Vacation Day 27: Garden Grill - Dr's Office

Well, today didn’t go exactly as planned, but it had it’s highlights.

This morning we decided to sleep in, and the plan was to go into Epcot for our lunch at 11am at the Garden Grill, have kids take naps in the stroller in the park, and stay through the evening without coming home.

But as we were getting ready to leave, Jeremy felt hot. We had our ear thermometer with us, and he didn’t have much of a fever – only like 100.2 – so we gave him some Motrin and left for our lunch.

Jeremy and Aiden playing swords last night

As we approached the parking area, we realized that the guidebooks aren’t kidding when they say to avoid the weekends in the parks. It was really crowded. We parked further from the entrance than we have the whole time so far. There was a gangload of people flowing into the park.

Gangload of people

Our lunch at the Garden Grill was filled with character – Disney characters, that is! The grill is hosted by Mickey and his friends. Mickey greeted us right away when we were seated. We also saw Chip, Dale, and Pluto. We saw them a number of times during our lunch. They were really interacting with us a lot. Chip put the kids on his lap and bounced them around. Dale came by and started messing with Jeremy. He took Jeremy’s nuk (that’s pacifier for those of you out of the loop on that) and dangled it in the air, holding it away from his face and covering his nose like it was stinky! Jeremy was laughing. Aiden went up to Dale to try to take it back on Jeremy’s behalf. That was cute. Dale just dangled it above Aiden’s head and shook his head at him. Maria told Aiden, “Dale’s just teasing”, and Dale started shaking his head no! hahahahhahaa Then Dale handed the nuk to Maria and started handing Jeremy drinking straws one after the other after the other. Jeremy was cracking up. Then Aiden was like, “I want straws!”, so Dale handed him a bunch one at a time, too. Mickey came by and gave the kids hugs and kisses. He wiggled his nose at them, too. That was really cute.

Aiden and Jeremy got to decorate their own cupcakes for dessert.

But by the end of lunch, Jeremy was very cranky, and we decided to leave our plan of the kids napping in the parks behind, and took them home. Uncle Howie and Vavo stayed to continue touring Epcot, and Maria, Andrew, Vavu, Jeremy and Aiden headed out to the parking lot.

On our way out, something very strange was happening! The barriers boarding up Spaceship Earth for renovations were open in one spot, and they were letting people in! Spaceship Earth isn’t scheduled to reopen until Feb 2008, but we were lucky enough to be there right at the moment they were doing a test run. There was a sign up that read, “Welcome Aboard Spaceship Earth. Join us on a reimagineered journey through time as we add the finishing touches to this Epcot adventure. Please keep in mind that we may need to close at any time...Official Reopening February 2008”. So we rushed ourselves in, and got on the ride in less than 10 minutes. This ride is MUCH improved over the old version. But it still keeps to the original intention of the experience. It was so cool to be able to see it redone. By the time the ride was over, and we came back to the front to get our stroller and leave the park, they weren’t letting people in anymore. The barrier was closed and you couldn’t tell there was ever a way in.

Spaceship Earth Entrance

Special Welcome Sign

Jeremy looking at the underside of Spaceship Earth - wooah

Spaceship Earth Castmember

Getting on the ride

Jeremy with Vavu on the ride

Going in

The ride was closed back up by the time we were done

We got ourselves home to let the kids rest. Especially Jeremy, because he seemed to be feeling worse. After naps, he woke up with a real fever. So we looked up walk-in medical treatment so we could have him checked out. We thought maybe his ear infection had come back, because he had one before we left.

Andrew packed Jeremy up and took him to First Care Winter Haven. http://www.firstcarewinterhaven.com/ This facility is back by where we went to church on Friday, and even though it was a little further than the one by DisneyWorld, we figured it would be way less crowded. And it was. Drew said that they were the only people there. He said they were really nice to Jeremy. They made him a balloon person out of a latex glove (they drew a face on him and everything), they gave him a tongue depressor to play with, and lots of lollipops because he was feeling so yucky. They said he has an infection in his throat which was causing the fever and gave him some antibiotics. So hopefully, he’ll be feeling better soon. The sucky part is that he has to take the medicine 3 times a day! Oh well. The good part was that the Walgreens where Drew filled the prescription had lots of Christmas stuff for cheap, so he got a 4’ tall pre-lit artificial Christmas tree for free (19.99, half off, with a 10 dollar rebate – they owe US a penny)! He also got hecka lights for 4 bucks.

So we’re wrapping up the evening now. We’ve been watching Christmas movies, like “A Christmas Wedding”, Jim Carrey’s version of The Grinch, and Polar Express. Tomorrow is planned for a rest day, so hopefully we’ll get everyone back up to 100% by then. Drew and Maria have scratchy throats...so we’ll see! We have throat drops. :-)

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The best part of day 27 was getting to ride Spaceship Earth before it reopens.
The worst part of day 27 was Jeremy being sick.
What we learned on day 27 was Spaceship Earth reopens in February ’08 and it’s gonna be really good! Walgreens is a good place to shop for Christmas stuff for your rental vacation home.
The weather on day 27 was hot – mid 80’s.
Our character sightings on day 27 included Mickey, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Minnie
The crowd level on day 27 was really terribly crowded (okay, that’s slightly exaggerated, but it was dang crowded).