Our WDW adventures and Magical Happy Halloween Cruise: DAY 14 completed 01/10: pg 10

[jns]

Sarah count to 10

 

[Verity Chambers]

Sarah I think you are going to need a holiday after all this !!!!

 

[TotallyAngelic]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ...........

Good morning everyone! As you can see I am taking Jackie's advice - but I need to count to 100, or even 1000 before I start to feel calm, and even then it is a remarkably transient sensation.

Yesterday's progress

I managed to almost finish DD's pirate skirt last evening - just got to put on some finishing touches and we're done with the skirts. I also cut out DS's pirate shirt fabric. We also went shopping and I finally managed to pick up some FE gifts for the older girls in my group!

I have sort of worked out a plan for the next few days (although whether I stick to it remains to be seen!)

Plan for today:

completely finish skirts
start sewing pirate shirt for DS
finish fish extenders
print out some stuff (for door magnets and FE gifts) now my colour ink has finally showed up.
start packing
shopping for shoes!

Plan for tomorrow

continue packing
finish pirate shirt
alterations to whatever still needs altering
shopping for whatever is still needed (including stuff for hospital visit)
print off documentation
photocopy passports etc

Plan for Thursday

hospital for cystoscopy at 07:30
rest of the day depends on how I am after the sedation
hopefully finish packing and whatever still to finish

Friday:

finish packing and other things if not finished yesterday
clean house
pack for overnight in hotel and in flight
pick up kids from school at 15:30
leave for airport hotel between 16:00 and 17:00
arrive at hotel and attempt to chill!


and thats it - I really don't like looking at all of this down on paper as it seems more than a little bit daunting - but at least I have something to refer to when I hit a state of panic! (and an excuse to pop on the DIS to check my list)

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Yesterday I set myself a "to do" list which I wanted, well actually desperately needed, to accomplish if I was to have any remote chance of actually being ready to leave on schedule on Friday....

Plan for today:

completely finish skirts
start sewing pirate shirt for DS
finish fish extenders
print out some stuff (for door magnets and FE gifts) now my colour ink has finally showed up.
start packing
shopping for shoes!

Plan for tomorrow

continue packing
finish pirate shirt
alterations to whatever still needs altering
shopping for whatever is still needed (including stuff for hospital visit)
print off documentation
photocopy passports etc

After a very busy day yesterday I am pleased to say that I acheived everything on my list apart from the "shopping for shoes" .......we decided that we will do this on the way to the airport hotel on Friday as we actually pass by the shopping mall. Otherwise it is a 3/4 hour trip to get there, and time is a precious commodity at the moment.

Managed to do quite a bit of the packing - but halfway through loading up the cases I realised that no way would we fit all our clothes, costumes, formal and semi formal wear, FE gifts etc etc into just 2 large cases. So another item on today's list - is pick up another large case! I don't think I have ever had SO MUCH STUFF to pack! I just don't get it ....it's 2 weeks for goodness sake - not 2 months! And I am even planning to do a quick of essentials before we board the Disney Magic.

So this morning I am off shopping to try and get as much as I can of the outstanding stuff, plus a few things for my hospital trip tomorrow. Then back home to finish the pirate shirt and whatever sewing jobs need finishing off - and finally (and hopefully) finish the packing and then have an early night in preparation for tomorrow's little ordeal .

 

[Cyrano]

Getting excited now

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Hi everyone!

Just a very quick post just to say hi, we arrived back in the UK at 08:10 and arrived home at about 11:30 this morning.

What can I say! We had an amazing time in WDW and our first Disney Cruise was magical! It certainly lived up to all our expectations - which were exceedingly high having lived on the DIS boards for the past year! I didn't find it at all relaxing though - maybe just rushing around trying to do too much didn't help! Lots of things I didn't get to do at all really!

The highlight of our cruise was having wonderful friends to share it with - massive thanks to Helen, Andy, Rachel and Bethany for making our cruise and our last day in Orlando so special! It was wonderful to meet so many lovely DIS friends too -although there are so many of you I sadly didn't get to meet.

