Sorry Folks, Park’s Closed. Mouse out Front Should’ve Told You.
A talking mouse? That's kinda creepy...
Before I get into the update, I just want to say that we have finally been able to start planting corn here. It has been a wet spring. Every time the ground would start to get dry, we’d have more rain. We’re typically done by now, but this year we really just got a good start yesterday. With the farm work and the baby just a few weeks away, this might be the last update I have a chance to do for a while. I might try to work on another before the baby gets here, but I have my doubts. I’ll be trying to keep up with everyone else as I can, but if my comments are shorter than usual, I’m sure you can understand why.
I'm glad you guys were finally able to get started on the corn. I'll certainly miss having the opportunity to make stupid and wrong guesses about your vacation - but farm and baby come first!
We could see some of the corrals and things still set up out in the parking lot from the race, which made me think of a few of you who had been there really early a few mornings prior.
Aw, thanks for thinking of me.
But the last race was on Sunday ... why were the corrals and whatnot still there 4 days later???
We made it through security and the guard was trying to chat with DD. She was being shy, but he asked her if she was going to go look for Nemo and she got really excited.
Well, who wouldn't be excited to go look for Nemo??
I assumed that it worked like every other park. When it opens for morning EMH, you can ride most of the rides they have. I didn’t even think to do any research about this.
That was a mistake.
We entered the park and as 99.9% of the crowd headed for Test Track, we turned right.
There was nobody there.
Well, no big surprise really with Soarin’ being closed.
We parked the stroller and approached the entrance to Nemo where a CM told us they wouldn’t be open until 9 am.
Well… ok
We headed back to the Land pavilion and thought we’d hop on Living with the Land. We entered the building and as we walked through the door a CM was standing there informing everyone that Circle of Life and Sunshine Seasons were the only things open inside the Land pavilion.
Seriously???
At this point we weren’t even going to try checking on Imagination.
Interesting. With World Showcase not being open and apparently nothing in The Land being open ... Test Track is the only thing open during morning EMH at Epcot? Really?
That's a little weird.
We got the stroller and went back to Spaceship Earth. We enjoyed the ride and were glad to do it with virtually no wait during EMH. But we were pretty frustrated after walking halfway around Future World only to come back to the front of the park.
Well, at least there was something other than Test Track open, but ... Spaceship Earth is not really what you're expecting to do with your EMH.
We stood and chatted with a CM who was a really nice older guy. He was from New York and said he lives in Florida and works in Disney World in the winter, but he returns to New York in the summer where he manages the hay operation for a dairy farm. It was kind of neat to talk farming with him and talk about some of the similarities and differences between what he does and what I do. It really made the wait fly by.
There are differences between different kinds of farming? Different farmers do different things?
I don't understand you farm people.
But it's kinda cool that you encountered a fellow farmer and had an opportunity to talk shop.
Goofy, meanwhile had been watching DD and Minnie. He noticed that DD had come out of her shell so he came over to get in on the action and play and even convinced DD to come back for a quick do-over with him! DD really enjoyed it, but for some reason we don’t have any of the posed pictures of the 2 of them together, just this one on the way out. It was really awesome of Goofy to be aware of everything and try to make it fun, despite being snubbed. I’m sure it helped that we were the first family through there that morning and they weren’t slammed yet.
That is so awesome! It's always nice when the characters give you extra attention, but especially coming after she had basically ignored him ... that's pretty cool of Goofy!
We headed in to see Figment and there was actually a line. I don’t think we waited more than 2 or 3 minutes, but they actually stopped us where the FP and standby lines merge.
Despite that, nobody came through the FP line while we were there, but I don’t think I’ve ever so much as stopped before I was on the loading platform for this ride.
Maybe if you had done it during EMH you wouldn't have had to wait at all ... (of course, that would have required them to have Figment open for EMH)
We have never had a meal at Akershus, so we scheduled a late breakfast so that we could meet some princesses and try a new place. I didn’t write down what time our ADR was… I think it was 11. We were the last breakfast seating, whatever time that was. Either way, I did note that we checked in 10 minutes early and were seated 20 minutes late. It was getting kind of frustrating. We were standing there waiting, past our ADR time and people were walking up, checking in and being led right into the restaurant within minutes. I know we specifically booked a late seating, but standing there after your ADR time has come and gone and watching other parties check in and be led straight in didn’t sit well with me. We were literally the last people out of the corral and into the restaurant from the breakfast crowd.
