Part 2 of Day 1 can be found HERE.
We pay for our meal with the Dining Plan and make our way out. After conducting the war I promised with the MINE! birds, we head into our first attraction to look for Nemo.
(I love this one of Eric!)
We found him and sang a few stanzas of "In the Big, Blue World" before hopping off. After we disembark, we head up to say hi to our friends the manatees. Afterwards, we look for the Kidcot Fun Stop but noticed that it wasn't where I thought it was. Not a problem…I was looking at doing these for the boy in World Showcase anyways. We head into the main viewing of the aquarium and I see a sight I wasn't expecting:
A T-shirt from Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania.
That's where the Mushrush homestead is located. I was about to strike up a conversation, but the guy wearing it started heading out after checking his watch, so I decided not to pursue it. The boys, as usual, weren't as into this as we were, and we left after a few minutes to check out the other areas.
The requisite Bruce pic
We head into Turtle Talk as it's scheduled to start in about 7 minutes. The boys head to the front, and we find a place 2/3 of the way back. Crush comes in and starts the show. The best question from one of the children by far was "where do baby turtles come from?"
Awkward Silence as Crush's eyes bulge out
Crush works for an answer as nearly all the parents (including us) try not to fall off the benches from laughing. Crush has fun with it by looking at the parents and saying, "I can tell that the parents were all like NOOOOOOOOOO…..DON'T ANSWER THAT!!!!!!!!!" That put the parents over the edge laughing. He then started with the eggs on the beach and the temperature determining the sex of the turtle.
After the near sex-ed incident, we start walking over to The Land to see what the time was for Soarin, knowing full well that it was going to be too long. We keep on going and decide to try a new attraction for us, Journey Into Imagination…With Figment. Before heading in, I take a look at the theater to see if any Captain EO material is up. Having never seen the original, I honestly didn't know what I was looking for, but I figured I'd know it if I saw it (I didn't). We take a moment for the first time to actually look at all the water designs (the backwards waterfall, specifically). We've heard so many bad things about this, that I was expecting a 5-minute waste of time. It's a walk-on (as expected), and it was better than we expected. Granted, we never saw the original with the Dreamfinder and all the lost parts of the attraction, but we all kind of liked it. All 4 of us had the crap scared out of us though, at the end!
After that, we headed to the lab and let the boys have some fun. This place looks cool (remember, we're first timers).
Notice that the only one that actually listened was the girl that didn't belong to us! (oops) As you could tell, they were having a good time! I have seen the e-mails of pictures with all sorts of images on their faces, but those kiosks were all full, so we continued on outside. What awaited us? WATER!!!
Pure joy on their faces…I almost welled up watching them having fun here.
After the Imagination pavilion, we head out and decide to just do Epcot today…we thought about hitting MK for a while this evening, but the heat was taking quite a bit out of us. Remember, this was the first time coming in the heat of the summer. With that decision made, we head over to Innoventions West to see if the Disney Visa Meet-n-Greet was still going. It was about 5:20, so we missed it…not a problem, though, because we would be back to Epcot at least one more day. They look around for a minute, and then we head out to do Spaceship Earth. On the way, we grab a cool perspective shot:
I honestly do not know why the heck they like this attraction, but the boys want to ride it the way Sheri and I want to ride Soarin. Still a 5-minute wait, and, in no time, we're picking out language (I wanted to try Japanese this time but behaved and did English). I tolerated it…contemplated grabbing a nap. For the descent, I let Aaron answer the questions for our future.
After this, we start heading towards the exit. As we walk out, I get my first glimpse of the Tronorail…not as bad as I was expecting, based on other reports. As we head toward the bus stops, we look forward to not having a 1.5 mile walk to the Pop or All-Star stops (so we can be fresh for the 1.5 mile walk to our room from the lobby).
Imagine how floored we were when we found that the stop we were dropped off at…the one closest to the entrance/exit, was AKL's stop!!! I, of course, start dancing at this. There's another family waiting in the queue with us, and we strike up a conversation with them. After a few minutes, and I have no idea about how we got on the topic…HONEST, we somehow manage to start talking about trip planning, and I jokingly pull out my TouringPlans pocket planner.
At this, He mentions that he listens to the WDW Today podcast all the time.
Both our wives roll their eyes and realize that there is no stopping us after this news.
It was Eric from Indiana, and he was a fellow Disney podcast junkie. Of course I take the opportunity to plug my blog, and he said he'd check it out. The bus comes, and, as soon as we're seated, we talk about all the different shows out there…we find out that we have similar tastes (love many of the same ones, thought many of the same ones weren't that great, etc). When we arrive at Kidani, we de-bus and wish each other well, hoping to run into each other again on the trip.
Now…we're at Kidani, and we don't have to move at Warp Speed to make it to an ADR. NOW we're going to look at this place. We slowly walk to the entrance and take in sights. I created a video of us walking from the bus stop into the lobby with Hapa Duniani by the Voices of Celebration, but, being the academic, I was concerned about copyright infringement and decided not to include it (*&$%^@!# ethics).
We then head into Johari Treasures, where I want to purchase a lanyard and pass holder (so I can look like the true Disney World freak). We looked around some more, and the boys notice the vinylmation. 45 minutes later, we're finally able to pull Aaron away from the display case. We tell them not to buy them yet…let's see what else is out there in the "World" before deciding on that. I can just see the boys with their own accounts on Dizcollect.com, and us planning an intervention in a few weeks.
Johari is a nice little place! The CMs were great in there, and, while I don't think there would be enough in there for the folks who are planning on cooking the majority of their meals, it's pretty well-stocked for a smaller store.
After finding my lanyard and getting some snacks, we locate our Sherpa and head out for the long journey to our final destination…unit 7676. Our bags magically have arrived, so Sheri starts taking pics of the place before the ultimate trashing which will ensue once the suitcases are opened.
After the pics, we open up the door to our balcony for the boys' next surprise and head out…
Oh
My
!!!
Yeah, we were amazed at what we saw. This nearly took our breath away…obviously it took some of my brain cells away momentarily because I had trouble on a couple of occasions trying to find the right words (balcony!)
Totally Kewl…Brian, if you read this, thanks, Bud…this was amazing!
After about 5-10 minutes of jaw-dropping views of the savannah, we head back in and start the unpacking process. Eventually we get stuff put in, and we chill for a bit. Sheri reads some of the stuff while I work a bit on getting caught up on the online course. Around 8:30, we throw the kids in bed. Being that their bodies still considered it to be 7:30, they protested, but the adults, who held the passes and the schedule for the rest of the vacation, won out (about an hour later grrrrrr).
The thumb is still throbbing like never before, but, having got next to no sleep the previous night, I collapsed on the bed and tried to fall asleep.
Too bad that damn thumb wouldn't let me.
Onto Day 2.
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