So once I get my self sorted I will try and finish the last few installments of my pre-trip report, which were sadly interrupted by my unanticipated hospital encounter, and then I will try and get started on the trip report for real!

One thing I know for sure is - I WANT TO GO BACK ON THE MAGIC!

 

[Claire L]

Welcome home Glad you had such a great time, can't wait to hear more.

Claire

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Before I commence what I know will turn into a task of epic proportions, ie. writing my trip report, I feel it is only right to maintain continuity by first of all completing my pre-trip report.

So please press your rewind buttons folks .........

D-Day minus 1 was a day I had long anticipated, as this would be the day that I would be packed and ready to go, everything perfectly organised to the nth degree, leaving me with nothing to do on D-Day but relax and enjoy the ride, arriving at the airport hotel without a care in the world, ready to relax in the spa and the sauna, and enjoy a pleasant evening meal out with my family at the start of our magical vacation.

Somebody pinch me, for I am surely dreaming!

Before I proceed with this sorry tale, advance warning to those with delicate constitutions - the next chapter includes references to bodily fluids and you may want to avert your eyes......

So, needless to say, it was not part of the plan to spend the day on a hospital ward, with a trip to theatre, a cystoscopy, a great deal of pain, 3 hours sleeping off the sedation, and to top it all off an episode of vomiting in my poor mother's car on the way home. Sorry Mum - but let's be forever thankful for that strategically placed plastic carrier bag! Unfortunately my best laid plans had been unpleasantly interrupted by a spanner in the health works - well, actually forget the spanner, there was a whole tool box at work here! The results of the cystoscopy showed that I had congestion in my bladder - a bit of a worry as I had a mental image of heavy traffic, but the consultant thought it likely to be caused by a urinary tract infection and prescribed me a course of yet more antibiotics.

While I am grateful for the sedation I was given which has thankfully wiped out all memories of the investigative experience, and even more thankfully the positions involved, it was not conducive to spending an evening finishing off costumes and packing cases, and in the end I gave it all up as a very bad job and went to bed early.

So D-Day arrived and it was not looking good - I was in a lot of pain following the cystoscopy, and still had so much to do. At this point I honestly felt like crying and just forgetting about the holiday - it was that bad ! But after analgesia and a lot of pulling myself together, I decided to get on with it.

I packed what I could and then realised that we had packing issues yet to be resolved - my mother and my sister had both been unable to locate their suit bags, and just as we we off on a shopping trip to purchase one, some friends rang is up and said that they had one we could borrow. So we then popped around to our friends house to pick up the bag and then we managed to complete the packing ( or so we thought) . At this point I was also still altering a few things such as pirate tops and in the end just threw in a lot of my FE gifts unfinished, with the plan that I could complete the finishing touches on the ship, when hopefully I would be feeling a lot better. The plan to pop to the shops on the way to the airport hotel also flew out of the window as we were running so late, and the back up plan there was to shop for up my formal and semi-formal shoes out in Orlando, as no doubt there would be a much wider choice out there (or not, as it turned out!)

We picked the kids up from school at 3:30, and returned home for them to get changed, and then my Mum popped over to say goodbye. At this point I was trying to print out my door magnets and cover them with clear film, and also trying to print out my cruise documents, but the DCL website was refusing to recognise my reservation numbers, so I just gave that up as a bad job and decided to use the DCL forms which had arrived in the mail. Then my stepkids and their mother turned up to see why we hadn't left for the airport already, and by then I was gradually losing touch with my sanity.

This was so not the departure day I had looked forward to for so long, and I felt really stressed and harrassed through most of it. To top everything off, I then dropped one of the heavy suitcases onto my big toe as we were weighing them and the toenail bent right back and then there was blood everywhere (sorry - more bodily fluids), and my toe decided to try and outdo my bladder pain by throbbing really badly. We ended up with 2 overweight cases, so then had to distribute the weight into some of the lighter bags, and if someone had said to me, at that precise moment, that I could go to bed, and that they would go on the trip instead of me, I can honestly say that I would have said yes go ahead, because I was beyond the end of my tether with it all.

