my brother-in-law had the chocolate cake. We rolled out of the restaurant fully full. Alissa perks up a little and insists we go on to MK for Spectromagic. I told my sister if we flat out tell her no we will have a youth rebellion on our hands - so we give it a shot.
Now we know where the crowds are!!!! MK is packed. I'm thinking the 9pm parade will draw off the crowds from back in the park. Big wrong! We ride the Travel Authority. Carousel of Progress is closed for the night - disappointed me! Fight our way back to Haunted Mansion (I'm getting claustrophobic from the people on the sidewalks). HM is great at night - the cast members are more in spooky character. I scream at the exit when a gruesome cm startles me from around a corner. It must have been a zoo at that park that day. I'm so glad we had done our big riding there the day before. The upshot is I finally get to see Tinkerbell fly over the castle. Corny as it sounds there are tears in my eyes. I always missed that event before. Even w/ all the crowds it was the one defining moment of magic for me at MK when I actually believed again in all the magic. We snag great seats for the parade right in front of the barbershop. We like this spot at the very front of the parade and no one is there now b/c it's out of the line of vision of the fireworks. Beautiful parade and we collapse in bed very tired.
