So, Mom switched hotels. She split the trip in half, the other part at the Hilton in order to take advantage of some deal. (More on this later.) I was quite pissed at her for doing the hotel switch when we still had 2 Disney days left to go (this plan originated with us switching hotels AFTER we were done at Disney). What. A. Pain. If you ever go to DWorld, PAY WHATEVER IT IS TO STAY IN A RESORT. The perks are too good to pass up even if elsewhere is "cheaper" or whatever. Seriously.

Half the day was wasted packing, being on hold with Alamo for the rental car, etc., and I was just pissed off. She let me out of going along to Alamo with her (thank gawd), so I at least go to go over to Epcot again around noon to finish looking at the World Showcase half. Even if it's less ride-y and less stuff to do, I liked it a bit better.

Stuff seen:

* World Showcase Players (UK): Fun impromptu street show that pulls audience members out to play the parts. Highly recommended. They did "King Arthur and the Holy Grail."
* Circle Vision France video: Meh. (All the CircleVisions are like 25 years old, apparently, or so I heard about China and Canada's versions too.)
* "Morocco": cool shopping.
* "Japan": REALLY COOL shopping. Hello Kitty and lucky cat merch was great. Good mix of fun and traditional things to get. I exercised a surprising amount of restraint.
* Candy lady demonstration: she makes an entire tiger/dragon/eagle out of (taffy?) in 15 seconds. Seriously. Then she paints them in like another ten seconds. Wow.

* American Adventure: meh.
* World Showcase Players (Italy): Three different people, same kinda schtick. This time they did "Romeo and Edna," with a sensible happy ending.
* "Mexico": went on the Three Caballeros ride in the temple (cool temple). It's kinda Pirates/Small World-ish. The indoor Mexican craft fair is lovely, I got a ceramic rabbit.

* "Norway": The ride here was like Norwegian Pirates. Very similar. You go backwards for a bit and see a big troll. Skipped the video at the end (bad idea to have video + ride- see Ellen) to get my picture taken picking a troll sculpture's nose instead.

* "China": wish I'd had time to go through that store, also massive and elegant.

Why didn't I have time? Because Mom had storytime scheduled at the Magic Kingdom at 5:15, so we had to waste an hour going back to the start of Epcot, hopping the monorail (though I love the monorail. Don't know why I get so excited about monorail when I'm from the freaking Bay Area and have been on BART. Maybe it's because the monorail's clientele is a lot less creepy), then hopped another monorail (they have 3!) to get to the Magic Kingdom. I was ticked about this- why are we doing it? I'm 30 and you're 58! We are way too old for this! Somehow it did not register with Mom that duh...IT'S READING A BOOK! Moral of the story: just because AAA gave you a freebie doesn't mean you have to do it!

Yes, she seriously did NOT get that Story Time is...STORY TIME. I am seriously worried about her mental health eroding. More on this later.

So, back to Epcot for dinner at Biergarten. Um, as it turns out, I don't like German food. Oh well, buffet means I can live off salad (macaroni) if I have to. Amusingly enough, we were seated with a couple from Folsom (about 40 minutes from my place).

Saw the fireworks show. Cool. Uses a giant globe.

I am pleased that for the first time on this trip, I finally feel like I saw everything in full that I wanted to see. Huzzah.

As for our new hotel...GREAT suite. Kitchen, living room, balcony, king size bed, and HUGE HOT TUB IN THE BATHROOM. Actually comfortable to sit in, with jets! I told Mom I almost forgive her for moving us from the Yacht Club early.

It takes a long time to fill it, but by god, that tub is lovely. Was in it for an hour.

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