Disney Adventure - Day 8

Epcot / Downtown Disney Revisited. And look ma, no coats!!

We had a plan. We sort of stuck to it, but not the way we had intended. The plan was to head back to Epcot and visit the World Showcase so we could see some of the street performers at the different countries (and see the countries in the daylight), come home and relax for little while and let the boys swim, and then head over to Downtown Disney to do our shopping and have dinner. Didn't quite work that way, but we had a GREAT day!!

We arrived at Epcot about 10:30 this morning. It was WAY more crowded than it was on Wednesday. We ran into some characters (the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland, the Evil Queen, some cat from the Aristocats, and Rafiki) and took some pictures, and then stopped by the Test Track ride and grabbed Fast Passes... our first in our now five days at the parks! Our Fast Pass time slot was 12:15 - 1:15pm (which basically means we could come back and jump in the Fast Pass line any time after 12:15. With those secured (and J-Mav already whining about not wanting to go on it because it's fast and scary), we proceeded into the World Showcase, right as it was opening at 11. We went the opposite direction this time, starting at Mexico.

Other than stopping to take pictures, we actually walked past Mexico and Norway because we'd done the rides and checked out the stores in both of those countries on Wednesday night. We explored China a bit, and Keeper Boy took more pictures. His class is studying the dynasties right now, so he'll have some cool photos to take back to school with him.

At the Outpost, we stopped to let the boys play some African drums and watch a man who was carving an elephant out of wood. And then it was on to Germany. Hubby had his picture taken with Snow White, and we stopped to watch the garden railroad that is set up outside Germany. In Italy, I comtemplated purchasing a new nativity set, but decided to pass. After Italy came The American Adventure. We decided not to stop and tour since, well, we live here. :) We did watch the end of a fife and drum performance. The boys seemed to think that was cool.

Then it was on to Japan. We wandered through a Japanese tea garden and then through the stores there. Outside Morocco, we saw Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. The boys weren't interested in visiting with them, but I was going to. However, they went on a break right as we got there. So we explored Morocco and watched a belly dancer perform! Outside France we saw Beast and Belle; however, they were going on a break when we got there, too. We poked around France and then made our way to United Kingdom (where we saw Mary Poppins) as we wanted to see a comedy show that was going to happen. Little did we know, Hubby would end up being one of the stars of the show! He was picked out of the audience to play the role of Sir Galehad (sp?). Hilarity ensued. Keeper Boy was embarassed (and he's not even a teenager yet). I took lots of pictures!!

After that, we moved along to Canada. We wandered around, looked through the stores. It took Keeper Boy a minute (or two) to figure out why there were only t-shirts for Canadian hockey teams. We saw a 360-degree movie about Canada (hosted by Martin Short) and then went back outside and saw a Canadian band perform. They were all wearing kilts. I'm not sure what that was all about. The boys both decided they would never wear a kilt...

After we were tired of listening to the band, we headed back to France to catch one more street performance. It's hard to explain what it was.... a guy who didn't talk, just blew a whistle, and another guy who was, basically, an acrobat. He stacked chairs on whine bottles (which were on a table) and climbed up them and did a handstand. I think it was four chairs, the bottom sitting on four wine bottles, which were sitting on a table. I was nervous for him, but since he does it multiple times each day, I guess he's pretty good at it!

By the time we were done watching that, it was well past our Fast Pass time for the Test Track (sponsored by GM, which you were not allowed to forget throughout or after the ride). J-Mav cried the entire way through the line (which was quite short thanks to jump-toward-the-front-of-the-line-free Fast Pass cards. While we were waiting to get in our car, we saw someone we knew from church/little league. It's a small world after all! We buckled into our car and off we went. The idea of the ride is that you're put through some of the tests that cars go through... rough roads, sudden breaking, hairpin turns, etc. At the end, you go out on the test loop... it goes around the outside of the building very fast on banked track like a race track. It was a very cool ride. We asked J-Mav at the end whether he liked it. His response: "that was NOT cool."

That completed our Disney World parks experience. We walked back out to the car. By this time, it was after 4. Our timeline had slipped significantly. But whatever. No worries. We went straight to Downtown Disney, somehow landed a great parking space in a lot that was supposed to be full, and walked straight to the T-Rex Cafe (the restaurant I wanted to eat at with J-Mav on Monday, but it was too scary). We told him he'd be fine and we were going there. He whined. But Keeper Boy did a good job of keeping him distracted and he was fine once we were inside. We were seated in the Ice Cave. Thankfully, it wasn't icy! The food was really good and we had a fun dinner.

After dinner, we walked around the stores... mostly in the big Disney store that has everything under the sun with Mickey ears on it. We visited a few other places, but the bulk of our time was spent in the one store. We all got a t-shirt, we got some gifts to bring home, we tried on silly hats, J-Mav bought a pirate toy, and I got a photo album for the gagillion pictures we took. I'm thinking I should've gotten two, but I didn't. So I'll either have to narrow our trip down to 200 pictures or less, or buy another (plain) album later.

