The Princess and the Knave take on the World! Complete with pics!

[iggbees]

i jsut got back from my trip and i just had to post because i had remembered that your sister texted her boyfriend. my sister did the same thing the whole time we were in disney too! we asked her so many times to stop, but she wouldn't and she has a different disney ring for every person who texted her (spectro magic, haunted mansion, veggie veggie fruit fruit, etc). i think she literally had the phone attached to her hand the whole time. i totally understand how you felt!!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Okay, let’s go back to Epcot again!

Day 12 – Friday, May 25, 2007


We were all very happy to be able to sleep in this morning, as we had no intention of making this day an early park day. Since my sister missed Kona Café the previous morning, we decided to go back there again for breakfast as walk-ins this morning and we were seated right away. I really enjoyed breakfast here the day before and wanted my sister to experience it before she left for New York the next day. To our delight, we had the same waiter (Pat) as the previous day and she was just great! I, of course, ordered the Big Kauna again and so did my sister. She loved it just as much as I did.

After that lovely Kona Café breakfast, we walked the Poly grounds for a while and enjoyed the hammocks a bit more before we walked over to the Ticket & Transportation Center to catch the monorail to Epcot. I wanted my sister to be able to ride in the front of the monorail, but we were out of luck, as it was full and the occupants were not getting out. Oh well, she’ll have to wait until next time! I still wasn’t feeling that great, so I wasn’t expecting to ride many rides today, but that was fine by me, as I could be just as happy shopping in the World Showcase!

The first thing we did was go to Club Cool, where I told my sister and James that they just HAD to try this amazing drink called Beverly! They took the bait hook line and sinker. And to my amusement, they both drank it at the same time! I wish you could have been there. They both tried it and both of them just sat there for a second, trying to figure out if they should be liking it and then the most horrible yuck faces! I nearly wet my pants! I wish I could have gotten a picture of both of them at the same time, but I was laughing so hard I couldn’t do it. My sister, however, knowing she’d been had, took a second sample of Beverly and drank the whole thing down! She just HAD to prove to me that she could stomach it!

But here’s how she REALLY felt about Beverly!

For some strange reason, though, they did not demand that I try it! Hehehe! I was a good sport, though and tried it anyway. Did I like it? You be the judge!

We did really like the Japan veggie drink, the ginger ale and the lemon drink. We sampled quite a bit of those! Here’s me posing with our adopted croc Flora and one the lovely Club Cool fountains. . .I highly recommend a visit to Club Cool! You can enjoy several different fountain drinks from around the world and also have some fun with your unsuspecting friends and family!

After our Club Cool fun, we headed over to Journey into Imagination.

I love this ride! Having ridden it the previous Monday, I knew that my sis was in for a few surprises, including the part where Figment sings that “a skunk is not a rose!” Hehehe! Then we went and had fun in the Imageworks labs, where we took pictures of ourselves and transformed into various creatures. . .

And then my sis and I paid to have our pictures superimposed over Cinderella Castle – it looks as if we are flying around the castle turrets! Well worth the $22 – we got a 5 x 7, 4 wallets and two key chains. What a great souvenir!

Near Journey into Imagination, there is a stage where a high school band was playing and since my sister and I were both in marching band in high school (I played clarinet and she played french horn), we stopped to listen and reminisce a little about high school. James never played an instrument, but he did play baseball and he was quite good! He even tried out for the Mets when he was younger and he was close to making it, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. . .

My sis, our croc Flora and I enjoying the band’s music. . .

By this time, we were ready for some World Showcase grub, so we headed straight for the United Kingdom and the Rose & Crown again.

A lovely shot of Spaceship Earth before we left Future World. . .

James and I wanted my sis to try the fruit & cheese plate – it was sooo good!

We had a very lively and wonderful waitress who even snagged our camera to take a picture of herself for us to remember her by! If you see her, tell her we said hello!

We again were very lucky with a great water view!

