The first day, we actually started out by getting picked up in the Epcot parking lot and taken over to Saratoga Springs for an info session about the Disney Vacation Club. They gave us info on it, showed us some of the model rooms for the resorts, and definitely convinced us to take advantage of it (you know, down the line sometime when we're not broke as hell). After the session, we got ice cream and (as if ice cream at 10:30 in the morning wasn't awesome enough) one pass each that was good for three instant Fast Passes. 
When we got back to Epcot, we met up with my mom, Liv, and Glen and went to Captain Eo. I had heard so much hype about this attraction coming back to the parks, so I figured it would be something that I absolutely had to do, at least for the sake of my followers. It was ok. I mean, I guess it's cool to see how far 3-D animation has come since the late 80s, and it begins with a documentary about how the film was made. Not to mention it's a groundbreaking piece of Disney history. But I just didn't enjoy it all that much. Don't get me wrong, the man was extremely talented and the dance number was great, but it's just never been my favorite type of music, and I can not take him seriously when he talks. He sounds like a 15 year old girl. So, bottom line is, if you're a Michael Jackson fan, definitely go see it. If you're sort of ambivalent about him, like me, I'd skip it. After hitting Journey Into Imagination with Figment, which is fun, but more for kids, we split off from the group and headed into the World Showcase and stopped in the UK to eat at the Rose and Crown pub.
This may just have been one of the best meals I've ever eaten. I had the cottage pie, which was ground beef, vegetables, and gravy, topped with mashed potatoes and cheese, and the cauliflower gratin on the side. And another first for me, a fried pickle. It was AMAZING!!!!!! My new favorite snack (bye bye diet!) I had a Strongbow cider to drink, in honor of my girlfriends and a wonderful St. Patrick's day spent at Berlin's only Irish pub; Das Celtic Cottage. I think my favorite quote of the trip had to be at the end of the meal, when our waitress said, "Would ye like some to-go cups fer yer beers?" in her awesome Irish accent.
After lunch we headed out into the street and caught the World Showcase Players. They do a great performance, centered around telling the story of King Arthur and his knights. They pull up participants from the crowd, and sure enough, AJ was brought up to be Sir Galahad. (He was wearing a Captain America t-shirt, and when picking their knight, they said "We need someone brave and noble. Who is more brave than Captain America? Who is more noble than Captain America?" Cast members were saying hello to him as Captain America all day long.) The World Showcase Players are definitely entertainment not to miss, and the people they pull from the audience make it even better, ESPECIALLY when they're not actors (sorry AJ).
Next, we headed over to Canada to catch Off Kilter. This is another must for anyone who loves Irish music. They're a rock band with bagpipes! Jamie is one of the best pipers I've ever seen. They're talented, they're funny, and they do weddings! (Hiring them would most likely eat up our entire budget, but hey, a girl can dream!).It looked like it was about to start raining, so we decided to head back to Future World so that we'd be able to be inside if it did. We went to Spaceship Earth (we walked right on. Most people get in line for that as soon as they walk in the park. DON'T DO IT! YOU'LL WAIT FOREVER! Wait until the afternoon). It brought back memories of Liv's first trip to WDW, where she called it "the eff-cot ride" and made us go on it three times. It's changed since then, however.
The entire end section where you go down backwards used to be more animatronics about communication (tv, phones, video chatting, etc). I'm assuming this was changed when AT&T stopped being the ride's sponsor. Now, you have a touch screen in your car, and it asks you questions in order to build you your ideal future. It uses the pictures that it takes of you a the beginning of the ride to put your head on an animated body an show you the future you create. It's fun, but I guess I'm nostalgic. I loved that part of the old ride (I got stuck on that part of the ride once and spent 10 minutes watching I Love Lucy on one of the TVs).When we got to the exit it was pouring. But luckily, I had thought ahead and picked up pocket ponchos for us! They were $1.50 in Harmon and AJ was able to put both of them in his pocket. Granted they were little more than trash bags with hoods, but they kept us dry on the sprint from Spaceship Earth to The Land pavilion. Now, about a half hour to an hour after the rain starts is the best time to do any of the indoor rides like Soarin or Mission Space. As soon as the rain starts, everyone will run for cover and ride any indoor ride. Once they get off, the rides are empty, as no one else is coming into the pavilion due to the rain. We went on the Living With The Land boat ride, and only had five other people in the boat with us (this is another one that, once you do it a few times, unless you're really into agriculture, is pretty skipable. Although, it does have quite a few hidden Mickeys to find). After that, the line for Soarin' was still about 20 minutes, but by that time all of the Fast Passes were gone, so we decided to just wait. About a minute and a half into waiting, someone in the Fast Pass queue goes "Excuse me? Is it just the two of you? Would you like Fast Passes?" Right place at the right time.
After we got off Soarin' it had stopped raining, so we headed back over to the World Showcase. On the way, we stopped at Club Cool so that I could have some Mezzo Mix. For those of you who don't know, Club Cool is a Coca Cola gift shop / soda tasting place, where you can sample sodas from around the world. And Mezzo Mix is an amazing German soda, which is basically a combo of cola and orange soda. Trust me, mixing the two yourself doesn't even come close, you need the real thing.
We decided to go for a ride on the boats out on the lagoon, since I didn't remember doing it as a kid and AJ had never done it. It was nice. A great way to see the countries from a different point of view. We went round trip, back to the international gateway.
This time we started in Mexico, riding the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride before stopping to try on sombreros, and thence to Norway for Maelstrom. Many of the countries that have a ride have an informational video about the country afterwards. Disney used to force you to stay and watch the videos by having the exit doors only open after the film, but now they remain open so that you can skip the film if you want. I didn't remember Norway's film, and don't really know that much about it, except that they had vikings, so we decided to stay and watch it. I don't know any more about Norway after having watched the movie. It's visually very beautiful, but probably one of the least informative movies about a country that I have ever seen. It told me nothing about the country other than its viking roots and that it has cobblestone streets and a fishing industry. I'd say skip it. 
We headed to China next, and decided to stop at the Nine Dragons restaurant to see about getting a dinner reservation. They told us that they could actually seat us now, and we decided why not? We ordered some dumplings as an appetizer, and I ordered the noodle sampler dish. When it came out, I was shocked! I didn't know where they were going to put this huge tray of food on our tiny two person table! It was delicious, but I couldn't even touch the second bowl of noodles! Our waiter was one of the best waiters either AJ or I had ever had, so good that we asked to see the manager so that we could complement him.
After dinner, we sort of wandered around, not feeling the need to do anything in particular, because we had another whole day to fit it all in. As we were walking around the lagoon, we saw people lined up along the railings for IllumiNations, even though it was about an hour away. Now, every time I've seen IllumiNations, we've been somewhere in Future World, or shoved along the back of one of the pathways around the lagoon, and since I'm pretty short, I've never really been able to see everything. So we decided that once we found a spot along the railing, we'd park ourselves there and wait. It may have been a boring 50 minutes, but when the show started, it was all worth it. Actually being able to see the globe and the images on it, as well as the pyrotechnics was so great (finally!)
Oh also, we rented a locker for the day, since we left the Disney Vacation Club presentation with a bag of goodies. Definitely worth it! $7 for the locker for the day, plus a $5 deposit, and you don't have to carry around anything but a key. Every time you buy something, just go put it in the locker. Just don't forget about it in the mad cattle drive to leave the park!
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