Daysleeper40
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2007
- Messages
- 526
Prequel and link to days 0 - 2 can be found here
Wednesday 11th May 2011 -
I don't know how M does it but he was STILL asleep at 6am... I'd been awake for AGES! I finally decided to get up and sneak off to the bathroom to formulate a plan of action for the day. If you have been reading days 0 - 2 you know that Day 2 was a mammoth Disney extravaganza that included our destination for Day 3 - EPCOT. The great thing about this was that:
a) We had already seen Illuminations so could go for the 18:15 shuttle bus return,
and
b) We had a park map and a good idea of the layout of EPCOT - and we'd already ridden one ride off our "must do" list.
I marked all the other "must do" attractions on the map and decided the general order we would try to do things in. I also changed our existing reservation at Coral Reef from 16:15 to a lunchtime slot at 12:30. I was very happy to see that one was still available after all the stories I have heard of people booking so far in advance. For a long time in the run up to our holiday I could not decide between Coral Reef and the San Angel Inn. I think if we had stayed late and had dinner at EPCOT this night I would have gone for the mexican but M had always been keen on Coral Reef and I liked the idea of a lighter fish lunch.
In no time at all I had finished planning and we were both up and ready waiting for the 8:10 shuttle. It arrived promptly and we arrived at EPCOT at about 8:30 / 8:35 - and it was already a scorcher even this early in the day! The other great thing about EPCOT for us was that the shuttle picked up and dropped off there - so no other Disney transport for us on this day - HOOORAY!!!
There was a bit of a queue through bag check and the turnstiles and then we got to experience rope drop for the first time.
Our plan of attack was to head to Test Track first, grab a fast pass and head over to ride Soarin so at the fountain we stuck to the left side while the rope drop malarky went on. The plan worked better than we could have imagined - as the rope dropped and we all walked forward we found ourselves directly behind the Test Track Cast member... and I mean DIRECTLY BEHIND behind her. I couldn't believe it - how the hell had we ended up essentially first in the queue? (after the rope drop people obviously) I've got to be honest - as we arrived at TT and started to make our way through the queue I got a bit emotional about the great start to the day - I was just really really happy!
We actually ended up I think on the third car of the day - as we were front and centre we decided to abandon the FP idea and just ride the thing. We both really enjoyed TT and have a very funny ride photo to prove it! I liked the fact we could get our ride photo saved on the photo-pass card thingy so we didn't have to carry it around all day. M also got very excited afterwards as he found "Bumblebee" in the exit area... please excuse the terrible photo but you get the idea:
After TT we decided to change our plans a bit and headed off to pick up a FP at Soarin. My stupid demagnetised ticket wouldn't work again but there was a LOVELY CM who gave me a special seperate FP ticket doodad that would work all day so I didn't have to keep asking for help. Nice! Our FP return time was 10:30 - 11:30.
Next stop was the whole "In the Sea" area - and I've got to say this was a HUGE hit with both of us.
We rode the Nemo & friends ride - love how they've integrated the characters into the ride and the song was very infectious. Turtle Talk with Crush was fantastic - one of the few things at Disney that had an adult humour edge to it while still great for the kids. Brilliant attraction - I wish we'd had time for another go round! We also enjoyed viewing all the tanks with the manatees, eagle rays, green sea turtles and dolphons clear favourites. To be honest it's obviously not going to replace Sea World for us but it is a great section of EPCOT all the same.
It was about time for our Soarin FP at this point so we headed over to The Land for 10:30 - really pleased with our progress so far.
M got given one of those "how long is the queue taking" lanyard things at Soarin and as far as I remember it didn't take long at all. As you can see by the above picture I was really excited for Soarin... and to be honest I was a little bit disappointed. M was even more disappointed! I liked the whole concept and the "soarin" sensation was all good - but the image quality just wasn't up to much in my opinion. I think they need to revamp it into digital 3D - that would be cool! It wasn't a total wash out but after all I'd heard it just didn't live up to the hype for me.
The exact opposite was true for the next ride though - I had no real expectations for the "Living with the Land" boat ride, I thought it would be a bit "meh" but I actually really enjoyed it. I found the whole thing really interesting and it was a nice relaxing interlude in the day. After this we paused for a bit of water and a quick write up of some notes. M was in charge of note taking this day and he has written that someone was "a bit windy" and although I've got to admire his attention to detail - I'm thinking this is a step too far!!
It was about 12:15 at this point and almost time for our lunch reservation so we headed off to Coral Reef to pick up a pager and peruse the menu outside...
We only had to wait about five minutes for the pager to go off - and actually we almost missed the fact that it was. We were then escorted to a table on the top tier which was a bit disappointing but you do get a good view of the whole tank rather than just a small section if you were sat tankside.
We ordered a couple of cokes and enjoyed the lovely bread and butter - suddenly hunger had hit!! We were both trying to embrace the "try something new" theme we had agreed on re food so I opted for the Mahi Mahi and M went completely against his normal instincts and chose lobster ravioli. I was suprised and impressed by his daring at such an expensive restaraunt!
Turns out both were lovely though so it was all good. We opted out of desert as we still had A LOT of theme-parking to do and thought a visit to the ice cream place would be in order later in the day... and we would DEFINATELY be going to Kringla Bakeri. We both agreed the service was good at CR and the food was very nice - but it is definately over-priced. Our lunch came to something like $72 inc tip which is a lot for what we ordered. I'm guessing most of the Disney table service places are equally over-priced though and it wasn't exactly unexpected at a Disney theme park. We were both really glad to have gone though so it was all good!
