Hello Tampa! We board Brilliance of the Seas (again)

Monday - 12/14/15

Today something wonderful happens.  We go on a cruise!  Yay!!!  I can't express just how much I love cruising - how much I love the gentle rock of the boat (or in the case of our last night the pretty un-gentle rock of the boat) as I drift off to sleep, how much I love lazing around by the pool doing nothing, and how much fun it is to wake up in a new place and see something novel and different each day.  I love everything about it - it's traveling for lazy people!

We wake up around 10 in the morning - it was bliss!  We'd had four straight days of waking up at the butt crack of dawn and getting to wake up when I was ready to wake up was a luxury indeed.  Especially on VACATION!  :)  

We eat a leisurely breakfast, strip the beds, pack up odds and ends, and are ready to leave by noon.  Because we move slow!  

But before we leave, it's time for another awkward family selfie!  (do you see how not excited my dad is about taking another selfie?)

Raymond and I wanted to hit up Super Target before we left for the cruise.  I wanted to buy some more summer clothes because Orlando ended up way hotter and more humid than I was anticipating.  I needed shorts!  And tank tops!  I was sweating through my jeans.  Doh!  So we spent a blissful hour wandering about (and buying more bottled water) before my brother could not resist the Starbucks any longer and had to partake of his daily sustenance.  

It took about an hour to drive to Tampa, and it was a super easy drive.  We found our reserved parking spot from The Parking Doctors pretty easily, though it was less...fancy than I thought it'd be.  For some reason I thought it'd be like The Parking Spot at LAX, with a big multi-level garage, etc.  Uh, it's not.  It's a squat building (we never went in) with open fields surrounding it where cars are parked.  We made a reservation (we paid less than $50 for 5 days of parking, so price wise there are no complaints) online and when we arrived, we were directed to park in a dirt patch with a bunch of other cars.  The good?  They were efficient, helped us unload then load our luggage into their van, and our car and our belongings were safe for the week we left it there.  So it got the job done even without the fancy building and iced bottled water LAX parking offers.  

They dropped us off at the pier and we had to fill out luggage tags we got from the porters because RCI doesn't provide us with luggage tags anymore.  Then we went to check in.  When we got there (it was around 1 pm) there were no lines at all and we walked right up and checked in after filling out the health form.  

Because we booked two cabins, we checked in separately, though right next to each other.  Check in was quick and efficient and before we knew it, we were onboard!

getting ready to board!

we are boarding!  We in the tunnel people!

My awesomely bad photo of Raymond boarding.

No matter how many cruises I've been on, even if it's going somewhere I've been before (NOT the case this time), I'm always excited.  As I boarded Brilliance for the second time (we were on her in 2011 when we did the Western Mediterranean) I was still wonder struck at how gorgeous the ship still is and how exciting it was that I got to go on a cruise again.  So excited that I had to take a photo of my ship card.  Because that's how I roll:

When we booked our cruise in January (yes, we're those people who book 11 months out, before hotel availability even comes out) Royal Caribbean was having a special: 50% second person.  Usually you pay full fare for the first two, then discounted fare for the 3rd and 4th.  We looked at booking a suite, but it was exorbitantly expensive.  Also, aside from the extra points a suite accrues (and um, a much larger room), I don't think RCI makes the suite experience special in any way.  Yes, you have priority boarding (which I do anyway with my dinky platinum card), but if I were going to splurge for a penthouse, Norwegian's the place to do it.  The suite amenities on NCL's ships FAR outweigh those given on RCI, and for a 5 night cruise, I didn't want to spend close to $10k for the privilege of staying in a larger room.  We hemmed and hawed over a junior suite, which had a friendlier price tag of about $6,000.  We stayed in a JS last time when we went to Europe, but that was for a 12 day cruise where we'd SERIOUSLY need the room or we'd maim each other.  Being el cheapo, I couldn't pull the trigger either.  We settled on a superior ocean view with balcony (a D1 cabin) that's a little larger than the standard room (194 sq. ft v. 164 sq. ft - though the 194 includes the balcony) with the standard bed that could be separated into two twins and a sofa bed.  I was not excited about it, but I was excited about the price.  As opposed to about $6,000 for a JS, the D1 was only about $2000 for the four of us.  Then I seriously started thinking about fitting four grown ass adults into a 194 sq. ft room for almost a week and I grew less excited.  Getting two connected balcony rooms was feasible, but we'd be looking at around $3,000.  But if we booked a D1 balcony and an inside room on the same floor (category M) then for $2,200 we'd get two cabins, two bathrooms, and four beds.  Score!  So for an extra $200, we got an inside cabin for Raymond and I across the hall from my parents' superior balcony cabin.  

