So, we are rapidly closing in on the end of the vacation 🙁 and today’s treat was Epcot. We have not been here since ’98 since we deemed it poor back then, hence did not wish to waste a Disney day in here during the last couple of visits.

Today however would be different since we would be walking it with the Folks 🙂

There are a couple of new rides since we were last here, with the Nemo ride being particularly clever for the younger ones and Sourin’ great for the older ones. Sadly Olly was too small for Sourin’ so daddy had to sit it out :-(. Vicky did suggest that it has become her new favourite ride, and those of you that know her well enough will immediately realise that this means she rates it above the Tower of Terror !!!!

We managed to get lunch in the aquarium but came out feeling $100 lighter and for four, that seemed extremely high for a below par meal :-(. We have come to realise that Disney lunches are just WAY overpriced sub-optimal meals, and that in future tips we will either bring our own food or leave the parks for food.

We managed to walk around to China before the boys advised us that it was time to head back to the hotel. We walked clockwise for those that know the park and hence this will give you an idea of how far we got – hint – not far at all…

We have deduced that while Epcot is definitely Disney quality with regards to realism and build of the attractions, it is not for us and we will continue with the avoidance tactics next time – spending our time on the other three parks which have way moron offer to people like us :-). We will also make use of the ride max tech that Jason introduced us to this week since it has most definitely made the trip more enjoyable although will require a reasonable amount of up front planning – here’s hoping that the planning is not a big piece of work as we have simply been in play mode this week rather than needing to think too hard about anything :-). Thanks Jason 🙂

Tomorrow – Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

EARLY start this morning in readiness for a big day in the kingdom of the animal 🙂 We got the 8am bus from the hotel direct to the park and the kids ate their breakfast en-route. So we had to wait for 30 minutes before hey would open the park … 🙁

We have enjoyed a great day in the park where Simon is finding that he needs to eat his words regarding the ridemax software that Jason was heavily recommending last week. Today,cthe evidence was all there – we have not waited more than 5 or 6 minutes for a single ride and we have ridden every worthy ride in the park – I actually think we went n every ride in the park !!!

Highlights for the day include:

Nemo – very impressive and well put together show – highly recommended
It’s a Bugs Life – for scaring the crap out of BOTH of our kids in no time at all 🙂
Kilimanjaro Safari – just a great all rounder
Mount Everest – a simply fantastic roller coaster

We finished in the park at approx 17:45 so it was definitely a long day today.

Tomorrow is Epcot – we weren’t going to bother with Epcot due to being unimpressed in previous visits but given the group we are with and the ridemax setup, we are going to have another fun day tomorrow. We will however hold off an hour and get the 9am bus tomorrow though – think the kids REALLY need the sleep and we will still be inside the park before 9:30 🙂

This has been the best day thus far – let’s see how tomorrow and Thursday pan out…

Having been into Magic Kingdom for the last couple of days, we decided that today would be a rest day of sorts and that we would probably head to a water park or something.

We needed to return a couple of items that we bought last week so we head out to the mall after breakfast with the Folks, and given that we had uttered the words water and park in the same sentence, the rain clouds came over and it looked like rain for a couple of hours.

So, we enjoyed a burger in a drive in Sonic burger restaurant and then came back to the room for the boys to sleep – Elly had a mini meltdown in the car due to sheer tiredness – hence the plan for sleep. Olly got almost 3 hours this afternoon and Elly almost 2 🙂 Let’s just hope that sleep comes forth tonight also… :-s

Animal Kingdom is the name of the game tomorrow so hopefully we will all be properly rested for a bright and early kick off 🙂

We met, Amy, Jason, Charlotte and Linda for breakfast in IHOP near our hotel and then head into Magic Kingdom for the morning and early afternoon.

It was great to meet our great friends again and catch up – it feels like we have not been part at all which is great considering it has been 6+ months now :-). Jason has planned out the days on something called ride max and contrary to Simon’s belief it rally does seem to whereby a queue of 15 minute appears to be the maximum that we had to wait = massive result.

We ended up buying Elly a small Jack Sparrow outfit as the Medium was clearly not going to be available so he will get a couple of months wear rather than 12. Olly got an XS outfit so that he can be part of the party 🙂

Splash mountain appeared to be a hit with Elliot, although Olly was sadly too shot to ride so a daddy and Olly had to stand down for that ride today 🙁

Tomorrow, we are going to take it easy and perhaps go and do a water park day with Typhoon Lagoon featuring highly on the possible to do list. We will pick up on Animal Kingdom on Tuesday again with Epcot and / or Hollywood Studios (old MGM) on Weds / Thurs…

A fantastic birthday meal tonight was has in the Outback restaurant in the hotel with all 12 of us enjoying a sumptuous meal and lots of laughter.

Happy days 🙂