Before we went to Epcot we did a bit more shopping. We found that on the bottom of all of the counter service restaurant receipts was a 20% off voucher, to be used in one store in each park (I think two parks in AK), and also World of Disney at DTD. So, what's a girl to do?! We knew that we wanted TONS of souvenirs, both for ourselves and other people, so we decided to take some of the money that we'd saved over the first week (can you believe that we were $100-150 UNDER budget on most days that first week?! I can't!) and do a little shopping in World of Disney.
I think I can safely say that World of Disney is my favourite shop in the world. Literally. THE WHOLE WORLD. It's the biggest Disney Store in the world, and I could have easily spend a day in there.
Every room in WOD (there are rooms! It's THAT BIG!) is decorated differently. I think this was my favourite decoration though...
Mini-Castle!! Seriously, if you could actually buy that castle, I would have abandoned all my clothes in Florida just to fit it in my case. It was especially cool because just the night before we had been the other side of those lit-up windows, enjoying dinner with Cinderella!
WOD took a bit longer than it probably should have, because a) we spent close to $200 (eep!) and also because I had to re-visit all of the stuff I looked at on the first night (or John tells me I did) because I have no recollection of my apparently "manic, sleep-deprived, jet-lagged" trip around WOD. Oh dear! Any excuse for another trip, I say!
Next stop was the lovely Basin.
Basin is basically Lush, but Disneyfied. So, imagine all the wonder and deliciousness that is Lush (I best heard it described as "Walking into Lush is how the kids in Harry Potter must feel walking into Honeyduke's"), but with the extra awesomeness of Disney. Yup, Basin rocks.
Next stop was the Lego Store.
Yup, there are toys bigger than me. W00T!
They have loads of Lego that you can play with, and also lots of example figures that are already built.
This camper van was ADORABLE. I really wanted to buy one.
Super-cute Easter Lego!!!
The most awesome thing about the Lego shop was definitely this snazzy little gadget!
Can't tell what it is yet? Well...You pick up the box that you want, and hold it up in front of the Digital Box. And then, whatever is in the box builds itself and comes to life!
There's a video of John playing with it below. Yes, he did have to pick the HUGEST box in the whole shop!
So awesome. You can also see one of the MASSIVE bags of shopping! You can also hear how damn loud it was in there! Eep!
These bricks were awesome, you could have them personalised with whatever you wanted. I really wanted to get some done as souvenirs for people, but somehow we never got around to it. Just like we never got around to making a WDW Mr Potatohead.
By the time we'd finished shopping and browsing, it was time for lunch. We decided that, as we had been there a week and still not fufilled the one main foody wish we should have completed on the first night, it was PORKASAURUS TIME!!
The wait was already long for T-Rex, but we discovered that was just to sit at the "proper" tables. If you wanted to sit at the bar, which was a beautiful coral reef tank and "sheet-ice" bar area, there was no queue. :D
T-REXXXXXXXXXX!! :D
We had a fantastic view of the coral reef tank...Though sitting under a giant octopus was freeeeeeaky!
Mmm...T-Rex legbone slush!! :D We managed to smuggle two of those (minus slush!) back home in the suitcase. Goodness knows what the guys on the security scanner thought!! :S The slush was delicious though.
Our wonderful view!
Now, for some reason (starvation?!) I didn't take any pictures of the food. I know. I'm an idiot. BUT, it was all amazingly scrumptious. I, of course, had ye fabled Porkasaurus, which was wonderful, and came with lovely waffly fries. John had the burger (he can't remember which) and that was really tasty too and came with the same fries. Our waitress was lovely, and the bar staff were all really nice and chatty too.
Every so often (15mins?) at T-Rex, there is a "meteor shower", which sets off all the dinosaurs in the restaurant, moving and making noises! It was way too crowded to wander around the restaurant taking photographs, but I tried to do the best I could from our seats.
Man of the Moment - Mr T-Rex himself!
Wooly Mammoth! Also, you can get an idea of how hugemongous the octopus was that we were sat under at the bar! If I looked up at it for too long it really freaked me out!
♫ ♫ I love this barrrrrrrr, it's my kinda plaaaaaaaaaaaaaace... ♫ ♫
As I remember, considering the fact that we went for the novelty glasses, it really wasn't that expensive. DEFINITELY one for our next trip's To Do List.
After lunch we waddled back to the car, and headed for Epcot.
Why didn't I spot these little guys on the way in last time?!
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| I love the little mushroom guys! So cute!! |
When we first booked, I was a little disappointed that the only big event on whilst we were there was the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival. Little did I know! Check out the awesome topiaries!!
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| The ballerina hippo...My spirit animal! Hahahaha! |
| As there was no queue (is that the story for this holiday or what?! We did so well, queue-wise) we decided to take a ride on Spaceship Earth. Interesting Fact: there are 11,324 panels making up that lovely texture on the outside of Spaceship Earth.  |
| Mural on the way into Spaceship Earth. |
Walking in. Maybe there was a moving line of people (is there a difference?!) but not an actual standing-and-waiting queue. Yes, I am English, yes, I did just catagorise my queuing. You're very welcome.
