After our stressful start yesterday, I'm pleased to say that we all had a good sleep and quickly remembered that one of the reasons that we liked the Rosen so much was that the beds are probably the most comfortable in the world!
DD initially woke at 3am because she was still on UK time but managed to settle off again and we eventually got up at about 5.30, feeling in a much brighter and more positive mood.
To be totally fair to the hotel, the rooms are spacious and well equipped and although a little dated, this one was immaculately clean.
May be I was a little unfair to pass judgement so quickly yesterday.
We awoke to an absolutely gorgeous morning. The local news was forecasting possible record temperatures for the time of year.
Neither DH nor I fancied any breakfast. We don't usually eat it at home and still felt full after our large McD's. DD had some of her nuggets left from last night so ate these with some Pringles!
By 8a.m we were all showered, sun creamed, dressed and ready to set off for our 1st Disney day. Our 1st FP wasn't till 9.55 so I thought that we had plenty of time and, for nostalgia's sake, we'd go on the Lynx bus rather than calling an Uber.
The I-Trolley arrived at our stop first so we activated our 14 day passes and hopped on that as far as Sea Harbour Drive, where we waited... and waited... and waited for the Lynx 50 to turn up. Eventually I decided to check online what time it was due (not sure why this hadn't occurred to me earlier!) and discovered that we had another 10 minutes to wait for the next bus which wasn't due to reach WDW till 10.30.
We'd totally forgotten just how much of our previous holidays had been wasted on these buses! DH and I agreed that the only sensible thing to do now was book an Uber.
It was there in 2 minutes, got us to Epcot quickly and cost just $13.45 - I don't think that we'll be bothering with Lynx again.
Once at Epcot we had to exchange our Will Call voucher for proper tickets at Guest Services. There were no queues so this was quickly completed and we were off...
Compulsory photos in front of the giant golf ball swiftly taken, we headed towards our first fast pass, which was Soarin'.
As we passed The Seas, we noticed that Nemo only had a 15 minute wait time posted and decided that we could fit this in first. It was actually a walk on.
Soarin was amazing as always. It is, without doubt, my favourite ride in Epcot. It was the first time that we'd experienced the Round the World film and it didn't disappoint; although I have to agree with comments about the bent Eiffel Tower!
As we were in The Land we decided that we might as well give Living With The Land a chance. This was another walk on. DH and I both remembered finding it pretty boring on our only previous go but this time we were pleasantly surprised and agreed that it was more enjoyable than we'd remembered. We must be in a better frame of mind to be educated this time!
We returned to The Seas where we spent some time watching the fish in the huge tanks before watching Turtle Talk with Crush which was hilarious.
DD had to have her pic taken being eaten by Bruce.
Our FP window had now opened for Journey into imagination with Figment. DD found this amusing.
It was now around midday and we still weren't particularly hungry but decided to stop for a Mickey ice cream bar. We love these but struggle to believe that they are now worth $5.75 each so it will probably be the last. We ate them whilst enjoying the sun and watching the fountains (which I'd never noticed before run backwards!).
Next we nipped into the Disney and Pixel short film show. This was another 1st for us and we were trying to work out what used to be in this theatre - was it Honey I Shrunk the Audience?. Anyway we all enjoyed it, my favourite of the 3 films was Piper... sooo cute!
It was now time for our 3rd and final FP, which was Spaceship Earth. This is an old favourite and it didn't disappoint.
I checked the MDE app but there were no FPs available for anything that we'd not already ridden this morning so we headed over to World Showcase.
It is currently the Art's Festival so we browsed round some of the displays and stopped for photos with the living statues, who were brilliant.
DD and I helped with the painting by numbers mural.
We started our journey round the world at Canada but decided against waiting to see the O'Canada film - we've done it before, enough said!
We walked slowly round the lake. Stopping in the UK...
France...
Where we paused to watch a juggling chef, who was very talented but kept blowing a really annoying whistle!
Morroco...
... Japan
and Italy
We looked in several of the shops, marvelling at the extortionate prices - $19.95 for a small carton of Quality Street, what's that all about!
Needless to say we didn't buy anything but enjoyed the atmosphere and just chilling in the glorious sunshine. DD collected the postcards and stickers from each of the Kidcot stops.
By 3 o'clock we admitted defeat and decided that we were starving so we headed out of Epcot. We intend to finish World Showcase later in the holiday when we return to watch Illuminations.
We got an Uber ($16.75) straight to the Golden Corral. I know that this place gets mixed reviews on the Dibb but we like it and have never had a bad meal here. There is certainly plenty of choice.
Unfortunately by the time we arrived we'd missed Lunch by just 5 minutes - it ends at 4pm. So were charged $15.99 for the adult dinner buffet and $8.99 for DD. However, I had a birthday voucher from their email club for a free buffet and we all had water to drink (DD's flavoured with a squirt of Robinson's S'quashed, which I carry everywhere on holiday). Our total bill came to just $26.61.
My first plate consisted of pot roast, which was gorgeous and very tender. Cheesy potato casserole and honey coated chicken wings.
The second was fried chicken with onions, peppers and mushrooms.
I also had some apple pie and ice-cream (sorry no pic)
DH had similar plates full but also tried the mashed potato with gravy (which he loved) and the sirloin steak (which was a little over cooked for his taste). His dessert was banana pie which was his absolute favourite pudding from our last visit - he's been reminiscing about it for 6 years! He wouldn't let me take photos.
DD stuck to pizza and chips for her main course which she loved and filled up on desserts including choc chip cookies and a chocolate ice cream cone. She also got a bag of cotton candy to take back to the room.
It was a really enjoyable meal and very good value but we were all stuffed so decided to go beck to the hotel for a rest.
DH went to sleep but after a short break to let our food go down, DD and I went to the hotel pool for a swim and splash around. By the time we returned DH was awake.
This evening we went for a stroll along I-Drive to get our bearings and see what had changed in our absence. We wandered in and out of numerous tatt shops where DD wanted to blow all her spending money on everything she saw! We talked her into holding onto most of it, at least until she sees what the Outlets have to offer but she did buy these 2 cuddly owls ($24.99 for the large one and $6.99 for the small) and a tie dyed Orlando t-shirt for $10.99.
I bought a beach ball ready for our next visit to the pool and a Tinkerbell pen for $1.99 each (last of the big spenders!)
With aching feet we turned in at about 10pm following an exhausting but very enjoyable first day. Tomorrow we're off to Discovery Cove for our dolphin swim.
Day 2 is here:-
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