Finally, about 2 hours later than planned, we loaded up all the bags into the car and set off for the airport for the twilight check in. This actually went without a hitch, the BMI check in desk was really quiet and we got rid of all the bags and checked in, which meant we could turn up the following day with our boarding cards already in our psossession, and avoid any more hassles, and hopefully enjoy a relaxing breakfast, if there is such a thing as a relaxing breakfast in an airport.

We said goodbye to Stephen and Louise's mother and then I drove all of us to the Holiday Inn where we checked in and went to our rooms to freshen up, before heading out to our traditional pre-holiday dinner at the Romper restaurant. The meal was very pleasant and I actually felt semi-relaxed for the first time in a few weeks. We didn't have time to utilise the hotel's pool or spa facilities unfortunately, and after the meal we just returned to the hotel and went to get an early night. Alarms were set for the following day, and for the first time I was actually looking forward to tomorrow.........

 

[jjk]

Welcome Back Sarah, Oh my goodness what a day you had before youre trip,hope the pain got better and you had a magical time

 

[natalielongstaff]

Welcome back, can't wait to hear more about your trip

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Before I embark upon my trip report I just want to say that as this was a holiday at both WDW and our first cruise on the Disney Magic, that I will be including both destinations in this trip report. I also hasten to add that I am by no means a quick trip report writer - sorry, so for those of you who are along for the whole journey - fasten your seatbelts and prepare for take-off. You will get to know my family along the way, as I will be throwing in lots of photographs, and hopefully the whole thing will be a pleasant and enjoyable experience.

So here goes..........

It would be nice to say that I woke up on the morning of departure feeling rested, relaxed and raring to go - once again this was not to be part of the plan. This was basically down to the fact that DH and I had to share a room with DS Daniel, as the Holiday Inn basically didn't have 4 bedded rooms, only 3 bedded rooms, of which we had booked two. Daniel had drawn the short straw and was sharing with his parents, although that short straw was definitely aimed at me! Daniel was so restless, he was up and down to the toiket about fifty times, moving about in the bed all the time, moaning that it was uncomfortable. At one point I swapped beds with him, and then after another hour he wanted to swap back. The TV had a digital clock and I saw it say 02:05am, 02:30am, 03:00am, 03:30am, 04:15am, 04:30am and then I must have finally fallen asleep as I next saw 05:45am. At which point I gave up trying to sleep as the alarm was set for 06:30am. Next time we will stay at home, get up early and travel to the airport the morning we fly - the idea of a relaxing pre-flight night in an airport hotel is a myth as far as I am concerned!

So the alarm woke everyone else up at 06:30am, and we showered and got ready to leave. I sorted out the overnight bag and took it to the car, put the car in secure parking, paid the bill of £140 for the 2 rooms and the car parking, and then we caught the shuttle bus to the airport at 08:00am. Here are the kids looking wide awake, bright eyed and raring to go on the shuttle bus:

We arrived at the airport about 10 minutes later and decided to head straight through security. This was painless and quick, although Daniel ended up getting searched, after the security had asked Tony for permission first. First stop was breakfast, so Tony grabbed the full English, Stephen a cajun wrap, Louise and Taryn chocolate muffins and Daniel and I had Danish. With coffees and juice this gave us no change from £30 - ouch! We struggled to find a table as it was really busy around the breakfast bar, but mainly because there were a lot of tables crammed with uncleared trays and used plates and rubbish, and many people were resorting to taking the used stuff off the tables and just piling them up in corners on the floor. It was incredibly messy and not typical of Manchester airport, but obviously there were staffing issues, as I never saw anyone clearing the tables while we were there.

After breakfast we wandered about, browsing in Boots and WH Smiths, and the kids bought magazines for the flight. After that we just waited at the Gate, and I took a few photographs:

This is what I was going to be trusting our lives with for the next 8 hours:

waiting patiently at the gate:

Eventually it was time to board, and this was a very efficient process for once. On the way onto the aircraft we were given bottles of water and free magazines, which was a nice touch. We were also given more bottles of water during the flight. The flight was uneventful, thankfully, as I am always relieved to get off. I missed the meal as I was in the bathroom, but when I saw what Tony had on his tray I wasn't too bothered. No worries - I had bottled water and chewy peardrops and that was enough to ensure my survival!

