rgoble5972
Are we there yet?
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2001
- Messages
- 276
Day Two - Sunday 5/2/04
CAST
Robin/Me - 40; trip planner/recorded; 11th trip to WDW
Paula/Sister to Robin - 30; 5th trip to WDW
Theres no vomiting in space. Or, Honk If You Love Mouse Gears.
The Plan: Epcot; dinner at Le Cellier
I was up by 7:30 and Paula soon followed. We were ready to go by 9:00, choosing the very pleasant walk to Epcot via the International Gateway. You could already smell the flowers and plants from the Flower and Garden Festival before you even entered the park.
We walked through the very quiet World Showcase and took the rose path to Future World, stopping long enough to look at the Doggone Maze and the Lady and the Tramp topiary, complete with plate of spaghetti (which Paula said looked like maggotsYum!).
We cut through Mouse Gears (a recurring theme throughout the day) on our way to pick up Fast Passes for Test Track (TT), before heading to Mission: Space. As we were walking through the queue, we overheard a kid behind us trying to talk his mom into coming on the ride with him and his dad. You might be nauseous, but you wont throw up, was the best selling point he could come up with. I turned around and tried to reassure the mom. Theres no vomiting in space, I told her, which reminded us of Tom Hanks line in A League of Their Own where he says, Theres no crying in baseball!
We were quickly through the queue and into our briefing room to hear our instructions from our capcom Gary Sinese. Is it just me or do you stand up a little straighter when hes talking to you?
Paula was the Navigator and I was the Pilot for our flight. After our voyage to Mars, we stopped in the Advance Training Lab long enough to send some video email postcards to friends and family. Some of the postcards you can send are quite amusing and we know our friends are just *so* appreciative to hear from us at WDW while theyre busing slaving away at their mundane lives back home.
We still had about 10 minutes before our return time for Test Track so we went to the Fountainview Café for some breakfast (2 bagels and cream cheese, an apple juice and a diet coke for $8.58). We threw some leftover bagel to feed the birds (tuppence a bag) and then ducked in to Ice Station Cool (which was freezing this morning as it was cloudy and cool outside anyway) where we couldnt seem to talk anyone into trying the Beverly but consoled ourselves with doing a little shopping and having the package sent back to our resort.
After we emerged from Ice Station Cool, we went to TT via Mouse Gears. Paula decided that Disney must have called up Art of Noise (a bizarre 80s pre-techno trio for those of you too young or un-hip to remember) and asked them to write some garage-sounding kind of music for the queuing area of Test Track.
Our Fast Passes got us quickly inside the briefing room where we listened to Smug Bill (who seems to get more smug every time I hear him) set up our test run. Apparently Bill added a new blow dry styling feature to the outside loop because my hair looked much like Cousin It from the Adams Family by the time we finished our speed run.
After we smoothed out our hair as best we could we went *back* through Mouse Gears, only this time we stopped long enough to pick up some souvenirs for the folks back home. When I bring my nephew, Michael, with me I usually have to find some kind of small, inexpensive trinkets to take back to the 20-25 kids in his class as school. Since I didnt have to worry about that this trip, I decided to be a generous co-worker and bring back something to the people I work with hoping that they would quit boo-ing me every time I announced that I was taking another trip to WDW.
So, what do you buy for an office-full of boring accountants? Why, pencils, of course. But not just any old pencilmechanical Mickey Mouse ears pencils, to be exact. Actually, I had bought one of the mechanical pencils for myself on my last trip and had gotten several comments on it, so I decided that Id bring one back for everyone else. Im no dummy, however. I have a red one so I got blue for my co-workers. They can steal each others pencils all they want, but I can always tell which one is mine. Ha Ha.
After we exited Mouse Gears, we headed to Spaceship Earth (SE), but remembered that we wanted to send some email picture postcards from Innoventions, so we went there instead (stopping long enough to go *back* to Mouse GearsI told you that was the theme for today--because we wanted some Mickey Mouse ears to complete our picture). Postcard sent, we looked around in Innoventions for a few minutes, even taking the time to crawl through the Bug display (which obviously was intended for little kids, but that never stopped us before). Brushing the plastic matting from our knees after our crawl, we left Innoventions and continued our journey to Spaceship Earth.
