This morning’s alarm went off later than it had the whole trip! I was actually going to a regular 9 am park opening, for the first time this trip!
The morning started with ice on my ankle and a breakfast of a coconut butter breakfast biscuit in bed. Then I got ready for the day, before icing my ankle one more time.
I headed for the bus stop a little after 8, not really in a huge hurry (not that I could have hurried anyway…), because I knew most of the people at the front of the pack would be headed to Frozen, and I would be headed to Soarin. So you know what happened, right? Yup, a bus pulled up as I was walking to the bus line and I walked right onto a loading bus.
The trip to Epcot seemed pretty short, and security was the lightest of the entire trip (but still not nearly as light as previous trips), so pretty soon I was in line to enter the park. Within a surprisingly short amount of time, they started letting us into the park. All of a sudden, dozens of “family members” started appearing out of nowhere to “join their family” at the head of the line. What the bleep. And, obviously, none of them actually knew how to use the touch points either. When I finally reached a touch point and turned Mickey green on the first try, the CM looked over at me and thanked me haha.
As I got to the rope at Spaceship Earth, the crowds felt lighter than the last time I’d been here. For one thing, I actually had a spot in the shade to wait. Hallelujah! But also, as the Jammitors appeared, I could actually sort of see them, without staring at other people’s iPads (seriously...WHEN are people going to learn those don’t actually take good pictures?!).
The Jammitors performed for about 10 minutes, and then someone from the park had everyone take an oath that “We will walk. We will not run. We will walk with a purpose”. Once the oath had been ignored by most of the crowd, they dropped the rope and let us the rest of the way into the park.
Chuckling about the blatantly ignored oath of “walking with a purpose”, I followed the walking minority to Soarin. The running majority was on their way to Frozen. I limped along and was at Soarin pretty quickly, with what felt like a surprisingly small crowd of people.
I ended up in a front row again, and for a change, as a solo, I wasn’t in the absolute last seat of the row! Given the curvature of some of the structures shown in the video, every seat in makes a difference.
Once my flight was over, I checked out Sunshine Seasons for any sign of edible breakfast food. For some reason I was starving! Unfortunately, nothing they were serving looked like a good idea.
Since I was enjoying the air conditioning, I decided to go for a spin on The Land boat ride. They seemed to have more fish in the tanks than the last few times I’ve ridden.
After the trip through the greenhouses, I wandered back into Future World. After a quick look at the wait times, I decided to ride Journey into the Imagination in Nick’s honor. Those who read my April trip report may remember he found this ride to be a very traumatic experience. So, obviously, I had to let him know I was thinking of him!
Following the lab open house, I wandered around Mousegear for a bit, and ended up getting a bit of Christmas shopping done. Then I hung out on one of the benches under the roof outside Mousegear, evaluating menu choices for lunch. Told you I was hungry!
Pretty soon, it was late enough to head for World Showcase. I quickly became a little jealous, and wished I was coming back to fall, when, not only did I see all of the Food and Wine Festival booths already set up, but there were a whole bunch of people wearing badges that made it clear Disney was doing their festival preview for the media today.
I limped through World Showcase, to France. In the bakery here I got the ham and cheese croissant (toasted) and a fruit parfait for lunch. It was a huge, cheap, and DELICIOUS lunch!
Lunch consumed, I headed back into World Showcase, to make my way to the American Adventure. It was sprinkling a bit, but nothing horrible, and really only around France. I took the walk slow (didn’t have much choice) and took in the views, including the view of the construction on the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. That’s going to be one big ride building.
I got to the American Adventure a bit early for the Voices of Liberty set, so I poked around the gift shop, resisting buying myself a shirt, and then explored the gallery and some of the artwork inside the building.
I also observed one particular woman sit down to wait for the performance, remove a set of knitting needles from her backpack, and spend her wait knitting something. Say what?! The security guards have been examining my sunglass case for the missing sunglasses (hey you check my head!), questioning the clip from my fitbit on my shorts pocket, and even examining the tampons stashed in backpack pockets that are so hidden I’d forgotten the tampons were in there! How the hell did she get in the park with knitting needles?!
Shortly before the Voices of Liberty set, the sky opened up. It continued to rain like this for most of the (excellent, as always) performance.
Once the Voices of Liberty had finished performing, I debated, and decided against seeing the movie. Once every 10 years or so is enough, in light of the 9/11 scenes. So, I headed back outside, figuring the rain would lighten up quickly. It’s FL afterall.
I ended up hanging out outside until the beginning of the next set. Surprisingly, I really was on of the few hanging out under the overhang, and I picked a corner, so no CM bothered me about blocking anything. One CM, though, did somehow see the tiny passholder thing attached to my magic band and came over to tell me that as a passholder, I can get wristbands for reserved seating at the Guardians of the Galaxy concert that takes place at the stage across the way. Thanks, I’ll get right on that…
With another set starting soon, and no sign of the rain letting up before the music would end, I headed back inside for a 2nd Voices of Liberty set. Once again, I enjoyed it very much!
After the 2nd set, I headed back outside, where the rain had gotten considerably lighter. I waited a few more minutes, debating my game plan, until the rain turned to just sprinkles and the sun emerged. Then I made my way to the front of the park, and headed for the buses. It was time for a break!
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