Dsnygirl
09-20-2011, 05:56 AM
Tuesday, August 23 -
Today was another Epcot day... but NOT an early start, after such a late night!! We missed out on FP's for Soarin', so we just decided to wait in line... it really wasn't bad, though... we got on in under an hour, and were soaring over California happily. I just LOVE this ride. :cloud9: We DID get FP's for TT for later, though... phew!!
From Soarin' we headed to Norway for some breakfast... we were STARVING, and Norway is our breakfast spot. I'm embarrassed to say what all we got, but hey... this is Intercot, I know you all understand. So... 3 cloudberry horns, a cinnamon roll, a cherry danish and a fruit creme puff. :blush: Yes, for 4 people. Quiet.
After our breakfast of champions, we started around World Showcase... we were determined to do more in some of the countries we hadn't spent a lot of time in, and it was really fun! My girls love China, but we'd never done the movie, and we really enjoyed it, and not because it was cool in there, either. ;) Then we did some shopping and found some great gifts for our friends back home who were watching our critters while we were gone, and a few things for ourselves... of course... and then it was on to Germany, after some shopping at The Outpost. We found the Beads for Life kiosk and got some lovely bracelets and anklets... what a great idea, and one I can really get into supporting. And they're beautiful!!
Okay, on to Germany... first, though, we had to [finally] stop in Karmel Kuche... after reading so much about how great the caramels are here, we couldn't resist. And wow -- am I glad we didn't -- we got one square of pure caramel, one covered in milk chocolate, and thought we'd died and gone to heaven!! They were marvelous... we will definitely be back!! We stopped and enjoyed the miniature trains, and then headed for some shopping in Italy. I love the Italian glass jewelry, and added some earrings to my collection. :)
Then it was on to Japan for a brief stop, and into Morocco. It was here that we first heard about the earthquake that had taken place at home... talk about shocking!! I checked in to Facebook to see what was going on, and all I saw were posts about the earth shaking, etc. With Hurrican Irene now hurtling towards us, we were beginning to wonder just what was going on this trip!! Thankfully, no one we knew was affected, and the news coming across the wire didn't seem to be too bad, but still... a bit scary to be hearing about from 1000 miles away!
Our girls LOVE Morocco... they found plenty here to drool over, and to come back for later... I wanted to eat lunch at the Tangerine Cafe, but we were still too full from a late bkfst and caramels, so it was skipped. :(
From here, we headed to France... I've always wanted to see the movie, and today was to be the day! We enjoyed the cool of the pre-show room, as well as being off our feet... and after a short wait, we were in. Talk about a wonderful movie... the music is fantastic, and the scenery is breathtaking! I could have gone back for sure to see it again, and wanted to, but it wasn't it the cards for this trip. Next time, though... :thumbsup:
Once out of the theatre, we found the skies had opened and it was POURING out... cats, dogs and small animals, I think. Of course, our ponchos that we had brought from home so carefully were back in our room... but no worries... they sold Disney ones (so much better than plain old WalMart ones, after all Mickey is on them... :mickey:) and after waiting for about 20 minutes and seeing no change in the weather, we caved and got some. $32 poorer but much drier than we would have been, we were able to leave and make our way to Canada -- we wanted to see O Canada and shop a bit before heading back to France for dinner. (We had a good hour and a half before our ressie, and as scintillating as the French gift shop was, it wouldn't have been 90 minutes later...)
So... drippy and wet, we arrived in Canada... and were shepherded right into the movie, which then made us FREEZING!! We felt we fit right into the snowy scenes!! ;) Love Martin Short, though, and the whole movie itself... one of our favorite things to do. Then it was time for a bit of shopping, and as the rains had slowed to mere sprinkles, we were happy to slowly make our way back to France.