There was a big crowd going into SE, so we went to the front of the park and looked at the Flower and Garden Festival topiaries instead. The one of Tinkerbelle was very cute and the one with the Fab Five having a picnic, oh, excuse me, MAGICAL GATHERING, was gigantic. Goofy was huge.
We went to the Living Seas next and looked at the new Finding Nemo display they had added since our last trip. Paula took my picture with Nemo, just to prove that we did indeed find him. She had a hard time getting it taken, however, because little Amanda, a small child who was climbing on the Nemo display, was not budging. Even when her parents called to her, she wasnt about to leave Nemo.
Inside the Living Seas we spent almost all of our time with the manatees like we usually do. They only have two manatees now, Lou and Bock. One of the CMs said that Mo had been moved to the Tampa Zoo about a month ago.
Bock, the youngest, was up to 560 pounds now (he had been 480 when we were here in September). Just so you know were not neglecting our education, Ill take this time to inform you that manatees live to be 50-60 years old and that the water in the tank is kept at around 68 degrees. Now isnt that what you want from a trip reportriveting trivia facts as well as amusing banter? No? Well, too bad because thats about as good as it gets.
After spending a long time upstairs taking pictures of the manatees from the top of their tank and watching them eat lettuce (Restaurant-grade romaine lettuce, if you must know. Sorry. Ill stop now.), we went downstairs to watch them swim. We finally just gave in and sat down on the floor next to the tank. At one point, we had everyone in there sitting on the floor with us. I asked Paula if she thought it was weird that Im proud when other visitors admire the manatees and she said that no, she felt the same way. Of course, youre thinking that that only proves that were *both* weird. Youre probably right.
After we tore ourselves away from the manatees (hey, we looked at some Rays and some Seahorses too), we stopped and got a coke then walked through new sculpture garden feature of the Flower and Garden Festival towards the entrance to World Showcase.
We admired the Fantasia topiaries and, as the Character Caravan had just pulled up, took advantage of the relatively short lines to visit with Friar Tuck, Chip and Dale, and Baloo and King Louie. While Paula was having her picture made with Baloo and King Louie, Baloo stole her hat and put it on himself, which made for a cute picture.
We pressed on to Mexico with the rather ambitious goal of learning more lyrics to everyones favorite annoying little song, El Rio Del Tiempo. My whole point is this: if youre going to be stuck with that song in your head for the better part of the rest of your life, you might as well know more of the lyrics than Hola mi amigos .la, la, la, la, la, la, which is about all we knew.
As usual there was no great line waiting to board the boats, so Paula and I had a boat to ourselves. We sat in the very first row of the boat which was great. You could put your legs up on the bow of the boat for a very comfortable ride, and didnt have to worry about any other passengers chatter interrupting your lyric listening. The music to the song begins when you enter the Its a Small Fiesta section of the ride (the room with the kids that escaped from Its a Small World), but the lyrics arent added until you get to the room with the mariachi band and the two couples straight out of the 1970s in the hot tub. Sadly, we only picked up a few more words to the song (at some point they seem to switch entirely to Spanish, which loses me every time), so we decided to ask if we could stay on again.
The funny thing was that a man and his son in the boat in front of us asked if they could stay on the ride again. The somewhat shocked CM (you know they dont hear that request very often) told him that was fine. Then, we get up to the unloading dock and ask if we can stay on again as well. I think you could have knocked the CM over with a feather. After a look of disbelief she said, Of course, and we were on our way again, still with a boat to ourselves.
It was way past lunch time by now and the food at San Angel smelled really good. We both wished some of the patrons would toss us a chip or two as we rode past. We picked up a few more words this time around and got off the ride vowing to come back later this trip and try again.
As we got off we noticed that there was actually a line of people waiting to get ona rush almost. Apparently the word had spread that the ride was so good people were asking for another go at the ride. Poor saps.
Snickering at the people waiting in line, we moved along to Norway for a ride on Maelstrom. We decided that what Norway needs is a catchy song like Mexico (and even Canada) has. Just think of the possibilities--why even I can rhyme fjord and Smorgasbord. Well, almost.
