WDW Day 7 Epcot

Our last full day at Disney and we had several things we still wanted to do at Epcot. We tried to get there before the park opened, but it was extremely crowded at the gate and we stood in lines to get our bags checked and go through the turnstiles.

Bryan took all of our cards and raced ahead to Mission: SPACE to get a Fast Pass, but discovered the standby was only 5-10 minutes, so when we caught up with him we all hopped in line for the Green mission. Mission: SPACE simulates a launch, slingshot around the moon, and "hypersleep" before landing on Mars. The Green mission is identical to the Orange mission, but doesn't spin you on the centrifuge to simulate 2.4Gs.

If you are claustrophobic, this is not the ride for you. The pod seats four with a shoulder harness and the front panel comes towards you, forcing you to look straight at the "viewscreen". We loved it, even Brenna! When we came off, we all wanted to ride it again. This time Bryan and Brenna went to the Green ride and Cameron asked if she and I could ride the Orange. (Bad mommy moment, I agreed.)

Oh. My. Gracious. It was INTENSE!!! All of the warnings are spot on accurate. When it first started spinning I felt pressed back in my seat, but then I felt pressure on my chest making it hard to breathe and my vision narrowed. I remember thinking two things: Cameron! and I can't believe I'm going to black out. All the guidebooks and tip pages say don't move your eyes off the screen to avoid motion sickness, but the first thing I tried to do was look at Cameron.

The ride ended and I wasn't sure we would be able to walk away, my legs were wobbly. Cameron looked like she was going to be sick. We sat down for a few minutes on benches lining the hallway leading us out. I insisted that we get outside for fresh cool air and to find Bryan & Brenna, so we did. She sat for a few more minutes, but didn't feel better.

(She's not saluting, she's blocking the sun.) Cameron and I went to a stand and bought two slushy lemonades and two cookies while Bryan & Brenna went to The Land to get two Fast Passes for Soarin'. When they returned, we ate our cookies and waited for Cameron to slowly start to feel better. At last, she stopped asking to go home to the hotel. Suddenly, Brenna got upset about her hands and we noticed that she'd had an allergic reaction to the cookie. This has happened twice before at home and we identified the source as the frozen ready-to-bake cookies sold as a fundraiser by the elementary schools. Whatever the mystery ingredient is, it was in the cookie we'd bought at the stand.

Bryan and Brenna went off for the First Aid station for some Benadryl since we left ours in the hotel room. Cameron & I picked up two Fast Passes for Test Track before meeting Bryan & Brenna.

After thanking the nurses who treated Brenna we headed into the World Showcase to do another Kim Possible adventure. This time we headed to Germany to stop Professor Dementor from using his evil mind-control device to influence world leaders.

The girls loved finding a shady place to watch the clues. We explored all of Germany trying to solve the clues and unlock the secrets like this one with the beer steins.

While writing the blog, I discovered that the Kim Possible Adventure was in a soft opening while we were there, with the official opening January 28.

After our Kim Possible adventure, we toured Italy, watched the Drum & Fife show in America, and settled down for the American Experience show. Then we snacked on a platter of Chicken Shwarma in Morocco before Brenna and I went to ride Soarin', her favorite ride. Bryan and Cameron picked up another Kim Possible kimmunicator to do another adventure in France.

While waiting on Cameron & Bryan, Brenna took this picture of me. We enjoyed our second adventure in France, even though it made us a few minutes late for our dinner reservations at the German Biergarten.

The Biergarten is supposed to feel like a festive Bavarian village during Octoberfest. All of the tables face the stage where at certain times they have a live band playing. A large buffet offers a variety of traditional German food. This was our last sit-down dinner. They sit you at tables for 8 with another family to visit with, but the four adults downing beers didn't even acknowledge our greetings. I had a beer in Germany and it was the best part of the meal. We tasted a little bit of everything, but didn't care for the food very much. Brenna pouted because our seats were in the far corner and it was difficult to see the stage. Cameron loved when the band played the little bells. I liked the long horn.

