Cam's Golden Birthday Adventure **Updated 8/23** COMPLETE - Page 15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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I just got caught up again - your photos are awesome! Stephanie looks so happy at breakfast; and I just keep admiring her hairstyle - it really suites her.
Sorry about your anxiety over Splash Mountain - no matter how old they are, it's hard to leave your kids and not feel that way.
Sounds like your morning at Epcot is going well - but hope you all brought ponchos!!!
Where can we go for lunch? And then when the skies over Florida open up and pour what do you do?
Since we were already in the Land, the natural choice for lunch was Sunshine Season Food Fair. We usually eat here once each trip, and we always check out all the options before making our choices. After only a few minutes deliberating, Stefanie chose a mini sub kids meal while Luke and I decided to split a Turkey Muffuletta and pasta salad. We were also surprised at how quickly we were able to find a vacant table. Then for half an hour we simply ate, chatted, and relaxed.
After cleaning up, we decided our next adventure would be Living with the Land as it was just a short walk from our table. I do miss having a live guide, but this is still a relaxing and educational ride. I always enjoy snapping shots of the interesting plant life.
I love sunflowers. I few years ago we took a walk from our subdivision which is in the county and discovered a farm that grew a whole field of these. It was so magical.
Stefanie always wants me to get a shot of the Mickey head-shaped pumpkins.
Soon the ride was over and Stefanie announced she was ready to see Nemo. So in short order we were off to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. The line was forming up outside, but moving at a steady pace. Last year we had walked on to this one and didn’t really get to see the entire queue. I especially liked the school of fish that kept forming other creatures. I just wished they had more of these throughout the queue as they were very fascinating. About 30 minutes later we boarded our clam mobile and Stefanie began excitedly to hunt for Nemo, yelling out his name every time she found him. I really love this addition to Living with the Seas as it connects with my whole family.
As we disembarked Luke grabbed Stefanie’s hand and hurried off with purpose. I was a little confused at the rush until I realized he was headed to Turtle Talk with Crush. Unfortunately, we didn’t make that show, but we were first in line for the next one. A sweet cast member came out to ask folks not to seat on the sides of the tanks and opened up a discussion with us, seems she was missing her family a bit. In about 15 minutes, our turn came and we snagged second row seats. I love the way Crush interacts with the audience and Dory is so darn adorable.
After Turtle Talk, Stefanie was in the mood for another ride, so we headed next to Journey into Imagination with Figment. She announced that she hoped Figment didn’t stink us up again. A girl can hope. We had probably our longest wait ever for this ride (about 15 minutes) behind an interesting couple. The wife was pulling a fairly large rolling suitcase behind her and was not really paying any attention to how this bag might affect others. I wish you could have seen the couple trying to get that suitcase into the ride with them. They were definitely cramped. Once on the ride, I totally forgot about the suitcase couple and enjoyed exploring my senses.
When we got off the ride, the plan was to head straight to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, but as we approached the door, we discovered that it was raining. Really raining is an understatement as it was torrentially storming with the rain coming down in a slant. Thank goodness this ride exits in a very large space capable of holding a large crowd. So the revised plan was to explore our imaginations. We played around with a photograph of ourselves, creating a totally new and odd Matthews family. Then Stefanie moved over to play musical conductor.
She had us laughing when she said, “Hey, I’m Ben.” Ben is our worship leader at church. She was actually doing a very good imitation of him.
Later we browsed the gift shop and Stefanie found a High School Musical pin she really liked. The rain was still come down strong, but no longer at a slant, so I figured we’d just purchase new ponchos as I’d forgotten ours in the room. If I hadn’t like the new ones, we’d have probably waited longer in the shop. But these are cute, having the castle on the back. We still own our classic yellow Mickey ponchos, purchased in 2003, and we use them over and over. Now we have to sets that we like.
Donned in our castle ponchos, we headed to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. We had a very short wait before the cast members sent us through the turnstiles for the Kodak show. Then it was shrinking time for us. By the time this show was over, so was the rain though the skies were still gray.
Having covered most of Future World, we decided to enter the World Showcase since we would later need to be England for our ADR at Rose & Crown. We knew there would be no way to cover all the World Showcase this evening, so we just planned to visit Canada and the United Kingdom, taking our time and absorbing the culture. First up was Canada, we knew O Canada had been redone so we decided to start there. I love the walk back to this attraction and just had to capture a moment with Luke and Stefanie.
I must say the improved movie is much more interesting and makes me want very much to visit Canada. We really enjoyed this and probably won’t skip this one in the future. Then we took our time looking through all the shops in Canada, especially Northwest Mercantile Trade Post where Luke and I both found a Roots cologne we liked. I enjoy buying colognes at the World Showcase as they are different from the ones generally worn by folks here in town.
