December 10, 2019-Dennie's December Dash to Disney

(click here for today's pictures)



I do think that we all slept well last night. Graham started off on the air mattress and ended mostly on the air mattress. However, he was half not on the air mattress and the half of him that was on the air mattress was actually on the ground since it had deflated! He was sleeping soundly when I stepped over him to go to the bathroom early in the morning and also when I went to the shower later.

Robby showered first and decided that he better run to Walmart to get another air mattress. It isn’t necessary by any means, but the kids will need them this summer, and they are the same price here. He also grabbed a few things for tomorrow’s breakfast. (I haven’t mentioned yet that I forgot the silly birthday candles, which might just mean another Walmart trip later.)

While he was gone, I showered and then worked on waking these people up. They were tough to get up. I chatted, sang, turned on lights and just made a racket. I finally said that if people would start getting up then I would be quiet-Anderson sat right up in the bed. I did quieten down for a little bit but had to keep talking to wake the others up.

Robby returned, and we were soon at the breakfast area eating our Mickey Mouse shaped waffles. The highlight of today’s breakfast was a yogurt machine which is new to us. Now, I did try it and it was pretty sweet vanilla yogurt. I wasn’t a fan, but Whitman gobbled it up.

Epcot opened at 9 today and we were there right before then. I took both bags and waited in the long bag check line-it was crazy! When I finally made it through the line, I booked it to catch up with everyone else. They were already at Soarin’ waiting on me. They were a bit bummed that the Ghirardelli chocolate store that handed out free samples was closed.

As we were waiting in line for Soarin’, the people behind us were talking about requesting to sit in section B1. We had never heard about that being the best section-makes sense since it is the middle, top section. And sure enough, we were ushered right the section B1 today. I will say that it was a much better ride than other spots in the theater. That ride is always pretty impressive to me,

Next up was a coke and a short break followed by riding Nemo. Afterwards, some of the kids wanted to watch Turtle Talk with Crush. We did, and Crushed talked to Graham and Whitman. Graham asked him what he liked to do in the water, and Whitman explained how to build a sand castle to him. 

From there we headed to the country section of the park. During the Christmas holidays they have a thing called the Cookie Stroll. It is where you buy 5 different cookies and you can get one for free. The cookies that you have buy are spread out all over the park. How fun is that?

We probably didn’t need to buy 4 cookies at each stop, but that is much easier to split. Our first cookie, a peppermint pinwheel cookie, was from Canada. It was probably one of my most favorites. After that one, we rode the boat over to the other part of the countries to have our second cookie from somewhere between Morocco and France. This cookie was a Linzer cookie, possible a Jewish cookie-kind of like a shortbread cookie covered half in white icing and half in chocolate icing. It was very good as well. 

By this time, we were getting a little bit full but still had room for one more cookie, so we ventured to America for a classic gingerbread cookie. Now, by this point, Campbell, Keaton and Whitman had tried everything, but they were done with the cookie business. They prefer traditional chocolate chip cookies.   

While we sat in America, we also pulled out our lunchables and roll ups for a real lunch. We gobbled down our good-well, we ate while the kids did a lot of feeding of the birds. Apparently, they have never seen birds before-even birds are more magical at Disney.

From there, we headed towards Test Track. We did stop briefly to ride the Three Caballeros along with lots of stops for pin trading. Test Track is always fun, and the kids love it. When we finished with it, we picked up our free passholder magnets.

Then it was back to the car. Keaton has had a hard time today finding people who have Transportation Cards. She has asked everyone that she has seen but has struck out. Back at the hotel this afternoon, Robby did a load of laundry. While it washed, he worked, I blogged and the kids played until it was time to fold. 

Once the clothes were put a way, Robby and I went to town on heating up supper. Chicken roll ups were requested so we pulled them out of the fridge. Tortillas, chicken, cheese, refried beans, salsa, sour cream-we can cram a lot of things into a hotel fridge. Our supper was delicious. 

As soon as everything was cleaned up which didn’t take long, we headed back to Epcot. We had a few things on the list tonight. Our first stop was the Candlelight Processional. We have heard that people wait hours in line to get a seat. Our plan was to walk by and hear some of the music.

Instead we walked by and saw the area full of people already in their seats, but we also saw a line with more people waiting for seats. Robby suggested that we jump in it just to see if we did get seats, and sure enough we ended up about 8 rows from the stage. Our seats could not have been any better.

Isabella Rossilinni was the narrator tonight. There is a full orchestra along with a massive choir. The narrator reads the Christmas story from the Bible while the choir and orchestra sings traditional Christmas carols. It was pretty awesome to hear. At least I thought so-Whitman was asleep within 5 minutes. He stayed asleep during most of the trumpets as well. We were about 10 feet from 3 trumpeters who came out intermittently and blew their horns. It was almost like we had been to church at Epcot tonight.

After the program, we hurried out to jump in line for our 4th cookie. This was a Linzer cookie from Germany. Basically, it tasted like a strawberry poptart. It was delicious, but again Whitman and most others didn’t even try it. Reagan did enjoy it so she was able to have her share of cookies. 

While Robby was in the cookie line, Graham went to get water and the rest of us stood in line for Campbell and Keaton to meet Snow White. The next cookie was a chocolate crinkle cookie. I had really talked this one up to Whitman because I was sure that he would like it. It was basically like the cookies that Campbell had made for her birthday-and he didn’t like it. Bless!

Now, it was just a few more feet to claim our final 6th and free cookie! It was an adorable Santa Mickey Mouse shaped sugar cookie-which Whitman didn’t like. By this time, most people weren’t into our cookies. However, Whitman did thing that the milk that we were given with our cookie was the best thing ever.

After eating our cookie, we moved on to the Living with the Land ride. It was all decorated for Christmas which made it really neat. Then we did one last Soarin’ ride tonight. Surprisingly, we were assigned section B1 again-the most coveted section. 

We rushed out of the park to the car so we could get these people to sleep as soon as possible. There were pajamas, clothes laying out, one last drink, teeth brushing and breakfast picking out. Tomorrow is a very early morning!

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