I have to say, it was REALLY nice to have our own space - not to mention two people sharing a bathroom instead of four is SO MUCH EASIER.  Especially since the cabins are so small.  I haven't been in an inside cabin since I was 15 and went on a cruise to Ensenada with the school band.  While it was small (and much improved from the inside cabin on the Viking Serenade from my hazy recollections), it was laid out well and for two people, it was a perfectly cozy and comfortable cabin.  The sofa was small, but on the rare occasion we sat on it at the same time, we weren't crowded and squashed together.  The beds were comfortable and the bedding is much nicer than I remembered.  We (all four of us) so enjoyed having two rooms that my dad declared that this is how we'll cruise from now on!  (does this mean no more penthouses though?  Because that would be sad).  The one issue is that we had a hard time finding each other and would miss each other.  Raymond and I got the internet package (my parents gave in later in the week and did so as well) so we could text each other via whatsapp, but my parents are not as good about checking their texts so it was harder to get ahold of them.  

Our rooms were on deck 9 and we were in 9561 and my parents were in 9556, diagonally across the hall.  Literally.  They weren't RIGHT across, but two doors down.  See?

Well hell, we have to get the beds separated.  The last time we slept on the same bed we were both in the single digits.  And Raymond claims I bitch slapped him, so he refused to share a bed with me after that.  He was 4.  

And because our room steward was super awesome, our beds were already separated after we came back from lunch!

But before she did that, we (I) took pictures of the rest of the room:

And our teeny tiny bathroom.  It's been awhile since we've had to fight the battle of the molesting shower curtain and the never ending struggle to keep the bathroom floor dry.  When we had a D1 on Navigator, we had a real shower door, so it wasn't as big of a challenge to keep the bathroom floor dry and glass does not tend to cling to your body like a monkey when all you're trying to do is cleanse yourself.  But I found if I left a few inches gap (thus the challenge to keeping the floor dry) in the curtain it would keep it from molesting me, so not being hugged by the gross shower curtain trumped a perfectly dry floor for me.  

We go across the hall to check our our parents' room:

having natural light does make the room look bigger

their couch is much bigger than our little two seater

Their room is both longer and wider than our little cave.  And they've got a nice balcony with its view of Tampa.

Even though Brilliance is a mid-size ship, the hallways felt kinda long.  It felt a lot bigger than the Norwegian Sun, which was our last cruise when we went to Alaska.

the hallway leading from the Centrum to our rooms

Once we throw down our stuff and I've taken a lot of crappy photos of our rooms, we do what cruisers always do upon embarkation: we eat.  We head for the Windjammer and stuff our faces.

unattractive photo of delicious food

I love Norwegian for many things - the mellow atmosphere, the ease of dining, the awesome suite perks...but the buffet (at least on the Sun) sucks DONKEY BALLS.  It was small, laid out by someone who had clearly been dropped on his head one too many times, and the seating was always insufficient and the food...not so good.  And I'm not a picky eater.  It was decent, but never what I'd call really good.  Just...average.  The Windjammer is laid out SO MUCH better - there were more selections, WAY more seating, and it was just so much more attractive than the buffet on the Sun.  

