[dmallan]

DAY 1 – Tuesday, January 8th
We arrive in Orlando shortly after 10am and make our way to Disney’s Magical Express counter. Within a few minutes we are on our bus and headed for Disney’s All Star Music Resort! On the way we eat some of our pre-packaged snacks that we’d put in our carry-on bags since we really haven’t had anything to eat all morning. It’s so nice that we don’t have to worry about our luggage!
When we arrive at All Star Music, we are one of the first in line and are waited on almost immediately. Check-in takes some time because we have two connecting rooms, and also because we had requested the Jazz building, but were assigned to Country Fair. After talking with a manager, the CM explains that they are not able to get us into Jazz, but they have moved us up to the Rock Inn. They are connecting rooms and they are ready now! We’ll take it! I am also hoping to put my rewards points and the gift cards onto our room tab, but am told that is not possible. Not a big deal – we will just use the rewards card and gift cards for our meals instead of charging them to our room.
We find our rooms and take a few minutes to freshen up and change into shorts and sandals. The temperature is 80° and sunny – we can’t wait to get to Epcot! And fortunately, Kate is feeling better by now. It is almost Noon when we head out to the bus stop. We wait only a few minutes for an Epcot bus. The excitement is building - the realization that we are finally here is overwhelming! Soon we are entering the gates at Epcot.
Wow! We haven’t been in WDW since they do the fingerprint check when you enter. It takes a few tries before some of us get it right. And another surprise - Spaceship Earth is open! So we decide to take advantage of that and hop on. Well, not exactly…there is about a 15-minute wait. Nice to get on though, since originally we’d thought it would not be open during our trip.
Then we head over to do Ellen’s Energy Adventure. After that we make our way over to the World Showcase for our 2:40 ADRs at Rose and Crown. Along the way we stop in Canada to take some pictures and see the shops. We also have a chance to browse through the shops in the UK and take some pictures with Mary Poppins.



At about 2:30 we check in at the desk and are given a “beeper.” We are able to hear and enjoy the music of Off Kilter, from the Canadian Pavilion, while we wait. After about 10 minutes we are seated in the interior porch area, off the main building. (I wish we could have been seated inside. But after lunch we go inside to use the restrooms, and end up taking some great pictures.) Jeff orders the Shepherd’s Pie, I have the Ploughman’s Lunch, Liz orders the roasted mushroom appetizer and the vegetable curry, Katie orders a salad and the smoked salmon appetizer, and Tom has the open faced roast beef sandwich which comes with mashed potatoes and leek soup. (Our magic number is $18).



Everything is delicious and the service is excellent. The meal comes to $84.14 and with tip it’s an even $100.
Even though we are planning on spending the rest of the day in Future World, we make our way around to Morocco to check out the Henna tattoo stand. Since Liz is a henna tattoo artist, she is interested in seeing what kind of designs they have and how much they cost. Unfortunately, she is disappointed because the designs they display are nothing special. So, we head back to Future World and the Imagination pavilion. We wait about 10 minutes for Honey I shrunk the Audience and then another 15-20 minutes in the pre-show room before it starts. It’s a little annoying because they keep making the announcement about moving all the way to the front and standing up so that there would be room for the people entering, but there are still people sitting and laying on the floor. We figure out that they are a tour group from out of the country. Maybe they can’t understand the announcement! Finally we get into the theater and people do not move all the way down, as instructed. (I guess they can’t understand English either.) So we crawl overtop of them to the end of the row, and find a seat. The theater is pretty full! – This is supposed to be a slow season! The show is hilarious, and even though Jeff and I have seen it and know what to expect, it is still startling! Lots of screaming and lifting of legs! When we get out of the theater, we make our way to the Imagination pavilion. A quick ride through, not much of a wait, and now we have that darn song stuck in our heads! It’s now about 5:00 and we head over to Test Track to see what the wait time is and decide to get a fastpass. This is our first time using fastpass, and we don’t realize that the return time is posted overhead, we just go ahead and get them. Yikes! We have to come back at 7:15. We may not be here that long – afterall we’ve been up since 4:30 this morning! So, we head over to Mission Space to see how much time that will take. There is no wait at all and before you know it we are on our way to Mars. Jeff, Katie and I are on the green team, and Liz and Tom are on the orange team. It was a first time for all of us, and it was a lot of fun. Now we head back over to Test Track and find that the wait time is not as bad as it was before – I think 30 minutes. We decide that’s not so bad and better than hanging around until 7:15 to use our fastpasses. Time goes quickly, and there is quite a bit to look at as we are waiting. And the ride is awesome! When we start going on the track outside, we realize that it is now dark - that is one of the best parts - speeding around the track in the cool night air!
Well, it has been a long day and we decide to head back to the resort. It is getting a little chilly, so we are glad we brought along our jackets for the wait, and the bus ride back. Finally we get to our room and are happy to see our luggage has arrived! We take some time to unpack, and then 4 of the 5 of us go to Intermissions Food Court for some ice cream. (Liz has already fallen asleep.) Three cones and a hot fudge sundae – yum! We also go to Maestro Mickey’s to get a half-gallon of milk and some juice for breakfast tomorrow. When we get back to the room, we make a mini-fridge with our soft-sided cooler, and some Ziploc bags of ice. Then we sit on the beds, plug our cameras into the TV (we have 4 cameras between the 5 of us!) and show of all the pictures we’ve taken today.

The best thing today was…Test Track & lunch at Rose and Crown
The worst thing today was…Katie feeling sick at the airport
The most magical moment today was…getting our picture taken with Mary Poppins & riding Spaceship Earth