Epcot at Disney World ~ our first day trials and smiles!

Tuesday May 6th ~ first day of our Disney World experiences.  Trials and Smiles!

Tickets and map and waiting to go through security

Epcot by 8:45 am Parking lot fees ~ $17

Scanning your ticket with your name on and your finger print.  Must use the same finger each time!  

We just followed Gregg and RAN to our first ride.  Adrenaline pumping ~ we're at Disney!  Hurry!

We're in and on our way!  First stop... Test Track!

One thing about Disney is that the waiting lines are full of interesting things to look at or interact with.  It's never "boring".  Test Track had cars from the space age it seemed.. motors and wonderful powerful things to ohh and aww over.  Thought of Uncle Alex a lot during this ride.

This is a popular ride and we soon found out why.  You get to "design" your own car on the computer then "race" it against others cars.  You will find out who's had the most power, most economical, most... blah blah blah...

Ruth's car design

You'll "test" your car on ice, sudden braking, sharp curves, etc....and of course ACCELERATION!

Mom is getting a little nervous of the test drive

Mei's little red car design

To the ride!

Gregg did take some video while we were on this ride and you actually get up to some pretty good speeds.  Cheeks sucked back and head plastered to your seat type of ride.  A definite must do again and again ride!  We ended up doing this ride 3 times!

Captain Eo.  Michael Jackson movie.  Weird is all I can say.

Going into the Captain Eo movie theatre.  Not very busy.

The grounds are amazing in themselves.

Fanta pop everywhere!

They have an area that you can walk through and see a lot of Coke products, etc and of course buy some things.  BUT ... the BEST part was the sampling area.  Fanta pop of all kinds of flavors just waiting for you.  A great way to get your sugar fix.  

Mei in her element

It was surprising clean and not too sticky.  We all had our favorite flavor, but pineapple was definitely a winner.  They were organized by Country, 

but gave a little description of what was in them.

FISH!

Donald Duck in Mexico adventures

We all love Donald Duck!  

Donald loved Mommy too!

We were fortunate that we had the opportunity to walk up to Donald Duck our first day. 

 Usually his line is very long or you may not see him at all.

Something looks different "ay?"

They have wonderful looking treats available...watching them make them was fun too!

$9 for a caramel apple.  They have treats fashioned like characters too.

We'd read that the chocolate covered caramels were wonderful!  So for $3-$4 we shared 1 caramel.
They all said that Mommy could make these.

Epcot Character area.  Goofy was, well, goofy and fun.

They don't talk to you, which is actually really nice.

Standing like Minnie

We know some Siemens, guess we don't know them that well if they were involved with making this!

Gregg didn't know they took his photo

For $17 you can buy a water bottle spritzer fan... or just walk by a kid with one.  They'll happily spritz you.

Looks like I'm stealing back my book from Mary Poppins!

We invited Mary Poppins to come to Oak Lake, Manitoba, Canada and she said she just may!

Is your nursery clean?

So many great items to purchase!

Survived the ride and received our cards to view our ride online!

"Sum of all Thrills" was a simulator ride for 2 people.  You design a roller coaster track, complete with power, speed, velocity to do loops, etc.  Then you sit in a pod and the simulator takes you over your ride.

Height restrictions didn't bother us!  YEAH!

Snacking along the curbs again.

The glass pickle!  Thought of replacing ours, but thought it would just get broke in next years round of "find the pickle in the christmas tree!"

Ruth's new runners worked perfectly!  She was so happy to have a bounce in her step.

Watch out hook!

Watching Rapunzel and Flynn Rider interact with the children was something spectacular.

These employees love their jobs and are flawless.  They can keep a crowd happy and still 

moving along.  Absolutely amazing.

Well, we didn't go to the Cdn pavillon.  It was a big rock off in the distance...no idea, but Martin Short should know.

Maybe we missed out on something, but we were hungry and the shops were shutting down.

There is a place in Epcot to get the basic characters autograph.  Usually the line is long, or you can Fast Pass it, but we basically just walked in.

The Space area ....

