August 2010 Walt Disney World Trip Report - Day 6

Epcot – 9/2

Because DD was up past her bedtime at Simba’s Cubhouse last night, we planned for a sleep-in morning and spending the afternoon at Epcot. Indeed, we got up at a leisurely pace and got to Epcot a little before 11:00am. Our first two stops were to grab FastPasses for Soarin’ and the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure.

Because we still had a little time before World Showcase opened at 11:00am, we hopped on Living with the Land, which had its typical 0 minute wait. DW and I hadn’t been on it forever, and DD had never been on it, so it was a great chance for her to learn about growing pumpkins shaped like Mickey ears.

It must have been very confusing to me at the time…

After venturing into World Showcase, we jumped onto the Gran Fiesta Tour con Los Tres Caballeros. Unlike the confusion caused by crops, I guess I found avian mariachi bands surprising.

I don’t have it in my notes when or where we ate lunch. Maybe it was right about now? We usually have lunch in Morocco at the counter service there, Tangierine Café. DW and I like the chicken wrap, and DD usually gets chicken tenders and dips them in my yoghurt sauce. We all agree on the Baklava.

We’d never seen Voices of Liberty or the Spirit of America show, so we headed over to the USA. We caught the very end of the Fife and Drum performance…

…and then moved inside to grab a space in the Rotunda for the Voices of Liberty. As we entered, one of the cast members asked if we were going to be staying for the Spirit of America show. Because we were, and I guess because we were the first ones there, we were named the First Family of the USA! We took an elevator up to the second level and got to watch the Voices of Liberty perform from up there. We also got to sit front and center for Spirit of America. We enjoyed both shows, although the Spirit of America’s retelling of our nation’s history is, as you’d imagine, pretty whitewashed.

DD had been begging to do a Kim Possible mission, so we redeemed our FastPass at the International Gateway and were assigned to the UK. She’s done all of the missions, many of them more than once. Some of the elements change but the basics are the same. I think the UK one is the coolest. There’s a lot more interacting with parts of the scenery than in the others, and the way the mission ends is pretty neat too. One of the tasks required retrieving a special golf ball from a chute hidden in this ordinary-looking phone booth.

Whilst in the UK we caught a show of the World Showcase Players. They’re always funny, but the volunteers they pick to participate usually make the thing hilarious…

By this time we were getting late into the afternoon, so we headed back into Future World to use our Soarin’ FastPasses. We also hopped on Spaceship Earth on the way out, where DD decided that life would be better, down where it’s wetter (under the sea).

When you get off Spaceship Earth, it dumps you into an arcade of sorts. We spent a little time playing a combination virtual shuffleboard/SimCity type game.

With Wii, Kinect and all of the high tech gaming systems in people’s living rooms, the games seemed a bit dated. Very high tech when they first came out I’m sure…

We had 6:35 reservations for dinner at Whispering Canyon Café, or as DD calls it, it’s alternately, “The Cowboy Restaurant” or “The Ketchup Restaurant.” We got there a little early and were seated right away.

If you haven’t eaten there before, understand that there are a lot of shenanigans, the highest profile of which includes what happens when someone in the restaurant needs ketchup. Another tradition there is the Stick Horse Race.

I’ve always gotten the Skillet, which is way too much food. It seems a waste. Maybe the problem is that I order one of the bottomless milkshakes to wash it down. But I don’t think that’s my problem…

After dinner we went back to the hotel for the night. It was around 8pm and getting dark, and the Giraffes were out looking for dinner. I used the Clarity feature of Camera+ on my iPhone to brighten this up so you can see them better…

We said good night and hit the sheets to rest up for our last park day of the trip, heading to Magic Kingdom in the morning.