12/17
DH and I woke up at 6am to get ready for an extreme cold morning. It was
30 degrees today with
30 degree wind chill. It was freezing throughout the day and evening. I warned DH to wear a long sleeve shirt, because it will get cold. He ignored me. In fact, he decided to not pack a long sleeve shirt at all!!! Our plan was to head towards MGM/DHS for the morning and the late afternoon/evening we will be at Epcot. We arrived at the bus station at 7:25am and the bus didn't arrive until a bit later. But we arrived by 7:50am. We waited in front of MGM freezing our butts off. DH kept complaining about the cold and whining on why we always have to be at the parks early. While I'm trying to convince DH that being at the parks before opening will work in our favor--plus, this will be the last time we'll be at MGM/DHS. Around 8:20am a CM approuches us and asked if we would like to "open the parks" for the day!!! (Ironic, on our first trip in 2003 we also opened MGM as well!) Of course, DH and I said yes--because she also mentioned that we could lounge in the VIP room until it was time for us to "perform for the guests." So the wonderful CM took us into the parks and we got to sit around in their VIP room. DH was estatic; we were going to be warm!!! While we warmed up in the VIP, the CM went over what we would do:
We would "open the parks" by being in a small skit with other CMs to official start the park. Then the Director/CM will drive us to any attraction we want to ride first. DH and I chose RnRc. After we opened the park, we were the first to ride RnRc. It was great to be the first people on the ride, plus we had the entire limo to ourselves. We also got a free picture of us on RnRc as well.
Afterwards, we decided to grab FPs for RnRc, and at this time the FP time was for 9:50am. Oh well, at least we got to ride RnRc first. From there, we rode ToT, which was about a 10 minute wait. From there, I wanted to ride TGMR before the line gets outragious but DH wanted to ride it later in the day. I tried to tell DH that it would be best to go on it now, but he really wanted to ride ST so we headed over there instead, which was about a 5 minute wait. Afterwards, we did M3D, which was a 5 minute wait. From there, we decided to go on TGMR but that took about 15-20 minutes to get on (and that was the longest line we ever waited in for a ride/attraction throughout our entire vacation). After the TGMR, we wanted something to eat, but it was around 10:30am and lunch wasn't being served in the park yet. So we went into the ABC Comentary and grabbed some breakfast. After breakfast we used our FPs, and looked at some shops and pick up some items. DH wanted his Indiana Jones hat, so we bought that. We also bought a MGM pin, gloves (it was cold that day), and a Donald Duck doll. From there, we decided to head back to POP to nap. I warned DH to not eat anything else, since we're going to be having an early dinner at 4:15pm at Marrakesh for our CP package.
We left POP at 3pm and headed towards Epcot. When we arrived, we decided to head straight to Marrakesh. While we arrived the WS draw bridge was raised so the world could get by (and I'm not kidding.) That took about 5 minutes.
From there, we arrived at Marrakesh. DH was whining about how he wasn't going to like the food. I re assured him that the food isn't spicy and he'll like it. We arrive and seated within minutes. The restaurant wasn't crowded at all and we had a wonderful CM, too bad I can't remember his name. DH had an appitizer of light fried pork rolls with cinnimon. And I had the Marrakesh soup which was the best soup I ever had!!! DH liked my soup so much that he was trying to eat my soup. For dinner DH had the lemon chicken, which he said was excellent and I had the beef skewers. My meal was also good, but I couldn't finish my meal--so DH finished my plate. For dessert, I'm not sure what we ordered, but I didn't care for the dessert. But DH enjoyed it. We love this restaurant we'll be eating there again. Before we left they had a band and a belly dancer came out; which was pretty entertaining.
From there, we decided to wait in the CP package line for our 6:15pm showing (I believe that was the correct time). There was already a line when we arrived (around 5:30pm). It was freezing!!! Though, it was pretty to watch the tree lighting ceremony from afar, everyone we encountered complained about how cold it was. [You have no idea how cold it got. I was wearing my thermal pajamas under my thick jeans, and long sleeve shirt. I was also wearing a thick sweater hooded jacket, with gloves, and a blacket wrapped around me and I was still freezing!!!] By the time we were able to get into CP, we decided to sit in the first aisle. Though, the view wouldn't be the greatest, but we were sitting under the stage lights, and that helped a little bit (but not much.) DH had our blacket on the seats, and another blacket wrapped around us. I barely got any pictures of the show. But it was great. Kirk Cameron the show, and he was the perfect man for the job.
After CP, we decided to buy some hot cocoa and cookies. And from there, we headed into some of the WS shops to attempt to stay warm, and to kill some time for Illuminations. By 8:30pm we decided to find a park bench, attempt to keep warm, and wait for Illuminations. We managed to help some newbies by reassuring them that the spot we had for Illuminations was a great spot (between Germany and China) the smoking area. DH and I don't smoke, but we didn't mind. Plus, we've found it's one of the best spots to watch Illuminations and it's wonderful to watch Holiday Wishes (great view of the firework show at MK).
After Illuminations, we said our goodbyes to Epcot and headed back to POP for some rest.
