Day 3: Saturday 11/12/16
The day started around 7. Both of us were moving slow this morning. Nick was tired and I was tired and my foot was noticeably swollen. Oh boy.
Eventually we made it down to the food court. Nick requires a “real” breakfast, so the breakfast bars I had brought weren’t going to cut it this morning. The line was long, but moving, and the CMs were working hard to make sure things ran efficiently. I had beignets for breakfast, because, why not? I think Nick got french toast.
I always aim to be at the bus stop no later than an hour before the park opens. With all of the delays (us moving slow, lines at the food court, etc), it was at least 8:15 before we got there. This commando had to keep reminding herself that the bulk of the crowds would be heading to Frozen, so no big deal.
While sitting at the bus stop, we couldn’t help but notice several people wearing, and complimenting each other on, vintage clothing. Wait...I thought Dapper Days were in the spring? Please tell me that we aren’t adding Dapper Days to the mix of Jersey Week, the final Food and Wine weekend, a long weekend, and election week (a lot of kids only had 3 days of school).
A bus appeared pretty quickly and we were at Epcot soon after that. Nick asked again if we could stay at this hotel every time. I told him as much as I liked it (a LOT) we were going to have to look at Riverside, since that’s usually where the discounts are.
The bus deposited us out by charter bus parking. On the hike to the front gate, Nick reported that his hip was started to bug him. Great...we’re 2 for 2 and we’re not even in the park yet.
In light of how crowded I was beginning to realize it was going to be, I had figured out how to jam all that we might need for the day into my pockets, so that we could skip the bag check. As we faced no line at bag check, I was grateful I’d accomplished that. I think Nick was too. Although, he was so busy being shocked by how much visible security (dogs and cops included) was present, that it took him a minute to think about the line we skipped. I was shocked that neither one of us was pulled for the metal detector after my track record the last couple days.
The tapstyles were open for business, so we walked straight into the park, and ended up limping straight to Soarin. It was still before 9, but they weren’t holding up people anywhere. We had to wait slightly longer today than I had the previous day at open for Soarin, but the ride was still as much of a walk-on as it ever is. And, while walking onto the ride, it was confirmed that yes, it was a Dapper Day. NOOO.
Nick was very glad that the Pine-Sol and Orange Glow scents were gone (as am I, so that he’ll stop talking about them), and agreed with me completely; this version is even cooler than before, even with the building images that weren’t meant for curved screens.
From here we ended up at the Nemo ride. I don’t remember why it came up, but somehow we realized Nick hadn’t experienced this one. I thought he had, but I guess it was the Little Mermaid ride where I remember sitting in a clamshell with him.
After Nick had experienced Nemo, we made our way over to the festival center to check out the Ghiradelli display, which somehow I had missed the previous day. If I had known they were giving out 2 free squares per person, I wouldn’t have missed it. The chocolate displays were amazing too!
As we were leaving the festival center, Nick asked me where we could get a birthday button for me. The end result was a trip to Guest Services, and a button was obtained fairly quickly, from a CM that appeared very grateful to be dealing with guests that were NOT berating her.
It was time to do a bit more exploring of Future World and see where some of the booths were that I hadn’t found the day before. It didn’t take us long to find them, and they happened to be opening for business. First stop? The Chew booth. 2 of the peanut butter, white chocolate mousse please!
This was amazing. A bit thicker than I’d expected for something called mousse, but absolutely delicious.
Next stop? The Chocolate Studio. Nick had to try the Liquid Nitro Chocolate Almond Truffle. I tried a bite. It basically tasted like chocolate ice cream. He enjoyed it.
We started working our way little bit more towards World Showcase (the Chew and Chocolate Studio were both pretty close to Imagination). Nick had thought he didn’t want to hit the Caribbean booth when we were making our to-eat list, but as we got closer and he saw and smelled the grouper with coconut sauce, he bee-lined it to the line for the booth. He really enjoyed it. I didn’t get a picture. I’ll repeat...he really enjoyed it.
While Nick was eating, SEVERAL high school bands paraded through World Showcase. Wait...is there a high school band event happening today too?! How many people can this park hold? I think we might find out!
