Day 4 of the Robertson Disney Vacation

Ok, Day 4, EPCOT day. The thing I was MOST looking forward to at EPCOT was Soarin'. I was soooo excited to ride this ride. We, of course, had to take some pictures first.






Then Sam and I made a beeline for Soarin'. He wasn't too excited about it because it was an indoor thing, which immediately convinced him it wouldn't be fun. Because of my lifelong desire to skydive or hand glide, this was an almost religious experience. I know that sounds so corny, but it was so realistic. The sights, the sounds, the smells even. It was very cool.

After having ridden it, I knew Ron could handle it so we went out, got him and went back in. Sam took his shoes off this time and loved it! LOL He said the trees tickled his toes. LOL Ron really liked it too. He was hesitant at first, but once he relaxed he liked it.

Because I've waited so long to blog about this, I can't really remember anything in the proper order. I know, bad me. Anyway, I know we rode Test Track a million times that day. We all really enjoyed that one.


Then the one and only Kidcot station we did was in the gift shop at the exit of Test Track... see? There they go again with these friggin gift shops at the end of ride queues.


Much of EPCOT was simply in the atmosphere, which Sam did not appreciate very much. LOL Spaceship Earth was closed for refurb so we didn't get to go in there.

Then it was time for Mission: Space. I was also VERY excited for this because of my childhood dream to be an astronaut. I remember those days so vividly. I was going to be the first woman on Mars, I just knew it. The day the Challenger fell out of the sky changed my life. I figured that on Mission: Space I could experience just a taste of what I was missing.

Because Ron and Sam also wanted to ride it, we rode the Green side (no spinning). I became a little weary when I saw that even this side came equipped with barf bags, but I was still ok. It was very cool. The graphics were great and the fact that it was interactive really drew you in as "passengers." Sam was so excited to be "Commander Sam!" When we got off, I told Ron, "Ok. You know I have to go ride the orange side now. I just have to." He shook his head and said, "I know. Go on."

Off I went with confidence. Never have I gotten sick on a ride. Never! I've ridden the biggest and baddest of amusement park rides and never so much as a stomach flutter. This was going to be noooo problem.

They put me in the space pod with a father and his two daughters who were probably 7 or 8. It started... 10..9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... BLAST OFF!!! Spinning, spinning, spinning... Oh good Lord, what is that pain on my chest? Get this elephant off my chest! No! Don't turn that way! Don't bounce! Why are those asteroids in my way?! Why aren't these little girls terrified??? Ok, we're in orbit. It's calmer now. Pain in my chest has subsided somewhat. C'mon Sarah. You can do this! It's no big deal. Besides you've got no way out now. You are stuck for the entire 3.5 minutes of hell. Oh dear God, we're heading for the asteroid belt! The bouncing! The spinning! The jerking! The pain in my chest! Can't close my eyes. Can't look away. Lieutenant Dan said not to in our pre-flight instructions. Must focus to keep from.... ...... I really need to reach for a barf bag. I think I might lose it. BAM! We finally landed on the surface of Mars. Pain in my chest has subsided again; however, breakfast is quickly on its way up. I strain to reach a barf bag. The giggling little girls in the pod with me aren't giggling so much now, are they? I didn't lose it, thank GOD! Just thought I was going to.

Dear God, thank you for putting me back on stable ground. They opened up the pod to let us out and I couldn't move. I swear I don't think I have ever felt so bad in my life. I was completely disoriented, my legs and arms were like spaghetti. I very slowly made it through the corridors back to the exit. Dayum! Those corridors were like a mile long. The father and the girls kind of stayed with me to make sure I got out ok. Sweet, but annoying because they kept talking to me and asking questions.

Once outside, I sat on the fountain and put my head between my knees, using my trusty barf bag to fan myself with. A portly gentleman, smoking a cigarette comes over. He doesn't speak to me, but to Ron and tells Ron to tell me to breath into the bag like I am hyperventilating and that should take some of the nausea away. I complied and it worked a little bit. I'm telling you, I have never felt so bad in my life. I just didn't feel.... "right." you know? We sat there for a good 20-30 minutes. Thankfully, there was a fountain and space for Sam to run around and play or he would have been mega upset at this crimp in the plans.

