This post was written by Greg, with photos and comments by Maria.
Our third day of Disney was a Sunday. We woke to find a wonderful sunny, gorgeous day which made us a little sad that we were going to church instead of the parks! I figured if we sacrificed a beautiful morning for church, maybe we'd get some weather blessings in exchange.
We ate breakfast and got ready for church. There's a washer and dryer in our unit and Maria was doing a load of clothes this morning and I realized she was washing my church pants (which I had worn on the airplane since they were thicker than my other pants and I wanted to pack small). I ended up wearing jeans to church instead.
A nice, healthy breakfast of Cocoa Pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
We programmed our GPS to take us to church. We had a choice of three chapels all within 20 miles of us. It turns out the one we picked was right across the street from the Orlando temple. It was quite a nice sight to see this beautiful temple on our way to church. When we were done we went across the street and took a few photos of the temple.
The Orlando temple is gorgeous!
It's fun to drive back to our hotel and actually see the sign welcoming us to Disney.
We came back after church and changed clothes and went back to finish all the things in Epcot that we missed the previous day. We caught the bus again which goes to the Magic Kingdom first and then to Epcot. When they were dropping off the Magic Kingdom people, the driver mentioned that the monorail which takes people into the park also takes people to Epcot. So we got out there and rode the Monorail over to Epcot. The boys really enjoyed it and the Monorail itself tours around the Epcot park before stopping so it was great to see an overhead view of everything that we'd been to the day before as well as where we were going today.
Watching the monorail come in.
The view of Epcot approaching from the Monorail. See the beautiful sky?
The sphere is so cool.
We headed into Epcot and went immediately to "Spaceship Earth," the ride that sits inside of the famous sphere that's the symbol of Epcot. The line was a bit long, but was moving fairly quickly. It is pretty much all outside of the sphere, but under its shadow. As we wound around a few times the gorgeous sunshine quickly disappeared and suddenly a huge downpour with gusts of wind hit. We made it into the ride just in time to miss it. That was the first miss of the day, but not the last.
It's hard to see, but it's like a typhoon out there or something! The wind was whipping the leaves around, and blowing ponchos off people. Crazy!
The ride itself was fun. It had just been re-done. For being the symbol of Epcot, the old ride was one of the most boring of the park. The main theme is how communication has shaped our world from caveman to computers. The new version of the ride is quite a bit more interesting and interactive. At the beginning it takes pictures of everyone in the car and asks you some questions that you answer through a monitor in the cart. At the end of the ride as you descend from the top of the sphere, you are presented with a personalized cartoon of your preferred version of the future. Unfortunately, somehow it missed my face, but it got everyone else in the family.
The ride exited into a room full of a bunch of fun interactive games. There was a driving simulator that the kids and mom enjoyed. There was a city building game where you have to deliver power to grids to build a city using shuffleboard-like sticks with an interactive floor. There were a few other games, but those were the only two we participated in before having to leave to find bathrooms. When we came outside, we saw that it was sunny again. The prior storm had moved on, leaving lots of puddles everywhere.
The boys pin trading between rides. Colin is mostly collecting Mickey ones, and Spencer is mostly collecting Donald.
From there we went through "Innoventions" which has a bunch more interactive elements. We decided we'd come back later to experience some of them. Instead we were hungry and decided to go back into the World Showcase to find food. We took a ferry across the central pond to Germany and then backed around to Morocco. There we had an interesting lunch of a sampler of lamb, chicken, and falafel, and a larger falafel wrap. The kids shared a hamburger.
On the ferry on the way across to Germany in the World Pavilion.
After lunch we took another ferry back and went around to Mexico, the one country we missed the day before when we were hurrying to miss the bus. All of Mexico is presented inside a large Aztec temple, and inside it feels like a giant market. There's also a cute little ride where you follow Donald with his Three Caballero friends.
In front of the Aztec temple. Colin was attempting to recreate the pose from the picture behind him.
Fun with sombreros and maracas.
From Mexico we went back into Future World and went down to visit Universe of Energy to watch "Ellen's Energy Adventure" which is an overlong presentation about where Energy comes from with Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy. There's a great portion where you go through a large animatronic dinosaur section, but the rest just about put us all to sleep.
