Epcot!

Our FP+ for this park were not great…of course there is nothing really great to ride here except Soarin and Test Track. Our selections were:
Space ship Earth 11:10
Living with the Land 12:50
Soarin 1:50
Dinner at Tutto Italia 7:30

I did not get one for Test Track since I figured during the day Soarin was a longer line than Test Track, which we could catch at rope drop.

Our first ride of the day was Test Track. As usually, Miss B had the most efficient car while Mr D had the most powerful. Since it was still early and practically no wait, we rode only 4 to a car. As we left, we pulled a DAS pass and started towards Norway to ride Maelstrom…because evidently I can’t tell time and completely forgot that it is not open until 11am!!! So we turned back and went to TT and let the guys ride. Miss B had a headache and did not want to ride. We figured we would try again later in the afternoon for another ride. They got off the second TT ride at 9:32.

Since we had so much time to kill, we headed to Mr D’s favorite ride of all …Figment. Then Miss B (for what ever reason I can’t fathom) wanted to see Captain EO. After I rode it a year ago I said never again..it was the worst use of time I ever wasted! But ride it we did…and it was still not much better than the first time. In fact, I almost fell asleep! After this we went towards Spaceship Earth to use our first FP+

This was a waste of a FP+, but there really wasn’t a lot to put in its place. We used to go in the handicap entrance, but one the DAS came out they would not let us use that any more we had to use a FP+ or a DAS pass. I decided on a FP+…and of course they made us go to the handicapped entrance! Oh well!



I am sure it has to do with how crowded it was/wasn't and maybe the time of day, or maybe the fact that they realized it works better if the wheelchair uses the alternative entrance. I had thought that with the advent of the DAS it would be more uniform than it was, but it seems to be pretty much as it was before.  Dependent entirely on the CM manning the gates (so to speak)  The main difference seems to be the timing of the DAS pass...no spontaneous decisions to ride something.

Then we decided to have lunch at Sunshine Seasons and then Living with the land for our second FP+ . This is the first time we have done Living with the Land when there were actual people working in the greenhouses…and an actual living with the seeds tour. I now have two kids and a husband that are begging for this tour on our next trip. Of course it has been one of my dreams for a long time to do this, but I figured if I suggested it no one would want to do it! SCORE! My birthday trip in October will now include this !!

We then rode Soarin at 2:14 with our last FP+, pulled a DAS pass for later and headed to the Seas. This is a place I could spend hours at, but the rest of the family…not so much. We were fortunate enough to catch the tail end of the dolphin show…that I did not know existed!

I decided since my vertigo was trying to raise its head I would pass on Soarin this time and found a place to sit that appeared to be quiet. What I didn’t realize was it was one of the FP+ kiosks. No problem, I love to people watch. 

Unfortunately, what I witnessed was beyond being rude! When someone would walk up the two CMs would explain all about what the FP + was and how it made the whole trip so much better. It let you chose the time you wanted to ride a particular ride…and was basically the greatest thing since sliced bread. Then they would ask for either Soarin or Test Track and she would smiling tell them they were too late for that…but they could see O Canada or Captain EO.

As the guest would leave the CM would laugh and remark to the male CM she was trying to impress, that she just loved the look on people’s faces after she spent 5 minutes building up the d*** thing that there was nothing left for them except the dregs! (It was the least Disney could do for her since they paid her so little)

She then went on to complain about how little she makes and how Disney wants to run her life. She is not allowed to wear any body piercings or have any tattoos while she is working…but she will show them…she has tons of piercings (and would be glad to show the male Cm any time he wanted and the tattoos are not in places you can see unless she took her clothes off..)

At one time she told a family, that was staying onsite,  that since they did not set up FP+ before they got there they couldn’t set up anything for the next day…so I showed them how to do it on their phone…They were going to Magic Kingdom the next day and they wanted to make sure they got to ride BTMRR. So I showed them how to set one up and to get there at rope drop and ride it first thing and then have their FP+ for after lunch when the line was longer.

She was just too far from me to read her name tag, and I tried to glance over at it as we were leaving the area, but she was talking to someone and I could not get a good look….


Because there was a severe t storm warning out I wanted to charge my phone to keep up with the storm, so we headed to Starbucks. Hubby got him some coffee and we charged my phone.

Then proceeded to walk around the countries. No particular interest, just wanted to stop and see things we sometimes miss and to get some pictures of things we see but never stop to actually look at.

As we arrived in Italy, I saw the clouds looking very ominous. The radar indicated we should have storms within a few minutes so I asked it we could go to our ADR 2 hours early…they said yes, and we barely made it in before the bottom fell out.

Food at Tutto Italia was great…even if our server had such a thick accent it was hard to understand her, she was very helpful in trying to help us decide what we wanted.

The people behind us was horrible! I know kids can be a hand full, and they had 2 small kids. One who wanted to sing let it go during the whole meal (which was fine by me…he actually had a pretty good voice for a 4 year old) .  My problem was with the parents...but I won't go into that here.

After dinner, we managed to find the wheelchair (evidently someone though their stroller should be under the cover and moved our wheelchair out to the middle where it was drowned! We grabbed our ponchos, made a dry spot for Mr D to sit with an extra poncho…I always carry extras! Made sure nothing was ruined from getting wet (always pack things in zip lock bags!)and decided to head out of the park. I had really wanted to see the fireworks, and even though the storms had subsided to just a hard drizzle and the fireworks were still on, it was only 7 ish and we would have to wait another 2 hours for them to start. Since the area around Soarin and the Seas closed early for some function, the only real ride we care about was Test Track, and because of all the lightning in the area it was still closed … we decided to head back to the room after a quick stop for coffee at Starbucks!

This was the first day my husband noticed the Argentinean teenaged tour groups. He was not impressed. They attempted to take over the FP line for Soarin, and when they were all turned away because they did not have a FP+, they were very vocal and rude! He said they all seemed to learn English really fast as they started shouting expletives about Americans…

And then while he was getting our lunch they got upset that their vouchers were not good for food unless their tour guide was with them to pay! Some of them got into a shouting match and the security had to escort them out!

All I saw of them that day was how rude they got when in mass. When there was just one or two or maybe four they were nice, but get them in a group of 50 or so and they took on a mob mentality. (and before anyone says anything…I KNOW it has less to do with their nationality and more to do with their age!) I guess when we lived in Europe, we always stressed to our kids that we were ambassadors for our county. Whatever we did people would think all ‘Americans’ were that way. But we did have quite a few teaching moments about manners and mob mentality!

Over all this was a successful day. While it was our first rain out at Disney, we still got to ride everything we wanted and had a great meal. Other than some rude teens and a horrible CM (and some just bad parents) It was a fantastic day!

Up next...our last day in the parks...