Cindy S. & Family- September 2007

Yesterday (9-7-07) my family took a de-stressing day trip to Disney. The cast was myself, DH and Ds 14 and DS 12. We left the house at 7am and arrived at Epcot at 8:30am. The parking lot was empty and we were instructed to by-pass the main entrance and park way over to the left in Imagine 59.

We entered the park and were allowed in to the pin trading area. We waited there until the big countdown at 10am and then we headed to Soarin' for fastpasses. Then we headed to Test Track. The sign said 10 minute wait but we walked right on-we were even told to skip the movie and push through the doors. We got a car for just the 4 of us. When we returned to the loading area there was no one waiting to ride so we asked if we could ride again and the ride operator said "Sure." So...we rode again-and had a blast.

Then we went to character connection for pics but the man at the door said it would be 25-30 minutes so we headed to Soarin'. There was no line and we didn't need the fastpasses, we walked on Soarin'. After Soarin' both DS's wanted to ride Journey into Imagintion with Figment-so we did (another walk on). Since no one was in the playground we took the obligatory family pic, morphed it and e-mailed it to the grandparents.

We went back to check on the wait time at Character Connection but it was still too long so we headed to the monorail. We rode the monorail to MK. Arriving, we noticed this park was also empty. The cast member at the turnstyle informed my son that rolling backpacks were not allowed to be pulled through the park (we have used this rolling backpack since 2000 with no problems.) she said we could push it in front of us-talk about dangerous it doesn't go straight when you push it. He put the backpack on his back but after about an hour I told him to just pull it as we always did and we would deal with the consequences if anyone else said something to him (no one did).

We headed to the Noodle Station first to find our friends from The JoyFM who were broadcasting live because of Night of Joy. Unfortunately, they weren't there at the time so we headed to Tomorrowland.

First stop Laugh Floor we walked in to the pre-show area. My son gave ma a joke to text in and since I am slow at texting it took me most of the time we stood there to get the joke done. This was my 4th time in the Laugh Floor and the show has changed some. Mac & Cheese now re-tell the Monster's Inc story picking out people from the audience to show on the screen as the characters. They picked DH as Mike and he played along. It was cute but I didn't think it was as funny as the other show.

Next we walked on to Buzz Lightyear. After Buzz we were hungry and it was noontime. (we never eat at noon at Disney but...) We walked up to Cosmic Rays and there were only a few people in line so we went in DH went to get 2 meals from the chicken bay and I got 2 meals from the burger bay. There was a family ordering on the right side of the register so I walked up to the left side. (This is where my disdain for the Disney Dining Program shows up). This family was on the DDP and they didn't know their options and instead of ordering for their 2 young children they gave them all the choices. I timed it...it took 8 minutes for this family to complete ordering their lunch UGH!!!!! My order was ordered and paid cash for in less than 2 minutes.

Next we headed to Fantasyland and Mickey's Philharmagic. As we exited the show it was raining. We stepped into the Philharmagic store to don our ponchos. Then we headed to Small World. Since it was pouring and we didn't want to ride Big Thunder in the rain, we headed to Adventureland. We walked on to Jungle Cruise. Our guide, Ann, stunk! She sounded like she was reading a long boring script. She had no sense of comedic timing at all. We had the same problem in June. WDW has got to be careful who they hire for this classic attraction. The guide makes or breaks this ride.

Anyway-next we walked on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, the rain has stopped and we head to BTMR. This is virtually a walk on too.

The boys decide they want to go back and ride the Indyspeedway. So, back we go. The wait time here is 20 minutes, which is short for this ride. We give the boys a walkie talkie and tell them to call us when they are done. DH and I head to the TTA for a relaxing ride on the blue line. As we passes the Speedway we saw the boys were still in the zig-zag part of the queue. When we returned to the ride exit we asked if we could go around again and the ride operator let us. This time we saw the boys on the Speedway. They called us on the talkie just before we got off the ride and told them to meet us at our ride exit.

We walked back to the Noodle Station to check on our radio friends but, they weren't there. It is now 3:05pm and we decide to attempt to leave the park during the parade. This feat was much easier than we expected. The guests watching the parade were only lined up one deep. We walked down the sidewalk, enjoyed the parade and left the park by 3:30pm.

We ride the monorail to the TTC and then head for a bus to MGM. We wait a long time for our bus. We arrived at MGM at 4:25pm. Our goal for visiting MGM was to get pictures of the High School Musical Show-last time we saw it I had no camera. We walked up to in front of the hat and found our spot. DH went to get a soda and a pretzel. He came back with 2 sodas and a pretzel. The cast member told him the pretzels were getting old and chewy but if he really wanted one he could have it for FREE. It was rather chewy but it was something to munch on. We watched the 4:45pm HSM show and it was great!

Then we wandered around a bit. We walked into the Muppets show and then we decided to head back to Epcot. We decided to take to boat back. The boat ride is on 15 minutes now because it does not stop at Swan/Dolphin anymore.

We entered Epcot at the International Gateway and walked over towards Mexico-our boys hadn't ridden the new ride yet. They liked it. Then we went to the Electric Umbrella for a soda. Here we run into the same DDP problem. There was 1 family in line in front of DH. It took him 10 minutes to buy a cup (since this restaurant has free refills). I asked him what took so long and he said the family in front of him was on DDP and didn't know what to order UGH!!!!! Again. I wish Disney would have a cash only or a cash/credit line separate from the DDP lines. Also...If you are on the DDP know what your choices are and make them BEFORE you get in line. Read the signs and menus and be educated.

DS 12 wanted to go to Innoventions but it closed at 7pm so we went into Project Tomorrow at the exit to Spaceship Earth it was empty so we got to play both games. Then we decided to head home.

We stopped at Wendy's in Haines City for supper and reached home at 10:23pm. It was a great day, no crowds and lots of rides. We go back 10/12 for a day at the Food and Wine Festival.