Merrie May Travels - Part 4
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Who: Gene & Me
Plan for the Day:
Epcot
Lunch at La Cantina
Garden Grill for dinner
After being so tired yesterday, no wake up calls were set for this morning. I woke up a couple of times during the night but, overall, slept quite well.
When we arrived yesterday, I had meant to grab a small tube of sun screen that I had in my carry on quart bag but forgot to do so. Consequently, we did not use sun screen while at the Magic Kingdom yesterday. I knew I had gotten a little red but, when I awoke this morning realized I had gotten even more red than I had originally thought. Yikes! Fortunately, it doesn’t hurt and I will douse myself with SPF 100 today!
We woke up around 7 in the morning. While getting ready, I realize that the hair dryer doesn’t work and the button is broken off. Gene gets it working by hitting the reset button but there’s no way of controlling the speed, etc. Gene calls housekeeping. I’m impressed. Ten minutes later, I have a new hair dryer and they take away the old, broken one.
After dressing, we had coffee and pastries in our room (donut for me; muffin for Gene). It was around 9:30 when we approach, the bus stop. The bus stop for Animal Kingdom was overflowing with people. The bus stop for Epcot was empty. Oh oh – that probably means we just missed a bus and we’d best be prepared to wait for a bit. We quickly see busses arrive for every other destination but our own. The Animal Kingdom bus fits most, but not all of those waiting and, when that bus leaves, the stop fills up completely again. We’re glad we’re not heading to Animal Kingdom today.
Surprisingly an Epcot bus arrives within 10 minutes and it takes another 10 minutes or so to get to the park. We’re dropped off in the farthest lot from the park so hike on over. Security is a breeze and we easily make our way through the turnstiles. While there are quite a few folks around, the crowd factor is far below what we experienced at the Magic Kingdom yesterday!
Our first stop is The Land where we secure fast passes for Soarin’. From there, we cross the park and head into Mission:Space – sissy side which has only a 10 minute wait. With our mission successfully completed, we check out Test Track but stand by is 30 minutes and we are not yet eligible for another fast pass so we head on by for the moment.
We check out the Character Spot. Yikes! Look at the length of that line – looks like it would take at least an hour to get to see the characters. Nope – we’ll bypass this – thank you very much!
We find Nemo at the Seas with Nemo & Friends and then visit with Crush. We roam through the exhibits checking out the dolphins and the manatees in particular. By time we exit, it is almost time for our Soarin’ fast pass and we are getting hungry for some lunch.
At The Land, we need to wait one more minute before we can use the fast pass and then enter the line. Even with fast pass, it takes us about 15-20 minutes before we take our flight over California. We do not linger at this pavilion. It’s time for some lunch. We head over to La Cantina where we each order chicken tacos and beers. I had read that folks found the portions small. While each individual taco is quite small, there is more than ample food in this order to fill us up. The outside tables were occupied so we ate at a table inside the restaurant which will later serve as La Hacienda. Never having been inside before, we wander around to look at the place after we finish eating. There are clearly some tables that have a wonderful view of Illuminations – others, not so great a view. We head back outside.
Today is another gloriously sunny day. It is quite warm but not overly humid which is wonderful!
As we wander around throughout the afternoon, we stop from time to time to take pictures of the topiaries which are part of the Flower and Garden festival. I was also much pleased to see the floating flowers are back this year! At one point, I see a really cute hummingbird feeder with Tinker Bell on it. When I comment about it to Gene, another man says it doesn’t work. He said he bought one last year and the birds go to every other feeder he has except for the Tinker Bell one! Solves that – no purchase made!
Inside the Mexican pavilion, we explore the various shops and then search for Donald on the Gran Fiesta Tour where we actually have a boat entirely for just the two of us! On to Norway where we visit with the trolls. It appears they are no longer holding folks at the end of the ride to wait for the movie to end. Even though the movie was in its final few minutes, the doors on both sides were open. We did sit down but had barely done so when the movie ended and we filed into the shops. $315 for a sweater – a bit too rich for me!
Next up, China, where we practically walk into the theater for the film.
