Today's trip to Walt Disney World went pretty well today. We got to the park around 9:45 or so. We got a spot right next to the Trolly pickup/dropoff site, which was sweet. We headed straight to Epcot. First thing we did was buy some ponchos as the weather report called for scattered thundershowers all day (chance of precip 60%). We figured by buying them a) it probably wouldn't rain and b) if it did, we wouldn't be trying to buy them at the same time as everyone else. We didn't go on any rides at Epcot due to waits.

We had lunch at the Garden Grill in "The Lands" district. It was surprisingly quite good! Usually theme park food is so-so, but here it was really tasty. Served family style and they were happy to bring you more of whatever you wanted. We didn't leave hungry (well, maybe Alex did; but it's his own fault for refusing to touch anything on his plate). Something we didn't catch until halfway through our meal - the restaurant floor (circular) rotates around!

One of the bonuses of eating here was the "Character Dining" - they had several of the characters walking around, which saved us from standing in lines at the park to get pictures. Chip (or Dale) played peekabo with Alex and Pluto dropped by too. Mickey dissed our table twice (skipping us after seeing the table next to us directly), Alex was crushed. But Mickey eventually came around and things were good. I'll have pictures up after we get home.

After lunch, Alex passed out pretty much right away. Our "Pal Mickey" started acting possessed, so after buying some Liquid Gold batteries (at least, that's only what I can imagine what was in them at $5.86 for 4 AAs), I performed some minor battery surgery. Old and busted "special edition" Pal Mickey was no longer busted; and still had better threads (tux) than the new "Sorceror's edition" that was being sold at the park. We then took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom.

By the way, those little squirt bottles with the fan were great. It wasn't THAT hot today (maybe low 90s) but certainly enough to make you feel the heat if you weren't in the shade (where it was pretty pleasant).

The rides in Magic Kingdom weren't much better in terms of waits. We did the "fast pass" thing at Space Mountain at 2:30pm, and it told us to come back between 5:35-6:35pm (and that we coulnd't do another FP until 4:30pm). So, that wasn't all it was made out to be (more on that later). We went back on Alex's first ride (the Teacups) and the train that goes around. At this point the clouds started to appear on the horizon. It was at this point that I lost some sanity. I sat in a line for the Peter Pan ride for at least 50 minutes (the posted wait was 70 minutes) - this for a two minute ride! While I wasn't too thrilled about it, and bellyached more than I should have, we did make it through and Alex seemed to enjoy it.

Still no rain. After Peter Pan we hit the flying Dumbo ride (El-phalant in Alex-speak), another 30 minutes or so - but not as bad, since it was in an open space and had some fans going. I think Alex enjoyed the ride more than the Peter Pan one, personally (well, so did I. :)

At this point our Space Mountain fastpass was good. We got there around 5:50 or so and Karen went first. She got out around 6:20. So much for fast. She said the fastpass line wasn't much shorter than the regular line, but it moved faster. Apparently the "regular" line waiters get pretty screwed by the fastpassers - something I observed at Peter Pan when the line would grind to a halt (the cars on the ride move continously, so there was no reason for abnormal line movements). Maybe it was just because the park was so busy, but I think they have some bugs to work out in the whole "Fast Pass" system - I was not impressed.

After Space Mountain we realized there was no real place to eat that wasn't packed (should have made dinner reservations, too). So we did the sensible thing and had some ice cream instead. :) We went to the shops afterwards to pick up some stuff and realized Alex really woulnd't make it another 1.5 hours to the fireworks (or 2.5 to the Light Parade). This was disappointing, as we both wanted to see it; but with the heavy clouds and occasional sprinkle overhead it was not a guaranteed thing anyways so we decided to head back to Karen's parents' place.

I doubt I'll ever go back in the middle of summer. September was a much more bearable atmosphere with less crowds and heat around. We'll be shooting for that timeframe in the future; at least until Alex has to deal with pesky school schedules.

But, all in all, it was a good day that I think Alex enjoyed a lot - more so than his last trip when he was 10 months old. He passed out shortly into the car ride, and seemed very peaceful in sleep. Which is where I'm heading to now as well. :) I hope to not be too sunburned or footsore tomorrow. Adios!