Had set the alarm for 7 am - we both woke up a bit tired - but Ethan knew that Test Track at Epcot was the first ride we were going to hit so once out of bed he was raring to go.
Epcot 1
- Pack food and get lots of sunscreen on. Ethan checks the temperature outside and by 7:30 am it's already quite warm. Looks like we'll go ahead with the Blizzard Beach plan then - forecast is for high 20's with feeling like low to mid 30's with the humidity - so standing in lines when the result is not a splash down into a pool might not be a good thing today.
- Grab breakfast at the resort restaurant - a waffle with the Pop Century logo - I skip the orange juice today thinking I'd grab a cheaper drink at the park but breakfast still sets me back close to $15 for the waffle and coffee. I get Ethan a banana and he occupies himself during breakfast by making accordian fans out of the receipt.
- Head for the bus at about 8:20 again - we get a seat on the bus this time which makes Ethan happy - he's starting to get anxious when we ride the bus as to whether or not he's going to get a seat. Arrive at Epcot at about 8:45 - about the same time we arrived at Magic Kingdom the day before. Get the bags checked and get in a fairly short line.
- Some fanfare for opening Epcot but not the show that Magic Kingdom puts on - a shot of some paper streamers in Epcot colours. Ethan liked it and wanted to grab some streamers but lost interest once he picked them up and found they were just trampled, somewhat soggy pieces of tissue paper.
- First up is Test Track as this one seems to get the longest lines later in the day. We walk right in and create a different car than we created last night. I suggested we'd go high on "effeciency" since they post the winners of each of the 4 categories you race in. We won that category and overall we had a slightly better car than the night before, but the night before we didn't come first in any category. Another fun ride, but for sure the second time on rides is not as exhilarating as the first.
- Next is a quick walk over to Mission: SPACE. We do the "Green" ride which is less intense as Ethan has been prone to motion sickness and as I recall I was sick from the Mad Tea Party when I was a kid at Disney and I didn't like that. Short 5 minute wait again - coming early in the day is a good thing.
- Catch the tail end of a drum band playing in Future World and then head over to "The Land" to catch Soarin' with our FastPass's. Ethan keeps commenting on how long the line could be as we walk through the maze that would make up a line. It amazes me that they must know beforehand that the attraction is going to be popular and know to build in the space for the long queue. Another good use of the FastPass. Ethan likes the sights and smells in Soarin' but points out that we weren't actually flying as he sees the ride complete and all the seats go back to the loading position.
- Living with the Land which is right beside Soarin' has no line and we have a bunch of free time so we hop on it. The natural part of the attraction where they grow food that they actually use at the Epcot restaurants was cool.
- It's still fairly early in the morning - about 10:30 so we head over to "The Seas" to see what's there. We've only used 1 of our 3 FastPass's for the day and we are getting ready to wrap up and go to Blizzard Beach so I book an immediate FastPass for The Seas with Nemo and Friends. This one doesn't save us a huge amount of time, but does save us some walking through a meandering queue line.
- Right beside is Turtle Talk with Crush and it looks like we can walk right into that one too. I thought this was going to be for super little kids and very corny but it was actually really good. Crush talks to a few kids who ask questions and cracks jokes for the kiddies and the parents. Really well done - both Ethan and I liked it more than we thought we were going to.
- We check out the small aquariums downstairs where there are some cool tropical fish and eels and then head upstairs to get a view of the big aquariums. Ethan spots a dolphin and a shark and the rays swim majestically by.
- Closing in on 11:30 am so we head for the bus to go back to the hotel to get ready to go to Blizzard Beach. It's a beautiful sunny day and hot, hopefully it won't be too busy.
Blizzard Beach
- We take a mostly empty bus back to the hotel where we eat lunch and get changed to go to Blizzard Beach. I grab some cash as I'm told they rent lockers there but don't take the MagicBand for it. It's the first cash I've needed. I leave my phone behind anyway, just in case I lose it or can't get a locker - but it makes me a bit nervous as if I lose Ethan, he won't be able to get a hold of me. But I guess the MagicBand's serve another purpose there helping connect lost children with their parents. I make a plan with Ethan anyway to meet at 4 pm if we get separated.
- The bus to Blizzard Beach / Animal Kingdom is pretty empty and we are the only ones going to Blizzard Beach. This is a good sign - maybe 28C isn't hot enough for people from the south? We get there and Ethan's MagicBand and fingerprint aren't working. This must be a fairly common occurrence as there is someone right there to reset the fingerprint data and we get in after that.
