*Wish*Upon*A*Star*
Mommy of an Angel
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2001
- Messages
- 490
*Pre-Trip Planning and Information*
*Day One- Airport, Magic Kingdom, and Chef Mickeys*
Cast of Characters:
Marsha ~ *ME!* ~ 23 years old, trip planner, 4th trip to Disney World
Alex ~ *DH* ~ Turned 24 years old on trip, 3rd trip to Disney World
JR ~ *My Brother-in-law, Alex's brother* ~ 18 years old, 1st (real) trip to Disney World
Special Appearances by:
Carol ~ *my Mom* ~ age withheld, 3rd trip to Disney World
Bob ~ *my Dad* ~ age also withheld, 3rd trip to Disney World
*Day Two- Epcot Center, Garden Grill, and Rose & Crown Pub*
Planned Itinerary:
Breakfast- Intermission Food Court
Lunch- Garden Grill Character Lunch
Dinner- Rose & Crown Pub
Park: Epcot Center
Today is Epcot Center, and we were determined to be up and at em for park opening. We set the wake up call for 8:00am (can you believe Epcot doesn't open until 10 now?!?), and I was hoping that JR would answer it, but he was too zonked, so Alex did. I hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, got dressed, and woke up the boys. JR is a very deep sleeper, so he was kind of tough to get up, but once he did, he was fine. Once we were all dressed and ready to go, we grabbed our park gear and our refillable mugs and headed for the Intermission Food Court. We grabbed muffins, bagels, and breakfast sandwiches, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then headed out to the bus stop. We had great timing because our bus was just pulling up when we got out there
.
We hopped onto the bus, and headed for Epcot Center. We got there around 10:25am or so and we walked right through the turnstiles and admired Spaceship Earth. Afterwards, we started to walk over towards Test Track we wanted to ride this before it broke down
or the line was too long. Well, wouldn't you know it- there was already a 40 minute wait, so we decided to do the single riders line... I dont know why, but last year, we were pretty disappointed in this, but this year it seemed a lot better... I don't know why, but we loved it so much more!! In the Test Track store, Alex and I purchased a Test Track magnet for my mother-in-law (she collects magnets)... It was really cute! It had Mickey in the middle of the Test Track car, and two goofys on either side of Mickey- I thought it was a perfect representation of the three of us! LOL 
JR also purchased a test track shot glass (one of the many he would purchase on our trip )
One our way over to Ice Station Cool, we stop at a pin station and purchase two of the Magical Moments pins... one for me and one for Alex. JR said he didn't want one
. After we put our pins on, we walk over towards Ice Station Cool and trick JR into trying Beverly... I figured with my luck he would like it, but he didn't. We had a lot of fun trying all of the different sodas and mixing different ones. JR found another shot glass in the store, but he decided not to purchase it.
We headed over to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience because Alex and I had missed it last year- it was so fun!! I love the part where the little kid "picks" up the audience... how funny!
Before we knew it, it was 12:00, and we needed to head over to the Land pavilion, where we had PS for lunch at the Garden Grill. I was kind of hesitant about the food that they served there, but was willing to try! I am so glad I did- the sunflower bread was awesome, as was the garden salad, flank steak, and turkey. None of us ate the catfish, so we offered it to Chip (or was it Dale?), but he didn't want it either!
We had a great time interacting with the characters. One thing I noticed was that the restaurant wasn't very busy. Either no one knows about it or not a lot of people like it was the assumption I made. I thought it was so cool how the restaurant revolves. Okay, little things amuse me, I am happy to admit that .