Up next - we wander round the World and I experience "School Bread" for the first time.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Wednesday 11th May 2011 -
I don't know how M does it but he was STILL asleep at 6am... I'd been awake for AGES! I finally decided to get up and sneak off to the bathroom to formulate a plan of action for the day. If you have been reading days 0 - 2 you know that Day 2 was a mammoth Disney extravaganza that included our destination for Day 3 - EPCOT. The great thing about this was that:
a) We had already seen Illuminations so could go for the 18:15 shuttle bus return,
and
b) We had a park map and a good idea of the layout of EPCOT - and we'd already ridden one ride off our "must do" list.
I marked all the other "must do" attractions on the map and decided the general order we would try to do things in. I also changed our existing reservation at Coral Reef from 16:15 to a lunchtime slot at 12:30. I was very happy to see that one was still available after all the stories I have heard of people booking so far in advance. For a long time in the run up to our holiday I could not decide between Coral Reef and the San Angel Inn. I think if we had stayed late and had dinner at EPCOT this night I would have gone for the mexican but M had always been keen on Coral Reef and I liked the idea of a lighter fish lunch.
In no time at all I had finished planning and we were both up and ready waiting for the 8:10 shuttle. It arrived promptly and we arrived at EPCOT at about 8:30 / 8:35 - and it was already a scorcher even this early in the day! The other great thing about EPCOT for us was that the shuttle picked up and dropped off there - so no other Disney transport for us on this day - HOOORAY!!!
There was a bit of a queue through bag check and the turnstiles and then we got to experience rope drop for the first time.
Our plan of attack was to head to Test Track first, grab a fast pass and head over to ride Soarin so at the fountain we stuck to the left side while the rope drop malarky went on. The plan worked better than we could have imagined - as the rope dropped and we all walked forward we found ourselves directly behind the Test Track Cast member... and I mean DIRECTLY BEHIND behind her. I couldn't believe it - how the hell had we ended up essentially first in the queue? (after the rope drop people obviously) I've got to be honest - as we arrived at TT and started to make our way through the queue I got a bit emotional about the great start to the day - I was just really really happy!
We actually ended up I think on the third car of the day - as we were front and centre we decided to abandon the FP idea and just ride the thing. We both really enjoyed TT and have a very funny ride photo to prove it! I liked the fact we could get our ride photo saved on the photo-pass card thingy so we didn't have to carry it around all day. M also got very excited afterwards as he found "Bumblebee" in the exit area... please excuse the terrible photo but you get the idea:
After TT we decided to change our plans a bit and headed off to pick up a FP at Soarin. My stupid demagnetised ticket wouldn't work again but there was a LOVELY CM who gave me a special seperate FP ticket doodad that would work all day so I didn't have to keep asking for help. Nice! Our FP return time was 10:30 - 11:30.
Next stop was the whole "In the Sea" area - and I've got to say this was a HUGE hit with both of us.
We rode the Nemo & friends ride - love how they've integrated the characters into the ride and the song was very infectious. Turtle Talk with Crush was fantastic - one of the few things at Disney that had an adult humour edge to it while still great for the kids. Brilliant attraction - I wish we'd had time for another go round! We also enjoyed viewing all the tanks with the manatees, eagle rays, green sea turtles and dolphons clear favourites. To be honest it's obviously not going to replace Sea World for us but it is a great section of EPCOT all the same.
It was about time for our Soarin FP at this point so we headed over to The Land for 10:30 - really pleased with our progress so far.
M got given one of those "how long is the queue taking" lanyard things at Soarin and as far as I remember it didn't take long at all. As you can see by the above picture I was really excited for Soarin... and to be honest I was a little bit disappointed. M was even more disappointed! I liked the whole concept and the "soarin" sensation was all good - but the image quality just wasn't up to much in my opinion. I think they need to revamp it into digital 3D - that would be cool! It wasn't a total wash out but after all I'd heard it just didn't live up to the hype for me.
The exact opposite was true for the next ride though - I had no real expectations for the "Living with the Land" boat ride, I thought it would be a bit "meh" but I actually really enjoyed it. I found the whole thing really interesting and it was a nice relaxing interlude in the day. After this we paused for a bit of water and a quick write up of some notes. M was in charge of note taking this day and he has written that someone was "a bit windy" and although I've got to admire his attention to detail - I'm thinking this is a step too far!!
It was about 12:15 at this point and almost time for our lunch reservation so we headed off to Coral Reef to pick up a pager and peruse the menu outside...
We only had to wait about five minutes for the pager to go off - and actually we almost missed the fact that it was. We were then escorted to a table on the top tier which was a bit disappointing but you do get a good view of the whole tank rather than just a small section if you were sat tankside.
We ordered a couple of cokes and enjoyed the lovely bread and butter - suddenly hunger had hit!! We were both trying to embrace the "try something new" theme we had agreed on re food so I opted for the Mahi Mahi and M went completely against his normal instincts and chose lobster ravioli. I was suprised and impressed by his daring at such an expensive restaraunt!
Turns out both were lovely though so it was all good. We opted out of desert as we still had A LOT of theme-parking to do and thought a visit to the ice cream place would be in order later in the day... and we would DEFINATELY be going to Kringla Bakeri. We both agreed the service was good at CR and the food was very nice - but it is definately over-priced. Our lunch came to something like $72 inc tip which is a lot for what we ordered. I'm guessing most of the Disney table service places are equally over-priced though and it wasn't exactly unexpected at a Disney theme park. We were both really glad to have gone though so it was all good!
Up next - we wander round the World and I experience "School Bread" for the first time.
TO BE CONTINUED...
