"It's an adventure" Day 2: EPCOT

[wickesy]

Thu 12 April

Today, as expected, I was awake at 4:00 but managed to get another couple of hours sleep before getting up at 6:30. While I was getting washed and dressed Dad went downstairs and filled our mugs with apple juice for me and coffee for him.

We were out of the door by 8:15 and on our way to EPCOT. I decided that I wouldn’t need the sat nav but unfortunately I missed a turn and ended up having to go into Fort Wilderness to turn around. After the slight detour we arrived at EPCOT at 8:40 and parked up in Amaze 33. After getting through the bag check and turnstiles we were allowed in as far as the fountains as the park was not due to open until 9:00.

At rope drop we followed the crowds to Soarin’ and got a fastpass with a return time of 10-11:00. I had decided not to ride standby so we went from there over to the Seas pavilion to catch the 9:20 Turtle Talk with Crush show. We both thoroughly enjoyed the show and there were a lot of “Dudes” exchanged between Dad and I for the rest of the day.

After Turtle Talk we exited the pavilion and re-entered via the Finding Nemo ride which was pretty good. Like most people I think the best bit is at the end where the Nemo characters are shown swimming together with the real fish in the aquarium.

We went out of the pavilion for a second time and went over to the Imagination pavilion where we walked onto Journey Into Imagination with Figment, which again we both enjoyed.

By now our fast pass time for Soarin’ had come around but before going back there we wandered over and got fast passes for Test Track. We then went back to the Land pavilion where Soarin’ was now showing a 20 minute standby wait time. With our fast passes we waited for about 5 minutes before being directed to Concourse 2 Gate B. As we were waiting we were suddenly told “All you guys have just got yourselves a fastpass to any attraction for the rest of the day”. The penny didn’t drop immediately but I turned round and behind us were the YOMD team with a Dream Fastpass for each of us! As they were handed out the young boy in front of me turned to me and asked “So I can use this on any attraction at any time today?” “Once for each of the tabs on the pass” I replied. His face lit up and one word came out “Awesome!” which he kept repeating and looking at the pass. There was that something in my eye again. There was another group behind us that got them as well and I think a group in front of us so I don’t know how many they give out at a time.



Still full of excitement we went on to Soarin’ and what can I say – this ride immediately became the one that Disney had to beat! We both loved it and had both decided before the ride even ended that we HAD to ride it again before the end of the holiday.

All the excitement had made us hungry so we stopped off at Sunshine Seasons where Dad had a bran muffin, I had a chocolate chip muffin and we both had cokes which came to a total of $7.84. A hole filled we went upstairs to Circle of Life which was OK but I don’t think I would bother seeing it again.
After the film we wandered through Mouse Gear and again I spotted quite a few things that I might want to pick up. It was now time for Test Track so we made our way over and had just a few minutes wait to ride. I enjoyed the first part of this ride but I do get motion sickness and the final high speed part was just about on the limit of what I can take. I would ride it again but I think once a trip would be enough for me. We are in the back row.



After looking at the cars on display we wandered over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure and had a 10 minute wait outside in the sun before being let in to the pre-show. I think they could lose or at least shorten the pre-show on this attraction but I love the way the theatre seating breaks down into the ride vehicles and it was one of the things I had always remembered from our first trip.


By now it was getting quite warm and the park was getting crowded so I decided to cut the other attractions that were on the list for today and do them another time so by 1:40 we were back at the car. Sat nav was set for Wal-Mart and we were off to Vineland Road. At Wal-Mart we stocked up on bottles of water for the parks, crisps for the evenings (most of which we ended up bringing home with us) and I bought a sunglasses cord so that when went indoors I could just hang them around my neck rather than having to hold them.

Shopping done we returned to the hotel and by 3:00 we were filling our mugs and relaxing in the room. Suitably refreshed we went downstairs and looked at the pins. Now I hadn’t intended to start pin trading but I decided that if I stuck to a theme I wouldn’t get hooked. I decided that I would get a pin for each attraction that we visited, which led to the bank roll taking a real pounding (sorry Dad!).

The bar was calling again so we went down and saw Bob, our server from yesterday. He recognised us again and said “I’m not even going to try and guess what you are having!”. We were having long drinks so Dad had a Bud Lite and I had a Sam Adams again. We also ordered a plate of nachos which we shared between us.

After our drinks it was still quite early so we decided to have a ride on the monorail as we hadn’t been on it yet. We took a trip round and hopped off at the Grand Floridian and had a wander round. It is a lovely hotel and I would still love to stay there at some point but it still gives the impression of being a bit too upper class.

We then made our way back to the Contemporary and went down to the Food and Fun Center where we filled our mugs again, I got a chocolate chip cookie and Dad got a Beef sub. After we had eaten I couldn’t be bothered to go back to the bar so we went back to the room and as we had a PC in the room with free high speed Internet access I caught up with the message boards instead.

After a full and satisfying day we were in bed by 10:00.

Tomorrow: “Yes, we do” - Day 3

[cazzie]

Great start and a nice test track photo, we had dream fastpasses in Epcot.

[dave&pauline]

great and brill pics

[Ilovesnowwhitej]

Well done you for getting dreamfast pasess.
xx

[mumof2]

dreamfast passes - how cool!

[nannav]

those yoamd were great we are hoping we will get something wen we are there in the next two weeks::another great read

[Britchick]

how cool was that? i get a lot of things in my eye at disney too!