My Shoe!
After our bus experience on our first day, I was already at the point of swearing off the bus system and just driving to the parks. I always seem to get to that point, but this trip it happened sooner than usual.
However, we were going to EPCOT today so we chose to take the bus.
Because, World Showcase.
As we were getting ready, I got on the App to check the bus situation. It showed an ETA at our stop in 2 minutes.
The kids and I were ready. That’s all I can say here. Moving on...
I hustled everyone out the door to the bus stop. We got there just before our bus pulled up. We boarded the bus. As usual, I found a spot to stand out of the way with the stroller while DW and the kids found seats. We made our way around the CBR bus stops and were pulling out of the resort as DW caught my attention with a look of panic on her face.
In the rush to finish getting ready and leave, she left her phone in the room!
I asked her if she really needed it.
Well... I guess not.
Then don’t worry about it!
We arrived at EPCOT plenty early to get through security and through the tapstiles to await rope drop. They stopped us just before we got to Spaceship Earth. DW informed me she needed to find a restroom... well the restrooms near Spaceship Earth were just beyond the rope. And she didn’t want to leave the park for the restrooms at the entrance and then come back through the tapstile lines.
But we needed to get to Test Track for rope drop.
I told her I’d take the kids and the stroller and walk towards Test Track when the rope dropped. It was crowded enough that I couldn’t go too fast so she could stop at the restroom as we walked past and then catch up with us. It ended up working out just fine as she caught us by the time we made it to Mouse Gear.
We walked towards Test Track to find a massive crowd packing the walkway from the entrance back toward Mouse Gear.
As I completely expected when I had to decide a few months ago which Group A FP attraction to ride Standby at Rope Drop, TT would not be opening at Rope Drop.
We didn’t want to cross the park, as we had FP for the whole morning on this side of the park, so we just chose to stand around waiting.
Awesome.
Glad we got up and rushed to get to EPCOT early.
We ended up standing there until 9:20, which is when our Mission Space Fastpass was good.
DW refuses to ride that one so she gladly offered to take R and go into Mouse Gear to browse while I went with the older kids.
Neither of them had ever ridden it so I wasn’t sure how they’d like it. We chose to go with the Green version. We scanned our bands, walked into the queue, and never saw a single person who wasn’t a CM the whole way into our cockpit.
The kids ended up really enjoying the ride and were begging to do it again. I knew we could probably jump right back in the standby line pretty quick, but I didn’t want to make DW wait longer and I couldn’t text her to let her know what was going on so I told them we’d try to do it later.
As we walked back toward Mouse Gear, guess what had finally opened and was already showing a 45 minute wait?
This day ended up being the hottest day of our trip. It was really toasty. We were already feeling warm and wanted to grab a frozen Coke at the place by Test Track, but it wasn’t even open yet!
We went ahead and decided to walk towards Norway for our next Fastpass. We got there with plenty of time to spare before our FP would be good so we decided to meet Anna and Elsa.
R was having none of it. I put him down and he went in the corner to hide and pout. L whined and complained about going in to see them, but he was a good sport about it. B was spending time with princesses and was happy as could be.
I have to say Anna and Elsa were on their A game. They both spent what seemed like a few minutes chatting and interacting with the kids. Even though R obviously didn’t want to go see them, both of them acknowledged him and tried to get him to interact. Anna even walked over to Elsa with the other kids and pointed out R and whispered something in her ear. I really appreciate them trying to get him into it, but he just wasn’t having it.
After meeting royalty, it was time to go ride Maels... I mean Frozen Ever After. We were not the first to pass that way, nor would we be the last.
Ok, I do like the Frozen overlay. It was a good upgrade and I do think it fits in well to Norway and works with what they’re doing with WS and EPCOT in general now. But the fact that the ride track is still basically the same, I can’t help but think of what used to be there at the different points.
Hey, that used to be a troll!
Hey, that used to be an oil rig!
Hey, that used to be a polar bear!
Anybody else feel that way about that ride or am I just nuts?
Ok, don’t answer that last part.
After our ride, we walked back outside.
I immediately turned around to try and ask Elsa if we could have one of Olaf’s personal flurries for the day, but the CM threatened to call security.
We were going to just have to melt.
