The Skeptical First-Timers made it back home, here's the TR! Completed!

[reelmom]

You can't leave us hanging now!

I so hope this is the moment where your DH gets the Disney magic and he will be dying to take you back.

 

[Moodyzblu]

LOVE the Living With The Land ! It's such a nice little break.
Hey .. not only little kids like the Nemo ride ! I happen to enjoy that ride.

When the boys were real little we would spend literally HOURS in the tank area of the Seas. They loved looking at all the fish and finding the various hidden Mickeys.

Great update !!

 

[204charity]

Lovin' it! It must be Soarin' - maybe Test Track. Can't wait to find out!!!!

 

[okw19]

Yay for making it to Epcot this morning! It's good to read that you were feeling a little better. I can't wait to see what David loves!

 

[swwake]

I know my family is going to be the late-risers, morning piddlers too. The only day they HAVE to get up early will be our first day. It's the only day we are at USO/IOA. And we have to make the 1-hour early rope drop.

I love Crush and can't wait to see him again.

Had no idea about impromptu dolphin shows.

Sounds like David's having a pretty good day so far. He's liking everything.

 

[glennbo123]

Hey, the fam is making progress towards rope drop, so you're getting better. I actually think you got a decent amount done before lunch.

 

[FosterA]

You can't leave us hanging now!

I so hope this is the moment where your DH gets the Disney magic and he will be dying to take you back.

I swear I don't mean to leave everyone hanging with Dave's big Wow moment. It's just that it really didn't happen to the end of our trip and it's taking me forever to get to it I know....luckily he had this one magical moment on the entire trip and that leaves me hope that he'll let me plan another trip!

Yay for making it to Epcot this morning! It's good to read that you were feeling a little better. I can't wait to see what David loves!

Thanks I know I was surprised by what he really liked that's for sure!

LOVE the Living With The Land ! It's such a nice little break.
Hey .. not only little kids like the Nemo ride ! I happen to enjoy that ride.

When the boys were real little we would spend literally HOURS in the tank area of the Seas. They loved looking at all the fish and finding the various hidden Mickeys.

Great update !!

Thanks for continuing to read along! I know, I know...I'm probably weird not loving Nemo ride. Maybe I better go back again and make sure I didn't miss anything

Lovin' it! It must be Soarin' - maybe Test Track. Can't wait to find out!!!!

I swear his "wow" moment is coming up, it's just taking me forever to get to it!

I know my family is going to be the late-risers, morning piddlers too. The only day they HAVE to get up early will be our first day. It's the only day we are at USO/IOA. And we have to make the 1-hour early rope drop.

I love Crush and can't wait to see him again.

Had no idea about impromptu dolphin shows.

Sounds like David's having a pretty good day so far. He's liking everything.

Well, the dolphin show was not impromptu by Disney I'm sure, I think they have a whole schedule of shows they do in there but I guess I'd never heard of it before. We just stumbled upon a crowd of people watching the trainers and got reeled right in. VEry neat show!
You'll be chatting with Crush before you know it

Hey, the fam is making progress towards rope drop, so you're getting better. I actually think you got a decent amount done before lunch.

I know....day 6 and we are within one hour of rope drop. I bet if we stayed for 10 days, we'd finally make a rope drop Luckily it was lower-crowd season so we were able to get alot of done without doing rope drop!

 

[FosterA]

DAY 6-part 2

Before I continue on, I’ve just got to say this again: I would not hesitate to go back to WDW on this very same week again because the weather was PERFECT and I felt like the crowds were low. I can’t tell you how many times David and I agreed that it was a good idea to have the kids miss some school because it was so worth it. Walking around was pleasant and comfortable and I just can’t imagine doing all this walking when it’s hot. Even Epcot this Sunday before Thanksgiving felt like low crowds to me. The only crowded thing I’d seen so far on this day was breakfast at Cook’s! Of course Soarin and TT had waits but nothing else really did. The longest wait I’d seen on my phone app all day besides those 2 was maybe Spaceship Earth hit 25 minutes at one point during the day and then the other times I checked, it was usually 15 minutes or so. So….depending on how magical David feels again, I’m really going to push for a return trip during this very same week again. It really is a great time to go in case anybody out there is reading and can’t decide on a time frame. Of course I don’t want the secret to get out too much!!

