Hi everyone and welcome to Day 9 ~ Sunday August 24th our designated ~EPCOT DAY~
We slept in this morning and has a quiet breakfast in the lounge ~ Noel is in love with the Krispie Kreme Donuts.
This morning is the big Scavenger Hunt I planned through Jane at <a href="http://www.giftsofalifetime.com">Gifts of a lifetime</a>
It started this morning with a delivery for Noel to the room - a tinkerbell backpack and a letter. The letter was from Simba and was about how when he heard Noel was coming to Disney - he thought that meant Christmas was coming so he put out Christmas Decorations in the World Showcase.... now he needs Noel's help to find the 11 ornaments (one in each country) that he put out by mistake.
The backpack was filled with bubble wrap pieces that we are going to use to wrap up the ornaments as we find them and carry them in the back pack.. also we now have our first clue "Ornament #1 is located in Canada - look in a bed of flowers"
We walked over to the World Showcase - wow, what a short walk - I mean, I had heard it was short - but didn't really beleive it - people always say things like that, and then you walk forever, but truly it is such a quick, pleasant walk - a real advantage to staying here at the Beach Club.
We arrived at the WS a few minutes before 11:00am and started looking in flower beds in Canada, I soon realized that we are a totally hopeless pair. With the bright sunshine we both had our sunglasses on and couldn't see properly in the shrubs, with our sunglasses off we were both squinting... after about 10 minutes Noel was getting frustrated - do you all have any idea how many flower beds there are? LOL suddenly a man walked by me and said "over there" and indicated a which way I should look.. Ah Ha!! I have met my first pixie and guardian angel to help us when we are stuck...
Noel meanwhile is way far away in another flowerbed being chased by bees and complaining about the sun... I say "Noel lets try over here" and within a minute we have or first ornament (Pluto) and next clue which tells us to look in a phone booth in the U.K.
Thank goodness - this next one is easy, the pixie man is no where in sight now and we quickly find the ornament unaided (Princess Aurora) with out next clue "In france there is a perfume shop, go behind it and see what you can find" We walked over to France, boy it was a hot one today - the WS was deserted hardly anyone around - I still not have seen Pixie-man again, but I know he is keeping tabs on us.
In France we find the perfume shop and go out behind it.. Noel finds the next ornament (beauty and the beast) and it directs us to Morocco and to look behind an Urn... I gotta tell you - there are many many Urns in Morroco... Noel is getting frustrated when I see a young woman sitting in the shade she looks at me and points to an Urn across the way, I tell Noel to check and there is the next ornament (Jasmine and Aladdin)and clue. I have now met my second pixie.
Now we are off to Japan and are instructed to look in the Koi Pond and then climb a hill to a waterfall... we get to the waterfall and can't see a thing, we look and look and look and look - but nothing, I glance around but there are no pixies in sight, suddenly I see a head peek out of the restroom - it is the girl pixie and she points and mouths the word "ROCK" I send Noel to look at the rocks again - by the way, Noel is totally oblivious to the pixies... and still no luck... I look back over to the restroom and the pixie pops out again and points and mouths the words "ON TOP OF THE ROCK" sure enough I see the ornament and direct Noel to it and finally we have "Pumba" and our next clue.
Off to the USA we go and I should also mention to you we have Pal Mickey along and he has been telling us cool things about each country but is absolutely no help in locating these oranments
So back to USA and there are now more people around, we stop for a coke and are ready to start hunting, our clue says to look for a table with an umbrella and if you have seen USA - you know there is a whole pile of them... no way am I going in there, I am hot so I send Noel in on her own. I sit on a bench and a lady sits next to me, suddenly she introduces herself, this is Jane who planned the whole thing for me and my third guardian angel pixie.
Noel comes out of the umbrella tables complaining that she can't find anything and Jane strikes up a conversation with Noel asking her what she is looking for. Noel tells her all about the scavenger hunt and Jane asks to see the clue and then asks if she can help look. This was really neat as Noel did not have a clue who Jane was, soon they were back all smiles with the newest ornament (rafiki) and clue.
Next we are sent to Italy and told to look in a planter but to be careful of thorns... we look in every planter and then I notice pixie-man leaning against a wall looking over at us... I steer Noel that way and soon we find Daisy Duck and then next clue.
