[geeman]

DAY FOUR:THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY

We headed out early for EPCOT, since we expected to take in so much. And we did. However our hopes for a lighter day at the park were dashed when we caught sight of the crowds as our monorail car zipped through the park -- The place was packed, of course. We decided to make the most of it, anyway. We took the Counter-clockwise route, starting at Imagination, and working our way through the World Showcase. RAC rented an ECV that completely eased his back and foot problems, but halfway through the park, it began to slow down to putt- putt speed. While visiting the American Pavillion, his ECV came to a turtle pace, so we had to back-track and stopped by the international gateway to exchange it. We backtracked a bit more to watch the Fab Four (I'm a huge Beatles fan, so this was a must see!) , then continued with all of the rest of the attractions, thankfully all had minimal waits despite the crowds we'd spotted. We were planning on putting in for Fast Passes in for Test Track, but saw the single rider standby line was only 30 minutes, so we figured we'd be able to do it that way. Unfortunately, those thirty minutes took forever, more than an hour. It might have been better to wait for the 80 minutes and ride together. I'd forgotten about how fast the car zooms up at the end of that ride. Exhilarating, but harrowing fun! We completely ignored Mission Space, mostly because we'd read that it can affect the fluids in your inner ear, and RAC had just gotten over a sinus infection that had landed him in the hospital a few weeks prior.

We hopped around the various spots at Future World. Made quick stop at the Living Seas. Then,after a visit at Universe of Energy , we were off to our one "PS" request we'd made weeks ago: Dinner reservation at Chefs De France. This was their choice- but I thought it was great. We got a great table, a pleasant waiter, and had a nice quiet time. The food portion was humongous for us. I had the French Menu which came with the soup, gigantic chicken, and creme brulee. Good stuff. Though our reservations were for 7:20, we took our time with our meal and gratefully got to watch illuminations right from our very table!

The weather all week had been unseasonably cooler than usual, and this day was exceptionally brisk. We had dressed in shorts and T's in the morning, based upon the news report that showed Mickey sunshine for the rest of the week. But it was so cold that at one point we had to run in to one of the shops (it didn't make sense time-wise to go back and get our coats) and get something long sleeved to wear for the rest of the night. I had also been looking forward to swimming at night at the resorts, but the weather all week did not really allow this.