... continued from above
We made a stop to collect some more pressed pennies and then headed out for our Fastpass at the Character Spot. We didn’t have to wait too long here, although Mickey did go off to get a piece of cheese, Goofy went to meet Max and Minnie had to check on the cheesecake she was making. It was a very swift turnaround though! We also ended up behind one of those families that wants to pose for every combination of picture possible, even when their toddler was screaming her head off that she didn’t want to be anywhere near Goofy!
Mickey immediately pointed out that Thomas had his hands all over his T-shirt, which he seemed to find really funny. Fortunately it didn’t seem to occur to Thomas to question why Mickey wasn’t talking today when he had done two days ago in the Magic Kingdom. He’s such an observant, questioning kid that I was a bit worried about this. I needn’t have been as he was just totally lost in the magic.
Goofy had a picture of a monorail behind him and, being the train obsessed child that he is, Thomas immediately pointed it out. Goofy the pointed out the rocket he also had and proceeded to get Thomas to “fly” around with him.
Thomas was very, very excited to meet Minnie Mouse. This was the start of a proper crush and he was slightly starstruck. As she signed his autograph book though he suddenly began pointing out that she was on the front cover and also pointing out all of the other characters. I think he was just about to start going through the signatures he had already collected, and not wanting to be one of “those” families we did have to gently persuade him away.
Next up was a ride on the monorail. Thomas had been incredibly patient about the lack of trains so far. The Magic Kingdom railroad was still down and as we’d gone to the MK by bus, we hadn’t yet ridden the monorail. It was something he’d been obsessed with before we went, watching endless YouTube videos of people riding it. We left the stroller in a stroller park and Epcot and headed to the TTC. The Express Monorail was down for testing (as it was for the middle part of the day off most of the time we were there - I think it is something to do with automation) but it was no problem as we wanted to ride the Resort monorail anyway. Tomas insisted that he get his own camera out and took endless pictures of the monorails keeping up commentary about which colours he had seen and exactly how monorails work. He found going through the Contemporary perhaps the most exciting thing he’s experienced so far. Once back at the TTC, we jumped back on the Epcot monorail.
Heading back in to Epcot, I wasn’t randomly selected for the first time so far! We had a fasts for TestTrack which we were now well in to. I’d got Fastpasses for all of us as I’d really thought Thomas would enjoy this one. However at the moment we arrived and he heard the cars whooshing overhead he stopped in his tracks and was completely and totally petrified. This wasn’t just being a bit unsure of something. He was so obviously scared witless that were going to make him go on it, to the point of saying that he would stand there on his own. No hint of a parenting fail from me this time. I knew he wasn’t going on and it would have been genuinely cruel to even try to persuade him. We didn’t have a lot of time left in our window and I didn’t think we’d have time for two of us to ride and then swap. We could probably have done a child swap, but I’m not sure we’d have got Thomas near enough the entrance for that. Luckily my mum really wasn’t bothered in the slightest about going on, so decided that she would stay with Thomas whilst the three of us rode.
We designed a pretty powerful car that was pretty crap on everything else. Unsurprisingly we were third or fourth in each test except the speed test, where we came top. We managed 201 overall, but the top score of the day was 231. Better luck next time!
We headed out to the bit where all the cars were and then outside to find Thomas and my mum. Now that he knew we weren’t going to try to make him go on, he was quite happy to come through the shop and then had a fantastic time playing in all the cars. Meanwhile our ride photo appeared in MDE but was this one of three randomers (who look like they had a great time!)
I headed back to the photo bit to see if we could sort it out and encountered a CM who was as unknowledable as he was unhelpful. I explained, in a pretty straightforward way that our ride photo had appeared but it wasn’t of us and was there any way to locate our actual photo to add to the account.
He looked at me as though I were a complete imbecile and told me that I could only view my photos on the website not the app. "You have to go to the WEBSITE” he emphasised. “The app doesn’t show pictures and is useless. You have to go to the WEBSITE I’m telling you”.
He then added that it takes about 48 hours for the photos to appear. I’ve since found out that viewing photos pictures on MDE is actually a more recent thing, but the training is a bit lacking if he didn’t know that! I said again that the problem wasn’t the photo not being there, but we had a photo that wasn’t us. I went to show him the picture and he cut across me saying “Don’t look at your phone” he said “I’ve told you it’s useless".
“But it shows the wrong photo” I said, trying hard to keep the exasperation from my voice.