We decided to make just one more food stop before we took care of some business. Our stop of choice? Hawaii. Nick got the pork slider and a mai tai. I got the sparkling pineapple wine. He LOVED the slider. I thought both the mai tai and the wine were just ok, which was interesting because I loved the mai tai I had on our cruise, and I love pineapple. Oh well. I think Nick liked the mai tai.
Time to pay a visit to the Chase Lounge to see about some concert wristbands. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy was playing that night, and apparently Nick loved listening to them in high school. Because I have a Disney Visa, we were able to get wristbands for reserved seating. We just had to show up at the lounge reasonably early in the day. Given how busy it was, we got there shortly after 11. We were able to get right in, and had no problem getting wristbands for 5:30. We also helped ourselves to the free soda at the Freestyle machine before escaping the poorly air conditioned area to eat more food.
Next stop? Just outside to the Hops and Barley booth. Brisket for Nick and carrot cake for me. We enjoyed both A LOT. And as an added bonus, I didn’t have to share my carrot cake; it had walnuts in it!
Once we’d enjoyed our food, we decided to backtrack to some of the nearby booths we had missed. We decided to make Belgium the next stop. Just before we got in line, we saw some familiar faces from the cruise! Alexandra and HR guy (yeah...we still don’t know his name…) from Miami, were right between the lines for Belgium and Brazil. We spent a few minutes chatting, Alexandra told us the crowds were seeming New Years Eve like (crap) and of course, we took a selfie, because, if there’s no picture, it didn’t happen.
They rejoined the rest of their group, and we got in line for waffles. One with chocolate for Nick and one with berries for me. These were amazing. Best waffles either one of us has ever eaten.
After inhaling our waffles, we headed next door to France, where Nick got the chocolate creme brulee. He enjoyed it.
By now we were tired and both limping. We needed air conditioning, and a place to sit. We decided it was time to see the Pixar shorts, so we battled the crowds back to Future World.
We both enjoyed the much needed break, and headed back out into the crowds. Since we were there, and I’d been intrigued for awhile, Nick parked himself on a bench while I stood in line for the Elderberry Hard Cider at the Farm Fresh booth. The line moved faster than I anticipated (yay), and pretty soon, I was enjoying the hard cider. I still have no idea what elderberry is, but this was today’s win from the beverage category for me.
From here we wandered. Actually, no. We shuffled. There was no taking full steps today. The crowds were only getting thicker.
This shuffling was bad for Nick’s hip. We both really started wondering if we’d even last until that 5:30 concert.
After a lot of shuffling, we made it to the caramel store in Germany. The line was long here too, but at least it was air conditioned! Two cookies later, we exited, and continued shuffling to the outdoor theater in America. We ate the cookies, and Nick took a nap. It was a much needed break for both of us.
I got restless after a bit, though, so I limped down to the Brazil booth, still in awe of the crowds.
2 orders of cheese bread, and a meat pie (and MANY minutes) later, and I was headed back to Nick. I didn’t get pictures. I really enjoyed the meat pie (basically like shepherds pie). The cheese bread was ok. It hit the spot for both of us though.
After a few more minutes of relaxing, it was time to use that Frozen fastpass. It took us quite awhile to get to Norway, but we made it just before our fastpass window opened. Our wait was about 10 minutes. The posted standby wait? 2 ½ hours.
Both of us agreed that this was a well done ride, but neither one of us can imagine standing in line for that long for anything, let alone that ride. I’m glad I went on it. If I can score another fastpass in the future, I’ll ride again. But I’m not likely to even try to be in the running of the bulls first thing in the morning.
After Frozen, a serious discussion occurred. Nick needed different shoes. He was positive the shoes were why his hip was bothering him (he was correct). I was DONE, both with my foot, and the crowds, but was willing to stay for the concert, because that was kinda the thing for Nick. He made the decision, though, to leave. So we made our way slowly back to the exit, and on to a bus that was just finishing loading.
I believe an Elderberry is an aged version of a youngerberry.
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