Sunday dawned hot and sunny, not that we were up to see it – neither one of us was up before 10am today, having stayed out late the night before.  After a quick coffee/hot chocolate infusion and some trail mix eaten on the run, we grabbed a bus to Epcot and proceeded immediately to the Land pavillion to secure Fast Passes for Soarin’.  Metaphorical running of the bulls over with, we meandered over to the Mexico pavillion, and made our way through to Norway, where we stopped for a sweet almond pretzel and a quick rest in the shade.  We then proceeded to walk and shop, photographing some of the more interesting (or daresay ridiculous) things that caught our eye, paying special attention to the Steiff bears in Germany and the mesmerizing selection of chocolates in Italy.

Even the banners in the tiny German train village are correctly themed...and this is why I love Disney.

We ended up in the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan, our first of many trips this week to scope the wares and see what would inevitably end up in our suitcase when we went home.  CP is a dedicated Totoro fan, and we were saddened to see that Totoro merchandise wasn’t particularly well-represented.

O Canada!

With hunger settling in we headed to Morocco and snagged some felafel pitas and Casa beer from the Food and Wine stand.    Afterward we browsed the Moroccan shops, but were driven out of the pavilion by a screaming naked baby running about.  After walking through the France pavilion, we exited through the International Gateway and headed toward the Beach Club for a break and some dessert at Beaches and Cream. The restaurant itself was packed, so we settled for take-away sundaes and ate next to Stormalong Bay.  The verdict of this much-heralded treat spot? Meh.  Part of the problem is that my order was incorrectly filled, but the ice cream wasn’t all that good and I’ve certainly had better for less money.  After browsing the Beach Club (and enjoying its air conditioning) we headed back to finish our tour of the World Showcase, browsing through the United Kingdom, and stopping to take pictures of ourselves (and helping others with their pictures) in Canada.

We then decided it was time to knock off more items on our never-done list, and thus headed to the Imagination Pavilion to ride Journey into Imagination and to see the Captain EO 3D film, which had returned to Epcot following the death of Michael Jackson.  Figment was just sad, and EO was probably something I’d enjoy more if I had taken the LSD needed to really appreciate the experience. It was like Star Wars with dancers! The floor moved in time with MJ’s gyrations!  Maybe we were just too young (or too old) to really appreciate the film, but it was definitely a one-and-done experience for both of us.

Ladies and gentleman, Disney's idea of a British person.

Afterward we headed to Club Cool to refresh ourselves with some free Coke products, but were dismayed to find it had run out of syrups and thus was no longer serving.  Unsure of what to do next, we decided to walk across the park and visit the Food and Wine Festival Center, which was creepily devoid of people and which elicited a sadness brought on by seeing once great WDW attractions now literally hidden by a wall of decorative plants, otherwise abandoned.  It was at about this time we both realized we were tired and cranky from the heat and from a lack of a hearty meal, so we headed for the World Showcase Lagoon to take a boat back to Morocco to eat at our favorite quick-service location (and in my opinion the best in all WDW), the Tangeriene Cafe.  We shared a boat with a very chatty lady who told us and our fellow travelers about the horrifying amounts of hormones found in milk (why was she discussing this? And with strangers? Still don’t know).  At the TC we split a vegetarian platter and a felafel pita, and reenergized walked back to Soarin’ to use our Fast Passes.

My one gripe with Soarin’ is that even when you ride just after park opening, or when you ride with a Fast Pass, you are still guaranteed at least a 20 minute wait. There is just no getting around it. In this case, our wait was 20 minutes behind an odiferous, slap-happy (literally! they kept slapping each other) family.  When we finally got to the bottom of the queue we asked for Row 1, and enjoyed a barefoot, feet-free view of California.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Afterward, we rounded out our Epcot day with a stop to visit the Mine! Mine! Mine! birds, and decided to ride the Nemo ride just because we would.  We did some fish viewing, walked back to the bus, and were back to AKL in short order. We refilled our mugs with soda, checked in with our families, did some laundry, and finished the evening watching the Parent Trap on tv.  Crazy kids, we are.

Up next: It’s all fun and games until your spontaneous plan completely backfires.