Vacation, Day 5

Okay, so I lied about the whole "super special two posts in one day!" thing. We had technical difficulties upon arriving in Disney; namely, the problem was that I couldn't locate an internet cord that was supposed to be in the closet. Problem solved, so today - really! - you will get at least two super exciting, picture-and-drama-filled posts about our second (and third) day in Disney World. Warning: this one is a long one! Feel free to skip along.

After departing our golf resort yesterday morning, we set out in search of some real food. My parents have some strange eating habits - my mother doesn't eat much, my stepfather works long hours - so consequently, since arriving on Wednesday we had eaten approximately two real meals. We ended up driving aimlessly for awhile in search of food. We first visited Celebration, a planned community (city, really) started by the Disney company in the 1990s, but recently sold to private developers. It still looks creepily like a scene from the Truman Show, but a little less Disney-fied:

Above, the Sunday morning farmer's market in downtown Celebration.

Next, I took CP for a drive up and down US-192, a main road through Kissimmee, the heart of central Florida tourist territory. It was totally, totally tacky, and I just can't bear to post the pictures. Other than Denny's and Chili's and other chain restaurants, we didn't really find any decent food options. We then headed to Downtown Disney, the main shopping area on Disney property, and grabbed a sandwich here, a chain restaurant that claims original creation of the sandwich some 250 years ago. I'm not sure I buy that, but it was definitely better than the Earl of Panera, so we were satisfied.

After eating, we took a few minutes to walk around Downtown Disney and poke around in the shops. One of my perennial favorites - and I think CP's new favorite - is the Lego store. In addition to having every Lego piece ever created, they also have some pretty fantastic Lego sculptures:

Here, a close-up:

Finally feeling relieved of hunger, we ventured over to our hotel (ahem, resort, to use the official Disney parlance) to check in. Our room was ready three hours early, so we were able to move all our stuff in and get settled.

By this time, it was about 2pm, and we were just now ready to start our day in the parks. With the extra magic hours (more on that later), we were able to start at 2pm and end our day at 1am, so we got in nearly a full day of activity without having to endure the hottest part of the day. This turned out to be a good plan, and as you can see from the time of today's post, it's a plan we will continue throughout the week. It is just too darn hot out there.

Anyway, our first stop was Epcot, my favorite park in spite of having a fairly tragic work experience there several years ago. After entering, we rode Spaceship Earth, the ride inside the giant golf ball, which is newly updated with an entertaining Judy Dench narration. We got FastPasses for Soarin', one of the newer (and most popular) Disney rides, and then killed time by riding some of the less crowded ones. The most notable (and horrifying!) ride was the Universe of Energy, which is a 37 minute audioanimatronic/movie ride narrated by a mulleted Ellen DeGeneres circa 1997. Not only is this ride horribly outdated, it was 37 minutes of pure propaganda for Exxon (coincidentally, the ride's sponsor! Imagine that!) I guess the good news was that the ride was air conditioned and we could sit?

Oh! Requisite golf ball pic:

Still killing time before our ride on Soarin', we decided to take a ferry boat across the Lagoon to the World Showcase to walk through a few countries. Our boat arrived in Morocco (one of two country pavilions in Epcot run by their home country; the other is China), and we walked to Japan and browsed the Mitsukoshi department store, another entity not run by Disney and thus a bit more authentic than most of what you'll find on Disney property. It had a nice mix of kitsch and home goods and clothing, and we found a few things we liked and will bring back for some friends and family. A picture from Japan:

We then stopped for kaki-gori, Japanese shaved ice, and walked through France and into Britain. There, we browsed a toy store; saw Mary Poppins (and no, she didn't fly through the air on a string and hit the tourists. So hard not to think of Arrested Development and Wee Britain!); and watched Alice (of Wonderland fame) run screaming looking for her rabbit. A quick walk through Canada ensued, and then we headed back to Future World (note: Epcot really needs a rehab, unless the future looks like 1984? Just saying.) to ride Soarin', a simulated hang glider ride over California. It was, and I can't say this strongly enough, absolutely amazing.

By this time, we were tired, hungry, and hot, so we headed back to our hotel (resort!) for a quick dinner and refresh before headed to the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours. More on that in the next post.