| Monday 8 September | |
| In Detail
Sat 15 Sep Sun 16 Sep Mon 17 Sep Tue 18 Sep Wed 19 Sep Thurs 20 Sep Fri 21 Sep Sat 22 Sep Sun 23 Sep Mon 24 Sep Tue 25 Sep Wed 26 Sep Thurs 27 Sep Fri 28 Sep Sat 29 Sep Sun 30 Sep Mon 1 Oct Tue 2 Oct Wed 3 Oct Thurs 4 Oct Fri 5 Oct Sat 6 Oct Sun 7 Oct Home Tue 9 Oct Wed 10 Oct Thurs 11 Oct Fri 12 Oct |
Day 24 – Monday 8th October 2007 Epcot Sad start to the morning today with news from home that my Mum’s cousin Helen died in Sydney. Mum & Dad will really miss her, they talked long and often on the phone. We met the Walkers bright and early at Epcot and set off for another big day. Did Soarin’ nice and early (the hang-glider ride over California) gosh it’s a wonderful ride, think it’s a favourite for all of us, it’s certainly mine. Brayden & Hayley have discovered pin trading at Disney. We’d managed to avoid it for 3 weeks, but then Tara & Zander started it, so could avoid it no longer, major marketing coup for Disney. You buy a ‘starter’ set of 7 pins/badges (for $30 no less!) and then trade them with many Disney employees throughout the parks. Also need to buy a lanyard to wear around your neck to hang them on. You can buy all manner of more exotic pins for all manner of prices. There are special pins that have ‘hidden mickey’s’ on, so the pin will be a picture of any Disney character or scene, but there will be a small mickey hidden within it, which makes it more special. There are thousands and thousands of them and whole books devoted to the intricacies of pin trading. Can’t believe we got this close to the end before they finally decided they had to have them. Kids really enjoy the trading part, and is a fun way to talk to the Disney cast members. Brayden had spent his holiday allowance, so actually dipped into his bank account to buy this (and we can’t remember the last time the little miser went near his bank account, so that shows the depth of pin tradings appeal). Had fun going round World Showcase (all the countries), got to do Canada with the Canadian Walkers, really enjoyed that. Had fish & chips for lunch in the U.K. Michael ducked off (when I say ducked, it’s actually a huge walk, Epcot is enormous – as are all Disney parks for that matter) to get another Fastpass for Soarin’ so we could ride it for one last time at the end of the night. We were going to meet up in the USA and then head off to the Walkers resort for a swim. He text’d me to say he was in the USA, but we were still in Japan (which is right next door to the USA), so we told him to come to Japan. 15mins later we’re still waiting, and he finally turns up absolutely exhausted as he’d walked to China by mistake (ages away), realised he’d gone wrong, then had to double back. The temperature is mid-high 30’s every day, and quite humid so he was not in a good way. Once we all finished laughing we tried to be sympathetic. The good news was he had a Soarin’ fastpass for 8pm, so we headed to the Walkers resort (a gorgeous one, only 10mins walk from Epcot), kids all swam for a couple of hours and we lay on pool lounges drinking pina coladas….bliss. We then headed back to Epcot for dinner (Walkers stayed at their resort), ate lovely teriyaki chicken and rice in Japan (not China!), before heading to China and watching their 360 degree movie that we all enjoyed, think kids would all like to go there now! Then it was off for our final ride on Soarin’…….spectacular, one of the lovely touches is when you soar above the pine forest they release this pine scent. We headed for home, and as usual kids got to bed about 10pm. Slightly easier day tomorrow, we’re doing ‘Blizzard Beach’ with the Walkers, the 2nd Disney Water Park (we did the other one, Typhoon Lagoon in our first week). Thankfully it doesn’t open till 10am and closes at 5pm, so won’t be such a mega day. I really need to start packing, have a bad feeling we’re going to need another suitcase by the end of the week. |