We hurried through the gift shops that we were dumped into after the ride, passing particularly quickly through the perfume peddling room, which makes me woozy if I linger there. Im sure the stuff probably smells good on one person at a time, but the clouds of stuff that fog up that tiny room like bug spray just smell like eau de whale blubber to me.
It was after 3:00 by the time we made it to China and we were more than ready for some lunch. We stopped at the Lotus Blossom Café for an order of egg rolls, some vegetable lo mein and two bottles of water ($13.29). After lunch we looked through the shops in China marveling at the Kung Fu Fist, a plastic fist attached to a plastic gun by a stretchy, extending thingy (technical descriptions are not really my forte). When you squeezed the trigger, the fist extended, with no great accuracy, to punch whatever happened to be in its way (in our instance, other shoppers who were much annoyed).
The other item of interest was foam nunchaku (or, as we say in Texas, numchucks)you know, the two sticks with a chain in between them, that no self-respecting ninja would be caught dead withoutexcept these were made of a spongy foam instead of the usually lethal metal. These seemed to be quite popular among the 5-to-8-year-old boy demographic. In fact, we saw several young boys beating their siblings about the head and shoulders with these things with remarkably little or no permanent scarring or brain damage at all. Brilliant.
After China we moved along through the Outpost and into Germany where we did a little shopping at the Christmas Shop (how have I missed this store in the past?) and the toy store. Paula remarked that everything smells like vinegar in Germany.
As we advanced into Italy, Paula remarked that I should get ready for swarthy men to throw themselves at me. Sadly, there was no throwing of swarthy men at me in Italy or Morocco as I have experienced in the past. I must be losing my touch, or maybe its the unappealing way the humidity, combined with the Test Track styling salon, has made my hair frizz. Italy smelled greatly of chocolate, which was a much better scent than vinegar.
We caught the tale end of the Fife and Drum Corp in America. Paula said she didnt feel like crying, so we skipped the American Adventure for now and just looked through the gift shop.
In Japan we looked at the Bonsai trees by the Koi pond. We were particularly impressed by the--I swear Im not making this up--Florida Strangler Fig. We browsed through the new Tin Toy Stories exhibit and through the gift shops with me looking for something to take home to Michael. Paula had been looking for a miniature Zen rock garden for her husband, but there were none to be found. Paulas poor blister-ridden feet were hurting so she finally gave up and waited outside while I finished up.
In Morocco we looked through the shops and had some fun trying on hats. Genie, from Aladdin, came out and just wandered about for a while, creating chaos and mass confusion. I think he ditched his handler in the photo area and struck out on his own for some fun. Genie gave me a thumbs up for the hat I was trying on (does he count as swarthy?) before moving on his way.
After Morocco, we took a break at the Ultimate Backyards exhibit, which had a great porch swing in the tropical gardens section. There was also a nice play area with the ever-popular Rubbermaid shavings to walk around on.
We made it to France at 6:00, just in time to watch Impressions de France. This is one of my favorite films at Epcot, more so because of the music than the scenery, although thats not too shabby either. It makes me mostly just want to close my eyes, listen to the music, and enjoy the dark theater.
For the Flower and Garden Festival there was a new perfume garden, which was very interesting, out back by the quay. They had the flowers and plants that Guerlain uses to make some of its most familiar fragrances (Shalimar, Samsara, etc.) and placards for each fragrance that listed the main scented ingredients. You could lift a small flap on each placard and smell the finished product and see if you could pick out any of the individual scents.
We crossed over the bridge into the UK and looked through some of the shops there. At the back of the Toy Soldier we had a quick visit with Pooh and Eeyore. A small boy standing in line to see the characters remarked, Eeyore always looks so sad Mommy, which caused everyone in line to smile.
Off Kilter was playing as we passed through Canada, so we stopped to listen to the last couple of songs in their set. The lead singer seemed to be in a particularly good mood as he was wearing Furry Mickey Mouse ears as he jumped off the stage and danced around.
We moved on to Canada next where we watched, not surprisingly, O Canada. This was the first time I had ever seen the film and I must say, this song is just about as persistent as that darn Mexico song, if only slightly less annoying. They were playing the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as we left the theater, which is enough to depress even the most cheerful of folk. Play some Rush for crying out loud or some Bryan Adams or something remotely cheerful please. Were begging you.
