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After we finished our lunch it was time to head on over to The Land. But we had a couple of minutes to waste before our FP return time. I saw the Kidcot Center and took the kiddos over there to work on their first one of the day.
They all seemed to enjoy coloring the ladybug. When they all finished we headed downstairs to ride Soarin’. I let Rob & Evan go on first. The standby wait time said 90 minutes. Holy moly. Glad we had our FPs. I told Rob we’d be over waiting at the exit. So Alec, Brookie, and I went over and found some seats.
All the FP machines were now empty and a bunch of kids were running circles around them. Of course, Alec & Brookie wanted to join in, and I let them. Big mistake. There were so many kids running hysterically around that I just knew that one of them was either going to collide with my kids or slip and fall. I kept trying to get Alec and Brookie back to sit but they wanted nothing to do with sitting and waiting. They had some pent-up energy. So, I sat on the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat anticipating disaster.
There was no disaster. Everything was fine. I was just an overly paranoid mom. I think it took about 20 minutes or more for Rob and Evan to finally exit Soarin’ and Alec and I jumped up and went. I couldn’t believe how long that cue was! And the stinkin’ 90 minute wait. And all the tired annoyed looks that the standby people give you as you are breezing right by them. I made no eye contact. I am most above those standby people.
We finally get to the point where we were at a standstill. A CM calls out to ask if there are any parties of 2. And I raise my hand and go to sneak under the rope when another couple behind us goes right past us. Anyone that was standing next to me could tell I was totally ticked. They shook their heads in sympathy for me.
But it was only a couple more minutes before they started to line us up for the next riders. At this point, I was totally glad that that stupid couple who cut us off went before us as we had the best seats ever - front row smack dab in the middle! Score! I hope that couple had end seats with total feet view. But I’m not bitter.
I got Alec all strapped in and I left my Crocs flops on the floor ... thought again ... then quickly hopped up and stowed them in the pocket by my feet. I don't know why I did that. Maybe I was afraid of the Crocs flops robber.
Then up we went. And there was California right before our eyes. At this point, I started thinking of my grandmother in California. While I had last seen her out here in 2001, my last trip out to California was in 1993, the year before I met Rob. The scenes of California were beautiful. When I started seeing the scenes from Southern California I could feel my eyes welling up. It was absolutely breathtaking. I decided right then and there that I have to do what I could to make a trip out there possible. Not only to see my grandmother and family but to experience a true Southern California vacation. Soarin’ had to be the best attraction for me the whole trip based on the feelings alone.
Alec had a smile on his face the whole time. He really enjoyed “flying”. He asked about Disneyland. I told him we would be going there someday, promise.
After meeting up with Rob, Evan and Brookie, we left The Land and headed over to Honey I Shrunk the Audience.
And it was great timing on our part because we walked right into the preshow and then had great seats for the rest of the show. The kids kinda liked it. This is the time that I debated going to get the kids pictures taken in the Imagination pavillion. If you recall, we wanted to get the kids pictures taken and put into a poster that made it look as though they were flying around Cinderella’s Castle. We decided against it. We had a 6:30 pm ADR for Garden Grill so we knew we’d be back around here later. I’m sure you know where that idea is heading ...
We were ready to start around World Showcase. But Rob didn’t get his chance yet to ride Test Track with the boys. I still had the Child Swap pass from Saturday available and handed it over to him. I told him that I would take Brookie and head over to Norway and get some FPs for Maelstrom and they could meet us over there. We said our “See Ya’s,” and we parted ways ... only I forgot to give him the PhotoPass card. Darn it!
I took my time walking Brookie to Norway. I enjoyed looking out over the lagoon across the World Showcase. It was a picture perfect opportunity. Ah ... Italy. I married an Italian. So, let’s get a picture of Italy.
Panning a little bit over ...
And then here is Germany, where my mother was born in Munich (but she is Russian) ...
And slowly Brookie and I walked to Norway to get our Maelstrom fast passes ...
And now, let’s get on with the desserts!
The kids, again, got the make-your-own sundaes which they still loved! I think kids just love making their own desserts! Yummo!
Rob ordered the Bailey’s and Jack Daniel’s mousse. Since I was too excited about my dessert, I forgot to take a picture of his.