The aircraft (an airbus something-or-other) had seatback TV, and apparently Nintendo and other games, but the games bit wasn't working in our row, much to Daniel's disappointment, and he had to make do with the movies, TV and his own DS. I did mention it to the flight attendent, but he said we should be grateful that the movies bit was working as some passengers didn't even have that working - so it was like it or lump it! The flight attendents didn't really seem to be enjoying their job that day, as they were all very moody and disinterested (we have since heard that BMI are stopping their long haul service from Manchester in January and maybe they were a bit preoccupied and worried about their future)

Here are the kids enjoying the flight:

I watched a film called "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging" which was actually quite entertaining, and then I listened to Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks on my MP3, as I find this particularly relaxing. I didn't manage to get any sleep, and before long it was time to land at Chicago.

We disembarked the aircraft and then went to pick up our baggage, clear customs and loaded them back into another check in area. We had a long line for immigration, and they asked lots of questions about our jobs, where we were staying, when we were leaving the USA - and then they did the finger scan and the photograph. We then had to find our way to another terminal, via a airport transport system, and we eventually founf ourselves in the correct place for our flight to Orlando. At this point the kids, most of whom hadn't eaten any aircraft food, were hungry so we invaded the nearest food counter to our gate which sadly happened to be McDonalds - and our first meal in USA. T think I just had a cinnamon bun and an iced coffee.

This passed the time until our next flight was called, and we boarded the aircraft - the airline was "TED" which seemed to be a budget airline along the lines of Easyjet. There were free soft drinks and water but all food was charged and there wasn't anything inspiring on offer so I was glad we had gone for the McDonalds in the airport. This was a 2 and a half hour flight, and we were all split up, but the girls managed to sit together and I sat with Daniel, while Tony and Stephen managed to cope on their own! I tried to sleep, but couldn't, and before long we were landing in Orlando, and although I was totally shattered and aching and very sore in the bladder dept I felt that euphoria immediately wash over me as we touched down in Orlando - it felt like I was coming home!

It was great to land in Orlando and have no immigration, but we were once again to be thwarted by the dreaded Car Rental. I left Tony and the kids to wait for the baggage, while I headed off in search for Budget Rental. Last time in Orlando we had major problems with Dollar, so this time I had opted for Budget, When I arrived at the Car rental area - guess what - no line at the Dollar desk, massive line at Budget! Looks like the whole of the flying population had switched alleigance! So once again a long wait in the line, and Tony and the kids arrived with thankfully all of the baggage, always a moment of relief when it all arrives safely. About half an hour later we made it to the desk, and surprise surprise there were no 7 seaters available and we would have to wait - had I just gone back in time 3 years ....this was the exact same problem we had with Dollar in 2005 - talk about deja vu. This brings me to a question: exactly what is the point in booking your car in advance - when they never have the category of car you ordered waiting patiently for you to arrive - surely it's not rocket science in these days of advanced communications technology to co-ordinate reserved cars with arriving passengers. Obviously it is rocket science, or something equally mentally challenging.

Suddenly the car rental guy had a solution - he said he had an SUV, which would seat all of us and would even have a lot more room for the baggage than a 7 seater - so he sent us off to get the keys for this SUV. But when we arrived at the vehicle it only had 5 seats - spot the deliberate mistake - 6 passengers and only 5 seats - it just wasn't going to happen, so back we went to the little booth in the parking area and told the assistant - who was more than a little bit miffed that her colleague had basically fobbed us off to get his line down and must have known that the SUV had only 5 seats.