Now we are off to Germany and told to look for Cuckoo Clocks.... we find the clock store and go inside, we can't see anything so we leave and start looking around outside, I see Pixie Girl looking out at me from inside the shop - and I see she wants us back in, I told Noel to go back in the store and she said she didn't want to because there was nothing in there... it takes a while for me to convince her to go back in without her becoming suspicious of m knowing more than I should... finally we are back in but DUH! still can't find anything... suddenly all I see is an arm and hand come out from the next room - pointing... I steer Noel that way and we find the ornament (Ariel & Prince Eric) - these pixies are good
This clue tells us to go to the preshow for the movie in china and look for our ornament... we arrive and look around and Noel spots the ornament right away - it was almost disappointing for her lol.. but the thing was - it had no clue on it... we are looking at this cinderella but no clue and I am not sure what to do. I look around and see pixie-girl rumaging through her purse.. our eyes meet and I realize she still has the clue by mistake. I tell Noel to sit down for a minute so we can wrap cinderella and put her in the back pack when suddenly pixie-girl came up to Noel and said "did you drop this?" It was the clue... and a good save. Noel immediately believed she had dropped it, not suspcious at all.
This clue told us to go to Norway and ride Maelstrom and look for a clue in the old village. So we rode Maelstrom (which was fun) and arrived at that village inside the ride.. we started looking for the ornament but could not find it... I thought maybe it was the other village outside so we lined up to exit when suddenly pixie man came out of nowhere and said in my ear... "go back to the sailboat" I told Noel we should have one last look and headed back to the boat... there was another clue hanging on the fence - not an ornament this time.
This clue said to play on the viking ship and we would find the next ornament... we exited the ride, skipped the movie and headed to the viking ship play ground.. actually I sent Noel up, and I waited. Soon she returned with her ornament (chip and dale) and the clue which said to look under a blanket in Mexico.
Well, this was kind of funny... the first thing we saw in Mexico was a little shop and they had blankets outside which we looked all through and then inside they had blankets on the shelves with items on top... here we were touching all these blankets with the store guy looking at us like we were nuts.
I look out and see pixie man pointing at the pyramid temple thingy - so I tell Noel maybe there is more blankets somewhere else, we go in the temple and see the market place... I look down and see Jane near a huge display of blankets along with a million people shopping and we head down. It was funny, we went through all the blankets before we finally found the last ornament (a little simba)
Little Simba had a note and a locker key attached to him, the note said that Simba hoped we enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt and our last surprise was waiting in locker # 901. Noel was so excited and I told her we were done and could start doing some rides and go to the locker later - but she insisted we go to the locker straight away... at least I convinced her to let me get fast passes for test track first. It was now just after 1pm and our fast pass return time was from 4pm-5pm
We found the locker and inside was a box set of lion king ornaments, there were some empty spaces that some of the ornaments we already recieved fit into and also there was a 2003 Disney Ornament, a very nice surprise All the clues were very well worded, like little poems and all were in laminated plastic with ribbons attaching them to the ornament, they also had flag stickers that matched the country - Jane and her pixies did a great job keeping us on track.
After putting our stuff back in the locker we headed over to Ellen's Universe of Energy... we LOVED this attraction, the jeopardy part cracked us up... Noel is finally warming up to EPCOT. After that we did wonders of life & body wars (wow it's just like star tours) it was coming up for 3:00pm and our Ice Cream Social over at the Garden Grill.
We arrived right at 3pm and checked in with the hostess.. the Birthday mixups continue as the hostess tells Noel she has a phone call and I see Noel's face as she is listening to Goofy wish her a happy birthday.. I tell her to shush, and we are taken to our table. This birthday thing is bothering me - I am totally against saying it's your birthday if it is not.
ANyway, nothing more happens birthday related and our ice creams comes, it is really good, mine is a waffle cone imbedded in a chocolate chip cookie and filled with vanilla icecream and a piece of chocolate and some little cookies
Noel's is a kiddie cone, upsidedown on the plate on a cookie with icecream sprinkles and gummi worms. We had not eaten since breakfast so we considered this lunch and ate every drop. We had visits from Mickey in his jeans, Chip, Dale and Pluto... the chipmunks were funny but we love Pluto the best. Everyone came around twice and the interaction was very good - I recommend the ice cream social for a cool afternoon break from the heat and some yummy ice cream.