It was 7:30 by now so we went to Le Cellier for our 7:40 priority seating time. They were turning people without priority seatings away at the door. We had a short wait and were seated right at 7:40. While Paula visited the ladies room I struck up a conversation with a lady at the table next to us. She said her family had just finished up a Disney Cruise and she thought the steak at Le Cellier was better than what she had at Palios.
I had the maple-glazed salmon with corn custard and grilled portabella mushrooms, while Paula ordered the herb-crusted prime ribrare. I raised my eyebrows about that, Im a medium girl myself, but Paula insisted that she liked her meat rare. When our food arrived, rare didnt even begin to describe her prime ribit looked like a mafia hit. I swear she hit a bleeder once as she was trying to cut it. She said it was good but we got really tickled as she ate it. I reminded her of the fact that, by the time they are age 40, the average adult has five pounds of undigested red meat in their intestines. After this meal, I imagine hers has doubled. Dinner was around $50Paula bought my meal (isnt she sweet), so I dont remember the exact amount.
We finished eating at 8:45 and were going to wait and watch Illuminations but it was beginning to rain and neither one of us felt like being as wet as we were last night so we decided to catch it later. I havent seen the fireworks from anywhere besides an Illuminations Cruise in so long I wouldnt even know where to find a spot to watch it anyway. (Ugh. That sounded very elitist, didnt it? Well I didnt mean to offend you, dear reader, but rather meant to emphasize the fact that Ive grown too *lazy* to watch Illuminations from on shore, rather than the fact that I dont wish to mix about among the commoners.)
The heavy rain came right as we got to the International Gateway, so we stopped in the gift shop and bought ponchos and enjoyed our walk back to the Boardwalk in the rain.
We were back to our room by 9:05 and we heard the fireworks start right as we got to the courtyard outside our room.
Paula went to get us some cokes and ice and I updated my trip report notes and checked my email. We watched our proverbial cartoons until we drifted off to sleep.
CAST
Robin/Me - 40; trip planner/recorded; 11th trip to WDW
Paula/Sister to Robin - 30; 5th trip to WDW
Theres no vomiting in space. Or, Honk If You Love Mouse Gears.
The Plan: Epcot; dinner at Le Cellier
I was up by 7:30 and Paula soon followed. We were ready to go by 9:00, choosing the very pleasant walk to Epcot via the International Gateway. You could already smell the flowers and plants from the Flower and Garden Festival before you even entered the park.
We walked through the very quiet World Showcase and took the rose path to Future World, stopping long enough to look at the Doggone Maze and the Lady and the Tramp topiary, complete with plate of spaghetti (which Paula said looked like maggotsYum!).
We cut through Mouse Gears (a recurring theme throughout the day) on our way to pick up Fast Passes for Test Track (TT), before heading to Mission: Space. As we were walking through the queue, we overheard a kid behind us trying to talk his mom into coming on the ride with him and his dad. You might be nauseous, but you wont throw up, was the best selling point he could come up with. I turned around and tried to reassure the mom. Theres no vomiting in space, I told her, which reminded us of Tom Hanks line in A League of Their Own where he says, Theres no crying in baseball!
We were quickly through the queue and into our briefing room to hear our instructions from our capcom Gary Sinese. Is it just me or do you stand up a little straighter when hes talking to you?
Paula was the Navigator and I was the Pilot for our flight. After our voyage to Mars, we stopped in the Advance Training Lab long enough to send some video email postcards to friends and family. Some of the postcards you can send are quite amusing and we know our friends are just *so* appreciative to hear from us at WDW while theyre busing slaving away at their mundane lives back home.
We still had about 10 minutes before our return time for Test Track so we went to the Fountainview Café for some breakfast (2 bagels and cream cheese, an apple juice and a diet coke for $8.58). We threw some leftover bagel to feed the birds (tuppence a bag) and then ducked in to Ice Station Cool (which was freezing this morning as it was cloudy and cool outside anyway) where we couldnt seem to talk anyone into trying the Beverly but consoled ourselves with doing a little shopping and having the package sent back to our resort.