I had noted on our reservation that it was our 11th anniversary and this is the only thing they did for us ... I ordered the Chocolate Wave. I accidentally broke the chocolate "Best Wishes" before I took the picture.
It was scrumptious! I loved this dessert. It was so worth the crappy mahi-mahi.
When our server came around to collect, he suggested that we use one of the boys TS credits for Brookie. We were a bit shocked and asked if we could really do that as we had intended on paying out of pocket for her. He said no problem. Since we knew this was an expensive meal place, we opted to use the child TS credit. We knew we would have to figure out our missing child credit somewhere else in our plans but it really made sense to use it here. Our lunch came to $123.02 total for the 5 of us.
All-in-all, I would have to say that this place was so-so. I enjoyed the lobster soup and the dessert, just not the crab claws or mahi-mahi. I don't base a restaurant on the appetizers, so I'll leave that one out. But the entree is another story. It was yuck. However, maybe another dish may have been better. So, if the kids really want to go back to the Coral Reef, I will go back. But only for them. And I would order a steak, maybe ... just not the mahi-mahi.
This time we skipped Nemo and Friends. We wanted to get to the other stuff. We went in and stood there.
We saw this when we walked in and, since Rob is a certified scuba diver, I had to take a photo. I’ve asked him multiple times if he wanted to do the Dive Quest here at The Seas but he doesn’t want to spend the money. His loss.
We thought about watching Crush, again, but we decided against it. We wanted to check out all the cool fishies and stuff. I loved this section with Bruce. Hey!
I told Alec that I couldn’t see his head squished in there, but he said he liked it that way. So, that’s the way I took the picture.
How many of you have this picture?
I think it’s so cute. I love walking through The Seas. The kids really enjoyed looking at everything too. I kinda like the way this picture came out with the boys shadow heads ...
And here was another one of my picture mistakes with the flash on. So, you can’t even tell that they are standing right beside the huge tank. Oh well ...
After we viewed just about every viewing tank, it was getting close to our lunch time at Coral Reef. We had an 11:30 am ADR. It was just about 11:10 am, so we headed on over to check in.
And after a short wait we were seated in a booth on the first level near the tanks. I was hoping for one of those booths so I was especially pleased. Now it was time for family pictures. I took this of Rob, Brookie, Evan, and Alec. I thought it came out fine ... well, except for Alec!
... and then it was Rob’s turn to take a picture of me with the kids. Isn’t this the worst picture of me? I should not have even posted it but the kids looking so silly, I just had to ... At least Alec looks the best in this one.
It was time for our meal and that will be in the next update! Oh yes, another very very very quickie I know. But it's all about grouping things right here. I have to save the next update for the food porn!!!
This was our 2nd day at Epcot, and we were planning on doing anything that we really missed out on plus a few more things. We planned on taking this day slow and steady.
I remember sleeping lightly in the morning. We had no real wakeup call. We planned on sleeping in just a bit and going from there. Then I heard Rob say, “The power is out.” My eyes popped open. I looked around. No a/c, no clock. Yup, power was out. Now, even though it was still early, I was beginning to panic. I had to take a shower and get ready. That included needing the power. Please, please power come on. Sure enough, it came back on. I don’t know how long it was even out, but it really made no difference in our getting ready. Had Rob not even mentioned it, I would never have had to panic. So darn that Rob!
We still were able to get ready and be out the door by 8:30ish. Not a problem in my book. When we arrived, we headed to get our double stroller when I noticed the Photopass CM.
Well, I was gonna give PhotoPass another shot. I figured today’s pictures had to come out better than yesterday’s at MGM. The CM took 3 different poses. The first with Spaceship Earth totally in our background ...
... then another one just a bit closer up ...
... and finally a horizontal picture.
It wasn’t until I ordered the PhotoPass CD and loaded them on my computer that I thought that there was just something off about these pictures. Then I realized that all of us, except Brookie, had our sunglasses on. So, being the Supremo Photo Pizzazzer that I am, I put some sunglasses on Brookie.
And all was well with the World again. The End.
Oops! I guess I should go on. You would probably want more than that for an update, right? Okey dokey.
But first, a classic photo ...
