{"id":414,"date":"2004-01-04T23:59:43","date_gmt":"2004-01-05T04:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/01\/04\/\/"},"modified":"2005-10-19T20:43:23","modified_gmt":"2005-10-20T00:43:23","slug":"trip-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/2004\/01\/04\/trip-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Trip: Day 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sunday began much too early for my taste: the alarm went off around 7:30; Bob got up first, which meant I didn’t actually get up until nearly 10 to 8. We were ready only a couple minutes late and went outside to meet everyone at the car. Then they turned right back around and left Disney again, in search of breakfast. Which means IHOP.<\/p>\n

It was so early that I was not really that hungry yet (eating too soon after I get up makes me queasy), so I struggled against my compulsive urge to order everything on the menu and got a ‘light’ breakfast, without too much grease and without heavy pancakes. After eating, we went next door to the little market attached to the gas station — I had realized, as I made the last-minute decision to wear my sneaker\/boots instead of my shoes when we raced out the door, that I had completely forgotten that the insoles of the boots were completely gone. Disintigrated. The night before, on the way back to our room, we made a detour past the hotel gift shop and I searched the incidental supplies in hopes that they would have some new insoles. My hopes were dashed; they had pads for corns and blisters, but nothing else of even remotely similar nature. But the little gas station mart had one package. A size too small, admittedly, but anything was better than what I had. I purchased those and a bottle of water, while Bob also purchased water, just of an elephantine size.<\/p>\n

My shoes now in good repair and my feet happier, we headed to Epcot. It was still early, so even though we had a AAA pass which would have permitted us to park in the lots closer to the park entrance, we probably didn’t actually need it. But in spite of the fact that the lot was not overcrowded, there were lines at the ticket booths, so Bob and I entered the park while the others purchased a day pass for themselves.<\/p>\n

As you enter the park, there are marble projections from the ground which are covered with acid-etched metal plates. On the plates are pictures of people who’ve paid to have them put there. My dad and Jeff had one made back in April 2000, the last time they were in the park, and my mother had given me a reference number so I could hopefully locate it. The number was not directly translatable to a location, but when I gave it to one of the Disney employees, they were able to put it into the computer and tell me where the picture was. This was fortunate, because there was no way anyone would find a picture by randomly looking.<\/p>\n

After I found the picture, I returned to the entrance where Bob was waiting and everyone else was just coming through the gate. Captain Hook and Smee were there, taking pictures with people — having just recently seen Peter Pan, we were in a favorable mood toward Captain Hook, so it was necessary to have a picture taken. That accomplished, we went off in search of our first ride.<\/p>\n

Morning in the Park<\/b><\/p>\n

It was warm, definite shorts weather, but not muggy, humid or overwhelmingly hot. It was a nice day. It was made even nicer by the fact that there were apparently very few people at all come to Epcot on Sunday. The line for Spaceship Earth was practically non-existent, and we moved rapidly to the front. The quick moving line and lack of people did not guarantee a smooth ride, however, and the ride stopped several times during our time on it, making it a less than satisfactory experience. The second-to-last scene was very cool, however, showing a Japanese girl and an American boy talking through some sort of futuristic combination chat room\/video phone.<\/p>\n

We left Spaceship Earth and went next toward Mission: Space, the newest ride and the only one which none of us had been on before. E had talked it up a great deal, so expectations were high — not the least of which was me expecting a pretty lengthy line and a wait to get on. But I was surprised: the line was as short as that for Spaceship Earth, which is to say, there was none. We entered quickly and went through the simulation. For a simulation of what it was, I think it was pretty good. The feeling of the G forces when you took off was strong enough that you really did feel as if you were moving that quickly, and there was a brief moment where you \/nearly\/ felt weightless. My only complaints were that those bits were short. In fact, the whole ride was extremely short.<\/p>\n

We exited into an area where there were space mission themed video games and computers from which to email free postcards to people. We sent a postcard out of me, Michelle and FL!Julie to the other admins on AF.<\/p>\n

Because the lines had been so much shorter than we (at least I) had been anticipating, it was still very early in the day. So we went on another ride before lunch. This one, Test Track, was plagued by something which we saw over and over again during our time in the parks: too many cars on the track. In this case, it really ruined the ride. The idea of Test Track is that you are a living crash test dummy, riding in a car through a course designed to put it through its paces. You test the brakes in various conditions, the suspension, the acceleration, the finish — all sorts of things. But what really breaks the mood is when there’s a traffic jam and you have to stop before each station to wait for it to clear out. The ride also seemed to be running slow through most of the first scenes; the people who were in the car with me (we’d gone single rider) were complaining that it wasn’t as good as it usually was.<\/p>\n

When we emerged to rejoin Michelle and Ken, who hadn’t gone on this ride with us, it was a little after 12, and our lunch time was for 1:40. Still not confident that the short lines weren’t a fluke, and too hungry to really want to go on another ride just yet, we all headed toward the World Showcase. After zipping by Canada, we arrived in England with over an hour to kill before we could eat. So we wandered through the shops. The tea shop. The imported candy shop. The china and perfume shop. Finally we ended up at the toy shop, where we found them selling American editions of Harry Potter.<\/p>\n

They also had a large display of Little Miss\/Mr. Men books, which Michelle spotted first and I joined in the squealing over. I loved those books when I was little. They were books I always got from the library, since I only ever had one of them myself. I might have bought some then and there if I hadn’t reminded myself that a) I didn’t come to Disney to buy books and b) we were on a budget.<\/p>\n

