Orlando Adventures - Day 5

Click on the photo to be taken to the first in the set of today's photos.

With the whole gang in town now we made an effort to go to the parks all together today. Here are the numbers, you do the math: 13 children (which includes 2 babies), 10 adults. Anybody who has been to a Disney park with more than 8 people are now shaking their heads in bewilderment and pity. We decided on Epcot for it's diversity and larger spaces. In hindsight, I think that was a mistake. Many individuals in the group enjoy Epcot for the fun Future World provides for the kids and the eye candy in World Showcase. But the way the group functioned as a whole, there was more interest in riding rides, which isn't exactly the way Epcot is set up. I think Magic Kingdom would have been a better choice. Also, keeping track of kids through Inoventions is a nightmare. And "a group of 23 in a souvenir shop" could replace the phrase "bull in a china shop."

But all was not entirely bad or crazy. We did have fun too! So let's get on with that part...

Again, the first ride of the day was Space Ship Earth. And again, the computer on our car didn't work on the way down. My only purpose in life right now is to ride that dang ride and have it function perfectly for me. By the way, one of the coolest things about that ride is the smells. When you enter the burning library you smell fire. Right after that you enter a scene with incense and you smell incense. I love the little touches like that. They should have more smells on that ride. And I think this is becoming Adam's favorite ride in Epcot. He wanted to ride it again before we left and never got the chance. I told him if he gets ready fast enough in the morning then we can make a trip very first thing tomorrow just to ride it again.

Then we went to the Energy pavilion where I almost fell asleep on that ride. It wasn't entirely boring...just relaxing. I've also learned the sign language for "bored" as Tammie kept signing it to me the entire ride.

We then went to Mexico in World Showcase for lunch then rode the boat ride there. I'm still impressed with that area and would love to spend more time there. In fact, that's pretty much my theme when it comes to World Showcase. And I've learned now that when I do this again we should spend a day in Future World and a day in World Showcase. Don't try to do both in one day. We just can't get it done in a sufficient manner.

After that we rode Maelstrom in Norway.



By this time our Fast Passes for Soarin' were mature and we headed across the park to ride it. We had some first time riders with us and that is always a treat. Some people in our group then wanted to go to see the Living Seas. We had already seen it enough and wanted to go see parts of World Showcase we missed last time. So this is where we split off from the pack.

This time instead of starting on the left in Mexico we went straight for the right with Canada and watched the circle vision movie O Canada. Good movie, nice area, I'd like to spend more time there.

Then we continued on through the United Kingdom, and really only stopped there to use the restrooms. Nice area, I'd like to spend more time there.



On to France, our main destination in what time we had to do this part of the park. We (I) really wanted to make it to the pastry shop. We all got a little treat and enjoyed the faux French streets.

Then we made it to Morocco to cancel our dinner reservations (long story). Nice area, I'd like to spend more time there.

The time of rejoining the family was getting close and we also needed to get back to China to buy a souvenir David had his eye on. So we headed straight there and only stopped a few times for photo ops. Nice areas, I'd like to spend more time in all of them.



In China we saw some acrobats but the crowd that was there was already too thick for me to be able to get a good view for pictures. If we have the opportunity again I'd save a spot just to watch that. Incredible skill. I'd like to spend more time there.

Then it was on to Mission Space and Test Track. This time I rode Mission Space on the Green team (that's the tamer version of the ride without the spinning). Much better. It was still very fun but didn't have the nausea afterward. Test Track was also really fun.

By this time it was dinner and nobody could decide if we were going to stay in the park and eat or go off-site. After much deliberation it was decided to go off-site so we left the park...much to Adam's dismay. We had to go home first though to drop off some tired babies. But this turned out to be our final stop. The combination of hunger and fatigue had warn others to the point of just staying home and getting dinner there. Which turned out to be a really good choice. We've been playing hard and staying up late. Tonight we'll have the opportunity of getting to bed at a more reasonable time to better charge our batteries.

We've also decided that tomorrow we're back on our own.