Day 2: Sunday December 21, 2014
My original plans had been to hit Animal Kingdom and then Busch Gardens today. However, the weather forecast looked a little dicey, and the park hours at Busch Gardens had been extended so that the park would open earlier, so I redid my plans. And it turned out to be a good thing. When the alarm went off, I woke up drenched in sweat, despite the well air-conditioned room. On the plus side, the apparent middle of the night fever had broken, but it was evident I was not going anywhere fast. I reset the alarm for another hour of sleep, threw together a bunch of fastpasses, and went back to sleep for a bit.
When the second alarm went off, I was in better shape to get moving. I took things SLOW, but eventually was dressed and had packed the car for the next hotel. I drove over to the main building where I filled my mug and did a bit of shopping, buying a holiday sweatshirt that I certainly didn’t need on this trip, but would get a lot of wear out of in NH, and then eventually hopped in the car and headed for Epcot.
I got to Epcot shortly before 10. Does anyone who knows my vacation style have any doubt about how I was feeling? My first fastpass of the day was available for use, so I headed straight for Spaceship Earth. I always feel funny using a fastpass here, but, whatever works I guess.
After Spaceship Earth, my fastpass for Soarin was ready for use, so I walked over to the Land, stopping to take some pictures on my way downstairs.
After Soarin, I grabbed a pastry in the food court for “breakfast”. I was going with the whatever looks like it’ll taste good at that moment is what I’ll eat mentality for food on this trip. After eating that, I went for a quick spin on Living with the Land. Certainly not my favorite ride, but it was a little more time in air conditioning.
Once I was done at the Land, I slowly made my way toward World Showcase, taking pictures and listening to music as I walked.
When I reached the International Gateway, I decided to go see some more hotel decorations. First stop was the Beach Club.
I grabbed lunch at the Marketplace, which was a mistake. I’ve previously liked their turkey sandwich (turkey, cranberry, and brie), but they had changed from regular brie to spreadable, and their cranberry had changed too. The end result was an extremely bitter sandwich. I was not a fan.
Once lunch was done, I did some picture taking of decorations.
From the Yacht Club I SLOWLY walked to the Dolphin. Have I mentioned that it was pretty hot for December? A friend had told me about a giant tree, so I had to check it out. The first thing I noticed though was that it seemed as though the grinch had been involved in the decorating.
From the Dolphin, I moved onto the Swan to check out their chocolate display and other assorted decorations.
Last stop on the Epcot resorts decoration tour was the Boardwalk.I noticed that they had changed their decorations since I explored a couple years ago.
Once done with the resort decorations tour, I made my way back to International Gateway. I completed the loop around World Showcase, stopping along the way to see the Voices of Liberty. I really prefer their regular sets to their Christmas sets, but they were still good.
Once I was done with World Showcase, I headed out of the park, taking pictures along the way.
When the bus arrived at Animal Kingdom, I booked it into the park, taking a few quick pictures of decorations along the way.
I went straight to the single rider line for Everest, which thankfully, was short, and I was on the train just a few minutes later. I beat the rain! Everest is my favorite, so I was happy to bend my “focus on Christmas” rule for a couple rides on it. However, just one ride did me in. Apparently my sinuses were a bit worse than I had realized.
Once the ride on Everest was done, I made my way to Flame Tree. A turkey sandwich seemed like the best option for dinner, and it wasn’t raining yet. Thankfully, they haven’t changed their cranberry goo that they use on their sandwiches, so I actually enjoyed dinner.
Once dinner was done, I beelined it for the bus stop. Storms were imminent from the looks of the sky, and a co-worker who happened to be visiting her mom in Florida started messaging me to take cover because of major lightning strikes in Tampa. I was VERY glad I had changed my plans for the day!
I made it to the Epcot bus stop before the rain started. When it started, it was the typical Florida deluge. I was very happy I had made it to the bus stop before that started!
The bus pulled up a few minutes later and we all got drenched in just the couple seconds it takes to step from the bus stop onto the bus. Needless to say, as the bus crawled toward Epcot, I pulled my poncho on, trying to mentally strategize what to do when I got to Epcot. On one hand I was thinking “at least it’s not snow”. On the other, all I could think was that it would take an eternity for the car seat to dry if I ran around in that storm and then tried getting in the car.
Thankfully, when the bus arrived at Epcot, it pulled up to one of the stops close-ish to their old information booth. However, I still had to run to that covered area. I discovered, though, that the Totes ponchos that Target sells are awesome! They snap up by the neck and they have drawstrings. I stayed dryer than anticipated, given the crazy rain.
I waited out the rest of the storm under the cover of that information booth. Once the rain slowed to a drizzle, I walked back to my car. It was time to go to the hotel. Originally, I had wanted to stay for Illuminations, but I was exhausted, and I have video of the holiday version from a couple years ago, when I saw it then. So that would be the Christmas thing to get cut from the list.
The drive over to the Hilton Garden Inn Sea World was fairly quick, despite a fair amount of traffic on I-4. Check in was easy, and pretty soon I was in my room, making a mental plan for the remainder of the trip, and collapsing into bed to hopefully get a bit more sleep than the night before.
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