We slept in on Day 4. The original plan for this day, Nov 22, was to go to Universal. However, while planing this trip we also began planning a subsequent trip in June 2015. So we decided just to hold off a bit longer and save universal for the summer. Since we already had one entire resort day built into this current trip, we made this a half-Epcot/half-DTD day. With a late morning wake up.
We are late risers. All of us.
So since a full Epcot day was planned out for the very next day, this became quick day with one real goal: ride Soarin'. AJ had not beein on the new test track yet, but Troy and I had. He was jonesin', but we reminded him many times that we would ride it twice tomorrow. Today we were riding Soarin' - which we couldn't get a FP for tomorrow due to the awesome (not) tier system.
So we slept in, availed ourselves of the mug refill station and muffins in the Crews Cup, and started our day about 9am. We took the amazing walk to EP. Wow - I really love the ease of the alk from YC to EP. If you are wondering if it is long: it isn't. If you are wondering if you can do it: you can. It is a pretty walk and over so quickly.
This day was pretty warm. I think it got up into the mid-70s. Hence, no mittens.
We arrived at the IG and we all scanned our MBs. Leah's turned blue. Oops, try again sweetie. Over and over. "Same finger, sweetie?" Finally the man with the iPad said, just go on in. We never saw a green but he waved us in so in we went. We just thought it was a fluke, like the time I tried to pay for a margarita on the BW and that thing never would turn green. I think Mickey was trying to tell me something. At any rate, we wil revisit this MB/mitten snafu tomorrow when we enter Epcot again.
In we go.
Already the kids were asking to ride TT. I opened my app and showed them a wait time of 5o minutes. They piped down. For now. "We are here today to ride Soarin'" I reiterated.
We also made FP+s for Nemo and Friends (we hadn't ridden it since AJ was 5), and SE.
Epcot is my favorite park. I just love the feel of it. Some cuteness:
And arriving at SE, wait time 5 minutes. And yet we will still use our FP+. Whythe heck not?
As always, we had a thrilling ride through the past, and then a very illuminating glimpse into our future.
Seriously, though, we love this ride. We try to always make sure we end up drinking coofee at the end. For some reason that scene just thrills us to no end.
Next up it was time for that Soarin' FP+. At this point our biggest daredevil, Leah, voiced her unwelcome opinion that Soarin' was "getting old." I glanced at hubs and mouthed "universal." Sorry Disney. But when kids grow up on Disney you have to grow up with them. I want Disney to remain a "family park" very much, just as Disney does... and families go way beyond preschoolers and toddlers in Mom's lap. Time for more thrills and chills, Imagineers!
We enjoyed Soarin' as always in spite of it's "lameness" and then we all discussed how Putty is the best party and the film needs to go HD. The we boarded Living With The Land. Because the wait was 0 and because we always tease AJ that this is his favorite ride. As a little dude he was quite taken with it. I have video of him riding through it looking like it was Christmas and his birthday all at once.
And now he knows a "this is your favorite ride" pic is coming so he does this:
At this point we were getting peckish. It was about 11am... we started to meander our way over to WS with no concrete lunch plans... just planning to find a quick service that appealed to everyone. Ha. As if that were possible.
Love this tree:
And this view:
We ended up eating at Liberty Inn. Leah loves the grilled chicken sandwich here and she hadn't been eating much so this seemed like a good choice. It was a good meal (I had the crab cakes) and everyone cleaned their plates. A success. But I do not like the birds that fly in here. I am anti-bird. AJ urged me to check the TT wait time, and it was 80 minutes. The park seemed kinda dead so this was a surprise, but I reminded him yet again that we would be back all day tomorrow, and today we were just here to ride Soarin'.
So back across the lagoon we go to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends. After it was over, AJ vocied that the best part was the seagulls outiside intoning "mine mine mine mine mine." I thought it was cuter than I had remembered from 7 yeas ago. And the Starfish at the end is so funny. Annndd... as a bonus they sing our new fave song:"In the biiiiiiiig bluuuuuuue worrllllldddddd." So that ear worm was abck with a vengeance.
A quick ride on Figment, because my 12 year son who acts 17 has an unusal love for the purple dragon.
I know these pictures are terrible, but I obey the "no flash photography" law.
After this it was back through the IG and back to YC for mug refills and a walk around the pool. It was becoming warmer, but still only about 70 degrees. Not hot enough for our thin TX blood. We had an evening in DTD planned, so we rested up a bit. In other words, we watched classic Mickey cartoons with a side of Stacy.
on more Big Thunder- my favorite Disney ride! 
Our grandson got to ride his "horse" around the restaurant with the other kids. And our waiter showed up at our table dressed like this when we asked for ketchup:
We've stayed at the WL many times and the boats are usually really good. The only times we've seen the boats messed up like that is when the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness is loading and unloading passengers. Then the wait can be pretty bad. You must have hit the perfect storm of one HDDR show ending and another one starting. 