Inside the Golfball! ;) You board a little two-person cart with your own TV screen, and select your language. If you select English, you get Judi Dench! Legend! The story of the ride is telling the history of mankind through the advancement of communication. It's really interesting, and totally not what I was expecting from a Disney ride! At the start they take your picture and "send it to the fugure". Then at the end of the ride, you answer a few questions about yourself, and you get a cute animation!
Snapshots of our future! Hahaha!
After you disembark the "omnimover" you move (oddly not through a gift shop) into a fantastic futuristic area, full of games. The first thing you come to is an awesome area that shows where all of the riders on Spaceship Earth are from that day! You can also find your own photograph if you watch for long enough!
There we are!
Haha!! You can also send the little video that they make of you in the Omnimover by email as a "Postcard From The Future" to people back home, so I sent it to my parents and a couple of friends (and myself, I believe!).
Fountain of Nations. I learned on DisBoards (I think it was Jess? Thanks Jess!) that cast members from all over the world bring water from their own country and there is a ceremony when they add it to the fountain...So it really IS a Fountain of Nations!
We decided to take a table next to the fountains, and have a drink...Which automatically, as it's Disney, turned into a drink and awesome snack.
Mango Smoothie (for me), and Strawberry Smoothie (for John), and a choc chip cookie that we split.
I think we need a close-up of the yummy cookie, don't you?
Tough! Here it is. :D
View from our table.
Monoraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaillll!! Whenever we saw, rode, or heard mention of the monorail, we had to do the Monorail song from The Simpsons.
From the right angle the jumping fountains kind of look like Tink flying over the castle to create the logo at the start of Disney films...Or I think they do, anyway!
I loved this "waterfall"...The water actually flows UPWARDS!
Beautiful flowers.
We were in the mood for something gentle after the massive smoothies, so we set off for The Seas With Nemo and Friends.
MINE! MINE! MINE!
I really love aquariums, and so we spent ages in The Seas exhibit.
We found him!! And Marlin!
DOLPHIN!! I would see a lot more dolphins later in our trip! *squee*
CRUSH!
The most dangerous creature in the tank. :S
I thought the actual show was awesome! I love the puppets, and Crush and Squirt are two of my favourite characters from the show, so I was really pleased that they got such a BIG part in the show. ;)
We originally weren't going to go to Turtle Talk with Crush, as there was a bit of a wait...I am SO glad that we changed our minds! I love TTWC!! The way he interacts with the kids just blows my mind every time (it doesn't take much, OK?!) serious Disney magic!
I love this statue garden. The fish are all made of metal, and the colours shine just like real fish do, they are beautiful.
Pearl is one of my favourites! I love her smiley little face!
I LOVED these flowers! We found them in Living With The Land as well, but I forgot to take a note of what they are. :( The Land was our next stop.
I adore the decorations in here. The colours are beautiful! We started going to see Timon and Pumba, and then headed down to Living With The Land.
Hidden Mickey!
I think that was a 9lb lemon!
Not-so-Hidden Mickey!
I loved this area, the fish waste feeds the plants, and in turn the plants make oxygen for the fish.
Space plants! :)
On our way out of the park, we decided to check out the character meeting area, because it didn't look to have a very big queue. Now, I can't remember if I've already mentioned this before, but I have a little issue with characters. More specifically, I have a morbid fear of anyone in a fur suit, be they Disney, or someone that I actually know who is wearing a suit. So, the whole character thing was the one bit of Disney that I wasn't so sure about!
Right now my brain is going "RUN!! RUN AWAY!!!!" Don't I hide it well?!
Aaaaaargh!! It's touching me!!! Though I will say, one thing I noticed is that the characters (or the ones we met) always smell clean and fresh. So nice to know that they've had a bath before heading to the park!
You will interact...It's Mickey!
I love that you can hide unflattering stances on Photopass pictures with their handy add-on graphics!
Not sure what exactly I was trying to photograph here....but I like it!
With Epcot closing (I think that night we escaped whilst IllumiNations was on so that we could make a quick getaway), we headed for dinner at Downtown Disney. We ate at Earl of Sandwich. O...M...G...It was love at first bite. I had the Hawaiian BBQ Chicken sandwich, seriously if they weren't so filling I could eat a dozen of those things! I actually miss them (though, interesting fact, there is an Earl of Sandwich in London), they were SO good. The bread was delicious, the pineapple was fresh and juicy, the chicken was well-cooked (and there were no nasty/fatty bits, which is a major problem I have with mass-produced meat products...fat/gristle makes me gag), and the BBQ sauce was to die for. I can't remember what John ate, and neither can he. We can, however, both remember dessert.
Of course, there is only one (well, two, but we only went to one) place to go for dessert in DTD...And it's so wonderful I had to coin a new word for it (well it's new to me, OK? So to me, I created it).
GHIRADELLICIOUS!!
We split the sundae at a little table by the lake, listening to the Disney music from the speaker right by us. I can't remember what ice cream flavours we had besides chocolate (it's in there somewhere) but they were definitely Ghiradellicious.
What a perfect end to the day. :D
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