After lunch we went and explored the ship - it's been about 4 years, but it's changed!  The library that used to be on the 9th floor has been removed, and it's a smaller seating area now.  Some of the cozy seating areas we had on decks 9 and 10 last time had been removed in the 2013 refurbishment, which was a pity because as a borderline antisocial weirdo, I enjoy sitting up there where I can see the crowd and hear the band but not get jostled about and have to put up with weird B.O.   But there are a lot of differences, though it wasn't until I started going through old photos that I realized how much has changed!

2015: 

2011

That lovely seating area on the deck 10 (now it has that chandelier looking thing) is gone :( 

And instead of the scattered comfy seats of the library on deck 9, there's only two chairs by the railing and a table with some seats in the back.  I guess they turned the extra space into cabins?  

2015

This though, I think is gorgeous.  I love the pretty pattern and the lighting.  It's very elegant :)

2011...not as elegant

             

 And of course, we had to take a photo of what day it is on the elevator:

And we continue to wander as we try to reorient ourselves to the ship.  

There's a display of gingerbread houses and other sweets leading into what I think is the Schooner Bar.  

And there's a cute little pub now:

And past the pub a movie theater!  I didn't know this was here.  Was this here last time?

I didn't end up catching any of the movies.  My mom actually watched Minions, which is what they were playing on embarkation day.  My brother wanted to make me watch Sicario with him (he loves that movie) but I didn't want to watch a drama about the war on drugs while on vacation.  In Mexico!  However, they also have this huge ass movie screen on the pool deck and all the movies were playing up there anyway, so you don't even have to go to the cinema!  On the last night my parents (and other brave and hardy cruisers) were all bundled up (in coats AND towels) on the pool deck watching Sicario  at 10 pm at night.  I went to check on them, then being sane, went back to my nice warm room to finish packing.

The rest of the afternoon (for me) was delightfully spent in the Solarium, my FAVORITE place on the ship.  And I LOVE this one way more than the one on the Navigator: because it's indoors with a glass ceiling - you get the sun, AND the A/C.  Win!

Raymond joined me for awhile (those are his black socks below) and he played his game while I read and surfed the internet.  He then became ambitious and went to the gym while I continued to sit like a lump for another few hours just taking in the sun.  All while air conditioning is keeping the frizzies away, of course.

The rest of the day was spent being a lazy bug.  My mom watched the Minions movie (my dad bailed when he realized it was a cartoon), they wandered the ship, and had an early dinner before turning in since they were still exhausted.  Raymond and I lazed in our room, watched Love Actually (because it is awesome) and toddled to the buffet around 8 pm when we both got hungry.  BTW, around 11 pm, we got the munchies (no, there was no pot involved) and went to the cafe inside the solarium.  They have a lot of snacks!  Sandwiches, pizza, cookies, desserts.  And we suffered through Episode 1 of Star Wars because it was release week and they were playing all of them.  

After sating ourselves on our late snack run and having our brains fried by the horror of Jar Jar Binks, we went to bed.  The next day is a sea day, the BEST kind of day on vacation!

Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (or EPCOT)

Sunday - December 13, 2015

Another early morning, another breakfast.  But who can stay unhappy in the face of bacony deliciousness?

Our ADR is at 8 am, so we NEED to leave by 7:30 at the latest.  We're a little bit late.  We're tired, and all of us are operating on about 5 hours of sleep.  Oy vey!

But we wake up and zombie walk to the car and drive to Epcot.  See what I mean about stretching out the trip if I could do it again?  All these early mornings and late night touring without nary a break makes me want to punch myself.  Alas, Epcot does a tiered FP thing where you get a FP either to Soarin' or Test Track.  I booked our FP for Test Track because we have Soaring Over California here at DCA.  But when Garden Grill started up pre-opening character breakfasts a few months ago, I hopped online and booked an 8 am ADR so we could hop right over to Soarin' after breakfast.  After all, they're in the same building.  So away we went for breakfast with Farmer Mickey and his other friends.

Hello Epcot, we will finally meet

we're here!  Yay!  We are this much closer to delicious bacon

we're parked so close we can see the gigantor golf ball from our car.

We enter the park and hustle because we're already late :(

But not too late to take random photos as I power walk!

