Star Wars Dark Side – 4/15/18 – 4823/18 – Day 2

Monday 4/16/18

Monday morning dawned bright and clear. Stacey and the Must Do’s on the t.v. We had finally arrived and were in full Disney mode! We had fastpasses lined up for Epcot later in the day so our plan was to storm the Castle and attack Fantasyland without fastpasses. We got to MK by 8:15 to do a little shopping before the park opened. That way we wouldn’t take precious park time to do that later. It was chilly and breezy after the storms of the previous day and night so I think that kept crowds down at bit early. We rope dropped Peter Pan, then Pooh, Dumbo, and Under the Sea. Not only were there no kids in our honey pot, we were four adults over 50! It was great! We rounded out the first hour with Haunted Mansion, Kathy wearing her new ears from Kelly and Paradise Falls Parkwear very proudly. @kcboston, best ears anywhere! I made sure to get a couple pictures from the HM graveyard to Kelly so she could see Kathy in her ears. I also finally got a couple good pictures of the animatronic Ariel in the Under the Sea room of her ride, after years of failed, blurred attempts. From there we watched one of my favorites, Philharmagic and went to an early lunch at Gaston’s since we would be gorging ourselves around WS later that day. We decided to try the new sandwiches they have there. We got a turkey sandwich, which included chips, a chocolate croissant, and pop all for $18. We were easily able to split the sandwich and croissant, and the chips. The sandwich is on a hoagie style bun and stuffed with turkey. The cranberry spread they have on it was light and not overpowering. All in all it was very good and we would do that again. We made a couple quick stops and left the park just after noon for a little break before heading to Epcot.

We headed to Epcot after our quick break where we were able to immediately use our FP for Spaceship Earth and then right after our FP for Mission Space window was open. Kathy likes the new green so we used our FP on that. After we got off that we texted with Melissa @monkcline and Jen @disjen and found out they were in line for photopass pictures behind the Fountain of Nations. So we hustled up and met them just before they got to the front of the line! Oh my gosh, such huge, epic, wonderful hugs ensued! These two, and their mom and Melissa’s son are just absolutely wonderful people! We all got lots of pictures taken together with the Fountain and Spaceship Earth as a great backdrop, including a magic shot of Orange Bird in their mom’s hand! From there we checked out wait times and found we could all ride Living with the Land together! Ok, let’s go! Oh my gosh, the wait seemed to be 5 minutes long we had SO much fun talking and laughing and just having a great time! Kathy, their mom and Melissa’s son let us three D-Cotters ride in a row of our own while they took the one behind us. Let me tell you, I felt like a king in between these two wonderful, beautiful ladies! We had such a good time! It was a sad parting for our respective fastpasses but we knew we’d see each other again on Friday for the 5k. Thank goodness for that, or I surely would have cried for having so little time with them! We used our FP for Soarin and as we were walking out I checked to see if any 4th FP’s might be available. Bear in mind this was about 5:00. I got a 4th FP alright, for Soarin! Score! Sure it was for the 8:00 hour but still, to get two Soarins in a day, I’ll take it! We started our eating at Flower & Garden, working our way around WS starting in Canada. Melissa and Jen saw us in U.K., successfully scaring the crap out of me! So we walked with them to the International Gateway for more squeeze hugs as they were heading to Studios for the evening and dessert party. I’m so glad we got to see them again! Kathy and I spent a lovely, relaxing evening strolling World Showcase, eating and enjoying the topiaries. Rick Springfield was the Garden Rocks concert in American Gardens that night and we hung around America enjoying a strawberry pina colada and heard almost all of his concert! It was great to hear him as he is from our generation of music and we would listen to his music quite a bit in high school. We made a complete loop around WS, used our FP for a final ride on Soarin for the night and headed home after a very fun-filled day, tired and happy.

Steps: 28,633
Miles: 12.93