Day 3, Sept 12, 2006

We went to Epcot this morning. We arrived a little before 9, just as the park was opening to non onsite guests

We made a bee line to Soarin, got fast passes and went on the regular line. We all rode the first row. My parents enjoyed it.

We then went on Journey into Your Imagination with Figment. There is never a line here. We exited through the post ride area to use our Fast Passes for Soarin. This time we had the 3^rd row. It does take away a little from the experience, but is still enjoyable.

The plan was to make it to World Showcase for the fist showing of American Adventure at 11:15. I had plans to meet Terrie there. It was 10:30 so we had some time, so decided to go on Universe of Energy. I keep forgetting how long this show is, about 45 minutes they tell you from pre-show start to you leave. So much for the 11:15 show and meeting Terrie. We got into the pre-show early and sat down in the back on the chairs. Even though the theater was empty, a guy walked in and stood right in front of my mother, blocking her view. Took her a couple of 'excuse me' to get his attention to get him to move. My father likes to watch Jeopardy, so this was a must, even though the pre-show is the part I hate to sit through.

We left Universe of Energy and Future World for the 12 pm showing of American Adventure. I was supposed to meet Terrie for the first show, but why should this meet actually take place, when I didn’t make the others so far. I know they tell you no video taping of flash photography, so I did ask the CM as she started the show, is it ok to take non flash photography. She said ok, so I tried my best to take photos and hold the camera as still as possible. Most of the photos came out ok, some were blurry, but still able to make out the scene. About 2/3's through the show, my batteries in my digital camera died and quickly switched out for one of the spare sets I carried with me.

After this, we ate at Liberty Inn for lunch. Remember when I mentioned how the sodas at Pecos Bill make you want to drink your soda down fast? Well, I had almost the same exact meal here, and I didn’t drink my soda as fast. But I did remember to order the large soda.

It started to rain at this point. We started to walk back to the bus for our afternoon break, but by the time we hit Japan, we had to break out our rain ponchos as it started to rain too heavy to walk around without one.

By the time we left World Showcase, it stopped. As we passed Spaceship Earth, we decided to do this before going on the bus. Afterwards we left to go back to the hotel.

We had 6:30 adr's for Spoodles on the Boardwalk. I didn’t want to relive the how to go from the Poly to Pop experience, so I asked about a dozen times how to go from the Pop to the Boardwalk and how long to allow for traveling. The best advice was take the bus from Pop to Disney-MGM Studios, then take the boat launch that goes to Epcot which makes stops at the Swan and Dolphin, then Yacht and Beach Club, then the Boardwalk, then finally Epcot.

As the bus was pulling into Disney-MGM Studios, I saw off in the distance the boat we needed to complete our trip to the Boardwalk. As we were getting off the bus, the boat was docking. So what to do? Try and make the boat by running or walking and not worrying and wait for the next one. We casually walked, but as the boat was still in its dock, and we were getting close to the pier, we walked faster to try and make it, which we did.

We got to the Boardwalk early and didn’t want to check in yet, So after looking at the menu, we walked over to the Screen Door store. While at the Pop Century food court, you can only get one bagel for a snack credit, here you could get 6. We just didn’t feel like carrying the 6 pack with us for the rest of the day, especially while having dinner. They had lots of plain bagel packages, but my mother wanted the fancy swirl package, which was only one left and the date was tomorrow, so we skipped getting it.

When we entered Spoodles, they had what the desserts looked like at the entrance of the dinning room. This was interesting as my mother enquired if these are the desserts that is available with the DDP, we were told yes. Dinner was nice at Spoodles. We all had the same appetizer, garlic shrimp, which was very good. I had the NY strip steak, just about the same thing I had for all my table service dinners. Sitting at the next table was another former Marine who served in Korea almost the same time as my father. He came over and they chatted for a bit. While we were eating that gentleman didn’t like the NY strip he had and asked for something else. When the waiter asked what we wanted for dessert, we told him the sampler, which was one of the items on display. The waiter told us that the sampler wasn’t included, but after we told him, the people who sat us, did, he gave it to us, well just my mother and I, my father had the diabetic dessert.

After Spoodles, we walked to Epcot to watch Illuminations. We passed one wheelchair area. I didn’t like the view, there were some trees blocking the sky. It was getting dark fast. There was one area, we were told later that sometimes they cordon off for special events. A CM told us this, but since it was getting late, we didn’t think we would be chased. The same CM did tell us that the island might block our view of the globe, which it turned out to be correct, but I felt it was too late to find another area. The lagoon was too dark to make out where the barges were. The show was nice, but most of the barges we couldn’t see. We did see the central barge where they start the fireworks from. We were just south of France.

Since Epcot had morning EMH today, the park closed after Illuminations ended, but took our time to leave as the mass exodus was right before us. This was the only time they had the wheel chair and everyone else in one line, usually they separate everyone.