We enjoyed our fruit & cheese plate, along with the ploughman’s lunch, which is a combination of sliced beef, turkey, ham, English cheese, marinated veggies, and boiled egg over greens with Branson pickles and mustard vinaigrette. Yummy!

Clowning around while munching!

My sister was especially delighted with the Winnie the Pooh topiaries found in the United Kingdom as you can see. . .

To be continued!

 

[GoofyBaby]

After our wonderful lunch, we clowned around in the phone booths. . .

We spent hours roaming World Showcase. . .my sister was especially enamored with Italy, as she is a professional opera singer by trade. . .

Hey! Get your hand outta his mouth!

We enjoyed the hats in China. . .

We even took time out to meet with Donald in Mexico – what a sweet duck!

After our World Showcase adventure, we headed back to the Land in Future World, where we had an early dinner ADR at Garden Grill. . .I had a hunch that having an earlier dinner reservation would guarantee us more quality time with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale. . .boy, was my hunch right! Those 4 characters practically spent our entire dinner time with us! I am being dead serious! I am posting several photos of our adventure with them – it was truly magical and the absolute best character interaction of any character meal we had during the entire trip! Not many people were in the Garden Grill at 4:30 and those who were didn’t seem to want to spend much time with the characters, but we were just so excited to see them and they played off our excitement! I am going to post several (and I mean SEVERAL) pictures of our adventure at Garden Grill, just to show you how much interaction we had! So if you can snag a 4:30 dinner ressie at Garden Grill, there is a very high chance you’ll get tons of interaction! It was great!

We had barely gotten seated when along comes Chip. . .he immediately took to my sister Christi!

Of course, he was very mischievious and stole her camera case & fork!

But then comes Dale, who upon seeing Chip falling for my sister, immediately fell for me! He even asked to sit in my seat!

I just had to hug him! He was too cute!

But then he found my croc Flora and tried to take her from me!

And then he tried to eat her! Of course, I didn’t let that happen!

Dale was very mischievous, stealing various items from the kitchen. . .

And driving our wonderful waitress Cheryl crazy!

Of course, Chip did that too! Those two kept our waitress on her toes!

More to come so stay tuned!

 

[GoofyBaby]

More Garden Grill!

Here was some of our dinner – veggies, beef, turkey & catfish! Yummy! We loved every bit of our dinner…very healthy too!

Chip was interested to see what my sister had bought that day. . .

And wanted her sunglasses!

Dale, on the other hand, was only interested in my shopping bag and our table napkins, which he promptly put on his nose and head, so I did the same!

Dale loves me!

And Chip loves my sis!

Of course, my sister really loved Pluto too!

And Mickey!

Mickey was so sweet to me!

But Dale won my heart. . .apparently he felt he had to defend my honor against our waitress!

And Dale!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Here’s Chip & Cheryl. . .

And those two crazy chipmunks really want what is in our bags!

I think Dale was trying to be hip here!

Here comes Pluto again!

And here comes Mickey again!

Cheryl goofing around with Dale. . .

Awwww, brotherly love!

Chip, the model!

I think he was proposing to my sister!

But then Dale proposed to me and when I said yes, he hugged me and took off with me around the restaurant!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Chip & Dale clowning around with each other. . .

And Dale had barely just left a minute ago and he comes right back to hug me!

But Pluto wants to know why he’s not getting as much attention. . .

So my sister and I go to him and tell him we love him too! He said he felt left out. . .aww, poor Pluto!

Then Pluto proposes to me! What is Dale going to think?

When I said yes, Pluto fell to the ground. . .but I asked him not to tell Dale!

He was howling in happiness! Hehehe!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

BEST...INSTALLMENT...EVER!!! I have to thank you for seriously making my day. I'm in bar exam study misery and seeing these pictures made me smile for at least 15 minutes. That looks like the most fun character meal ever!! I love Chip (I think it was Chip) posing with the bag on his nose, and you getting dragged around the restaurant. You guys had such a blast!!