In Germany, we stop for a photopass (We had stopped for a couple earlier. I think our first was a picture with Donald Duck just outside of Mexico. While we were having our picture taken, the little boy in line behind us ran up and stood right in front of Donald. The photographer asked if he was ours and we replied he was not. She was starting to move him aside for our picture when his horrified mother realized that Preston was jumping into our picture.). One of the German cast members, a very tall young man jokingly tried to jump into the picture with us at that pavilion but the photographer said he could not take his picture. We wander through the shops and then buy a couple of beers from the same cast member who wanted his picture taken with us. We find a bench in the shade where we sit for a while and just enjoy our beers and the warm, pleasant day.
There’s not much that holds our interest in Italy so we quickly browse through the shops and head off to the American Adventure. It’s only 4 and the next show will not be until 4:30 so I guess we will skip on by but, when I come out of the rest room, we stop to watch the Fife and Drum Corps. By time that ends, it’s time to listen to the Voices of Liberty and then it’s 4:30 and time for the show so we stay and enjoy it. (For once, we are not doing it right after lunch so I’m able to remain alert throughout the presentation)!
We head into Japan, wander through the store, watch a couple of oysters opened and pearls pulled out, wander through the gardens outside and, suddenly it is 5:30. We have a 6:00 reservation at Garden Grill so head there. It’s a full 20 minute walk from Japan to Garden Grill. Gene checks us in and says the wait will be about 10 minutes. The words are barely out of his mouth when our pager goes off.
We are seated on the lower level at the section over the Living with the Land ride. We are quickly visited by Chip and Mickey. A little while later, we see Pluto. Mickey actually wanders by a couple of other times. Dinner fills us up but the food is certainly not excellent. This restaurant used to be a favorite of ours (pre characters) but we had not dined here in years (ever since it became a character establishment). The salad is quite good and the rolls are okay. The entrée (mahi mahi with rice; beef filet and turkey with potatoes and cranberry chutney) are all mediocre at best. Still the food is edible and we are full at the end of the meal. The best part of the meal is actually the apple crisp dessert which is quite tasty. While we are there, we are visited a second time by both Mickey and Chip. Chip plays a sort of “give me a high five – oops, you missed me” sort of game with me for a few minutes. I get kisses from both Mickey and Chip. While Dale is also present, Dale never does get to our table before we leave. Though, from his position, I suspect we would have seen him had we stayed there about five minutes longer.
It’s been a long day and we decide to head “home”. As we head out of the park, we stop for one more photopass opportunity. An Animal Kingdom bus is at the stop as we approach. It’s standing room only but as we try to board, we find a mostly empty aisle but the path totally blocked by the placement of two side by side folded strollers laid down on the floor of the bus. The bus driver quickly gets the dads and their stollers re-arranged so that we (and others) can board the bus.
Once at home, we head out to our balcony where we’re treated to the sight of quite a few animals on the Savannah. We sit outside for quite some time and even watch two giraffes lay down outside of our room – we’d not seen them stay out so late before. We also realize we can see the top of Expedition:Everest from our room. Also, with the aid of the binoculars we brought with us, we find we can also see the top of Blizzard Beach! We’re also treated to a partial view of the fireworks from Epcot!
There’s a breeze blowing and it’s almost “chilly” out on our balcony so we head indoors. Gene heads to the shower and I sit down to write these notes. I’m doing so at our dining table. While typing, I hear someone trying to enter our room but figure it’s a mistake. I hear a second attempt and then a third. It’s actually enough to make me feel a little bit scared. I get up from the table and approach the door. When I peek through the hole, I see a woman and got the sense she was with a couple of children but didn’t see her companions clearly. I say (through the door) “Who’s trying to enter this room?” and hear the woman reply “Sorry. Wrong room” and she quickly moves away from our door.
It’s now about 10:15 p.m. I think I’m going to set a wake up call for morning, shower, and head off into bed. At some point, I’ll provide more information about our accommodations but there’s no time to spend on that this evening!
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Thread: Merrie May Travels - Part 4
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Originally Posted by MississippiDisneyFreak
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