Day 20 -- Orlando, Florida
Tuesday 7/17/2001
Excursion: Epcot Center and Magic Kingdom
We woke up early and ate breakfast in the trailer. Today we wanted to visit two Disney parks in the same day; one in the morning, take a break in the middle and then do another in the evening. We did not pack a lunch because we planned to come back to the trailer for that. Weather looked nice so we did not pack any rain gear either.
The first visit was to Epcot Center. Karl got to ride in the front of the monorail with the driver. He liked that. There is room for four passengers up there. And anyone can ride with the driver. It is just a matter of being there first. There was an early bird special at Epcot, allowing guests of Disney to arrive one hour before the public. One of the rides we missed the last time was the big Test Track. We all rushed there upon arrival to get Fast Pass tickets, in case the line was too long. The tickets suggested we come back in THREE HOURS. Yet, the park had only been open for 30 minutes and not even to the public...
Karl and Lilly wanted to do some other things before that, but myself, Isabella and Erik felt like trying the line for the Test Track. It turned out to not be too long. Even though the stand-by sign (for those without Fast Pass) said 45 minutes wait, they got to board their test car within 15 minutes of entering the line. That felt strange, especially since the Fast Pass tickets suggested that the soonest we should be back was three hours later. The ride was very fun and definitely worth this extra trip to Epcot. In fact, it was so fun that we decided to go straight back into the line and ride again. This time it took a lot more than 15 minutes. It took more like 40 minutes for the same length of line. We suspect that this is because they started to fill up the cars with holders of Fast Pass tickets. Tip: If you really want to ride the Test Track, get there on an early bird morning, grab a Fast Pass ticket and immediately get into line (not consuming your Fast Pass ticket).
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After the second ride we walked around a bit. We wanted to try out another ride, but the line was long and the first part of it was in the sun. By now it had started to get very warm. We walked around in a few stores and then visited the Innovations area, where they had many interactive kids games. The kids tried out a number of them and liked them. The nice thing with these games is that, unlike traditional computer games where you sit and just move your fingers, you had to move your body such as jump around or ride an exercise bicyle through a virtual track. They also had multi-user tag games, etc. We visited a few stores looking for souvenirs. We took a break under the large golf-ball and ate a little snack in the shade while watching people in line.
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We had not seen Lilly and wondered how we would find her. We decided to walk
back over to the Test Track in time for the time-slot given to us on our Fast
Pass tickets. Lilly was right there with Karl!! We took the Fast Pass line
directly into the cars and rode in one car together; each car can take six
passengers. It was very fun.
Only slight problem was that all cars stalled for a few
minutes while we were inside the dome, waiting to go through the heat tunnel.
But we were not too uncomfortable, sitting down in a cool car. As we got out of
the actual ride, the kids tried out interactive test rides in a little demo
area. They have a car show-room there, too, with new models from GM. There is
also a neat auto souvenir shop after the show-room, with all brands of GM
offering T-shirts, hats, jackets, mugs, etc. The prices were less than
inviting.
We visited the Mouse Gear shop after that, where you can find lots of Disney souvenirs. We browsed around there for almost an hour. All the kids got presents. Per got two T-shirts. It was now around 1pm and we took the mono-rail and bus back home to the campground, where we at a late lunch. We had just finished the meal when the rain started. In a matter of minutes, the outside temperature dropped by more than 10 degrees. With some luck, this rain will be done over by the time we're ready to do our evening tour. The kids watched a movie and we all napped after that, to recharge our batteries a bit.
The rain eventually stopped and we prepared a late dinner. We bbq:d some chicken and a few vegetables. It tasted very good. But we were not ready to leave the trailer until after 8pm. At that point we were not sure if we'd make it in time for the 9pm parade. We decided to walk from the bus-stop to the campground Marina. That was a good choice because we just got onto a boat leaving for the Magic Kingdom as we arrived on the pier. It was comfortably warm outside.
When we arrived at the Magic Kingdom the 9pm parade was already underway. We stood at the start of Main Street USA and watched the floats go by. It is a very nice show. The streets were very crowded. Once the parade was over, a lot of people started leaving the park. Per was together with Erik and Isabella, while Lilly and Karl had gone off to do their own things. We boarded the steam train at the main station. We decided to try and sit in the front of the train. With the muggy weather, this turned out to be a mistake. We ended up breathing the coal fumes from the locomotive. Tip: Sitting in front of the train is not as cool as it may sound. Our goal was to get to Splash Mountain and, perhaps, get Speed Pass:es to ride. When we got there, the Speed Pass boths had been deactivated and all you could do was to go into the regular line. The sign said 90 minute wait, but we were seated in our raft within 5 minutes of getting into the line. The ride was fun. That it was dark outside made it more fun. When we got down we decided to try and ride it once again, hoping the line was short. But it wasn't. Now tons of people arrived in the Fast Pass lane and that stalled the Stand-by line. Meanwhile, the 10pm fireworks went off. We did not see a single thing from inside the building, we could only hear it; a real pitty.
After that we took the train to Space Mountain, which we managed to ride once before we had to run back to meet Lilly and Karl at our rendezvous point. The parade had not yet started. We on the little circle by the statue on front of the castle. We found Lilly sitting there with Karl in a stroller, looking content. We had a great view of the parade. The parade itself is just fantastic.
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When the parade was over Lilly wanted to stop for an Ice Cream along Main Street. But it was after 11pm and everything was closed, or nearly anyway. All she could find was some chocolate candy. We ate them on the boat back to the campground. They tasted good. We went to bed after midnight.