Wilderness Lodge Holiday - Part Two

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Today, we are heading to Epcot. After 20 minutes on the bus, we've only made it as far as the second resort. As we get to the entrance of the park, we are held up again. I can see flashing lights, a tow truck and a person in the road waving vehicles to the left. I can only surmise there is some sort of traffic incident. As we slowly inch our way forward, I see a vehicle with markings indicating it is a "Disney Transportation Lead" so surmise that whatever is going on probably involves a Disney bus. There are a couple of buses on the side of the road with more vehicles pulled off the road. We see an ambulance and as we finally get past the scene, we see a group of people standing on the grass. They appear to be bus passengers that have gotten off their bus, or buses. (We later learn that this incident was an accident involving two Disney buses with one rear ending the other.)

It takes a long time to get into the park on this day. I definitely selected the wrong security line. Several people in front of me have backpacks that are large enough for me to take everything I need for a weekend stay somewhere. The security person is being especially thorough. The person in front of me is pushing a stroller. I assumed he had a child with him but, nope, his stroller is loaded with a number of backpacks. Apparently, his family left him with all of their backpacks so he is going through security with all of them. Once I am finally through security, I can't locate my husband. He waited so long between security and the park entrance that he figured I had already gone into the park so entered. Then, as I entered the annual passholder entrance, I found two parties who didn't know how to work the machines to enter - must have been new passholders.

Once I finally meet up with my husband, we head over to Living with the Seas which is our first fastpass of the day. Fastpass here was totally unnecessary as it was a walkon. We have some time before our Living with the Land fastpass so we go on Figment which is also a walkon and then view the Pixar shorts which are also walkons. We head over to Living with the Land and enter the fastpass line. The man in front of us begins a conversation. He is on his own as his family needed to return home the day before. My husband notices a city name on his shirt and asks which state he is from. He lives in the state we used to live in. I say I have a good friend who lives in his city and name her. It turns out he knows my friend and her entire family quite well!! Definitely, a small world moment!!

We have some time before our Test Track fastpass so decide to go to Tutto Gusto. We take the boat across to Morocco and walk over to Italy. There, we have drinks at share a cheese and bread plate.

We decide not to stay in Epcot so head out of the park. We take the monorail to the Transportation Center, switch to the resort monorail which we take to the Contemporary and then boat from there to Wilderness Lodge.

After relaxing in our room - I ended up taking a nap - and missed seeing the deer that wandered around behind our room, we went back to the boat and traveled once more to the Contemporary. We walked over to Bay Lake Tower and went to Top of the World. We had a flatbread and, later, nachos. We thought about staying indoor there to watch the fireworks but, in the end, decided to view them from the outside deck. This was a party night so the fireworks were spectacular!!

When the fireworks ended, we reversed course - taking a boat back from the Contemporary to Wilderness Lodge.