Day eight began early… and as a smaller group, as Tawnya, Roger and Elijah decided to try to catch up with us as we left early (for a vacation) to get to the Magic Kingdom. Jennifer, Kiara and I first went to a ride that Kiara has been wanting to do since she saw it on a Disney vacation video… the ‘Mad Tea Party’. We then hit ride after ride, and rode a few of Kiara’s favorites, including ‘The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh’, ‘it’s a small world’, ‘Dumbo the Flying Elephant’, ‘The Magic Carpets of Aladdin’, and ‘The Enchanted Tiki Room’. We also got on ‘Big Thunder Mountain Railroad’. Kiara was concerned when we got on, but loved every minute of it, and told me a number of times after we got off the ride. (She’s a speed freak like me.) We also rode ‘Tomorrowland Transit Authority’ and (another Kiara favorite) ‘Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin’. Once we got done with all of that, we saw that we still had plenty of time to return to EPCOT, so we did. (This also gives me a chance to have a drink at those countries that I missed the day before.)

Once we got in, we went right to ‘Club Cool’, which is the area where people can try Coca-cola products from around the world. What a disappointment compared to its earlier incarnation, ‘Ice Station Cool’. They only had four different soft drinks available that they make elsewhere. They sell frozen Cokes, and plastic bottles of their regular drinks (with an option to get a shrink-wrapped sleeve on the bottle for an extra 50 cents). It just seems like it’s now an afterthought rather than an actual attraction. Shame on you, Coke and Disney! Anyway, we started with the country we missed the day before, Canada, the country that’s south of Detroit. (It’s a trivia question… check it out!) We then preceded to hit every country ‘around the World’. Yesterday, in the USA pavilion of all places, I met a lady named Linda that was selling Ukrainian Pysanka (decorated eggs), but she wasn’t there today. We also noticed that every place had long lines, but we contributed that to the extra hours for those staying at Disney resorts, plus the McDonald’s owner-operator convention, which was being held here in Orlando this week. (The golden arches were EVERYWHERE!) We finally got to Germany for some good food and we picked a nice sweet German wine to take home. We then stood there and watched the fireworks and just enjoyed the moment. Our day ended with a gas fill-up for tomorrow’s departure, and a good night’s sleep.

Day eight pictures are up on Flickr. On day nine, we depart….