During lunch, I asked the boys if they wanted to go back to the hotel to relax a bit, and they said that they wanted to stay in the park, so that's what we did. I don't know, maybe it's the Disney magic that gives you endless energy
After lunch, we headed down to the Living with the Land boat ride, but the wait was something like 45 minutes or so, so we decided to skip it. Out of the Land pavilion we went. I asked the boys if they wanted to go see the Living Seas, and they decided against it, so we headed over to the Kodak What If? Labs. (I think that's what they are called.) We had a great time e-mailing pics to everyone. We turned Alex into a cat:
We turned JR into an owl:
And, here is a picture of the three of us having a great time:
After playing around with the pictures, and the different exhibits they offered, we decided to head over to World Showcase. We started in Mexico, where we rode the El Rio De Tempo (I think that's what it's called), and that was okay. The boys thought it was too much like It's a Small World, which they both adamantly refused to ride!
We looked around inside Mexico (I think I embarassed JR when I tried on one of the HUGE sombreros and started dancing around 
while Alex was making a pit stop), and then headed back out into the warm sunshine 
Before leaving Mexico and entering Norway, I just HAD to get a layered Margarita, which was excellent by the way
We entered Norway, and the guys didn't want to do the boat ride, so we window shopped a little, and then headed over to China. In China, they had these (what looked to be) young boys doing this amazing acrobatics, so we stopped and watched them for a while. It is such a shame that they had to lay off some of the wonderful entertainment. I think it is that which really makes Epcot what it is, especially World Showcase. At any rate, I don't know what these boys were called, but they were fantastic. After their performance ended, we did some more window shopping, and we played with all of the different Chinese toys in the store. We did get a couple of strange looks from the CMs that were working there, but we were having fun, and we weren't doing anything wrong... besides I was too busy enjoying my layered Margarita still
We stepped out of China and into Germany. Again, some more window shopping, and on to Italy. We stopped in Italy to watch a masquerade... JR really liked two of the girls in the masquerade, so we had to stop and watch. After that was over, we headed into the American Adventure. It was there that we heard Barrage, and we stopped to listen a while. We were going to wait for the next showing of the American Adventure, but it wasn't for another hour or so and we didn't want to wait so we moved on...
Japan was next, and we shopped for a while in Mitsukoshu (or something like that). JR found a T-shirt that he wanted, so he bought that. By that time, we were getting a little tired (and the Margarita was wearing off), so we found a bench and just people watched for a little while. That is one of my favorite things to do... While we were sitting there, we met a man from Massachusetts, who was visiting with his wife and two kids. We talked for a while, and then, when I started to get looks from Alex (he is not exactly a social butterfly), we moved on.
We walked around in Morocco, and we took a picture of one of the prayer temple things. The tiling was beautiful. I told Alex that I wanted to visit Morocco someday, and he said we could. We'll see about that!
After Morocco, we headed over to France and checked out all of the shops there. We tested out all of the fragrances, and I'm sure we smelled pretty bad by the time we were done!! We stopped just in time to see one of the living statues. She was amazing!! You couldn't even see her breathe! One man got up next to her to have his picture taken with her, and she quickly put her arms around his chest... he laughed and then kind of ducked to get out from under her- and she moved with him!! It was so funny. They did that for a while, and then she let him go. Again, the entertainment is what makes Epcot's World Showcase what it is. We really enjoyed watching all of it.
By then, it was around 5pm or so, and our dinner PS were for 7:30, so we decided to go out the International Gateway and take a boat over to the Boardwalk. We hopped on one of the Friendship boats and went over to the Boardwalk. We looked around in the stores and thought about renting a Surrey bike, but JR didn't want to (gotta protect your image, you know), so we decided against it. Next time we will. Around 6:30 or so, we decided to head back when one of the boats pulled up, so we hopped on, and headed back over to Epcot.
We were walking up into World Showcase when we saw my parents. We had told them to meet us around 7pm or so in front of the Rose & Crown, and it was perfect timing!! We put our names in for PS, and asked politely for patio seating, which they replied, "You want it, just like everyone else..." then gave us a pager and said it would vibrate when our table was ready. We all walked over to a stage where the British Invasion was playing, and my mom and I danced in the street to the music with another woman whose husband refused to dance with her. The boys (the woman's husband, Alex, JR, and my Dad) just kind of looked at us like we were crazy, but we were having fun!!
