Park Day Two: Epcot (cont’d)
We checked into our Garden Grill ADR right on time. We only had enough time to press a quick penny before we were called to be seated.
While the waiter came to take our drink orders, the man himself arrived, so he assisted in jotting things down.
The drinks came after Mickey and I happily took advantage of my adult beverage included on the
DDP. My Citrus Freeze (Florida Cane ‘Orlando Orange’ Vodka, Peach Schnapps, and Mango Puree) was exactly my kind of drink: sweet and fruity.
I’m not sure what Hubby got. I think he just went with a Coke because he wasn’t feeling a drink just yet. The girls rarely get offered juice or lemonade at home, so they ordered that for pretty much every meal. Next, the food and Dale came at about the same time.
We started to put plates together, but Dale was followed quickly by Pluto. B was in such a rush to see him that she fell out of the booth, but it was a quick recovery.
Pluto held the autograph book right up next to his nose which the girls thought was hilarious. When people ask them about meeting characters, Pluto holding the book to his face is a top story they tell.
Finally, Dale made his way around to our table.
At this point, it was 12:30pm, or 35 minutes past our reservation time, and we had seen all of the characters already. I had left a full two hours in my schedule for this meal, as folks say that character meals can take so long to be seated, served, and greeted, but we were not having that experience at all. With the characters through, we finally had a chance to really dig into our food and it was delicious. The pot roast in particular was phenomenal, and I definitely kept eating past when I was full just to enjoy it a bit more. The girls didn’t want the whipped cream on the strawberry shortcake, and Hubby didn’t want the strawberries, so we had asked for it to be brought out deconstructed and the server was happy to oblige. I’m a big strawberry shortcake fan and this one was awesome. Garden Grill was great on all fronts: the food, the characters, the service. We were very impressed.
As we were getting ready to head out, the characters started rotating through again. We didn’t do a second full set of photos, but we did stop to chat with everyone. We were talking with Chip about how people couldn’t tell him apart from his brother, just like people can’t tell the girls apart. He started miming something I didn’t understand, clearly got frustrated, and pulled out the character book to his page. After skimming his article, he ended up snagging the pen from the bill and writing us a note on a napkin (that’s how seriously he wanted to tell us) that he and Dale were best friends, not brothers.
The girls were thrilled to have an extra special note and made sure that we saved it carefully. Now, I’m not sure he was correct: when you search it, there’s some ambiguity on the subject and the original animator said in his autobiography that he thought of them as brothers. Regardless, the note made the girls’ day, so I guess I’m ok with being schooled by a chipmunk who was (possibly) wrong.
After our meal, we used the restrooms and headed back to see if Spaceship Earth had reopened. We used our FP at 1:37, but the ride was essentially a walk-on. The girls rode together in the row ahead of us. They can’t read yet, so their “future” was based on just pressing as many buttons as possible.
Fun fact: I’m not sure which kids are in their photo. I’m pretty sure it’s C on the right, but I can convince myself that A or B could be on the left: Mom of IDs problems.
The girls played in the exit area for a while before we headed to our next stop in the Imagination pavilion. Ralph and Vanellope’s greet had moved here just a little while earlier and messed up my Future World touring plan. When they were more centrally located, I was going to do this greet between our RD at Soarin’ and our trip up to The Seas because I had heard waits could get high quickly. When it moved, I decided we’d just have to risk high waits in the afternoon rather than doing all of that backtracking in the morning.
We arrived at 2:16 and I was pleasantly surprised when we go into the pavilion to see a short line of about a half-dozen people. The characters were on break so I wasn’t sure how long it would be, but this was a great place to wait. Everyone seemed to have left one adult in line and let the kids play in the various activities throughout the pavilion. I got in line while Hubby and the kids played and it was the least stressful wait of the day. The characters came back on at 2:20pm through a portal from the internet.
Right about this time, A realized she
had to go to the bathroom. I stayed in line with the other two while Hubby hustled A to the closest bathroom. Every time we moved ahead in line, B and C’s anxiety climbed while they watched the entrance. Hubby and A made it back with just one family ahead of us. At 2:30pm, we were meeting our favorite video game characters.
We headed around to find Journey into Imagination a walk-on. The only thing I knew about this ride was to hold my nose during the “scent” portion. With to little to go on, I was pleasantly surprised and the girls loved it. I can see why the wait is low, but it’s a cute little diversion to enjoy.
After our Journey, the girls played in the pavilion for a while longer before I convinced them to move on. Our next stop was supposed to be the Disney Visa meet, but when we got out into the park, we encountered Gaston asking people if they had seen Belle. The girls started walking around the area yelling for Belle, but the France pavilion was a bit further than their voices could carry. We quickly hopped into the very short line that had formed and the girls told Gaston that unfortunately, they hadn’t found her.
I have to say, I was super exited to have bumped into Gaston at a character training. I was hoping to catch one at HS or our WS day at EP, but this was completely off my radar. I knew how long his lines typically got in MK, so this just cleared up another big chunk of time later in our week. In our surprise at seeing him, we forgot to pull out the autograph book, but I’m happy to miss an autograph if it gives us 30 minutes back in MK.
We headed back up the hill to the Disney Visa character greet. I was sincerely hoping that Minnie would be one of the characters to meet because she was the only member of the Fab 5 we weren’t already going to meet at a meal. Meeting her here would mean we could skip red carpet dreams in HS later that trip. I tried to ask the CM at the front door who was there, but she told me to come see and ushered us right back into the greet.
Minnie was so surprised by the girls that she counted them and pointed at me to confirm what she was seeing. Yes, Minnie, I find the number of identical children I created to be quite shocking, too.
At this point, it was just after 3pm, which meant our Test Track FP window had opened. I had it in the plan to check out Club Cool, go see the 3:35 Jammitors show, then go to TT. However, since we were running a little ahead of schedule, we decided to head straight to TT before the show. Doing that first would let us go straight to Mission: Space after the Jammitors and hang out a little in WS before dinner and an early exit.