At this point she gave us the keys and bay number for another vehicle, which she said would have enough seats, and off we went to find it. But the bay number she gave us had a vehicle along the lines of a small coach sitting in it - must have seated about 10-12 people, and no way could I drive THAT. I went back to the booth and once again queried it, and she realised she had given me the wrong bay number, so a new bay number was allocated and I set off on my way once more. Finally, we came upon a white seven seater Dodge, and after we managed to get the luggage into the boot of the car, and the kids settled in the seats, I jumped in the front and we were ready to head off into the night. Only one problem - the layout was very different to my 2005 vehicle and it took me about 10 minutes to figure out where everything was. It was very strange having the gear shift up on the dashboard somewhere. Eventually we were out of the parking lot and we somehow managed to get on the right road to Lake Buena Vista, using some downloaded dierctions given to us by Cypress Point Resort. The roads were quiet as it was by now 11pm US time. It was about 30 minutes to our resort - Cypress Pointe resort just off Apopka-Vineland Road, and we found it no problem.

We parked up and checked in, and went to find our apartment. It was really lovely and spacious, on the ground floor. It consisted of a two bedroomed apartment and a studio apartment which had an adjoining door. The only off-putting feature in the studio was that the bathroom and the toilet was open plan off the bedroom ( no door to the toilet ) which meant you had to get everyone out of the bedroom if you needed to use the loo! It also had a big kitchen with all appliances, a dining area and a sitting room with sofas and an enormous TV. This is the studio part of the apartment where Tony and I lived:

Once we arrived in the appartment Tony and I headed over to the resort shop and picked up some bottled water and then we all decided to go to bed, ready for an early start tomorrow for The Animal Kingdom, and our first ever ride on Expedition Everest!

 

[Verity Chambers]

I'm in! Great start Sarah, really can't wait to hear more! xx

 

[Tammy Stringer]

Great start to your report Sarah - but what a nightmare time you had before you got there.

Can't wait to read more

Tammy

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Isn't waking up in Orlando a wonderful feeling - I woke up first, but not at the usual incredibly early hour I usually wake up at on the first morning, it was actually a very respectable 07:30am. I showered and pottered about until 08:00am, when I heard the girls were up, and then we proceeded to be sufficiently noisy and disruptive to wake up Tony and the lads. Hey guys - we were in Orlando, and the theme parks were calling.......

We made it to Animal Kingdom by 09:05am, parked in Unicorn and it was fairly quiet. I love early mornings in the parks, that amazing feeling when you just walk through the gates and everywhere looks clean and uncluttered, and there aren't too many people crowding around and spoiling the views. Our immediate mission was to ride Expedition Everest - for the first time ever. Last time we had been here, in 2005, it had looked like this:

and now it looked like this:

Now thats what I call landscape gardening! I have to say that I was more than a little apprehensive, as I always am when faced with a new ride experience, but decided to take the bull, or in this case the yeti, by the horns and go for it, rather than let everyone else ride it and then give me a full account of every twist, turn and effect before riding it myself. I loved the whole theming of this area, and the waiting area was really atmospheric - here are the intrepid explorers waiting to board the train:

The wait time was actually 15 minutes, but it passed very quickly, and before long we were boarding the train. The ride was amazing, I loved the backwards bit and the very steep drop in the dark, although to be honest most of the ride was in the dark for me because I actually had my eyes shut for most of it .....sorry!

We arrived back at the station after escaping unscathed from our encounter with the yeti, and our immediate thought was -"get fastpasses", so 6 fastpasses were acquired, and a few photos taken to give the proper recognition to this momentous occasion of our first Expedition to Everest:

It is probably true to say that Tony's immediate thought was actually "get food" at this precise moment (or come to think of it - at any moment), but he was overruled by the majority and we headed to get some fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safari for later. On the way we met the amazing De-Vine, and of course had to take a photograph.

We then decided to have some breakfast, and it was really lovely sitting outside at some tables, feeling the warmth of the sun,

while enjoying some really nice coffees and some iced coffees for the kids, with various breakfast items such as muffins, doughnuts and I had this rather enormous cinnamon bun which was divine:

After breakfast we headed back to see Mr Yeti, and I am very proud to say I completed the whole ride without closing my eyes once, and it was once again an amazing experience - sort of a more extreme Big Thunder Mountain. This time, Taryn decided to sit it out, as she doesn't really enjoy steep drops since she was unfortunately and irreversibly traumatised as a young child when her evil parents took her on Journey to Atlantis. She now tends to do new rides once and if there is any hint of a steep drop involved, then it ends up being once only. If the drop is visible, such as on Splash Mountain, then it is a no-go zone from the outset!