We went and picked up our double stroller and headed straight away to The Land to get some Soarin’ fast passes. No way, no how was I going to miss that attraction again. We all hiked it up the most steep incline that Disney has on this property and went inside. Rob’s job was to get the Soarin’ FPs and mine was to take Alec and Brookie to the restroom. Yes indeedy. It was already time for a potty break. Downstairs, Rob and Evan went, and I went to the restroom near the Garden Grill. I found the biggest stall available at the way end and we all went in. I had Brookie go first, then Alec. Then, I made Alec turn around and face the corner while I went. He’s a good kid. He listens, at least for that. Then we all washed up and went over to the escalator to meet up with Rob and Evan and then we were on our way to The Seas.
But not before stopping at a cart to buy some most healthy chips and water. The kids were hungry. Apparently, their parents didn’t feed them well enough before they left for Epcot. They shared a couple bags of chips and we were finally on our way to The Seas ...
This update will be pretty much all story and no pictures. There is lots to say and one part especially near the end of this update made a big impact on me for the night and on our day at Epcot on Thursday. So, read on ...
We finally got back to our room and told the kids that we all needed to just rest for awhile in the room to calm down. That actually worked for just over an hour or so. Enough to do what we wanted.
Now, the plan was to return to MGM Studios for EMH. Deep down, I really did not want to go back. There were things we missed, but I was tired. We had a little family pow-wow, and nobody else wanted to go back either. Everyone wanted to go swimming at Ole Man Island. And since we never really had a day of rest, we decided that was exactly what we were going to do. But first we needed to eat dinner.
We went over to the Riverside Mill for dinner. No pictures. I had a carved flank steak sandwich that was absolutely great! I wish I had gotten it earlier in the week. It was that good - and a counter service meal!! The rest of family got the same old, same old. Don’t even need to go into that.
After our dinner we headed back to the room and changed into our bathing suits and made the walk to Ole Man Island. About halfway there I remembered that I forgot my camera. I was hoping Rob would say, “You go on ahead, and I’ll run back and get it.” But what I got was the evil eye. So, no pictures again. Sorry. Seriously. I really am sorry and a bit ticked that Rob wouldn’t go back to get the camera. He knew my feet really hurt.
I found a couple of loungers by the kiddie pool and plopped my butt down. Brookie immediately went into the kiddie pool. Rob and the boys went into the main pool to swim. Brookie had a lot of fun. A slightly older girl befriended her, and they had fun following each other around. The boys came back and forth from time to time. But after awhile, I was getting a bit bored sitting there. So, the next time I saw Rob, I told him we all should go into the main pool. And that's we did.
It was very refreshing. The boys really wanted to go down the slide, so I made my way with Brookie to that end of the pool while Rob took the boys up to the slide. They were so cute coming down, except for the fact that I had a screaming Brookie wanting to go down that slide now. Rob even came down the slide, and he saw Brookie pleading to go down the slide. Rob said, “That’s the problem, I can’t take her down the slide.” But I told him to take her up, and I would wait at the bottom and catch her when she came down.
So, off Rob, Brookie, Evan and Alec went to the top of the slide again. Down came Alec. Down came Evan. Rob gave me the signal that he was sending Brookie down. So I waited. And she came around the corner of the slide sideways. SPLASH! I caught her. I was wondering how she would react. She rubbed the water off her eyes and said, “I wanna do it again!” After Rob came down, I told him and back up they went. The next time she came down the right way. It really was cute.
After a bit more swimming around, Brookie was done. But the boys weren’t. I told Rob I’d take her back to the room, and they could all stay for awhile more. But on the way back I needed to make a pit stop at the pool bar to get me a pina colada. Oh yeah, I was wanting me one of them. I froze my fingers all the way back to the room but it was so worth it.
And now to get on with some seriousness. This is the point that my day just sort of “dropped”.
My parents had driven down to Maryland to visit my Uncle Pete. I decided now was a good time to give them a call, as Brookie was relaxing watching TV. My mom told me they were having a good time and where they went out to eat. After a couple of minutes she says, “Well, I have some family news to tell you. We spoke to your grandmother in California, and she has been diagnosed with colon cancer.” That totally threw me for a loop. Here I was on vacation in the Happiest Place on Earth and she gives me that news. I haven’t seen my grandmother since 2001 when Alec was a baby. Now, I am feeling guilty that of all the other vacations I have planned, not one of them was to California. I always reasoned that it was cheaper for us to go to Disney World or Cape Canaveral or Fort Myers - you get the picture - than it was to take the whole family out to California. I asked Mom if there were any plans for them to fly out there, and she said no. My grandmother still had to meet with a cancer specialist first. They all were optimistic. Me, not so much. Nonetheless, I still had the rest of the evening and 2 more whole days of our Disney vacation. So, there was nothing I could do but have a good time and worry about it when we got home.
