Day 2, morning (Monday, December 28, 2009)
As it turns out, during holiday weeks, Disney opens all of their parks at 8:00am, and morning EMH start at 7:00am! I learned this after MIL asked for a plan for each day of our week, and I subscribed to TGM for the first time. Because it WAS the busiest week of the year, I decided to follow TGM’s advice for least-crowded park and touring plans. Today’s park was…… EPCOT! This was the only day all week that both morning and afternoon were “green” on TGM’s calendar, and I definitely wanted to spend a full day here – it’s one of our favorite parks.
We told the family to meet at the bus stop at 7:00, and warned them they would be left behind if they weren’t there when the bus showed up (I don’t think they believed us, but I meant it!). DH & I got to the bus stop a few minutes before 7, and my parents were already out there waiting, but MIL & BIL were nowhere in sight. DH went to check on them, and came back saying they should be right behind him. I can’t remember how long we waited for them, but they were there just before the bus, so no one was left behind! Twitter tells me we were on the bus to EPCOT @ 7:09, so we must not have waited too long for them.
We were first in line at our turnstile, waiting for the park to open. I’d read on TGM that they usually open the turnstiles ~15-20 minutes early, then hold the crowd at a rope, either near Spaceship: Earth or up by the fountains. For whatever reason, this did not hold true at EPCOT, and we weren’t allowed through the turnstiles until exactly 8:00.
I took some pictures while we were waiting:
Once inside the park, I took everyone’s tickets and headed to Soarin’. DH & I had decided I would be the FP runner since his sense of direction is less than stellar, and I move faster than him, LOL.
On the way, I saw my favorite mouse...
He followed behind with the group, and got to help navigate my mom (in the
ECV) through the rush to Soarin’. I made it quickly to the Land Pavilion, and retrieved our first FP’s of the trip…
I debated riding in the standby line by myself – it was still walk-on – but decided against it as I thought the group would be right behind me. Instead, I grabbed a table at Sunshine Seasons to wait on them. And wait. And wait some more. It must have taken them 15 minutes to get to the Land Pavilion. I found out later it was because MIL was stopping to take pictures of everything. Regrouped, “we” decided it was time for breakfast, so we spent about 30 minutes at Sunshine Seasons. When we finished eating, we walked on to Livin’ with the Land.
Soon, it was time to soar over California. We headed through the FP line, and after a short wait, were called to board. We had a lovely trip, although trying to get the ECV out of the theater after the ride was a pain, since they start boarding the next group before the existing group is out – and people rudely kept stepping right in front of the ECV so we couldn’t go anywhere.
Unfortunately, this would be a problem for the rest of the trip as well.
At this point, it was about 9:30, so we decided to try to make it to the first Turtle Talk with Crush. I sent DH with the group, and ran to get FPs to Test Track. When I made it to The Seas, we had a bit of trouble reconnecting, as none of our cell phones worked in the aquarium.
Finally, I found them, and soon we were taken through the exit (b/c of the ECV) to wait on the 3rd showing of Turtle Talk. We waited about 15 minutes, and this very well may have been my longest wait of the week. We were the first ones in to the Turtle Talk theater, and ended up with front-row seats. We really enjoyed ourselves, and I even got to talk to Crush! He asked the crowd who could swim, and I was the only adult who raised my hand, LOL. MIL got this picture while I was chatting with everyone’s favorite turtle!
After Turtle Talk, my dad decided he needed to rest, and headed back to SSR. The rest of us headed to Innoventions. DH & BIL decided to do the new, virtual roller coaster, which had a 30 minute wait posted.
I didn’t want to wait that long, so the moms and I said we would meet the boys at Test Track and headed out. My mom decided she needed to eat again – it was around 11:00 at this point – and she thought the burgers at Electric Umbrella smelled good. I offered to get her a burger, so she & MIL went in to MouseGears while I waited for the food. MIL wasn’t hungry yet, and I decided to get a turkey sub. The wait for food was short, and soon I was sitting outside Electric Umbrella waiting on the moms to return. I was nearly done with my sub when they made it out of MouseGears, purchase-free. Mom ate her burger (she was NOT happy about the bun?), and MIL decided this would be a good time to gripe at me about DH’s weight.
She knows better than to mention it to him, but she went on for a good 20 minutes to me about how much weight he’s gained and how I need to do something about it. For the sake of vacation harmony, I just ignored her, but man…
Right as we finished eating, DH called from Test Track wanting to know where we were. I told him, and he & BIL headed back towards us… we had a visit to Club Cool to make! Of course, no visit to Club Cool is complete without subjecting people to the Beverly… so allow me to present…
Mom trying Beverly: (sorry it's a bit blurry, camera settings weren't quite right)
MIL trying Beverly:
We weren’t able to persuade BIL to try it, since he saw MIL’s reaction.
I’m not sure if we went to ride Test Track before or after our stop at Club Cool – I think we did Test Track first. We ended up missing the pre-show because the ECV has to load from the door closest to the line, and it was just emptying out, so the CM sent us straight through. We enjoyed it, although my mom screamed the whole time, LOL. She’s not a thrill-ride person.
After Club Cool, we headed to the World Showcase – my absolute favorite part of EPCOT. I was really looking forward to the holiday decorations, and finally getting to experience some of the things I always miss, like the performers in each country. And it was only 1:00pm, so there was plenty of time… right?!?!
Around this time, my mom decided to go wander through the shops of Morocco, and she came back with a KidCot mask
with my name written in Arabic! 
