Travel Log

Disney World: Part 2

My mom woke me up around quarter to eight this morning. It took me a few minutes to get out of bed because I was still feeling groggy. After breakfast, we headed off to EPCOT. The first thing we did when we arrive there was buy an autograph and photo album. Then we went to a character spot where we met Baymax from Big Hero 6. I have a sort of connection with that movie and character because last year when I was sick, I went to the movies to see Big Hero 6 on one of my good days and thought how great it would be to have Baymax, a robot designed to look after the sick, to look after me. Jill told me that Baymax has become the superhero associated with nurses. We then tried to see Joy and Sadness from Inside Out but the line was too long.

Our first Fastpass ride was The Seas With Nemo and Friends, a cute little ride in clamshell omni movers through the world of Finding Nemo, the coral reef, the deepest depths of the ocean, the jellyfish forest, the East Australian Current or EAC  and the jellyfish forest. At the end of the ride, Nemo's friends found him again. The ride gets off in a sort of aquarium with large fish tanks and exhibits on ocean life. We then watched an interactive show called Turtle Talk With Crush which was a short of Q and A with the Finding Nemo character, Crush. The small children in the audience were invited to sit up front and a couple of them were able to ask Crush questions and answer his questions.
After The Seas, we went to a pavilion called "The Land", and watched The Circle of Life,  a short film about respecting the environment featuring Simba, Timon, and Pumba from The Lion King which I vaguely remember from when I went to EPCOT thirteen years ago when I was seven.  The cynic in me found its environmental message kind of ironic when I thought about how much Florida swampland and it's ecosystem were destroyed to make Disney World.

By the time The Circle of Life was finished, it was time for us to go to our next Fastpass ride,  Mission Space. I was a bit nervous about this ride because it is known as one of Disney World's most intense but Jill got into the least intense level and told me that everything would be fine. Mission Space's premise is that we are astronauts training for a mission to Mars. Our group was supposed to be a flight crew: Mom was the Commander, I was the Pilot, Jill was the Navigator, and Steve was the Engineer. There were videos of a Captain, played by Gary Sinise (I guess Lieutenant Dan got promoted), giving us instructions on what we were supposed to do for the mission. Jill was pretty much right about the ride, it was not that intense but it did make my heart pound and I do not think I would ever go on it again.
We tried again to see Joy and Sadness but the wait was forty-five minutes long, so we went instead to a shop called Club Cool which sells Coke products and memorabilia.  I enjoyed this because I am a big Coca-Cola fan, some might say addict. Club Cool has dispensers which serve several soda flavors from all over the world. I tried all of them except for the one that I was told tasted horrible. My favorite was a strawberry cream soda from, I think, Zimbabwe. Jill introduced us to her friend Lilly, who works there and I bought a refreshing frozen Coke from her.
A friend of my mom and Jill and her family met us for lunch at the Rose and Crown in World Showcase United Kingdom. On our way there, we walk through a butterfly garden which was part of the EPCOT flower show where I got my EPCOT flower show passport stamped. United Kingdom had a sort of Tudor/Victorian architecture and there was a band playing British Invasion pop. We went into this shop where Greensleeves and later a song by Gilbert and Sullivan were playing. This shop sold Downton Abbey merchandise and I freaked out and had to buy a t-shirt. Outside of the shop, Mary Poppins was signing autographs; she was the first autograph I got. Mary Poppins complimented the flowers growing on my head (I was wearing a flower crown) and asked me how my holiday was going. I told her that it was lovely but very hot and she suggested that I have some raspberry ice which I told her sounded lovely. Steve, who had come with me, told her to give her best to Burt.

Lunch at the Rose and Crown was the highlight of the day for my mom and Jill because they enjoyed catching up with their old friend Kathy. We sat outside under the shade of an awning and there was a nice breeze coming off of the lake. After lunch, I went across to the tea garden to get an autograph from Alice from Alice in Wonderland.  Alice also complemented my flower crown and asked if the flowers sang. I told her that unfortunately they do not. Alice also said that I must be a flower myself because I had such pretty flowers and that I should be careful of other flowers because they can be mean. I responded that I was feeling a bit wilted because of the heat and that I needed to return to the Rose and Crown to be watered.
After saying goodbye to Kathy and her family, we explored more of the United Kingdom and then went on to France. In France, we watched a film called Impressions de France which had beautiful footage of the French countryside and of Paris. At the border of Morocco, we got on a boat which took us across the lake back to Canada and then we walked to our last Fastpass ride, Spaceship Earth.
Spaceship Earth is one of the things I vaguely remember from when I was seven. The ride is a trip through time and explores the progress of technology and one continuity with thirteen years ago was that the ride stopped for awhile in the Renaissance. Towards the end of the ride, there were problems with the computers in the omni movers; nothing says modernity and advancement like technical difficulties. After Spaceship Earth, we tried again to see Joy and Sadness  but this time the wait was forty-five minutes to an hour, so we decided to go back to Jill and Steve's house.
We had a dinner of last night's leftovers out by the pool and then I went for a swim and those were the last things of note that I did today.