Disney Day Four

First off, I know you guys have asked a lot of questions in your comments and I'll definitely answer them. I'm just not taking the time to go through and answer them while I'm still here because I really don't want to be attached to my computer. I am going to have one looong Sunday Sound Out when I get to them!

We had a lazy morning and slept in a bit, had some pancakes in our room and went for a swim. We hit Epcot around noon. It wasn't crowded at all which was wonderful! It wasn't as hot today either (especially when the sun was behind clouds) which was nice. We went on Spaceship Earth when we first arrived because you can't go to Epcot and not go in the sphere. They've changed that a little bit from the last time I was there (as a kid).

Then we headed over to the world pavilion. We started at Mexico and made our way to every country. They sell these passports there and kids can take them around and get them stamped in each country they visit. I have to admit that the world showcase can be kinda boring for the little kids because there aren't too many rides or exhibits that young kids would find interesting. The passports gave them something to do - look for the "kidcot" station and get a stamp in their book. They also have a little craft that's free and kids can go from country to country and add an item to their craft at each stop.

Joe and I had fun eating our way through the countries. We could easily have spent a small fortune doing this! Especially if we'd gone with our friends Jenny and Chris, who like to eat as much as we do! We had some yummy thing (forgot what it was called) and churros in Mexico, these delicious waffle-like pastries with jam in Norway, eggrolls, potstickers, and veggie stir fry in China, pretzels in Germany, falafel, couscous, and baklava in Morocco, sushi (California rolls because the kids wanted to try it) in Japan, and spanikopita and melamakarona at a Greek stand. There may have been more, but I can't remember. It was all delicious!

We have to get up early tomorrow because we agreed to listen to a 90 minute time share dealy. That knocked several hundred dollars off the price of our room so we decided it was worth it. After that, I think we'll hit Magic Kingdom again for a couple hours. We want to do a couple things we didn't have time for yesterday and the kids want to do a couple favorite rides again. We plan on calling it an early night and coming back to our room for spaghetti.

Oh, for those of you who were wondering if we have to get 2 rooms - we got a 2 bedroom villa off Disney property. It has a full kitchen and a washer and dryer in the room. Even when I factored in the cost of a rental car, parking, and gas, it was cheaper than staying on site. Actually, scratch that. I think the cheaper Disney hotels (All Star ones) were about the same, but we'd have to get 2 adjoining rooms and there was no kitchen or laundry.

This way, we went down the street to Publix and bought eggs, bagels, pop, water, juice, milk, bread, peanut butter, cereal, fruit, and snacks. We have breakfast in our room every day and take snacks and water into the parks. Some days, we've stopped for dinner on the way to the hotel at a casual restaurant off site. We've gotten some food at the parks too. It gets expensive dining out all the time and you tend to eat more garbage when you eat out constantly, in my opinion. It's been really nice getting to have some meals in our room.

I suppose, if money were no object (or for smaller families) staying on site would be more convenient. There are definitely advantages to it. But for us, this is working out nicely.

Oh, here's a funny story. Or more like a story that highlights my dorkness. While we were at the pool this morning, I overheard two people talking in a foreign language. I was lying in the sun with my eyes closed so I didn't see them, but I could hear their conversation. I thought to myself, that's an interesting language. It sounds a little familiar, but I can't figure out what language it is. What are they speaking? Then I was able to pick out the words, "flew out of Manchester..." Manchester? That's in England, isn't it? Oh my gosh! They're speaking ENGLISH! I swear I've never heard thicker English accents in my life. I seriously didn't understand more than half the words they spoke. And it was ENGLISH for crying out loud. And it's not like you don't hear that accent around here. There are a lot of English people who vacation here. Their pound goes so far here in America. It works out well for them. Honestly, the only word I recognized was "aye" because they said that a lot. It's amazing that the same language can sound so different!

OK, I've got to get some sleep, but I'll leave you with a couple of the 200 or so pictures I took today. By the time this trip is over, I'm going to be able to make a 4 hour video for the kids to watch again and again.


Spaceship Earth


Inside Mexico - it's really gorgeous in here


Brooklyn the Viking


a whole crew of Vikings


China


Clay and Brooklyn giving Mushu a hug. They kept saying, "I love you dragon."


Germany - a whole lotta people were celebrating Oktoberfest!


It's Godzilla! Or a tiny lizard on the roof of a house in a train set.


Italy


This is where Brooklyn played dead on the streets of Morocco.


Savannah making a phone call in England. According to the kids, this leads to the Ministry of Magic.


The giant golf ball