Day 2 -- EPCOT! Sun, 11/16/09
Okay! Time to hit the parks!!! We aren't hoppers, figure there's enough to see/do at each park, and we spend the whole day. When I was figuring out which park/which day, I had a couple things to take into account. First was Fantasmic!, which is a must-see for all of us, and when I was planning there were only 2 showings of it (of course they ended up adding a few more during our week, but the plans were already in motion at that point!). I also scheduled around the Boma menu for later in the week, and the day we would attend
MVMCP. So taking all that into account, Epcot turned out to be our first park day.
Epcot didn't really do it for me and Lily on our first trip (although we both loved Soarin'), but we had a really good time there in Feb on our 2nd trip, so we were gung ho and hoping to catch some magic this day!!! Turned out to be a super-fabulous, best-EPCOT day ever!
After our late-ish night, I was taking it easy on everyone and decided we could forego rope drop at Epcot. My big goal was to just make sure we got fast passes for Soarin' with a decent return time so we would have plenty of time in the afternoon to see the World Showcase. So we decided to shoot for 9:15am to be at the bus stop.
Success!!! We were all at the bus stop and ready to go at 9:06am!!!
Lily sporting her bday button!
Our first park bus!!
I'll take this chance to say that we had outstanding luck with Disney transportation on this trip! We never once stopped at Riverside to pick up anyone, and I honestly don't think we waited more than 10 minutes for a bus the whole time, either coming or going from the parks. We did stand up one time, but every other time was a timely bus with plenty of seats. SCORE!!!!
I timed our trip from POFQ to Epcot -- it was a 7 minute bus ride. So we probably arrived at Epcot by 9:30am at the latest.
On our first trip in 2007, we didn't get to ride Spaceship Earth because it was closed for refurb. That was the only trip my poor DH has gone on with us, and he had always wanted to go in the Geosphere. He still complains about not getting to try it. Next time, if he ever goes back! On our 2nd trip, we whizzed past it in our quest for Soarin' fast passes, then we never got back over there. Now on this 3rd trip I was determined we were going on it!!!! So the FPs would have to wait. We're getting on it first thing. Jumped in line and walked on!
I really enjoyed it, and Lily love, love, LOVED it!!! I rode with my mom, and here's our pic at the end...
I had seen people's future pics before, but I think it was a big surprise for my mom at the end and we were cracking up.
Okay, so now I had one and only thing on my mind -- get to Soarin' and get those FPs!!!!!!! We flew over in that direction, and Janie did say, "I hope we can slow down a little and enjoy this!" I assured her I was just being neurotic about the FP situation, and that this would be our only hurrying of the day!
Imagine my surprise when we get over there and there was a 15 minute wait posted!!!!! WooHOOOO!!! We decided to just ride standby! We whizzed past all the interactive games on our way in, and I was thinking, this is AMAZING! I've never gotten on there that quick, even with fast passes!
On our way through the empty queue, Billy started having a panic attack and said, "I can't do this!" He had ridden it in 2007, but was scared to death the whole time in line, even though some of us had already ridden and assured him it was nice, slow, and relaxing. He must have a thing with heights or something. So he bailed out and waited for us.
Here's a pic of shame...
The only other issue was that Lily did NOT want front row. She's quite the ride chicken, and somehow it helps if people's feet are dangling in front of her.

I was secretly hoping for front row! But we agreed we'd take whichever spot they gave us, and I was a little relieved for her that we ended up in the 3rd row -- plenty of dangling feet for my little one!!!
The ride, as usual, was a total blast. I love the smells! And I always feel like I can kick the people boating in the river.
Well, that's my super-quick update for this morning, gotta go get ready for work. But stay tuned, because this really was one heck of an EPCOT day!!!!