After we emerged from Ice Station Cool, we went to TT via Mouse Gears. Paula decided that Disney must have called up Art of Noise (a bizarre 80s pre-techno trio for those of you too young or un-hip to remember) and asked them to write some garage-sounding kind of music for the queuing area of Test Track.
Our Fast Passes got us quickly inside the briefing room where we listened to Smug Bill (who seems to get more smug every time I hear him) set up our test run. Apparently Bill added a new blow dry styling feature to the outside loop because my hair looked much like Cousin It from the Adams Family by the time we finished our speed run.
After we smoothed out our hair as best we could we went *back* through Mouse Gears, only this time we stopped long enough to pick up some souvenirs for the folks back home. When I bring my nephew, Michael, with me I usually have to find some kind of small, inexpensive trinkets to take back to the 20-25 kids in his class as school. Since I didnt have to worry about that this trip, I decided to be a generous co-worker and bring back something to the people I work with hoping that they would quit boo-ing me every time I announced that I was taking another trip to WDW.
So, what do you buy for an office-full of boring accountants? Why, pencils, of course. But not just any old pencilmechanical Mickey Mouse ears pencils, to be exact. Actually, I had bought one of the mechanical pencils for myself on my last trip and had gotten several comments on it, so I decided that Id bring one back for everyone else. Im no dummy, however. I have a red one so I got blue for my co-workers. They can steal each others pencils all they want, but I can always tell which one is mine. Ha Ha.
After we exited Mouse Gears, we headed to Spaceship Earth (SE), but remembered that we wanted to send some email picture postcards from Innoventions, so we went there instead (stopping long enough to go *back* to Mouse GearsI told you that was the theme for today--because we wanted some Mickey Mouse ears to complete our picture). Postcard sent, we looked around in Innoventions for a few minutes, even taking the time to crawl through the Bug display (which obviously was intended for little kids, but that never stopped us before). Brushing the plastic matting from our knees after our crawl, we left Innoventions and continued our journey to Spaceship Earth.
There was a big crowd going into SE, so we went to the front of the park and looked at the Flower and Garden Festival topiaries instead. The one of Tinkerbelle was very cute and the one with the Fab Five having a picnic, oh, excuse me, MAGICAL GATHERING, was gigantic. Goofy was huge.
We went to the Living Seas next and looked at the new Finding Nemo display they had added since our last trip. Paula took my picture with Nemo, just to prove that we did indeed find him. She had a hard time getting it taken, however, because little Amanda, a small child who was climbing on the Nemo display, was not budging. Even when her parents called to her, she wasnt about to leave Nemo.
Inside the Living Seas we spent almost all of our time with the manatees like we usually do. They only have two manatees now, Lou and Bock. One of the CMs said that Mo had been moved to the Tampa Zoo about a month ago.
Bock, the youngest, was up to 560 pounds now (he had been 480 when we were here in September). Just so you know were not neglecting our education, Ill take this time to inform you that manatees live to be 50-60 years old and that the water in the tank is kept at around 68 degrees. Now isnt that what you want from a trip reportriveting trivia facts as well as amusing banter? No? Well, too bad because thats about as good as it gets.
After spending a long time upstairs taking pictures of the manatees from the top of their tank and watching them eat lettuce (Restaurant-grade romaine lettuce, if you must know. Sorry. Ill stop now.), we went downstairs to watch them swim. We finally just gave in and sat down on the floor next to the tank. At one point, we had everyone in there sitting on the floor with us. I asked Paula if she thought it was weird that Im proud when other visitors admire the manatees and she said that no, she felt the same way. Of course, youre thinking that that only proves that were *both* weird. Youre probably right.
After we tore ourselves away from the manatees (hey, we looked at some Rays and some Seahorses too), we stopped and got a coke then walked through new sculpture garden feature of the Flower and Garden Festival towards the entrance to World Showcase.
We admired the Fantasia topiaries and, as the Character Caravan had just pulled up, took advantage of the relatively short lines to visit with Friar Tuck, Chip and Dale, and Baloo and King Louie. While Paula was having her picture made with Baloo and King Louie, Baloo stole her hat and put it on himself, which made for a cute picture.
