I once again awoke just before 8 and the kids were zonked out for a bit longer. We were leisurely getting ready in the morning and headed out to the bus zone about 10:20 to load and head over to Epcot, of course stopping along the way to pose with the Cars we'd missed yesterday.
When we got to the park, we sent Uncle ahead with the kids, since he wouldn't have to submit any bags to security, and then Grandma, Wendy, and I followed up. They wandered around taking everything in and browsed some gift shops. Wendy and I headed for the "Epcot Character Spot"and Grandma quickly decided she was going to rent a scooter for the day.
After a few confusing moments as I waited outside for Uncle and the kids only to get a text that they were inside in line for Mickey, we all found each other. The line for Mickey and friends purported to be about 30 minutes, so Uncle thought we could run across the way to get Baymax's autograph, but that line looked long enough that it probably wouldn't work, so the boys decided they could just wave to Baymax and we went back to meet Wendy in line. And after a brief 5- or 10-minute period of intense "I don't want to wait in this line" whining and about 10 or 15 more minutes of pretty good line etiquette, we were at the front of the line, ready to meet Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie!
Mickey was first, signing autographs, giving hugs and high fives, and posing for pictures.
The kids were smiley and bouncy as we moved on to the next stop - Goofy. They goofed around with him (hence the name) as they got his signature in their books and gave hugs and kisses and then they proceeded to Minnie's area.
And since I was watching them, I almost missed Uncle's star encounter with HIS favorite character. I had no idea Uncle was such a Goofy fan, though it certainly makes perfect sense (we all are quite fond of Goofy, especially since his son is named Max!). I turned around and the two of them were locked in a huge hug, followed by some fancy handshakes. And Uncle was as giddy as any of the kids might have been.
Caroline was over the moon to meet Minnie. She was adorable, as you'd expect, and signed everyone's books and gave hugs. Caroline got a special one-on-one pose for this one and then, just as we were about to leave, Wendy jumped in there for a smile with Minnie too.
While we were with the Mice and friend, Grandma had parked herself - literally - in the sun outside and was reading her book. We walked out to meet her and I couldn't believe it. She was so engrossed in her book that she missed her favorite characters, Chip 'n Dale, setting up shop RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER. We ran over to get in the line, which was short. There was a momentary pause while the chipmunks took a break "to get acorns", but they were back before we noticed it and we were all ready to smile for the cameras.
Seriously, these grown ups!
After this, we HAD to go find the toys that the kids had picked out with Uncle earlier. Daniel has apparently decided that Sorcerer's Apprentice MIckey is his spirit animal, even having never seen Fantasia. That's the mouse ears hat he chose, that's the wand the Blue Fairy brought him, and that's the Mickey plus doll he wanted. Caroline wanted a pretty Minnie, and Max had chosen a hard plastic 2016 Mickey. So we got them and arranged to pick them up on the way out of the park (AMAZING!) and headed back to Future World.
We had had a "fast pass" set up for Turtle Talk with Crush from Finding Nemo, but the kids were showing no interest in it and Grandma's favorite on our first visit to Epcot 30+ years ago was Figment from the World of Imagination, so we went there instead. Bad choice. It was dark and hard to follow for the kids, Daniel was terrified the whole time and as we exited, Max told me, "That was TERRIFYING - we are NEVER going there again!" The kids were now whiny and pouty and generally no fun to be around.
Thank goodness it was lunchtime! We had a reservation for lunch at the Garden Grill Restaurant, mere steps from where we escaped Figment, and as the kids pouted about having to wait for a table, they looked up and saw Mickey Mouse walking amongst the patrons. And they were sold! We sat down to a "Family Style" meal - big plates of meat and sides brought to the table and everyone just digs in and serves themselves - and visited by Farmer Mickey, Pluto, and our old friends Chip 'n Dale. And as if that wasn't enough, the restaurant SPINS so that you get a view of the lobby when you start, but it changes to show you different landscapes as you spin around. Very cool. And the food was super yummy as well - and all the veggies are grown on site in a hydroponic garden we could have visited, but didn't.
So we headed out and Daniel told me he wanted to go to "the place where you sign up for the boy with the green hair and the other boy with the orange hair" and I won first prize in Mommy translation when I turned to Uncle and asked, "Is there a Phineas and Ferb ride or something here?" And there was! So we sent Caroline off to France (not really, the Germany in the Epcot circle of countries) with Wendy in search of Princess Aurora and we went off to find the Phineas and Ferb Booth.