I hurriedly snap a few blurry and lopsided pictures of the park while it's empty.  As far as I know, there are only two restaurants in Epcot open for pre-opening ADR's: Garden Grill and a princess breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway.  We are routed through one of the Innovention buildings and arrive at The Land.  Tada!

Nice murals, eh?

We enter and see that the building houses lots of stuff!

I see Soarin'!  But where's the rest of the title?  Why don't you tell people it's over California?  Are you embarrassed about Cali???

We head to Garden Grill and get there around 8:10 am - oops.  But we're lead to our table quickly and our waiter (who was awesome) immediately takes our drink orders (the POG juice was magical.  Oh, just magical.  It's a mix of passion fruit, orange, and guava juice  yum!) and brings out platters of goodness.  OMG - this breakfast was so freaking awesome.  I just wished we didn't get here so late and had more time to enjoy it.  Because once it gets to 8:45, we need to leave so we can get on Soarin' without a line.  But the food was delicious.  You wanna see?  (too bad if you don't, you're gonna see anyway)

This was the best park food we had all trip.  And that includes food @ Universal Studios.  The pan of cinnamon deliciousness came out first - it was soft and warm and gooey, fresh out of the oven.  My mama is diabetic and shouldn't have any.  But she ignored that and dug through the frosting to the unfrosted parts underneath and ate that.  OMG, SO. GOOD.  

The bacon was crisp and delicious and the eggs were fluffy and light.  The biscuits and gravy were good, but they're really heavy and I'm not used to having that for breakfast.  I'm not big on ham anyway (unless it's in a sandwich) but the tater tots were fantastic and so were the waffles.  But they brought chocolate sauce for the waffles, which confused me.  I guess I could've asked for maple syrup but I went with the flow.  Of chocolate, which isn't like a big ordeal. 

We didn't eat that much.  We didn't have a whole lot of time, but also, we just don't eat that much.  We got seconds on the bacon and potatoes, but that was it.  But it was the best breakfast all trip (including the cruise) and the best park food, period.

the coffee hadn't come yet.  Clearly.

This is a character breakfast.  And the characters work hard for their money.  I guess the kids enjoy it, but we were just trying to eat.  But what the hell, we might as well take photos with them, right?

See the POG juice?  SO GOOD.

Have you noticed that my dad didn't take any photos with any of the characters?  What?  did you really think he would?

We finished breakfast full and sated.  And because I had so much juice and coffee, I needed to pee ALL the damn time.  TMI, but that's how I roll.   And then we headed for Soarin'!

One of the reasons I wanted to do it was because I thought my dad hadn't been on it before  Apparently, he HAD.  Without my knowledge my dad has visited DCA before! WHAT?!?!  Anyhoo, as we stepped off the rotating restaurant (yes, it spins) we literally see a SEA of people heading into The Land and head for the stairs down to Soarin'.  I guess rope drop has happened!  So we hurried ahead of them down the stairs and made our way into Soarin' with a short wait.  But we weren't going to ride it again with the skyrocketing wait!

Because it's in the same building (and because we don't have it and our FP's haven't come into effect yet) we did Living with the Land.  It's a nice boat ride where you look at plants.  Yup.

and fish too, apparently

a TAD off on seasons, but that's okay

Still waiting for our FP time for Test Track, we head to The Seas.  Because we've never been there and why not?

we enter The Seas!

I couldn't get any pictures of the queue because of how dark it is in there, but I was impressed by the detailing and theming - it's pretty immersive.  And nice and cool on a hot day.  The ride was way better than our version in a submarine.  Because it's not in a squashed submarine where you're pressed knee to butt to a stranger.  But the clam shell vehicle was really small!  Raymond and I aren't tall people, and we were kinda squished.  How do tall people do this?

It's a cute dark ride, though not worth a long line.  I wanted to look at the fancy aquarium then, so we spent about 15 minutes wandering between the tanks.  And we see a manatee eating lettuce!  

And then the manatee finds a friend!

look!  He's waving!

Finally it's time for Test Track.  We don't have this here, and as it's an E ticket, I'm pretty excited.  It's always fun to go on new rides.

