So we're up at 6:30am and we're on the bus by 7:45am. We get to Epcot by 8am. As we walked up to the park entrance I was expecting to see a line of people waiting to get in for the day. There were only two other guests. A young man and a woman. They were cast members who wanted to see the 1st showing of Capt EO. Since it was only us four, I didn't think that would be a problem. So for the next 45 minutes we all talk, mainly about Michael Jackson. As time goes by, I notice more guests arriving. By 8:30 a good line had formed. As it gets closer to 8:45am, we are told by a cast member that they will be opening the turnstiles soon. They ask if we are in line to see Capt EO and we all say yes. The cast member tells us that when they open the turnstiles, we are to make our way to the Innovation Fountains where there will be a rope drop line waiting for us. As we get to the rope drop, we meet another cast member. He is talking to another cast member who is about 20 feet away. The cast member tells us that we can walk on thru to the Imagination Pavilion and go into the Capt EO building. At this point, we start walking at a faster pace to Capt EO. In the following video clip, you can see us walking to Capt EO:
As you can see in the video, Epcot was going to have a red-ribbon ceremony to re-open Capt EO. They had a television crew and photographers. All of a sudden there was excitement in the air. In the following clip, you can watch the entire red-ribbon cutting ceremony:
After the ribbon-cutting, we walked into the waiting area. In this area, they have various tv screens that showed the original pre-show queue video from 1986. Here is the complete pre-show video from Capt EO:
After the pre-show video ended, we enter the auditorium and sat down. We pretty much sit in the very center of the auditorium. Everyone is excited to see Capt EO. I can't believe this video is from 1986, it seems so LONG AGO! LOL! After the film, I buy my Capt EO souvenirs that are located at a stand outside of the attraction building. I buy a t-shirt, baseball cap, a button and 3 pins. I like to thank my friend Nik G. for the Disney Gift Card that helped pay for the souvenirs. Thanks Nik!!!
So after Capt EO, it was time for breakfast. So we head over to Sunshine Seasons at The Land. I had the adult breakfast platter while my niece had the bacon, cheese and egg croissant. The platter was plentiful and tasty and my niece loved her croissant. After breakfast, we rode Living with the Land which was only a 5 minute wait. After that, we headed over to Finding Nemo which was a 10 minute wait. Here is the video of the ride thru for Finding Nemo:
After riding Finding Nemo, we checked how long the wait was for Spaceship Earth. It was only 15 minutes, so we got in line. I love this attraction. In addition to Judi Dench's narration, I love the cartoon that is made while you ride. It always makes me laugh.
After Spaceship Earth, we decided what to ride next. We got Fast Passes for Soarin to use later in the day. So we walked over to Test Track and the wait was 30 minutes. We went for it. As we walked thru the queue, I can tell my niece has gotten quiet for some reason. Then we go into the waiting area to see the Test Track pre-show video. After watching the video, my niece tells me that she does not want to ride Test Track. I ask why. She says that she does not want to be in the car when it crashes like she saw in the pre-show video. She then starts crying a bit. I quickly calm her and tell that the video is fake and that we are NOT gonna crash in the ride. I then show her the cars that are coming back from taking their spin. After she sees that people are laughing, she calms down and is ok to ride Test Track. Here is the video of us on Test Rack:
After Test Track, its time to head into the World Showcase. Especially, its time to shop in the Japan Pavilion. My niece has been so anxious to see the Japanese department store and all the Pokemon toys they might have. As we enter the store, my niece's eyes grow HUGE. She runs from counter to counter. She eyes all the Hello Kitty dolls. She sees all the cartoon books. And then she finds THEM. All the Pokemon toys one can find. Well she starts grabbing one of each and fills up a basket with Pokemon toys. Pink ones, blue ones, green ones, red ones, brown ones, you name it. I think after she was done figuring out which Pokemon toys she wanted, she had bought some 25 stuffed toys. Thank god I told her to pack an extra empty duffel bag so that way she could carry these back home. I think my niece is kinda crazy. But that's ok with me!