After dancing, we sit on a bench, and after a few minutes our pager goes off... We go to the podium, and are taken to our table.. which is... ON THE LOWER PATIO! Yeah!
We order our drinks- my mom and I decided to share the Beer Sampler thing they have... we liked all but the Guiness, which Alex drank for us. We ordered appetizers- the fruit and cheese plate (2), and I think JR ordered Lamb Barley soup or something. Four of us order the Prime Rib, and Dad orders the Salmon Filet, all of which are very good. For dessert, we order 2 of the Sherry Trifle and Lemon Posset, which we all share as we watch Illuminations. It was wonderful being able to sit and watch with noone crowding around you...
There is just something about Epcot at Night- I don't know if it's Illuminations or just the beauty of it, but Alex and I always feel like we fall in love all over again, and we just have to leave the park hand in hand.
After we got back to the hotel and up to our room, we had a message waiting for us. Alex listened to it, and he said that there was a package for us in the lobby and we should go pick it up. So, I said I would go with him because JR was going to take a shower.
We walked down to the lobby, and the CM asked our name and room number, and then went to get the package. (I tried so hard not to smile because the package was from Pixie Gifts for Alex's birthday). Well, the CM comes out of the back room a few minutes later and she has two gift bags and a large box. Alex looks at me and immediately knows it's for him and it is for his birthday
So, we take the gifts bags and boxes and walk back up to our room. Inside, he opens them and finds:
An Eeyore T-Shirt (his favorite character)
An Eeyore picture frame
6 pack of Budweiser (he loves his Bud)
A Mickey Bottle Opener
A Sorcerer Mickey light chaser
Two Mickey Champagne glasses
A Bottle of Champagne
And the Villains snowglobe (he collects snowglobes)
Of course, he goes to get the ice and we have a toast to a great vacation and a wonderful birthday for Alex
All in all, we had a great day, our favorite part was the Illuminations from the Rose & Crown Pub.
*Day One- Airport, Magic Kingdom, and Chef Mickeys*
Cast of Characters:
Marsha ~ *ME!* ~ 23 years old, trip planner, 4th trip to Disney World
Alex ~ *DH* ~ Turned 24 years old on trip, 3rd trip to Disney World
JR ~ *My Brother-in-law, Alex's brother* ~ 18 years old, 1st (real) trip to Disney World
Special Appearances by:
Carol ~ *my Mom* ~ age withheld, 3rd trip to Disney World
Bob ~ *my Dad* ~ age also withheld, 3rd trip to Disney World
*Day Two- Epcot Center, Garden Grill, and Rose & Crown Pub*
Planned Itinerary:
Breakfast- Intermission Food Court
Lunch- Garden Grill Character Lunch
Dinner- Rose & Crown Pub
Park: Epcot Center
Today is Epcot Center, and we were determined to be up and at em for park opening. We set the wake up call for 8:00am (can you believe Epcot doesn't open until 10 now?!?), and I was hoping that JR would answer it, but he was too zonked, so Alex did. I hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, got dressed, and woke up the boys. JR is a very deep sleeper, so he was kind of tough to get up, but once he did, he was fine. Once we were all dressed and ready to go, we grabbed our park gear and our refillable mugs and headed for the Intermission Food Court. We grabbed muffins, bagels, and breakfast sandwiches, ate a leisurely breakfast, and then headed out to the bus stop. We had great timing because our bus was just pulling up when we got out there
. We hopped onto the bus, and headed for Epcot Center. We got there around 10:25am or so and we walked right through the turnstiles and admired Spaceship Earth. Afterwards, we started to walk over towards Test Track we wanted to ride this before it broke down
or the line was too long. Well, wouldn't you know it- there was already a 40 minute wait, so we decided to do the single riders line... I dont know why, but last year, we were pretty disappointed in this, but this year it seemed a lot better... I don't know why, but we loved it so much more!! In the Test Track store, Alex and I purchased a Test Track magnet for my mother-in-law (she collects magnets)... It was really cute! It had Mickey in the middle of the Test Track car, and two goofys on either side of Mickey- I thought it was a perfect representation of the three of us! LOL JR also purchased a test track shot glass (one of the many he would purchase on our trip )One our way over to Ice Station Cool, we stop at a pin station and purchase two of the Magical Moments pins... one for me and one for Alex. JR said he didn't want one
. After we put our pins on, we walk over towards Ice Station Cool and trick JR into trying Beverly... I figured with my luck he would like it, but he didn't. We had a lot of fun trying all of the different sodas and mixing different ones. JR found another shot glass in the store, but he decided not to purchase it. We headed over to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience because Alex and I had missed it last year- it was so fun!! I love the part where the little kid "picks" up the audience... how funny!