Once we got there, the hostess was able to get us right in to a table, even though we were a bit early... awesome! And we were in time to see Remy... he is too adorable, and because we'd been in a bit of a rush, we'd forgotten about him and were surprised when he arrived at our table. Perfect!! Dinner was delicious, and our waiter was wonderful... I could have listened to his accent all afternoon. The only part we weren't crazy about was the pricing... for the amount of food you get, the prices were crazy high... not that we were paying them, as we had free dining and all... but I did order off the "a la carte" menu, so a few of my items were "off the plan", and add to that the "recommended" 20% tip for a $240 dinner?? Yikes. Our "free dinner" ended up being almost $70, which seems a bit crazy, for what we got. But again... it's Disney, it happens... and the food WAS good. So.
After dinner, we decided to head for Captain EO... I hadn't seen it since I was 19, and couldn't wait... my DH had seen it, but was lukewarm on the whole idea, and my girls had really no idea what to expect. So, I was really the ringleader on this... but didn't care! I couldn't wait!! (Did I mention that??) Anyway... my girls LOVED it, my DH reluctantly said it was good and I declared my intention to see it again before we left (but never did...).
As we left Captain EO, I got a message from a friend we'd been trying to hook up with... another Intercotee on here we'd been friends with for years was down during part of our trip, and we'd yet to find each other. Well, he and his sons were in Epcot and he'd seen my FB post about being at Captain EO... so we hooked up for some hello's at the fountain and it was SO great to catch up, even for a short while.
From there, it was off to use our FP's for TT... we got stuck on the track for awhile and I was getting a bit worried about getting off in time for Illuminations... but whatever was wrong got fixed, and we were off & running to finish the course. Because whatever was going on left us short on time to get to World Showcase, we ended up watching Illuminations from a spot I'd found I loved by accident on a different trip, and had wanted to share with my family. We usually watch from England, or Norway - even Japan - but they'd never seen the fireworks from right after crossing the bridge to the World Showcase. It's such a great spot, and one I think a lot of people miss, even though it seems like you wouldn't. Illuminations are our favorite fireworks, and they didn't disappoint... they were wonderful, as usual.
From there, we took a trip through MouseGear, and a ride on SE, before heading back to the resort... we were tired after a day with no breaks, and definitely ready for some sleep!!
Link to part 7 - http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=2210038#post2210038
Today was another Epcot day... but NOT an early start, after such a late night!! We missed out on FP's for Soarin', so we just decided to wait in line... it really wasn't bad, though... we got on in under an hour, and were soaring over California happily. I just LOVE this ride. :cloud9: We DID get FP's for TT for later, though... phew!!
From Soarin' we headed to Norway for some breakfast... we were STARVING, and Norway is our breakfast spot. I'm embarrassed to say what all we got, but hey... this is Intercot, I know you all understand. So... 3 cloudberry horns, a cinnamon roll, a cherry danish and a fruit creme puff. :blush: Yes, for 4 people. Quiet.
After our breakfast of champions, we started around World Showcase... we were determined to do more in some of the countries we hadn't spent a lot of time in, and it was really fun! My girls love China, but we'd never done the movie, and we really enjoyed it, and not because it was cool in there, either. ;) Then we did some shopping and found some great gifts for our friends back home who were watching our critters while we were gone, and a few things for ourselves... of course... and then it was on to Germany, after some shopping at The Outpost. We found the Beads for Life kiosk and got some lovely bracelets and anklets... what a great idea, and one I can really get into supporting. And they're beautiful!!
Okay, on to Germany... first, though, we had to [finally] stop in Karmel Kuche... after reading so much about how great the caramels are here, we couldn't resist. And wow -- am I glad we didn't -- we got one square of pure caramel, one covered in milk chocolate, and thought we'd died and gone to heaven!! They were marvelous... we will definitely be back!! We stopped and enjoyed the miniature trains, and then headed for some shopping in Italy. I love the Italian glass jewelry, and added some earrings to my collection. :)
Then it was on to Japan for a brief stop, and into Morocco. It was here that we first heard about the earthquake that had taken place at home... talk about shocking!! I checked in to Facebook to see what was going on, and all I saw were posts about the earth shaking, etc. With Hurrican Irene now hurtling towards us, we were beginning to wonder just what was going on this trip!! Thankfully, no one we knew was affected, and the news coming across the wire didn't seem to be too bad, but still... a bit scary to be hearing about from 1000 miles away!
