I have also actually been dreading writing up today’s report as it’s not a day I like to think about too often as it’s full of bad memories. I was in two minds whether to write it up at all, but as I’ve given an honest account throughout the rest of my report I thought I might as well. I am only human afterall and I’m sure some of you may have had the odd day like this one. Or maybe not...
Anyway the day started early. I’m not sure what time my alarm went off, but I am sure certain little fingers had fiddled with the settings as it was still dark when it went off. I couldn’t even see what time it was. I turned it off and drifted in and out of sleep until I couldn’t lie on my sunburn anymore. It was agony. When I went into the kitchen though the clock only said 6am! God knows what time the alarm went off!
I put the kettle on and sat by the pool watching the school buses go by for a while before making everyone tea. Kids in the US must start school really early! The others all surfaced at 7:10am soon enough we were all dressed and bags, cameras, and drinks were waiting by the front door ready to go into the boot. I had a minor breakdown when I realised I had forgotten to charge my camera up the night before and the battery was almost dead.
I grabbed my spare camera and we were all in the car at 9am.... That is until we all had that awful familiar whiff coming from the middle seat... Yes, Amelia had decided she would fill her nappy at that precise moment. I guess it could have been worse. We could have been mid-journey to Epcot! Rather than faff about getting the key out of the security box and fighting with the lock again on the front door (it was very temperamental), I changed her in the back of the car, put the nappy in the wheelie bin, hand sanitiser applied and we were eventually pulling off the drive at 09:03am.Since the SAT NAV had stopped working on day 1, Paul had been getting lost a LOT whilst driving in Florida and it was really starting to get on my nerves. I don’t know how he could get lost. It looked so easy with the north south east west system and we even had a little LCD display on the rear view mirror which told us which direction we were going in. Maybe Paul didn’t look at his mirror (don’t get me started on his driving – he drives too fast, drives up peoples bums and generally gives me a heart attack every time I get in a car with him). It started no end of arguments between us and it would always end up with him bickering with me and telling me to shut up or drive myself, which of course I couldn’t as I wasn’t insured as an additional driver. If only I was. This morning was no exception as we took another wrong turn somehow. My Dad didn’t fancy driving over here yet. I really wish he had. Anyway, I have in my notes that we arrived at Epcot at 10 ‘ish’.
We weren’t off to the best start. I guess that’s where it started to go downhill. I was really annoyed as we went through bag check and ticketing and made our way into Future World. I tried to cheer myself up by telling myself what a good day we were going to have. The Epcot “golf ball” was amazing and I took lots of pics. I had just enough battery in my Canon to get some good photos of it.
We walked past all of these strange things...
I didn't know what they were at first but a lovely lady on the Dibb told me it is called Leave a Legacy; you had your photo taken and then they showed you what it would like once etched and gave you a certificate and reference so once it was done you could find it.
I have since found more from the Disney World website; At Epcot, guests celebrated the new millennium with Leave A Legacy.
Located just inside the Epcot Main Entrance turnstiles, this installment of granite monoliths features thousands of personal imprints from Guests.
The Design was created by Disney Imagineers and art students as a tribute to the millennial milestone. Leave A Legacy is both a work of art and a family album. Epcot guests shared their park experiences in the form of a one-square-inch digital etching on a commemorative tile and mounted on the monoliths.
Here are a few fun facts about Leave A Legacy:
- There are 35 sculpted stones in the plaza, ranging from 3 to 19 feet tall
- The heaviest monolith weighs more than 50,000 pounds
- The walls of the sculptures were designed to hold approximately 700,000 images
Is your park experience captured at Leave A Legacy? To locate your image, visit the Camera Center at the base of Spaceship Earth. Here, a Cast Member will provide specific directions to help you find your tile.
Shame they don't do anything like that anymore!! There is talk on several Disney forums of taking the Leave a Legacy down. This would be a real shame if they do.
