Sorry for no live updates yesterday! But, here's the 4th of July recap. First things first...breakfast at the Poly. We had never had Tonga Toast, so we picked some up from Captain Cook's to eat before moving to Old Key West. Yup, that's some pretty darn good stuff. Not sure that I see it as quite the amazing, miraculous thing that some make it out to be, but quite yummy! Full of sugary breakfast foods, we packed up and moved over to Old Key West.
Of course, the dream is that the room is ready when we arrive at 9:30am, but the reality is that it wasn't. But we were planned for that, so a quick change into bathing suits and some nice, relaxed pool time. By the way... if you are the kind of person that puts towels out on pool chairs and then goes off and does something else, please stop reading my trip report. I can't stand that people do that!!!!!! We did find one chair for the three of us to put our stuff on while we swam, but there was no chance of finding three chairs to relax at - and the pool really wasn't that crowded with people. So, after our dip in the pool, we saddled up to the bar at the Gurgling Suitcase and enjoyed a couple drinks with some lunch. Here's the signature drink of OKW, the Turtle Krawl (and fun with the portrait setting on the new iPhone).
Also, since it was the 4th of July we got to enjoy some activities - the parade of decorated golf carts was quite enjoyable (Housekeeping won the decorating contest) and our daughter made a couple of tie-dye shirts. For lunch, they were having a cookout, so we got a great lunch (half chicken with two sides) that was enough for all three of us (and only $14). We also got to meet up with Minnie in her 4th of July dress.
Room was ready about 1:30pm, so we headed to the room to get unpacked and settled. And by 3pm we were headed to Epcot. Right as the storms hit. I guess we were lucky, in that we decided to take the bus and it was almost 40 minutes before a bus arrived, because it meant that we avoided walking out in the heaviest of the downpour. When we arrived at Epcot at 4pm, it hadn't really rained there, but was looking ominous (yes, less than 2 miles apart and you have torrential downpour and no rain...love Florida!) so we headed to the DVC lounge at the Imagination pavilion. It was nice to get to relax up there and have a soda (or coffee). Getting close to 5pm, we headed out to do some things (still no real rain). Soarin' and Living with the Land with FP+ were first up. It was our first time doing Soarin' at WDW with the new movie and we definitely enjoyed the Epcot ending. And Living with the Land is one of my favorite rides (edu-tainment
). We still had a little time before we were planning to camp out for the fireworks, so we went back to imagination and did the Disney Visa meet and greet there (Minnie and Pluto) and then watched the Pixar shorts. It was getting close to 7pm, so we headed back to the America Pavilion area and set up shop for the evening. Here's our view - it's just on the Japan side of America.
While there, we had some dinner - just a huge soft pretzel and American Dream frozen drink for our daughter, chicken and pork sandwiches for us adults - oh, and some of the last choice beverages available at Block and Hans. Yes, they really were some of the last beers, at 8:30pm they were almost out of beer; we got the last of one choice and there were only 4 left of the other choice (and they were already totally out of the other 6 choices!). Which seemed to be a theme - the Liberty Inn (where I got sandwiches) was still totally mobbed at 8pm (I was in line at just after 8 and didn't get food until 8:35pm) and from talking to the CM cashier, it was much worse than the past few years on the 4th of July.
Of course, Illuminations was awesome (my favorite show) and the 4th of July tag is simply amazing. Third time seeing it and I still just cannot mentally comprehend the number of fireworks going off at the end of the show. No photo can possibly do it justice, but here are a couple of attempts.
After fireworks (and farewells to all our new friends along the fence), we headed around World Showcase toward Mexico just to enjoy the area and also check out the changes in Norway. We didn't actually ride the Frozen ride (that's later this week), but we did visit with Anna and Elsa. I must say, that Meet and Greet is very well done. The queue area is beautifully themed and interesting to look through (even though at this point there really was no line) and the meeting area is quite pretty as well.
Then it was time to head out...but, wait! No line for Spaceship Earth, okay, sure. One more ride before we head out. I think I may have dozed off a bit in there as I can't remember what I'm supposed to do after I thank the Phoenicians. But it was after 10pm and we hadn't napped, so once back at OKW, it was quickly to bed and asleep. Now, we are off to Disney Springs for the girls to do a cake decorating experience at Amorette's Patisserie!