Our girls LOVE Morocco... they found plenty here to drool over, and to come back for later... I wanted to eat lunch at the Tangerine Cafe, but we were still too full from a late bkfst and caramels, so it was skipped. :(
From here, we headed to France... I've always wanted to see the movie, and today was to be the day! We enjoyed the cool of the pre-show room, as well as being off our feet... and after a short wait, we were in. Talk about a wonderful movie... the music is fantastic, and the scenery is breathtaking! I could have gone back for sure to see it again, and wanted to, but it wasn't it the cards for this trip. Next time, though... :thumbsup:
Once out of the theatre, we found the skies had opened and it was POURING out... cats, dogs and small animals, I think. Of course, our ponchos that we had brought from home so carefully were back in our room... but no worries... they sold Disney ones (so much better than plain old WalMart ones, after all Mickey is on them... :mickey:) and after waiting for about 20 minutes and seeing no change in the weather, we caved and got some. $32 poorer but much drier than we would have been, we were able to leave and make our way to Canada -- we wanted to see O Canada and shop a bit before heading back to France for dinner. (We had a good hour and a half before our ressie, and as scintillating as the French gift shop was, it wouldn't have been 90 minutes later...)
So... drippy and wet, we arrived in Canada... and were shepherded right into the movie, which then made us FREEZING!! We felt we fit right into the snowy scenes!! ;) Love Martin Short, though, and the whole movie itself... one of our favorite things to do. Then it was time for a bit of shopping, and as the rains had slowed to mere sprinkles, we were happy to slowly make our way back to France.
Once we got there, the hostess was able to get us right in to a table, even though we were a bit early... awesome! And we were in time to see Remy... he is too adorable, and because we'd been in a bit of a rush, we'd forgotten about him and were surprised when he arrived at our table. Perfect!! Dinner was delicious, and our waiter was wonderful... I could have listened to his accent all afternoon. The only part we weren't crazy about was the pricing... for the amount of food you get, the prices were crazy high... not that we were paying them, as we had free dining and all... but I did order off the "a la carte" menu, so a few of my items were "off the plan", and add to that the "recommended" 20% tip for a $240 dinner?? Yikes. Our "free dinner" ended up being almost $70, which seems a bit crazy, for what we got. But again... it's Disney, it happens... and the food WAS good. So.
After dinner, we decided to head for Captain EO... I hadn't seen it since I was 19, and couldn't wait... my DH had seen it, but was lukewarm on the whole idea, and my girls had really no idea what to expect. So, I was really the ringleader on this... but didn't care! I couldn't wait!! (Did I mention that??) Anyway... my girls LOVED it, my DH reluctantly said it was good and I declared my intention to see it again before we left (but never did...).
As we left Captain EO, I got a message from a friend we'd been trying to hook up with... another Intercotee on here we'd been friends with for years was down during part of our trip, and we'd yet to find each other. Well, he and his sons were in Epcot and he'd seen my FB post about being at Captain EO... so we hooked up for some hello's at the fountain and it was SO great to catch up, even for a short while.
From there, it was off to use our FP's for TT... we got stuck on the track for awhile and I was getting a bit worried about getting off in time for Illuminations... but whatever was wrong got fixed, and we were off & running to finish the course. Because whatever was going on left us short on time to get to World Showcase, we ended up watching Illuminations from a spot I'd found I loved by accident on a different trip, and had wanted to share with my family. We usually watch from England, or Norway - even Japan - but they'd never seen the fireworks from right after crossing the bridge to the World Showcase. It's such a great spot, and one I think a lot of people miss, even though it seems like you wouldn't. Illuminations are our favorite fireworks, and they didn't disappoint... they were wonderful, as usual.
From there, we took a trip through MouseGear, and a ride on SE, before heading back to the resort... we were tired after a day with no breaks, and definitely ready for some sleep!!
Link to part 7 - http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=2210038#post2210038