After dinner we continued our trek around the world, exploring countries and getting the kids' passports stamped. Every country has a Kidcot Fun Stop where kids can color a mask and add a paper tag from that country. A cast member native to that country also stamps their passport and writes them a message in the native language.

In Morocco, one of the cast members gave Cameron a unique experience, a lesson in belly dancing. (Gotta love the costume over her coat.)

I really liked the UK/England stop in the gift shop full of copies of the original Pooh books, Mary Poppins, and Charlie & Lola. Cameron and Brenna showed off their accents (thanks to Harry Potter movies) which the visiting cast member proclaimed gosh darn accurate.

While Cameron & Bryan used their FP to ride Test Track, Brenna and I visited the last two countries: Norway and Mexico.

After we met up with Cameron & Bryan, we took a short cut through one of the larger gift shops. Though we didn't bring home any Mickey ears, we all took turns trying on the hats and taking a few pictures.

Then it was time for one last ride at Epcot: Spaceship Earth, which wound us up through the Epcot ball showing us the development of technology with Dame Judi Dench narrating in our ear. The slow ride "down" was steep and we were practically lying at a 45-degree angle on our backs. Just as we exited, we heard that the fireworks show had just ended, so we quickly exited the park to ride back to the hotel.

In the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge there was a caricature artist each night and Cameron had been begging us for a portrait. This being the last night, we let them do it.

Most nights we were in our hotel room, in bed, by 9:35 p.m. Each night we could hear the music from the Electrical Water Pageant that has been sailing in Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon since October 1971.

On the first night I promised Cameron that one night during our stay I would take her out to see the event. We could only see the first float from our room balcony, though we coudl hear the music loud and clear. While Brenna was having her caricature drawn, Cameron and I walked down to the boat launch and watched the parade, which ended with You're a Grand Old Flag and all of the sea creature/King Triton displays going to the stars and stripes.

And this ended our last night at the Wilderness Lodge. The girls picked out their clothes for tomorrow and packed their carry-on bags. While they fell asleep, Bryan and I packed most of the suitcases.

WDW Day 5 Epcot Princess Breakfast

One of the reasons we rested on Tuesday night was because we knew we had a big day planned for Wednesday. We hoped to get to Epcot about 8:30 a.m. in order to ride a few of the big rides or get some Fast Passes before our 10 a.m. Norway Akershus Princess Breakfast. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. Day 5 is when things start to get a little dicey. We rushed in the morning and hopped on the Epcot bus a little later than I'd hoped.

You'll notice in the photo above that both girls are wearing a badgeholder around their necks. We used these to keep their ID, their "First Time" pins, and their room card key aka entrance ticket to the parks. After we were on the bus to Epcot I noticed that neither girl had their badgeholder on. After some calming breaths, we evaluated the situation and decided to hop off at the Ft. Wilderness stop. There we were able to take another bus that went through Ft. Wilderness and ended at Wilderness Lodge. Bryan ran up to the room for the badges while the girls and I tried to keep warm and hoped that the next Epcot bus wouldn't come before he came back down. (Seriously, it was 27F overnight and the orange crop froze!) He arrived about 30 seconds before the Epcot bus and after a 45 minute delay we were once again headed to Epcot.

Epcot's World Showcase includes the Akershus Royal Dining Hall in Norway offering character dining with princesses. We waited about 20 minutes in the cold, stepping inside the heated gift shop long enough for our noses, cheeks and ears to thaw, keeping our hands in our pockets tightly gripping the handwarmers.

When they call you name, you get a slip of paper and join the line. Now you wait with a purpose, because the line ends with Belle. The princess, in her yellow ball gown and a convenient drape for the cold, greets each girl kindly, signs their autograph books and poses for both you and the Akershus photographer.