As a group of 4 we could've designed 2 vehicles.  But the group in front of us had a bunch of kids and they took up more kiosks than they should've.  Meaning they took OUR kiosk.  And their parents, being rat bastard bad parents who other people hate, didn't do anything about it.  So Raymond and I shared a kiosk with my parents, who were spectacularly uninterested in designing a car.  Yay!  Raymond took the lead, and he designed the WORST CAR EVER.  He deliberately made it as ugly and horrible as possible.  And it was so horribly bad it was embarrassing.  It was shaped weird, and it was purple.  And it had sparkles and stars on it.  Oy.

See?  (I shiver at its sight)

It was...okay,  Just okay.  It's slow for the most part and then it's fun for like, a minute (literally) and then it's over,  Wow.  That was short.  It reminds me of Radiator Springs Racers, but with none of the charm or theming.  It was kind of disappointing, though by no means is this a bad ride.

So we head to Spaceship Earth for our next FP.  We waited about 15 minutes in the FP line.  It was cute, not spectacular, though I already expected that.

At some point they took pictures of us and started plugging our faces into everything.  

A spaceship.  Though it totally looks like we belong in the Exorcist with our heads turned like that.  

How did they know we're Chinese????

And because we're Chinese, they took us to the land of our people.  In a spaceship.

I've been there.  It doesn't look like this

I feel like we're on the Jetsons.  On crack.

at least they put me in black pants.  That's my color.  

ummm...okay.  I don't see this happening.  I don't even like snorkeling

No it's not.

then they put us on the big screen.  Not cool dude.

How did they know he likes argyle???

We still had about an hour before our FP for Mission Space, and my parents were tired already, so I found them the LONGEST ride I knew about (which surprisingly, my mama totally enjoyed).  

Meanwhile, we went here:  surprise!

Raymond needed his crack.  Even though we had coffee with breakfast two hours before.  But it wasn't a caramel macchiato, and he needs his caramel macchiato.  I didn't need anything, but since we had to stand in line, I got my chai tea latte.  Because it's delicious.  And we spent another fortune on little mugs.  Because we crazy.

We find a shaded place with benches (by one of the innoventions) to sit down and play on our phones (what did we do without them?) and suck down our poison.

Then we went shopping for souvenirs.  And my parents finished the ride and we sat under a tree on a bench for a bit.  Then...Mission Space!

We waited what felt like a thousand years, but was probably about 15 minutes in line.  We stood in front of these cool suits for about 10 minutes.  It was fun!  I knew what to expect, but it was pretty cool anyway.

After the last few days, I knew my parents couldn't hack a crazy touring schedule.  So at this point left the park so my parents could nap and rest up.  There wasn't anything left in Future World that I had a burning desire to do at this point, and it was close to lunch time, so we headed back to the house to eat and rest up for the World Showcase and Illuminations that night.

We walk to our rock star parking and leave it (sob!) and all eat and nap.  We wake, we pack (and being smart, I bring my poncho) and we head for Epcot again.  While on the tram it starts raining.  FINALLY!  I feel vindicated in lugging my pack of ponchos!  I busted out my Totes one, which is a little bigger and thicker, my brother who wasn't convinced of rain, ended up in the crappier disposable one because he refused to bring his Totes poncho.  My parents had dressed for rain so they both had rain jackets with hoods on.  Unfortunately, I was wearing my sandals, but at least they were my Rainbows which does okay in the rain.  Though being anal retentive and OCD I didn't want to think about how dirty my feet were getting.

The poor photo pass photographer grabbed his fancy camera moved under an awning get out of the rain.  But since we were prepared, we didn't care, we accosted him and made him take a photo of us anyway!

Don't we look exciting in our crappy ponchos?

super blurry look at us strolling to the World Showcase!

and here's the blurry Epcot tree

And of course the first one we hit is Mexico, so we look a it's fake Mexican glory.  My dad thinks this is a good primer for our Mayan ruins tour in a few days.  Yeah...it didn't look like this.

