WDW 10-Year Anniversary Trip, Day 1: Part 2: We’re Heeeerre

Part 1 is HERE.

We're landing north, which means we've got a good chance of seeing the Golf Ball at Epcot. The clouds were against us, however (they were in cahoots with that damn penguin). We landed, and Sheri and I both start chanting "We're Heeeeeerrrreee! We're Heeeeeerrrreee!" Though it was 45 minutes late, it was ONLY 45 minutes…the day is not lost at all. We jump off the plane and cruise to the tram to the main terminal. As I had memorized, we head to lower level, B-side and head over to the Magical Express check-in. "Hello…man…with…big…white…hand!" was all I could say when I saw the greeter. Sheri grabs a seat, and I get in my first Disney queue line. It moves extremely fast, and I wind up with one of the funnier ones. He asks if I brought Sheri with me. I told him that, despite my best efforts, she's here, too. We traded jabs for a another minute, and then he tells me to take her to the red carpet, hold her hand, and tell her to make a wish as we started down it to the bus queue.

Sheri was on the phone with her mother telling her that we made it and asking how the boys are doing. I try telling her my orders from the Magical Express guy, but she was too engrossed in the discussion with her mother. I half-way expected that guy to haul us back to the red carpet and make us do it again (he said he'd be watching). Sheri gets off the phone while waiting for the bus, and she asks me what we were supposed to do a few minutes ago at the carpet.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

The bus to Pop arrived about 10 minutes later, and it's a Disney Cruise Line bus. Sheri was hoping that it would have been an official Magical Express bus, but, so long as it gets us there in less than 10 pieces, I'm good. On the ride over, Sheri asks if I made a wish.

Grrrrrrrrrr again. I told her that SHE was the one that was supposed to make the wish! I then think about what I would wish for and start smiling. Reading my mind, she says that our wishes would cancel each other out.

OUCH! First the bitch slap comment and then that!

While we're on the way, the bus driver has a soft-rock station on, and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go started. Nothing like a little WHAM! to get you in the Disney spirit (that comment garnered a few laughs from the folks around us).

We pull in (We're Heeeeeerrrreee!) and head to the check-in. There's only 2 others in front of us…good sign. When we got to the counter, they said they had a room available (woohoo). I asked if it was in the 50s by any chance. Nope, the 70s. I look at Sheri, and she's fine with the 70s, so we turn to tell her it's okay, but she's already flying away at her keyboard. "I've got you in the 50's section, but it's not clean yet."

I fell in love with her at that moment.

We get our keys and head to the food court for some grub. I had a cheese steak wrap that was much better than anticipated, and Sheri had something that I just can't remember. I just remember that mine was better! Sheri hits the bathroom again, and I check the carry-on bag with the hotel, after waiting about ten minutes (someone cut in front of me).

The Unofficial Guide says that Epcot is the place to go to today, so we head out to the busses and hop in the Epcot bus line. Within a minute, it was there (it was like I just snapped my fingers, and there it was). We're there in about ten minutes, and we're ready for our first finger squeeze…wait…now it's just a single finger? How boring is that?

We walk into the Flower and Garden Festival. Though we've seen pics of the topiaries already, you have to be there to really see it.

Now, we sent out Tricia and her husband a month before us to tell us how things were. Unfortunately, on their first day when they went to Epcot, all of the fastpasses for Soarin' were gone. I expected the same thing.

The only thing was that it appeared that nobody else was at Epcot that day. It said there were fastpasses available at the tip board, so we scooted over to The Land to pick up fastpasses. We grabbed them, and the posted wait time was only 40 minutes. I looked at Sheri. Sheri looked at me. We both looked at the time. And we both darted down the standby line. Neither of us have ridden this before, so we were really looking forward to it. The wait was only about 18 minutes, and we were on.

This immediately became our favorite attraction.

This also meant something else…screw the touring plans (Sorry Len)! We're gonna do what we want when we want!

The Seas with Nemo was just next door, so we meandered over there and marveled at the gardens. Sheri took a couple of pics of the Nemo characters, but I was watching the gulls doing their "MINE!" calls. All I could do was picture Mark (Mare's hubbie) screaming back at them (Another Lodger (Mo) put that in a trip report late last year, and I can soooo see him doing that). We walked onto the clam-mobiles and rode it. Both Sheri and I caught ourselves "testing" the rides out to see how the boys would likely do on them. This is one the boys would like and the parents would tolerate. It's cute, but sappy.

Now, the first item on the touring plan was supposed to be Spaceship Earth. Neither of us has ridden it, and it was another walk-on (2:30 in the afternoon, and we're walking on almost everything!). The first thing that popped in my mind was to wonder who all had try to…ummm…well…oh what the heck, I'll just say it…do it on this ride with it being so dark.

ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

That was kind of a boring ride, especially since we couldn't hear a darn thing Jeremy Irons was attempting to tell us. We had our heads contorted so our ears were close to the speaker, and he was still too quiet.

I was hoping to see the Jammitors (or the Jamminators, as Sheri calls them), but they had already wrapped up. We headed through the breezeway at Innoventions East and noticed a 5 minute wait at Mission Space.

Is that right? I've ridden the orange version (full spinning) and absolutely loved it. Sheri agreed to go on the green one (almost no spinning), and I went on with her. Walk on yet again. The green version was much more subdued than the orange one, but you still felt it a little. Sheri was green after the green version (it's not that easy being green, either). Test Track was next, and it was a 30 minute posted wait. The sounds in the queue were unnerving, but the ride itself was just as good as I remembered it, though Sheri thought the speed test was faster than when we rode it in '01, while I commented that it was slower.

We still had some time to kill before our Fastpass times were up for Soarin', so we head over to the butterfly garden.

The crowds were non-existent, which was perfect because we both felt that we haven't done Epcot justice and wanted actually experience it rather than just visit it. The F&G festival was the icing on the cake, as both of us dabble some in gardening. The size of these cockscombs floored us:

We both were amazed at the color of the flower on this tree:

The pic below doesn't do this topiary justice…Goofy is HUGE!

We found our way over to Mexico for our first drink:

The weather was perfect, we were on vacation, we were being husband and wife to each other, the scenery was perfect…we just took in the moment while sitting down at the Cantina de San Angel.

Part 3 is continued HERE.