Disney 2019 day 7: 24-Aug-2019

Video Priest ala Beast

A bit drained from the super long previous day including the Magic Kingdom, the Snow White dinner and the Disney Springs detour- we were slow getting started this morning. 

That means we still made it there before park opening, but weren’t at the front of the rope drop line to get a good view of the Jammitors garbage pail banging musical welcome to Future World in EPCOT.   We could still hear them. 

They rocked! YAY! 

Since it was there, once the rope did drop, we started the day on the Big Ball!  YAY!!!

Morgan, completely oblivious to his face planting into slumber-land during the Plaza dinner the first day, couldn't understand how anyone could have a nap sneak attack them in Disney World. He kept yelling at Anabelle next to him and Grandma in the car behind him:
"Wake up!  What's wrong with you?"

After classic,true animatronic joys of EPCOT and a bit of fiddling in the post-show area we went over to the left side (or the right side on the new inverted, compass oriented maps) to catch the end of our Living Seas FastPass window.

On the way, Anabelle stopped by a creepy guy with pin binders. Due to the “creepy guy” portion of that sentence being enhanced by learning he was also a “rude guy” it was an even shorter (and trade free) stop than anticipated.

I'm not sure if it is maintenance related, or Disney making a rare decision to not frighten children, but the terrifying angler fish on the Nemo ride didn't pop in and out of the hole anymore, it just glared at passing guests.

We spent a bit of time, (never enough says the fish addict chronicler of these adventures) with the big tanks. There was also quality manatee time where we learned their names. 

Anabelle ended up in an impromptu duet with an Instant Disney Friend of the Silly Songs with Larry classic: “Barbara Manatee” in this spot, much to the confusion of his girlfriend.
(That would be the Instant Disney Friend's girlfriend...not Barbara Manatee's.  Sometimes I have trouble parsing my own prose, sorry about that.)

We’re so fun in public.

The Turtle Talk show continued to be a must see, due to audience participation and the live digital puppet performance that uses varied stock answers and some improvisation to keep it fresh every time.  The fact that the in room host’s name was Ariel was an Awesome, Happy Disney bonus.

In the gift shop, Anabelle built up her interpersonal skills with some more pin reviews, and got complimented on her Disney nails. 

Outside the Seas pavilion, by the Nemo "Tank Gang" statues, we met the fastest PhotoPass photographer in history.  People walked through the shot area constantly, but he managed to crank through the line, including us, in record time.

Rosa had left ahead of the rest of our fish watching and shopping gang, to walk slower with her broken toes, and make a side trip to Club Cool for an Inca Kola fix.  Knowing we’d be eating with Chip and Dale later, she used her usual super power of finding them to have the Character Spot line be non-existent for the only time on the past two trips when she reached it. She met with Mickey and Minnie and had a brief dance with Goofy, which I’m sure, reminded her of our Ballroom Dance classes.

We met up at Imagination, but it was broken.  
Alas.

Luckily, in the time it took for everyone to gather together and take bathroom breaks, it was working again! 
YAY!

And the bathroom played “Makin' Memories!” 
YAY!

In an astounding burst of Disneyness, a Cast Member reminded everyone, “If you don’t have an imagination, just pretend you do!”

After the ride, Kim’s family got a fun Green Screen Cars photo.  Yes, the blow picture has nothign to do with theirs, but, look, Eric Idle! YAY!

Anabelle didn’t find any pictures that met her worthiness criteria, so she made a Figment instead

Our immediate family made a group pass by Club Cool on the way back to the pre-booked extended time in the Land Pavilion.  I tried, and Anabelle enjoyed, some gross Japanese and Brazilian sodas before joining Rosa in another Inca Kola fix.

After a bit of confusion (which is much better than our standard “a boatload of confusion”) as to whether the meeting spot was “in” or “in front of” the Land, we combined and went downstairs to the Soarin’ FastPass line.

A miracle happened! 

As we got to the front of the line and the Cast Member asked “how many?” his response to, “Nine” instead of being, “Wait until we let these fifty other small groups on” was, “PERFECT!”

YAY!

Of course, when they brought us to our own row, it had a broken chair, meaning we split a little anyway.

The kids all got to sit together and have an amazing time, however. They screamed back at the eagle, hunted for Hidden Mickeys and shouted out (in southern accents of course) to the Great Wall of Chin…ah.

We’re so fun in public.

