I just went back and re-read my last entry and I have to say that I must agree with my good friend Angie that I certainly didn't have a tone that truly expressed my anger with that whole luggage situation......but hey, it's been a month and it's kinda like childbirth- you forget how bad it is until you go through it again!
Anyways, onto
Monday - or Epcot Part 2
We finally get to bed around 12:30 or so and we are completely exhausted so needless to say, we don't just pop right up the next morning. As usual, DBFF and DH2 are at the park gate before opening waiting on the slow family to get there. I call and tell her to go ahead and do TT and MS without us and that we're on our way.
We get there to find that the early bird family has been picked to OPEN THE FREAKIN' PARK that day! I was happy

yet angry

all at the same time. If we could only get our butts in gear.......
Well, while they're busy using their free pass to go straight to the front of the line, do not stop, do not pass go, do not get $200, we have to stop and get Grumpy (DS8) breakfast. You see, as the vacation has gone on, it's gone from bad to worse. So we just decide to take it easy and go with it. I send DH over to get FP for Soarin' (better known as the greatest ride at Epcot) and I let the kids eat.
We all go and ride the boat ride at the Land. Yeah, I know, it's kinda slow, but we were just there to relax and enjoy the day with friends. And besides, I had to pay my respects to the place that grows the best darn lettuce in the whole world - ya gotta love a good salad with that amazing Ranch dressing. Yummy!
We all then proceed to Journey into your Imagination. Have I mentioned that we love this ride??? I still don't understand why there is never a line for this? Do people not realize that it's there????? We all sing along like we do and enjoy a nice A/C ride.
At the end of this ride, we had already decided that we wanted to get a picture of all of us taken. It's kind of a tradition for both of our families and a first group pic together. We each send e-mails home to the unlucky folks that aren't there with us and then we meet to pick out our backdrop.
Now first let me say, that there aren't a whole lot of choices that you can fit 7 people into so that made it a little easier, and then we also eliminated the backgrounds that we had each previously done. That left an obvious choice: The Epcot Ball.
We find the CM in charge of writing your choice on a little piece of paper and we tell her which one we want. She happens to be in a wheel chair and we all are very respectful of her but we notice that she is kind of acting weird. DBFF had purchased something earlier with this same CM and she had trouble giving her the correct change back, so we just assumed that there are other issues here. So okay, no problem, we're cool. We are in line waiting for the photographer and this other non-English speaking family just jumps right in front of us - without the ever-important piece of paper. Well, we're too nice to say anything (at least we are this early in the day) and we just stand there in amazement as this lady and her kid jump in front of us. The photographer even acknowledges us and smiles apologetically. But then it gets good....the CM in the wheelchair comes barreling over and just about mows everybody down. Now we are shocked

by this but recover quick enough to get a good laugh in on the side because she nearly ran the poor people over. It really was funny.
After they get that resolved, the photographer has to take the pic like 3 times because they aren't satisfied. Our niceness is being pushed to its' limit.
FINALLY, we get to get up there and take our picture. Their family first, then mine. We re-take 1 time, we're easy to please, but in the middle of our time, suddenly Hot Rod comes driving up real crazy like again. We're not sure why. It is a funny memory - just thought I'd share. And as an afterthought, lest anyone think that I have a problem with a person with disabilities......I don't. If you could have been there, you would have thought it was funny, too.
By this time, it's time for the DBFF and co. to go and eat at the Garden Grill with their PS they had made. That's totally cool, because we are gonna go back to DS11's favorite place to eat - the Electric Umbrella. Yeah, I'm laughing as I'm typing it. It's a sad representation for the youth of today.
We meet back up with DBFF......
We then decide to pop next door to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.

We get stopped in the line right before they would have let us in, but hey, again, it's got A/C and it's like 100 degrees in the shade outside so we sit and wait. DBFF is so impressed with the Garden Grill that I call WDW Dine and make a PS for later that night. And they still had plenty of options. I was surprised. When they let you in to HISTA, they show you the promo video for Kodak (I think). Wow, it's a real tear jerker. Either that or I'm just a bigger sap than I thought. But seriously, I choked back a tear or two. They FINALLY let us into the theatre. Now the last time any of our kids saw this was at least a couple of years ago, so they don't remember everything....but I do! I forewarn DS8 about the cat and the snake. He remembered the mice. But DBFF's son screamed like a little girl! It was hysterical!

Afterwards, I was on a mission.......we had to meet Figment. I had promised the kids the other day that we would get a pic and we missed the meeting times by running all over the world - literally. So this was it, our last chance. We go into the meeting place and nothing. Nothing. I couldn't believe it. It was listed on the times guide, but nothing. We went outside to wait on the gang and we sat and played in the jumping fountains. We were just about to leave and a CM appeared and said that Figment was now greeting!!!! YAY!!!

We got the perfect picture! WOO HOO!
We all then head to Spaceship Earth. DBFF and I ride together. It's almost like we are there without kids, without husbands......ahhhhhhhhh, my happy place. It's probably close to 2pm now and we have decided to go our separate ways. We are going to take the kids swimming back at the hotel. That's all they really want to do and this is our 2nd day at Epcot so we can be back in time for Illuminations and our PS, no problem. But first we are going to stop in at Guest Relations so that I can ask about making my passes no expiration........
And that my friends is where I have to leave you for now. But you better keep with me, because the next installment will teach you something you probably don't know about the park passes. I know I didn't................