After completely covering Canada, we moved on to the United Kingdom and checked at all their shops, too. We still had a while before we needed to check in for our ADRs, so it was nice not to rush. We found Alice and several of the 100 Acres Woods characters, but Stefanie informed me she just wasn’t in the mood for autographs right now. The line was very long, so it seemed a wise decision. We still had a wee bit of time left before our ADR, but since we were finished shopping thought we would just check. We were given a pager and they noted that I was celebrating my birthday. Moving down the sidewalk a piece, we found a bench that though wet offered a rest for our tired feet. I pulled out our ponchos to give us a dry seat. Not much later, our pager went off once and then was silent and blank. Luke went to the desk to check and then waved Stefanie and me to come, too. Another family was eager to take our bench for their wait.
We were directed to my great pleasure to a seat outside on the deck facing the lagoon. We had actually scored fantastic seats for watching Illuminations. I could have screamed I was that excited. Our server was the sweetest thing and I so love hearing the British talk. Amy recommended her favorites and then left us to decide while she got our drinks. Luke and I decided to start with the Wild Mushrooms she had recommended for the appetizer. And they were so yummy, practically melting in our mouths. Stefanie looked over the menu and announced that she didn’t want any of it. She can be very picky at times. In the end she decided on mashed potatoes and sharing some of my fish and chips. Luke also had the fish and chips. We really like these, but some day we’re really going to have to try the real ones in the real United Kingdom. I also ordered a side of green beans as I had loved these here last year.
We had planned on getting dessert, but Luke and I were to full after our fish and chips to even think of sharing a dessert. But now on to the best part of the dinner – prime viewing for Illuminations. This show will never been the same after seeing it in such comfort. And I got some really cool shots, too.
Soon after Illuminations was over, Amy brought out a group of servers and a special dessert for both me and the young man at the table next to our as we were both celebrating our birthdays (my 50th and his 25th). We were asked to stand and he was sweet and hugged me so I wouldn’t feel embarrassed. We lingered for awhile after the dessert was long gone. Stefanie and I made a trip to the loo, and then it was time to head home. I wished the young man happy birthday one more time and then we were off.
On our way back to Future World, we decided to make a stop at Mouse Gear, one of mine and Stefanie’s favorite shops. I made a list of quite a few kitchen items to purchase later at World of Disney where I could get 10% off with my Disney Visa. Stefanie didn’t think she could wait any longer to make a purchase, so she used some birthday month she had saved from March to buy some Chip and Dale peanuts, a two pack of Mickey Mouse socks, a High School Musical 2 Troy doll (she had been looking for this here for quite a while) and a WDW graphic purse/backpack. The backpack was a blessing as she carried it the rest of the trip, so I didn’t have to carry her autograph book and other things in mine. With her purchases made, we again began our trip home, but on the way Luke and I noticed that Spaceship Earth had practically no line.
We were excited to see the improvements to this ride and even though Stefanie complained that she didn’t want to ride any more rides, we headed in. Soon enough, we were aboard and enjoying an old favorite. We really liked the improvements, especially the addition of the computer age scenes. Judi Dench’s narration is also soothing. I even liked the interactive portion at the end, but was disappointed when our computers shut down before I could find out how I would cook in the future. Luke was also having fun laughing at the future me. As we got off the ride, Luke mentioned to a cast member that our computers had quit working and probably needed to be checked. The cast member immediately directed us to get back on the ride so we didn’t miss out on any of the new stuff. Pretty cool. This time the computers worked all the way through, and I just wish I had that fancy kitchen of the future. We also noticed even more changes than on our first journey.
Now it was really time to get three tired folks back to their resort and the comfort of their beds. We walked to the bus stops and thank goodness only waited about 10 minutes for a ride to Wilderness Lodge. Once again I appreciated the proximity of our room to the bus stops as we didn’t have far to walk. Once in the room, Luke tuned into the NBA game while Stefanie and I got our jammies on and crawled into bed to dream of tomorrow’s adventures at Hollywood Studios.
Will we get to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular after missing the opportunity the past 4 years?
Wow, Cam, that sounds like the PERFECT birthday dinner!!! Great update. That's too funny about Stefanie "having none of it" because that is exactly what it looks like she is saying in that picture of her!! LOL. A very productive day for you guys
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You guys had a very full day and got so much seen and done!
What wonderful seats at R and C! Your Illuminations pictures are wonderful!
I am glad that Stefanie got herself a backpack! She sounds like quite a good shopper!
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good job on staying out of most of the rain, and getting the new ponchos!!! that's a great illuminations spot!!! hope you get to see Indy! it's a good one!
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Dreams, Wishes, Hopes... these are the parts of childhood we should never lose.
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Danny and I at Epcot 8/14/08
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And it ended with a fantastic dinner 
Love the pics of IllumiNations 
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