We left there and went back in to Innoventions where we watched a 3D interactive film about terrible storms and how homes are best designed to minimize damage. The kids love destructive weather so that was fun. From there we went over to the second building of Innoventions just to look in as we headed towards "The Seas with Nemo & Friends." We just about skipped the whole thing but we were invited to a quick comedy show presented by Velcro that sounded fun so we stopped and went in.
The Velcro show was presented as a game show called "What's Your Problem?" The kids were invited up on stage to participate in a competition to build a block tower with velcro blocks that didn't seem to want to work at all. Our kids' tower was about to win when at the last second, their last block knocked their whole tower down. After that I (Greg) was asked up on the stage where I competed against another dad in the audience in a race to diaper, feed, and attach a little baby doll to an apron. I barely won 6 babies to 5 as we raced to grab babies off a constantly rotating conveyor belt in between us. I won "Best Dad Of The Moment." It was a pretty fun little show.
The boys working with their team to stack blocks.
Greg diapering up a storm. We were dying laughing, especially with the guy constantly throwing babies on the conveyor belt.
Greg getting his babies counted and being declared a winner!
We continued on from there to "The Seas..." where we went into the Nemo ride that takes you into the pavilion. It was cute as you climb into moving clamshells and are taken on a ride that relives moments from "Finding Nemo." It was cute, but the real fish in the aquarium afterwards were actually more impressive. The boys really enjoyed watching all the fish swimming around--especially the dolphins.
The sign for "The Seas." Maria loves those seagulls.
Spencer loves all animals, including fish. He enjoyed seeing all the different kinds.
Colin being eaten alive by a shark. Goodbye, Colin!
Oh no! Spencer, too? What are the chances?
There was another great new attraction in the Seas pavilion, "Turtle Talk with Crush," where the audience gets to interact with Crush the Turtle from "Finding Nemo." He is a cartoon Turtle, but he talks and interacts in real time with everyone in the room. He even called Spencer out for trying to heckle him and after asking and repeating his name, answered a question from him. Spencer asked why Turtles have shells and Crush said "Because otherwise we'd be naked." This attraction was one of the kids' favorites of the day.
As we exited "The Seas" we noticed everything was covered in water. Apparantly we had missed yet another storm. That made two storms for the day we'd missed. We decided to head for some shops, but then took a snack break to have some ice cream cones. By this time we had pretty much visited all the attractions at Epcot that we wanted and so we visited a few more gift shops then called it a day and headed back to the bus.
Spencer's duck whistle - the first money he spent on a souvenir. He hoped it would help him talk like Donald, but will have to settle for just looking more like him.
We made it on time to the bus today and got on and started to leave the parking lot when another giant storm suddenly hit. It was suddenly pouring like crazy while we rode home. Water was even coming through the roof of the bus in certain places. Amazingly this was the third storm of the day that we barely missed getting stuck in, especially since there is no real covering in the middle of the bus lot. It was pure luck in timing.
Walking to the bus stop - you could tell the rain was just about to hit! Where did our sunny day go?
After we had recuperated in the apartment and eaten dinner, we went back out to revisit Downtown Disney. The storms had passed again and it was a clear night, more or less. Maria really wanted to get some pictures, having forgotten the camera on the previous visit, and Spencer was wanting some souvenirs. So we went back to the Lego store, the Disney store, and the toy store and took plenty of photos this time.
Taking some time to rest and play Jenga (which we checked out from the Activities Center - so handy!)
Downtown Disney - one of the many Lego window displays. Soooo cool!
Colin having fun building something from the pick-a-brick wall.
Spencer dressed as pirate Mickey. Scary, huh?
Hasbro store - they make Mr. Potato Head actually cool! The display and selection were amazing.
Spencer tried to build the craziest Potato Head he could.
The boys at the Build-Your-Own-Lightsaber station.
On the way back to the car, we ran across a street performer/mime who was entertaining a crowd. He was twirling and balancing hats and then was catching little basketballs in a net atop a pole that he balanced on his forehead. He kept extending it taller and taller to a point almost beyond belief, but continued to catch the balls.
The pole was unbelievably high. What a fun show to have happened to catch!
From there we went home (stopping briefly to see an armadillo that crossed the road near our building) and collapsed yet again from a long day.
