Everyone's napping except me. Why? Well, getting up at 0600 to catch the bus to EPCOT had something to do with it. Since we're staying at a hotel that's on Disney property, we're eligible to get into the park an hour before it officially opens. Opening's at 9am, so one hour before that is 8am, minus a half-hour since Disney usually opens unofficially 30 minutes before the official opening, gives us a 7:30 arrival time-- so we caught the 7am bus.

It was worth it, though, because when we got there the place was, if not exactly deserted, at least sparsely populated. At the Animal Kingdom we had no waits longer than about 6 minutes (except for the characters); here, our max wait was maybe 15 minutes-- still not too bad.

First off, we split up: David & I headed for Test Track, while Arlene & Thomas went to Spaceship Earth (but only because Test Track is forbidden to expectant mothers and those under 40"). We had to wait 10 minutes or so for Test Track, but it was worth every minute. The ride simulates a test track, with varying up and down-slopes, road surfaces, and so on. The highlight is a straightaway, where i am proud to report that our car hit 64.7mph. As soon as we got off, Dave wanted to ride again, which I suppose is high praise.

After reuniting, we went to the "Wonders of Life" pavilion. Arlene & the boys saw a show, while I went on a simulated ride through a human body (which was fairly tame, unfortunately.) Our next stop was the Universe of Energy pavilion, which would have been cool (how could it not be, with Alex Trebek and Bill Nye the Science Guy in it?), had it not broken down midway through our ride.

Disney has a system for popular attractions called Fastpass: you stick in your ticket and get a movie-ticket-like slip with a time printed on it. Show up at the appointed time, and voila! you go to the head of the line. We got Fastpass tix to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, then headed over to the Living Seas. I thought it was a little disappointing, but then the New Orleans and Chattanooga aquariums probably have spoiled us a little. 

The movie was great, though some of the effects were a little loud for the boys. Afterward, we made a command decision to skip the World Pavilion, since it's a long walk and the boys didn't seem too interested-- which is how we got to nap time. More later.

21 April

Eating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In

• Muppet-Vision 3D was my favorite. It's a shame that the Muppet Show isn't on TV anywhere (a German company owns the broadcast rights, and was planning on making new episodes, but they're having financial trouble). I think Arlene & I liked this better than the boys did, just because they're not familiar with the Muppets (although Tom did recognize Kermit right off the bat).
• Beauty and the Beast had a live show; there was an actress in a mermaid suit, plus some very-well-done puppetry and clips from the film. The boys enjoyed this quite a bit.

David posing with a land speeder at Star Tours