Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Christmas and Candlelight Processional at Epcot
Wednesday was our last day and night at Disney World for this trip. It included a LOT of exciting parts including the Candlelight Processional with Neil Patrick Harris narrating the Christmas Story, lunch at the Wine Cellar in Italy, the SpaceX cargo launch to the International Space Station, Tim Tracker sighting and dinner and fireworks from La Hacienda de San Angel. On a more somber note, this whole week was also filled with news about President George H. W. Bush's funeral.We started early with breakfast at the Walt Disney World Yacht Club. We ubered there meeting Maureen's car at the lobby entrance at the same time. The Yacht Club has a great Christmas village display setup in its lobby with a train set that runs through the entire display. We had breakfast at its Ale & Compass Restaurant. Their breakfast menu is really great. You get an entree plus the buffet bar which has plenty of goodies to go along with the entrees. We reserved seats here as we also had to pick up our tickets for this evening's (early evening as the sun was still up when we sat for the show) Candlelight Processional at Epcot. Breakfast was great and it was a wonderful way to start the day.
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| Ale & Compass Restaurant Walt Disney World Yacht Club Resort Noah, Maureen, Carolyn, Kevin |
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| Ale & Compass Lounge |
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| Ale & Compass Buffet |
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| Ale & Compass Dining Room |
After breakfast, we walked through the lobby of the Disney Beach Resort with its chocolate and gingerbread carousel. This one has too many not-so-hidden Mickeys to find and you'll get dizzy trying to find them as the carousel spins. Good luck, though.
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| Gingerbread and Chocolate Carousel on the left. Carolyn, Maureen and Kevin on the right. |
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| I see about 5 hidden Mickeys in this pic. |
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| Gingerbread Carousel Recipe & Menu 150 Pounds of Icing 50 Pounds of Dark Chocolate 2019 Pieces of Gingerbread... |
From the Beach Club, we walked to the back entrance of Epcot. Maureen, Carolyn and I had no problem entering the park. Kevin's magic band was broken so we went through the gift shop while we waited for him to get his magic fixed. It did not take too long and it gave Maureen enough time to find and buy a map of Epcot and then we had to find chipmunks that were hidden around the world showcase. We did not find the one in England on our first try. We did not find Canada either so we walked to the front of Epcot to Journey into Imagination with Figment for a quick ride to waken our imaginations so that maybe we could start finding chipmunks.
Next, we walked to the Land Pavilion and rode on the Living with the Land boat ride. We all go on this ride very often - especially on hot days. I love riding through the landscape and farm scenes and then through the farming section. There are a few hidden Mickeys on this ride so keep your eyes open. I am working on ideas for my basil
Maureen and I walked over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride while Kevin and Carolyn waited at the Land Pavilion. This is a smooth ride that I think Carolyn could have ridden with us despite her vertigo. There is one part where the shell cars go through a tunnel swimming with the turtles. That might have given her problems, but she could probably have closed her eyes for that part and been fine as the shell cars hardly move for that section. Walking back to the Land Pavilion, Maureen was surprised at all of the strollers in stroller parking. There were a ton.
Back in the Land Pavilion, Maureen and I had FastPasses for Soarin'. We got to the front of the line and asked to wait for middle section, front row. We waited for the next group and we were front and center. That is a nifty request that I learned from Al and Sharon. Thanks Al! Thanks Sharon!
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| Maureen and Noah waiting for center front row on Soarin' ride at Epcot. |
After Soarin', all four of us returned to our chipmunk hunting around Epcot's World Showcase Lagoon. All of the shops were open by now and good thing because pretty much all of the chipmunks are hidden in the gift shops (tricky, tricky). We found Canada (a Disney
At the American Adventure and just before we went into the building, I notice a plume of smoke going up to the east in the far distance. I thought it was an airplane condensation trail, but then I noticed the airplane was really a rocket going straight up! This was SpaceX's Falcon rocket that had just launched from Cape Canaveral and was taking cargo to the International Space Station! I was amazed. Everyone else was just walking around as it was quite a ways away (Cape Canaveral is about 50 miles east of Epcot). I did let Maureen know so she saw it as well. I got a couple of photos but you can't really see the rocket in the photos, just the smoke. I did, however, clearly see the rocket and watched it ascend and leave the atmosphere. Pretty cool! I definitely have to go see a rocket launch up close some time soon.
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| You can see the smoke plume to the left of the street lamp. |
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| The smoke plume shows up better in this photo. |
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| Here is a screenshot from my phone about the launch. It launched at 1:16pm EST. I took the screenshot 20 minutes after launch. |
This is a good place to break and continue today's post on a separate page.
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Sunday
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Christmas and Candlelight Processional at Epcot
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