One thing I REALLY wanted to do today was go on Soarin’. I was gutted about missing Forbidden Journey at IOA so Soarin’ was an absolute MUST on my list of things I wanted to do. Unfortunately though the wait time was already showing 90 minutes and there was no way I could queue that long. I have a curve in my spine and standing still for too long is agonising for me. I told Paul I wanted to get fast passes. We started to walk through to get some when I saw the Mickey and Minnie Character Spot through the window so I told Paul I would take the kids to meet them while the others went to find FP’s. I gave my purse to him with all the tickets in and joined the queue. Amelia was asleep in her buggy, but at least Oliver could meet them.
The queue was pretty long and I waited about 30 minutes, all the while hoping that Mum and Dad would know where we were as I was unsure if Paul had told them where I had gone. When there were about 5 people in front of us at the front of the queue, Amelia woke up. I also spotted the others sitting on some chairs near the door where we came in. Mum mouthed to me “Is she awake?” and I nodded. She looked really pleased. When there was one person in front of us I tried to get Amelia out of her pushchair, but had my hands full with autograph books and pens, and forgetting that I had everyone’s bags on the back of the pushchair, as soon as I got Amelia out the whole lot tipped up. I was getting flustered trying to pick everything up and Oliver was being as helpful as ever, standing watching me struggle. I called over to Mum to come and take the pushchair from me and a lovely CM let her, Paul, my Dad and Tracy in the gate to have photos taken with us.
We had photos taken with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy. Amelia was a bit shy and hugged into our shoulders and wouldn’t look at the characters; probably because she’d just woken up. I made a big thing about Minnie’s pretty spotty dress which brought her around a bit and she touched her skirt and giggled. Our Photopass photos arrived yesterday thanks to the lovely Sarah (brummymummy) so here’s a couple of the best ones...
I will go back on to days 2-5 and upload the photopass photos from those days when I get a minute so look out for some updates.
We came out of there and I asked Paul if he managed to get fast passes for Soarin’ and he said there weren’t any left. Gutted. We headed over to The Seas with Nemo which was good. Amelia didn’t want to sit on my lap at first. She was getting frustrated and just wanted to run around I think. She sat still while we went round but wasn’t that impressed with it to be honest. I enjoyed it though!
This is where my camera battery died and I had to resort to using my Nikon S8000. It’s slower than anything and the sun was so bright that I couldn’t see the LCD screen so I wasn’t happy. I hate having to using it now since I got my big jobby
Next up was Turtle Talk with Crush. I went to sit down the front with Amelia. She really loved it and got involved clapping and laughing!
I met the others outside after and we looked in the aquariums. All the time Oliver kept going on and on about doing Kim Possible as I had told him that he would be able to do it here. We had watched a few You Tube videos of it before we came away and he was really looking forward to it. On the map of Epcot it said something about Agent P coming soon, but nothing about Kim Possible.
We made our way to the Innoventions Buildings (East and West). Basically it’s an interactive play space for kids teaching them about how to make the world a better place. I had it in my notes that it was here you had to sign up for Kim Possible but we couldn’t find it. Paul and Oliver did The Great Piggy Bank Adventure... A series of little games where you had to invest your money... sorry that’s all my memory will allow! Lol. We went through Where’s my Fire where kids could learn all about the importance of fire safety... and some other things I can’t remember. To be honest I was so bored in the Innoventions area. I’m not into sciencey stuff.
Oliver had gone off with Tracy, Amelia was ratty and Paul was his usual self, moaning about waiting for everyone and was getting cheesed off. He went and waited outside while Mum and I sat on some sofas waiting for the others. I told her I’d go see if Paul was OK and it was here where we had a massive argument and he stormed off. He can be really selfish at times. I tried unsuccessfully to remind him that this was our holiday too and he shouldn’t expect everyone to drop everything they’re doing just because he was bored. With that, he walked off and said he was going back to the villa. Great.