We then headed for the more relaxing and peaceful environment of the African plains, and the Kilimanjaro Safari, although in the waiting line our peace and tranquillity was interrupted by one very rude and obnoxious man, who was complaining loudly to every cast member and guest within earshot, about how disgusted he was that he had to wait 40 minutes when the wait time was showing 30 minutes, and he also demanded to know why people with fastpasses were getting put through ahead of him and his family ......"hello, Mr Obnoxious, doesn't the word “fastpass” sort of give it away!" I was convinced that he was actually an escaped Safari exhibit, but Tony assured me that the animals we would encounter on the ride would be far more appealing and much more photogenic, although I did see a hippo which bore a distinct resemblance, so maybe I was right after all.

We got to see quite a few animals, which is a good thing as that is what a safari is all about, but most of them appeared to be camera shy - I am sure they must have known which side I was sitting on with the camcorder, as they had all whizzed over to the other side before we got there. Taryn, who was sitting on the other side of the vehicle, managed to snap this rather nice photo of a giraffe.

All went well on the safari, although we had to take a brief unscheduled detour to sort out some poachers. I was a bit worried that they actually allowed poachers into a Disney park, but obviously some unsavoury types must get through the turnstiles occasionally.

After the safari we headed over to Dinoland to ride one of my favourites: Primeval Whirl. To our disappointment it was all boarded off and looked like it was being dismantled. There was a big crane hovering overhead, and parts of the structure appeared missing. This was a big disappointment, as this area now resembles nothing more than a glorified amusement park, and really could do with some updating.

We then wandered over to the Tree of Life,

at which point I was dragged onto It’s Tough to be a Bug, definitely NOT one of my favourites. In fact the last, and only, time I had watched this show I had spent most of the time on DH’s knee. Here is a photo of some honorary bugs wearing their bug eyes.

I hasten to add that this was the only time I wore my bug eyes, once inside that theatre they were well and truly off, no creepie crawlies were coming out of that screen to get me! After examining the seat and surrounding area for any potential nasty surprises, I spent the show perched on the edge of the seat with my legs up in the air in a position most contortionists would be proud of, and it was relief when it was all over.

To allow me to recover from the trauma, we decided to go and see Finding Nemo - the Musical and this was really really good. The performers were excellent and I enjoyed every minute. It was really colourful and cleverly done - and to me represents what Disney entertainment is all about! After the show the lads wanted to go on Kali River Rapids, and as the weather was warm and pleasant I decided that I might as well join them - we all ended up a little bit wet around the edges but poor Danny and Stephen got the worst of it: guess who was facing backwards on the drop!

To dry out a bit we decided it was time for lunch, and headed for the Flame Tree Barbeque, where we all had barbeque chicken - no surprises there then. No one really likes the bbq beans which accompany this meal except Tony, which ultimately results in him trying to eat all 6 pots of beans, at which point I really started to worry about the consequences of this and started to really like the sound of that sofa bed in our living area!

Tony, however, remained ignorant of my thoughts and carried on eating:

I really liked the Halloween cups, so I took a photo of them:

We had a lovely meal sitting on the decking area just up from the restaurant, although we were heavily harassed by scrounging ducks and other large birds. There was a sign asking us not to feed the birds, and we tried our best not to, but it was very hard not to feel guilty when there were staring at you with their little beady eyes.