We had early, early dinner reservations at Coral Reef that I was sooo looking forward to. I told Ron we could go ahead and go but I probably wouldn't be able to eat very much. He didn't want me to have to do that so we cancelled our prize dinner reservations and moved on. *sigh*

We went on the Nemo ride, which was pretty lame in my opinion, but my head was still spinning for my space capers.






After Nemo we looked around in the aquarium area waiting on Turtle Talk with Crush to begin:




We even found Nemo, if you look veeerrrrry closely:


Turtle Talk with Crush was absolutely hilarious!! I could have done that 10 times in a row! Sam sat up front and was just mesmorized by Crush! We have it all on video and I'm so glad we did.

Then, on the way out, Sam got eaten by Bruce the Shark.



Past the Nemo Pavillion area, there was this great grassy area with flowers where people were walking, sitting, lying down and kids were playing. It was a beautiful green space in a sea of concrete:




Sam played in there with some kids for a good 20 minutes while I made new dinner reservations.

After playing we began making our way to Germany to go to the Biergarten for dinner. We saw some pretty cool stuff along the way:

Belle and the Beast:


Snow White and some dwarfs


Banzaii exhibit:


I've never seen a place make impatients look so beautiful. Pictures do not do it justice:


Rafiki and Simba:


Dinner at the Biergarten was ok. I wasn't crazy about the food, but I still wasn't feeling 100% either. The absolute best part was when the little polka band invited all the kids out on the dance floor. It was a freakin hoot!! I have it on video too, but I can't seem to get it posted here. If anyone would like to lend assistance, I would be VERY grateful! My baby was out there just shakin his booty. He didn't care who was watching. He didn't care who was around. He was free and loving life. It seriously brought tears to my eyes watching him.




We decided to make this a little bit of an early night because we had had a very late night the night before and were planning on a late night the next day... did that all make sense?

Anyway, on the way back to the front, Sam (and Daddy) had to play in a few of the Cool Zone areas.












A few pictures on the way out and we were on our way back to the hotel. I LOVE Sam's eyes and expressions in this series of pictures. They crack me up every time I look at them.






And thus ends Disney Day 4 in the Robertson's Disney Adventure. I don't have a sleeping picture of the boy because he stayed awake this time. LOL

Disney Day 3 - MGM and Magic Kingdom

Day 3 of the Robertson Family Disney Adventure was supposed to be spent at Magic Kingdom, but I just had a feeling about MGM so we changed our plans up a bit and went there.

I'll tell you up front, this post will be VERY heavy on pictures. This was our busiest day at the World. We did a TON of stuff but had oh so much fun!

Off to MGM!




YAY!! We're at Disney! LOL The photographer told us to do that... Sam wasn't too sure.


When we got there and looked at the Times Guide, we saw that Mater and McQueen were supposed to do their meet and greet in an hour or so. After asking about 5 people where exactly they would be, we wandered around the immediate area for a bit taking pictures and such.

As we passed one intersection, I looked down the side street and saw a sight that truly took my breath away.


Isn't it beautiful? That's just a wall. Completely flat. I had to touch it just to convince myself. I don't know why I was so entranced by this, but I stood there and stared at for what seemed like forever.

Sam waited long enough for me to take a picture:


Then he was off to find Michelle.... think Michelle Tanner on the old sitcom Full House.


Then we found Herbie the Lovebug... Sam tried to get in and drive:


Then we happened upon the Singin in the Rain umbrella. I hadn't heard about this so it was surprise to me when Ron stepped underneath it. LOL Sam thought it was very cool.



Mom had to play, too:


Sam had never seen a phone booth before so he was intrigued.


