I am excited about Day 8. Heck, you should be too. We are pulling up out of a little bit of a valley in our photographic journey and heading back to an upslope to go to one of my favorite parks, EPCOT. We only touched upon a small part of EPCOT on our first day and I was anxious to get back now since there is so much more to see. I especially love the night at the World Showcase and Illuminations and we were not there at night our first day. I picked a Thurs to head to EPCOT since it was one of the 2 days in the week that Fantasmic was showing at DHS and it was an EMH day at MK as well as a Spectro night. I was hoping these factors would draw the crowds away from EPCOT. This turned out to be the case but it may have also come back to bite us a little as I will explain in a bit.
I got up at 7:30 AM and got myself ready early but my wife and I decided to let the kids sleep a little more today. I was feeling much better today and my cold was down to a point where it was not going to slow me down any further. It was just a minor nuisance. This was the only day on our trip where my SIL's family was ready to go before us. I think their new arrivals were itching to get the party started. So we told them to head off without us and we would catch up later. We did this a lot on this trip but I think it is good to have a fair amount of time apart when you travel with a group anyway.
We got to the bus around 10AM and we had our worst bus experience of the week. I get it that DHS and MK would likely have more busses running due to the factors that I mentioned above. However, as we were waiting for an EPCOT bus there were 4 busses that came by for DHS as well as 4 for MK and the EPCOT bus was definitely MIA. When bus 3 came along for MK there were only about 15 people on line for MK. There was a bus directly on its tail without its marquee lit up. Our neglected line of EPCOT travelers were all in suspense. Was this finally our blasted bus? Then the marquee gets lit up with Magic Kingdom. There was an audible groan from the line. How can this be? The bus directly in front of it is not going to even come close to filling up when it takes everyone waiting for MK. So, I decided to walk over to "the guy" who looked like he served some functional purpose regarding busses since he had an official looking clipboard and a radio. I was very cordial to him and asked if it was possible to redirect that second bus to EPCOT since it clearly was not needed. He was nice as well but he told me he can not re-direct busses. He said the EPCOT bus got held up but it is on its way. I am now wondering what purpose he actually does serve but I did not say anything. I am really non-confrontational and I did not want to get worked up over a bus. So I went back to line feeling so much better that and EPCOT bus was "on its way". Couldn't that be true no matter where it was. Anyway a little bit later he did come by and tell me that if I wanted to call in and complain that he can give me the number. It was almost as if he wanted me to call but I was not interested in complaining I just wanted to get to the park. After another coupe of busses our EPCOT bus finally arrived and there was much rejoicing. So, my lesson from this experience is that if you are going to head to a park that is anticipated to have less people that day you may want to allocate more time to get there since there are probably less busses running there.
Once we got in we got some photopass pics and I took a pic or two from the front.
My wife called her sister to see where they were. They were waiting on line for Spaceship Earth. Ugh, I have failed them as a Disney Geek. I should have told them before they left that you don't go to SE when you get in if there is a line. That is where everyone else goes that does not know any better when they first get in. We are not going to head there ourselves, thank you. Instead we checked out the common board with wait times and saw that Soarin was only 15 min. We can't pass that up so I sent the wife and kids over yo the Land while I headed to Test Track to pick up Fast Passes and then catch up.
We got to soarin and I was going to ask for a front row seat but there was no need. We were headed there anyway. Ok, great, no feet dangling in front of us to distract us this time. As we are watching though I notice that there are grid lines in the screen that I never picked up on before. I think because you are seeing more of the sky which is a lighter solid picture that these lines stand out more. Now that I have discovered these lines I can't help but fixate on them. Ugh, I try to concentrate on not paying them any heed but of course that makes me even more fixated on them. Geez I need help. After we get off our clan wanted to go on another flight so we ride one more time. This time we are in middle row. Since I have grids lines on my brain I cant control looking for them and still see them. Great. Now I am going to fixate on these every time I get on the darned ride. I can say though they are less noticeable in the second row. If you are reading this and are saying what grid lines then pretend you never read this ok. This is just ramblings of a loon. There is nothing there to see ok. Don't even think about it. They probably reconditioned the screen already and there is nothing there so don't look for them.