We enter and it totally feels like we're inside the Blue Bayou.  With better visibility.  And a lot more tequila.

There's no line, so we go on the Gran Fiesta Tour, a boat ride that features the wonders of Mexico.  There were a lot of movie screens depicting Mexico's fantastic beaches, so yes, it was effective and now I want to go lay on a beach in Cabo instead of being in rainy So Cal (I know!  It rained!  And we lost our minds because we don't know who to drive when it's wet outside).

The ride over, we headed to Norway, where I was on a one woman mission to get school bread come hell or high water.

I was successful.  And it was delicious.  And I want some now (sob).  

Then we go to China.  Because it's the land of my people.  Unfortunately, I was the only person interested in watching the film, so that didn't happen.

I've been to China twice.  And it's not this clean.  I  know, I sound so racist, but 1) it's not racist if it's your own people and 2) it's not racist if it's true.  

I love that we had to take photos with fake China.  When we've take pictures with real China before.

I've been to the real Temple of Heaven as well.  And yeah...this version is way nicer.

pretty Disneyized Temple of Heaven

Proof that I know of what I speak?

tada!   The REAL Temple of Heaven.  See?  I've been there before.  I think this picture is from 2000.  I doubt it's gotten cleaner in the last 15 years.

inside the China Pavilion

I've seen the real ones of these too.  And it's not this pretty either :(

My brother actually lives and works in China.  He also agrees that this makes China look way better than it actually is.  But we wandered through the store selling stuff made in China (which come on, just about everything is made in China.  We don't need a special store for that) and were appalled at the prices being charged for stuff you could buy at the night markets.  Oh well.  

After visiting the land of my ancestors, we went to visit the land of my car's ancestor's.  Germany.  And dude, it's sooo much prettier.  And more festive, which makes sense because 1) there's beer in Germany; 2) there are delicious carbs in the form of pretzels in Germany which of course makes people happier; and 3) it's probably more festive because they decorate for Christmas and China does not.

Because Germany is adorable, there's a photopass photographer there so we excitedly got photos in faux Deutschland.  

Raymond and I go into the stores to look for awesome German things.  We didn't find a lot of awesome German things.  They sold some bags, suitcases, and Puma things.  Eh.  But the cutest thing I found there?  German mouse ears.  Eeeee!

it's wearing lederhosen!  And it has pretzels!

We wander towards Italy.  It's cute!  But first, a blurry picture cross the lake!

My mama poses for a blurry picture with the fake Doge's Palace.  Which is weird because we have photos with the real Doge's Palace.  

see?  real Doge's Palace.

It was cute.  Decorated for Christmas, with a teeny portion of the Trevi Fountain (that unfortunately ended up being the smoking section) that we admired for 5 seconds before we had to leave.

So we journeyed to the American Pavilion, where they were just finishing up a session of the Candlelight Processional.  I think Meredith Viera was doing hosting duties that night.  And unfortunately, because it was ending, there were lots of people there.

We went inside to take a look, but the wait for the film was going to be 30 minutes.  My parents didn't want to wait 30 minutes, but they took a seat while I went and fangirled all over the gingerbread Capitol building.

And we moved onwards to Japan, which ended up being my parents' favorite pavilion. It was beautiful, it was clean, and it had Asian food that looked edible!  (my parents were not impressed by the faux Panda Express selection at the China Pavilion)  We also took a gazillion photos there because they loved the Japanese garden.

My mom desperately wanted a bowl of soupy noodles.  Ask and ye shall receive!  Provided you're willing pay ten bucks for it.  It was okay.  Not the best udon, but certainly serviceable.  Not bad would be my score for it.

these came with shrimp tempura, but she took them out and put them on the side because soggy tempura is gross

I went for a bowl of chicken cutlet curry, which was a pretty generous portion.  Also not bad.  Not Curry House level, certainly, it was about what I'd expect from a Japanese supermarket food court.

My brother got the sushi combo - which tasted like plain old supermarket sushi.  And he didn't get sick, so yay!  It was better than Costco sushi, which has that weird mushy rice, so he was pleased.