Alright back to the report:
So we pretty much did what we wanted to do in the Sea Pavilion and the Land Pavilion. Hadn’t done Soarin yet but we did have fastpasses and since I had learned on the Dis that you can come back later than the time stamp, I wasn’t in a rush to get to that. Figured we’d hit it next time we were in that approximate area.

I instructed the fam that we were going to head over to Mexico and get some counter service food. By this time we were all having withdrawals and the jitters from not having any Mexican (or Tex Mex or fake Mexican food or whatever you want to call it) food. Here in TX, we seem to eat a lot of Mexican food and we actually all like it so I knew we’d have to get some asap. I had made an ADR to eat at the Table Service place yesterday but since we had our sick day and didn’t come to Epcot I had cancelled it. I didn’t try to reschedule it because I honestly didn’t really feel like wasting time with a sit-down place anyway since we already had Rose and Crown set up for tonight. No way would I want 2 TS in one day, we’d never get a thing done. So….off we went to hunt down some chips and guacamole!

On the way over there, we slipped into Club Cool though. I knew all about the Beverly since the Dis talks about it so I set my family up. Hahaha Ian is my Coke drinker and he begs for one every single day of his life. I try to limit him to just having it when we go out to eat though. He got really excited at this place with all the Coke souvenirs. We did buy him a pretty cool shirt here too. He was pretty disappointed that they didn’t have any “real” coke samples though. Here’s the Beverly photo shoot that are Dis trip report requirements. Haha

I did set Dave up too and he got a grossed out face but I was not able to capture it.

After Club Cool, we swung by TT to grab faspasses. Yay. Got both those and Soarin secured so I didn’t have to stress about time anymore.

We finally got over to Mexico and ordered there. I just love this little place and I still get all excited to see how the cast members REALLY are from the countries. I kept talking about that to the family but they weren’t quite as impressed by that fact as I was. Oh well. We ordered nachos and some beef tacos that were on corn tortillas and we also got some chips and guacamole. Everybody just sort of shared everything. It was all very good! We wasted a lot of food though because our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. Allison was a little whiny at this point because our table was sort of in the sun and the sun was in her eyes and she was carrying on about that. The highs while we were in WDW got up to maybe 82 so it really wasn’t THAT bad compared to what July and Aug must be like. See, my kids are whiny which is why we can’t go in the “real” heat and have to miss school to go.

After we ate, I wanted to just do Mexico and Norway because they were right there but wait to see all the other countries that night since we had to come back for Rose and Crown anyway. I knew Allison would get excited in the World Showcase area so it was a little challenging convincing her that we were just checking out two places but that WE WOULD be coming back and not to worry.

We went into Mexico and wow!! I did go in here before when I was in WDW for my girls weekend so I knew what to expect. The kids and David though just loved it because it’s just so cool how it looks like night! Allison and Dave browsed around the little shop things and Ian hunted down a penny press machine. I wanted to work our way to the ride in there because there was a bit of line forming. I had to round up everybody and herd them towards the line. Of course the line was only maybe 5-10 minutes. This ride is so cute! At one point Allison snapped a flash photo and someone said something. I felt horrible because I’ve read about those pesky flash photo people on the Dis and I was horrified that we were now “those” people. I knew that we were already Short-Stoppers in the parks when Allison wanted to take photos and I’m sure many people ran right into the back of us. So I told Allison to be sure to turn the flash off. Oh…I just love that Donald Duck piñata you see on this ride
All in all, everybody liked this ride and the whole pavilion in general.

Up next is Norway. I knew that the Maelstrom ride was here so I figured we’d do that. Ok….am I just crazy but is this sort of boring? I see there is a FP for it too which makes me think it’s just me because obviously a lot of people must like it. I mean it’s “ok” but not that much to it. The family was “ok” with it, nothing too spectacular to say about it either. After the ride, David wanted to watch the film and so did Allison. I guess I’m more like Ian and want to do more exciting things? Either way, we all sat down and watched the Norway film. Interesting as far as a Norway films go I guess. I did really like the buildings and carvings here though. So intricate and amazing!

