All Villa No Filler - Day 10: Epcot and Tropical Storm Emily

[Stewboy]

The Index

Monday 31st July 2017

Yesterday had been our day of chilling out, today we were back in action - we were off to Epcot first thing.

We were up early on this wet Monday morning. Tropical Storm Emily had developed literally overnight, and was due in Orlando at around 1pm. We decided to head out anyway, and kept an eye on developments. After tea, coffee, and eggs on toast we were on our way; the time was about 8:30am.

The drive was uneventful, and by 9am we were parked up and walking to the entrance, looking super cool in our Disney ponchos!


Jo rockin' the poncho


Isabella loves the rain, and her poncho

Due to the expected arrival of Emily the park was quiet, so we headed straight over to Character Spot to hopefully meet Joy and Sadness with no queue. The plan worked, there was no queue and we got to meet them for the first time. Result.




Joy & Sadness

We left the Character Spot and headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends, which was a walk on.


On our way to find Nemo

After Nemo, next up was Turtle Talk with Crush. After a five minute wait we were let in; Isabella sat down the front, initially on her own, until she was eventually joined by one other child - yes, it really was that quiet!




Even the fish can't be bothered with Mondays


Good job she got there early...


She got some company

Fortunately she had a question ready (there was no way she wasn’t getting picked!); she asked Crush: “How fast can you swim?”.


“How fast can you swim?”




Still looking for Nemo?


"Heeeeellllooooo"


"Goooooawaaaaaayyyyyywhaaaaaaaaale"

Even though it wasn’t busy, it was still fun, and even felt like an intimate audience with Crush!

Once we left Crush, we had a browse round the aquarium; we found Nemo; we found Dory; we looked at some other fish, and then decided to head back out into the park. On the way, Isabella saw a pressed penny machine, so got herself another penny for her collection.


Found Dory

Once outside we decided to go and visit everyone’s favourite flying purple dragon; obviously it was a walk on (when is it not?). It must only be a matter of time before this ride gets a makeover, or is replaced? Apparently they were even asking guests about how they feel about Figment in surveys back in May - watch this space!


I don't know why they have a steak as the logo?


Does Figment light your fancy?

After getting off the ride, we did the usual messing around with the various things in the ImageWorks - The “What-if” Labs before leaving the Imagination Institute,and heading out into heavy rain. We donned the ponchos again, and made our way to The Land. The park was pretty empty, and wet, but at least the ducks were enjoying themselves.


Making a friend for Figment...


Called "Elizabeth"


Poncho selfie


"Hi ducks"

In The Land, we decided to get a snack from Sunshine Seasons - Cinnamon French Toast Bread Pudding with Bacon ($7.49) - which we shared between the three of us. It was nice, and would keep us going until lunch time.


Cinnamon French Toast Bread Pudding with Bacon

After our snack it was time for our Soarin’ FastPass. We wanted to get a good seat, so we requested Concourse B, and we managed to get row 1 again, right in the middle


Does this count as a hidden Mickey?


Is that Nemo?


"Good work pal"

After another great flight around the world, we headed back out into the park. Keeping track of the weather, and Tropical Storm Emily, the warnings were that the weather was going to get worse from now until the evening. The time was about 11:25am, and as we’d managed to cram a lot of rides in, and had a fun morning, we thought it wise to make our way back to the villa.

Ironically as we headed for the exit, the park appeared to have got busier, but we had no intention of taking any chances.


Pretty Epcot


Busy Spaceship Earth




Wet


Politics

We headed out of Epcot, and drove towards home. We decided not to venture out this evening so we thought we’d make a stop at Publix at Championsgate (any excuse to visit Publix ) to get something for dinner plus other important supplies; water, coffee, kombucha…. (Jo had been looking for it on every trip to Publix and had finally found it!). We spent a total of $33.91 on our haul - now it was time to grab some lunch on the way back to the villa.


"Publix... yes!"


"Kombucha... yes!"

