Em's Wedding Trip: Day 2, Epcot

Yay Epcot. Yay World Showcase. My favorite park at Disney World because I get 'the UK', 'Italy' and 'France' all in one place.

The soon-to-be-newlyweds had their Honeymoon photo shoot in the morning so we planned to rendezvous with Em at Epcot around noonish.

We skipped and hopped our way (okay, not really but it sounds more Disney than 'we took the Epcot bus') to Epcot, met up with Em (Minnie ears, veil and all!) and took some pictures in front of Spaceship Earth. Our plan was to go on rides, go drink around the world and then watch IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth.

We spent the entire day playing around the park in the gawd-awful heat and humidity. Killer! Obviously, lots of sunscreen, water and oil-blotting sheets were involved. Pic kept reminding me of Ryan. Them 2 are so alike, plus Pic to Em is what Ryan is to me. It was weird. And we were totally checking out guys together. One can always look but one can't touch.

Lunch was our first priority, which we had at The Land. While there, we got Fast Pass tickets for Soarin' and someone mentioned smelling oranges. Oranges? We went on the ride after dinner and I definitely smelled oranges. And evergreens. Nice.

We also went on Living with the Land, which was really cool and intelligent. Some of the vegetables were even 'earning their ears'! Mission: SPACE wasn't too nauseating and was hosted by Gary Sinise (Detective Mac Taylor on CSI: New York!). Em the Pilot, Venus the Navigator and I the Commander landed alright on Mars despite lacking an Engineer. Test Track was pretty cool, too, seeing how cars are tested a million and one (if not more) ways before humans are set loose upon them. Spaceship Earth was closed for renovations. Tragic and not very magical at all.

After being disappointed by Figment (he wasn't at his Character Corner), we moved on to World Showcase. Yay, England! Okay, technically it's the UK, but whatever. We started our drink-around-the-world tour at Mexico with margaritas and the Grand Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros. I still have the Three Caballeros on videotape. From there we moved on to Norway to ride Maelstrom. It was nice and cooling, and we gave Em a terrible time about her oil-rig phobia. Dinner was at the Rose & Crown Pub and I had bangers and mash! Yay again! They weren't the best bangers and mash I'd ever had but it was good nonetheless. We all got drinks, of course. Em and Venus had blue light-up 'ice cubes' in their drinks, Pic and Dem had some other cocktails but I think mine was the most magical of all: tropical fruit punch with a clip-on light-up Tinkerbell! Coooooool. I planned on wearing it during IllumiNations.

Dinner was quite a fun and funny affair. Not everyone could understand every word our waitress, Susan, said because of her Scottish brogue. I had to do some 'translating'. The most hilarious moment was when a hostess walked past leading some guests to their table: she said something to the guests just as she walked past our table and everyone was, like, 'What???' and they all automatically looked at me. We cracked up when we realized everyone, but me, had the same reaction. Then there was Ed. Ooooh, he was SO cute! He was English and waiting on some other tables further down from us. Pic saw him as soon as we walked in, but I didn't spot him until after we'd sat down for a bit. He's faster than I am, and he's even more shameless than I am! Love it! He had no compunction about asking for a picture with Ed. And he did. He asked our waitress if we could take a picture with the guy who waits those *points* tables there. Her response was a surprised, 'Ed??' as if she couldn't figure out why on earth we'd want a picture with him. He's hot, duh! It was also his birthday just the day before; he's only 23! We took a bunch of pictures (one on each camera and there were 4 total) with Ed and Susan.

After dinner, Em and Venus went back to their rooms to rest: Em because her feet were killing her and Venus because she had taken a red-eye flight and had just gotten in very early that morning. Dem, Pic and I moved on to France to sample their Grey Goose Citron slushie - it was yummy! I could hardly taste the alcohol. France is always so beautiful, I love it. Dem got a mocha in the US. Then...Italy! Em had told us about a rosé wine in Italy that was very much like the Elio Perrone Bigaro that we love so much (yes, even I like it!), so we definitely wanted to try that out. Pic and I wanted to check out the hot Italian men (since most Italian men are hot and all the World Showcase employees are from their respective countries). Much to our disappointment, there was only one hot Italian about and he looked a bit young. The wine, however, was fantastic. Pic and I took the 'Discovery Flight' and tried 4 different wines. I liked the appetizer one and the dessert wine, the Rosa Regale, Brachetto D'Acqui! The Rosa was the one Em was referring to. The red and and the white didn't score so high on my list so Pic finished those off. I finished off the Rosa while Dem finished off the appetizer wine. I think. Well after much approval and mmmmm's about the rosé, we planned on buying a bottle to take back to our room after IllumiNations.

IllumiNations was pretty spectacular. It was my first time watching it and everytime I think I don't want to watch fireworks, that they're all the same, I'm always surprised at how much I end up enjoying it. Must be the accompanying music, which was very Disney at this particular show. Then much to our dismay, we found out that the shops all close by the end of the show! No Rosa for us :(! (Luckily, Dem found it at a local supermarket after we got home!)

Despite not being able to buy a bottle of the Rosa, it was a very magical day all in all.