Day One is here.
Day Two is here.
Day Three pictures are here.

Early morning risers we are. Into the car and off to Typhoon Lagoon, quite possibly the best water park I have ever experienced. Plus since we were Resort residents, we got in an hour before the regular riff raff showed up so it was like getting the park to ourselves. The wait time was under 10 minutes, that’s for sure.

The park was beautiful: well laid out and thoughtfully designed. The deck chairs were numerous and grouped into small intimate groves that overlooked the wave pool. While Typhoon is a high capacity park, I never got that feeling (except by the change rooms. A bit cramped there). It was so well landscaped, honestly thought I was in the Caribbean again. If you have to do one water park in your life, this is the one. No I mean it. Go!

But we were done by 1pm. All the rides were rode and we were itching to see something else. We climb into the car and drive to Epcot for lunch. First, however, the line for Mission: Space (More Intense) was quite small so we decide to ride that before filling our bellies. They kept on drilling home the fact that you might get sick on this ride (or die, like that poor chap did last year) and to further edge my nerves, my flight “ticket” had a bite out of it. Ew. But in the end, we were fine. It actually made us hungrier!

The Germany pavilion came highly recommended and we weren’t disappointed. Big buffet. Big check. Drunk frat boys in the corner loving the “ZIGGY! ZIGGY! ZIGGY! OI! OI! OI!” chants from the Om Pah Pah band. We sat with a nice family of three from Edmonton and a couple from near Chicago. Funny thing was, we all didn’t start chatting until after our first visit to the buffet and half a glass of beer each. Funny how alcohol does that.

What do you do after a nice German lunch and a whole stein of beer in your belly? Go on the fiercest ride at Epcot: The MAELSTROM! Oooo! I wet myself! Actually I did get a bit wet, in keeping with Orlando’s Theme Park laws: at least 4-10 oz of water must be sprayed into a tourists’ face per day.

We wandered a bit more and then headed over to MGM Studios for a quick lookee see. And what did I see? Mickey dress up as STAR WARS characters (Jedi Knight, Rebel pilot) and I began to notice that the Disney company has started to allow Mickey to be depicted as “angry” and “aggressive”. Something Walt would never allow. I was a bit dismayed at this warping of Mickey’s character. Stitch, I could understand. Mickey? Shoot down TIE Fighters? Nope.

Anyhoo we rode the Tower of Terror (which had no water sprays at all) and that was amazing. I use to have a fear of elevators as a small child and the thought of being tossed around in one didn’t sit well but I’d come this far. And was really happy I went on it. The set up for the ride is terrific!

After, we stayed for Fantasmic! A live action, special effect riddled stage show that got me a bit wet when they projected video onto a wall of mist. Too cool!

Plus, I got to be in my first audience “wave”. The size of the crowd would probably make Evil Panda curl up into a ball:

After, the crush out of the park was incredible. I was amazed that Sharkboy showed so much patience.