Sunday, December 6, 2009

Disney, Day 3

Tuesday, we hit Epcot center. We got up and moving with the lofty goal of making it there for the 8 a.m. Magic Hours. But having not 'felt the magic of magic hours' the night before, we didn't rush too hard. We made it 15 minutes before the general public was allowed in.



That was enough time for us to get Stitch's autograph, and to send the boys rollin and running for Fastpasses to Soarin' with the strollers while the Mamas poked around a giftshop, powdered noses, and watched the line for Spaceship Earth aka the Epcot Ball ride. The boys even swung by and picked up some breakfast for us, Eric got me Creme Brulee, and ended up sharing his eggs with Chris, who ate more than half of them. Then we rode Spaceship Earth, and the boys LOVED that ride. Chris was a little nervous when the cavemen were attacking a wooly mammoth, but once I explained that they were telling a story he was good. At one point they flip us on our backs to go kind of downhill, and I thought Chris would Flip Out. But he didn't, he was too infatuated with the look of the stars. Sam thought the ride was great, he was giggling and watching, and totally relaxed.



From there we went to the Seas, where the kids got to ride the Nemo Ride. It was the one we hyped up to get them excited about Epcot. They were thrilled, it's a crowd pleaser, the way they get the animated characters to appear within the real aquarium is very cool. There was a song playing on the ride and Peach, the starfish from Finding Nemo says as we're passing her by at the end of the ride, "I know it's great, but the Song NEVER ENDS!!!!" I laughed until I started coughing, nearly hacked up a lung and my eyes were watering. True, those songs just never end.



From there we darted up to the Lands to ride Soarin', Emily, Kathleen and I rode first, we took advantage of the Fast Pass and the Rider Swap, though we really didn't need both, because if you did rider swap you ride in the fastpass line anyway. Emily was big enough, but Chris wasn't. I liked how we could really smell things we were 'flying' over, like pine when we go over a forest, it was pretty cool, until Emily flipped out at fireworks. It's the only ride I did that he couldn't go on, and frankly it wasn't worth the fuss. It was a neat ride, but there is so much to do that the kids could do I didn't need to go on the Newest Thing. But the rider swap came in handy because after we rode it, the boys weren't going to have time before our lunch reservation, but the rider swap card would get up to 3 people in, (i.e. the daddies). We had lunch at the Coral Reef restaurant in the Living Seas. It was good food, but our service Stunk. In our visit there: Sam tipped in his high chair and split his lip was bleeding, and I couldn't see it was so dark in there, I had to go Dashing outside to check him, Mike had to ask 3 times for diet coke, Kathleen's drink glass shattered, and Eric got paper in his meal. I ordered lobster ravioli, and it was cheese ravioli with lobster hunks in a tomato sauce, and I was not impressed. My last straw was when we got the bill, we got zapped with a manditory 18% tip because we were a party of 7, even though number 7 was Sam who wasn't eating. Let me tell you our waitress did NOT earn an 18% tip. The view of the aquarium while we ate was lovely, but the noisy atmosphere took away all illusion of relaxation. I won't be back there, I can find better uses for my money. And did.

From there, our trip went downhill, we went shopping while the boys did Soarin', and Chris was acting up. I used the threat, if you don't calm down, we're going back to the hotel. He didn't, so we did. I had to be prepared to carry out the threat. So we went back for naps. The Julius's stayed in Epcot performing a Kim Possible Mission, which we went back and did another day, and they met up with us after naps. Chris woke from naps demanding to go ride Peter Pan again. OK. We had just enough time to run over to Magic Kingdom and ride Peter Pan before our dinner reservation at Chef Mickey's, a character dining buffet at the Contemporary. We did it! We were nearly late, but we got Peter Pan ridden again, Chris did Not appreciate the 35 minute wait that time, and didn't ask for Peter Pan again.



The Dinner at Chef Mickey's was a buffet, the grub was good, but there wasn't much time to enjoy it. If you want to see some Characters, sign up for this, because Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto (the Fab 5) all came up to our table, some more than once. They give hugs, and pose and the kids got to dance, and it was great.



This was the one time all trip that we saw Goofy in person. He just never seemed to be out when we were out and about.



Chris got a big kick our of Pluto's whiskers. Emily kept trying to tell him about the scratch she got on her knee, she was showing him, finally he gave it a telltale puppy Snuffle. It must've made it feel much better.



Sam responded most that night to Donald. I imagine he was sticking out his tongue at him. Though he was also quite infatuated with Minnie, must be those polka dots. But between Sam's smiling and sticking tongue out and Chris's hysterical laughter. Donald didn't have to say a thing to entertain the boys.



They were so wound up when we left, it was going to take a bit to come down from that high.



We opted to put them on the Monorail and go around the loop. We took the monorail around to the Grand Floridian and went to see their giant Gingerbread house they had on display. It was so big, that there was a lady on the back side selling gingerbread cookies. Chris kept looking in the windows for the gingerbread man.



You know we bought one, and it was yummy too. Chris only took a bite, and Mommy took care of it for breakfast next morning. ;) As we were posing for our cheesy photos by the Gingerbread house, Cinderella, the Prince, the Stepmother and 2 stepsisters came around the corner and were dancing with their own small group as a jazz band played Christmas carols from the second floor. The kids didn't need to actually meet them (we didn't want to crash someone else's party) they were so enthralled. That calmed them down and we went home to crash ourselves.

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