- Ethan loves floating in a tube around those lazy river's - and this one has a big one that goes all the way around the park. The sun is shining on a beautiful day and I get to kick back and relax as we float around the park. Have to keep half an eye open for Ethan though - for some reason he doesn't want me around him.
- Next we head over to the Purple Slopes slide area - the posted wait times for all say less than 15 minutes so we line up for the Downhill Double Dipper. The wait ended up being closer to 20-25 minutes and was probably our longest wait of the entire trip. It moved slow as the ride took only 2 tubes at once and you had to wait for the tubes to come up the hill. Maybe it seemed longer as they had this warning message playing in English and Spanish over and over again "Hey Double Dippers, remember you have to be at least 48 inches to ride and to always sit in the tube and hold on to the handles when you ride". Got on Ethan's and I think every other double dipper's nerves - signs would have been sufficient. Ethan and I didn't even get to sync up and race each other as we were off by 1 person and he didn't want to wait.
- Not worth the wait - an OK ride but not worth a 20+ minute wait. We head back up for Toboggan Racers and the wait is considerably shorter and the ride much more fun. I get a good push off on the face first race and seemed to pick up quickly on how to maximize my speed (lifting the toboggan up slightly) and I finish the race way out in front of everybody on the slide.
- One more slide on the Purple Slopes is another face first mat slide called Snow Stormers. I go fast using the same technique I did on the last one. These were much more fun than the Double Dipper.
- Ethan wants to head over to Melt-Away Bay now - a big wave pool. He finds a tube quickly and heads to the biggest waves. I try sharing his tube but he'll have none of it. I bounce for a while keeping an eye on him until he spots a tube for me. We ride the waves some more - I think Ethan could have spent the rest of the day here but after 15-20 minutes of it I was getting a little bored and suggested we move on and try another slide.
- We head over to the Red Slope and climb a lot of steps with our double tube in hand. Ethan goes in front and we ride down the long slide.
- We take a quick peek at the Green Slopes - we'll have to skip those. I kinda wanted to do the Summit Plummet but it was a pretty long line and Ethan had no interest in doing it.
- Getting later in the day now and starting to cool off a bit so we take a short ride in Cross Country Creek (the lazy river) and then dry off and collect our stuff. Ethan wanted to stay longer and complained a bit about having to go - but I explained that we want to catch the bus before the park closes and we have to stand on the bus. He's a little sour but I figure it's because he was hungry too as it was later than he normally eats. He eats on the bus back to the hotel and his mood is back to normal.
Epcot 2
- We plan to catch the fireworks at Magic Kingdom tonight and see the park lit up at night, but we had one FastPass left for Epcot and the bus from our hotel to Epcot seemed faster and less busy than the bus to Magic Kingdom so I book another FastPass for Mission: SPACE - with the plan to do the Orange (more intense) experience.
- We get to Epcot around 5:30 and head for Mission: SPACE. This time it is quite a bit more intense as we feel g-forces during the simulation. I was worried Ethan might get sick but it was me who felt a bit queezy after.
- Starting to get dark - but the Electric Light Parade at Disney doesn't start til 9 pm and if we're there by 8 pm we should get a decent seat for the parade. I'm getting hungry and a little tired of burgers and fries and I want to see the World Showcase - even though it looks like a long walk around - and they will hopefully have some more international food selections.
- Ethan starts complaining about the walk less than a quarter of the way through. I thought of turning back as I don't want him whining the whole way but explained to him that I just want to see this and that this is the only thing that I'm doing that is just for me. We catch part of the Reflections of China show and he seems at least temporarily appeased.
- About midway through he is really unhappy so I pop into the Morocco exhibit looking for food so we can sit down and take a break. They only have like one thing on the menu and it didn't appeal to me at the time - and Ethan was sour so I just wanted to get out of the World Showcase.
- We keep walking to get back to Future World and over to the monorail and Ethan and I are bickering. In retrospect, it was a bad decision to walk around it given we were both kinda tired from the day. I tell him that he is behaving like a "spoiled" child and he asks what that means and I tell him that he has to think sometimes of what other people want and that he should be appreciative that he got the trip to come down here and not complain that he is "bored" just because he has to do a walk around something that has little interest for a kid. He later apologizes for being spoiled and I could tell he meant it - but he broke my heart when he said "It's not true that they say this is the place where dreams come true - my dream isn't for daddy to be getting mad at me". We talk about it later and we both apologize (me for getting mad and him for his behaviour) and decide to put it behind us. This was almost like 2 adults travelling together - you can't always expect to get along - if you get along most of the time you are doing well and this was the only blip we had.