We pressed on to Mexico with the rather ambitious goal of learning more lyrics to everyones favorite annoying little song, El Rio Del Tiempo. My whole point is this: if youre going to be stuck with that song in your head for the better part of the rest of your life, you might as well know more of the lyrics than Hola mi amigos .la, la, la, la, la, la, which is about all we knew.
As usual there was no great line waiting to board the boats, so Paula and I had a boat to ourselves. We sat in the very first row of the boat which was great. You could put your legs up on the bow of the boat for a very comfortable ride, and didnt have to worry about any other passengers chatter interrupting your lyric listening. The music to the song begins when you enter the Its a Small Fiesta section of the ride (the room with the kids that escaped from Its a Small World), but the lyrics arent added until you get to the room with the mariachi band and the two couples straight out of the 1970s in the hot tub. Sadly, we only picked up a few more words to the song (at some point they seem to switch entirely to Spanish, which loses me every time), so we decided to ask if we could stay on again.
The funny thing was that a man and his son in the boat in front of us asked if they could stay on the ride again. The somewhat shocked CM (you know they dont hear that request very often) told him that was fine. Then, we get up to the unloading dock and ask if we can stay on again as well. I think you could have knocked the CM over with a feather. After a look of disbelief she said, Of course, and we were on our way again, still with a boat to ourselves.
It was way past lunch time by now and the food at San Angel smelled really good. We both wished some of the patrons would toss us a chip or two as we rode past. We picked up a few more words this time around and got off the ride vowing to come back later this trip and try again.
As we got off we noticed that there was actually a line of people waiting to get ona rush almost. Apparently the word had spread that the ride was so good people were asking for another go at the ride. Poor saps.
Snickering at the people waiting in line, we moved along to Norway for a ride on Maelstrom. We decided that what Norway needs is a catchy song like Mexico (and even Canada) has. Just think of the possibilities--why even I can rhyme fjord and Smorgasbord. Well, almost.
We hurried through the gift shops that we were dumped into after the ride, passing particularly quickly through the perfume peddling room, which makes me woozy if I linger there. Im sure the stuff probably smells good on one person at a time, but the clouds of stuff that fog up that tiny room like bug spray just smell like eau de whale blubber to me.
It was after 3:00 by the time we made it to China and we were more than ready for some lunch. We stopped at the Lotus Blossom Café for an order of egg rolls, some vegetable lo mein and two bottles of water ($13.29). After lunch we looked through the shops in China marveling at the Kung Fu Fist, a plastic fist attached to a plastic gun by a stretchy, extending thingy (technical descriptions are not really my forte). When you squeezed the trigger, the fist extended, with no great accuracy, to punch whatever happened to be in its way (in our instance, other shoppers who were much annoyed).
The other item of interest was foam nunchaku (or, as we say in Texas, numchucks)you know, the two sticks with a chain in between them, that no self-respecting ninja would be caught dead withoutexcept these were made of a spongy foam instead of the usually lethal metal. These seemed to be quite popular among the 5-to-8-year-old boy demographic. In fact, we saw several young boys beating their siblings about the head and shoulders with these things with remarkably little or no permanent scarring or brain damage at all. Brilliant.
After China we moved along through the Outpost and into Germany where we did a little shopping at the Christmas Shop (how have I missed this store in the past?) and the toy store. Paula remarked that everything smells like vinegar in Germany.
As we advanced into Italy, Paula remarked that I should get ready for swarthy men to throw themselves at me. Sadly, there was no throwing of swarthy men at me in Italy or Morocco as I have experienced in the past. I must be losing my touch, or maybe its the unappealing way the humidity, combined with the Test Track styling salon, has made my hair frizz. Italy smelled greatly of chocolate, which was a much better scent than vinegar.
We caught the tale end of the Fife and Drum Corp in America. Paula said she didnt feel like crying, so we skipped the American Adventure for now and just looked through the gift shop.
In Japan we looked at the Bonsai trees by the Koi pond. We were particularly impressed by the--I swear Im not making this up--Florida Strangler Fig. We browsed through the new Tin Toy Stories exhibit and through the gift shops with me looking for something to take home to Michael. Paula had been looking for a miniature Zen rock garden for her husband, but there were none to be found. Paulas poor blister-ridden feet were hurting so she finally gave up and waited outside while I finished up.
