Monday, May 21, 2007

Disney Day 5: More Epcot and Animal Kingdom




Aren't we big dorks? This is us 'dancing' in front of the Cinderella topiary at Epcot.



It was our last full day at the parks and knowing we had to be up early for an 8am breakfast reservation at Animal Kingdom the next day, we decided to sleep in a bit. We let everyone sleep until 8am and managed to get out of the room and on our way to Epcot by about 9:15. We got to ride up front on the monorail again to Epcot! We felt pretty lucky to get to do that twice in one trip.

Once at Epcot we found ourselves just sort of meandering through the park and doing things here and there that we hadn’t seen yet. I had no set plan or agenda, so we just winged it. We saw the Figment ride/show and Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Now, I knew Honey I Shrunk the Audience was a 3D show and that some people warned against taking young kids in because it could be scary. I figured they were talking about the 3D effect being scary and since Katie did fine at Muppets and Philharmagic, I figured she’d be fine at this one too. This is definitely the scariest of all the 3D movies in the parks. Katie looked very worried and needed lots of reassurance, mostly because it seems (especially to a 3 yr old) that you might actually get stepped on. Also there is an effect that makes it seem that mice are crawling on you – but she was sitting on my lap and I don’t think she felt that one. This was the only thing we took Katie too that I was thinking, “bad mama, bad mama” the whole time. She really didn’t cry or anything, but I could tell she wasn’t having fun.

Alex and I also did Mission Space again – this time I was the Pilot and he was the Navigator and amazingly enough we managed to save our mission yet again. Such old pros we were. For lunch, we ate at Electric Umbrella again. I think we were just trying to keep everything low key and not stress, so we did what we knew. This time I had a cheeseburger and Alex and Sean had chicken strips. Katie had a kids burger, but with apples and grapes instead of fries. She actually ate pretty well.

After lunch we stopped at Club Cool and sampled all the Coke products from around the world. I really enjoyed the Watermelon one from China. We also checked out several exhibits in the Innoventions buildings and sent this postcard to several family members from one of the exhibits. We also looked at Minnie’s butterfly tent which was neat to see all the caterpillars and the resulting butterflies among all the pretty flowers. Alex and Katie also took a break to play on the nearby playground there.

It was pretty hot that day, so we found ourselves heading back to the hotel relatively early. The swim break felt really good that day! Animal Kingdom was having Extra Magic Hours that evening so we decided to head over there and see what we could for a few hours after our break. We ate supper at Pizzafari, which was good yummy pizza, but nothing really special. The most annoying thing at Animal Kingdom was that they do not allow cup lids or straws in the parks because they do not want the waste to harm the animals. I understand this, and I don’t necessarily think they should change that policy or anything. It was just really annoying trying to carry our drink in the cup holder of the stroller and have it sloshing all over my hands and the stroller all the time because the walkways are so bumpy. (The walkways are done in a mud-looking cement that had animal tracks and “fossils” in it.) Anyway, not a whole lot was open for the Extra Magic Hours, so we were only able to see “It’s Tough to be a Bug” another 3D movie – this one Katie was fine with – and the Festival of the Lion King show. Katie really loved the Lion King show. She was dancing and clapping in her seat the whole time. I think she enjoyed it much more than Sean and Alex who just didn’t appreciate all the cool performers.

Since LOST was on that night, we were sort of glad to have an earlier night and we went back to the hotel to pack everything for the next day as we were heading to the cruise on Thursday!

Oh, and the last thing we did that night – Katie and I finally went out to see the water pagent on Seven Seas Lagoon. It was great, and Katie and I did it just us, she just sat in my lap and watched all the pretty lights. Because of the dark, most of my pictures didn’t turn out that well. There is probably a setting on my camera that would help this, but I’ve never taken the time and effort to figure it out.

Next up: More Animal Kingdom and the start of our Cruise!

3 comments:

Susan @ Real Girl Designs said...

Reading all your stories about Disney World makes me want to go back again. We've taken DS twice, but the first time he was only 6 months old, so he didn't appreciate it. 2 years ago, we took him again, but we only had one day, so we just went to the Magic Kingdom. I'd love to take him to all the parks one day (or one week!)

Singular Stitches said...

You two are *very cute* dorks! :o)

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had a fantastic time. I've never been but will be saving hard in a year or so to take Riley when he's about 5.

Loving seeing all your photo's.