After my pleasant (but too) early morning with Leah, we woke Aly up and got her ready for the Princess Storybook breakfast at Akershus in the Norway pavilion at EPCOT. Leah was already ready for her first nap, so she slept in the stroller on the walk into EPCOT and around the front of the World Showcase while Rachel detoured over to Soarin’ to grab fastpasses for later in the day (that’s the kind of pre-kids commando stuff we used to do all the time). Leah woke up right after we parked the stroller at Norway, so the timing worked out pretty well.
At the Norway breakfast, you get a picture with Belle as part of your package, so we sent Aly up to have her picture taken with Belle, and then headed to our table to devour some Scandanavian breakfast goodness. Okay, there’s no such thing, but Aly had a plate of salami, later supplemented with bacon, some chocolate milk, and some of my Coke. 2011 Father of the Year, it’s in the bag, baby! The cheesy potatoes were tasty, as was the coke. The princesses started to make their rounds, and we saw Alice, Aurora, and Jasmine. Leah was pretty comfortable with them today, as you can see by her offering two of them her celery.
Just as Snow White was about to come to our table, the Princess Processional began, and we sent Aly off to follow Snow White around the restaurant in a parade of little princesses (and one boy, who did not look very pleased). Aly made good use of her parade wave, and as you can see from the pictures, enjoyed every moment of her tour. Snow White came by, and Leah liked her as well. In looking at the pictures, Aly has a weird expression, not sure what’s up with that.
Leaving breakfast, Rachel took Leah to the baby center while Aly and I headed off to Test Track. While we were waiting outside the baby center, the Jesus skywriting guy was doing his thing above EPCOT, with today featuring a Spanish message for the first time that we had seen: “Jesus Te Amo”. This is not uncommon, but it’s always interesting to see a skywriter at work.
The Test Track line said 20 minutes, and Aly said, yep, let’s do it. Well, the queue is pretty noisy, and Aly is sensitive to stuff like that, so she made me carry her the whole time. She weighs fifty pounds – this ain’t Leah we’re talking about. Then the ride broke down when we were first in line to go into the “briefing room” before the ride, so we waited an extra fifteen minutes with me sweating and carrying a five-year old. We finally got on, and she was screaming and laughing, having the time of her life.
We met the other girls at Club Cool, which is a place you can get soft drinks from other countries around the world, for free (and the Dutch rejoiced!). I dare you to try Beverly – it’s plain ole nastiness, but it’s fun to watch people try it for the first time. Aly digs some health drink from Japan called VegaBit or something, and I like a ginger ale-ish one and the lemon lime one. Always a fun visit.
After that, we split up. Rachel and Aly headed to Soarin’, while I took Leah over to The Living Seas to see some fishes. Leah loved the Nemo seagulls outside the ride saying “Mine! Mine! Mine!” over and over – she kept yelling back at them. I took her inside and let her crawl around at the aquarium glass – she loved the bubbles in the Lionfish cage. She also dug the dolphin that kept swimming right by the windows, and she was tracking him all the way around the aquarium. We saw the manatees, and she loved their snorty breathing when they surfaced. She kept holding her hand out and calling to the lady who was giving the manatee talk, and it was making the lady lose her cadence and crack up. Good stuff. Aly loved riding Soarin’ with Rachel.
We met back up for a ride on Livin’ with The Land, which Leah did not find amusing, and Aly said “this is too slow. After a quick break for snacks (Ted: Coke; Aly: orange Fanta; Rachel: chips & some of Ted’s Coke; Leah: Gerber applesauce), Aly cranked out two pressed pennies from the machine by Soarin’ – she’s really into those this trip, along with character autographs. Rachel had gotten us a rider swap, so Aly and I rode Soarin’ while Rachel put Leah down for her second stroller nap of the day.
Aly asked if we could sit in row one, which takes you up the highest during the ride. We asked the cast member and he said yes, so we took up the third- and second-to-last spots in that line. A Welsh lady got in line behind us and another family started chatting her up, and when she mentioned she was from Wales, they said, “Oh, we love Welsh Rabbit!”. I secretly chuckled at the rabbit comment, and then chuckled a bit louder when the mom had her tween daughter practice her English accent for the terrified Welsh woman.
As we loaded into the ride, Aly asked me if she could sit on the end, so I asked the to-this-point-friendly Welch if she would mind switching seats with Aly so Aly could sit in the end. I was met with a terse “No she can’t”, son I strapped Aly in and off we went. I soon had my explanation, as the Welshwoman pulled out a video camera and started taping the entire ride. She got her instant karma though, because Aly screams, hollers, laughs and shouts the entire ride, completely hosing the lady’s soundtrack.
Aly did some coloring at Canada while Leah (now awake, obviously) and I wandered around to Morocco and back. We passed lots of characters and she called to many of them, along with lots of other people. Her stranger fear has completely changed in the last five days – not gone, but drastically reduced. We picked up some pizza from the BW on the way back to our room, and had some down time before heading over to Wilderness Lodge for dinner.
The Whispering Canyon cafe is anything but quiet – it’s rowdy and kid-friendy. We got seated right away, and started a progression of bottomless shakes – strawberry, then chocolate, then the winner, cotton candy. Leah had lots of fun during dinner, eating complete apple slices (a first for her). Aly had more fun though, because this restaurant has a few fun things – you ask for ketchup, and your server screams “I NEED KETCHUP” and kids from all over the place bring ketchup bottles to your table. Aly got 11 when she asked.
After dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney and did some annual pass discount shopping at the massive World of Disney store, before heading back to the hotel for the night with an overtired Leah. As I type this, Aly is once again down on the Boardwalk with her new best friend, Brian the magician, having a blast again, just as she did last night. She is smitten, but she has promised to bring a funnel cake back with her, so I guess I can excuse the fact that she’s out at 10pm. Did I mention I’m a lock for Father of the Year?
Update: Aly returned with no funnel cake, so I withdraw my support of her nightly magic enjoyment.