Also in the toy store was Mary Poppins, with whom Michelle and I felt we must have our picture taken. So we did. And were then promptly ushered out the back of the store, which necessitated walking back around it on the outside and coming back in the front again. FL!Julie then called our attention to the next shop, where they had lots of cool looking chess sets which could be ordered, should you happen to have a spare $500 lying around. In the front room of this shop is where we found a buttload of Beatles stuff. And I do mean stuff. Lunchboxes, magnets, T-shirts, CDs, salt and pepper shakers, a snowglobe, hats, and probably some more stuff that I’m forgetting. We made some purchases here.<\/p>\n

Then, though it wasn’t time for us to get in to lunch, we went over to the Rose & Crown anyway to see if we might get in early. We got ourselves a flashing pager and went to sit and wait to be called. It wasn’t long before we went in — or rather out, since we asked to be seated outside. I had Chicken Pasty and cider for lunch; the cider, because I am always having characters drinking it during roleplay and I thought I should have actual knowledge of how it tastes, and the Pasty because I was trying not to eat so much red meat. Otherwise I’d have had the stew, which looked absolutely delicious. My lunch was very good itself, however, and we then had trifle for dessert.<\/p>\n

After Lunch<\/b><\/p>\n

Stuffed, we wandered further into the World Showcase, going to the movie in France and resisting the temptation to enter the patisserie, then moving on to Japan, where the store promptly sucked me in. After my Hikaru no Go binging of the week before, I couldn’t resist a magnetic go board, and I also bought a kusudama origami kit. They also had lots of Ghibli plushies. The Chicken Gods from Sen to Chihiro. They are still<\/i> calling to me.<\/p>\n

I escaped them for the moment and after we looked at all of the candy and a random guy told me he thought Teen Girl Squad was “so cool” (my T-shirt), we trudged back around the lake to Future World and some more rides.<\/p>\n

They’ve revamped the Figment ride considerably since the last time I was there; I know they had closed it for a while, but the last time I was on it it still had the red-bearded guy in the colorful outfit. But now it has Eric Idle. I’m pretty sure the song is still the same, however. Michelle was not impressed by the song, but I think the ride is cute. From there we went into the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience 3D show, which was as good as could be expected, aside from the plot holes. I was lucky(?) in that the little air vents under my seat were working, so I squealed in surprise when they blew, pretending to be mice.<\/p>\n

From my past trips to Epcot, I know there are several rides which I think are boring and prefer to avoid. Unfortunately, it had been so long and so many had been revamped that I was no longer absolutely positive which ones were problematic. We successfully avoided “The Land” and “The Living Seas”, both of which I know were ok, but dull. We did not, however, manage to escape the one which I only remembered as the long boring ride where the movie seats move and there are dinosaurs. I was fooled. Tricked! The thing had been renamed into “Ellen’s Energy Adventure”, and the description said it featured Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye. Which it did. And it was better. But it was still long and it was still the same dull ride at heart.<\/p>\n

(Random: During this ride, we were sprayed by dinosaur ‘sneeze’. This spray\/sneeze was a recurrant theme during rides, happening no less than 3 times.)<\/p>\n

We emerged from this with just enough time to duck into the pavilion next door and get in line for a showing of Cranium Commander. The wait was a few minutes; fortunately the walls of the area where we were waiting were decorated with puzzles and interesting things to look at. After a few minutes we were joined by a group of three girls, teenagers, who sat down in front of one of the rebuses and proceeded to be completely baffled by it.<\/p>\n

The rebus: I + [picture of The Thinker] + th + [picture of rabbit] + 4 + [picture of eye] + [picture of yam]<\/p>\n

There was another one next to it which was: [picture of a bee] + [picture of an awl] + th + [picture of a hat] + you + [picture of a can] + th + [picture of an ink bottle]<\/p>\n

The ride attendant came by, and seeing the girls looking perplexed, helpfully told them “This here is a yam, and this thing up here is an awl”. But the girls still couldn’t get it, because they couldn’t correctly interpret several of the other pictures. The Thinker lost them; they thought it was wood. They weren’t sure what the ink bottle was.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Cranium Commander was another show rather than a ride, the adventures of a 12 year old boy going about his day. The show featured some bullies, one of whom I swear looked like an enormously swollen Sean Astin. V. strange.<\/p>\n

At this point, Future World was closing, so we slipped off into the World Showcase, which was open later. We were in search of food, as well as the two rides that are actually in that area. Mexico was first, and we zipped through that ride. Then off to Norway, where we rode the Maelstrom. Brief delay while we and a lot of other people were trapped at the ride’s exit because no one had opened the exit doors.<\/p>\n

By then it was just after 8. Our feet were aching, we were starving and we wanted to find a good place to sit and watch the fireworks as the park closed. Found a bench, then Bob and I headed off in search of portable food to be brought back to the others. Ended up walking all the way to Japan (which, as we discovered when we returned to Epcot, was not really necessary, as several countries before that had portable food). Rather than hike all the way back to the bench, called Michelle’s cell which was thankfully on. Got orders, got takeaway, headed back to where we were seated.<\/p>\n

Sukiyaki beef, teriyaki chicken, steamed rice = yum. And when it was gone, it was time for the fireworks show, which was as spectacular as promised.<\/p>\n

And then, ugh, we had to stand and walk back to the car. Back at the hotel we said goodbye to the others, who were to head back to Tallahassee the next day. Then Bob and I got some dessert in the hotel cafeteria and brought it back to our room. We watched figure skating on tv and then fell asleep. <\/p>\n

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Sunday began much too early for my taste: the alarm went off around 7:30; Bob got up first, which meant I didn’t actually get up until nearly 10 to 8. We were ready only a couple minutes late and went outside to meet everyone at the car. Then they turned right back around and left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flaminggeeks.com\/k\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}