When the boys returned it was getting pretty late, so we all washed up and got ready for bed. Tomorrow would be another long day at Epcot.
On our trek back to the far end of the park, I asked Alec if he liked Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. He said, “Yeah. I almost peed a little but I liked it.” I just about peed when he said that!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch - I mean Star Tours area, it was finally FP time. Rob took Evan first while I plopped my big old butt down on the curb with the kids. I needed the seat badly. Right around the area that we sat we saw the cool Star Wars riding thing. For trip reporting writing sake, I’ll call it a scooter. I’m sure I’ll get some flask from any Star Wars fans. Feel free to tell me the correct name and I will edit this, maybe. I thought this would be a cool place for pics once Rob and Evan came back.
Time now is 3 pm and what did we hear coming out? The parade, by golly. Only we were just far enough away that we couldn’t see diddly squat. Rob and Evan returned, and Evan and Alec are MAD that they couldn't see the parade. I blew it again. I am totally not a parade person and neither is Rob. So, we were not even going to bother. Sorry kiddos, next time we promise.
Back to the scooter thingie. We stepped over there and noticed there was a PhotoPass CM. I quickly ushered Alec up onto the scooter. Evan quickly hopped on the back. I wanted to tell Evan to wait his turn, but both boys seemed happy so I left it that way.
Here’s the picture I took while the CM was trying to get his pic ...
Here’s the PhotoPass picture which I think is just a tad better than mine ...
Flash forward to home when Evan saw the picture. He was mad because Alec was in front and he wanted to be in front. I tried to tell him that he could have had his turn but he chose to hop on back. Sorry Evan. I, too, was disappointed.
Brookie had her turn next and, once again, here’s mine ...
... and the much better PhotoPass ...
Okay, now that we were done with that, I decided it was time for Alec and I to ride Star Tours. There seemed to be a problem. The FP return line was jammed into the massive amounts of people watching the parade. I looked at the CM at the standby line and showed him our FPs. He then told me to enter the standby line and scoot through to the FP. That worked. We had a bit of a wait still, and Alec was not happy with that. Go figure!
We got to the point where we are shown to our circles on the floor right before the doors to enter. We were in the first row. I looked at Alec. His legs were crossed a little funny. I asked him if he had to go pee. He said, “No, I just like standing this way.” Okay, whatever. The woman on the little TV above starts talking to us about how to move all the way over, blah blah and then I hear it. “Mommy, I think I need to pee.” I turn around and say, “Are you sure? Can you hold it?” But I saw the pee dance starting. I looked at the CM standing beside us and asked him where the nearest restroom was. I wanted to make sure we made a beeline for it. But, instead of him telling me, he said, "Wait a minute let me check." Uh ... no time to check. But he was quick and told me. I then made sure I said rather loudly, “Let’s go Alec, but remember, this was our only fast pass and we just lost it.” Another CM overheard me (my sneaky intention) and ran over and gave us FPs to use anytime the rest of the week. Score! He also told us to follow him through the special guest/handicap line to get us out of there ASAP.
I have to warn you all now. You are going to hear some potty talk. Alec and I ran across the way to the ladies restroom.
Thank the Lord that there was no line, and I ushered him into the first stall. He told me at that point that he needed to poop too. Glory be! Just wonderful. I quickly put the liner on the toilet and told him I would wait right outside the stall door. I happened to glance down and see that he had taken off his shorts and underwear and left it on the floor. Ew! That totally grossed me out, but nothing I could do now about it. Then Alec said, “Mommy, I had a little diarrhea and a got a bit on my leg.” I could hear the trembling in his voice starting. I quickly came into the stall with him and got him cleaned up. It really was not as bad as I thought. A very quick wipe. I helped him get his underwear and shorts back on and we both went and scrubbed our hands clean.
