A slower start today as we get used to the time difference, and we enjoyed breakfast here before heading out to Epcot at about half past nine. There was quite a queue for the car park payment booths, but I think that this was just a factor of us arriving at a fairly peak time for arrivals. Once we were in we parked in Journey 9, and we were close enough to walk to the park.
Our first stop inside the park was to arrange a Kim Possible adventure, and we were allocated am 11:15 start, and were told to report to the Norway pavilion then, when further instructions would be given. So, we spent a bit of time in Future World first - I was sent to the Land to collect Soarin' fastpasses whilst Nicky and Jake went to Club Cool to try the drinks. I joined them there, and we agreed that the Smart Watermelon is very nice, and unfortunately Jake insisted that I try the Beverly, and it hasn't got any better!
Over to the other side of Futre World and we collected some Test Track fastpasses as well. (Nicky mentioned that it was possible to have more than one fastpass at a time these days. The machine at the end where we were waiting wasn't working so a cast member asked us how many passes we needed and handed them over. Looking at the passes later, I think that you are supposed to wait a couple of hours between getting passes, and so we were a bit lucky there!) Having done this we had a play in Innoventions, and Jake made a piece of paper at one of the stands.
Then we made our way into the World Showcase and clockwise around to Norway where we collected our communicator (modified mobile phone!) to do our assignment. They are a bit of fun, and send you around a fairly small area, and your communicator causes various things to happen around the Norway pavilion, including getting voice messages, seeing smoke signals from a chimney, raising a flag, and even getting our photo taken, and then shown on the screen on the phone! We had completed our mission after about twenty minutes and so carried on around World Showcase, making our way slowly to Japan where we had a reservation for lunch at Teppan Edo.
We waited for about ten minutes before our pager went off, and we were seated around a large table with two other groups. There were two American ladies who were sisters in law (one from Atlanta and one from Boston) and then a couple at the end of the table who worked at Disney, one was a guest relations manager at AK, and the other designed and built rides - cool !! He said that he had been involved in the development of the Rock 'n' Roller coaster as well as lots of rides at AK including Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Expedition Everest.
Our chef was Tom from Hawaii and the food was lovely. I started with miso soup, and Nicky had beef roll sushi. For main course Jake and I both had shrimp and Nicky had chicken. It was lots of fun watching it being cooked, and it tasted scrummy.
After lunch we completed our circuit of World Showcase before going to the Imagination pavilion for a ride with Figment. By this time it was about time for our Test Tract fastpasses, but Jake decided that he didn't fancy it, so whilst Jake and I went into Mouse Gear Nicky took great delight in handing them to some people in the queue. Apparently there was a Dad with two young children who were right at the back and very disappointed to discover that there were no more fastpasses to be had and that the standby line was over an hour long. She made their day when handing over the fastpasses, and I think that she even got a kiss for her trouble! Spreading the Magic!
After a look around Mouse Gear we stopped for a quick drink before going to the Living Seas and riding on the Nemo ride. As we came out we stumbled across a diving demonstration which we stopped to watch before going over to the Land to use our Soarin' fastpasses. Fantastic ride as always and we were top centre (row 1 of middle group). Marvellous!
By now it was almost five and so we decided that was enough park for one day and we made our way back to the car park, pausing briefly to look at the Leave a Legacy displays - must remember to write down the code for the location of Jake's picture for next time.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped off at Walgreens for a few supplies. Nicky bought herself some hair straighteners (having failed to find any travel ones at the airport) and I bought some sunglasses covers that fit nicely over my ordinary glasses (that way I don't have to choose between either shading my eyes or being able to see properly - now I can have both!!). Also John will be pleased to know that I found some chocolate maltey balls!!
Back to the hotel where we've mooched about and had some tea in our apartment. Nicky and I have just been over to the shop and have bought a Saratoga pin for Jake and a new baseball cap for me. We also bought a new refillable mug. We remembered to bring the ones from last time, but turns out that they have changed the design!