"I’m just getting to that” he said. Except, he didn’t. He got a slip of paper out and started telling me all about which rides have photos and where to find the photos website.
In the end I shoved my phone under his nose and said “I have the photo. It is the wrong photo”
And he finally looked and said “Oh. How did you get that?”
“I don’t know, that is what I am asking you!”
He finally took me over to a computer and said “so when did you ride?” When I said we’d come off less than ten minutes ago (it would have been five had he not spent so long telling me how useless my phone was) and he looked surprised.
“How dod you have the photo already?”
“Erm, because that is how it works”.
I spotted the correct photo immediately and he added it to my account, with it popping up in MDE instantaneously. I managed to resist telling him that he might want to check his facts about the availability of Photop[ass pictures in MDE! After this encounter, despite the Magic Bands we started touching for our ride photos every ride.It resulted in a few duplicates, but at least I didn’t meet any more obstructive CMs!
(And yeah, it probably wasn’t worth the hassle just for a ride photo!)
We managed to buy Thomas a couple of gifts here without him seeing - a metal monorail sign and set of the Disney buses, including the “Sad Express” and Cruise Line buses that he also loved spotting. We didn’t want to spoil him with too many things when he was already experiencing so much (and getting overwhelmed by it) but it’s good that we’ve got a little stick of things to give him alter in the year and keep the magic alive.
We were heading towards the time for our Beaches and Cream
ADR. We’d deliberatley had breakfast on the last side, and eaten plenty, and then skipped lunch to save room for ice cream. We were paying OOP for this one too, as we didn’t have enough TS credits and we only wanted ice cream. On the way out of International Gateway we spotted Tinkerbell doing a meet and greet with a pretty short line, so we joined. Thomas was a bit coy again, and I’ve forgotten the details of what she said to him, but she was a pretty good Tinkerbell and she got him giggling.
We found B&C with some difficulty and only had to wait a few minutes for our table. This was one of the few places that actually utilised pagers. We were seated in a booth. The atmosphere and theming in here is great. the menu was a little confusing though as things that I’d seen other people eating in trip reports didn’t seem to be listed, including the Mickey Pants sundae. I could see the dishes on the side though and when we asked our server he described it to us straight away. Ian and I ordered one to share. Mum and Dad not had Banana splits and we had a kid’s sundae for Thomas.
I’d say the Mickey Pants was a good size to share. I could have eaten a bit more, but I didn’t feel unsatisfied (and we did steal a bit more from my Mum). The banana splits were actually not that different in size, but as you can see, my Dad dd finish his, so they couldn’t really have shared. The total amount of ice cream we had probably wasn’t far off a Kitchen Sink, but it’s the whipped cream on that which really puts me off! There were three which came out whilst we were there one of which seems to be for a guy on his own. Well, the rest of his group all had their own ice creams anyway. Before we left we could see he was struggling. We headed outside and my Mum went in to the restroom along the corridor. Whilst we waiting outside, we saw the same guy rush out of B&C and sprint in to the restroom. I think he may have over done it a bit!
(Death by ice cream!)
We wandered along back to Epcot, stopping for a few photos on the way.
We went back in through the International Gateway (and normal service was resumed with my random selection for additional security). We wandered in to England, stopping for a look at the Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan topiaries. We also found a bored looking PP photographer so gave him something to do. Thomas and I went to get a Duffy bear at the Kidcot station and did a bit of colouring in.
We then headed back around the Mexico. Thomas seemed to love it in here, despite the dark, and was incredibly excited about the Three Cabelleros boat ride. We did have a brief moment when we came out where he ran off for the door but we actually didn’t see which way he went. Cue us all rushing out looking for him. He’d run down the slope at the side, and eventually located him in the stroller parking.
It was around 7pm by now and we were all flagging, so we headed back to OKW. We stopped to get a few more Photopass pictures on the way out. The sun was getting so much in Thomas's eyes and he was really screwing them up, so a lady ran over with her sunglasses and said "here, borrow these". It was a very sweet moment (just to add we did have sunglasses for him, he had just chosen not to wear them!)
We had a quiet evening with three portions of fries (snack credits) between us for “dinner” as we were still stuffed with ice cream and had a little fiddle of fasts plans for the next day, removing the 7DMT fasts that we had for Mum, and and Thomas whilst Ian and I rode Space Mountain. I hope someone picked those up and felt lucky!
Best of all, I actually fell asleep in bed tonight!