It was time to go to Epcot. I made my way to the express monorail, which happened to arrive at the platform when I did. It was a quick trip over to the TTC, and the monorail arrived just as an Epcot monorail did, so I hopped over to that platform, and found a seat...on a not really air conditioned monorail yellow. And yes, I did have flashbacks to some of the posts I’ve seen recently about this particular monorail. Couldn’t actually tell from looking at it that people had to kick out the windows, so that’s good.
Thankfully, it was an uneventful trip over to Epcot. When I arrived, I was on a mission! Today was my only opportunity to see the Voices of Liberty, and there were only a couple of sets left for today.
I headed for World Showcase, trying to absorb as much air conditioning as I could. Whose idea was it anyway to have such a wide open park in Florida?! As I emerged from one of the World Showcase entrance stores, I could see a boat to the other side of World Showcase actively loading. I RARELY use these boats, because I’m a little bit obsessed with seeing what ridiculous step count I can manage in a day, but today seemed like a great day to take the boat across the lagoon.
The ride across the lagoon was short, and positioned me perfectly to go see the Voices of Liberty. I still had a bit of time, so I browsed the store in America for a bit, and then headed inside. That cold floor was pure magic, and the Voices set was incredible, as always. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, if someone in the audience had mistaken Disney for Wal Mart with the outfit they were wearing.
Thankfully, it was an uneventful trip over to Epcot. When I arrived, I was on a mission! Today was my only opportunity to see the Voices of Liberty, and there were only a couple of sets left for today.
I headed for World Showcase, trying to absorb as much air conditioning as I could. Whose idea was it anyway to have such a wide open park in Florida?! As I emerged from one of the World Showcase entrance stores, I could see a boat to the other side of World Showcase actively loading. I RARELY use these boats, because I’m a little bit obsessed with seeing what ridiculous step count I can manage in a day, but today seemed like a great day to take the boat across the lagoon.
The ride across the lagoon was short, and positioned me perfectly to go see the Voices of Liberty. I still had a bit of time, so I browsed the store in America for a bit, and then headed inside. That cold floor was pure magic, and the Voices set was incredible, as always. I couldn’t help but wonder, though, if someone in the audience had mistaken Disney for Wal Mart with the outfit they were wearing.
When the set ended, thunder was starting. I made a quick trip to the restrooms that are right in the American pavilion. Thankfully, these have a large entrance area, because the monsoons started while I was there. There was plenty of space, though, to wait out that part of the storm right where I was.
As the rain lightened a bit, I put on my poncho, and worked my way towards other parts of World Showcase. As I got out into the park more, I could hear announcements from the theater in America that the theater was to be evacuated due to the severity of the front moving through. Uh oh?
Yeah, the monsoon started again as I closed in on Japan. I took cover outside of one of the stores, regretting the fact that my flip flops have fabric straps. I really should carry spare flip flops with me in the summer!
This is not my first rodeo with a summer trip to Disney. I’ve certainly seen some wild thunderstorms in both Disney and Colorado. This one was easily in the top 3 for wildest thunderstorm I’ve seen. I was really impressed with the kids (and their parents) around me. They outwardly tolerated the thunder and lightning better than I ever could have imagined. And one custodial cast member whose name I wish I had gotten to send in a compliment, casually kept things a little lighter, as he drummed on his large garbage barrel during the brunt of the storm.
When the rain finally lightened, and the radar showed a slightly longer stretch of improved weather, I ventured back out into the park. It quickly became apparent that Disney might need to work on their drainage, because that storm had created World Showcase Lagoon Part 2!
Thankfully there was a pathway around that (although plenty of kids and adults of all ages were loving the puddle jumping photo opportunities!) and I was on my way, stopping in France to see if I could find the apron mom mentioned wishing she had bought. Unfortunately, France had about 30 different aprons for sale, and they were in a heavily perfumed store, so I decided to find something else for mom’s birthday gift instead!
I continued walking and browsing around World Showcase, until I reached China, where it was apparent that the sky was about to open up again. So...dinner time!
