Carpe Diem Feb 09 - Thursday 12th - DHS and EPCOT

[Skywatcher]

Well thanks to a slowly resolving body clock and the utter exhaustion of 6 straight days without a break we manage to lie in until 7 am today , we are a bit achey and yawny as we head for nreakfast but that will HAVE to be overcome as we have big plans for today

Decide on a slightly less unhealthy breakfast and have toast with a thick slice of coffee to help wake us up. A nice lady comes up to us at breakfast and asks if we want some of her water as she is going home today

Noone has ever said that before

I gracefully acept and she takes me outside to show me a huge case of bottle Water this gets taken to the fridge in our room , clearly she was touched by our meagre meal,

Thomas is pouring over his copy of the Hidden Mickey book and we find a couple in roaring forks and the lobby before we head out for the buses.

Now you see, I have a cunning plan - today is our 'Around the World Showcase day' but I have spied an opportunity to get a good deal done in a short period of time at DHS - according to my guide there is no extra magic today no Fantasmic today and for some reason no parade either - therefore Quid pro Quo there will be noone at DHS today and we can probably go on TSM a million billion times.

Declaring myself a 'Disney theme park genius' we board the bus for DHS to get there for park opening.

As it happens I am not exactly a 'Disney Theme Park genius', there is a reason why there is no parade today

The reason is that the park is heaving as this is the 'grand' opening of American Idol

D'OH

Well we're here now and as the gates open the amassed hoards are made to squeeze onto the sidewalk to the right as the rest of the street has been carpeted for the parade of 'Celebrities' and is roped off - seriously it was carpeted!!

Ladies of a 'certain age' and 'body habitus' are already taking their places by the side of the kerb for the parade of nonebrities later in the day and some band or other is playing under the Hat - this has the welcome effect of slowing a lot of people up so we can nip by and grab a FP for TSM we join the queue which says 40 mins but is more like 20 It was completely awesome as stated in previous episodes Thomas got 'rabbit' and I am a 'beaver' - boys want to go on again, again ( still the teletubby lives within them) which is good as we have our FP's in a little while.

Clearly the band wasn't that good 'cos when we came out of the ride all the FP's had gone for the day and the wait was up to 80 minutes.

Accross the road we spy a Toy Story character meet that has some cool posing points as you queue to mee the toys.







Matthew wants to talk to the Power Rangers again so we wander down to meet them but horror of horrors this is where HSM is (everything has been moved around today) that was close, beating a hasty retreat to where Mickey used to be I spy a chap in a finger jacket and he says the PR's will be right out

Thomas, having met them once is not bothered so Tells Mummy about all the hidden Mickeys is DHS



Whilst Matthew catches up with his Power Rangers chums.

'I fink I'm a natural' he states whilst in line, striking various poses - fair enough, the Pink one seemed to agree anyway



Matthew then does some funky dancing to the thrash metal soundtrack, which I must upload onto youtube at some point

Well we are trapped outside a closed backlot tour to one side we have a heaving PIXAR area to the other HSM (shudder) , so we decide to go and play in the Honey playground.

Boys love this and its pretty empty so Lisa and I pull up a bit of recycled tyre and the boys run around and point at things, a CM shows Thomas a hidden mickey that isn't in his book and he dissolves into raptures

As I gaze at the giant play doh pot I am left to mull over how after only 2 days in the states, how similar a certain bodily function resembles the play doh fun factory, its the same every year. After the boys have been on the coloured sherbert it resembles it even more.

That was probably too much information

Time for the FP's now and I hae the score of my life and get 'Cat' ho yus

Time to leave the park now and get on with the main business of the day, this is far from easy as the crowds are pouring in down the 1 sidewalk ad we are the only people going the other way.

Stop at guest services to try and book the preferred viewing for tonight. Queue for 20 minutes to be told to 'use the phone' well thanks for that.

I use the phone

'Hi, I have a voucher for the Illuminations preferred viewing tonight' Can I book please? We spoke to someone last night and they said it was empty so booking today shouldn't be a problem'

'I'm sorry Sir, we can only accept bookings 24 hours ahead (you could hear the smile)'
'er.. but your lady said yesterday to call bak this morning'
'I'm sure she didn't sir '
'I assure you she did, she also said it was completely empty'
'It is Sir noone is booked in '
'Then why can't you book me in '
'It's aginst policy Sir, I could book you in for Friday '
'Great , but we're going tonight, so someone is going to be standing minding a roped off area in which noone is going to be stood '
'That is correct Sir '
'Doesn't that strike you as a little daft? :dozey'
'Is there anything more I can do to make your day more magical Sir '

How I restrained myself I have no idea,however I simply replaced the reciever (TBH booking these firework places was problematic throughout the trip)

Amble over to the boat launch to go to EPCOT quietly seething and hop on the boat and grab a seat at the back. Got talking to a lovely couple from New York who vacation here every year and trade stories about family members and collegues who just don't 'get' Disney. Meeting other 'Disney'
people is one of the best bits of the holidays , nearly everyone is relaxed and happy and most people are happy to chat in a queue - its all part of the magic

Before long we arrive at the international gateway and go straight into EPCOT and head to the UK for some Lunch....

[Jodie]

Against policy? Against Disney policy to help a guest? Very odd!

[Britchick]

silly woman!!

[Mari]

cant see the pics so wont comment for obvious reasons

however...

I LOL at the Teletubby in them... Tatiana has just discovered them..... again! again! again! hahahahaha

And I seriously cannot believe they wouldnt let you book, thats as unhelpful as it can get

[Tink]

Wow. How mean was THAT?

[Beccaberry]

Just spat martini all over my screen @ "again, again"

Excellent!!

[Dawn]

Mean woman.

[Disneybumble]

Silly woman. Play-doh

[MystikPiglit]

Thomas, having met them once is not bothered so Tells Mummy about all the hidden Mickeys is DHS

... and it's obvious, from the photo, that she was absolutely enthralled...