There was a McDonald’s on the other side of the car park, so we walked over - we decided to eat in. From the self service kiosk we ordered:

• Me: Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal with Fries and Drink
• Jo: Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese meal with Fries and Drink
• Isabella: 4 Piece Chicken McNugget Happy Meal

The total was $20.40. There were a lot of people on their own sitting at four and six seater tables, completely oblivious to us trying to find a table big enough for the three of us, so we had to sit round a table for two until someone left, and then eventually we got a four seater. This annoyed Jo quite a lot - it’s already one of her pet hates.


Just in case you don't know what a McDonald's looks like


Or a McDonald's burger

Once we’d had our food we finally headed for home, and arrived back at the villa at about 1pm. After we caught up on the latest weather news, we decided to watch a film - we’d got some Publix popcorn, so now we just needed something to watch. There were some DVDs in the villa, and we decided to watch Beethoven, which believe it or not, I have never seen; first poptarts, now Beethoven - this was turning out to be a holiday of firsts for me!


This house was on our drive home, it's like something from a horror movie!


Emily


Movie selfie






The Many Movie Watching Positions of Isabella

After the film, we all chilled out for bit. Isabella and I caught up on our trip reports, and we caught up on the latest on Tropical Storm Emily - it had stayed west over Tampa, so the worst of it had missed Orlando - we were going to be ok after all.


A bunny came to visit


Catching up on her trip report

Isabella wanted to play Epic Mickey again, so we did that for an hour before she had her dinner: Mac & Cheese, tomatoes, and cucumber. While Isabella ate, Jo opened the chips and dips to keep us going until dinner time.

After dinner, Isabella did some more of her diary, then showered and went to bed. Once she was in bed, Jo and I had some drinks - wine for Jo; beer for me - and then it was time for our Publix lasagne and salad. The lasagne was really nice, in America it appears that they use ricotta cheese instead of bechamel sauce.


What a spread

To finish the night we had an Amarula and watched Guardians of the Galaxy, which I managed to find on one of the film channels on the tv. Before we got to the end of the film we had both got tired it was about 11pm so we decided to go to bed, and save the last 40 minutes of the film for the following evening.

And that is that, another day done, thank you all for reading - tomorrow we have an action packed day at Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom.


"I'll drink to that"


Isabella's TR day 10

[nanasamboy]

I need to remember that Soarin' tip! I wasn't a fan when I rode for the first time in Disneyland. Maybe I just need the perfect seat!

Gosh, walk ons! I can't remember the last time I went to a park and had walk ons! Fat chance of that happening next week, with Food and Wine and Halloweentime!

Did you enjoy Beethoven? It's a classic!

TFS

PS - that lasagne looks super tasty!

[Floridaagogo]

What I would give to have a Publix near me ... ❤️

[mick]

That was a quiet morning in Epcot

Joan

[HelenJNT]

A near-private audience with Crush, you lucky things. I do like that attraction. Looking forward to the new Soarin' too as it was closed on our last trip.

I have a feeling I saw Beethoven in the cinema... showing my age there.

[Redrach1903]

Love the empty crush viewing! Much better than all those pesky noisy people! Haha! They should have let the adults ask a question! I’m so desperate to do that haha.

LOVE Beethoven! You need to watch the sequel now

Glad the storm didn’t hit too bad!

[Pumba75]

We didn't get to do the Joy & Sadness meet on our last trip, queue was always too long - as a father of daughters, I've got to be honest, "Inside Out" is one of the scariest films I've ever seen

Sounds like you made good use of the day, despite the weather.

Which was Isabella's preferred movie watching position?!

Thanks for sharing.

[Danny Boy74]

We were there that day too, but much later as it was out last night so we wanted to see illuminations. As we were walking in random stranger gave the 5 of us 10 (yes 10) paper Soarin fast passes. Couldn't believe our luck!

[KittyBlackDog]

Just binge read so I’m back up to date 👍🏻

Great chilled day and how quiet was Epcot! Private Crush meet n greet =perfect 👍🏻 😬

[EJSakaAnna]

Great quiet morning at Epcot, semi private audience with Crush was pretty cool. Glad Emily wasn't too bad to you!