Today we decided to visit Epcot first, with the hope of getting into the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind queue. Unfortunately, we were unable to get into that queue, but we wouldn't let that stop us from having a good time.

After entering the park, we made our way to the World Showcase and the Mexico pavilion. Although it was still early, we thought we would try to check out La Cava del Tequila, but unfortunately it was closed until 11am. We decided to head over to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros while we waited. Although the ride is pretty uneventful overall, I really think this one needs to be changed over to Coco or something else. After wrapping up our ride, we headed over to get in line for La Cava del Tequila, ending up as the second party in, with the line behind us growing longer and longer. We were seated at a table and placed an order for drinks for the ladies and a coke for me along with chips, guacamole, and salsa. The girls enjoyed their beverages, and we thought that the chips and salsa (I thought it had a bit of a smoky tast, Tara thought it was a chipotle flavor) were good. I even tried the guacamole, though I didn't think it was great. The girls must have like it, because the majority of it was gone. All was well until I had my first heart attack at 50 years old when we got the bill. $66.66 for food and drinks, and a total of $79.99 with the tip! Good, but holy cow!

After leaving Mexico, we continued our trek around the World Showcase. We made a couple of pit stops in the Germany pavilion, going to Karamell-Küche first to get a caramel for me and caramel corn for Drew. We then headed across to get some hard candy for Jayden. We continued on until we came to The American Adventure pavilion. We decided to head inside to see The American Adventure show to escape the heat for a bit. Inside the waiting area was a choral group singing songs to an enthralled by their voices. While listening to the music I explored the American Indian exhibit that was at one end of the waiting area. I was most intrigued by the woven baskets, many of which were made in Michigan (some old, some recent). I headed back out to catch the end of the singing, and was surprised to see a group member that looked an awful lot like Weird Al" Yankovic! After the group concluded their performance, we decided that we were ready to head to another park for ther rest of our day. We skipped the show and made our way to the front of the park. We wandered in and out of a few shops along the way, and while we were in the Creations Shop I was actually able to secure a boarding group in the Tiana's Bayou Adventure queue! I was so excited! At this time the app said that boarding for the ride was currently paused, so we decided to head over to Animal Kingdom, as this is a park that Sam doesn't visit often.

After eating we headed back to Africa to get in line for the Festival of the Lion King show. We thought we were at a decent spot in line, but once again we nearly didn't make it inside the theater. Thankfully we ended up in a seat just a couple rows from the top and got a chance to see the show. We were all amazed at how long some of these actors have been performing their roles in this show, and how good of a job all of them do in their parts. As always, such an enjoyable show. Jayden would have been proud of us too... our section of the audience was the giraffes!

Speaking of giraffes, our next destination was the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride. As always we got to see a wide variety of animals, though I think there were less of each than usual on the savanna today, likely due to the heat. Even still, it was an enjoyable tour, and our driver was informative, as is usually the case.

After our safari ride was over, we stopped at Zuri's Sweets Shop in Africa to see if we could find something to help tide over Sam after not getting much for lunch. We ended up getting her a frozen drink, while Tara and I found a spicy chocolate that we decided to try. We also got a churro sugar cookie for Drew, which we took home for him, along with our chocolate piece. We then made our way to Asia to take a ride on Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. Again, and as always, we enjoyed this ride quite a bit. Definitely one of our favorite coasters in Walt Disney World.

By this point we had discovered that our boarding group would not be called for Tiana's Bayou Adventure queue, so we decided to call it a day, disappointed for the second time this week with our Passholder preview experience. We made our way to the car to begin the ride home. We ended up meeting up with Drew at Bubba's 33 in Tampa for dinner, and he even got to see some former coworkers.

Despite missing out on our new ride experience, it was a great day with two of my favorite people at one of my favorite places in the world. Until next time! Thank you Tara and Sam!