We figured we had wasted enough time so we went back to "San Francisco" to wait on Mater and McQueen. We met another family there that were waiting as well. We were the only two families on the street. They said this was their 3rd time trying to meet the Cars without a wait of a couple hours so they were staying put! LOL Sam and the other kids played on these cute brownstone houses they had set up just like in San Francisco. MGM was a really neat place to see.

Anybody home??!!


Guess not... I'll just chill out here and wait on them...


It wasn't too long before we heard the music and engines revving and here came the Cars!!


It took me a loooong time before I could make Sam understand why Mater and McQueen couldn't sign his autograph book. He was convinced that because they could do stuff in the movie that they should be able to sign his book. Oy.




Can you believe that after that other family had waited so long and we had waited there about 30 minutes that people still tried to jump in front of us. I even had heard one family speaking English to each other but when they tried to jump in front of us and the other lady said no, they acted like they didn't understand English? Unbelievable!

So, I figured we were done meeting characters for right then and we were on our way to the Tower of Terror!!!!

Ummm, nope! We rounded the street outside of San Francisco and it looked like a freakin street fair or something. There were Power Rangers everywhere!! Sam doesn't even know what a Power Ranger is, but by God, he wanted his picture with them. It was too funny. Now these guys were as serious as a heart attack while doing their poses and stuff.

Wait? How'd that go?


I got it now!


No problem with this one!


Now what was that again?


Ok, if you say so...


I think this guy was his favorite.




After all the meet and greets it was totally time for Tower of Terrorrrrr!!!!! I was SO looking forward to this ride and I honestly thought Sam would chicken out, but he didn't! We used a LOT of our Disney mantra, but he made it through and still says that this ride was his favorite part of Disney. It was awesome, too! It was everything I expected and more. Disney not only makes the actual ride a ride, but the queue is an experience as well. It's just unbelievable.






In the gift shop at the exit of ToT:


Just whose idea was it anyway to make the exit of a ride queue go through a freakin gift store? I mean, are you kidding me? There's absolutely no way to avoid it. To exit the ride area, you must go through the gift shop. Oy.

Next was lunch at Toy Story's Pizza Planet... Thank GOD the arcade portion was closed for refurb. We may have never gotten out of there!




And this was just a beautiful hibiscus I saw while walking through the park:


Then it was on to Al's Toy Barn to see about Buzz and Woody. We found some interesting stuff along the way:






Sam was so stoked to meet Buzz and Woody. They didn't sign autographs but they had stamps they used to put their names in the autograph book.




We wandered our way back through the park and stopped and watched some of the street performers on our way out. At this point we went back to the hotel for what I hoped would be a nap, but it turned in to pool time. I knew we had a long evening ahead of us and I was hoping he'd get some rest... no chance of that! LOL Mom was outvoted!






Our first of two character dinners was scheduled for this evening: Chef Mickey's. We honestly did not know what to expect. I, of course, feared the worst. I feared us not being able to eat because we were standing in line the entire time to get some face time with the characters... Not so. The characters are the ones who go from table to table. It was buffet so Ron would go first and get food for him and Sam. Then I would go and get my food and anything else I saw for them that I thought they might like. We didn't want Sam to leave the table for fear that he would miss a character. It was actually very nice and very enjoyable. Yes, it was louder than a normal restaurant would have been but it was so much fun! We had a ball!

Goofy:






Mickey:




Minnie:




Donald:




You're funny, Donald!


Pluto:
He puts the autograph books on his nose to sign them.


I'm sure Sam is explaining something to him. LOL




Dancing with Minnie:




She liked his dancin'!


The view from our table:


Dessert:


From there I guess we were gluttons for punishment because we then took the monorail to Magic Kingdom until it closed. I had originally planned on having an early evening, but Ron and Sam got their second winds... I figure it was all those chocolate Mickey heads they ate at dinner! LOL

The castle at twilight:


Sam on the teacups:
Weeeeeee!!! This is fun!!!


Whoa mom, that was fast!


And thus ends Robertson Disney Adventure Day 3. Shhhhhhhhhh.......

He was asleep before we even got on the bus this time.