The bus arrived quickly and we were soon waiting in line for the gates to open. Our dear American cousins still struggle somewhat with the concept of queuing and we were pushed and jostled as others tried to cut in. To us Brits this is one of the worst possible sins, so as we finally made it into the park we were a little wound up. However, this helped our foot speed as we charged towards Test Track. Fast passes were in short supply. Again... But we bagged ones for a 5-6pm return time. Bear in mind this was about 15 minutes after the park had opened, so there will be a lot of disappointed people behind us. The trouble stems from these new Magic Bands which allow you to pre-book your fast passes. This leaves very few in the park for other folks. Anyway, we joined the Stand By queue which had a posted wait time of 20 minutes but we were inside in 10! Wahoo! We got shown to our workstation and designed our car and then headed onto the ride vehicle to 'test it out'. This bit hadn't changed much, but had been improved in terms of integrating the ride with your vehicle design. Pity it was a bit broken and unreliable at displaying how well your car design did. A few gremlins to iron out. However, all in all, a great ride we all enjoyed.
Mrs B is a thrill seeker and really wanted to ride Mission: SPACE. I am not a thrill seeker, but wanted to get my food festival passport, so we split up. Master B came with me - he didn't like the sound of the ride. We met up a little while later with Mrs B saying how awesome it was and me and my boy thanking the gods we didn't go anywhere near it!
Next we decided to head to the Seas to do the Nemo rides. First up was The Seas With Nemo & Friends which is a continuous loader (where ride vehicles follow on closely on a conveyor belt so people can be continually loaded) so the line moved quickly. It's a fun little ride, nothing amazing, but there is a great bit at the end where Nemo and friends look like they are swimming in a tank of real fish. We then to Turtle Talk With Crush. It was quite a wait, as it is a theatre presentation. As the show takes about 15 minutes it can be a long old delay. We waited about 25 minutes I guess, but it's a great show and well worth it. I've included a video from last time we went:
I didn't take any video this time, and of course, that meant that when children were asked for questions Master B was picked by Crush ("The little dude with the dark shell and the browny noggin"). Master B asked how many teeth a turtle has. I think this stumped our turtle friend, as he kind-of avoided the question, but Master B was happy anyway! Well, I say 'happy', he didn't hear the answer because of some noisy kids next to him!
We moved to the Land pavilion next and rode Living With The Land. You take a small boat and go on a journey where you are told about how man has used (and abused) the world around for food. You then get to go through the greenhouses where Epcot and USDA scientists are researching more efficient ways to harvest food. This is the bit I like best. After the ride I booked tickets for us all on a tour around the 'backstage' of the greenhouses. More on this later...
Master B had been asking about doing Spaceship Earth pretty much since we entered the park as it's one of his favourites. We gave in, despite Mrs B's plan saying it would be really quiet when we left the park, and said we would ride it now. Big mistake for two reasons. Firstly, it was a 15-20 minute queue, and the queue was hot and right in the sunshine. Secondly, we were hungry. Shouldn't do Disney on an empty stomach. Leads to arguments and fatigue. Still, you learn from your mistakes! The ride itself is a continuous loader and Dame Judi Dench is our narrator as we head back in time and chart man's ascent through invention and progress to where we are today. It's a lot of moving waxworks, but there's lots of information and a couple of places where you can shut your eyes in the darkness and grab 40 winks!
Food! We headed to the World Showcase in order to try out some of the fare on offer from the Food & Wine Festival which runs every year at this time. We headed for Canada and some delicious fillet steak and mushrooms washed down with a cold, cold bottle of water! It was delicious! This was not what Master B wanted to we bought some Canadian Potato Chips (crisps!) from another stall and he happily destroyed those.
By now it was really hot and sunny. Whereas yesterday it was hot and cloudy, today the sun was burning. It was 89 degrees F and it was like walking around in an oven. We needed somewhere to cool off, so we headed to Mexico and another favourite The Three Caballeros ride starring family favourite Donald Duck. It was lovely and cool in there, and with a short wait, we were on a lazy river watching Donald's zany tour of Mexico. The thrills per second aren't high, but we enjoyed it. In fact, I was all for staying in Mexico until nightfall! However, Mrs B insisted we brave the sunshine and move on as it was nearly time for our tour of the greenhouses. But she promised us a treat on the way we would like...
We stopped off at Club Cool. Boy we were hot and me and Master B were flagging. Inside Club Cool are free samples of different Coke products from around the world. Brilliant! I tried them all and felt much refreshed! Mrs B and Master B drank a load of the gingery product from Mozambique. We washed the sticky soda down with water from a nearby fountain and felt much revived. Mrs B really came through on knowing about this hidden pit stop destination, and we love her for it!
It was time for our Behind The Seeds tour and one of the interns took us into the greenhouses and explained about the work scientists were doing. It lasted over an hour and I really enjoyed it. It was fascinating to see the work that goes on and how they are experimenting with natural pest controls, more efficient crop yields and the like. Mrs B smiled and nodded graciously and Master B was bored witless! Still, this was my thing and I think it was well worth the $20 admission per person.
We had booked a restaurant in Germany so it was back out into the furnace of the Florida heat to make our way there. We planned on taking the little boat that goes across the lake, but the tour had over-run and were wouldn't have made it in time. At this point, me and Master B had had enough and we complained loudly we wanted to go home. Mrs B looked disappointed as she had been looking forward to dinner, so we put on a brave face and walked to the restaurant. Master B had decided against a hat in the morning as the weather was predicted to be cloudy and rainy, and he didn't like any of the sun hats in the park (mostly Disney Princesses on them), so he and I were sharing mine (kids eh!). By the time we reached the Biergarten Restaurant I had a meltdown. Literally. I'm sorry to say I had a paddy and insisted I was too hot and wanted to go home. Mrs B (God bless her) calmed me down and said we should eat something. Inside the restaurant it was - well - magical. It was really was great. The tables are tiered and centered around a stage. The show time was about a half hour away, so we had loads of time to visit the buffet and eat our fill of soup, meat, veg and rolls. Everything was delicious, all washed down with iced water and soda (too hot for beer for me!). The show then started and it was fun - with a (very American) Umpa band playing some classic German tunes on different traditional instruments. It was good stuff.
I did feel better after eating, but losing my sun hat to the boy had taken its toll and I was feeling a bit odd. Luckily the sun was sinking low, so there was a load of shade, although it was still hot. We still had those Fast passes for Test Track, and after a family conference, Mrs B and Master Br headed of there whilst I looked one of my favourite shops Mouse Gear. It has loads of merchandise and I happily wandered around in the air conditioning looking at their wares. Mrs B and Master B returned from their ride and we headed out - pointing out to Master B the zero queue on Spaceship Earth - had he been more patient to wait! But, hey, it didn't matter. He really wanted to do the ride, so what the hey!
On returning to Saratoga Springs we inquired as to whether we could get magic bands now. Our hotel had begun issuing them, and we had missed them by a couple of days. Sadly, we couldn't, which was a bit mean. But nevermind. We were all exhausted and all pretty much collapsed in our room!
In summary, we made some mistakes. Firstly, we were too ambitious in what we thought we could do. The parks are more crowded than they were two years ago and combined with the lack of Fast Passes on popular rides, this is slowing us down. As is the heat. Secondly, we didn't eat when we should have done. We need to not be slaves to 'the plan', but look at the weather, crowds and hunger levels and adapt to those. Lesson Learnt!
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