Then we are led to our table where we receive drinks and a platter of scrambled eggs, sausage, (undercooked) bacon, and potato casserole. A buffet line offers thinly sliced smoked salmon, some kind of herring, pastries, croissants, a yummy apple pastry, muffins, lingonberry cream cheese and fresh fruit. During breakfast, the other princesses come by to greet you. We were visited first by Jasmine. This time she wore a blue robe over her skimpy costume.

She immediately recognized us from yesterday! She asked us to pass on a message to Cinderella at our dinner tonight – would we tell her “Tag, you’re it!” Clearly, some kind of inside joke between the princesses. Next Mary Poppins, all proper and British, comes by to sign the books and pose for a photo. Then Snow White, and last a new princess – Mulan!

While I had the girls in the restroom, Bryan said that Jasmine came back over and told him thank you, that the girls were delightful and families like ours made her job such a delight.

We wandered a little back over to the Future World, the park was still very crowded with large international touring groups and VERY cold. The wind! Our first stop was to get a FastPass for Soarin’, then we got in a 25 minute line for Living Seas with Nemo, which put us in the theater for Turtle Talk with Crush – just as good as everyone talked about. The kids all sit on the carpet in front and it was very crowded.

We went into Imagination Station with Figment and played around with some of the kiosks there, waving our arms with melody makers and morphing photos.

We went to get a FP for Test Track and stopped inside Innovations (for warmth) where we saw the testing labs and played a creative, interesting (and a bit preachy) game about Waste Management. We were the Kelly Green team!

Bryan bought the girls passports and we headed into The World. It had started to warm up a bit, but not much. We ate some Fish'n'Chips in Britain as we rushed around The World to get back to Soarin' in time for our FP entry. Soarin' is this fantastic multi-sensory ride that simulates hang gliding over parts of California. Your seat goes up in the air so smoothly you don't notice it at all and while watching the IMAX screen, you really feel like you're soaring complete with breezes and odors. Brenna loved this ride.

We walked over to Test Track and discovered it was not running! The cast member said our FP would work anytime before the park closed, so we went to China to try out a Kim Possible adventure.

The phone “kimmunicator” gave her clues, things to find around China. The entire game was very well designed – requiring her to find a lion in front of a gallery. Then go into the gallery and find another clue (the clues interacted with her) and then come out and find a zodiac wheel (she is year of the Sheep). Then finally the riddle is solved and the puzzle completed. The phone goes into a drop off point.

After viewing the 360 degree film on China, we stopped for some shrimp fried rice with a pork eggroll and caramel ginger ice cream. By now it’s getting really cold again and dark. We headed for Test Track to see if it’s running again. It was, so we got our ride. Poor Brenna really hated the fast part of the ride, and I was so worried about Brenna that I didn’t really enjoy the ride. Yes, it went fast – increased to 65 mph but then immediately decreased. Bryan and Cameron loved it.

We decided to ride the Living with the Land boat ride before we left for our dinner reservations and we caught the last boat of the night, but before it pulled away from the loading point, it stopped and we were trapped on board for almost 15 minutes while they figured it out. We were tired, cranky, and decided to get off, but they wouldn’t allow us. Finally it started and the ride was better than we expected. The best of the “boring” educational rides so far.

We rushed to the Monorail, and rode it to the TTC, catching another monorail to the Grand Floridian resort. These were "last minute" dinner reservations and I was pleased to have the opportunity to see the inside of the Grand Floridian since I've always wanted to stay there. After checking in with the 1900 Park Café, we stepped outside by the pool to see the 8 p.m. Magic Kingdom fireworks.

The dinner buffet included all of the Cinderella characters introduced with great fanfare.

Before the end of the dinner, Cinderella and Prince Charming enjoyed a waltz. After dinner we had to take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom and from there catch a bus (just barely!) to the Wilderness. If we hadn’t caught it, we would have had to go from the Floridian to the TTC to Epcot and caught a bus from there. Both girls just barely made it up to the room, took showers without much complaining and went straight to bed.