After dinner we took some more photos, and wandered over to Morocco.  I'd read that the King of Morocco got super excited about the pavilion and sent his people over to help Disney design it so it'd be authentic.  And it was beautiful.  I've never been to Morocco nor ever had to desire to, but this pavilion was my favorite.  Too bad it started raining again while we were there though!

We became totally enamored with this covered fountain, can you tell?

And this doorway, opposite the fountain.

And as we're pulling on our rain jackets and ponchos, I look inside the store (from the window) and see a not-so-hidden Mickey!  Which of course must be documented.

We head over to France, where I wanted to try the macaron ice cream sandwich from L'Artisan des Glaces.  Because I am a food whore.

But first, I must take photos of their little displays because they're adorable, even though it's dark and wet and the camera on my phone sucks at low light situations (stupid Moto!).

I don't even know what this was, expect it had mini food in it, and I knew I must take a photo of its fake deliciousness.

In the pouring rain, Raymond and I trudged to L'Artiste des Glaces for our ice creams.  Yes, because we're that crazy.  My parents went to hide while Raymond and I went and lined up for our ice cream sandwiches.

They were cute.  Kinda expensive, and honestly, kind of a let down.  I don't now if it's because we got there late in the day or because it's been sitting in the freezer, but the texture of the macaron wasn't great - it was a little crumbly as opposed to having that little crackle when you bite past the shell with the chewy texture inside.  It wasn't bad, but it's not something I'd get again.  Next time, I'll just get a cone.

And man, it poured.  So our bright idea was to go and watch Impressions de France.  Um, it was fantastic.  Also, I doubt they've ever seen as large a crowd as ours.  The theater was almost full because of the rain.  It's clearly an older film just looking at the cars being driven in the film, but it's beautifully done and I loved it.  I wish we had watched all the  movies now in all the pavilions if they were all equally well done.  My parents really enjoyed it, and we reminisced about time in Paris.  The rain let up a little bit after the movie and we caught one of the photo pass photographers hiding under the awning to Les Chefs de France and we made her take a photo of us because that's how we roll  I had just enough vanity (and the rain let up enough) to take the hood off my head.  Raymond had lots of vanity and took his entire unawesome poncho off for the photo.

   

I had planned on seeing Illuminations outside Tokyo Dining - but because of the rain, it was packed since there was an awning above and kept us from getting wet.  Oh well,  My parents really didnt want to walk around to find a better spot, so there we stayed, watching from the second row.

My photos of it are horrible.  So you get a small taste of how horrible they are:

My mom really liked it, she actually liked it more than Wishes because of the water element, but my brother and I enjoyed Wishes more than Illuminations, though we enjoyed both.

My parents were both extremely glad that we dragged them back out to see Illuminations - it's something we don't have in DCA or Cali, so they were really happy they got to see it.  Also, I think my dad just really likes fireworks.  

Since Epcot closes after Illuminations, we all slowly meandered out with the crowd, taking really crappy blurry photos as we went.

  

I LOVED this at the UK Pavilion - OMG.  I love tea, and I love Spode.  I about wet myself

The Canada Pavilion also looked freaking awesome, I'm so sad we didn't get to explore it.  Next time!

As we're walking through the park, the big golf ball is telling us goodnight in Chinese!

goodbye blurry tree!

And in Japanese.

And in English, because it's awesome.  There was German and other languages, but  my pictures of those turned out blurry and even worse than the ones here (sob!).

And thus ended our 3 days at Disney World.  I've been anticipating and planning this part for so long that it was a little surreal that it was over.  On the bright side, we still have a 6 day cruise and three days at Universal Studios to look forward to, so our vacation is far from over.

We spend the rest of the night doing laundry (yay laundry!) and packing.  My poor mom.  But we FINALLY get to sleep in before we head to Tampa for our Western Caribbean cruise.  Never have I been so happy at the thought of sleeping in.

Before we put away our Magic Bands, I gather them together for one last photo.  

Tomorrow, we go on a cruise!