We Did Nothing, Today...

... confessions of a self-proclaimed Disney planning expert who sort of feels like she's failing at vacation...

I know that's not it.  Not really.  But I do feel as if I lost the last 24 hours somewhere.

The truth is, we got in late enough last night that I didn't have time to turn in my assignment that was due, and I had a huge assignment due today, and I just needed sleep, and 20 days is a long time for non-stop fun, and I'm old(er), and the kids are older, and I just needed sleep (wait, I already said that)...

I spent the vast majority of the day in one spot, exegeting I Corinthians.  I took selfies, but they are not worthy of posting.  That's saying something, since I apparently have no filters when it comes to picture posting anymore...

Seriously, the most exciting thing I did, today, was to pick up the refillable mugs that I keep forgetting are included in the dining plan:

Just FYI, if anyone ever tells you that you can get the 10 pc. "Giddyup and Go" chicken dinner at Trail's End on the dining plan, they are lying.  I know, because I walked to Trail's End and found this to be untrue.  I decided I should still probably feed the children dinner anyway, though  (I'm pretty sure Phil fed them lunch):

Tomorrow will be better.  I promise.

L.

Pictures Taken Today: 8 (That has to be an all time low...)

A Taste of Culture...

So, the truth is I had dropped 10 pounds on this vacation when I woke up, this morning.  Then we went to The World Showcase at Epcot.  Don't expect another vacation weight update.  We have been eating all day long... 

We have this rhythm that goes with our world showcase days.  Today we started slightly off, because we had breakfast reservations at 10:50am at Akershus, which is a really weird time for a reservation there, but whatever.  We made it work, met some princesses, and ate fabulous food.  If there's any question about the quantity of food available at Akershus, let's just say we had bacon left over.  That never happens.  I will say that the character greetings felt very rushed again, which is just not something we're used to at Disney.  After each of our character meals, so far, I have thought to myself, "We really might have been better off just waiting in line to meet these characters."   

Character meals have always been a convenient way for us to see a lot of characters without the wait times, and hey... everyone has to eat!  I don't anticipate doing Disney again with kids who are the right age to care about character greetings.  Believe me, it has been like pulling teeth to get some of these older kids of mine to give the princesses some love.  And yet, they all jumped up for Snow White, which is really ironic.  They don't even like Snow White.  I was so confused.  At any rate, I think we've had OK character meal experiences on this trip, but they have seemed a little less magical than in the past:

Once we finished breakfast, we began our usual pattern of conquering the world.  If everything goes as planned, we will leave each country with a picture, a pressed penny, a stamp on Duffy the Disney Bear (only Miah participated in this), and a culinary experience. 

As an added bonus, since it is Epcot's Food and Wine Festival time, we had some additional options for our taste testing.  This is what we ate, today: churros, a chocolate covered soft pretzel, sweet and sour chicken, steamed rice, buttered chicken with micro cilantro, naan bread, bratwurst, a salty soft pretzel, paprika chips, ravioli, steak, fries, broccoli, a rocky road brownie, kakigori, baklava, a chocolate éclair, a croissant, fish & chips, and victoria sponge cake.  If you can believe it, we didn't get to Canada in time to eat anything.  I hear we have to go back for some maple sugar.  We'll get there eventually.  Truthfully, though, I'm not sure I ever want to eat again!  That will probably pass...

One of the cutest things ever was that Miah insisted on trying to say hello in every native language throughout the showcase.  She would just get the hang of it, and we'd move on to another country.  I actually cannot believe how much fun she had.  Unfortunately, the Kidcot stop in Canada was also closed by the time we got there, so she will have to take Duffy back in to get her Canada stamp.  Since it rained on and off, all day long, she has the worst looking Duffy I have ever seen.  It's probably nothing that some markers can't fix!

I kept thinking back to our first trip around the world, with kids, that we did in an hour and forty-five minutes.  My goodness how things have changed!  It would not be difficult for me to spend a couple of days in the World Showcase.  My girls could sure do it, too, because they love going through every single shop.  Other than the fact that Miah felt the need to touch every breakable thing imaginable, that was fun, too, especially because she was so excited about everything. 

How about some pictures:

Mexico:

Norway:

China:

African Outpost:

Germany:

Italy: 

 The American Adventure:

Japan:

Morocco:

France:

United Kingdom:

Canada:

This day was just huge.  Sleep would be great!        

L.

Pictures Taken Today: 264

Lights... Camera... Action...