After buying every Pokemon in the store, my nice is intrigued by the Pearl station. She wants to get one, so I said go ahead. Some background info: my niece made her 1st Communion earlier this year. We had a party to celebrate. She pretty much got cash from all her relatives. She had over $300 to spend on this trip. She was doing well for herself. LOL!
Now that we have bags of stuffed toys and that its very, very hot, I decide we should head back to POP to put away our purchases and hopefully take a much needed swim. Thank god there is no rain now. We jump into the Computer Pool and swim for about a hour. IT FELT SO GOOD! My niece has fun swimming. I just lay down by the steps that go into the pool. Only my head is barely above the water level. It felt so good just being in the pool. Well its now close to 5pm and its time to head back to Epcot for our 6pm dinner in Mexico.
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We head into the Mexico pavilion and go to the counter at the San Angel Inn restaurant to check in. As we wait to be seated, many people are coming up to the counter to ask if there are any available seating. The hostess tells them they are booked solid for the holiday weekend. Lucky I planned my meals and got my reservations! After 5 minutes, we get seated. Right away I order some Tortilla soup to start my meal. As I'm sitting at the table, I start texting on my phone. I'm Twitting. I'm texting my sister back home. I'm posting updates to Facebook. As I'm doing this, the waitress brings my soup and places it in front of me. I'm still texting and sending messages back home. All of a sudden, my phone slips out pf my hands and falls into the soup!!! All I do is stare at my phone in my soup. There's nothing I can do but stare. I'm sure all the spices and oils are getting into my phone and killing it. My phone is now dead. All I can think now is do I need to phone anyone while I'm at Disney World. I was phoning my sister a couple times a day to let her know that her daughter is doing fine. Well either I gotta find a pay phone, make expensive calls from the hotel room or find a place to buy a pre-paid phone card. I'll decide what to do later. I take the phone out of my soup and I try to dry it off. The waitress comes back and asks if everything is fine. I tell her yes, everything is fine. I order the Chicken Mole for dinner and my niece orders the Quesadilla de Pollo. Oh yea, I also order a Margarita because I really need it now.
After dinner, we go ride the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. I love how they FINALLY incorporated the Three Caballeros into a ride at Disney World. This ride is one of my personal favorites. After Gran Fiesta, we make our way around World Showcase. We ride the Maelstrom in Norway. We take pictures in the various World Showcase countries. I finally decide I need to make two calls back home. Since I don't have any loose change on me I gotta use my credit card to make my calls.
WARNING: DON'T MAKE CREDIT CARD PHONE CALLS FROM EPCOT BECAUSE THEY ARE VERY VERY VERY EXPENSIVE!!!
I made two 5 minute calls from a pay phone to my sister and my partner to let them know my phone died and I will somehow make a daily call to check in. Each one of this calls ended up costing $21.26 a call!!! Well there's two t-shirts I didn't get to buy at Disney World!!
As we make our way around World Showcase, I see grey clouds forming. You know what that means: more rain. So we are gonna skip Illuminations (Yes...I hear the SCREAMS from fans all around the world saying 'How could you skip Illuminations!!!"). I have booked the Wishes Dessert Viewing Party for the next night, so at least we'll see ONE fireworks show on this trip and that should be enough for my niece. Plus we have been up since 6:30am, so we are a bit tired. Plus the heat has gotten to us. Plus swimming kinda relaxed us too. On the way out we ride Soarin' with the fast passes we got earlier in the day. What a great way to end a day at Epcot! So we head back to the resort, get some snacks, go back to the room, shower and change and get comfy in bed and watch some Phineas and Ferb on TV. I swear they MUST have a Phineas and Ferb channel at the resorts because that's all we watched on TV. My niece loves this show, so letting her stay up to watch the show is an special treat. Soon enough sleep takes over. Tomorrow's agenda: as much as we can at the Magic Kingdom, getting Mickey Ears, getting our photo taken with Mickey Mouse and watching the Celebrate America Fireworks with the Dessert Viewing Party. That's gonna be another long day!!!
John
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