November 4 – 14, 2020 day 9 – Should have been Wine and Dine races

Thursday 11/12/20

We were up just before the alarm after a nice night sleep. EPCOT didn’t open until 11:00 so we met up with Robyn at Everything Pop at 7:00 for a delicious breakfast but much more importantly some wonderful quality time, just her and us! Oh it was so nice to spend more time with her! The weather from the hurricane had really moved in this morning and it started raining while we were waiting for the Skyliner to start running. The EPCOT line wasn’t running yet but that’s okay, we were given a nice bench by the CM’s at the CBR hub to relax out of the weather. It was really coming down and so we were able to just watch it and relax. A bit before the line was to be running we got in the queue and who did we meet up with but our newly found friends from the MK bus on Tuesday! We had a really nice chat with them and it made the time go by very quickly! We wound up exchanging FB and IG information too! We got to EPCOT by 10:30ish and it had fortunately stopped raining for the time being. We went around the backside of World Showcase in hopes of rope dropping Frozen Ever After since that was one of the few things we hadn’t done on Sunday. We got to the line about 10:45 and it was already in China! We moved up to at least Norway, in front of Akershus and then stopped. Dead stopped. It started raining again, no it was a monsoon! After waiting for a half an hour in the deluge we found out they were experiencing “technical difficulties” but we had to ask to find that out! No CM gave any information at all! Bad move Disney, bad move! They could have at least let people know and that they didn’t know when it would come back up instead of letting people just stand there in the wind and rain. So we ditched it and went to Mexico where we saw our new friends and found out they were able to ride Test Track before the rain. We were so happy for them! We rode Gran Fiesta with not too bad of a wait. The rain had stopped so we had a delicious lunch of nachos at the Cantina but ate inside since things were still wet. We had a great view of WS Lagoon while we ate, only a couple other tables were in use! We worked our way over to the Seas while stopping for some photopass shots behind Spaceship Earth. When we got there to the Seas they were finishing cleaning the manatee tank and then released the boys in to snack and swim. I got to spend quite a bit of time with the boys and had a chance to talk to one of the CM’s who told me about their episode on Disney’s Animal Kingdom on Disney+. There was also a dolphin in the other tank who was having a great time swimming upside down! We spent a nice amount of time in a very uncrowded Seas. The weather and being midweek certainly seemed to be keeping crowds at bay! We headed over to the Land for Soarin and got in line at 1:22 with a posted 35 minute wait. It wound up being 20 minutes! I asked Kathy if she’d like to do Living with the Land or Soarin again and she chose Soarin. It is her favorite ride at EPCOT. Back in line at 1:55 and only a 25 minute wait! Two Soarin’s in the afternoon in an hour? Oh yes please! It worked out great too, we were in A with Heather and Ryan, C on our first ride today, and wrapped it up in B! Not just B but dead center of B too! Perfect views, no distortion! It had finished up raining for the day while we were in the Land pavilion and we saw just a gorgeous rainbow upon exiting!

We decided to head over to Spaceship Earth but stopped for some photopass pics along the way. Oh my gosh, the photographer outside the Seas was great! I went to drop off the pack and he started a Vogue-style shoot with Kathy! And the one on the side closer to SE had a magic shot of Pluto fetching a stick thrown by Kathy! When we got to Spaceship Earth, not only was there no wait, but absolutely no one in the outside queue! It was a total walk on! After thanking the Phoenicians we headed over to Mission Space. We rode together in green with no wait and I cycled around to ride orange, again with no wait. It was so eerily quiet inside Mission Space at the exit where the games are/were. No one there. I like no crowds as much as anybody but this was eerie, almost apocalyptic. It was getting on to time to browse WS and our planned eat around the world for dinner. We started with the waffle with cholate ganache and whipped cream. Oh my gosh, that was so good! To further demonstrate the low crowds there wasn’t even anyone at Starbucks! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my life! We met up with the Mickey and Minnie cavalcade just at the entrance to WS and followed them around to the left where they exited at Norway. The tires of the vehicle have Mickeys in the tread! So cool! We stopped in Germany for the pasta gratin which was delicious! It was getting close to twilight and we didn’t want to waste the light so we got some country photopass shots as we made our way around. We stopped in Canada for the filet. It was perfectly cooked and so tender! They do a wonderful job with that, we’ve never been disappointed! Our final stop was World Showplace for the cake nitro pop. They had the neatest lights in the trees on the path leading up to the building! They also had a pianist playing music inside. It made for a very pleasant end to the evening. When I was in line for the cake pop, the people in front of me had ordered three. Three circles, you know what that means! The CM serving did a perfect hidden Mickey with them after dipping them in the nitrogen! We video called Lauren while we sat and enjoyed our cake pop and the music so she could see and hear. It was so nice and uncrowded! We made our way out, letting Robyn know because she wanted to see us at Pop since they were leaving the next day. She and Bree surprised us by meeting us at the Skyliner hub at CBR! That was so nice! They rode back to the station with us and went to AoA for some pictures while we headed to the room to get Kathy out of her still damp shoes from the rains earlier. We went down to the lobby and chatted with Robyn for quite a bit before she needed to pack. Long hugs ensued, never long enough, and we filled the mug and headed back to the room.

Steps: 21,046
Miles: 9.48