We were still at Jim's mom's house, so we got up and spent a little time with his mom and stepdad before heading off to WDW. We left their house (in Palmetto - about 2 hrs. west of Orlando) around 10:45 A.M. We stopped at a McDonalds at Exit 55 (Andrew was in charge of remembering the exit #) so that we had food in our bellies already when we got there. We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge around 12:30 and were thrilled to be back there. It was very surreal to be back after only 13 months. While Jim parked the car and checked us in, the boys and I went right to work finding Hidden Mickeys. We then went up to our room (#5005 facing in towards the courtyard/pool) and I got us all unpacked. Andrew chose the top bunk this year since he was now old enough, so Matthew got the bottom bunk by default.
(It was actually a little chilly, so we put on long pants and we brought long sleeves with us, which we ended up needing around 7:30pm.)
We were then ready to hit the parks! We hopped a Disney Bus and went to Epcot first. We tooled around the Future World after Jim got our fastpasses for Test Track (Jim's favorite ride). We headed right over to the Big Golf Ball (Spaceship Earth) and walked right on. Our whole family enjoys this ride and it surprises me that the boys ask to go on it over and over. We then went on the Universe of Energy Ride (nicknamed the Ellen/Dinosaur ride). The boys enjoy the humor and the dinos on that ride (as long as Andrew doesn't get spit on by a dino). Next we tried out some Colas in the Club Cool area, but then bypassed the Character Connection area because of a long line. We later regretted this decision because we never got back there. Lesson learned!
We kept on walking to the other side of the Future World and went to the Imagination Pavilion because the boys love the Figment ride - they both got Plush Figments in the store & picked up new autograph books. Next came the Living Seas Pavilion. We waited in line for the new Nemo ride (about 20 minutes). We were very impressed with the theming on this ride and the technology during the ride of real fish incorporated withthe characters. The boys went into the Nemo area where they got their pictures taken inside Bruce the Shark. We were very lucky and then walked right into "Turtle Talk with Crush" without any wait. The boys sat down front and Matthew wanted to ask a question ("how far have you ever migrated?"), but he didn't get chosen. Darn! We still really love this attraction and since we missed it last year, it was great to see it again. We decided to go into the Land Pavilion since the boys had never been in there and went on the Living with the Land attraction. We saw some really awesome vegetables in there!
Time to go to the World Showcase since we had dinner reservations in the UK area. We stopped in Canada to poke around and found 2 hidden Mickeys. A castmember helped us find one in the store that wasn't in our Hidden Mickey book, so that was fun. We walked around the UK area and got pictures taken with Tigger & Pooh in the toy store. They were our first characters of the trip! It was then 7pm, so off to the Rose & Crown Dinner Room - we got a great seat outside and had a really nice waiter who had the best English accent. We enjoyed our meals, but especially enjoyed our drinks. I had a Glo Tini - a blue Martini with a glowing plastic ice cube inside - while Jim had a Half & Half Lager. The boys loved that their plates were shaped like a Mickey head. After dinner we went back to Test Track and used our Fast Passes. We really love that ride and it was great that we could put the Test Track picture on our photopass. I really hope they incorporate this into *all* of the ride photos in the future.
Time to go back to the hotel! We bought some dessert and refillable hotel mugs for all 4 of us. We certainly got our money's worth with those things since we filled them, at least, twice a day for each of us. Myself and the boys all wrote in our journals and Andrew was thrilled to find Power Rangers SPD on Toon Disney (we don't get this channel at home). Everyone was tuckered out and sound asleep by 11pm.
From Andrew's journal - Favorite Part of The Living Seas was seeing Nemo hiding on the new ride. Favorite part of "The Land" was the big Mickey head Pumpkins. Favorite part about the Universe of Energy Pavilion was not getting spit on by the Apatosaurus.
From Matthew's Journal - Favortie Part of The Living Seas was Bruce's Shark Challenge and Turtle Talk. Favorite part of The Land was seeing the alligators in the tanks. Favorite part of Universe of Energy was seeing the dinosaurs and when Ellen used the flashlighs like airport directing things.
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