We found Rob, Evan, and Brookie and told them what happened. When I asked Alec if he wanted to go back to try Star Tours now, he said no. He didn’t feel good. Rob and I looked at each and decided we had it for the day, so we decided to head back to the buses.
On our walk on out, brilliant me said, let’s go this way, it is a much quicker walk to the front gates. Which it is normally is ... that is, when Indiana Jones isn’t just getting out. We got slammed with people and we hung on for dear life as we maneuvered the strollers through the masses.
We dropped off our stroller and made our way all the way to the furthest upon furthest bus stop and waited in the bright sunlight for next bus to come. This has got to be the worst bus stop out of all the parks.
Now, I have some more PhotoPass pictures to show you. These PhotoPass pics were taken first thing in the morning but I love them so much that I really wanted to wait until the end of this segment to show you them.
First off, I was super excited to get another PhotoPass taken. But Brookie, not so much. She started her whining, but I told Rob to just pick her up and she’ll get over it. The CM took the first picture ...
Okay, Brookie did not just get over it. But let’s keep trying. How about this time?
What? Even worse. Oh come on now! Let’s try it one more time ... and you will notice that I added the graphic because it went so well with the picture ...
I thought that picture was the funniest of all the PhotoPass pictures. We all get a big kick out of viewing those pictures in order! Hope you enjoyed them too.
Now, back to the resort we went to cool down and relax. We were going to go back to MGM later for EMH and catch all the shows we missed. That was the plan ...
When we parked our stroller, we placed our double stroller against the wall and pushed the umbrella stroller up against the back of it. I then took a beach towel and laid it across the top of both strollers. I did this all the time so our strollers would be together, easy to locate, and it kept the sun mostly out. Plus, it kind of hid my big pack of essentials. This time the strollers were in the shade, but I still put the towel over them.
We came out of Muppets all happy. The kids loved it. Some people think it needs updating, but for those young ones who have never seen it, it’s great! Evan needed to use the restroom now. At least he doesn't still do the pee dance. So I took Brookie and Alec over to collect our stroller whilst Rob took Evan to the restroom. When I approached the double stroller I saw that our pink umbrella stroller was missing.
Now, I know sometimes CMs rearrange strollers, so I wasn’t worried. I started casually looking around for it. It wasn't anywhere in immediate eyesight. I then started getting a bit frantic and walked up and down with Alec and Brookie looking for the stroller amongst all the other strollers. It absolutely positively was not there. Somebody stole our stroller! Now I really was freaking because it was our own stroller, not the rented one.
Rob and Evan came up and I told him what happened. He went back and looked all over and didn’t find it either. He then spotted the exact same pink umbrella stroller across the way in a non-stroller parking area. The only problem was, it wasn’t ours. Now, I was positive that some dufus took our stroller thinking it was theirs, even though our stroller was no where even close to theirs and ours was covered up by our beach towel.
Meanwhile, time’s a ticking. I really wanted Alec to meet up with Lightning McQueen and Mater. I knew he would love it. So we headed out onto Streets of America and waited for Rob who was still looking around.
Rob finally came back with our stroller. He said he saw another guy with it and went up to him. The guy hadn’t a clue. Rob said that the guy was wondering why the shade was so much lower on this one. Uhm ... did he ever think why “his” stroller was parked in a totally different area and underneath someone else’s beach towel? Did he also wonder whose water bottles and other things were in the mesh pocket? I mean come on! What an idiot this guy was. I was completely ticked off and it’s probably a good thing that Rob found this guy and not me.
Now, why didn't I think to head over to Cars whilst we waited for Rob? I can’t even tell you. I’m thinking that my brain was still all messed up about someone possibly stealing our stroller. But we were on our way now and it was just around the corner.
There was a CM standing at the end of the meet-n-greet line. She told us the line was closed. No more people were allowed in line, but we could come back at 5 pm. Great lady. That so was not going to happen. But Rob took the boys up to as far as he could get so they could at least view Lightning and Mater. Alec was disappointed, and I tried my best to make him feel better.
So, what did we want to do now? I knew the line for The Great Movie Ride was ridiculous, and we didn’t care if went on that or not. The timing for the shows was not very good, but we were near Star Tours. So we headed over there and grabbed us some FPs. The heat of the day was starting to bother me, and usually it doesn’t bother me much. I think it had to do with my feet still being very painful and things not really working out in our favor at this point.