Just upstairs was our lunch reservation at the Garden Grill. We were early, but felt we needed to be since we had two separate reservations and wanted to combine them. Before I could explain we’d be willing to wait for that combining, they had a table for all of us. 

It kinda makes you wonder why the full size reservations are never available in places where the tables can move.  Anabelle used the extra time to trade one of her snack pins at the sign in desk for a pin with Captain Hook AND STINKY! for old time’s sake.

We found places at the merged tables, Aurora ended up on the side with our family. 

"We stole Aurora, IT MUST BE EPCOT!"

As always, the characters were loads of fun as they came around. Not having to get up and run to the buffet makes the interactions more personal and less frantic I think.

Chip tried using the force when he saw the various Star Wars items at our table.

Mickey mimed two kisses to Rosa as he waited for the chipmunk to leave our area.  He then spent a bunch of time with the kids, and did a bit of swashbuckling with the Kim's family's sword pen.  There were many hugs, as there should be.

We knew the outside scenery didn't rotate with the restaurant, but for the first time we paid attention enough to note the consequences of the inside wall not rotating.  This was driven home when some of the kids leaned on it when the characters came around and found themselves sliding along.  Wheeeeeee!

Between visits the waitress brought the mason jars of drinks, maintaining a bit of the farmery theme that has kind of fallen by the wayside over the years.

Pluto came by for many more hugs, reluctantly by Aurora since it was her turn to be that age.  Pluto’s large snout clocked Morgan going in for one of the embraces, but true Disney fan that he is, he shook it off.

Dale camped it up more than the others, which is a considerable amount by any standards. He grabbed the sword pen and started fencing Anabelle after going crazy over her Chip and Dale earrings. 

There were fewer selections than other trips but the quality of the delivered piles of food improved. In eighteen years of marriage, I never saw Rosa order a salad with dressing.  Here she devoured the pre-dressed mix,  asked for a refill and was promised to be emailed the recipe. They didn't send it but we were able to find it online. YAY!

Just like other meals here, the circular nature meant a great many return trips of the characters with a great many extra hugs. That is except for me. I got ignored and left out of the waves and high fives on the repeat passings.  The final insult was when I’d gone to the bathroom and my own daughter didn't notice I was gone.  Oh the shame of it.

We finished up dessert and went back downstairs exactly in time for the boat ride FastPass. Nice one there Where Will We Go Next Guy.

The old "Listen to the Land" song is long gone, but Kim played it on her phone as we entered the boat and we sang along.  

We’re so fun in public!

We saw plants, fish (but not Plant Fishiness) and Hidden Mickeys. We didn't see any Winter Melons, because it wasn’t winter. They should really take that sign down other seasons.

Disembarking (or is that dis-em–boating) there was another split up as we attempted to cross all of Future World horizontally.  Um... I guess all park crossings are horizontal.  I meant east to west, or maybe west to east. That flipped map still screws me up.

Anabelle was completing getting a Jessica Rabbit pin for another of her snack ones when we called her to come back as the other kids leaped on the Baymax line.

For a change, technical problems worked in our favor. Baymax’s coffee break was announced as extended, and half the line left. He came back pretty quickly anyway and we all had to remove any pins or other potentially Baymax poking accessories, following our short wait for photos. YAY!

Rosa chugged another hit of Inca Kola and met us on the way to Mission Space, followed by our own personal EPCOT McGinley Raincloud.

The kids were all finally tall enough to ride and all four took one ship. 

BEEEEEAAAAANS IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!!!

They giggled through the trip, and Anabelle (in the engineer spot) imitated Scotty the whole time unto Aurora was ready to toss her out into orbit. That’s my girl!

Grandma took a hard pass and the other four of us theoretical adults made dumb jokes the entire time in our craft.

Some days are more made for splitting and this was one.  Kim and Dave took the kids to meet Mulan because we passed her with only a wave on the last stop here. Also there wasn’t proper shirt alignment for that particular meeting.

The struggle is real.

Rosa was already over in France where she just missed Belle in the blue dress.

 

BELLE IN THE BLUE DRESS!!!

Yes, I ran more than half way around World Showcase this far into this grueling paced trip. 

Belle was pleased to see Rosa waited, we got our picture, and the kids got theirs. YAY!

We worked our way back around to meet them in Mexico. Given my recent sprint, cashing in a snack for hydration was a given. I think I scared the Canadian Cast Member at the cart with my excitement over Red PowerAde.  Using the phrase “Blue PowerAde out the wazoo” to describe most other shops probably didn't help.

