Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina
Life is short. Live it well.
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2008
Saturday, May 5th: Cinco de Mayo, continued
We passed through bag check and the turnstiles and were quickly on our way into the park. We hadn’t seen T since our last visit in October, so there was a lot of chatter after the hugs and hellos concluded….so much so, that as we were walking and talking (and talking and talking
) T stopped and said “I’m just walking, you know. I’m not really headed anywhere in particular. What did y’all want to see first?”. We had traveled a fair distance by that point and were kinda/sorta still heading in the general direction of The Land, so we opted to see what the lines were like at Soarin’: with no Fastpass for that ride [T had managed to snag us Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, and Test Track for the day], we figured our best chance to ride would be early in the day before the crowds hit.
Posted wait times were (I think) 25 minutes. Not bad at all for a headliner…..we tend to say anything under 30 minutes is a ride, anything over is a pass [with a few exceptions, of course]. Heading into the queue, it didn’t look like many people were in line ahead of us at all, and I’m pretty sure our actual wait was maybe 15 minutes long, and could have even been only around 10. Certainly not 25, so that was a lovely way to kick things off
.
Steve and I *love* Soarin – the old version and the new. T’s not so crazy about the new version, but she was wonderful to indulge us anyway. It was an awesome ride. With awesome company
.
After an obligatory rest room stop, T checked her app to see what ride options we had between the current time and our first Fastpass [scheduled for 11:15-12:15]. Frozen Ever After, one of the more popular Epcot rides and one that we didn’t get a chance to enjoy on our 2017 visit, was showing just a 15 minute stand-by time…..so that’s where we headed next. The last time we had been on the ride, it was still Maelstrom……and was January 2009. We were excited to see the changes since it was rethemed to FEA.
As we strolled through the park on our way to the German pavilion, Steve and T were kind enough to indulge me in some stops for photos. I was definitely a bit agog at the stunning topiary and floral collections that were on display for the Flower & Garden Festival. Not once did they complain…..all day!.....when I stopped to snap another picture. Bless ‘em both.
While I haven’t yet seen the movie Frozen (insert shocked cat face here):
…..we were both thoroughly entertained by the queue. Thankfully, T was as well: apparently she normally rides this particular ride with a Fastpass and misses all the fun details that the queue provides for guests. Again, the wait was pretty much spot on: if not 15 minutes, then *maybe* it was 20……but the time went by quickly
. Maybe it was the fun queue, maybe it was the fun company, perhaps it was a little bit of both. Either way, we were soon boarding our boat and heading off on the ride.
The ride? Super cute. T knew all the words to the songs, we did not
. We had fond memories of Maelstrom (we all enjoyed that ride on our first Disney trip many moons ago) and now, we have fond memories of Frozen . It made me vow to one of these days make a point of watching the movie.
I also think that T would make an excellent “friend to” Ana, should she ever decide on a career change. Just throwing that out there.
After the ride, we strolled around the gift shop for a bit. Steve was excited to learn that they had not removed the troll that he so fondly remembered from that first family visit: we got some fun photos of him and Jake with that massive statue back in 2009. That called for another picture! (any excuse will do, right?
)
After FEA, it was rolling toward 11 am, and we were all needing some refreshments as the temperature continued to rise to the high 80’s and the sun sparkled in that beautiful Florida sky. We opted to head over to the Mexican pavilion to cross another thing off the must-do list: beverages from the tequila bar
.
Being Cinco de Mayo, there were lots of other park-goers who had the same idea that we did. There was a healthy crowd gathered on the steps of the massive pyramid that adorns the entrance as we approached, so we seamlessly just mashed ourselves into the cluster of bodies for those final minutes before the clock struck 11
.
I’m not sure if it was due to it being Cinco de Mayo or if its something they do every day, but they had a little ceremony with songs by sombrero-wearing CM’s as to officially open the pavilion. Either way, it was festive and fun……I just wish I could have been able to see as much as we could hear. Ah, the life of a short girl
.
Pretty much that entire glob of human bodies all headed en masse to the same place: La Cava. Apparently, we all had tequila on our minds
.
While Steve and T joined the line and perused the drink menu, I took advantage of an otherwise mostly empty pavilion and plodded around with my camera in hand. It’s a pretty funky place in there.
The elaborately painted skulls were eye-catching, if not unsettlingly odd. I’m guessing they must mean something in Mexican culture? Certainly, if you’re looking for an item to bring home for a hard-to-buy for person who “has everything”, I’m thinking one of these might be just the thing!
More to come……..
We passed through bag check and the turnstiles and were quickly on our way into the park. We hadn’t seen T since our last visit in October, so there was a lot of chatter after the hugs and hellos concluded….so much so, that as we were walking and talking (and talking and talking
) T stopped and said “I’m just walking, you know. I’m not really headed anywhere in particular. What did y’all want to see first?”. We had traveled a fair distance by that point and were kinda/sorta still heading in the general direction of The Land, so we opted to see what the lines were like at Soarin’: with no Fastpass for that ride [T had managed to snag us Living with the Land, Spaceship Earth, and Test Track for the day], we figured our best chance to ride would be early in the day before the crowds hit.