It was time to backtrack across the park towards our ADR, but we had FP to use at Spaceship Earth on our way. We had some time to stop for a picture first though.
Again, what is up with Fastpass lines for some rides now???
We ended up waiting 20 minutes with FP!!!!
We got inside the golf ball and were boarding our time machines when everything went sour.
For everyone who was riding Spaceship Earth with us that day, I’m sorry.
Truly I am.
DW was getting into a car with B and R. As she was getting in, one of R’s Crocs fell off and fell down in front of the car. We didn’t realize this until he started screaming as we were seated and on our way.
Normally, I love the long, relaxing ride through the history of communication on our fine planet.
But this time, it was long and painful.
Not only that, but the ride stopped long enough for them to really hammer into our heads how awesome Jesse Owens was in the 1936 Olympics. I couldn’t even tell you how many times we saw that film loop.
R eventually calmed down a little bit after the initial shock, but the whole ride we’d still hear the occasional scream of “My shoe! My shoe!”
As we were getting off the ride, DW turned around to look and just happened to see his Croc sitting down on part of the ride system at the front of their car. She told a CM and they had a grabber arm thingy that they were able to reach down and retrieve it with.
R was reunited with his Croc and was once again happy.
Due to our longer than expected FP wait and on-ride delay in 1936, we had to hustle to get to our ADR. We were scheduled for lunch at Garden Grill!
We had kind of an awkward interaction with a CM in front of the Land Pavilion. I paused with the stroller to get R out and then was going to go park it. A CM approaches us and offered to take the stroller and park it for us. I told her thanks, but I’d just go do it. She gave me kind of a funny look like she wondered what my problem was.
Maybe I'm the weird one, but there was a chance of rain so I just wanted to go park it, make sure the rain cover was on and stash the bag that we leave with the stroller so that it would stay dry.
We let the kids each pick a meal on this trip and Garden Grill was L’s choice. He remembered going a few years ago and wanted to see Farmer Mickey again.
I’m going to just say it now, we did 4 character meals this trip. Hands down, this one was the best. From the food, to the service, to the character interaction, this one checked all the boxes.
Our server was named Bob and he was a character in his own right. He joked and played around with the kids and even did the same with the characters. They were plenty playful too and spent a little more time with us than we got at other meals. The restaurant also wasn’t very full so we even got to see them twice before we made it all the way around and finished our meal.
R was a little bit hesitant about the characters here again. He did get up for a picture with Pluto, but for the others he just stayed between me and DW. We did meet Dale twice as well, but apparently neither DW or I managed to get pictures with him. I know he was the first character we saw and he came up as we were being seated and played aorund with the kids so I’m guessing we were a bit preoccupied with getting R situated and then when he came back we probably just thought we’d already taken pictures.
Bob was very adamant that since we were on the dining plan, we needed to take advantage of the fact that we’d get drinks with our meal and an additional specialty drink or alcoholic beverage. I forget what DW got, but I ordered a Yuengling. I typically don’t really want beer when it is really hot like that... it just makes me feel dehydrated. And we were planning to enjoy a few speciatly beverages around WS later so I really just wanted to hydrate myself up at this point, but when he made me feel like I was being wasteful by not getting one...
Our meal was very good. The kids enjoyed their food and we had to get an extra plate of fries for them. We’ve done this meal twice in the past 6 years or so and I’ve been impressed with it both times. The food there is really good and I like the fact that it is family style rather than buffet so it is just a lot more relaxed. It really is hard to keep going back there when EPCOT is just loaded with so many great restaurants I love and new ones that I’ve yet to try, but I can always make a strong case for going back.
While we were at lunch, I was able to grab a 2pm FP for Test Track. DW had decided she spent long enough without a phone though and was going back to CBR. She said that she’d take R back and try to get him to nap and I could stay at EPCOT with the 2 older kids. Since she was going by herself, we decided to just leave the stroller parked outside the Land Pavilion. I carried R to the front of the park and then we said goodbye. They were off to relax and we were off to have more fun!
Sorry, that just strikes me as funny.
) I'd also appreciate knowing where the stroller was parked without having to search for it. (I know they can get moved around, but at least I'd have a better shot if I parked it the first time.)
Thanks for joining! He really is...
