Disney day two

Day two had us lined up in front of Epcot waiting to get in. They let folks through the turnstiles to walk up to a roped off line further inside the park. When the people, including the characters, come out, they take down the ropes and everyone is off like a shot. Although this sounds exciting, it bugged me. Everyone was pushing and crowding and in a big mass. When going through the turnstiles, it naturally spaces people out, so there is no huge mass of people pressing in at any given moment. It was craziness. But it was still fun! We got a close up of Minnie Mouse. Donald walked by but my camera hesitated, so all I got was his little hat. Oh well!
I made a list of everything we did on the second day and it blew my mind. We hustled and got a lot done! I have to also recommend the Unofficial Disney travel guide. It was excellent and we got many of our time saving tips from reading the book and following it's strategies.

First we stopped at Soarin' and got ourselves a Fast Pass. This is where you wait in a line to meet up with a kiosk and put in your ticket card and it spits out a paper card with a later time on it and you go do something else and come back during the specified time and your place is 'saved' in line and you can pretty much just hop right on the ride.. or have a much shorter wait than the 'regular line'. I have to say it's a sweet little innovation.. and isn't that what Epcot is all about?! Getting our 'FP' for Soarin' did not go smoothly though. The machine broke down with the lady in front of us so the employee 'cast member' just handed her FP's out of her pocket. We were right behind her and she told us we had to start over in another long line. GRRRR. There are a few things at Disney that are pretty uncool in the way they handle them.. that is one example! But we finally scored our tickets and bugged out to....

TEST TRACK! With no wait, I might add. Thanks to the wonderful research done by the book writers, we walked right on the ride. And it was our favorite, hands down.

We also rode a little Nemo ride.. think little kid thing. And then another animated interactive thing called Turtle Talk with Crush and yes it was very funny.. even for the grown up set! And then we went back to ride Soarin' with a shortened wait. (this was our longest FP line. This ride is insane popular) In the same building is a little boat ride called The Land... it was more informational than anything, but it was a nice place to rest the feet, which at this point were SCREAMING. And then we had lunch.

One note here about Epcot. It's original intent by Walt Disney himself seems to be lost here. Remember how it stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow? I had to remember that myself to really 'understand' the purpose of some of the rides..like The Land. Walt's vision is fading for that park and it's sad they aren't keeping his vision for it more alive or at the front of people's thoughts.

I think I will split day two into two posts, as there is a lot more info to go. And I don't want to bore you to tears! Oops.. too late.. already did! LOL