- We get to the monorail and take it to the transfer station to the Magic Kingdom at about 7 pm. The monorail to the Magic Kingdom is out of service so we are redirected to the ferry. I start to get a bit anxious that we won't get a spot for the parade as the crowd lining up for the ferry is huge and I don't know how long it takes to load/unload the ferry and get it across the lake. It goes pretty quick though and I get some great night snaps of the Magic Kingdom from the ferry. Happy accident - the ferry ride was an nice unexpected pleasant experience.
Magic Kingdom
- Decent wait to get back into the Magic Kingdom as it's Saturday night and the park is open to 1 am. The parade and fireworks are on tonight so lots of people heading in for that.
- Main Street looks amazing all lit up for Christmas - the castle is lit up for Christmas too (I assume it's different than usual lighting - looks Christmas-y).
- I get Ethan more light up bling in the form of "Glow With the Show" mouse ears. He saw these the first day and wanted them but they didn't sell them at Epcot. We learn that they sync to some shows and fireworks - Ethan is very intrigued with this.
- I'm starving by now and start looking for a place that isn't crazy busy for food. I realize at this point that most of the big fast food places serve basically exactly the same things - OK - another burger and fries it is. We eat in TomorrowLand at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe and get to listen to the tunes of Sunny Eclipse.
- We start looking for a place to catch the Main Street Electrical Parade. It's still before 8 pm and the parade is at 9. I'm confused why people are sitting in what looks like some taped off areas.
- I realize the taped off areas are for crowd control and I see what looks like good real estate on the circle in front of the castle. I grab an ice cream bar and we figure we have great seats, but then I overhear someone say that the parade doesn't go around that part of the circle. Rats - it's after 8 pm now and a lot of the good real estate is gone.
- I spot another spot on the other side of the circle but it's outside the tape section, but some other people are already sitting there and it looks like there is a lot of room for people to still move around behind us, so we decide to park ourselves there. Not a great spot until some people decide to move and then we are right behind a group of people all sitting, just on the other side of the tape.
- The crowd fills in behind us to the point that security had to come over and clear some people out because they needed to ensure they had an emergency pathway cleared. They ask everyone behind the tape to stand and get "real skinny". Some people behind us complain and the security guy said, it's either this or you have to find another spot. I was worried we were going to get booted at that point which would have sucked.
- Crowd stayed under control but this was the busiest, most crowded I have seen of any of the parks to this point. Ethan decides to sit down again as he has room to - but I have to stand and my feet are killing me at this point.
- Finally 9 pm rolls up and the parade starts - amazingly the train pulling the big drum with the Electric Light Parade name on it is basically exactly the same as it was 37 years ago. I came home and compared our old Super 8 footage with the video I took and the train is identical and the drum only has the "Disney" brand on it vs. being called the "Main Street" Electrical Parade. But everything else exactly the same - how awesome - felt like I was stepping back into my childhood.
- Ethan is wowed by the parade and when it ends we ask a cast member why everyone is leaving - aren't the fireworks up next? We asked if where we were was a good vantage point for the fireworks and she said it was great - and she didn't know why some people leave right after the parade when the fireworks follow shortly after. So we basically stay put but move out on to the circle where there is a bit more room. The flow of people stops and the empty spaces start to fill in.
- Shortly after the Celebrate the Magic light show on the castle starts. Way cool - Ethan really likes the Wreck it Ralph part where it looks like they are smashing down the castle. Disney has so many brands it can draw on, but most of the ones for this show are the classic ones. Ethan notices his hat syncing to the colours on the castle and thinks that's super cool.
- The "Wishes" fireworks are next and they don't disappoint. Disney Parks must go through a ton of fireworks - they even have them during the day at a few shows. Ethan loves the fireworks and the fact that his mouse ears are synced to the colours of the fireworks. That was pretty neat - and we had a great vantage point for the fireworks.
- After the fireworks - most people head out and we take an alternate exit to the buses (well us and thousands of other people - but it did bypass a good chunk of Main Street) - we get to the bus and miss getting on the first one as it was too full and pack onto the second one in standing room only. Disney has it worked out though knowing that this is the behaviour pattern of people and they have tons of buses running. It looks like it takes a bit of a short cut on the way back or an alternate route to avoid traffic as it didn't seem the same as when we came the first day.
- We get back to the hotel around 11:30 pm exhausted again. I'm too tired to set up the FastPass's for Hollywood Studios the next day, so I put it off to the morning. 2 minutes of TV and we are both out cold.
No comments:
Post a Comment