When we came out we had time to do the Circle of Life Fable movie and then it was time for our Fast Pass for Test Track... we walked over and were on in an instant, this is a good ride.
When we came out I thought we would check out the standby line for Mission Space and it was 50 minutes. I decided we had time before our 6:00pm PS at Coral Reef and I was right, we were on in half that time. I was the navigator and Noel was the pilot we had strangers for the commander and engineer - we really enjoyed this - the pressure on your body was neat, you could barely lift your arms. Great Ride, didn't feel sick or dizzy or scared... it was just fun.
We arrived at Coral Reef for dinner early and they seated us right away at a tank side table. This is a great restaurant, the food was excellent, the service was excellent and the atmosphere was excellent, I don't know where the bad reviews come from - we loved it. I had the salad with bleu cheese and the grilled jumbo shrimp with olives and tomatoes on egg noodles. Noel had the pasta with sauce and tons of parmesan cheese. I had a margarita and Noel had a kids specialty drink a "blue whale" with a glowing ice cube in it. For dessert we have the peanutbutter playdoh and make your own sundae which we shared. The scuba diver kept coming by and waving at us, he did summersaults and blew bubbles... we saw pretty well everything off our fish check list and it was a great experience. I'd go back tomorrow.
When we left the restaurant everything was wet outside.. looks like we just missed a rain storm. We did Honey I shrunk the Audience and when we came out it was POURING, black as night and lighting everywhere... we tried to wait it out but the rain just kept on and the lightning too.. we decided to brave it and headed out. We were both soaked when we arrived back at the Beach Club, we dried off and picked up 2 cokes from the lounge (to go) and now we are in for the night.... Turndown was done with chocolates on the pillow and there was a princess Diary left on the bed for Noel with a note from Concierge "Every Princess should have a Diary" another great day... even with the rain.
Tomorrow I was planning on doing DAK in the morning and we have the fantasmic package in the evening.... at the moment I am feelng beat and just may hang around the resort instead.... the weather will determine whether we do Fantasmic... so until tomorow, goodnight from the beach club.
We slept in this morning and has a quiet breakfast in the lounge ~ Noel is in love with the Krispie Kreme Donuts.
This morning is the big Scavenger Hunt I planned through Jane at <a href="http://www.giftsofalifetime.com">Gifts of a lifetime</a>
It started this morning with a delivery for Noel to the room - a tinkerbell backpack and a letter. The letter was from Simba and was about how when he heard Noel was coming to Disney - he thought that meant Christmas was coming so he put out Christmas Decorations in the World Showcase.... now he needs Noel's help to find the 11 ornaments (one in each country) that he put out by mistake.
The backpack was filled with bubble wrap pieces that we are going to use to wrap up the ornaments as we find them and carry them in the back pack.. also we now have our first clue "Ornament #1 is located in Canada - look in a bed of flowers"
We walked over to the World Showcase - wow, what a short walk - I mean, I had heard it was short - but didn't really beleive it - people always say things like that, and then you walk forever, but truly it is such a quick, pleasant walk - a real advantage to staying here at the Beach Club.
We arrived at the WS a few minutes before 11:00am and started looking in flower beds in Canada, I soon realized that we are a totally hopeless pair. With the bright sunshine we both had our sunglasses on and couldn't see properly in the shrubs, with our sunglasses off we were both squinting... after about 10 minutes Noel was getting frustrated - do you all have any idea how many flower beds there are? LOL suddenly a man walked by me and said "over there" and indicated a which way I should look.. Ah Ha!! I have met my first pixie and guardian angel to help us when we are stuck...
Noel meanwhile is way far away in another flowerbed being chased by bees and complaining about the sun... I say "Noel lets try over here" and within a minute we have or first ornament (Pluto) and next clue which tells us to look in a phone booth in the U.K.
Thank goodness - this next one is easy, the pixie man is no where in sight now and we quickly find the ornament unaided (Princess Aurora) with out next clue "In france there is a perfume shop, go behind it and see what you can find" We walked over to France, boy it was a hot one today - the WS was deserted hardly anyone around - I still not have seen Pixie-man again, but I know he is keeping tabs on us.