Brookie fell asleep in the stroller on the short walk from Cars to Star Tours. While we waited for our FP time to come up I told Rob that I was going to take Alec back over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster while he took Brookie and Evan over to the Jedi Training Academy.
What was I thinking? I pushed Alec in the double stroller back across the park to RnRC.
My feet were hurting so bad. I parked the stroller quickly and off we went to the FP line. They gave Alec the once over and in we went. Whew! I have to admit that I was a bit worried that Alec wouldn’t make the 48-inch line again. But he did. Our FP line went very fast. We walked right up to my good buddy Steven Tyler and the gang and then back out in the alley while we awaited our super stretch limo. The next thing I was worried about was how Alec would do with a roller coaster that flipped as much as this one does. He had never done that before (and remember, this is the kid who has gotten sick on the plane descent). Too late now! Off we went through the streets of Los Angeles with Aerosmith blasting in our ears.
After our limo ride we got off and Alec seemed fine. We walked over to view our ride photo and here is what really stinks. There were all these people crowded around the ride photos. We politely waited while people just stood there and gawked at their own photos. Then we get to step up and our picture is no where in site. They had changed to the next limo already. I turned to the CM and said, “Hey, our picture is gone already and we didn’t get to see it.” Did she ever so nicely say how I could view it? Nope, she just looked at me and shrugged. Geez lady, did you know that I was going to redneck the photo?
So, back we went to the stroller and, ever so hurtingly, I pushed Alec back to the Star Tours area where Rob, Evan & Brookie were waiting for us...
We crossed the park very efficiently and found our way to check in at the Sci-Fi Dine In. Notice please that we cut around the Tip Board saving us probably a whole 30, if not 40 seconds!
We checked in, and they told us it would be a few minutes, which it was, and then we were shown to our cool yellow car. Evan & Alec sat in front, Rob & Brookie in the middle, and I brought up the rear. You can’t see me in this picture obviously because I’m taking the picture. But look at my goofy Evan ...
Because I had used up 2 of our table service credits at Cinderella's, Rob & I decided. Wait a minute. I mean I decided that we would pay out of pocket for our’s and Brookie’s meals and use the table service credits for the boys. I prayed that the CM taking our order would get this right. We had a fine guy named Taoufiq as our server. He was nice and said that he understood totally how we wanted our check divied up.
Alec ordered a salad for his appetizer whilst Evan ordered the tomato soup. They both decided on the mac and cheese for their entree. Alec ate almost all of his salad, but Evan said he didn’t like his soup. No biggie. Both boys ate their mac and cheese. We ordered Brookie a dessert fruit salad (yummy, yummy ... sorry for the Wiggle reference) for her meal. I thought that would be good for her, as it was a nice big plate of fruit, and I didn’t think she was going to be a very good eater for lunch. I was right, but at least we could all help her with the fruit.
Both Rob & I ordered burgers and fries for our entrees, and it did not disappoint. We knew better than to order anything more complicated. We were there for the atmosphere and we loved our burgers. Plus it was cheap. And we love cheap. At least cheap in the Disney sense in which everything else was probably more.
We asked dear sweet Taoufiq (now how do you think that is pronounced as I just can’t remember; I'm looking at our receipt) if he would take our picture. Here’s what he took ...
See me in the back seat all alone? Yup, enjoying that one!
Anywho, we loved the “kary” movie trailers and music. Just loved it. The kids loved it too. Brookie just couldn’t get enough ...
I should say that Brookie just couldn’t get enough attention. Back to the lovely Kiss tongue ... Click here for "Brookie's "Kiss" tongue" video.
And I finally caught a good little video of Brookie be-bopping to the music ... Click here for "Brookie Bebopping" video.
The boys ordered chocolate sundaes, and we ordered one for Brookie too. We paid our portion of the bill, which Taoufiq figured out perfectly, and headed on out.
I asked Rob for the time, which was 12:50 pm. Oh, great! I knew that Lightning McQueen and Mater were going to be out for awhile so we started to walk and saw that the Muppets Show was going to start. We parked our stroller and headed over to The Muppets.