Posted wait times were (I think) 25 minutes. Not bad at all for a headliner…..we tend to say anything under 30 minutes is a ride, anything over is a pass [with a few exceptions, of course]. Heading into the queue, it didn’t look like many people were in line ahead of us at all, and I’m pretty sure our actual wait was maybe 15 minutes long, and could have even been only around 10. Certainly not 25, so that was a lovely way to kick things off
.
Steve and I *love* Soarin – the old version and the new. T’s not so crazy about the new version, but she was wonderful to indulge us anyway. It was an awesome ride. With awesome company
. After an obligatory rest room stop, T checked her app to see what ride options we had between the current time and our first Fastpass [scheduled for 11:15-12:15]. Frozen Ever After, one of the more popular Epcot rides and one that we didn’t get a chance to enjoy on our 2017 visit, was showing just a 15 minute stand-by time…..so that’s where we headed next. The last time we had been on the ride, it was still Maelstrom……and was January 2009. We were excited to see the changes since it was rethemed to FEA.
As we strolled through the park on our way to the German pavilion, Steve and T were kind enough to indulge me in some stops for photos. I was definitely a bit agog at the stunning topiary and floral collections that were on display for the Flower & Garden Festival. Not once did they complain…..all day!.....when I stopped to snap another picture. Bless ‘em both.
While I haven’t yet seen the movie Frozen (insert shocked cat face here):
…..we were both thoroughly entertained by the queue. Thankfully, T was as well: apparently she normally rides this particular ride with a Fastpass and misses all the fun details that the queue provides for guests. Again, the wait was pretty much spot on: if not 15 minutes, then *maybe* it was 20……but the time went by quickly
. Maybe it was the fun queue, maybe it was the fun company, perhaps it was a little bit of both. Either way, we were soon boarding our boat and heading off on the ride.
The ride? Super cute. T knew all the words to the songs, we did not
. We had fond memories of Maelstrom (we all enjoyed that ride on our first Disney trip many moons ago) and now, we have fond memories of Frozen . It made me vow to one of these days make a point of watching the movie.
I also think that T would make an excellent “friend to” Ana, should she ever decide on a career change
. Just throwing that out there.After the ride, we strolled around the gift shop for a bit. Steve was excited to learn that they had not removed the troll that he so fondly remembered from that first family visit: we got some fun photos of him and Jake with that massive statue back in 2009. That called for another picture! (any excuse will do, right?
)
After FEA, it was rolling toward 11 am, and we were all needing some refreshments as the temperature continued to rise to the high 80’s and the sun sparkled in that beautiful Florida sky. We opted to head over to the Mexican pavilion to cross another thing off the must-do list: beverages from the tequila bar
.Being Cinco de Mayo, there were lots of other park-goers who had the same idea that we did. There was a healthy crowd gathered on the steps of the massive pyramid that adorns the entrance as we approached, so we seamlessly just mashed ourselves into the cluster of bodies for those final minutes before the clock struck 11
.
I’m not sure if it was due to it being Cinco de Mayo or if its something they do every day, but they had a little ceremony with songs by sombrero-wearing CM’s as to officially open the pavilion. Either way, it was festive and fun……I just wish I could have been able to see as much as we could hear. Ah, the life of a short girl
.Pretty much that entire glob of human bodies all headed en masse to the same place: La Cava. Apparently, we all had tequila on our minds
.
While Steve and T joined the line and perused the drink menu, I took advantage of an otherwise mostly empty pavilion and plodded around with my camera in hand. It’s a pretty funky place in there.
The elaborately painted skulls were eye-catching, if not unsettlingly odd. I’m guessing they must mean something in Mexican culture? Certainly, if you’re looking for an item to bring home for a hard-to-buy for person who “has everything”, I’m thinking one of these might be just the thing!
More to come……..
... I love the matching t-shirts. We get matching HP house shirts every time we go to Universal for the 4 of us and then DD and I get a matching HP tank top to wear on a day
.
would be about 18 hours but we have decided to stop in Virginia for a day and a half. We have season passes to Cedar point so we will stop at Kings Dominion. I think breaking the trip up a day or two on the drive each way will help. I started a PTR for my Universal portion over on that thread and have been getting good advice and support
. I never wanted to drive before but I guess I am getting more daring in my old age
aboard once again! Glad to have you reading along 
And the good news is, that part of the report follows right after our Epcot day 
Seriously? 
. 
.
. I can only wish my back yard would look 1/1000th as good.
I'll be gutted if they just run them all through the chipper and make mulch out of them 
(or, maybe I really am the lightweight that T likes to joke that I am? 
.
.
Regardless, it was too cute for words.
As you can imagine with the multi-cat household I have there is lots to clean. I wouldn't have it any other way.
