#DisneySMMoms 2010 – Epcot and Leaving Pop Century (Day 4, Part 1)

It’s been awhile since my last DisneySMMoms post. This update has been long overdue. I last left off on our rainy day 3. Day 4, February 10th, was a big day. We would be leaving the Pop Century and moving to the Polynesian Resort for the Disney Social Media Moms conference. That would need to wait until later, though, because breakfast, in the form of a Cape May advance dining reservation, awaited!

We took the bus from the Pop Century resort to Hollywood Studios. From there, we could have taken a boat ride to the Boardwalk, but the boat didn’t look like it was running right then. Instead of waiting, we decided to walk. This was a bit of a mistake. It was pretty chilly to begin with and walking alongside the water just seemed to encourage strong gusts of wind.

After what seemed like hours (really 36 minutes), we made it to the Boardwalk and the Beach Club Resort. This resort holds special meaning for B and me. Nine years ago (this June), we went to Disney World on our honeymoon and stayed at the Beach Club Resort. It was a nice trip down memory lane even if we didn’t stroll through it very long.

We checked in and quickly got seated. Cape May is a character breakfast. Donald, Goofy, and Minnie were all on hand in beach-wear greeting kids and adults alike. Again, this brought back memories. During our honeymoon, we got a photo of B posing with Goofy. So you just *know* I had to get a "nine years later" shot!

Of course, the boys loved seeing the characters too. JSL, perhaps a little too much. He didn’t eat much of anything because he was constantly looking around to see where the characters were.

The food itself was very good. They had the usual breakfast fare: eggs, bagels with lox, Mickey waffles, muffins, etc. My favorite, though, was the french toast. It was made as a baked casserole with the layers of egg soaked bread dripping with syrup. Once I’m off my diet, I might have to replicate this!

After our meal, we did something that we enjoyed doing during our honeymoon. No, not that! I meant that we walked over to Epcot’s back enterance near the United Kingdom. I immediately got us some Fast Passes for Soarin’ while B, NHL and JSL headed to The Living Seas. At the Seas, we saw lots of fish and attended Turtle Talk with Crush. This year, Crush picked NHL to ask a question.

I’ll admit, I cringed a bit. NHL has a tendancy to not be clear and direct when he wants to ask a question. He’ll stop, start, and go off on tangents as if his brain is struggling to pick the best way of asking *while* he is asking. I was impressed (and proud), though. Not only did he ask clearly and directly, but his question was a very good one. He asked Crush whether it was dark in his shell. Crush answered that he doesn’t know. He explained that land turtles can go in their shell but sea turtles can’t. I told NHL as we left how proud I was of him.

After the Seas, we went to the Imagination! to see Journey Into Imagination With Figment. We all had fun on this last year and this year was no different.

Now, it was time for Soarin’. On the way there, we enountered Mary Poppins. She was very nice and talked to the boys, took some photos with them and signed their autograph book (autograph #25).

NHL and I went on Soarin’ while JSL and B waited. This was lots of fun, just like last year. Afterwards, the plan *was* to go to lunch, but plans change. The Circle Of Life Lion King movie was ready to play and the kids wanted to see it. JSL was a bit freaked out by how loud it was but he stayed in my lap and didn’t cry. NHL enjoyed seeing it.

Next, we were going to leave (again) but decided to go on the Living With The Land ride. This is where you get to see some of the facilities Disney uses to grow produce and fish to use in their parks. (Check out the Hidden Mickey in the shrimp tank.) NHL was very impressed with everything and even JSL loved seeing the plants. I highly recommend going on this ride. In fact, looking back on the photos is good inspiration for our garden that we’re growing now.

Now it was lunch time. Really. No putting it off any more. So we headed out of Epcot. Along the way, JSL asked for some water so I retrieved his water bottle. Except I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t in any pocket. A sudden sinking realization hit us. We left his Nalgene water bottle in Cape May after breakfast! We headed over to a store where they called Cape May ahead of us. When they couldn’t get anyone, we simply walked over there. I walked ahead while B pushed the boys in the stroller. When I got there, they checked and found out that Heather saves everything she finds left on the tables. Sure enough, one of those things was JSL’s water bottle! Thanks, Heather, you saved us!

With all of our belongings now back with us, we hopped on the boat to Hollywood Studios and then went back to the Pop Century. We ate a quick lunch (including one last piece of Tie Dye Cheesecake *sniff* *sniff*) before going to our room to pack up.

Luckily, we didn’t need to lug all of our suitcases to the Polynesian. Disney sent someone to take them for us. With the bags in transit, we sadly said farewell to Pop Century and took a bus to the Magic Kingdom. From there, we hopped on the Monorail to the Polynesian and on to the rest of our Disney SM Moms adventure!