Then. we. saw. Mission Space... Mission to Mars... We thought it would be a lot of fun.  Mom even said "oh, we have to do this for the nephews and tell them all about it!"  I don't think we have been more wrong in our lives!  We should have listened and taken heed of all the warning signs "Do not enter if you are prone to motion sickness"... " Do not enter if you are claustrophobic"... Well, we thought maybe most of the rides at Disney said this ... so we plodded on!  In hindsight, NO OTHER RIDE in Disney has these warnings!  Kate just happens to be both of those, but thought "how bad can it be?  Really, it's Disney we're talking about ~ the happiest place on earth!"
Ignoring all the signs, we kept going to the "ultimate, extreme experience".
We got into our seats and pulled down our harnesses.  Kate pulled hers too tight and couldn't loosen it.  Then the speaker told us to keep looking straight ahead at the screen if we start to feel sick ~ and that there were motion sickness bags provided.  Oh oh, there were no bags left!  They were all GONE,  as in NONE LEFT.  GONE. Baby Gone.  This has got to be a bad sign!  Mom saw 1 bag on the floor but was unable to reach it.  Maybe we'll be okay.

A simulator comes on as your pod closes around you and 3 other people.  It tells you of your mission to Mars.  Then you blast off !  You're sucked back into your seat and think "this is fun"  then suddenly your thoughts change to "this is terrible!"  URPY URPY.  We were all relieved to finally see Mars on our screen, but NO, we over shot the landing!  As we rock back and forth and jiggle around, you wonder what the puke will look like on the screen in front of you.

The speaker tells you to press a button , then to PULL BACK, PULL BACK... oh and you DO, YOU DO!  You pull back on that lever in front of you until you think it will break off.  Anything to stop this ride you think.  Maybe my sheer will power can fix this insanity.
BUT NO ~ you crash through a barrier and rock on the edge of a cliff.  Mom says "Well this can't be good" and the speaker says "don't move".  Kate was sitting as still as stone, thinking she was just going to let 'er fly if it moved anymore.  Anything would be better than this feeling.
Aw, sweet relief when the speaker says "congratulations astronauts... your mission was successful!"

After they open up your pod, everyone just sat there.  Employees had to keep telling Gregg to get out.  He was too disoriented to know what he was doing.  Jolene thought she was fine, until she got moving around more.

Notice Mei is the only one smiling ?

Mei's first words were, "Can we go again?!?".  Ruth and Kate were looking for restrooms.  Gregg asked the girl, that was sitting by Jolene, how she was.  She said "oh, we're good."  Later Ruth said that same girl came running into the bathroom and lost her lunch in the stall beside her.  EWWW!   So many wonderful memories of Mission Space.  NOTE:  There is a mild version of this ride.  Maybe, just maybe, we'll try that one sometime.

Sitting and trying to drink some water and eat some fries after Mission to Pukey Mars

After looking up this ride, it is actually a complete spinning ride.  You just don't see yourself spinning, but my oh my, your stomach spins for hours afterwards.

Paris Eiffel Tower and our girl who wants to see it so badly!

So we took it easy and just slowly walked around for awhile.  Eating something actually did help our stomachs feel better.

We're in the center of something special I guess.

Walked out of the washrooms without Ruth and she didn't know where we went :(

Thinking how fun this is... if only my feet weren't throbbing.

Gregg thinking he is being like the man in the Frozen photo... but instead being super creepy.
Unfortunately, this look becomes the 'cool thing' to do in photos for the next while.

Mom wanted to look in more places, girls wanted more rides?

More rides!  Boat rides, buckle up rides... fun rides... not scary rides!

We did see Alice in Wonderland skipping about and Chip and Dale as well.  It was nice to just see them out and about, but they are very scheduled and also have a "handler" nearby as well.

The "big white ball thing"

So our shoes weren't the best and we spent too much of the morning rushing around...our feet are sore and blistering.  Band-aids.  Resting.  Plotting how to fix this for the next venture.

Aw, Cinderella and her Prince, in fine foliage!

We ate some Frushies at the Japanese pavillon.  Very yummy...like a fruit sushi?

We had a macaroon at the France pavillon for $4.  Oh so yummy!  We also got some sort of deep fried chocolate icecream thing that I fell is love with. 

By the time we were feeling recovered from our space venture, most places were closing.  We felt sad about that, as there were many places we didn't get to see.

Japanese restaurant to find Gluten Free food.  Rice and chicken and veggies

Jolene ran off to find some ice cream or gelato or something else yummy...Gregg and the girls stayed in the Japanese restaurant.  The waitresses found out Mei's name and brought them little paper orgami  cranes and visited.  They wrote the girls name in Japanese on the birds wing. That was a highlight for the girls.  The manager here was VERY excited about his bottle of Gluten Free Soy Sauce that he could offer Kate.  He did mention that they have been working on getting a wider variety of menu items for Gluten Free.
 We ended off watching some fireworks and a light show and then off to bed...

Blistered feet, queasy stomachs and a touch of heat stroke ~ blissfully happy!

Parking $17

 Food $38.75