Day 5

September 20, 2023

Good morning Mr Contemporary… How is the weather today??

Another bright sunny day. Scary 😉 I am used to storms, even every afternoon.. so far none.

Today is a Epcot day, so I wear my 35^th Anniversary shirt given to me by my friend Virginia.

I really was there that day. I remember that trip too well. A major hurricane hit florida the same time I was due to arrive. I thought to beat out the storm leaving a day earlier, that didn’t work. Tried to rebook two weeks after.. that didn’t work out. Finally a month later almost, trains were running again and made it down there. I was looking at FB the day I was arriving, mad scenes of people trying to get and buy any 35^th anniversary merchandise. Thanks again Virginia. Breakfast is at Garden Grill, dinner at Le Cellier.

I scoot over to The Contemporary, board the monorail to Ticket Transportation Center, then take the Epcot monorail.

The whole trip from the Ticket/Transportation Center to Epcot takes about 9 minutes. I did FB live the whole trip. I downloaded the trip and edited it for time. Except for leaving the TTC and arriving through Epcot, the middle portion I sped up 500%, so the whole video is about 4 minutes 😊

Garden Grill is a character meal, but I go for the food. I ate here once years ago, I like to eat the food here. I don’t go for the characters. I more like watching sane adults go crazy with characters 😊 After checking in, they told me my table is ready.

Hidden mickey with plates 😊

The restaurant rotates over Living with the Land attraction. Nice hat 😊

They start you off with cinnamon breakfast loaf and watermelon spears. Had a little of one, didn’t touch the other. Not saying which 😊

Scrambled eggs, bacon, mickey waffles, potatoes,… and flank steak 😊 unexpected surprised. Humm.. those watermelon spears doesn’t seem to be touched. I had a couple of portions more of the flank steak, eggs, and bacon. A good meal. 😊

After I finished eating.. and found the exit… remember… this restaurant rotates.. I went on Soarin. No video here. They rolled this back to the original California Soarin. The standby lines were outrageous. But I had a DAS return time. I requested it as soon as I entered Epcot, then by the time I finished eating, I was able to go on the ride, using the lightening lane return line.

I crossed the park to ride Mission Space. Here is the video of the ride. I seemed to forgot to stop the recording, so you have a video of me leaving the ride, walking through the building, getting on my scooter and riding it to a bathroom.

Riding around on my scooter, I see a line getting into a store. I reminded myself that there is a free giveaway today for Annual Passholders,
a magnet, so I get in line, which moves fast. I have to show the Annual Pass I have is currently active by showing My Disney Experience account.

I head over and ride Test Track.

I go to France in World Showcase to ride Ratotouiie. This is a 3d attraction, so some of it will seem blurry.

And after that, I went to see The American Adventure. As usual, being in a scooter, I am brought upstairs in a elevator before everyone else. As usual, I tell them, I will park the scooter in the backrow, then sit up front close enough to see Mark Twains cigar smoke. I sat in the front row, but not center, oh well. No video here.

I continue my trip of World Showcase by seeing Frozen ever After.

I continue my tour of World Showcase by going on Gran Fiesta Tour. I enter and take the scooter into the Mexican pavilion. At the entrance of the ride, they take me down the exit portion I park the scooter and I am on the ride. No DAS needed.

I head to the DVC lounge for a snack and soda.

I then go ride Spaceship Earth. I am wearing my hat I bought in April. I am curious if they will erase my head?? Years past, they always seem to remove the intertwined NY on a sea of dark blue, NY Yankees emblem. See for yourself.

Then I go back on Soarin. No video. I just sit back and enjoy the original Soarin around California. I then go ride Journey into Imagination with Figment.

I stop and see these items for sale. They say each one is unique. They look the same to me. Then I realize it is the pattern in the wood that makes them unique.

I then head to Canada for my dinner at Le Cellier. They are forcasting rain. So I park the scooter and take precautions. I place a plastic bag over the control column. One of the reasons I get a sun shield is to protect me from the rain. I tilt it down to protect the seat.

I check in, tell them before being seated, I want to use the bathroom. After using the bathroom, I get a message my table is ready.

I start off with soup, Cheese Soup.

For my entrée…. Need I say it? 😉

Notice.. no dessert?? While I am eating, I am hearing loud thunderclaps and happening frequently. I figure forget about doing anything else today. Just need to head back to my resort. Make it to the Epcot Monorail, transfer at TTC, and get off at Contemporary and use the footbridge back to BLT.

I pay the bill, walk out the doors, and it is raining very heavy. Now I do have a rain poncho, but its sitting in the basket on my scooter. So I run out grab the poncho, run back to the restaurant to put it on. For the minute or so I am in the rain, I am pretty wet.I walk

I walk back to the scooter. It is raining so heavy, there is about a half inch of standing water. My sneakers are soaked already. My feet feel very wet. I am concerned about getting sick Not much I can do at this point.

I make it to the main walkway on Epcots World Showcase. Water is pooling up on the sunshade. Every time I make a turn, water pours off of the sunshade onto my feet. Not much coverage. While I drive my scooter back to Future World, or whatever they call it now. I make it back to the middle of Future World. The center is currently under construction. I drive near the gift shop building. Some areas the water is getting deep, other areas not so much.

I make it to the entrace of the park and head towards the monorail station. I paid extra for the insurance for the scooter. I am glad I did. So far no issues. I am waiting on the elevator at the monorail station. After a couple of minutes, I enter… dripping allot. I make it to the platform. I board the monorail and pretty soon I am on the way to the TTC. It is really raining hard along my journey.

Once at the TTC, I think.. maybe get off, take the ferry boat to the Magic Kingdom and use the foot path to Bay Lake Tower. That idea lasts only a second, as it is still raining very hard.

I board the resort monorail. I hope a short trip will get me back to the Contemporary. The reason I was thinking maybe ferry boat, I will need to go around the whole loop, as The Contemporary is the previous stop from the TTC. This means I will go to the Poly, Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, then finally the Contemporary.

What I didn’t figure was the heavy rain would do to the monorail. I never rode it in such weather before. Every stop we made along the way, we waited for about 10 to 15 minutes in the station till the monorail command center (or whatever they call it) allowed us to proceed. I figure at least I am sitting. I am getting a little nervous. What happens if they suspend service on the monorail?? They don’t and I finally make it to my resort room.

Once in my room, I remove all the wet clothing. I feel good about having a washer dryer in my room. I put all my clothes and clean them. Now what to do about my soaked sneekers?? I do have another pair. I do ask on FB. It seems you really need something to place the sneakers in. I don’t have it. I place the sneakers in the dryer. It is making lots of noise as the sneakers tumble. So I don’t continue to do that.

I take washcloths from the guest bathroom, stuff them inside the sneakers and see how that works out. I am not a coffee drinker, but drink some to keep warm, hoping I don’t get sick. I once had a food bug years ago and ruint my meals towards the end of a trip. I am feeling ok, no chills or anything. I do raise the temperature in the room, just in case.

Tonights rain story made up for all the nice weather so far this trip. At least I didn’t have Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party tonight.

end of day 5