In France we find the perfume shop and go out behind it.. Noel finds the next ornament (beauty and the beast) and it directs us to Morocco and to look behind an Urn... I gotta tell you - there are many many Urns in Morroco... Noel is getting frustrated when I see a young woman sitting in the shade she looks at me and points to an Urn across the way, I tell Noel to check and there is the next ornament (Jasmine and Aladdin)and clue. I have now met my second pixie.
Now we are off to Japan and are instructed to look in the Koi Pond and then climb a hill to a waterfall... we get to the waterfall and can't see a thing, we look and look and look and look - but nothing, I glance around but there are no pixies in sight, suddenly I see a head peek out of the restroom - it is the girl pixie and she points and mouths the word "ROCK" I send Noel to look at the rocks again - by the way, Noel is totally oblivious to the pixies... and still no luck... I look back over to the restroom and the pixie pops out again and points and mouths the words "ON TOP OF THE ROCK" sure enough I see the ornament and direct Noel to it and finally we have "Pumba" and our next clue.
Off to the USA we go and I should also mention to you we have Pal Mickey along and he has been telling us cool things about each country but is absolutely no help in locating these oranments
So back to USA and there are now more people around, we stop for a coke and are ready to start hunting, our clue says to look for a table with an umbrella and if you have seen USA - you know there is a whole pile of them... no way am I going in there, I am hot so I send Noel in on her own. I sit on a bench and a lady sits next to me, suddenly she introduces herself, this is Jane who planned the whole thing for me and my third guardian angel pixie.Noel comes out of the umbrella tables complaining that she can't find anything and Jane strikes up a conversation with Noel asking her what she is looking for. Noel tells her all about the scavenger hunt and Jane asks to see the clue and then asks if she can help look. This was really neat as Noel did not have a clue who Jane was, soon they were back all smiles with the newest ornament (rafiki) and clue.
Next we are sent to Italy and told to look in a planter but to be careful of thorns... we look in every planter and then I notice pixie-man leaning against a wall looking over at us... I steer Noel that way and soon we find Daisy Duck and then next clue.
Now we are off to Germany and told to look for Cuckoo Clocks.... we find the clock store and go inside, we can't see anything so we leave and start looking around outside, I see Pixie Girl looking out at me from inside the shop - and I see she wants us back in, I told Noel to go back in the store and she said she didn't want to because there was nothing in there... it takes a while for me to convince her to go back in without her becoming suspicious of m knowing more than I should... finally we are back in but DUH! still can't find anything... suddenly all I see is an arm and hand come out from the next room - pointing... I steer Noel that way and we find the ornament (Ariel & Prince Eric) - these pixies are good
This clue tells us to go to the preshow for the movie in china and look for our ornament... we arrive and look around and Noel spots the ornament right away - it was almost disappointing for her lol.. but the thing was - it had no clue on it... we are looking at this cinderella but no clue and I am not sure what to do. I look around and see pixie-girl rumaging through her purse.. our eyes meet and I realize she still has the clue by mistake. I tell Noel to sit down for a minute so we can wrap cinderella and put her in the back pack when suddenly pixie-girl came up to Noel and said "did you drop this?" It was the clue... and a good save. Noel immediately believed she had dropped it, not suspcious at all.
This clue told us to go to Norway and ride Maelstrom and look for a clue in the old village. So we rode Maelstrom (which was fun) and arrived at that village inside the ride.. we started looking for the ornament but could not find it... I thought maybe it was the other village outside so we lined up to exit when suddenly pixie man came out of nowhere and said in my ear... "go back to the sailboat" I told Noel we should have one last look and headed back to the boat... there was another clue hanging on the fence - not an ornament this time.
This clue said to play on the viking ship and we would find the next ornament... we exited the ride, skipped the movie and headed to the viking ship play ground.. actually I sent Noel up, and I waited. Soon she returned with her ornament (chip and dale) and the clue which said to look under a blanket in Mexico.
Well, this was kind of funny... the first thing we saw in Mexico was a little shop and they had blankets outside which we looked all through and then inside they had blankets on the shelves with items on top... here we were touching all these blankets with the store guy looking at us like we were nuts.
