DAY 2:
I didn't sleep well that first night. Really, I didn't sleep well any night I was there. The bed and the bedding were SO comfortable, but I had a hard time sleeping. I think I am just used to my husband being in my bed with me.
Anyway, Lisa and I were up around 8:30. I went outside to have a smoke and enjoy a few minutes in the Florida sunshine.
The view of Lago Dorado (the lake at our hotel) from just outside our hotel room.
View of the lake from my favorite smoking bench near our room. GOOD MORNING ORLANDO!!!
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Back in the room, Lisa and I took our time taking showers and getting dressed. We planned to spend most of our day in Epcot and then in the evening we were going to go back to the Magic Kingdom to have the dessert and fireworks buffet.
Before we left the hotel, we walked into Cafe Rix and grabbed a quick breakfast of danishes and cressant rolls. They were yummy. We ate them as we walked to the bus stop.
We hopped on the Epcot bus and arrived at the park around 10. We spent a few minutes getting our picture pass, which would allow us to get our pictures taken by different photographers around the parks, and then view or buy them online later. Lisa and I took a lot of pictures using our picture pass in the parks.
Taking a pic of my sis taking a pic:
We went to ride SOARIN first, because Lisa had never been on that one. We didn't get our fast passes early enough, so we had to wait in the long line for this one. We waited 60 minutes. It was actually the longest line we would wait in the whole 6 days but it was worth it.
We also saw the Captain EO 3-D movie. It was made by Michael Jackson in the mid-80's but has not been shown for many years. After he died, Disney brought the movie back and it was very good.
We stopped in Club Cool to sample some free coca-cola fountain drink samples from around the world. You could try as many as you wanted. It was a nice place to get out of the sun for a little while:
We stopped at the Character Spot, a large building with several Disney characters available to take pics with you. We took our pictures with each character that was there, but they were taken by the park photographers for our photo pass. I didn't take any with my camera. I will be able to post the pics we buy later in my review.
Lisa and I were hungry so we ate our counter-service lunch at a burger place called the Electric Umbrella. The food was good, and the place had a great vibe.
With our Disney dining plan, we had cheeseburgers, fries and a soft drink. We also got cookies for dessert.
We were stuffed after lunch. We walked around and looked in a lot of gift shops.
We went on the Nemo ride:
Mine, Mine, Mine............anyone watch Nemo??!!! Too cute!!!
Blurry because we were moving when I took this pic:
Some Nemo and Dori displays outside of the Nemo ride:
We did a lot of walking!
We had 4:00 dinner reservations at the Under The Sea Restaurant that was in the Epcot Park, so we headed over there around 3:30.
Our reservations were early for two reasons, it's really hard to get reservations at some of the more popular restaurants so we took what they had left when we called about 6 weeks before our trip. Also, on this night we were going to the Dessert/Fireworks buffet at 9:00 at the Magic Kingdom Park. We needed time to get over to the MK and we wanted to be hungry for our dessert buffet. So 4:00 was actually perfect for our dinner reservations that night.
We met up with Lisa's co-worker Beth and her family for dinner at the Coral Reef:
Inside the front doors of the restaurant, waiting area:
Our table on the second tier. We could see sharks and stingrays and lots of other sea creatures behind the huge glass wall. It was like eating in an aquarium.
Inside the restaurant it was pretty dark, so we could see the aquarium very well. My pics made it look lighter in the restaurant than it really was.
I ordered the NY Strip steak (I don't eat fish or seafood) with potatoes and spinach. It was very good!
I ordered my coke in a souvineer cup with a light-up Tinkerbell clip for the straw.
I had fun walking around the parks with this cup after our dinner. Many people stopped me to ask where I got it.
Here are a couple of pics of the desserts we ordered that came with our Dining plan. I don't remember what this one was called:
Lisa ordered crem brulee (spelling?). It was yummy, I tasted it:
This was my dessert, it was called the Chocolate Wave. It was good but I didn't eat much of it. I was already so full from our late lunch and then eating steak so early.
After dinner the six of us walked over to the Mission:Space ride together so Bill and I could ride it. Lisa and Beth sat on a bench and waited for us. It was a very intense ride! I loved it!! The lines weren't long, and we were back in 20 minutes. Since it was SO FUN, Bill and I rode it again!! Both times we picked the more intense orange side. There was a more mellow version if you picked the green side.
It was time to head to the Magic Kingdom, so we left Epcot and boarded a monorail to the Disney Transportation Center. At the TC, we changed monorails and got to the Magic Kingdom around 7:30PM.
We wandered around Main Street for a while, and then headed to Tomorrowland to find The Terrace Fireworks and Dessert Party. Lisa and her co-worker Beth had made the reservations for this about 2 months before our trip. They only allow 180 people each night, and it fills up quickly. We were lucky to get in! I was excited!!!
The Terrace area where the buffet was to be held.:
Later we had a very good view of the Castle and the Wishes fireworks show
Waiting in line to be let into the dessert buffet. We could see that the tables were reserved for each group with nametags.
Just before 9:00PM, they gave us wristbands so we could come and go from the terrace area if we wanted.
They led us to our table:
We were pretty much the first people in there so as soon as we were seated I ran to the buffet to take pictures before the crowd of people got to it.
So many yummy desserts!!!
They hand scooped vanilla bean ice cream for us and there was a station to put toppings on the ice cream:
Hot tea and coffee:
and more desserts!!!
I loaded my plate:
Those round balls were truffles
And the mini crem brulee:
This chocolate covered strawberry was huge!
It was all really good, and the whole experience was very well done. Of course, Disney does EVERYTHING very good, and the dessert and fireworks buffet was no exception.
We had an hour to eat all we wanted. Around 10:00 we all made our way closer to the railing facing Cinderella's castle.
Great pics of the castle from the Terrace balcony. I took many. Here are a few of my faves:
I love love love Cinderella's Castle! It's so magical looking. I took over 70 pictures of the castle on this vacation.
As it got dark it was time for the WISHES Fireworks show to begin. I didn't take many pics of the fireworks show, I was too bust watching it all. It was very good and lasted about 20 minutes. They projected a lazer show onto the castle, and it was very cool.
I want to say here, that although the Wishes show was very good, I was sad about 2 things. The first was that Tinkerbell didn't fly from the castle during our show, and I was SO looking forward to seeing her. Her zip-line actually ran right over the top of The Terrace balcony we were on, and it would have been fantastic to see her fly toward us.
The second thing I was a little sad about was that the Wishes show was not as good as the fireworks show we had seen in DisneyLand in the early 2000's when I was last there. In 2003 the DisneyLand show was called "Believe- There's Magic In The Stars" and I thought that was THE BEST fireworks and lazer show EVER. The tune was catchy and fun and our family skipped out of the park singing the song from the show.
Wishes wasn't quite as catchy and fun, but it was still a good show. I wish they would bring back the Believe show.
Oh well, with the Wishes show over, the park was closing. Time to head back to Main street for a little shopping!
We stayed so long in the shops on Main Street that by the time we got on the bus it was fairly empty. We were back at our hotel room by 11:45 and asleep by 1
Stay tuned for day three!
You can read Day 1 HERE and Day 3 HERE
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