Before we knew it, it was 12:00, and we needed to head over to the Land pavilion, where we had PS for lunch at the Garden Grill. I was kind of hesitant about the food that they served there, but was willing to try! I am so glad I did- the sunflower bread was awesome, as was the garden salad, flank steak, and turkey. None of us ate the catfish, so we offered it to Chip (or was it Dale?), but he didn't want it either!
We had a great time interacting with the characters. One thing I noticed was that the restaurant wasn't very busy. Either no one knows about it or not a lot of people like it was the assumption I made. I thought it was so cool how the restaurant revolves. Okay, little things amuse me, I am happy to admit that . During lunch, I asked the boys if they wanted to go back to the hotel to relax a bit, and they said that they wanted to stay in the park, so that's what we did. I don't know, maybe it's the Disney magic that gives you endless energy
After lunch, we headed down to the Living with the Land boat ride, but the wait was something like 45 minutes or so, so we decided to skip it. Out of the Land pavilion we went. I asked the boys if they wanted to go see the Living Seas, and they decided against it, so we headed over to the Kodak What If? Labs. (I think that's what they are called.) We had a great time e-mailing pics to everyone. We turned Alex into a cat:
We turned JR into an owl:
And, here is a picture of the three of us having a great time:
After playing around with the pictures, and the different exhibits they offered, we decided to head over to World Showcase. We started in Mexico, where we rode the El Rio De Tempo (I think that's what it's called), and that was okay. The boys thought it was too much like It's a Small World, which they both adamantly refused to ride!
We looked around inside Mexico (I think I embarassed JR when I tried on one of the HUGE sombreros and started dancing around while Alex was making a pit stop), and then headed back out into the warm sunshine Before leaving Mexico and entering Norway, I just HAD to get a layered Margarita, which was excellent by the way We entered Norway, and the guys didn't want to do the boat ride, so we window shopped a little, and then headed over to China. In China, they had these (what looked to be) young boys doing this amazing acrobatics, so we stopped and watched them for a while. It is such a shame that they had to lay off some of the wonderful entertainment. I think it is that which really makes Epcot what it is, especially World Showcase. At any rate, I don't know what these boys were called, but they were fantastic. After their performance ended, we did some more window shopping, and we played with all of the different Chinese toys in the store. We did get a couple of strange looks from the CMs that were working there, but we were having fun, and we weren't doing anything wrong... besides I was too busy enjoying my layered Margarita still
We stepped out of China and into Germany. Again, some more window shopping, and on to Italy. We stopped in Italy to watch a masquerade... JR really liked two of the girls in the masquerade, so we had to stop and watch.
