WDW- August 2009 - Day 2

Our second day at Disney World was spent at EPCOT.

We arrived before park opening for breakfast in Norway with the princesses.

The character interaction here was great. H got lots of attention for her custom Belle dress. We saw Belle,

Aurora,

Snow White,

Cinderella,

and Ariel.

The food was good here. I love the cold buffet with the berries and fruits. When we asked for seconds of the hot food it was brought out pretty quickly, which was an improvement from our visit here in May. We had paid and were out in time to pass into future world right after rope drop. Hubby headed to Test Track to get fast passes and Mom, H and I went to the character spot.

We had a short wait for the characters. H is so funny this trip with the characters. She views them all as her "friends" so it takes awhile to get finished with each on because she has to tell them things she's been waiting months to share. We saw Mickey,

Mickey saw her shirt right away and started to laugh about it. It has Pluto with a Minnie bow on his head.

I think Mickey was telling H secrets here and giving her a kiss!

Pluto (who wasn't too happy about the bow),

Minnie (who was checking out the shirt),

Donald (who was goofing around with the toys in her stroller while he waited for her to finish with Minnie)

and Goofy.

We also saw Belle in her provincial dress right outside of this area. We had also seen her here in May.

After this we headed to the Living Seas. We had to take sometime outside so H could watch the seagulls. They're her favorite. We did the ride and stayed to watch Turtle Talk with Crush. We hadn't done Turtle Talk before and we all really enjoyed it. It was really cool how interactive Crush was with the audience and how he "knew" exactly what was going on. We also had to get the obligatory Bruce picture.

Up next was Soarin'. We were able to ride with only waiting about 20 minutes. This ride is one of our family favorites. After the ride we picked up fast passes for later on. We were bummed that Living with the Land is closed right now. My mom and I enjoy seeing all the produce creations in the greenhouses.

We went to Journey into Imagination next. This ride is a sentimental favorite for me. Figment is my favorite non-movie Disney character. I remember seeing an animatronic little figment years ago that was taken around by the professor that used to be in the ride. Figment even sat on my shoulder then. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was up next. We ended up all the way in the back of the theater, having to crawl over people who wouldn't go to the end of the row and stopped in the middle. H sat on my lap so she could see better. It was nice to cool off in the AC but I don't know that I'd do it every trip.

We headed back to the Land for lunch. We ate counter service in the food court here. I had rotisserie half-chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. Mom got vegetable soup and Caesar salad. Hubby went for Asian and got Mongolian Beef, Ginger Thai Chicken, rice and broccoli. H had macaroni and cheese kid's meal. Everyone enjoyed their meals.

Next we went to the Visa card member at Innovations. I arrived 15 minutes early so we ended up being the 4th family in line. While we waited H and hubby played at H's favorite, learning about fire safety. When we got our turn, we found that we were visiting with Minnie and Goofy. The past 4 (at least) times we've been there it was always Mickey and Pluto. Mom, hubby and I all have our own accounts, so we got three free pictures.

After visiting we headed back to the hotel for quiet time. H didn't sleep, but everyone else got at least a short nap.

On return to the park, we headed to Germany for dinner at Biergarten. In order to cut walk time, we took the boat across the lake from Future World to World Showcase. This was the second visit to this restaurant for us, but first time Mom had been. During our May visit, H had such a good time dancing that we had to return. The food was excellent although they had changed the recipe on the potato leek soup (the consistency was different). Hubby had a 1/2 pint Heffe-Weisse beer with his meal. After dinner, H got to dance with her Daddy.

After dinner we decided to walk back and use our Soarin' and Test Track fast passes from earlier. H stopped to play the drums at the African outpost on the way there.

Test Track was our first stop. H was fascinated by all the crash test dummies on the way to the ride. You can tell by how she looks here that she was tired.

Soon after that we were strapped in and ready to do our test drive. This was the first time any of us had ridden this one and we loved it! This is H ready for take-off.

H faking a scared look.....she's such a ham!
This is the car she wanted to try out
After Test Track, Hubby and H headed to Soarin' and Mom and I shopped at Mouse Gear for a bit and then went over to the photopass center to redeem our free print certificates. We had a great time in EPCOT today.

Next up.....Magic Kingdom!