Day Three - Epcot Day, Monday May 28th (Memorial Day)
We woke up and headed to the bus stop at 7:45. Didn't get on a bus until 8:15 though. The first bus that came through didn't have anything on his sign and he didn't know it. He stopped briefly and opened the door said "Epcot" quietly and when no one got up (by the time we registered what he said he was leaving) he took off. I actually jumped off the bench and banged on the side of his bus to get him to stop but he kept on driving. I know I looked lovely standing in the middle of the road waving my arms, but he wasn't going to stop. We had someone stand by the road from then on and ask where each bus was going. Apparently they were switching the way their buses are tracked and what sign they display to a more electrical format that allows their dispatch station to track each bus. We didn't find that out till the day before we left, so we had no idea what was going on.
So just a little teensy bit of frustration to start the day. Of course, it's Epcot Day so I can handle just a little bit of frustration. Right? Anyone?
Nicolas wanted to wear the Sorcerer's Hat that he got when he was three. That hat is six years old. I have to admit he has taken care of it. Anywhoo....
Now let me say from the outset that I LOVE Epcot. It is one of my favorite parks. I love the fountain that performs to the music. I love the jumping water in front of Honey, I Shrunk The Audience. I love the Land Pavilion. I Love the Aquarium. (This could go on for a while and I believe you get my point...) I really love Epcot.
By the time we caught the next bus and got to Epcot they were already letting people in the turnstiles to que in front of the fountain. I noticed that there were a LOT(!!!) of people. We had a pretty fun day at MGM with a minimal (for Disney) amount of people. There were a bunch of people at Epcot. We made the cattle drive to Soarin' when they opened the park with (what seemed like) everyone in the known universe. They make everyone go to the right when you enter The Land Pavilion. They don't allow you to go left unless you are in a wheelchair. I'm not sure I really understand that move, but anyway... we didn't actually get on the ride until 9:30. (BTW people - Most of the guides say go to Test Track and Mission Space first before attempting to get a FP for Soarin'. For the love of God people LISTEN TO THEM!!! Do not attempt to ride Soarin' first thing in the morning. It is worse than heading for Space Mountain at MK first thing in the morning! Don't do it!)
Soarin'
We jumped across the park after riding where Angie and Nicolas rode Mission Space. Most of the time I ride with them but after the bus and the cattle call and long wait for Soarin' (where once again we were in the third row, we hadn't made it to row one yet), I needed a little bit of a break. So while they rode I got FPs for Test Track and I headed over to Mouse Gears to check out the stuff. I watched the Jamitors perform...
These guys are great!
....and met up with the family. We ran back over and rode Living With the Land and waited for our ADRs for Garden Grille.
We let Nicolas do the Kidcot station there beside the Garden Grille, but we had to shoo some parents off the seats for the kids before he could get to the table. Honestly people! We waited about 5 minutes to be paged for our seat and went in to eat. I love the food at the Garden Grille and generally I love the service, but during this particular trip the service was sub par. He brought our drinks and then brought our food, but then we didn't see him for about 30 minutes. We could have used drink re-fills and a food re-fill but when we saw him again he grabbed our plates and brought desert - no refills on food or drinks for us.
Just a teensy bit more frustration added on (can you see where this is going?)
I went down and grabbed FPs for Soarin' while Angie paid and we headed over to Test Track to make our FP time. Nicolas had broken his fanny pack so we stopped at Mouse Gears to get him a new bag. Angie got a hat and Nic bought a passport for the World. We headed over to Nemo for a ride. The line moves quick because it is a continuous motion ride, but the que for this ride is THREE ROOMS LONG!!!!. You heard me right. The que started and outside and everytime you came into a room you thought you would see the ride, but all you see is more rooms. It was crazy. The ride is good (once you get to it), but that is one crazy que. The ride is a little out of sequence (time frame wise) with the movie (which annoys me a little), but we still enjoyed it. We jumped over to Turtle Talk with Crush where Nicolas' question, "Do Sea Turtles Make Good Pets", got some good eyebrow action from Crush along with the return question, "What is a pet, dude?" Very Funny stuff. I love that technology! Those kids really feel like they are part of a movie or meeting a great movie star. So it is really wonderful. We were headed to Figment when I spotted this.....
Ouch! Epcot is big people. Really, really big. Lot's of walking!
...as we were in line for Figment (which we had NEVER waited for before) we realized, duh, today is Memorial Day, thus all the people. We jumped over after that and tried to ride Ellen's Energy Ride. We had stopped to get some frozen smoothies from a cart and were sitting outside the pavilion drinking them because you can't have them inside when a guy came out and said, "Last Call". We were literally 30 feet away when he came out and said that. We got up and threw our drinks away (half drank) in the trash can ON THE WAY to the door and the man literally but up the barricade in our face. He wouldn't let us in. Now as you have probably seen this day hasn't been going as planned. Little things are starting to add up and somebody (we won't mention any names) is getting aggrevated............okay, it's me. I don't get aggrevated often, but when I do it is usually pretty bad. We went to Innoventions where I could sit and pout for a bit and Nicolas could build and race a robot ( I wish I hadn't been pouting now because I could have beaten the large (is that PC) man that beat all 12 of those children).
