Stitch wakes me up at 6:00a.m. I can hear all of your groans from here. I am an early
riser so this is no big deal to me. After my shower and primping I go to the front desk to recheck in for the second leg of this three legged trip. That is when I worked with Phyllis. I ran into the food court to purchase breakfast and went back to my room to review the dining plan brochure. I did not use it for breakfast because I wanted to study it first. My kids are light eaters and one adult breakfast fed the entire group. I went back to the room and woke up the boys. I dressed my daughter and put her in her stroller. My daughter is a very heavy sleeper and we usually dress her, put her in the car and go in the park before she ever wakes up.
It was quite a deep sleep. We dressed her, moved her to the car, put her in her car seat, drove to the park, got her out of her car seat, put her in her stroller and got into the entrance line without her ever waking up!
One tip that I can share is that when you take your own car to the parks, take a digital photo of your parking spot. You do not have to try and remember where you parked and unless you lose your camera you are safe.
Another photo that you need to take is one of the number on your Photo Pass. Should you lose it, they can retrieve it from the number on the back of it. I saw three different families that had lost their card and were therefore unable to retrieve any of the photos that had been taken during the trip.
Epcot has never been my favorite park and I used to be happy skipping it all together but as my kids get older they enjoy the educational rides much more and they have made some invaluable additions to the park in the last few years. We had a schedule to follow and we entered and headed immediately to the right. While waiting for the real opening, we checked out some of the incredible features of the Garden Festival. My favorite two were Lady and the Tramp and the rotating Cinderella dancing with Prince Charming.
As soon as they lowered the ropes we soared of to the Land. We walked right to the front of the line, woke up Rachel and got onto Soarin. Now 6 may seem early to wake up on your vacation but walking on to a ride that will build up to a forty minute wait during the time you ride is well worth it. It was Memorial Day weekend and the crowd was arriving.
We left Soarin and headed to Test Track and Mission Space. I was afraid my dd4 would not love Test track but it turned out to be one of the rides she wanted to ride most. She is anything if inconsistent. Test Track was not one of her favorites on the previous trip but Tower of Terror was. Now she was still vowing to never get in that elevator again, but she wanted to ride the fast car over and over. So, of course we did! We rode four times because there still was not much of a wait. I took this picture of Drew with the fancy car at the exit. he is getting so grown up!
We then realized that we had forgotten to go see Crush after we had ridden Soarin. We had two more days at Epcot so we would see Crush another day. Next on the list was Mission Space. My dd4 was still too short so we sent some of those crazy free postcards to everyone we know while the guys rode. We even sent one to my boss to say thank you for the time off.
The guys opted to ride on the green side because they wanted to see what it was like. They got off and reported that it was much milder. So much so they felt cheated! We were holding fastpasses to Soarin so we headed there next. On the way we went and checked out the wait for Crush. We were crushed to find an hour wait! So we opted to save that for another time. After Soarin we headed back to the hotel, because the kids had noticed a swimming pool that they couldnt wait to check out!
Now we raced into our swimwear not paying any attention to the fact that we had not even had lunch. We grabbed all of the towels out of the room and headed to the pool. We sunscreened up and dived in. It was time for another magical moment. There was a family that was leaving with a child about Rachels age. The mother gave Rachel a float that did a great job holding her up in the water. It was less restrictive than the vests but kept her up really well. I never leave her side while she is in the water so this gave her a lot of freedom to play.
After what I consider a long swim (the kids did not think it was long) we headed the few feet back to our room. That room was so conveniently located. It was just feet from the parking and feet from the pool. It was not on the side facing the pool so the noise was never a factor. I am a bit of an over protective mother and never let my kids out of my sight. Those kids needed food. They were all snuggled in watching cartoons and so I pondered leaving them in the room while I went to get lunch for everyone. I have two cell phones so I decided I could carry one and leave one with my son. He locked the safety bar and I headed off to get the food at warp speed.
I really like the food at Pop. It is quick service, the people are always nice and the food is good. I grabbed pizza for my middle child, a burger for my oldest, chicken strips for Rachel and a wrap for me. Of course you have to have a drink and dessert on the meal plan so four Mickey bars and four bottles of water. I put the food on a tray and the drinks in one bag and the bars in another. I headed back and was back to the room in about 10 minutes.
On the route back to the room I noticed a shirt and two socks just off the sidewalk by our room. I assumed someone dropped something and knocked on our door. No one answered. I felt a panic in my heart and knocked more loudly. Where are they? Finally my son came running to the door and said Mom, Rachel flooded the bathroom! What on earth. . .I ran to the scene of the crime to see my daughter standing in ankle deep water still in her swim suit with that float around her waist. When I asked what happened, she explained that she filled the bathtub all the way to the top so she could swim. When she jumped in with that float all the water went over the side on to the floor. After that happened she was did not have enough water to swim in so she filled the tub up some more! We had left all of our towels in the towel return at the pool. I had nothing to even begin cleaning this up with. I tried using one of the plastic cups to scoop the water up but that effort was fruitless.
