By the time we reached Epcot it was absolutely pouring rain. People were flying out of the park to get out of the rain, but not us. We were going to make that reservation no matter how late we were going to be! Mom came prepared and had ponchos for everyone. Unfortunately, the ponchos stop around the knees. It didn’t take long to completely soak the lower legs, shoes, and socks. Tayler asked multiple times during our trek to stop to dump the water out of her shoes and she asked multiple times to turn around and go back to the hotel for room service. I actually heard one of the masses coming out of the park ask, “Where are those people going?” Good question! Mom had her plan and it couldn’t be thwarted. Hey, I had already paid for us to visit the park that day.
Epcot is expansive, twice the size of Magic Kingdom. As we walked that thought kept coming to mind, especially since Japan, where we were suppose to eat dinner, is on the very far end of the park. We couldn’t have picked a further away point if we had tried. I knew we only had to make it half way because once we got to that halfway point they had ferries that would take us across Future World to Japan. I had done my research! We finally made it to our halfway point absolutely drenched, but guess what? Ferries stopped running at 7:20! That was not mentioned in the books I read! Now what do we do? We had already walked a good 15 minutes in the rainstorm. It had been probably 45 minutes since we left the hotel. We couldn’t turn back now. Another fifteen minute walk around Future World in the downpour with exhausted kids would put us there. Toward the end of our trek Tayler had a revelation, “Disney World is not very much fun.” Almost immediately the tears began to well in my eyes. What am I doing to my family! Fortunately her comment came only minutes before we entered Japan. They got us a table almost immediately-probably because everyone else fled the park because of the rainstorm! The girls, though cold, enjoyed the chefs preparing the food in front of them and eating with chopsticks. By the time we left the restaurant, the rain had stopped. We began our thirty minute walk back to wait for the buses.
We reached the resort around 10:30 completely exhausted. The girls crashed as soon as their heads hit the pillow, but it didn’t last long for Aubree. She started coughing fits shortly after falling asleep. Within the hour she started throwing up. The vomiting lasted close to an hour. Of all nights, why tonight! Not the way I planned our Disney Vacation! Thus, the end of day 1.
The girls at the completion of Day 1.
Day 2 Aubree woke with a low grade fever of 100.2. I figured I could pick up some motrin at the gift shop and she’d make it. She’s such a trooper. She was actually the first one up wanting to head to Magic Kingdom. I didn’t help redeem myself from the previous night by accidentally getting on the bus to MGM instead of Magic Kingdom! We had to go to MGM, then the ticket transport center, then take a monorail to Magic Kingdom. It took us about an hour to finally make it. At this point, Mom’s 0 for 2.
It was so cold when we left the resort. We actually ended up wearing our clothes that we were suppose to travel home in, plus the heaviest sweatshirt we could find. The entire day was windy, cold, and I don’t remember seeing the sun all day. Tuesday they saw 82 in Orlando. Our first full day was going to be lucky to reach 55. On the plus side, it kept the crowds small. Our longest wait was around 20 minutes. The girls rode their favorites a few times. They had a blast. We kept rotating the tylenol and motrin for Aubree. Without knowing her, you wouldn’t have been able to tell she was sick. The favorites of the day were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Mickey’s Philharmagic. The first is a roller coaster that we pretty much had to sneak Aubree on. She doesn’t quite make the 40 in. requirement, but of course she wants to ride everything. The second is a 3D show with most the Disney characters. We have now seen this one three times. We waited until the parked closed, so we were able to view the Wishes fireworks display over Cinderella’s castle. We ended up back at the resort around 9:00. Day two ended a success!
Tayler actually rode Cinderella's horse and Aubree got to ride Prince Charming's horse on Cinderella's Carosel. They must have a keen eye.
The pictures of Aubree only got sadder from here. From the pictures, she didn't do very well the second half of the day.:(
Day 3 began with Aubree waking in the middle of the night with a 102.3 fever. I was thankful I’d already purchased the motrin. When she woke around 7 in the morning, the fever was gone. Once again she was a trooper all day and rotating the medicine kept the fever away. We went back to the Magic Kingdom for another full day. Dave and Tayler rode Space Mountain and Splash Mountain while Aubree and I were able to enjoy Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This was also Dave’s favorite because it is a shooting game in which each gun keeps score. Of course, he beat us all. We also went back to tour the favorites and enjoyed the afternoon parade. Another favorite of the girls is Haunted Mansion. This surprised Dave and me since they are afraid to even go upstairs at home by themselves.
Although it only reached 60 degrees, the sun shone all day. What a difference that makes! The nicer weather must have brought out bigger crowds. I’d say there were at least twice as many people there today and the waits were a lot longer. Dave and I agreed we’d rather have the cold weather without crowds, but I definitely loved the sun. It was another successful day and we’re ready to retire for the night. It will be off to MGM in the morning. I know what bus to take.
The "Cinderella" face paint
The "Wishes" face paint
