updated 3/18/14
after breakfast at akershus, we made a mad dash to meet anna & elsa.
i was told that it was going to be a 3 hour wait. say whaaaaaaaaaaat?!
i stood there a bit stunned & then i was shocked that i decided to wait in line. a 3 hour line. this was total insanity.
i really lucked out that we were standing in line with people that were also feeling my pain. the wait went by pretty quickly as we took turns waiting...i got a couple of beers, we had a potty break and emme took a nap.
hooray for beer!
but before the nap, emme was having a good time.
at about the 2.5 hour mark, a very nervous cast member started to tell us that we might only meet one princess...that one princess being anna. i have nothing against anna...i love her character in the movie, but when i stood in line, the sign said anna & elsa. my daughter was dressed up as elsa. almost everyone in line wanted to see elsa. but after 2.5 hours of waiting in line, we might only get to meet one princess.
i could fee myself becoming pretty angry. the dads in line were enraged. but the cast member pulled out the "characters are subject to change" clause and that was the end of that.
i was planning my next approach. what the heck would i tell my soon to be 4 year old that elsa was no longer there? they even removed her from the sign and anna's name was staring back at me.
the family behind us was the last of the 2:30 line. they had a paper that said 2:30 on it. as we were approaching the door, they let us know that we would be the last group to see both anna & elsa.
THANK YOU JESUS! as i didn't want to be the mom having an epic meltdown at guest services.
after waiting 3 hours, i laughed when the photopass guy tried to rush me. i looked at him and said, "sir, i just waited 3 hours so my daughter could have this moment".
i then took about 5 minutes (five WHOLE minutes) shooting pictures while emme was having her moments with anna & elsa.
anna was AWESOME. elsa was totally not feeling it (to my dismay).
emme sharing her elsa wand with elsa.
oh look...emme's not looking at the camera (shocker!)
after the meet & greet, i felt this huge sense of accomplisment. then, i felt like a complete idiot for wasting 3 hours of my time for a 5 minute meet & greet. then after that, i quickly felt like a super hero as emme could not stop talking about meeting anna & elsa as she happily skipped along next to me. it was totally worth it....so much so, that we waited 4 hours last week.
i can't wait for this meet & greet to be moved to princess fairytale hall with the luxury of fast passes. there is a disney god somewhere.
on the positive, the plus of the line at epcot is that there is easy access to the important things: booze & food. it makes it tolerable...way tolerable.
we then continued our walk through world showcase:
we sampled:
and i sampled:
Stella Artois
so i stopped at guest services to fix my magic band problem (which they didn't fix but messed up some more), i decided to stop by the stroller rental place to see if they could put some air in my left tire. he let me know that the pump was in the back and that he would be right back.
when he rolled my jogging stroller back (it's a $499 jogging stroller), i could tell that the wheel was totally over inflated. i asked him to stop but he kept coming. as he walked, there was a loud BOOM! sound which had people ducking. this was the sound of my rim blowing off the tire.
he continues to walk towards me and a second BOOM! happens. this would be the sound of a hole in my tire.
evidence:
i couldn't believe my luck...i never get pixie dust while at disney. the manager comes out and offers me a plastic stroller. those things are terrible. i couldn't put emme in that plus we had 2 more days left on our trip.
he then offers me a very small umbrella stroller. he said, "it's a 59.95 stroller" to which i replied, "that's the inflated disney price for that umbrella stroller". but the umbrella stroller was my best bet as i had no other options as my jogging stroller was completely useless now.
after getting the stroller comped, i was then left dragging my jogging stroller, a whiney emme, gift bags and an umbrella stroller to my car in the epcot parking lot. i was so grumpy and unhappy and just needed a few minutes to regroup in my car.
afterwards, we had dinner at AOA. we ordered:
Butter Chicken
AOA is one of my favorite places to eat. i really love the butter chicken. it's not like the butter chicken at my favorite indian place in town but it is a tasty dinner....and so cheap especially with a TIW card.
my mood was uplifted and then we made our way to the contemporary as we had a pirate cruise to attend! ARGH!
up next,
PIRATES & PAL FIREWORKS VOYAGE!!