Disney World, Day Two (a.k.a. My Faith in Humanity is Restored)

So day two took us to Epcot, which will from this point forward be considered the standard upon which every other Disney theme park will be rated against.  Smartly designed for easy trekking to exhibits and rides with plenty of covered space and large atriums with food areas, this is how all the different parks should be designed. Even better is that it didn't have nearly as many people as Magic Kingdom at any time we were there.  I tried to capture a pic of Magic Kingdom tonight around 11 p.m. when we returned (for some reason; gluttons, I guess?) and the mass of humanity that still existed.  Unfortunately none of those shots was clear enough to share here. I do now have a pic to share from last night's dinner, however, with Zac and Piglet. He also got to see Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. Even though this isn't from today, I didn't have it when I wrote last night's post, so I am sharing here.

Dinner last night at The Crystal Palace was wonderful. Nice buffet with incredible service in a beautiful environment that is open, light and airy. We all enjoyed it quite a bit, I think, and it was a nice way to cap the day prior to the nightly fireworks show, which began literally minutes after we finished with dinner (at, yes, 10 p.m.).

The fireworks show was enjoyable and we had a light rain falling throughout, which didn't bother Katy, Zac and I even a little bit given how hot we'd been all day yesterday.


Today at Epcot, we went on what for me has been the best ride yet, Soarin'. On Soarin', you ride from the view of a hang glider above various areas of California, primarily northern but Los Angeles has a view as well. You ride over the Pacific, through vineyards and across varied scenery replete with pine scent when you hit mountains with fir trees.  The sensation of actually soaring above everything is incredibly well-done and Zac WENT OUT OF HIS MIND!!!  He LOVED this ride, literally shouting throughout "AWESOME!!!!" and laughing uncontrollably. His adrenaline rush and enthusiasm continued the entire way out of the ride for several minutes. What a thrill it was to watch him show such pure joy and emotion on such a fun ride!

Later on we had a chance to take pics with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  I don't have any of those because they will become part of our memories package, but will share when we get copies.  After that we went to this ride, which has a more tame version and a wilder one. We chose the tame version, which had a very short wait.  You have four people to a capsule (or rocket) and each has responsibilities throughout the mission, which is to get to Mars. Zac LOVED this one as well and just giggled gleefully and so purely that, again, Katy and I were so thankful he was having such a good time. :)

We had dinner plans after Epcot over at the Hollywood Studios park in a diner-themed restaurant. This pic here is just outside the park and yes, that's a hedge.  

Pretty cool, huh? I love my son; he's so photogenic!  I do NOT share this same gift but that's OK with me. I'm just glad he does. :)  Dinner in the park was at a diner-themed restaurant. The decor was kitschy but intriguing, with Disney-labeled televisions showing a loop of scenes from TV shows of the 50s and 60s. Each table had a TV and designs ranged a little from old diners to kitchen setups, I suspect. The menu was a bit limited and the food was just OK, but again service was outstanding and the kids had a great time.  


After dinner Katy's parents took the kids back to the hotel so they could go for a swim while Chad, Mickie, Katy and I stayed behind to hang out without children for a little while.  We had hoped to walk through the Hollywood Studios park and had a couple of options picked out to try, but it was already 9:30 by the time we were at that point and apparently that park closed at 10 tonight.  

So, we decided to head to Magic Kingdom (yes, gluttons, I know) to see what we could do there. That park is open very late, until 1 a.m. most nights and until 3 a.m. one night a week (crazy!).

This pic to the right shows two crazy people waiting in line for a bus to take us to the Magic Kingdom. We waited about 20 minutes after the bus ahead of us was so packed it couldn't take any more. This seems to have been our luck so far, to continually end up waiting at least 20 minutes for every bus we need, all the while watching multiples of every other park bus pass by.

The good thing was, we did eventually land on a bus that carried us off to the "land that causes you to lose faith in humanity" so we could find something intriguing to do.  We entered to some show being displayed on Cinderella's Castle. It was pretty impressive, really.

After that we decided to give Space Mountain a try. While I'd certainly heard of it, and was fairly sure it was created in the 70s, I didn't know much more than that. After a walk through lines that can best be described as "cattle in a stockyard", we got into our cars and headed off into the wild, very dark, yonder. The ride is almost entirely in the dark, with many jerky motions left and right combined at one point with instant runs up and down, big drops and fast, hard turns.  Is it a good coaster?  It's OK. Because you're in the dark you don't know what's going on, but SOME light, when it happened, was enough to make you wonder what was next. Devoid of light, you just accepted it as it occurred.  I don't think I'd let a small child on the ride, though, even if they meet height. It jerks you around so much side to side it'd make me nervous to let anyone but an adult on the ride.

A good day overall but WAY, WAY too late. We started later, which was smart. We stayed out later, which is just too much for us old folks. Tomorrow we are intent, at least in our family, of returning to the hotel fairly early in the evening after a much earlier supper, somehow, some way.  :)