In Morocco we looked through the shops and had some fun trying on hats. Genie, from Aladdin, came out and just wandered about for a while, creating chaos and mass confusion. I think he ditched his handler in the photo area and struck out on his own for some fun. Genie gave me a thumbs up for the hat I was trying on (does he count as swarthy?) before moving on his way.
After Morocco, we took a break at the Ultimate Backyards exhibit, which had a great porch swing in the tropical gardens section. There was also a nice play area with the ever-popular Rubbermaid shavings to walk around on.
We made it to France at 6:00, just in time to watch Impressions de France. This is one of my favorite films at Epcot, more so because of the music than the scenery, although thats not too shabby either. It makes me mostly just want to close my eyes, listen to the music, and enjoy the dark theater.
For the Flower and Garden Festival there was a new perfume garden, which was very interesting, out back by the quay. They had the flowers and plants that Guerlain uses to make some of its most familiar fragrances (Shalimar, Samsara, etc.) and placards for each fragrance that listed the main scented ingredients. You could lift a small flap on each placard and smell the finished product and see if you could pick out any of the individual scents.
We crossed over the bridge into the UK and looked through some of the shops there. At the back of the Toy Soldier we had a quick visit with Pooh and Eeyore. A small boy standing in line to see the characters remarked, Eeyore always looks so sad Mommy, which caused everyone in line to smile.
Off Kilter was playing as we passed through Canada, so we stopped to listen to the last couple of songs in their set. The lead singer seemed to be in a particularly good mood as he was wearing Furry Mickey Mouse ears as he jumped off the stage and danced around.
We moved on to Canada next where we watched, not surprisingly, O Canada. This was the first time I had ever seen the film and I must say, this song is just about as persistent as that darn Mexico song, if only slightly less annoying. They were playing the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as we left the theater, which is enough to depress even the most cheerful of folk. Play some Rush for crying out loud or some Bryan Adams or something remotely cheerful please. Were begging you.
It was 7:30 by now so we went to Le Cellier for our 7:40 priority seating time. They were turning people without priority seatings away at the door. We had a short wait and were seated right at 7:40. While Paula visited the ladies room I struck up a conversation with a lady at the table next to us. She said her family had just finished up a Disney Cruise and she thought the steak at Le Cellier was better than what she had at Palios.
I had the maple-glazed salmon with corn custard and grilled portabella mushrooms, while Paula ordered the herb-crusted prime ribrare. I raised my eyebrows about that, Im a medium girl myself, but Paula insisted that she liked her meat rare. When our food arrived, rare didnt even begin to describe her prime ribit looked like a mafia hit. I swear she hit a bleeder once as she was trying to cut it. She said it was good but we got really tickled as she ate it. I reminded her of the fact that, by the time they are age 40, the average adult has five pounds of undigested red meat in their intestines. After this meal, I imagine hers has doubled. Dinner was around $50Paula bought my meal (isnt she sweet), so I dont remember the exact amount.
We finished eating at 8:45 and were going to wait and watch Illuminations but it was beginning to rain and neither one of us felt like being as wet as we were last night so we decided to catch it later. I havent seen the fireworks from anywhere besides an Illuminations Cruise in so long I wouldnt even know where to find a spot to watch it anyway. (Ugh. That sounded very elitist, didnt it? Well I didnt mean to offend you, dear reader, but rather meant to emphasize the fact that Ive grown too *lazy* to watch Illuminations from on shore, rather than the fact that I dont wish to mix about among the commoners.)
The heavy rain came right as we got to the International Gateway, so we stopped in the gift shop and bought ponchos and enjoyed our walk back to the Boardwalk in the rain.
We were back to our room by 9:05 and we heard the fireworks start right as we got to the courtyard outside our room.
Paula went to get us some cokes and ice and I updated my trip report notes and checked my email. We watched our proverbial cartoons until we drifted off to sleep.
We love LeCellier and usually eat there for lunch. Usually no wait and less $$ for lunch times. With the same menu too.