We decided we are glad we don't have another full day in the parks tomorrow because we're tired. But man did we have a blast! We stopped at the crazy Disney McDonald's on the way home for ice cream, and got back to the condo around 9:30. Hubby took the kids down to the pool for a little while while I started packing up some stuff. Less to do tomorrow morning since checkout is 10am. We are sad to leave just as it's warming up here, and we're not looking forward to the long drive home. But cold and all, it really was a magical week! I love Disney World just as much now as did when I was a kid. And it was great to share it with the boys and see the magic through their eyes. I'm pretty sure we'll be back...

Disney Adventure - Day 3

Exploration/waiting day. Phew! I'm tired! And we haven't even set foot in one Disney park yet. I think I must be getting old!

J-Mav and I left the condo around 9am this morning with a loose plan -- find the giant Buzz Lightyear and see the Lego sculptures at Downtown Disney. Mission accomplished, and then some!

We made the very short, very well-marked drive to the All-Star Resorts area and gained access through the gate by just showing a photo ID. The very nice gatekeeper told us exactly how to get to said Buzz Lightyear at the All-Star Movies Resort and gave us some other helpful pointers. We hit paydirt! Not only did we see a ginormous (as in, like four stories tall) Buzz Lightyear, but we also saw several large buckets of green army men and a few other very large characters from Toy Story. In another part of the resort, we saw some huge dalmations. And then we found a part of the resort dedicated to the Mighty Ducks movies. Huge hockey sticks! Huge nets! Huge goalie masks! AND a pool in the shape of a hockey rink, complete with lines, faceoff circles, and Goofy in net on the pool deck. Very cool.

While all of this took little more than a half hour, J-Mav was already complaining abou this legs hurting. I was thinking I was going to be in for a long day! So we hopped in the car and backtracked to the All-Star Sports Resort. Apparently the three-minute car ride rejuvinated J-Mav's legs because he ran around the sports-themed resort with no trouble (and no memory that his legs hurt). We saw ginormous footballs, huge baseball bats and balls, very large basketball hoops, and humungous tennis rackets. There was also a big football field, with regulation goal posts. J-Mav showed off some of his moves (with a phantom football).

From there we journeyed down Buena Vista Blvd. to Downtown Disney. We shopped; we checked out the Lego sculptures (J-Mav didn't see there was a whole Lego store, and I didn't mention it); we tried to eat lunch at T-Rex Cafe after more complaining about tired legs, but J-Mav was scared of the animatronic dinosaurs, so we opted for the tamer Earl of Sandwich instead; he rode a carousel; I did some damage on the credit card at the Christmas Shoppe; we tried on goofy (and Goofy) hats and took pictures; and we just hung out and had fun.

From there we decided to ride around on the monorail and check things out. In hindsight, I should've just parked at the Contemporary Resort and gotten on the monorail there. However, I had it in my head to go to Fort Wilderness for some reason. So we went there. We took a bus to boat dock, and a boat to the Contemporary. We got on the monorail and did the loop (Contemporary Resort - Transportation Center - Polynesian Resort - Grand Floridian Resort - Magic Kingdom). When we got back to the Contemporary, we decided we'd switch monorails and do the Epcot loop, too. So we stayed on for one more stop (Transportation Center) and waited for the other monorail. J-Mav thought Spaceship Earth at Epcot was awesome. Wait until he finds out there's a ride inside!

While the Epcot loop seemed like a good idea at the time, when we were done, we still had to switch monorails, ride around the entire loop back to the Contemporary Resort, walk down to the boat dock, take the boat across to Fort Wilderness, and hop on the bus to the front of the campground. All of that riding around took most of the afternoon -- but I think I'm now an expert in Disney Transportation in just one day!

We stopped in the trading post at the campground and grabbed milk and some frozen chicken nuggets for dinner (which J-Mav ate ALL of... 20 of them... I think he's growing). I had promised J-Mav he could go swimming. By the time we got down to the pool at the condo, it was pushing 6pm, and the wind had picked up during the day. So while J-Mav seemed comfortable in a pool that is heated to about 80 degrees, I was sitting on the pool deck in two sweatshirts, wrapped in a beach towel!

Now we're in for the night (at least until we have to go to the airport to pick up Hubby and Keeper Boy), and watching a Scooby Doo movie. Good day! The real fun starts tomorrow...
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Meanwhile in Niagara Falls...
The boys won their game this morning, ensuring them a spot in the championship game this afternoon. They played for the championship against the only team they hadn't beat in the rest of the tournament, giving Keeper Boy another shot at them since he was in net for the game they tied. Long story short, they won the game 7-1 (and the championship!)! A great weekend for the team. :) So now Keeper Boy and Hubby are en route. It sounds like both of them were hoping to snooze on the plane.