I love your sister's hair - it's my dream hair. And an opera singer too??? That's one of my dream professions.

Hope all is well with you and your family's health. Keep the TR comin'!

 

[GoofyBaby]

Pluto was a hoot!

But then comes Dale again. . .ready to defend me!

So Pluto decides to run off with my sister! Those Disney boys sure are fickle!

I snapped a pic of James and I while waiting for our bill. . .

And Dale gave me one last hug before we left. . .

At least that is what I thought! He and Chip followed us out of the restaurant and into The Land because they didn’t want us to leave! They just hugged us and hugged us for what seemed like an eternity! We promised we would come back to them as soon as we could and they went back to the restaurant waving goodbye and blowing lots of kisses. It was so hard to leave! We could not have had a more magical experience and I will always return to Garden Grill for the awesome character interaction and delicious food. My sister and I were just about worn out from all of the excitement we experienced! We were just in love. . .sigh!

Since we were in The Land, we decided to ride Living with the Land, which is a very education and peaceful ride that shows how we grow & raise food. . .

Awwww, a mickey pumpkin is earning its ears!

The beautiful balloons in The Land. . .

Then I caught the monorail passing by. . .I never tire of monorail shots!

Or water shots. . .they’re just lovely!

Then we headed over to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. . .it was a very cute ride and I recommend riding it! It does have a very long queue line to walk through, though. . .

Afterwards, we weren’t watching where we were going and Bruce snuck up on us! Oops!

At least his friend was a bit nicer to us! Remember, humans are friends, not food!

Nemo & friends outside the ride. . .

Hi Gill!

 

[GoofyBaby]

I also highly recommend the aquariums! Lots of beautiful marine life to behold. . .just try to go during a less busy time. . .people tend to get very pushy when it is busy and it can take a long time before you can get to see anything! But it is worth it to see the sharks, manatees and beautiful colorful fish. . .we loved it!

Finally, it was starting to get dark, so we decided to stake out a spot for Illuminations. . .we decided on a spot near Mexico and got right up on the railing near a trash can so nobody could get in the way of our pictures. . .

I snapped these while waiting. . .

Finally the show was on! Wow. . .we were just blown away. . .I really wish I could have seen this show more than once. . .it was just amazing. . .I especially loved the revolving globe in the center of the lagoon. My pictures of it didn’t come out, but I captured some decent fireworks shots. . .I am still learning how to snap fireworks with my camera! But I highly recommend seeing Illuminations when you’re in Epcot. You will not regret it!

And finally it was time to head back to our room, but not before we snapped some night shots of Spaceship Earth! I am going to miss the mickey hand and wand up there!

Waiting for the monorail. . .

When we got back to the Poly, I was so tired I just wanted to fall asleep in the lobby of our longhouse!

But then I really, really had to go to the bathroom (can you tell?) so I very carefully high-tailed it back to our room, to the amusement of both my sister and James! Must have been the water I was drinking all day!

We finished our evening by grabbing a delicious tomato basil pizza at Captain Cook's (the wonderful counter service at the Poly which has been beautifully remodeled) and then watching channel 96 in our room, which is a channel that you have to manually enter into the remote rather than using the up & down arrows. . .but when you plug in “96” and hit enter, you are rewarded with wonderful old classic Disney animation, like Steamboat Willie, Mickey’s Trailer, Mickey’s Fire Brigade, A Cowboy Needs a Horse, Pluto’s Fledgling and many other wonderful old classic Disney cartoons! Not all resorts carry this secret channel (the Pop does not have it), but whenever you are staying in a Disney resort hotel, just try manually punching in channel 96 – if you get it, you will most certainly not want to change the channel anymore! We kept our channel on 96 the whole time we were at the Poly! It was awesome!

I wanted to mention that I was still sick all day today, but it had finally lessened to the extent that I was able to stay out in Epcot all day. . .I just drank plenty of fluids, kept my lozenges with me and we took plenty of rest breaks. . .I am so glad this stuff was not getting worse! And we could not have had a more magical day. The Garden Grill really just topped off the magic for us. All of that constant character interaction was just too much and in the best way possible. I hope that it wasn’t a once-in-a-lifetime experience because I want to go back and do it again!