In preparing for this trip, I had made it a point to look into food items that were considered sides or appetizers that could be considered (by me) a meal. I’m not the world’s largest eater to begin with, and then in FL summer heat, I eat even less. Plus...budget. I quickly discovered that one (of the many) of the World Showcase quick service places that I had never been to sells an order of pot stickers that is small and cheap. So that was my food agenda for this evening.
Lotus Blossom Cafe was pretty chaotic, because it is small and a lot of people were camped out there trying to avoid the rain. It sounded like they had even sold out of some food items. Thankfully, they still had potstickers, and, with some effort, I was able to find a table to eat them at. They were good, albeit, not as warm as they could have been.
About the same time I finished eating, the rain slowed enough to not require the poncho that I had no desire to put back on. Could someone invent ventilated ponchos please?! I headed for Mexico, because I wasn’t entirely ready to trust the weather yet, and I knew there was plenty to do there.
Mexico, as it turns out, is the Epcot spot to ride out storms. First off, the ride isn’t popular, so there is never a huge wait. Plus there’s the margarita bar (that someday I WILL get to). And then there’s plenty of browsing to do. Plus, there was a mariachi band playing. Only downside was that the aromas from San Angel were making me hungry, even though I’ve never seen anything listed on that menu that sounds even remotely appetizing.
I rode the Mexican boat ride, still thoroughly confused by it, and then decided to check on the weather situation. The sun was re-emerging, so I was ready to find dessert. I headed deeper into World Showcase, over to the Refreshment Port (between Norway and China) for the No Worries Panna Cotta. This was a couple different tropical fruit flavors, with a chocolate cookie crumble at the bottom. No Worries, I finished it all. It was delicious!
Dessert enjoyed, it was time to spend a bit of time in Future World. Since there was still a little time left before my Soarin fastpass, I rode Living with the Land, which was a walk on. Then it was time for Soarin, where I found that I really didn’t need a fastpass. The standby wait was posted at just 25 minutes.
Soarin flight completed, I spent a bit of time in Mouse Gear, where I successfully birthday shopped for mom, and then worked my way back to World Showcase. It was time to check out the Blueberry Grass Band, Epcot’s latest attempt at entertainment for the Canada stage. I enjoyed their performance. They’re no Off Kilter, but they were pretty good. And, while I thought I hadn’t seen them before, my facebook memories the next day proved otherwise. Apparently they performed here at the same time last year.
Once the music ended, it was time to scope out a spot for Illuminations. I worked my way around World Showcase Lagoon, making a quick stop back in America for a water bottle to bring home to Nick, and then found a spot for Illuminations in Italy. The time passed relatively quickly. It was a pretty night, and the people around me were chatty.
I was very grateful that the weather cooperated. It can be such a crapshoot in the summer, and I desperately wanted to see Illuminations at least one more time. It all worked out! I’m really pretty bummed to see this show ending. For me, it is the only Epcot night show I’ve known, and it is part of so many memories with family, friends, and a friend (Nick) that became family. Now I just hope they do a good job with the replacement...
Once Illuminations was over, I SLOWLY made my way out of the park. My flip flops were STILL wet, and I knew blisters were forming. And I really was in no rush. My next park day wasn’t until Friday. So I took it easy, took some pictures, and worked my way back to the buses.
I was a bit surprised, when I arrived at the bus stop, to find that Disney has decided the best way to mark the various All Star queues in the evening is with laminated construction paper signs…
A bus came along rather quickly. Forget the soup nazi, I had the bus nazi immediately behind me in line, so somehow, we managed to get the entire line stuffed onto that bus. A teenager near me who was standing was concerned she would fall over. There was going to be no falling on that bus that evening; it was stuffed too fully for physics to allow that. I had never noticed how far the All Stars are from Epcot, but I did notice that night.
Eventually the bus made it back to Music, and I extracted myself from the sardine can and made my way back to the room, where I quickly showered and got ready for bed. It had been a busy (and great!) day and I was TIRED!
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