Our third day of Disney was a Sunday. We woke to find a wonderful sunny, gorgeous day which made us a little sad that we were going to church instead of the parks! I figured if we sacrificed a beautiful morning for church, maybe we'd get some weather blessings in exchange.
We ate breakfast and got ready for church. There's a washer and dryer in our unit and Maria was doing a load of clothes this morning and I realized she was washing my church pants (which I had worn on the airplane since they were thicker than my other pants and I wanted to pack small). I ended up wearing jeans to church instead.
A nice, healthy breakfast of Cocoa Pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
We programmed our GPS to take us to church. We had a choice of three chapels all within 20 miles of us. It turns out the one we picked was right across the street from the Orlando temple. It was quite a nice sight to see this beautiful temple on our way to church. When we were done we went across the street and took a few photos of the temple.
The Orlando temple is gorgeous!
It's fun to drive back to our hotel and actually see the sign welcoming us to Disney.
We came back after church and changed clothes and went back to finish all the things in Epcot that we missed the previous day. We caught the bus again which goes to the Magic Kingdom first and then to Epcot. When they were dropping off the Magic Kingdom people, the driver mentioned that the monorail which takes people into the park also takes people to Epcot. So we got out there and rode the Monorail over to Epcot. The boys really enjoyed it and the Monorail itself tours around the Epcot park before stopping so it was great to see an overhead view of everything that we'd been to the day before as well as where we were going today.
Watching the monorail come in.
The view of Epcot approaching from the Monorail. See the beautiful sky?
The sphere is so cool.
We headed into Epcot and went immediately to "Spaceship Earth," the ride that sits inside of the famous sphere that's the symbol of Epcot. The line was a bit long, but was moving fairly quickly. It is pretty much all outside of the sphere, but under its shadow. As we wound around a few times the gorgeous sunshine quickly disappeared and suddenly a huge downpour with gusts of wind hit. We made it into the ride just in time to miss it. That was the first miss of the day, but not the last.
It's hard to see, but it's like a typhoon out there or something! The wind was whipping the leaves around, and blowing ponchos off people. Crazy!
The ride itself was fun. It had just been re-done. For being the symbol of Epcot, the old ride was one of the most boring of the park. The main theme is how communication has shaped our world from caveman to computers. The new version of the ride is quite a bit more interesting and interactive. At the beginning it takes pictures of everyone in the car and asks you some questions that you answer through a monitor in the cart. At the end of the ride as you descend from the top of the sphere, you are presented with a personalized cartoon of your preferred version of the future. Unfortunately, somehow it missed my face, but it got everyone else in the family.
The ride exited into a room full of a bunch of fun interactive games. There was a driving simulator that the kids and mom enjoyed. There was a city building game where you have to deliver power to grids to build a city using shuffleboard-like sticks with an interactive floor. There were a few other games, but those were the only two we participated in before having to leave to find bathrooms. When we came outside, we saw that it was sunny again. The prior storm had moved on, leaving lots of puddles everywhere.
The boys pin trading between rides. Colin is mostly collecting Mickey ones, and Spencer is mostly collecting Donald.
From there we went through "Innoventions" which has a bunch more interactive elements. We decided we'd come back later to experience some of them. Instead we were hungry and decided to go back into the World Showcase to find food. We took a ferry across the central pond to Germany and then backed around to Morocco. There we had an interesting lunch of a sampler of lamb, chicken, and falafel, and a larger falafel wrap. The kids shared a hamburger.
On the ferry on the way across to Germany in the World Pavilion.
After lunch we took another ferry back and went around to Mexico, the one country we missed the day before when we were hurrying to miss the bus. All of Mexico is presented inside a large Aztec temple, and inside it feels like a giant market. There's also a cute little ride where you follow Donald with his Three Caballero friends.
In front of the Aztec temple. Colin was attempting to recreate the pose from the picture behind him.
Fun with sombreros and maracas.
From Mexico we went back into Future World and went down to visit Universe of Energy to watch "Ellen's Energy Adventure" which is an overlong presentation about where Energy comes from with Ellen DeGeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy. There's a great portion where you go through a large animatronic dinosaur section, but the rest just about put us all to sleep.