After that was over, we headed into the American Adventure. It was there that we heard Barrage, and we stopped to listen a while. We were going to wait for the next showing of the American Adventure, but it wasn't for another hour or so and we didn't want to wait so we moved on... Japan was next, and we shopped for a while in Mitsukoshu (or something like that). JR found a T-shirt that he wanted, so he bought that. By that time, we were getting a little tired (and the Margarita was wearing off), so we found a bench and just people watched for a little while. That is one of my favorite things to do... While we were sitting there, we met a man from Massachusetts, who was visiting with his wife and two kids. We talked for a while, and then, when I started to get looks from Alex (he is not exactly a social butterfly
), we moved on.We walked around in Morocco, and we took a picture of one of the prayer temple things. The tiling was beautiful. I told Alex that I wanted to visit Morocco someday, and he said we could. We'll see about that!
After Morocco, we headed over to France and checked out all of the shops there. We tested out all of the fragrances, and I'm sure we smelled pretty bad by the time we were done
!! We stopped just in time to see one of the living statues. She was amazing!! You couldn't even see her breathe! One man got up next to her to have his picture taken with her, and she quickly put her arms around his chest... he laughed and then kind of ducked to get out from under her- and she moved with him!! It was so funny. They did that for a while, and then she let him go. Again, the entertainment is what makes Epcot's World Showcase what it is. We really enjoyed watching all of it.By then, it was around 5pm or so, and our dinner PS were for 7:30, so we decided to go out the International Gateway and take a boat over to the Boardwalk. We hopped on one of the Friendship boats and went over to the Boardwalk. We looked around in the stores and thought about renting a Surrey bike, but JR didn't want to (gotta protect your image, you know
), so we decided against it. Next time we will. Around 6:30 or so, we decided to head back when one of the boats pulled up, so we hopped on, and headed back over to Epcot.We were walking up into World Showcase when we saw my parents. We had told them to meet us around 7pm or so in front of the Rose & Crown, and it was perfect timing!! We put our names in for PS, and asked politely for patio seating, which they replied, "You want it, just like everyone else..." then gave us a pager and said it would vibrate when our table was ready. We all walked over to a stage where the British Invasion was playing, and my mom and I danced in the street to the music with another woman whose husband refused to dance with her. The boys (the woman's husband, Alex, JR, and my Dad) just kind of looked at us like we were crazy, but we were having fun!!
After dancing, we sit on a bench, and after a few minutes our pager goes off... We go to the podium, and are taken to our table.. which is... ON THE LOWER PATIO! Yeah!
We order our drinks- my mom and I decided to share the Beer Sampler thing they have... we liked all but the Guiness, which Alex drank for us. We ordered appetizers- the fruit and cheese plate (2), and I think JR ordered Lamb Barley soup or something. Four of us order the Prime Rib, and Dad orders the Salmon Filet, all of which are very good. For dessert, we order 2 of the Sherry Trifle and Lemon Posset, which we all share as we watch Illuminations. It was wonderful being able to sit and watch with noone crowding around you...
There is just something about Epcot at Night- I don't know if it's Illuminations or just the beauty of it, but Alex and I always feel like we fall in love all over again
, and we just have to leave the park hand in hand. After we got back to the hotel and up to our room, we had a message waiting for us. Alex listened to it, and he said that there was a package for us in the lobby and we should go pick it up. So, I said I would go with him because JR was going to take a shower.
We walked down to the lobby, and the CM asked our name and room number, and then went to get the package. (I tried so hard not to smile because the package was from Pixie Gifts for Alex's birthday
). Well, the CM comes out of the back room a few minutes later and she has two gift bags and a large box. Alex looks at me and immediately knows it's for him and it is for his birthday So, we take the gifts bags and boxes and walk back up to our room. Inside, he opens them and finds:
An Eeyore T-Shirt (his favorite character)
An Eeyore picture frame
6 pack of Budweiser (he loves his Bud)
A Mickey Bottle Opener
A Sorcerer Mickey light chaser
Two Mickey Champagne glasses
A Bottle of Champagne
And the Villains snowglobe (he collects snowglobes)
Of course, he goes to get the ice and we have a toast to a great vacation and a wonderful birthday for Alex
All in all, we had a great day, our favorite part was the Illuminations from the Rose & Crown Pub.