How childish?I went back into the innovations building just as the others were coming out. We all came outside and I told them what had happened. We looked around for Paul hoping that he would have come back, but he was nowhere to be seen. I figured he must have gone back to the villa afterall. I was really upset and was trying to hold back tears. We went over to Club Cool after I’d heard about it on The Dibb and we tried some of the drinks. I tried to get Oliver to try some of the Beverly but he was having none of it. Dad tried it though and said it was disgusting!
Tracy, Mum and I looked at the iPhone cases. I was so tempted to buy one but managed to resist!
We were starting to get hungry now so we made our way over to The Land. On the way we found a CM and asked him about Kim Possible but he said he didn’t think it was running at the moment. One disappointed Oliver.
We had lunch at Sunshine Seasons. The only way I can describe this is sheer pandemonium. It was awful; crowded, messy and noisy. There was nowhere to sit. Mum, Tracy and I got the food while Dad, Oliver and Amelia went to find a table.
We all ordered a Turkey and Monterey Jack on Ciabatta each. Oliver wanted a Reuben Panini. As we were paying I saw Oliver waving us over. They had found a table amongst the chaos. It was really dirty under the table with fries everywhere. I couldn’t see anyone cleaning the tables. Oliver swapped his panini with my Dad when we got it back to the table and Amelia had half of my sandwich. I could hardly eat as I sat there trying not to cry every time I thought about Paul, half expecting him to come and find us which I knew was impossible as it was so busy. All I could think about was we were in Disney World... the most magical place on earth and I just wanted to share it with him. One half of me hated him for walking out on his family like he did and the other just missed him terribly.
We finished up and made our way out. We went on Living with the Land which I told Mum and Dad they would enjoy! Tracy was losing the will to live on here but the rest of us (who like gardening) found it quite interesting!
We realised that we had now done everything in Future World that we wanted to. We weren’t really in the mood for any big rides and the things we wanted to go on had massive queues. It was far too hot and very very busy. I went to get fast passes for one ride but when I took out my purse I discovered that Paul had taken the fast pass tickets out so we now couldn’t get FP’s for anything!!! It also emerged that he hadn't even tried to get FP's for Soarin'. I was more than livid.
In my itinerary I had planned to do future world today and World Showcase next week, but we had a dinner reservation at Teppan Edo at 6pm so we continued on to World Showcase and took in the scenery; planning to have a proper look around next time we came.
Then I noticed the Disney Traders shop and knew from reading endless Disney websites before we left that this was the place to buy Duffy bears. I am a childminder and wanted to get one for my setting to use as a Travelling Ted, and also to get one for Amelia. Oliver has long out-grown teddy bears!
We spent ages in the shop. The Duffy bears were all $30 and I didn’t really want to spend that much; Especially as I wanted two. I eventually decided on just buying one large Duffy for Amelia as it was the same price as the smaller ones, just without clothes. I was beating myself up about it afterwards as the smaller ones were so much softer. I questioned myself whether I had bought the right one. As we waited for mum, Dad and Tracy next to a stand of Duffy’s wearing 2012 hoodies, Amelia grabbed one and became besotted with it and wouldn’t let it go. I gave her one of the ones that I had just bought and she threw it on the floor and grabbed the other one back! That was it... she had decided. It had to be changed! I coyly went back to the counter and explained why I wanted to change it and the CM just laughed and said it was fine and just swapped it over. One happy Amelia. I think this might be one of those occasions that makes Paul hate shopping! I managed to get it off of her and put it in the bag. I also bought her a Duffy book and a stick of sherbet and a pin for Oliver.
We went outside and I spotted the Duffy character spot with hardly any queue! He wasn’t there, but the CM said he would be back in a minute, so we jumped in the queue. It wasn’t long before he showed up and Tracy and I fell in love!!! This was also the first character that Amelia actually liked! She gave Duffy her autograph book and was smitten with him! We got some beautiful photos.
Mum was waiting on the bench when we got back whilst Dad was getting drinks. Oliver ate his sherbet just as huge blobs of rain began to fall, but just spitting. However by the time our drinks were ready it was a full torrential downpour! We ducked back inside Disney Traders and it was about 40 minutes before we could leave the shop as the rain was so bad. The shop was packed with drenched people.
