We awoke today feeling rested. Karen had a good night and felt well enough to make breakfast (she insisted). We lounged in the morning and then made our way to Epcot. We parked in the handicapped area and took a wheelchair to the Guest Relations area where Karen bought her DVC Annual Pass! Our next stop was the ECV rental area. As Karen wasn't up to walking all over the park, it seemed only logical to rent an ECV so that she could enjoy at least part of the vacation. It took a bit of getting used to but she maneuvered it pretty well. She would have to adjust the speed using the Turtle or the Hare settings. A few times there was almost a minor collision but overall Karen did real well. Once she got the hang of it and there was an opening in the crowd I almost had to jog to keep up. We started out by visiting Innoventions West and having our picture sent home to a friend. The wide lanes made it very easy to maneuver the ECV. Afterwards we had our picture taken in front of Spaceship Earth. I ventured towards Mission: Space while Karen roamed MouseGear. The single rider line was at least 20-30 minutes. Since I had a chance to ride earlier in the week, the wait just wasn't worth it. I met up with Karen in MouseGear and we shopped for a bit. We had a few things sent home for ourselves and family/friends. We left MouseGear and caught the end of the Kristos stage show.
We decided it was time to start sampling the world's cuisine at the Food and Wine Festival so we made our way over towards World Showcase. Over the next few hours we ate our way around World Showcase and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Karen was having fun, something she had very little of earlier in the week. It was good to see her enjoying herself. Here's a quick listing of the foods we ate: Shrimp Roll and Mango wine from the Florida Marine kiosk across from the World Trader; Kielbasa and Pirogies from Poland (outside Canada); Quiche Lorraine and Escargot in France; beef shish-kabob and pistachio baklava in Morocco; and Baked Ziti Carbonara and chocolate covered connolli in Italy. By the time we got this far, we were both stuffed. We decided we would return on Saturday and finish the other half. Along the way we also stopped into the Tea Trader in the United Kingdom for some Chamomile and Spearmint tea; in Japan to look at the Tin Toy exhibit; the Artists Circle in the American Adventure to check out the neat artworks and finally to ride El Rio del Tiempo in Mexico. On several occasions our ponchos came out only to be quickly taken off. Those darn tropical depressions!
After leaving World Showcase we stopped at the Food and Wine Welcome center to buy the recipe book for all the foods being sold today. We were very excited when we saw the pistachio baklava as it was one of our favorites. I tried Mission: Space again but it was still great than 30 minutes for single rider. We wandered a bit around Future World and then decided we had enough for the afternoon. After returning the ECV, I found a wheelchair for Karen, returned to the car and made our way back to our vacation home. We watched a DVD and then had a quick nap.
After washing up, we drove over to MGM and found their handicapped lot (much easier than Epcot). After picking up an ECV we swam upstream along Hollywood Boulevard. The Sorcerer Mickey hat was really standing out against the clear night sky so we took a few pictures. We even looked for a Photopass photographer for our picture but none seemed to be around. While Karen wandered (or rather rolled along) the Sunset Boulevard shops, I tried TOT and Rockin' Rollercoaster. Since Fantasmic was due to start in 45 minutes, the wait times for both were 40 minutes. I found Karen and we continued to wander the shops and the park. By now the park was just about closed so people had either left or were in Fantasmic. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. With music playing, the lights all on and not needing to dodge people it was a real pleasure. New York Street was being decorated with the Osbourne lights. We got to see them a bit early as they turned them all on to test! What a neat bonus! We made our way up Mickey Avenue and through the arch by Little Mermaid and then over to 50's Prime Time to see about dinner. Since the park had closed, they weren't taking any walk-ups, only those with Priority Seating times. I tried calling 407-WDW-Dine but they told me they were all booked. We made final tour of the Hollywood Boulevard shops and then returned the ECV and made our way to the car. We parked at Beach Club as we wanted to have dinner at Beaches and Cream. We put our name in and visited the game room. We enjoyed a great burger and just had to have ice cream! We waddled our way back to the car and returned to our vacation home for the night.
Back to OKW October 2005 Table of Contents