It was by now time for the Jungle Jammin Parade, which I have never seen before, so I was immediately out their with my camcorder. This parade was really good, because I had my hands full with the camcorder, I have no photos - sorry. We then had a moochy around the shop and bought some pins. I was amazed at the amount of Halloween pins on offer - in Disneyland Paris you tend to get one or two, and here the choice was endless. I managed to restrict myself to one Halloween 2008 pin and one Pirates of the Caribbean Limited Edition for my collection of POTC pins back home.
We also had the obligatory silly hat moment in the shop:

By now everyone was starting to feel a bit tired around the edges, so we decided to head for home. Here is everyone looking very tired after having a wild time:

At Cypress Pointe, the kids decided to revitalise themselves by going for a swim, while Tony and I just chilled out in the apartment. Later we headed our for dinner at the Orlando Ale House, about 10 minutes walk up the road. The food was really nice, but the restaurant was very loud, mainly because of all the screens showing baseball and football and the place was full of very enthusiastic and noisy sports fans. I discovered that Bud Light was actually very therapeutic for a sore bladder, and tasted much better than potassium citrate. Once we had eaten we headed back home and were all tucked up in bed by 10:30pm, our alarms set for tomorrow.

Join me again for the next installment - Epcot, and our very first ride on Soarin!

 

[Verity Chambers]

Another fantastic installment Sarah! Glad you enjoyed EE! Looking forward to hearing abouit your day at EPCOT. x

 

[natalielongstaff]

Im just catching up on your reports, they are great !

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Day 3 - Epcot!

I woke up at 7am and immediately rattled the sleeping kids' cages - after all, we were in Orlando, time was valuable, and this was not the time to be wasting it by sleeping in. After a great deal of poking, prodding and ultimately violent threatening we managed to be out of the apartment by 8am and on our way to Epcot. On the way we stopped at our local Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, where we grabbed a selection of donuts, muffins, coffees and soft drinks for a very reasonable $20. I can highly recommend the maple frosted donut - delicious! By 08:45 we were parking up in the Amaze parking lot at Epcot, and we walked straight in to the park. Once again it was fairly quiet in comparison to our previous trips. We went first to Test Track, and walked on with no wait – I love it when that happens! We really enjoyed it, and we were able to scan our photopass card for the ride photograph – the only ride we were able to do this on, which was a shame, as it's a really good idea. I forgot to mention that we had pre-purchased a photopass CD for this holiday, which we were sharing with our friends the Balster family, and so we spent a lot of time harrassing the poor photopass photographers around the various parks – we were also on a mission to get at least one photograph where Stephen – eldest DS - was actually smiling, and if any of my readers can spot one, well done!

After Test Track we headed for Mission Space, which is always a favourite, and being seasoned space travellers we headed straight for the intense training! This was great fun as always, and not really that extreme for us die-hards! We then spent some time in the space lab area attempting to send emails – and I must remember that next time I actually need to take a list of email addresses along with me ....the whole process takes a lot longer when you spend 15 minutes or so trying to remember everyone's email addresses, and it generally isn't appreciated by the other 5 million or so people waiting to use the terminals.

Time for a quick photo of the family enjoying Epcot:

It was now time to head over to the Land Pavilion for our very first ever ride on Soarin – but don't get excited just yet – there was a 40 minute wait and we all know what that means – FASTPASS!
So fastpasses duly acquired we decided to have a look at Living with the Land, which was interesting, informative and pleasantly relaxing. After all the extreme excitement and white knuckle thrills of Living with the Land, the kids decided they needed some more action and headed back to Test Track, while Tony and I decided to have a look at The Seas – with Nemo! This was very cute and while obviously aimed at the younger guests, it was very clever and I loved the bit where the animated fish were projected into the aquariums with the real fish. I would love to see something like “Crush's Coaster” from Disneyland Paris in this area, as having a more extreme ride in keeping with the Nemo theme would really be the icing on the cake! We then wandered around the aquariums and said hello to the dolphins, and this was a really relaxing way to spend half an hour. Looking back I didn't appear to take many photographs today, but I was obsessed with getting a decent shot of spacehip earth and the monorail, and these are 3 of them, although I must apologise for the angle on the third shot – my attempt to be “arty”:

