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PiratesFan · 07-25-2005

DAY 3 Tuesday, July 12

Today was EPCOT day, with an early start for an 8:30 PS for the Princess Breakfast in Akershus in Norway. When we arrived at the EPCOT parking tolls around 7:45, we noticed that the lanes were all closed. A CM told us that they do not open up the parking lot until 8:00. Now once we were let in, we had to hustle to make it from the parking lot, through security, ticket gate, and to Norway in the World Showcase. We arrived at the Akershus podium at 8:25. Not a lot of time to spare if you ask me. When we were seated about 10 min later, we were fortunate to get a table right where the characters came out, so we got to see Jasmine, Belle, Aurora, Snow White, and Mulan rather early during our breakfast. The food was plentiful and very good.

PiratesFan WDW Tip #1: Many vendors in WDW have a separate spot in their cash registers for shinny pennies set aside for use in the penny presing machines.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Land since the Norway ride, Maelestrom, did not open up until 11:00. I really wanted to be first on line to get the Viking helmet, however, I did see a kid walking around wearing it later during the day.

We got our FPs for Soarin' around 10am to return between 11:18 to 12:18. The Living With The Land Boat ride had a 10 min posted wait, so we eagerly decided to go on it. Turned out the 10 min wait was was a walk on. I really enjoy this ride, especially the greenhouses.

Since we had more time to wait until Soarin', we headed to the Living Seas. Outside we got pictures of the kids with two of the coral characters with the remote control Nemo. No sign of the Sea Cabs yet. We looked around at the Nemo themed fish tank room as I call it, some other displays, kids took a picture in Bruce's mouth, and looked round the gift shop. I love the Nemo theme as far as the movie is concerned, but I felt it was too overpowering in relation to existing Living Seas theming. The Living Seas , to me, always had a poorly developed story line for an attraction, unlike the Land which you could understand its purpose throughout the attraction. The Nemo theme does color things up a bit, but does not really add much to the story of the sea.

Turtle Talk with Crush had a long line, but since we were almost in the zone for Soarin', we left, determined to come back to see the rest of the attraction, especially Turtle Talk.

Soarin' was absolutely fantastic! In true Disney style, it was a great experience to the senses. I think the feeling is unanimous, since when we used our FPs, the stand-by wait was up to 80min. The couple ahead of us was actually on the ride for the second time that day.

By now, we were getting tired out from the heat and lines, so we decided to travel off property to eat at Shoney's and go back to the room for a little while. We took the monorail to EPCOT around 7:00 to basically hang out by the Lake around the World Showcase for Illuminations at 9:00, which we never saw before. The kids napped in their strollers for a little while. Illuminations was absolutely great. I actually liked it better than Wishes but the disadvantage is that you need a good unobstructed view of the lake. Since the park closed at 9:00, the end of the show signaled the mass exodus of people. During the show, we noticed a girl holding a lighted souvenir EPCOT mug. She told us she purchased it at the counter where they sold McDonalds chicken nuggets and fries. When we arrived there after Illuminations, they said that they could not sell it to us as the park was closed and that they logged off of their registers already. I thought this was a rediculous way of doing business. Then I realized that almost every vendor had a PDA type of cash register, which was most likely linked to a main computer system that could tell the higher ups how much money was being collected exactly when, where, and how much. Again, we had to leave this for another day when we returned. The monorail back to the TTC was a painless and relaxing trip. We ended the night with a short swim in the pool. Most of the swimming involved dodging the bugs in the pool.

PiratesFan

07-25-2005	#8 (permalink)
PiratesFan Senior Mouseketeer Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Northern New Jersey Posts: 353	Re: PiratesFan WDW Trip Report DAY 3 Tuesday, July 12 Today was EPCOT day, with an early start for an 8:30 PS for the Princess Breakfast in Akershus in Norway. When we arrived at the EPCOT parking tolls around 7:45, we noticed that the lanes were all closed. A CM told us that they do not open up the parking lot until 8:00. Now once we were let in, we had to hustle to make it from the parking lot, through security, ticket gate, and to Norway in the World Showcase. We arrived at the Akershus podium at 8:25. Not a lot of time to spare if you ask me. When we were seated about 10 min later, we were fortunate to get a table right where the characters came out, so we got to see Jasmine, Belle, Aurora, Snow White, and Mulan rather early during our breakfast. The food was plentiful and very good. PiratesFan WDW Tip #1: Many vendors in WDW have a separate spot in their cash registers for shinny pennies set aside for use in the penny presing machines. After breakfast, we headed over to the Land since the Norway ride, Maelestrom, did not open up until 11:00. I really wanted to be first on line to get the Viking helmet, however, I did see a kid walking around wearing it later during the day. We got our FPs for Soarin' around 10am to return between 11:18 to 12:18. The Living With The Land Boat ride had a 10 min posted wait, so we eagerly decided to go on it. Turned out the 10 min wait was was a walk on. I really enjoy this ride, especially the greenhouses. Since we had more time to wait until Soarin', we headed to the Living Seas. Outside we got pictures of the kids with two of the coral characters with the remote control Nemo. No sign of the Sea Cabs yet. We looked around at the Nemo themed fish tank room as I call it, some other displays, kids took a picture in Bruce's mouth, and looked round the gift shop. I love the Nemo theme as far as the movie is concerned, but I felt it was too overpowering in relation to existing Living Seas theming. The Living Seas , to me, always had a poorly developed story line for an attraction, unlike the Land which you could understand its purpose throughout the attraction. The Nemo theme does color things up a bit, but does not really add much to the story of the sea. Turtle Talk with Crush had a long line, but since we were almost in the zone for Soarin', we left, determined to come back to see the rest of the attraction, especially Turtle Talk. Soarin' was absolutely fantastic! In true Disney style, it was a great experience to the senses. I think the feeling is unanimous, since when we used our FPs, the stand-by wait was up to 80min. The couple ahead of us was actually on the ride for the second time that day. By now, we were getting tired out from the heat and lines, so we decided to travel off property to eat at Shoney's and go back to the room for a little while. We took the monorail to EPCOT around 7:00 to basically hang out by the Lake around the World Showcase for Illuminations at 9:00, which we never saw before. The kids napped in their strollers for a little while. Illuminations was absolutely great. I actually liked it better than Wishes but the disadvantage is that you need a good unobstructed view of the lake. Since the park closed at 9:00, the end of the show signaled the mass exodus of people. During the show, we noticed a girl holding a lighted souvenir EPCOT mug. She told us she purchased it at the counter where they sold McDonalds chicken nuggets and fries. When we arrived there after Illuminations, they said that they could not sell it to us as the park was closed and that they logged off of their registers already. I thought this was a rediculous way of doing business. Then I realized that almost every vendor had a PDA type of cash register, which was most likely linked to a main computer system that could tell the higher ups how much money was being collected exactly when, where, and how much. Again, we had to leave this for another day when we returned. The monorail back to the TTC was a painless and relaxing trip. We ended the night with a short swim in the pool. Most of the swimming involved dodging the bugs in the pool. PiratesFan Attached Images __________________ Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates life for me! Last edited by PiratesFan : 08-01-2005 at 01:10 PM.