After our lunch and seeing 2 countries, we need to get back to Future World and hit more stuff there. Here’s a pic of the “crowd”. Not bad. We all were so impressed with how fabulous the landscaping is all over Disney. Everything was so green and lush and the flowers were bright and amazing! After being in drought-stricken TX all summer, seeing such nice landscaping was wonderful. The Disney landscapers do an amazing job!

So we meandered our way back to Future World (when I say meander, I mean it…bathroom breaks, icee break, stop and look at the river breaks….)
Here's Ian hanging out while I buy an icee

I didn’t have a specific plan over here in Future World besides wanting to do spaceship Earth. I knew we weren’t going to do Mission Space at all because we all seem to have motion sickness issues. On the way we saw the Ellen’s Energy attraction and I thought “hey, why not”. We walked right into that (that should tell you something). I’m sorry Ellen, if you are reading along, but BORING!! I thought this might be sort of exciting since you get loaded into this big huge moving cart thing but it just never really did it for any of us. There weren’t many people on this ride at all so we really could have laid down and slept if we had wanted to. I had NO IDEA how long this attraction lasts either. It’s LONG. David said they could have done so much more with this ride. I don’t want to say it was a waste of time because I don’t think anything we did on our trip was a “waste” because I was curious about it all, but I would not schedule it into a second trip at all.

After the Ellen snoozer we went into the Innoventions building and Dave and the kids had a great time playing around in there! Nobody did the roller coaster thing there though. Just played around with the different displays. David really likes this hands-on stuff. Ian loved watching this one thing come down and smash a hard hat and he did that a bunch of times! I think I just found a bench to chill out on since this isn’t really my type of thing. It was nice seeing David play around with the kids though.

When they had their fill of messing around in here, Allison announced that she will die if she doesn’t have ice cream. We kept seeing people walking around with ice cream so I knew it was around somewhere. We finally found the ice cream place and had a good little break there. We had no problems finding a chair either. David saw somebody eating one of those chocolate covered bananas on a stick at on point and was like “what is that thing?” They do look kind of gross I admit, but I bet they taste good!

Next in the lineup was Spaceship Earth. I did this ride on my weekend trip with Julie and I just LOVED it. I like everything about it, I like the interactive screens, I like how you wind up and up and up, I like the starry universe type thing towards the end before you come back down. I couldn’t wait to get the fam on this ride. So as usual, it was pretty much a walk-on. Dave and Ian went together and Allison and I rode together. I’m not really sure what the boys were thinking since they were in front of us but Allison thought it was super cool! We just couldn’t get over how REALISTIC all the “people” are. WE all had a good time on this ride. Ian thought the interactive screen was a blast. David was “ok” with it all of course. He said it was just all animatronics. What did he want to see? I think the animatronics are what makes it so cool!

These photos I took on our walk over to Spaceship Earth:

Ok…next segment will be finishing up Future World and our adventures on Soarin’, EO, and Test Track. Let’s just say that ONE of these rides is fantastic (and one of our family member’s favorite in all of WDW) ONE is horrid, and ONE is…..ehhh, just “ok”.

 

[204charity]

Soarin - just ok
EO - Horrible
Test Track - Favorite

Let's see if I'm right!!! lol

(And btw - it's kind of funny, but these are the 3 MUST-DO's in Epcot for us, besides ALL the pavilions in the world showcase of coarse)

 

[reelmom]

I sure hope that David's favorite wasn't Captain EO.

 

[nvsnot]

Ian's "Beverly Face" is priceless . I can't wait to read if your family loved Soarin' or not. Soarin' was one of my gang's favorite .

 

[swwake]

I love the Beverly faces - especially Ian's.

I agree with you on Ellen's Energy Adventure. But you should have seen it BEFORE they added Ellen - even more boring, if you can imagine. The big draw of this ride USED to be the technology (that huge car thing holds a few hundred people and is being moved along on some tiny little wire).

Also, to answer your question about Maelstrom, remember that most of the attractions in Epcot are movies, or stand-up, or boat rides. The 4 big ones are Soarin', Test Track, Mission Space and Maelstrom. Maelstrom is the only ride in WS with the least bit of "thrill" (you got backwards and I think there's a drop or two in there). So, Epcot being so low on ride-type attractions, people want to do Maelstrom, thus the fast pass.

