The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Eleven Friday 25th October

We were all definitely feeling the effects of two full-on park days, but there was no plan or time to rest. We had a date with some 90’s pop stars in Epcot.

I did allow a very late start though and it wasn’t until 10.30am that we rolled off the drive. We also had some (barely) walking wounded with both Tom and Louise suffering with their feet.

To add to the fun I had been up for most of the night with middle-aged man acid reflux. I cannot think how I could possibly have brought that on. I had been eating so lightly and healthily recently.

Anyway, in our varying states of decay, we set off for Epcot. We stopped for gas on the way, and it was about halfway there that I noticed that Louise did not have her magic band on. Two days at Universal, and she forgets all her training. There was no way I was turning back, so we’d have to figure it out when we arrived.

We parked up in Rocket 612 and trammed in. The hat was back, alongside those sunglasses from last night.

One of those K9 units that stand close to the entrance took a real interest in Tom, Rebecca and Freddie as we walked to the entrance. I think it could just sense that Tom’s feet were about to fall off.

Just as we were about to finally get into the park Rebecca went to the restroom.

After entering, with Louise being given a normal ticket in lieu of her magic band, Louise and I took the boys into the queue for Spaceship Earth but Rebecca and Tom got delayed/seperated as they tried to park the stroller so they ended up not coming on, for which I think Tom’s feet were grateful.

I got to ride with Dougie again.

The ride stopped five times in total, meaning it took an age to get through it.

By this time it was coming up on our Eat To The Beat dining package reservation at Garden Grill. Rebecca and Tom had walked there to wait for us and we walked quickly over there as we were a bit late. We checked in at 12.55 for our 12.45 ADR.

We were seated and then served by the excellent Bob.

Our package included an alcoholic drink each so we all had a cold brew martini. It was the strongest drink we had all holiday and potentially of all time. It was taking the enamel off my teeth but I drank it all the same.

Soon some food and characters came.

It was a family-style affair, with food just brought out until you say enough or vomit.

The character interaction was almost constant and very good. The boys really enjoyed it. The adults no longer cared as those martinis had rendered us unconscious.

The food was excellent by the way, with some of the best mash any of us had ever had.

I can’t describe how full I was but some of this still went down.

This is Bob. He was funny, attentive and just full of joy all through the meal.

It wasn’t too far off Freddie’s birthday so we got a cake.

We left vowing never to eat again and wandered up to Figment.

Dougie was fortunate enough to be able to nap now. The rest of us had to battle through the food coma in a waking state.

We tried to get into the Seas pavilion but as we arrived they were closing the building down for some reason. Maybe there was some poisson in the water?

Instead, we walked over to Mission Space, one of Freddie’s favourites. Rebecca won the lottery to sit out with Dougie.

As we waited to enter our pods thing there was a longish delay with CMs rushing about with items that suggested somebody had lost their lunch. I was pretty sure I may follow.

Thankfully my ageing body managed to keep hold of the huge amount of food and alcohol I had taken onboard and we now headed to the other side of the park to ride Soarin’.

We waited in line for about half an hour with Louise sitting out with a still-sleeping Dougie.

We had a clash now. We needed to go to the American pavilion for our reserved seats at the Eat To The Beat concert at which Hanson were appearing. The Virtual Queue we had secured at 1pm for Guardians was also about to be called. I stopped at one of the blue umbrella guest services to ask if anything could be done. They assured us that the virtual queue thing would be good all day so we could ride that at any point.

That walk up to World Showcase certainly did not help anyone’s struggling feet.

I love watching live music and Hanson were very good.

We completed the loop around World Showcase by walking through France and back towards Guardians via Canada. Freddie was now suffering with aching legs and so Tom and I took turns carrying him for parts of that journey.

We set up rider swap and Louise sat out with Dougie whilst everyone else rode.

Freddie passed the time in the queue watching some videos and I tried to push my lungs back inside my body after having to carry him for a few yards.

It took over 40 minutes to ride and then Louise rode with Freddie whilst the rest of us walked over to Nemo and Friends with Dougie.

After the ride, we watched some fish….

Naturally after that lunch, there was turtle head.

As you know I can go into a lot of detail in these reports, but that’s because I don’t wish to shrimp on the information.

We met Louise and Freddie at the exit around 8pm and the tram and car took us over to the Beach Club where we had a Beaches and Cream reservation. I dropped everyone off at the door and then self-parked and walked back in a vain attempt to generate some appetite.

When I went to check in there was no sign of our reservation. Eventually, they did find us on the hard copy print out but it turned out we were no longer showing on the computer as some other family had taken our table and reservation. They had a similar last name so somehow they had managed to check in and get seated. A manager was summoned, she went to the table and the offending family and had a stern word with them as they had clearly had no reservation and just winged it.

We were found a table anyway and we all gave that family very evil passive-aggressive stares as we passed them.

This may or may not have been them.