Hot Rainy and Busy July Part 2
Tuesday, July 9
We start our day by walking over to the Carriage House to pick up our Magic Bands. As soon as we ask about them at the desk and say we actually arrived the day before, the case member we are speaking with looks distressed. She says that if bands are not picked up by midnight of check-in day, they are sent back but she will check to see if our bands are still there. I tell her I hope they are since I paid for one of them. She goes out back and returns a short while later saying she is sorry but they have been sent back. When I ask her where they are sent to, she tells me that any bands not picked up by midnight are sent back to the manufacturer. I tell her I spent quite some time on line trying to order the band and even spent 45 minutes on hold one day when the purchase wouldn't go through only to be told to "try again" and the sale didn't go through because they ran out of stock. The cast member (wish I had remembered to catch her name) said she would authorize us to get custom bands to replace the ones they didn't have. We pointed out that we had only paid for one band and had selected a free one for my husband. She said that was okay - she would still authorize a custom band for each of us. She returned a few minutes later and presented us each with a certificate for one custom band and suggested we might want to redeem them at the Coop at Disney Springs where we could truly customize each band. We thanked her.
After a shared breakfast sandwich from the quick service area, we walked to the Springs bus stop. I know from prior visits that this bus stop tends to be very busy and, often folks can't get on the bus in the morning hours since this is the last stop before the bus heads off to the parks. Although there was quite a crowd, we did manage to get on the Epcot bus though we did have to stand for the ride.
The line for bag check at Epcot was the longest I have ever seen it and it took quite some time to get through it. I thought they must be doing very thorough bag checks on this day but, when I finally got to the front of the line, my bag was given a very cursory look.
We had a Soarin' fastpass which wasn't really needed. This surprised me since this ride often builds a line early in the day which tends to remain quite long. We headed over to the Figment ride since it was showing a 5 minute wait time and truly was a walk-on. Though we had a Living with the Land fastpass for later, the standby was only 20 minutes and we had some time available before our Soarin' fastpass so we went through the standby line. After we did our Soarin fastpass, I was able to book a lunch reservation at Rose and Crown.
Although we had to take a longer way around since the walkway by the rose path is closed currently and, even though we stopped at a shop along the way, we still arrived early for our reservation. We went inside the pub and ordered ales. We had only taken a few sips when our pager went off and we were seated inside for our lunch. We both had fish and chips.
After lunch, we wandered through the countries, stopping at shops here and there. We noted that, despite the crowds to get into the park that morning, the walkway through World Showcase seemed less crowded than it had been over the last couple/few months. At Mexico, we visited with the Three Caballeros.
By time we came out again, the weather was starting to look threatening so we made our way to the buses and back to Saratoga Springs.
After staying in the night before, we decided we would go out this evening regardless of the weather. Although we were hearing thunder and the skies looked quite dark, we stayed dry on our walk over to Disney Springs.
That day, we had seen a news report warning that a cat in the Epcot area of Disney had been found to have been infected with rabies and warning folks to beware of cats and other animals that might be infected. As we crossed the bridge to Disney Springs, I spotted a cat in the brush alongside the bridge. I didn't go up to the railing to look but my husband said there were actually three cats there. The one I saw did not appear to be ill and was not acting in any way other than a normal cat.
Our first stop was over at the Coop where I selected a Castle magic band (not quite the same as the one I had ordered but....) and my husband selected a really nice Pirates band. They accepted the vouchers we had been given and were told they would be ready in 20-30 minutes.
The skies still looked really threatening and we figured that all dining spots would fill up quite quickly if the rain started so we went directly to Chef Art Smith's where we found ample places to sit at the bar. As we'd had a fairly filling lunch, I decided to order an appetizer to eat for dinner. The appetizer I selected was for three chicken thighs on biscuits which I thought wouldn't be too heavy. My husband had a sandwich. He had suggested we share the sandwich and I should have done so. The thighs were huge and were served between biscuits - like sliders!!! I couldn't finish it all!!
While we were dining, the rains came. We ordered an additional drink and hung out for a while. By time we left the restaurant, the rain had ended. We went through the Disney shop where I spotted the limited release Nana. My spouse bought Nana for me and she sits on the bookcase in my office.
We returned to the Coop and picked up our new magic bands - thank you, wonderful cast member!!! - and returned to our room.
