9/28/07-Day #8 (part 2)

After shopping, I took Clayton over to the Grand Floridian for a surprise high tea lunch date. We enjoyed the tranquility of the tea room. The tea and food was yummy!

We met back with the rest of the family and once again made the trek to Epcot via the monorail. This time was particularly special though because we got to sit in the front with the monorail driver. It was so cool to see everything from that prespective. The driver was super friendly and gave us all our co-pilot's licenses.

Hayden playing at Innovations in Epcot

Emerson snoozing through Innovations, lol

After goofing around in Innovations, we headed out to the International Gateway towards the Epcot resorts. I gotta say that they are beautiful but they are severely lacking conveniences. The walk from Epcot stunk and the boat ride wouldn't have been any better. Also, neither the Yacht Club or Beach Club offered a food court with counter service. They did have one counter service restaurant but you had to put your name in for ressies and it had a 30 min. wait. Then there was a counter service place outside by the pool but I really wanted to sit inside. It was way to hot. Ugh. It amazes me that I can name an indoor food court in all the Disney resorts, whether it be a value or a deluxe hotel, but there wasn't one available in these hotels. What a crock.

Anywho, we ended up eating outside because we didn't have time for the indoor restaurant's wait. After that, I led everyone up to the dock for a big surprise. I had booked us an Illuminations cruise on the Breathless II. Now mind you, that isn't an easy thing to come by. There is only one of these speed boats in all of Disney World (Breathless I is out of commission). It is extremely difficult to book and I was lucky to have gotten it. It was a bit pricey but oh so worth it. Our wonderful driver was Aaron and he took us for a tour around the boardwalk and MGM before heading back over to Epcot for the show. He was able to make it go fast a few times and we all loved it. Once we got to Epcot, he parked us underneath the International Gateway bridge and we had front seats to Illuminations. There were 5 other boats (pontoons) around us. We felt like such VIPs to have such a wonderful seat. People above the bridge waved at us. Little did I know that 2 of them were our friends Sandy and Sage, lol.

Emerson and Aunt Judy enjoying our Illuminations cruise

The Breathless II

• a 26 foot long mahogany speedboat
• estimated to be worth at least $100K
• Disney acquired it at cost ($40K) to advertise for Hacker-Craft
• Rhett Butler supposedly owned one just like it (so I heard on the Disney boards)

After retuning to the Poly, we met up with Sage and Sandy for a late night swim in the volcano pool. The kids had a blast and didn't go to bed until midnight.