Day 4
The Plan: Epcot all day! ADRs: Biergarten at 1:15 and Rose and Crown at 7:50 for Illuminations.
Actual:
To elaborate on my plan—we wanted to go all morning until we ate (or the BTGs drove us out of there (they were bad that week)) and then hit POR for a siesta, then go back in the evening for a stroll, a beer and R&C and Illuminations. We hit all the high spots in FW…no, sorry Ellen’s is not a high spot—it’s not unbearable, but we don’t lose sleep if we don’t go there (get it?). We collected a FP to Soarin` for later on that we thought could use on the way out to siesta.
I don’t care for Stitch to be honest, but the whole family was into it:
Let me digress with some background info: My wife recently started working at the same company as me. It’s a decent sized company so I hardly ever see her---we’re even in different buildings. Anyway, her cube-mate is a great guy that I have known since I have worked here. He has Muscular Dystrophy but continues to work even though he has gone downhill in recent years. They told him about 3 years ago that he needed to be in a wheelchair, but refuses. He and my wife really bonded—he taught her a lot in her first few months .
Well, after Captain EO (yes I enjoy it, don’t judge me!
) we decided to use our FP for Soarin`and then go into WS for some cold beers—mixing things up a little. We headed down the stairs and my wife stopped to use the rest room—that one “halfway down” off to the side—you know which one I mean. So I sat there and waited and then I got an awful text: her cube-mate had passed away.
It was a surprise, but it wasn’t, does that make sense? I had to think quick—should I tell her or not? Should I wait? I decided to tell her right then and she cried and we hugged—we were sorta in shock. We sat there about 15 mins—she called her boss and tried to find out more. His lungs just gave out—it was inevitable really. He lived way past his expiration date, as he liked to say. I was wondering if this would ruin her trip or what she would do…
She announced: Lets ride Soarin` then go have some beers in his honor! Amen to that! The first beer was in Canada—we milled around, drank and reminisced about our fallen co-worker. Then we watched the Canada film. We were quiet, down but not out. Somber I guess is the term.
My son and some cat---a Lady in a store in France told us who she was, but I don’t even remember:
We drank our way around to Germany and then ate there. Last time at the Bier Garten (August of 2009) we were seated with an awesome family from CA, but no such luck this time…When he explained that we would be sitting together, the other family (from Mass.) immediately complained, but he wouldn’t hear it—he just sat us and walked away as they grumbled and fussed. In fact they were arguing/complaining about the seating so long that I already had my first plate of food before they realized they weren’t going to ‘win.’ If they wanted to eat, they were eating with us. Too funny—I guess nobody warned them. They would even look at our end of the table.
We had a lovely blonde German gal who’s name escapes me (I am awful with names) but I can picture her face—and she was very tall! She talked us both into the “German-Sized” beers and we rolled out of the Biergarten way before the other people—much to their delight I am certain. Some people…
“German-Sized?”
Full of food and with heavy hearts, we headed back to the POR to relax and avoid the ever-growing Brazilian population at our favorite park. We did a little shopping at the Fulton General Store—I wanted some more Mickey kitchen utensils—jackpot! And my wife wanted some small gifts for her co-workers—check that box!
After an uneventful break at the resort, we headed back to Epcot for our favorite activity: walking around, drinking beer and enjoy all that is Epcot. I texted Mousekedude and he replied that he was in Epcot also—they were going to have a margarita at la Cava and then hang out with the Boilers. So my Wife took Son #2 to Norway for the boat-ride and I went into the depths of Mexico to share a drink with the Mousekecouple. We chatted and they told me that bought a DVC Membership so they were going to be having many more jalapeno maragaritas with the Mouse
Congrats!!!
Delicious jalapeno margaritas all around with great people!
I had to leave to catch up to my family (I couldn’t let her get too many beers ahead) so we crashed the Boilers dinner at San Angel just to say ‘hi’ (thanks to the Double-Boilers for being so gracious-but I just had to meet a fellow half-marathoner and SSR`er) and I was on my way!
Let’s recap: I had a jalapeno margarita in Mexico, a beer in Norway, a beer in Germany, a Grey Goose slushy in France (never had it—just HAD to get one) and now off to R&C for dinner—lol. Yes I was FULL!
So I ordered a beer while we waited (!) and around 8:00 we got seated with an inside view of the show. I didn’t care because we always go out to their little patio area to watch anyway. Honestly—I have no clue what I ordered, not even after looking back at the menu---lol. Wow, huh? Now I know you are thinking it was because it was all the drinks I had, but you’d be wrong. It was because we were seated two tables away from a demon child from ‘you know where’. This child was pure evil. She was running around the seat that is sort of built into the wall—she was screaming—she started to punch her sister. I couldn’t stop staring at the parents who just sat there and ate while the girl (maybe about 6 or 7) created chaos in the Rose and Crown. Oh, it was a sight! Finally they finished and mom and kids left---Dad ordered a beer and sat there calmly cashing out his check and drinking that last beer. I was worried that the girl was out on the patio waiting for Illuminations but after we went out there she was nowhere to be found…in fact we were the only ones there.
Dessert is included in the DDP so we ordered them and with the help of our terrific server (a very young gal that was just bubbly-she seemed to love her job), we enjoyed the show with “to-go” cups of beer, then went back in and concluded our awesome evening with sticky toffee pudding. Then like everyone else, we shuffled out of Epcot and waited for the bus back to POR. Long day, but fun… and meeting up with the Mousekecouple was a nice surprise.
We decided that we would sleep in a little bit tomorrow and then hit MK.
It's probably a good thing that your drink count was where it was as it probably made the chaos at dinner seem a bit more tolerable...
