Day 2

Sorry this installment has taken so long…still waiting on pictures!! This is going to be long, so grab a snack and settle in!

Day 2 of the trip was Day 1 in the parks. As per guidance from the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (a must read if you’re going to WDW!), the Unofficial Guide’s planning website (www.touringplans.com) and Tour Guide Mike’s website (can’t remember the link), plus advice from a fabulous Disney World planning board (www.disboards.com), we knew that EPCOT was the park to do today.

We got up early, ate breakfast in the room, made sure we had everything we needed in the trusty backpack, and headed out the door. We only waited a few minutes for the bus to EPCOT and we were off! We arrived at EPCOT about 35 minutes before it opened, got right through the bag check line, and were almost at the front of the line for entrance.

We were there on the day they started dismantling the wand and Mickey’s arm from around the “ball” (Spaceship Earth). We got a picture of it that morning…I’m glad we did because when we went back on Friday those were more than 50% dismantled.

I don’t have my notes with me on what order we did the rides in, but I will tell you that we followed the touring plan pretty closely, only omitting rides we knew the girls wouldn’t like (Mission Space), rides that were closed (Spaceship Earth), and things the girls weren’t interested in seeing (Innovations – although I really want to go back and see this!). We also inserted an afternoon break (more on that later). Other than Soarin’ and Character Connection, the longest line we stood in was about 15 minutes, thanks to the touring plans and using FastPass on everything we could. Instead of doing a play-by-play, I’ll just tell you what we thought of the rides we did…

Soarin’ – the first ride we did. We loved it! It is really neat – love the smell of the oranges and the feeling of gliding through the air. This was B’s favorite ride.

TestTrack – DH did this one himself and really loved it. He convinced us all to go on it by the end of the week, as you will see on Day 6!

Finding Nemo – cute ride, very similar in nature to the “classic” Disney World rides. The theming in the waiting area is really fun – beachy, looks like you’re underwater in part of it.

Turtle Talk with Crush – very fun. The kids loved it. It was really neat how Crush interacted with the audience – very cool technology.

Character Connection – the girls told us before the trip that they weren’t interested in meeting characters…they told us before we got in the gates at EPCOT that they weren’t interested in meeting characters. And then B saw the Character Connection and we HAD to meet the characters! LOL We met, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. It was cute, although the 35 minute wait was a bit long (I thought).

Living with the Land – very interesting. This is where we saw watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other melons growing on trees and growing suspended from the ceiling. It was really neat! And 9 pound lemons – they were huge! We enjoyed this ride. It was one of the few that we did twice.

Cool Station – tried different Coke products, some good and some not. I had been warned at Beverly (Italian drink) so I didn’t try it, but DH did. Other than that, they were all pretty good. The girls liked a German drink that tasted like cola but with orange flavoring. I liked the watermelon flavored one from China.

We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons. The food was great and the servings were HUGE. I highly recommend using the Disney Dining Plan! The food was all really good. Especially the desserts! B and I had roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and baby carrots and DH and A had something from the Asian station. For dessert we had fruit tarts, chocolate mousse cake, and something else that I can’t remember. LOL

Next we headed to the different countries but only made it through a few of them before deciding we were ready for a break. We went back to the hotel to swim and rest for a while. We enjoyed the flower-shaped Hippy Dip pool at the hotel. This 2 hour break was just what we needed to recharge. We headed back for our dinner reservation at Coral Reef. This restaurant is so cool – a huge aquarium takes up the entire length of the restaurant so we saw giant turtles, sharks, and all sorts of sea creatures, plus divers. The food was absolutely incredible, other than my appetizer (a salad). A had the lobster soup appetizer and she loved it. DH had shrimp cocktail and said it was good. For dinner, M, A, and B all had grilled mahi mahi and they loved it. I had a steak – oh my goodness, it was the best steak I have ever eaten. And then dessert. M, A, and I all had the cheesecake. It was, by far, the lightest and best cheesecake I have ever eaten. It had a raspberry sauce and a drizzled sugar decoration. I finished the entire thing! SO yummy. B got a “make your own sundae” that came with vanilla bean ice cream (also yummy), with hot fudge sauce, sprinkles, and M&Ms. That was fun.

After dinner we headed back to visit the different countries. I wish we had more time to spend there…and I wish we weren’t so full from dinner – there were some foods I wanted to sample but we were just too stuffed! We stopped for a while to watch a concert by an Abba-type group (SO fun – the girls and I love Abba) and then continued touring. The roses and other landscaping were beautiful. But even at 8 p.m. it was darn hot. We found our spot to settle in and watch Illuminations. Even though it wasn’t the spot I wanted, it was a good viewing location. We really enjoyed the show…and headed out of the park and back to the hotel to crash and sleep very soundly!

Our initial impression, from this first day in the parks, was that the touring plans really do work, especially if you omit the things you don’t want to do and add in the things you do want to do. We didn’t get to see everything EPCOT had to offer, but we did see everything we wanted to see. Again, it would have been nice to spend more time in the countries but we can do that on another trip! We also realized the importance of that afternoon break. For some reason, swimming for a little while (or just laying down in the air conditioned room for a little while) really recharges your batteries so you can make it through the rest of the day. We were glad we took the advice to take a break every afternoon.

Oh – the girls really, really got into pin trading which would prove to be almost an obsession for them over the rest of the trip. LOL They traded pins with lots of difference Disney Cast Members and figured out quickly which pins they wanted and the etiquette of pin trading. I bought them each another trading set, plus a birthstone Tinkerbell pin, and they each ended up buying another trading set with their own money, plus a couple other pins with their own money. By the end of the trip I was pretty tired of looking at pins, but they both ended up with a beautiful collection, including some collector pins that can’t be bought in the parks. Not too bad!

Next installment…Disney MGM Studios and our first “Dream” experience!