When we get off, the Kids wanted to stop at Kidcot station there. I told my wife I would head over to Mission Space and grab FastPasses and meet them at the Imagination Pavilion. I get the FPs, stop at the fountain on the way back and help take some pictures of a family and then get to the front of the Imagination Pavilion and wait and wait and wait.
Eventually I call my wife's cell
Wife: "Hello"
Me: "Oh, I am sorry, I must have the wrong number. My wife doesn't answer her cell phone."
Wife "Funny, just don't get used to it"
Me: "Ok, so where are you"
Wife: "We are at Imaginations like you said"
Me: "Ok, great I am at the Imagination Pavilion also. Where exactly are you"
Wife: "We are right outside the building with all the characters in it"
Me: bang, bang, bang
Wife: "What is that sound"
Me: "That's just me banging my head into a pole"
Wife: "Oh ok, I think you might want to stop that"
Me: "Probably a good idea"
"So you are at Innoventions, not the Imagination Pavilion"
Wife; "Oh, where is that?"
Just a little insight into my world and why therapy might do me some good.
So after we clear up our EPCOT geography we are all together and head in to see our purple friend.
There was no line for this but I am not sure we have ever seen a line on this. However, it does have some entertainment value for our kids. The best part though was after the ride in the Kodak Labs. My kids had a good time playing around there.
After this is was time to eat. We had heard from SIL and they were in the land heading on Soarin so we went there to meet up at Sunshine Seasons. As mentioned in a previous post, I think this is one of the best CS places on property. After we catch up and eat my SIL's family was going to head off for a KP mission. Been there, done that. No need to save the world again this trip so we continue our separate ways and we headed to use our FP for Test Track.
On the way over though we saw Chip and Dale and had to stop since my daughter loves them. They kept coming after one of the Moms that had a candy bar and I was curious what was going on. Then the handler said that her candy bar has nuts in it and they are going crazy for the nuts. Too funny.
We got sidetracked passing by Innoventions and went in to see if they had different characters for the Visa Picture spot. It was the same as our first day
though: Mickey and Pluto. While we were there the kids wanted to try "The Great Piggy Bank Adventure". I would not usually have thought of stopping for this but I did say I wanted to try new experiences this trip. You get this little piggy bank and you take it through different stations and play games that are supposed to teach you how to save. The games were a lot of fun for the kids and they had a great time with it.
Now it was finally time to head to TT.
We all have a great time on this ride especially my daughter who was afraid to go on it last trip. Things change so much in 2 years. Note that If you plan on getting a photopass CD then don't forget to get your ride picture on your photopass card. This is one of the only rides that you can do this.
After TT we went to MS. I am not one to enjoy getting dizzy. I get disorientated enough without any assistance. So my wife went by herself to the "Are you nuts" version and I took my kids through the mild side. I'll admit it, my wife has a stronger constitution than I. I tried to take a picture outside but the sky was awful today so I did not get anything I was too pleased with.
Next up was Universe of Energy. We enjoy this but it does take up a large chunk of time. I also admit that this time my eyelids were getting a tad heavy. A combination of a slow and dark attraction can be dangerous in the afternoon when you start to get a little tired.
Now it was time to finally make it over to Spaceship Earth. It was a walk on. See I told you it would be better later. I showed some pictures from our first day. Here are some different ones:
Now we are off to World Showcase. The sky has been gray all day but it started to look more ominous. I was hoping we would make it around the world without the skies opening up on us.
As usual did not allocate enough time for the World Showcase. I see people who dedicate separate days for the World Showcase. That is probably a good idea but I am not sure we could make it through Future World without getting pulled into the attractions. At this stage it was 5:30 and we had 6:45 Dinner reservations in Norway. So we decided to skip right on past Canada, UK and France since we saw them our first day. From there we took a whirlwind tour of the rest of the world. We had to stop at Kidcot stations at each country but didn't have too much time to explore too much more than that. Here are some pictures from our quick romp around the world.
One of these trips I really do need to find a way to devote more time to see the details of all the countries. We made it around to Norway at 6:20. Whew that was quick. Coming up in my next post will be Dinner and a Show.
. Its almost like being there! I was wondering if you shoot RAW or JPEG?
The Contemporary shot is awesome. Fave shot of the Wishes bunch is the 3rd. Very nice, but again, all of them are. I can just hear the music looking at the EWP pics!
I can say that some nights when I went off with just my main camera body and a couple lenses my back and shoulders were very grateful.
