This meeting went better for Harper (you'll remember the clinging to Jason at meeting Mickey and Minnie yesterday), but she was still a little hesitant!
With that behind us, we hightailed it to Soarin'. Because Harper was too little to ride it, we decided the boys would go first. Mom and I got Fast Pass tickets and Harper and I rode Living with the Land while Mom got her coffee (incidentally, she said it was the best coffee she'd ever had-Mickey's special blend). We only waited a few minutes (Mom and I taking turns escorting Harper up and down the escalators!) until the boys got done. The boys LOVED Soarin', making mom and I excited to ride it. But we wanted to get to Crush's Turtle Talk before it got too crowded, so we headed over there. We went in the wrong door at first and ended up on the Nemo ride! Luckily there was NO line and the kids liked it, so we just acted like that's what we meant to do. :)
Adter that, we did find our way to Turtle Talk. It was really cute. All the kids sit in the front on the floor and the parents sit behind them on benches. Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) comes onto the screen and interacts with the audience. I didn't know how the kids would do sitting kind of far away from us, but they didn't even notice we weren't right next to them! It was very cute and worth a look if you are going soon!
After that we walked around the building (The Seas) where Turtle Talk was and stumbled across this:
It was now time for mom and I to ride Soarin' so we headed over there. The boys and Harper rode The Circle of Life while they were waiting for us. I was really impressed with Soarin'. I was even more impressed with the Fast Pass system. We basically walked right on to the ride, walking without shame right past people who were waiting in a long line. But the ride was very cool-the scents they blew in at certain times were unexpected and very cool. I really highly recommend Epcot (the Future World part anyway-we didn't go to the World Showcase) as most of it is air conditioned!
After this it was time to head over to the Coral Reef restaurant for Jason's birthday lunch. This was really nice as one whole wall of the place is an aquarium. It's very pretty inside and the food was good too! Not so conducive for pictures, though-everything came out too dark. You'll just have to trust me that we ate there!
After lunch the boys headed over to Mission Space to get Fast Passes. Mom and I decided to try and go to the Epcot Character Spot, which is an air conditioned building where you can meet several characters. We were in a very long line and when the boys got back from getting their Fast Passes, we decided it wasn't worth it and got out of line.
So the boys took off to ride Mission Space, which was very cool according to Jason. I was a little hesitant to ride it because of my ear and mom is not into those type of rides, so we were happy to go into the huge Mouse Gear store with Harper and start planning what souvenirs I just had to have! Garrett enjoyed Mission Space-and here's a big shout out to how good Disney is-he asked Jason when it was over if they had really been to space!
We left Epcot about 2, which was a good time to leave. Between the mostly air conditioned attractions and being there in the morning, today was not the huge sweat fest that yesterday was. Harper made it all the way back to the hotel on the bus (about 20 minute ride) and the walk from the bus stop to the hotel lobby (about 5 minute walk) and through the lobby. Just about as soon we hit the carpeted hall leading to our room, she passed out. We wheeled her right to Nana and Papa's room and transferred her successfully to the bed (this is really unusual-she does not usually transfer well!) and she slept for almost 2 hours!
Meanwhile, I laid down and dozed for a few minutes and Jason and Garrett hit the pool. I mean you can't get the whole word "pool" out of your mouth before Garrett is naked and digging for his bathing suit. So funny!
It wasn't too much later that it was time to get ready for Jason and I's big night out for his birthday. I had gotten advice from my resident Disney experts on where to go for a nice, grown-ups only, birthday dinner. I made advance reservations at the Flying Fish and told them that we were celebrating Jason's 34th birthday. Our dinner reservations were for 7:30, so we decided to leave the hotel a little before 7 to give us plenty of time to get there (we took the bus). One small problem. In all the advance stuff I did regarding this restaurant, I didn't pay too much attention to its location. Somehow I got in my head that it was at Downtown Disney. So we wait for a Downtown Disney bus for a pretty good while. One finally comes and we get to Downtown pretty quickly. Get off the bus and look on the Directory. No Flying Fish. Decide to walk in a little to see if there's another directory (that was must not be comprehensive!). Walk quite a ways and find the Guest Services building. Go in and ask, only to find out that we are not in the right place at all. The Flying Fish is at the Boardwalk Resort, not Downtown Disney! By this time it's almost 7:30 and we head back to the bus stop. Get on the bus and Boardwalk Resort is the last stop on a very long bus route-got to see several of the other Resorts! Finally get there and start walking, not really knowing where we were going and we stumble across the right way and lo and behold, there it is! It is now past 8:00-we are hopelessly late for our reservations and I am so upset. Trying to do something nice for Jruss and this happens. But we go to the maitre de stand and tell him who we are and what happened and he looks up our reservation and says "What? You're acting like it's your birthday or something? Give me 10 minutes and we'll get you guys all set." Whew. Big exhale of relief. We walked around a bit on the Boardwalk, watch a performer, I checked out the candy store right next store, and our table was ready.
They brought us a complimentary glass of champagne for Jason's birthday and then we both ordered mixed drinks and pretty soon, the funk I was in from the directions fiasco had worn off! We had a great meal, lots of good people watching, nice time to just relax and download our Disney impressions so far. Then to top it off, they delivered this to our table!
That little sign in front was a really thin piece of chocolate and it says "Happy Birthday" It was really pretty. After a really bumpy beginning, we ended up having a really great dinner.
So we headed back to the hotel-it was almost 10 at this point and we had an early start at the Magic Kingdom the next day. Plus we knew how long the bus ride back would be! :)
It was a rowdy crew on the bus back-we had to go back to Downtown Disney and catch another bus back to the resort and that crew was very different than earlier in the day! The funniest was the family (I guess) who sat across from us in matching T shirts that were like an ad for why people think people who homeschool are weird and the kids are weird. Awkward does not even cover it. Their matching T shirts indicated they were part of a homeschooling group-I'm not just picking on homeschoolers. All the ones I know personally are lovely, well-adjusted people!
But we finally get back to the hotel to find our children still awake in Nana and Papa's room. Garrett had gotten in a little trouble by my Dad (he brushed up against the "why?" and "no" monster who inhabits Garrett's body from time to time). So we got them back to our room and they were both out in like 5 minutes. We stood at the sinks (they were in an alcove, so we couldn't be seen!) and waited until they fell asleep so we could then go in and turn on a light and read before we joined them like 10 minutes later! Ah the joys of sharing a room with your kids!
There was a little surprise waiting for us on our bed when we got back from dinner...but that fits more with Day 3, so you'll just have to wait to hear about that!
Day 2 ended very nicely. I could get used to the Disney way of life, that's for sure!
1 comment:
LOVE the Flying Fish. SO sorry that you thought it was at Downtown Disney. But, glad it all worked out. Isn't Disney awesome with it's customer service!
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