Rosa and I felt very nostalgic passing the World Showcase gazebo seeing a little girl run into it yelling, “Daisy!”  Granted we were nostalgic for only four days ago, but still, nostalgic.

We met up in Mexico where the kids were making Coco skeleton pictures. It seemed like there should have been some camera feedback involved, but there was not. 

Hey, the place is huge, not everything can work.

We got a handicapped platform boat for the lineless ride, which meant Rosa enjoyed another feet up trip. Kim’s family sat behind ours and there were statements of “I think there’s suspicious people behind us,” “I think there’s weird people in front of us,” and “I think we’re both right,” as we enjoyed Donald and Latin friends yet again.

Post ride we continued our enjoyment by watching the making of shiny things in the glass shop, and Aurora had Ziggywig model several sombreros.

We’re so fun in public.

I steered the group across the bridges to the Odyssey "used to be restaurant" to see the display of future EPCOT exhibits. 
It was closed.

I found out why when we got home. That exhibit wasn’t opening until a month after we left. 

Oopsie.

Yet again, it was splitting time. Rosa and I went to Mouse Gear, stopping for some mushy PhotoPasses on the way. (Yes, we’re nauseatingly adorable.)

Kim and Dave took the girls to try the Orange “May have a Coronary” line on Mission Space. This was to be followed by the single rider line in Test Track. Anabelle wanted me far away for that so she couldn't hear me ranting (again) about the loss of Magnetic Levitation Man.

It turned out the Orange line gave Aurora and Anabelle massive headaches, and they skipped Test Track completely and met us in the store where I was establishing a modeling career.

I was in a fitting room trying on the all over print travel stamp type shirt with varied attractions on it we’d spotted last time. I could hear a guy outside asking for the shirt, but describing it so poorly that the Cast Member couldn’t figure it out.  I whipped open the door and said, “Do you mean THIS shirt.”  He asked me to model it and I obligingly spun about.  Instant Disney Friends lead to being so fun in public sometimes.

An Earning Her Ears Cast Member had problems ringing us up and couldn’t figure out how to use another size shirt with a tag to ring up mine without one.  Luckily a more seasoned Cast Member straightened it out. In the confusion Rosa forgot she had the Minnie ears she was going to buy on her head.  We averted a theft by telling that same experienced Cast Member who was awesome enough to give Rosa her Cast Member Discount to make up for not getting the “bunch of stuff” discount we get as Disney Credit card holders.

We all gathered in the store, Anabelle traded a snack pin for a Rapunzel and we set out for the Figment Ride.

It was closed, because it always closes early, and we always forget that.

At least we’re consistent.

Instead we got to go say goodbye to the fish.

YAAAAAAAAAY!

I like fish!

There was a small hammerhead shark! YAY!

(Looks up at sign.)

I mean a normal sized bonnet head shark! YAY!

There were also an inordinate amount of kids looking for baby sharks 
(Do doo doo do do do!)

Pop culture is scary sometimes.

And dolphins! YAY!

Anabelle traded her last snack pin for an Oliver and Dodger pin, putting her in an even more awesome mood than usual for Disney.

Kim wanted to try a Moroccan dish for dinner so the girls were with us.

That means at some point Dave and Grandma must have taken Morgan home, since I'm pretty sure they’re not still in EPCOT. 

Like I said, some days are made for splitting, and we were obscenely tired.

We tried stopping for the sitting PhotoPass by the ball we always take, but we couldn't find it. Likely because the stuff we sat on was gone as part of the EPCOT revamps. We picked a standing spot instead.  Anabelle peeked in the last store to check the “Stich Pin Trading Stroller.” They think of everything.

We made it to the station in time for an instant bus. Veronica said, “I'm glad we stopped all those times!”

Back to the All Star Sport I delivered the girls to Dave, (See? They did leave.) and freshened up a bit. Since we clearly hadn’t walked enough for one day, we went back to the main building to have a dinner for three. Anabelle practiced more of her social skills by swapping her new Jessica Rabbit pin for Mike Wazowski.

With that dinner energy boost, we walked around the resort to check out the statues of Donald and his nephews playing baseball/ tennis,

the Goofy baseball pool

and other stuff. 

The night ended, as always, with a mug run and clean up.  We watched church on our phones, because the future is a strange place, and we're still bitter about mass in the Luau Cove being cancelled a zillion years ago.

10.5 miles 
23,492 steps 
2 floors

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