Don't know what he is doing with his hand, but he is about to race.
We had seen this Hidden Mickey at Test Track....
Do you see it? Yeah, it's pretty easy!
And Nicolas had gotten his picture with Pluto at Garden Grille....
Now Pluto is pretty special because he was the first "live" character that Nicolas had ever seen the first time we came to WDW. He loved it so much he made us buy him a Pluto Hat that he still enjoys wearing. So any picture with Pluto is special!
I was trying to enjoy my day, but wasn't succeding and it was making it hard for Angie and Nicolas to enjoy their day. We went to Spaceship Earth (ah, the soothing voice of Jeremy Irons) and then headed to the World.
Nicolas was ready to do his passport. We headed for Mexico first. We rode the updated ride there and thought it was okay. I'm glad they kept the fireworks! Those are pretty cool. We went to Norway next where I picked up FPs for Maelstrom. Then China and then America and finally Japan before we had to stop and make our FP time for Soarin'. All the way back around the world to make the ride. We went so far as to ask this time to be in row one and the CM was very nice and said, "This is Disney, all you have to do is ask" (good answer) and it was Row One all the way for us. Yes, it is SO much better than the other rows. It is higher and no feet in your view. I loved it! And then back to Norway for our FP return for Maelstrom.
My camera decided to die midway through the world so the only picture I got from the world was this one....
Nicolas with Mulan and Mushu.
My camera decided to die so we had to use Photopass pictures to get Nicolas with Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore and also Alice in Wonderland (who was a meanie!!)
We let Nicolas finish up his passport. We also taught him to say hello and goodbye in all the languages we could (we didn't know the Norweigan for hello or goodbye) so he really had fun walking up to the passport tables and speaking to them in their language and most of them seemed to enjoy it to! We got to England and their Kidcot station is set up right where some characters do signings. It was a little crowded because Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore were in the other room. Alice was standing in the same room that we were but Nicolas didn't want her autograph at first because he was focused on the passport. The woman at the England kidcot station was really trying to do it right and talk to each child and make sure each child received what they needed, but there were a lot of people waiting. Alice came off her stage to talk to the kids, but was only focused on this one little girl from England. When the other kids would try to approach her to talk to her or get her autograph she acted like it was putting her out. She took the one little girl from England to the front of the Kidcot line and to get pictures with Pooh and company. We had finished at the kidcot and were in line for Pooh when the CM said we would be the last picture of the day (it was almost 9:00pm). Alice brought her new friend over and put her in line right in front of us and the CM almost wouldn't let us in to get the picture. Now remember about all the build up of these little things and you can imagine how this struck me. After talking to the CM (I was as nice as I was going to be) the CM agreed that Nicolas should have his picture taken with Pooh and crew, but it was close. I wasn't opposed to Alice focusing on that child, I just don't think she should have done it at the expense of the other children. That is NOT fair!
We safely got the autograph and finished up with Canada and the completion of the Passport and headed for the exit. We were one of the first at the bus stop but it was nearly 30 minutes by the time the bus arrived. When it did there were two people in wheelchairs who had to be seated. The buses are set with a hydraulic system to lower the bus to help the handicaped and after he loaded them and some of us waiting in line he couldn't get the bus into gear. He hadn't set the hydraulics back to full balance. I told my wife when I got on that I didn't think he had set it right (I used to work on buses). After the second or third time I heard him rev the engine trying to take off (the brakes automatically lock when your hydraulics are still engaged) I told my wife I should go up and tell him the problem. I hate to do that though, because most of the time they won't listen and they act like you just called them an idiot even if you are trying to help. After another 15 minutes, he finally figured out his problem and got us rolling. No pool tonight just straight to bed!
It was the Flower and Garden Show while we were there and Epcot was truly beautiful. Here is an example of some of the topiary on display.
Overall, I've had better days at Epcot. The crowds were INSANE!! Some of the CMs seemed unhelpful and overall I was just frustrated. I was happy that Nicolas was able to do the passport. He had wanted to for several years, but we let him try out the Kidcot masks first to make sure he would do the stations and take care of it when he returned home. He had done well with that so this year we let him do the whole thing. He LOVED it. So that was good. We knew we were going to have to come back later in the week to get the bad taste out of our mouths though. I've had worse holidays at WDW. We went there right at Christmas for seven days one year and the crowds were ten times worse. The difference was we expected it at Christmas, we had totally forgotten about Memorial day so it caught us a little off guard.
Stay tuned....................Disney Quest coming up!
Thanks for reading.
And what is w/ the lady in the corner of the second picture w/ the pointy gold shoes?
I think some people get dressed in the dark. Great update. I love the Star Wars picture and he does look about 16. Not necessarily a good thing. 
Keep it coming.
I am glad Nicholas enjoyed his passport and got his picture made after all. 
Fairness is such a big deal, especially when it affects your kids. 