The water was staying in the bathroom and not getting on the carpet. I took a second to reflect on the genius of the design. I guess someone figured that tub may become a pool one day and flood the floor. I called housekeeping and spoke with Bryan. I explained the seriousness of the situation. The fear I had that the water may eventually leak onto the carpet and what a mess that would be. He said that he would send someone over to clean it up.
I set the lunch up and the kids ate while we waited and waited and waited. After forty minutes two women knocked on the door holding three towels. Hmmm, I had envisioned a wet dry vac with a team of clean up crew. They took one look at the pond that had once been my bathroom and said they would be right back. They returned with a LOT more towels and had the mess cleaned up in minutes. With swimming both in the pool and in the tub behind us we needed theme park action.
That evening we headed to Magic Kingdom. I could not believe I had been in the World for more than twenty four hours and had yet to see that castle.
It was extra magic evening hours and we had reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern. We love that restaurant and we especially like being the last table seated. The characters came to the table in groups and even dance with the kids. We had an outstanding waiter that night and with full tummies we were ready to ride a few rides.
First Magic Kingdom ride would have to be a good one. We headed over to Frontierland and got in line for what my daughter calls the fast choo choo train. There was a short line for Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road and we got on very excited. Half way through I noticed my daughter did not have on her happy face. And as you can guess when we exited the ride she made another vow to never get on that train again. WHAT??? No train and no elevator. What happened to this Disney Diva in the past few months? Yes to really fast cars that treat you like a crash dummy but NO to choo choo trains and elevators? We walk over to Splash Mountain and I am dreading her refusal to ride in that log. She got on without question. Throughout the entire ride she dug her nails in my arm. Is this the big drop Mommy? No Rachel. Is this one it? No Rachel, it is just Slippin Falls. I advised hr to look out when she saw the buzzards and that seemed to satisfy her. My oldest son has memorized all of the secrets from the Disboard thread and pointed out the FSU and hidden Mickeys to the people behind him. The drop came and I was waiting to hear the vow of refusal to ride ever again. No refusal! Instead she was begging to do it again! Whew! So we rushed over to Country Bear Jamboree and then headed to the land of the future.
On the way to Tomorrowland we stopped for a spin on the teacups. Faster, faster they yelled as we all pulled on that wheel. When we thought we were at maximum speed, we leaned our heads backward so we could really feel the Disney dizzies!
Now, off to Tomorrowland. We walked on to Buzz Lightyear where I scored 693,000 points. That is quite a feat considering my daughter was in charge of the spinner. Two volcano eruptions and one adorable photo in the Zurg Jail
and we were off to Space Mountain expecting the wait to be too long. Now magic followed us throughout this entire trip. As we approached the line I noticed it seemed there was no one in it. The wait time sign read 5 minutes. I could not believe it. I asked the CM if that was right and he told us that it had been down and had just been repaired. In my excitement of the no line thing, I sent my two tall enough children rushing into the ride. Once they got outa sight Rachel and I went to the exit to wait. Now it dawned on me! The ride was broken!!! What was wrong with it??? I just sent my two kids rushing on to a fast moving, height reaching contraption that was newly repaired. I said I was the coolest mother in the fifth grade, not the smartest!
Okay in a few minutes their smiling faces came off the moving sidewalk. They were plumb giddy. I love that feeling you get when you exit that roller coaster. Even though I did not get to ride it this time, I shared my sons joy.
The last ride of the night was the Jungle Cruise. Due to refurbishment it would not be a pirate's life for me so I would not have been able to sleep without seeing the back side of water.
I have ridden this boat so many times that I have literally memorized all of it. I love riding it though. They were already boarding the boat when we arrived but we still took time to point out the tarantula that jumps at you and the sign for free kittens that is in shreds. The people behind us informed us that we needed to keep moving and I kind of giggled to myself. My oldest son got a little offended and I smugly reminded him that they probably did not have 14 days like we did. Hee hee. I think even at WDW you have to stop and notice the details. We had the best guide ever. Her name was Kathryn. She had the best timing and even though I knew the jokes she put such a spin on them that I was still cracking up.
We took our time getting to the front and stopped to window shop all of the beautiful dolls in the windows on Main Street. As we neared the front of Main Street, my oldest son said that he would like to visit the cinema soon to check out VMK. I offered to go now, but he said that he was tired and could wait until we came another day. Remember this because it is very significant later!
When we got to the hotel, my daughter was fast asleep but my sons asked if they could watch a little television. Power Rangers was on Toon Disney and Thats So Raven was on Disney. My sons hate Thats so Raven so even though they would die if their friends ever found out, they opted to watch Power Rangers. I went to sleep with Disney Dreams of over acting martial arts experts. This was day two and I will catch up with you the next time Stitch calls.
Great report, your writing is so full of enthusiasm it makes me excited for you,
to contend with! 
and the group therapy of the nightly chat 
do not lure me away, I will finish day three tonight!