Hollywood Studios has always been a difficult park for us to navigate.  On earlier Disney trips, we have tried to cram it into 1/2 a day, because it never seems like there is all that much we want to do there.  However, at this point it is definitely a full day park for us, and with the new additions that are coming to Pixar and Star Wars attractions, we might have to block off two days next time around.

Today we made it to five shows (Voyage of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Disney Junior, For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along, and Fantasmic).  The Frozen sing-along was absolutely fantastic!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was hilarious and super fun, and I want to see it again before our trip is over.  Fantasmic was, of course, amazing as always.  We had a little bit of an adventure getting there, because Grace, Caleb, and I pushed our fastpasses for seating to the very last minute (OK, they had expired, but we still got in), because we really wanted to ride Rockin' Roller Coaster before the show.

Speaking of rides, this was the first time any of us had ever ridden Rockin' Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror.  I have to laugh a little bit, because these two attractions are always pegged as the very intense Disney rides, but I forget that Disney doesn't really do enormous thrills.  Seth described Tower of Terror best as "a gigantic frog hopper"...  Both rides were fun, just not terrifying.  We also had fastpasses for Toy Story Midway Mania.  We really love that one, but it is so impossible to ride it multiple times unless you want to stand in line for at least an hour, which makes me sad. 

Sadness can be OK, though, even good sometimes:

Phil had a chat that he needed to participate in for his doctoral program, so the kids and I spent some time wandering around the Streets of America and playing on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids set:

They follow rules like I do:

 I was way too excited about this,

particularly since my kids are clueless:

Beacuse every kid should have a picture of herself

sliding down a huge canister of film...

#obsolete

Our first character dining experience for this trip was at Hollywood and Vine, and it bordered on disastrous for a variety of reasons, but particularly because we had to split the reservation, and my "big kids" weren't particularly excited about meeting Handy Manny, Sofia, Doc, and Jake.  Well, let me revise that a little bit.  Grace sort of liked meeting Jake...

Because everyone's first kiss should be magical:

Miah and Ian had fun, although I will say this was the most rushed character meal greeting we have ever experienced.  It's free dining for us, this time around, but I would have been really disappointed had we paid the sticker price for this meal:

Our breakfast at Starring Rolls was pretty awesome, though.  Dinner would have been better had we realized that Pizza Planet was closing before the park.  Uh... oops.  We had PBJ and will have to try to catch Pizza Planet later in the trip...

We had one of the best character greetings ever with Mike and Sulley.  Miah was all geared up with her monster claws and roar, and she jumped right up in Sulley's face.  He stomped and jumped back at her, and she completely stood her ground, which cracked me up.  She was so fierce that Mike was afraid of her and ran off the set, but he eventually came back and sort of tiptoed around her.  There was a lot of laughter (yay for us, powering Monstropolis):

 I can't quite get my boys to understand

how appropriate it is to strike silly poses:

We also enjoyed meeting Buzz and Woody in Andy's Room, and I'm sure I may have mentioned this before, but this particular character greeting spot queue is simply the best ever.  Well done Disney:

Undoubtedly, the highlight of the day for Grace was riding the Star Tours simulator, twice, and building her very own lightsaber.  We have created something of a monster.  Just sayin'.  The variety of Star Wars t-shirts that we saw, today, was vast.  I need a Vader/Palpatine '16 shirt, but I still think ours are the best:

L.     

Pictures Taken Today: 262

P.S. I can't begin to tell you how many times this baby has said, "Mom, take a picture!"  The world is not ready for a second mini-me.  Heaven help us all:

 This is how much water she left for the "fishies":

Time...

I never, ever feel like we have enough of it at Epcot.  Over the years I've heard a lot of people refer to Epcot as the boring Disney park, but the truth is, I could spend at least an entire day in The World Showcase, and I absolutely intend to do just that, later in the week, so we set out to essentially conquer Future World, today, minus Soarin', because we have a fastpass for it on another day.  At least one person wondered why on Earth we were hanging out at Universe of Energy at an unreasonable time of the morning (getting caught using flash photography at that... embarrassing).  Well, now you know!

So, some of the members of this family weren't so sure that it was a fantastic idea to dress alike, but I have to say that the super shirts were a good call, because we got so much attention at the park, today, it was almost ridiculous!  Even those who were skeptical are now lobbying for a second day of super shirts.  This is a huge mom win, especially with teenagers:

We started off our day by walking onto Spaceship Earth (I know, I know, another bizarre choice for early in the day).  Miah is so funny.  She was convinced that when we reached the top we were actually in outer space, and she couldn't figure out why she was able to breathe without a helmet.  Have I mentioned what a magical age five is?