Y'all are getting a TON accomplished! Did you do the little garbage truck exhibit in Innoventions?

 

[Moodyzblu]

I guess we'll steer clear of EO and Ellen !
I never knew anyone actually watched the Norway movie.
We usually just run through into the Norway store. (my daughter has to get a troll each visit )
LOVE Ian's Beverly face !

 

[heathsf]

I think the most exciting part of this ride is the loading and unloading, those moving floors are fun!

 

[skier_pete]

Well, I know EO is the horrible one.

Personally, I don't think TT is very impressive, the ending is neat and all, but the rest is kind of underwhelming...but I could see others loving it. I'll still guess Soarin' is the WOW! My Mom thought she would hate it, but LOVED it.

And we finally rode Ellen this last trip. My mom really liked it a lot, and so did DD. We hadn't rode it in 13 years, and while I think it's OK, it definitely would be helped by not being 45 minutes long.

 

[momabaarjo]

I loved Living with the Land too...we got on it totally because there was no line and it was a chance to get out of the sun. I am so glad we did because it was a highlight of the trip.

I am so ready to pull a Beverly on the kids...did you make each one do it separately without seeing the other to get the 2 pictures!

I did not even included the Ellen attraction in my plans...I heard it takes for ever and it just not worth it...I am thinking of taking EO out of the plans too, but just for a trip down memory lane I think it would be fun for us old ones in the group.

Funny, you are craving "Mexican" food and I am trying to avoid it all of our trip...trying to get things we would not normally get...I tend to be really picky about my Mexican food and I really do not want ballpark nachos...although I do love them.... However, we will stop and get a couple snacks in Mexico...and yes, a few drinks!

I love the sombero pictures...making note of that as a picture with the kids!

Sounding like Epcot may be David's park!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Another great report! I have to say that while my kids enjoy The Land, we mostly just do it for them...it's not a favorite. I'm not sure we even did it at all our last trip. Also I'm surprised you didn't try Mission Space on the easy side (can never remember which color is non-spinning). I'm not a huge fan of the spinning side, but we did the other side last time and I really enjoyed that one...all the fun without the blahs.

 

[okw19]

Don't you guys get enough Mexican food at home? I think it's funny that you chose that for lunch, when you eat it all the time. I'm not always an adventurous eater in the WS either though.
Maelstrom is the closest thing to a "thrill" ride in WS so that's why it has the FP. I've never had to get one for it though. I assume it does get more crowded that the Fiesta Tour boat ride during peak season though.

I am still dying to know what David loves. It has to be Soarin or TT. I know he can't fall in love with EO since even die-hard MJ fans say it's lame.

 

[johnGorski]

Glad you felt better for this day... Seems like David is impressed with Epcot!

I am going to guess captin EO is the bad ride comming up lol. Yes Elen's ride is kind of boring, but it has two benifits a nap and cold air. Little funny story I was naping through the dino scene and one of those little buggers squired water at me.

 

[FosterA]

Ian's "Beverly Face" is priceless . I can't wait to read if your family loved Soarin' or not. Soarin' was one of my gang's favorite .

My Soarin' review is coming right up though I hate to say it....I don't think we felt the same way as your gang about it. WE may just be weird though

I love the Beverly faces - especially Ian's.

I agree with you on Ellen's Energy Adventure. But you should have seen it BEFORE they added Ellen - even more boring, if you can imagine. The big draw of this ride USED to be the technology (that huge car thing holds a few hundred people and is being moved along on some tiny little wire).

Also, to answer your question about Maelstrom, remember that most of the attractions in Epcot are movies, or stand-up, or boat rides. The 4 big ones are Soarin', Test Track, Mission Space and Maelstrom. Maelstrom is the only ride in WS with the least bit of "thrill" (you got backwards and I think there's a drop or two in there). So, Epcot being so low on ride-type attractions, people want to do Maelstrom, thus the fast pass.

Y'all are getting a TON accomplished! Did you do the little garbage truck exhibit in Innoventions?

Nope, don't think I remember a garbage truck exhibit. Of course I was wandering off outside and stuff, I'll have to ask the kids if they remember that.
What? Ellen used to be MORE boring? yikes!