When the rain slowed down, we made our way back outside and walked around to Mexico. We passed this tiny baby bunny on the grass. It was so cute! The picture doesn’t really show how small it was, but it was SO tiny! What a lovely place for it to live!
We reached Mexico and went inside to see all the little stalls with ornaments, clothing and things.
The kids did the Kidcot Funstop (so did Mum!).
Amelia threw a tantrum when we tried to get her away from the pens, so Tracy stayed with her and let her colour while the rest of us went to look around. She coloured the whole of her Duffy
Tracy and Amelia joined us and we looked around and listened to the Mexican band playing. Just as we started to head back outside we spotted Donald and had a photo taken with him
Oliver tried on more hats and Amelia took a shine to the maracas in a stall outside. I wanted to buy her one but there were no prices on them and she would probably only drop it from the side of her pushchair and break it anyway. We have some at home already too.
I bought Oliver some glasses that lit up and flashed for him to wear during the illuminations later that night....
...while Tracy tried on some ears headbands and pondered over an animal print mug that she debated buying.
Mum tried on some funky hats!
...and I found some bracelets that I really liked at the Bead Outpost. They were made from recycled Disney park maps! I almost feel guilty for buying anything for myself and much prefer buying things for the kids. So I did what most women do; gave it a miss and then spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about it and wishing that I had bought it!
We reached Japan with half an hour to kill, so we took some more photos, Amelia looked in the koi pond and we all went in the shop. Oliver is a MASSIVE pokemon fan, so he was in his element. However he threw another tantrum and went off in a sulk when I said I wouldn’t buy him anything else that day. Meanie Mummy, but we were on a budget, and if he had listened to me, he wouldn’t have spent all his money on the second day. There was a lot of commotion going on around a little tank of oysters and a Japanese lady. Everyone was clapping and cheering. I stood and watched for a bit and kind of got the gist of it. A boy picked out an oyster that he liked the look of, the lady sang some sort of song or chant in Japanese, she cut open the oyster and got a pearl out, measured it and then banged a symbol. I think it cost $25. Everyone was clapping and cheering. Maybe it was just me but I thought it was all a bit over the top. It does baffle me though how they know there will be an oyster in the shells.
I went outside as I knew Paul knew our reservation was at 6pm and I was hoping that he would have turned up outside to have dinner with us. However my heart sank when he was nowhere to be seen.
I waitied around a bit and spotted this little guy (who clearly hadn’t lost his nuts!!) Ewwww.
It was sods law that Amelia had fallen asleep while we were in the shop and we weren’t allowed to take her pushchair up the stairs to the restaurant, so we had to park it up and carry her up the stairs.
When we got inside there were loads of strollers and wheelchairs and I felt it was a bit unfair to have made us get Amelia out of hers when she was fast asleep.
We were given a pager and were asked to wait in the seating area which was really busy. We waited for about 20 minutes. I was so tired I could have fallen asleep with Amelia who was still sparko on my lap. We were eventually shown to our table in a little room. The server didn’t stop smiling and she bowed at the end of almost every sentence! It was a little weird. Lol. She got us a highchair for Amelia when she woke up.
She bought out some drinks, took our food order and came back and tied our chop sticks together. Another couple and their son joined our table and she came back and did the same for them and took their orders. Dad was talking to them and they were from Pennsylvania. They had driven all the way down to Florida which had taken them 15 hours in the car! The lady was asking all about the Olympics and the atmosphere in the UK. Her other son was supposed to be coming to Florida with them, but his college changed his holidays at the last minute so they had to go without him!
Just then, Paul turned up at the door and looked really peed off and a little upset that we were all sitting there enjoying ourselves without him. He said they wouldn’t let him eat with us unless we all went outside and waited until another table was ready. I didn’t have a chance to say anything before he walked back out and said he’s wait outside for us. I was SO annoyed and upset. It was almost 7pm. Did he expect us to wait a whole hour for him?? I was fighting back the tears and Oliver was crying his eyes out saying he wanted Paul.
