Our Summer Celebration, Day 6, Part 1

[darthmacho]

Date: August 20, 2010
Location: Epcot

The Cast:
DM: Me, Darth Macho, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DW: Dear Wife, The Queen, Celebrating Our 12th Anniversary. (Belatedly)
DD1: Princess, 9yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (That she'll remember. She was just 2yo on her actual first visit.)
DD2: Princess, 6yo, Celebrating 1st Visit (She was born mysteriously 9 months after our last visit…)


The Mid-Vacation, Dirty Laundry Blues

With three parks down, and five days into our trip, I woke up at 7am happy, but a little blue from the realization that we were already half-way through our trip. My only consolation was that we had returns to Epcot and MK, and we still hadn't been to the Studios. Today was going to be an Epcot encore, and we were going to spend the day exploring World Showcase, one of my favorite lands in WDW. Since World Showcase doesn't open until 11am, wakeup call was for 9am, so I decided to fill the time by doing our laundry. The idea was not to go home with ten days worth of dirty clothes, so I grabbed the laundry bag and my resort mug and headed over to the laundry room in neighboring Oak Manor. (I did not realize that Magnolia Terrace had it's own laundry room until we were packing to go home.) While the two loads were washing, I took the time to fill my mug with coffee and do a little exploring. Nothing soothes a pair of sore feet and tired legs like a brisk walk around a mammoth hotel, lol. I got another coffee refill and did a little souvenir shopping at Fulton's while the clothes dried, but soon I was back at the room folding the laundry while the others got ready to head out to Epcot for the day. I believe we used some of our snack credits for muffins and milk before heading out, but I forgot to make note of it.


South of the Border

We decided to start with our favorite pavilion in World Showcase, Mexico. When WDW designed this pavilion, they got everything right. The outside façade is impressive, but the inside is even better. What a wonderful idea to create a perpetually nighttime outdoor market…indoors! Both colorful and festive, it is one of my favorite spots in WDW. First we jumped on the ride, which has always been on my list of underrated attraction, and I thought the addition of the Three Caballeros was an improvement. They kept the best elements of the old ride, and added characters that I like, so I was happy with the new version. After the ride, we did some browsing and exploring. Thankfully the tequila bar hadn't opened yet, because I don't think it would have been a good start to the day to pound down a tequila flight on an empty stomach. Speaking of which, we were hungry, so we decided to see if they were taking walk-ups at San Angel Inn, but they were full-up and had no convenient openings. The quick serve area of Mexico was under construction, so we had to think of something nearby for lunch. We decided to try China which was just two doors down. Sadly, even though it was listed as their scheduled time, there was no sign of Mariachi Cobre when we headed out of Mexico…


Lunch in the Far East

I was excited to eat lunch at Lotus Blossom Café because it allowed my to dine with chopstick for the third day in a row! I had orange chicken and rice, DW had sweet and sour chicken and rice, and I'm not sure what the kids had exactly, but they love white rice so they ate mostly that. Critics might say that the food in China isn't "authentic" and is what you can get at any Chinese takeout place, but I feel that doesn't speak for the fact that the food wad delicious. I don't expect them to have authentic Chinese dishes, just good food, and I was happy with it.


Kidcot

After lunching in China, we decided to go back to Mexico and get the kids each a mask to decorate at all of the kidcot stations for each country. In retrospect, I guess I would have preferred to keep them occupied with the Kim Possible mission instead, because it looked like it was a lot more fun, but the kids were happy, and we have something to look forward to for next time, assuming they keep it. In any case, when we returned to Mexico to start their project, we were lucky enough to catch a few songs from Mariachi Cobre! They were wonderful, as usual, and my DDs got to take a picture with them, but the best part was when some tourist insisted on conducting for them, and they humored him, even though he clearly didn't have a clue what he was doing. Haha. I could tell that one of the musicians was a little annoyed, but he went along with it anyway.

After the music, and the masks, we headed over to Norway to continue our journey around World Showcase.

Next time...

[Melanie]

Only two countries? Come on Darth!!!

[darthmacho]

Only two countries? Come on Darth!!!

That's exactly what I was saying at this point in the day.I was determined to get through all of WS and this was our last chance since this was our last Epcot day. In 2003 we never made it to UK or Canada, and I regretted that deeply.
My wife had spent so long shopping in Mexico, and between stopping for lunch and doing Kidcot, I feared we wouldn't make it all the way.

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3, and find out if we made it!

[faline]

Laundry done? Check! Time for some Epcot fun? Check! Good start! Now tell us the rest of the story!

[WDWdriver]

Another nice report. Thanks.

[RedSoxFan]

Sounds good. Can't wait to hear if you made it through all the countries!!

[T-Belle]

nice report

[vizsla]

thanks for the report.

[yjgirl32]

I am so glad I am reading your reports- it is helping to keep my mind off leaving in a couple of weeks for our trip. I am really enjoying reading your reports. Thanks for sharing.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Thanks for the report, we did a 10 day trip last time and boy your feet and legs will know it after about 7 days

[princessgirls]

Your a good man to go and do the laundry!!! Came home with 47 pounds of dirty clothes from our December trip (weighed suitcase at Bell Services).

Only 2 countries...Darth you are falling behind!

Hope you enjoyed a in Mexico!!

Julie

[Mousefever]

Yes, but did you hit the margarita stand during the Mexico Pavilion reprise?

Amy

[SBETigg]

I love Mexico, too! And eating with chopsticks (fun!). I'm not sure I've ever had authentic Chinese cuisine. I think you really have to go to China for that. Even in various Chinatowns around big cities, I've only managed Americanized Chinese food (but maybe I'm not going to the right places). I love it anyway. Our trip goal was to not have to do laundry (and we paid the price in extra luggage later). So, good call.

[disneymomma2010]

Your a good man to go and do the laundry!!!

Julie

Took the words right out of my mouth! Good man! Last year i had to do the laundry while husband and kids went to the pool

[DisneyorBust]

Spending a lot of time in the World Showcase is the way to go! Glad to read that you got to see Mariachi Cobre, aren't they great? I'm betting that you succeed on your "World" tour, can't wait to find out!

[KylesMom]

I agree, good man at hitting the laundry chores while the girls were sleeping. I did one load while on our trip, and that was enough for me (and my spare change, which was non-existent when I finished)!

As the song says, "you've got a long way to go and a short time to get there" to complete your WS tour. Hmmm, with the girls doing KidCot I wonder if you'll be able to make it?! Looking forward to seeing if you can complete this mission!

[Joannelet]

The girls will love the Kim Possible in Epcot next time around. I hope too that they keep it for I want to finish the countries that way. It is a lot of fun.