Soarin - just ok
EO - Horrible
Test Track - Favorite

Let's see if I'm right!!! lol

(And btw - it's kind of funny, but these are the 3 MUST-DO's in Epcot for us, besides ALL the pavilions in the world showcase of coarse)

I believe you are right!

I sure hope that David's favorite wasn't Captain EO.

Oh man, if he found the "magic" watching that, I'd have to have him committed.

I guess we'll steer clear of EO and Ellen !
I never knew anyone actually watched the Norway movie.
We usually just run through into the Norway store. (my daughter has to get a troll each visit )
LOVE Ian's Beverly face !

I do believe we were the only ones watching the Norway film Even the old ladies passed it right by.

My kids loved those moving floors. Maybe just an attraction where you can hop from moving floor to moving floor would be a hit!

Well, I know EO is the horrible one.

Personally, I don't think TT is very impressive, the ending is neat and all, but the rest is kind of underwhelming...but I could see others loving it. I'll still guess Soarin' is the WOW! My Mom thought she would hate it, but LOVED it.

And we finally rode Ellen this last trip. My mom really liked it a lot, and so did DD. We hadn't rode it in 13 years, and while I think it's OK, it definitely would be helped by not being 45 minutes long.

Though my family liked it, TT wasn't THAT great I didn't think. I'd agree with you on the underwhelming thing. Just the end was fun.
I'm posting my update now so you'll have to read what we thought of Soarin.
Was Ellen really 45 minutes long? no wonder! They could have shaved at least 40 minutes off that ride and just kept the Dinosaur part

I loved Living with the Land too...we got on it totally because there was no line and it was a chance to get out of the sun. I am so glad we did because it was a highlight of the trip.

I am so ready to pull a Beverly on the kids...did you make each one do it separately without seeing the other to get the 2 pictures!

I did not even included the Ellen attraction in my plans...I heard it takes for ever and it just not worth it...I am thinking of taking EO out of the plans too, but just for a trip down memory lane I think it would be fun for us old ones in the group.

Funny, you are craving "Mexican" food and I am trying to avoid it all of our trip...trying to get things we would not normally get...I tend to be really picky about my Mexican food and I really do not want ballpark nachos...although I do love them.... However, we will stop and get a couple snacks in Mexico...and yes, a few drinks!

I love the sombero pictures...making note of that as a picture with the kids!

Sounding like Epcot may be David's park!!!!

I didn't put much planning into the Beverly photos, just got lucky that somehow the kids weren't by each other when they tested the drink.
I do think Epcot was Dave's favorite of all 4 parks. MK being his least favorite.

Another great report! I have to say that while my kids enjoy The Land, we mostly just do it for them...it's not a favorite. I'm not sure we even did it at all our last trip. Also I'm surprised you didn't try Mission Space on the easy side (can never remember which color is non-spinning). I'm not a huge fan of the spinning side, but we did the other side last time and I really enjoyed that one...all the fun without the blahs.

We may have tried the easy side of that ride but we really ran out of time anyway. Once again, need another trip to fit it all in

Don't you guys get enough Mexican food at home? I think it's funny that you chose that for lunch, when you eat it all the time. I'm not always an adventurous eater in the WS either though.
Maelstrom is the closest thing to a "thrill" ride in WS so that's why it has the FP. I've never had to get one for it though. I assume it does get more crowded that the Fiesta Tour boat ride during peak season though.

I am still dying to know what David loves. It has to be Soarin or TT. I know he can't fall in love with EO since even die-hard MJ fans say it's lame.

I know, we're sort of crazy about our Mexican food. 3 out of 4 of us are pretty adventurous and enjoyed all the new stuff on the trip, but there's just something about cheesy greasy nachos!

Glad you felt better for this day... Seems like David is impressed with Epcot!

I am going to guess captin EO is the bad ride comming up lol. Yes Elen's ride is kind of boring, but it has two benifits a nap and cold air. Little funny story I was naping through the dino scene and one of those little buggers squired water at me.

I can totally see how Ellen would be a nice dark long ride for naps or for trying to get a baby to sleep, etc etc. Maybe even a place to stick the in-laws to get them out of your hair if you are touring with them