Miah thinks this sign says, 

"Don't stand up, and hold your mom's hand."

I did not correct her.

From there we headed to the aforementioned Universe of Energy and then onto Mission Space, where I took Ian and Miah on the less intense ride while Seth, Grace, and Caleb tried the more intense version.  As much as I like to ride, I just cannot do simulators well.  I felt slightly less stupid about this when I realized that they actually stock the ride with barf bags.  I must not be the only one who gets sick!  Anyhow, the mild version was doable, and the best part was that Ian and Miah actually thought that they were controlling the ride, and I'm pretty sure Miah was convinced that we landed on Mars. 

Things took a slight turn for the worse when we used our fastpasses for Test Track only to realize that we really don't like the new ride at all.  This was such a bummer, because we loved the old Test Track.  In addition, this is where I learned how the magic bands work (or don't) in relation to the ride photos, and I just hate it.  Upon checking the photopass site, tonight, our ride photos are not attached to my magic band, contrary to what the cast member told me, and I would be extremely unhappy about that, except I didn't like the photos, anyway.  This, undoubtedly, means we have to take another spin on Test Track, though...

We rushed through one side of Innoventions, which now apparently houses video games, and then made our way to Character Spot, where I immediately realized my enormous mistake.  I didn't bring anything for the characters to sign for Miah.  Are you kidding me?  I pride myself in planning these trips down the very last detail, and here I am, standing with my five year old, about to meet Mickey Mouse, and teetering on the edge of a complete meltdown, because I am failing at vacationing.  I had decided that Mickey could sign the park map, but a cast member, who I am sure was trying to help, didn't think that was the best plan and handed us a note card.  This is just not how we do things.  As an update, Phil sent me about a trillion texts from Wal-Mart, tonight, concerning which book and sharpies he should buy.  He is really rather amazing.  I had already forgotten again and didn't even realize this is why he went to the store.  He probably doesn't want me to have a nervous breakdown at Hollywood Studios tomorrow.

Seth is never going to live this one down.

I am going to tell everyone

he just couldn't stand the anticipation,

waiting for Mickey Mouse.

(He was really just peeking around the corner.)

Well, lunch was next at The Electric Umbrella, where we ordered just a few counter service meals, because we are trying to stretch this free dining as far as it can go.  I had several unhappy children who did not think they would get enough to eat.  In the end, we would have had leftovers if I hadn't continued to shove food in their little faces.  The chocolate cupcakes were a huge success:

After eating and feeling as if maybe everything in the world was not actually a disaster, The Seas with Nemo and Friends was up next.  The Living Seas has always been a favorite of ours, even before Nemo came to live there, but come on...  finding Nemo just makes everything better:

Well, hello there Nemo... and Marlin... and Dory:

 

You would think they might learn...

Eaten by a shark... again:

 You would think I might learn...

I have to stop doing this:

In addition, Crush spent some time talking with Ian and Phil during Turtle Talk with Crush, and it was so funny.  Ian, who ordinarily never stops talking, was just spellbound, giving quick one word answers.  Go figure.  The exchanges between Phil and Crush were hilarious.  I'm so glad we have all of this on video.

Then, over at The Land, we walked on to Living with the Land, which shouldn't seem like a big deal, but it was, because last time we were here at Christmas, and we couldn't even get on it. 

And then we rode Journey Into Imagination with Figment twice, because Miah loved it so much.  The cast member there had a pretty good chuckle over that, I think.  Most people probably don't ride that one twice in a row.  Again, this is an all time favorite, dating right back to my childhood.  Well, minus the smell lab:

All of the kids wanted to do Mission Space again, which was mildly distressing, since that meant I had to brave a simulator twice in one day, but we made it.  Just in time for a Florida downpour to hit...

We explored the other side of Innoventions a little bit, and when the rain slowed, we took another spin on Spaceship Earth, where we got stuck at the top (sort of fun, actually), and then we called it a day.  This is really weird for us.  We almost always arrive before the parks open and stay until they kick us out, but I guess this is an advantage of having such a long vacation.  There's no rush.  And, honestly, we're not as young as we used to be.  This is exhausting!

OK...  Just one more:

L.     

Pictures Taken Today: 130