Then our chef came out who was the most enthusiastic, smiley person I’ve ever met! He was literally beaming! Lol. Me and Tracy stifled laughter as she whispered in my ear “he’s a lively one isn’t he?!” which cheered me up a bit. He set about preparing our food, giving us little dishes of a variety of sauces to go with the different meats and shrimp we had ordered. I ordered the Ebi, Dad had the Kajiki Maguro, Mum had the Ueno, Tracy had the Tori and Oliver ordered a child Tori. Amelia was still asleep so I didn’t order anything for her.
She woke up just as it started being cooked and was mesmerised by the hot plate and the food on it! She can’t talk yet but has no trouble telling us what she’s trying to say. She was shouting with excitement, patting me and Oliver on the arm and pointing to the hot plate laughing.
They dished up our food and I used the saucer that my drink came on to give Amelia some of my noodles and rice. She also tried one of my shrimps but spat it out after about 5 minutes of chewing it. She loved the noodles. In fact I think she probably ate more than me! She also ate some of Oliver’s noodles and chicken when he left half of it.
The meal was really nice but there wasn’t much of it to be honest and for what we got I thought it was really over-priced. For the 5 meals, 2 cokes, 3 orange juices and an ice cream it came to $170 with tax and tip. It was a great experience though and I do recommend it. I just don’t think we would go again if there was a large group of us.
We went back outside after the meal and looked for Paul, but we couldn’t see him again. Amelia looked at the Koi pond again while Tracy took Oliver back into the Japanese/Pokemon shop. We stood around waiting when I spotted Paul sitting on a bench over by the lake. I took Amelia over to him and she ran over to him and he picked her up. I asked him where he had been as he was SO tanned he looked like a different person. Apparently he had been walking around all day looking for us. He had walked around Epcot 4 times! That was about the extent of our conversation as he continued to ignore me and only spoke to Amelia. We headed back to the others and waited for Tracy and Oliver. Oliver gave him a massive hug when he came out. I tried making conversation with him but didn’t get anywhere
We walked around for a bit and got some funnel cake and ice cream for everyone to share. We all sat on a bench near the theatre whilst the sun set.
An American couple sat on another bench a bit further down from us and said Amelia was “just precious” as they watched her trying to catch a lizard in the bushes. She was killing herself laughing at it.
Paul and I decided to have a walk back to the Bead Outpost where we kissed and made up and I bought my bracelet. Yay!
This photo was taken a couple of days after I got it when it had started to go a bit funny where the glue had obviously reacted with the heat and suncream. It went a bit sticky. The photo doesn’t do it justice though. It’s really nice.
I went to the restrooms and then we headed back to the others and went to find somewhere to stand and watch Reflections of Earth. Paul said he had been around World Showcase several times looking for us and couldn’t believe that we hadn’t seen any of it. Apparently he had seen loads of characters when we hadn’t seen any apart from Donald and had also gone on Spaceship Earth which made me a bit jealous.
The show started soon enough and Oliver donned his glasses for his own illuminations show!
I struggled with the pants Nikon camera to get a decent photo and came up with these few...
The show was good and we all really enjoyed it.
The crowds bustled as everyone made their way to the exit. Everyone needed the toilet so I waited outside with Amelia while they all went to the restrooms. We grabbed 2 hot chocolates for Oliver and I and 2 coffees for Dad and Paul on our way out and caught the tram back to the parking lot.
When we got home I got Amelia ready for bed, gave her some milk and charged up both cameras. We all had tea and went straight to bed. It had been such a long day. Paul and I stayed up til gone 2am talking and got a few issues sorted. He promised he would chill out a bit for the rest of the holiday. Only time would tell!
So to sum up; a bit of an emotional day. It was quite nice being able to go around doing what we liked without me feeling under pressure from Paul. But I did miss him. It is so hard being in such a large group and trying to make sure everyone enjoys themselves which is what I was constantly trying to do. I've since come to realise though that yoyu can't please everyone.
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