That's definitely rough. We waited a while when we did Akershus, but most of the people being let in before us got there before us. Kinda weird that they don't let you in approximately in the order in which you check in (I know that some of it has to do with party size and what tables are available, but still...).
We finally got in and DD went for the obligatory picture with Belle.
Super cute!!
But DD wouldn’t wave.
DW told her to wave.
She said, “I Can’t. I’m not wearing a princess dress!”
Yeah, that's on you guys. You can't go to a princess meal without a princess dress. That's a parenting fail.
It wasn’t long before our server brought our food out. We quickly dug in. The people at the table next to us asked if they could get Mickey waffles. Another nearby table also then asked for Mickey waffles. She came back to us and asked if we wanted some too.
Well, duh!!!
I mean, “Yes, please!”
I don’t know if this is normal or not? Maybe something that they just do on request and we just happened to be in the right place at the right time and she didn’t want us to feel left out? Either way, we appreciated it. Mickey waffles are always great!
Why would they not serve Mickey waffles? And if they are serving Mickey waffles, why would they thing that you might not want it?
I'm so confused.
And that leads me to the princesses. There really weren’t any interactions of note. DD was being shy with all of them, but she did open up a little bit with Ariel. The Little Mermaid has really never been one of her favorite movies, but for some reason she’s been a big Ariel fan for the past year or so. She was glad to see her and she decided to let her know that she wanted to have an Ariel birthday party when she turned 4.
I have to say ... Ariel is an excellent princess. I definitely approve of the idea of an Ariel birthday party.
I may be biased, though ... Ariel was kind of a big deal when I was a little one.
I really enjoyed Akershus. I’m glad we tried it and we really enjoyed our breakfast. In the end, we were a little put off by the wait to get in and the fact that the waiting area, for lack of a better word, sucked. But we enjoyed the food and our server was excellent. And let’s face it, if there are 2 things a restaurant needs to get right they are the food and the service. The characters were fine, but for the price point being not much less than CRT, I think we’d tend to lean towards CRT for the ability to dine in the castle if we’re paying out of pocket. However, on the Dining Plan, this is a pretty good use of a single Table Service credit. It is hard to want to come back with so many great places we already love in EPCOT and new ones we still want to visit so I don’t think a return will be a priority for us. But if we need to see some princesses and it works out to be a good option for us, we’d go back.
I actually agree with a lot of this. Akershus was good, but not worth the price (I'm taking experience, not food). We found the princesses to be okay, but not much of a difference between those princesses and the princesses at CRT. And with the price being almost the same as CRT (we did Akershus dinner and CRT breakfast ... not entirely comparable because it was different meals, but with tip, Akershus was actually more expensive) ... I'd say in most cases CRT is a better option.
DW just looked at me funny and asked why I didn’t get a margarita. I had to tell her that I did, but it didn’t last very long.
It's alcohol and you had just had a princess meal. Was it supposed to last a long time?
We had close to an hour to catch our first FP+ and thought we were giving ourselves enough time.
For the boat ... probably not enough time.
1. Would we make it in time to use the first FP+? (25 points)
Yes ... but just barely.
2. Will I ride RnRC? (50 points)
Yes. You may have to abandon your wife and child to do it, but yes.
3. What attraction do I get to try for the first time? (15 points)
Hmm ... I'm going to go with ... One Man's Dream (although, really, I'd be surprised if this was your first time, that seems right up your alley ... but I can't think of anything else it could be)
4. Which ride breaking down really screwed up our day? (15 points)
Great Movie Ride
5. What snack did I try for the first time? (15 points)
Something Star Wars. All Star Wars things are exactly the same to me.
6. Where did we eat dinner? (25 points)
Mama Melrose ... it was supposed to be lunch, but it took 4 hours for them to seat you.
7. What did DW do when we got back to the resort? (10 points)
SLEEP!!
8. What did DD and I do when we got back to the resort? (10 points)
SWIM!!