It turns out you can sign up as an unpaid intern to help Perry the Platypus (Agent P to you) save the world. We chose to carry out our mission in China to celebrate Chinese New Year and we were off. The first country we went through was Mexico, where we found Donald Duck in a serape waiting for us to pose with him. Uncle left us at this point as we realized Caroline was in France in search of Princess Aurora without her autograph book! In line, Daniel said he wanted me to take a picture with him, but when I stepped up to do it, Daniel asked for my phone and He decided to be the photographer (and the Disney photog snapped a picture of Daniel taking a picture of me!)
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| Daniel's picture! |
And then we were back on the road to China. We got a little smart phone that would play clues for us while we ran around finding them to unlock the next one. Grandma sat in the plaza and watched Chinese Acrobats.
At the same time, we heard from Wendy that Aurora had just closed her line as they approached, but Wendy thought on her feet and quickly found out what time she'd be back and formulated a plan. She and Uncle teamed up - Wendy waited with Caroline in another part of France for Belle while Uncle jogged back to Germany to get a spot in line for Snow White.
When we'd finished saving the world, we wandered up to Germany and met up with everyone. Max and Daniel went off with Uncle to buy pretzels from a stand. They got the last three, after Uncle got pooped on by a bird. But we they made it back in time to not want to be in the pictures with us. Wendy is a big fan of Snow White, so she got some one-on-one time too. All the Princesses have adorable patter, and Snow White was no different. She asked if we'd seen Dopey, and I pointed to Max and said, "this one's a little Dopey." She giggled and said, "Oh no!" at which point Max became a little more Bashful - HA! It seems Snow White and Dopey were playing hide and seek, but Dopey was VERY good at it.
And then we traipsed back through the globe to France where Uncle was FIFTH in line for Princess Aurora, who was charming. She was suitably impressed with Caroline's Aurora crown and scepter (when we pointed out that Aurora was wearing the same crown as Caroline, Caroline said, "but hers doesn't have her PICTURE on it!" proudly). Wendy volunteered that the scepter had been a gift from the Blue Fairy and that the good fairies had brought Caroline her crown, which set Aurora off on a whole run about Merriweather and how Caroline must've really impressed her since she had pink accents on her crown and was in a pink dress - Merriweather had apparently turned Aurora's dress and ALL the flowers blue just that morning. Luckily, they'd gotten switched back just in time.
And then we goaded Uncle into taking a photo with Aurora. She commented on his Hawaiian shirt and all his "forest friends". And he turned red.
Legs aching and with a Fast Pass for Test Track, Epcot's biggest attraction, active, we began the arduous trek back to Future World. This involved many piggy backs and shoulder rides from Uncle and a handful of fireman carries from me. The one time I tried to do a shoulder carry, I discovered that it doesn't work well if your hair covers your shoulders and gets sat upon. It's also a challenge if you don't have the strength to lift the child back up over your head to get off. And when I tried to give Max a piggy back ride, his siblings pantsed him!
But we made it to the Test Track, where we got to use a touch screen to design a car of our own - Wendy and Caroline designed a pink sports car, Max and Uncle designed a suped up green compact car (or, as Max called it, "a Honda!"), and Daniel, Grandma, and I designed a super long, super wide blue sport truck. Your design is then synced to your magic band and you wait in a line to board a roller coaster programmed with your cars' info. We got split up and Wendy, Caroline, Max, and Uncle ended up at the end of the line and Daniel, Grandma, and I were at the front.
That's right, Daniel, who is afraid of the Ferris Wheel and freaked out at any ride in the dark, was going to be in the very first row. We took off and did various test track "tests", which were really very fast roller coaster bits. But then the car would stop or slow and you'd see your car's stats - we were second in one category, first in maneuverability, and last in speed. But then you go outside and it becomes an incredibly fast, incredibly smooth roller coaster. Daniel commented that it was scary outside, but he didn't hate it. Caroline LOVED it, as you might expect. As you leave, there are also a couple of rooms of cool things that you can do with your saved car design - try to race it around a virtual track, pose for pictures with it, make a video commercial for it. There's a real Chevy showroom with cars and trucks to climb in, and of course a gift shop filled with Cars toys (which, of course, we couldn't resist).
And then we decided we'd had enough. We left, collected our purchases, headed to the bus, and rode home. Uncle and I took the kids for a quick dip in the pool, since it was still 60 degrees or so outside, and then braved the Hotel restaurant for dinner for everyone (ugh...we won't go into that) and now we're back in bed and ready to get up early tomorrow for Hollywood Studios!
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