Before long it was time to meet up with the kids at our designated meeting place “Club Cool” - previously known as “ Ice Station Cool”, and as the kids were nowhere to be seen, we decided to taste some of the weird and wonderful offerings, and the only one which was remotely pleasant was the watermelon based drink, which I think was from China. The rest of them were horrible! The kids then turned up and wanted to try the drinks,

while I wandered outside and for the first time ever noticed the fountain was doing a display to music. This was really impressive, and I can't believe I have never seen this before, in all of my trips to Epcot. Sometimes I must walk around with my eyes shut! It was now time for our fastpasses for Soarin, so we went back to the Land and got in line. We waited about 20 minutes, even with fastpasses, and the waiting area was particularly uninspiring, but once we got on the ride it was so worth the wait. It was amazing, and so relaxing and peaceful – I could have stayed on there all day. I thought this ride would have been even better if they had splashed water at you when you drop down into the sea where the people are surfing and again on the river. I felt as though my feet were going to get wet, and it would have enhanced the whole experience if they actually did.

By now a certain member of our party started to mention lunch, and there are no prizes for guessing who, so we decided to have a wander into the World Showcase and see if our tastebuds would be tempted by anything on offer in the Food and Wine Festival. We wandering slowly around, passing through Canada, and the UK, before stopping in France to watch the street entertainment. This was really amazing, especially as there were about 3 more chairs which you can't see on the photo:

In Japan we managed to see the sweet-maker in action, and once again this was really impressive. I have always wanted to wander slowly around World Showcase, taking in all the entertainment along the way, but for some reason the kids and Tony always seem to want to hurry, especially when on a mission to find food. As we weren't tempted by any of the Food and Wine stalls, it was no surprise that we ended up eating at the Liberty Inn in USA, as always! It was fairly quiet in this area, and it was quite relaxing sitting outside enjoying our meal, watching the world (literally) go by! After lunch I persuaded everyone to watch American Adventure, which is something we had never seen before – it was very cleverly presented, and although obviously a sugar-coated version of American
history, it was interesting and I suppose qualified as an educational experience, which helped to relieve the guilt I was feeling for taking the kids out of school for a few days.

We wandered, or rather whizzed around the rest of the World Showcase and back into FutureWorld, where we wandered around Innoventions and went to Spaceship Earth. I enjoyed the new ending, as I love anything interactive, but nearly came to blows with DH as we were fighting over who was controlling the buttons to determine our future. We then sent some emails home again, although these never actually made it across cyberspace, probably due to incorrect email addresses being entered. It was now getting on for 5pm and everyone was feeling a bit the worse for tiredness, so we decided to head on home, stopping for a photopass photograph or two on the way out.

We were hoping to visit Walmart on the way home, but I had no idea where the nearest one was in this locality, so we popped back to Cypress Pointe and asked at the reception. Needless to say it was back in the direction we had come from, but easy to find and about 15 minutes drive away. We spent about 2 hours in Walmart, most of which was spent trying to find each other, as the shop was so enormous and so disorganised. We bought lots of stuff, including some very additive-laded halloween cookies with bright, almost illuminous orange cream in them, and I managed to find a pair of coffee coloured sandals which matched my cruise semi-formal dress perfectly, and at less than $10 – result! There were also some black sandals which would have been adequate for my formal dress, but I decided to wait until we had been to the Premium Outlets, as I was holding out for something a little more dressy.

After sending out several search parties and one St Bernard rescue dog, complete with brandy, we eventually reunited our party and headed home, stopping off briefly at the Disney outlet at Buena Vista Factory Outlets on the search for discounted pins, but our mission was unsuccessful – not a pin in sight! We finally arrived home at about 8pm, but were far too tired to go our for dinner. We were definitely lacking on the stamina front. The kids and DH decided to go for a swim on the pool and then bought pizza from the resort shop, while I headed straight for my bed and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Tomorrow – we are off to Hollywood!

 

[natalielongstaff]

Great day, love the pics

 

[Verity Chambers]

A perfect day!! I would have loved to be wandering round the world with you! EPCOT is my favourite park, which is yours Sarah?

 

[TotallyAngelic]

A perfect day!! I would have loved to be wandering round the world with you! EPCOT is my favourite park, which is yours Sarah?

Absolutely Magic Kingdom - without a doubt!