We left there and went back in to Innoventions where we watched a 3D interactive film about terrible storms and how homes are best designed to minimize damage. The kids love destructive weather so that was fun. From there we went over to the second building of Innoventions just to look in as we headed towards "The Seas with Nemo & Friends." We just about skipped the whole thing but we were invited to a quick comedy show presented by Velcro that sounded fun so we stopped and went in.
The Velcro show was presented as a game show called "What's Your Problem?" The kids were invited up on stage to participate in a competition to build a block tower with velcro blocks that didn't seem to want to work at all. Our kids' tower was about to win when at the last second, their last block knocked their whole tower down. After that I (Greg) was asked up on the stage where I competed against another dad in the audience in a race to diaper, feed, and attach a little baby doll to an apron. I barely won 6 babies to 5 as we raced to grab babies off a constantly rotating conveyor belt in between us. I won "Best Dad Of The Moment." It was a pretty fun little show.
The boys working with their team to stack blocks.
Greg diapering up a storm. We were dying laughing, especially with the guy constantly throwing babies on the conveyor belt.
Greg getting his babies counted and being declared a winner!
We continued on from there to "The Seas..." where we went into the Nemo ride that takes you into the pavilion. It was cute as you climb into moving clamshells and are taken on a ride that relives moments from "Finding Nemo." It was cute, but the real fish in the aquarium afterwards were actually more impressive. The boys really enjoyed watching all the fish swimming around--especially the dolphins.
The sign for "The Seas." Maria loves those seagulls.
Spencer loves all animals, including fish. He enjoyed seeing all the different kinds.
Colin being eaten alive by a shark. Goodbye, Colin!
Oh no! Spencer, too? What are the chances?
There was another great new attraction in the Seas pavilion, "Turtle Talk with Crush," where the audience gets to interact with Crush the Turtle from "Finding Nemo." He is a cartoon Turtle, but he talks and interacts in real time with everyone in the room. He even called Spencer out for trying to heckle him and after asking and repeating his name, answered a question from him. Spencer asked why Turtles have shells and Crush said "Because otherwise we'd be naked." This attraction was one of the kids' favorites of the day.
As we exited "The Seas" we noticed everything was covered in water. Apparantly we had missed yet another storm. That made two storms for the day we'd missed. We decided to head for some shops, but then took a snack break to have some ice cream cones. By this time we had pretty much visited all the attractions at Epcot that we wanted and so we visited a few more gift shops then called it a day and headed back to the bus.
Spencer's duck whistle - the first money he spent on a souvenir. He hoped it would help him talk like Donald, but will have to settle for just looking more like him.
We made it on time to the bus today and got on and started to leave the parking lot when another giant storm suddenly hit. It was suddenly pouring like crazy while we rode home. Water was even coming through the roof of the bus in certain places. Amazingly this was the third storm of the day that we barely missed getting stuck in, especially since there is no real covering in the middle of the bus lot. It was pure luck in timing.
Walking to the bus stop - you could tell the rain was just about to hit! Where did our sunny day go?
After we had recuperated in the apartment and eaten dinner, we went back out to revisit Downtown Disney. The storms had passed again and it was a clear night, more or less. Maria really wanted to get some pictures, having forgotten the camera on the previous visit, and Spencer was wanting some souvenirs. So we went back to the Lego store, the Disney store, and the toy store and took plenty of photos this time.
Taking some time to rest and play Jenga (which we checked out from the Activities Center - so handy!)
Downtown Disney - one of the many Lego window displays. Soooo cool!
Colin having fun building something from the pick-a-brick wall.
Spencer dressed as pirate Mickey. Scary, huh?
Hasbro store - they make Mr. Potato Head actually cool! The display and selection were amazing.
Spencer tried to build the craziest Potato Head he could.
The boys at the Build-Your-Own-Lightsaber station.
On the way back to the car, we ran across a street performer/mime who was entertaining a crowd. He was twirling and balancing hats and then was catching little basketballs in a net atop a pole that he balanced on his forehead. He kept extending it taller and taller to a point almost beyond belief, but continued to catch the balls.
The pole was unbelievably high. What a fun show to have happened to catch!
From there we went home (stopping briefly to see an armadillo that crossed the road near our building) and collapsed yet again from a long day.
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