Stay tuned as we head back to ‘Ohana for breakfast with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey & Pluto, we say goodbye to my sister and yep, we decide to go back to Epcot again (but only for part of the day)! More fun to come! Woo-hoo!

 

[lovealldisney]

OMG! What great pictures with Chip and Dale! I will have to show my DD!!! She is in love with Chip and Dale! We have ADR here the first night of our stay and she can hardly wait! Thanks for the great installment!

 

[soxnation]

a wonderful way to start my day!!! what a time at gg why let all the kids have all the fun adults love it to!!!!

 

[whogirl'smom]

You all look like you had so much fun at Epcot! I really think it is my favorite park. Chip and Dale looked like a hoot, but what will you do now with two engagements?

I'm still trying to figure out the fireworks shots on the camera, too, but yours look better than mine. I took some shots over the 4th of July, but lots of them look like little sperm swimming in the air--not the effect I was searching for!! I think I need to read the manual more before we go to Disney!

The pics of the food looked great, too; you're starving me to death this morning. I still have 20 lbs. to lose before Oct. and it's KILLING me! We need smell-a-vision on the Dis!

Wonderful update! Keep it up!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

What a wonderful day at Epcot. You take such lovely pictures. I am very jealous of your dinner at the Garden Grill it sounds like a blast. You are very lucky that you got such great character interaction and I hope that you are lucky and get the same when you eat there again but if not you still have that magical memory. I thought that your fireworks pictures were great. I especially like the blue fireworks with the little stars, beautiful. I wish that I could say that I enjoyed Illuminations when I saw it but it was very smoky and we could barely see anything. Perhaps it was just where we were sitting. I will see it again and hope for a better view.

I can't wait for your next update as they are always entertaining!

 

[PrincessV]

OKay, I'm caught up again!

I know I've already said this, but here I go again: LOVING your awesome pics!

I've alsu said this to lots of folks: no better place to be sick than the Poly! My only stay there was one night for my Bday and I was sick, sick, sick. Think I had the flu. We made it though half a day at MK, then just took whatever room they had ready and stayed there the rest of the day and night. I'd rather have been feeling well, but if I had to be ill at WDW, I'm glad I was at the Poly!

Aren't Chip and Dale a freakin' riot at GG?! It can't possibly be the same 2 CM's playing them all teh time, but they've been a hoot every time we've gone. Too funny!

 

[disneyeeyorefan]

I love all your pictures, and your character dinner looked like so much fun!!

 

[Jennifer48]

What a great installment! So glad to hear that your sister had a great character experience after missing Chef Mickey's!

I've never heard of the secret Channel 97! I hope the CBR has it when I'm there in September. Thanks for sharing that info!

 

[rentayenta]

Okay this has been the best installemt to date! I got DH to check out your pictures which are fabulous and even he said they were good !!! We are SO excited about Epcot! The character interaction between you, your sister, and Chip and Dale was amazing! Chip and Dale are my DD8's favorite along with Pooh.

 

[GoofyBaby]

Hey everyone!

Many of my pictures aren't showing up on my trip report right now because I have exceeded my bandwidth usage at Photobucket. They will start showing up again tomorrow, July 19. Sorry about that! I just posted so many pictures! I have also opened up a second account to accomodate all the photos.

Just wanted to let you know!

 

[mikep_97]

What a great report! The GG pictures and storyline with Chip and Dale were wonderful. It is a great example of what makes a trip to Disney World unlike anything else I have experienced! Thanks for sharing.

Mike

 

[jnjusoioa]

Hi Carol, My dear friend, loved your last report from Ecopt, those pictures are so awesome, it just looks like you had such a blast at The Garden Grill, Chip and Dale look like they were so much fun, some really great photos. Hope you are doing well.