I look out and see pixie man pointing at the pyramid temple thingy - so I tell Noel maybe there is more blankets somewhere else, we go in the temple and see the market place... I look down and see Jane near a huge display of blankets along with a million people shopping and we head down. It was funny, we went through all the blankets before we finally found the last ornament (a little simba)
Little Simba had a note and a locker key attached to him, the note said that Simba hoped we enjoyed the Scavenger Hunt and our last surprise was waiting in locker # 901. Noel was so excited and I told her we were done and could start doing some rides and go to the locker later - but she insisted we go to the locker straight away... at least I convinced her to let me get fast passes for test track first. It was now just after 1pm and our fast pass return time was from 4pm-5pm
We found the locker and inside was a box set of lion king ornaments, there were some empty spaces that some of the ornaments we already recieved fit into and also there was a 2003 Disney Ornament, a very nice surprise
All the clues were very well worded, like little poems and all were in laminated plastic with ribbons attaching them to the ornament, they also had flag stickers that matched the country - Jane and her pixies did a great job keeping us on track.After putting our stuff back in the locker we headed over to Ellen's Universe of Energy... we LOVED this attraction, the jeopardy part cracked us up... Noel is finally warming up to EPCOT. After that we did wonders of life & body wars (wow it's just like star tours) it was coming up for 3:00pm and our Ice Cream Social over at the Garden Grill.
We arrived right at 3pm and checked in with the hostess.. the Birthday mixups continue as the hostess tells Noel she has a phone call and I see Noel's face as she is listening to Goofy wish her a happy birthday.. I tell her to shush, and we are taken to our table. This birthday thing is bothering me - I am totally against saying it's your birthday if it is not.
ANyway, nothing more happens birthday related and our ice creams comes, it is really good, mine is a waffle cone imbedded in a chocolate chip cookie and filled with vanilla icecream and a piece of chocolate and some little cookies
Noel's is a kiddie cone, upsidedown on the plate on a cookie with icecream sprinkles and gummi worms. We had not eaten since breakfast so we considered this lunch
and ate every drop. We had visits from Mickey in his jeans, Chip, Dale and Pluto... the chipmunks were funny but we love Pluto the best. Everyone came around twice and the interaction was very good - I recommend the ice cream social for a cool afternoon break from the heat and some yummy ice cream.When we came out we had time to do the Circle of Life Fable movie and then it was time for our Fast Pass for Test Track... we walked over and were on in an instant, this is a good ride.
When we came out I thought we would check out the standby line for Mission Space and it was 50 minutes. I decided we had time before our 6:00pm PS at Coral Reef and I was right, we were on in half that time. I was the navigator and Noel was the pilot we had strangers for the commander and engineer - we really enjoyed this - the pressure on your body was neat, you could barely lift your arms. Great Ride, didn't feel sick or dizzy or scared... it was just fun.
We arrived at Coral Reef for dinner early and they seated us right away at a tank side table. This is a great restaurant, the food was excellent, the service was excellent and the atmosphere was excellent, I don't know where the bad reviews come from - we loved it. I had the salad with bleu cheese and the grilled jumbo shrimp with olives and tomatoes on egg noodles. Noel had the pasta with sauce and tons of parmesan cheese. I had a margarita and Noel had a kids specialty drink a "blue whale" with a glowing ice cube in it. For dessert we have the peanutbutter playdoh and make your own sundae which we shared. The scuba diver kept coming by and waving at us, he did summersaults and blew bubbles... we saw pretty well everything off our fish check list and it was a great experience. I'd go back tomorrow.
When we left the restaurant everything was wet outside.. looks like we just missed a rain storm. We did Honey I shrunk the Audience and when we came out it was POURING, black as night and lighting everywhere... we tried to wait it out but the rain just kept on and the lightning too.. we decided to brave it and headed out. We were both soaked when we arrived back at the Beach Club, we dried off and picked up 2 cokes from the lounge (to go) and now we are in for the night.... Turndown was done with chocolates on the pillow and there was a princess Diary left on the bed for Noel with a note from Concierge "Every Princess should have a Diary" another great day... even with the rain.
Tomorrow I was planning on doing DAK in the morning and we have the fantasmic package in the evening.... at the moment I am feelng beat and just may hang around the resort instead.... the weather will determine whether we do Fantasmic... so until tomorow, goodnight from the beach club.
and it sure is fun, isn't it? Fun for THEM, especially . Your daughter is going to have such wonderful memories. You're an inspiration! I am going to AKL in October w/ DD (7) and I'm looking forward to reading your report from there...I'm also going to check out the website of gifts of a lifetime. Thank you!
