A rendezvous with Beverly

The Circle of Life theater exits onto the lower level, so once again we find ourselves making our way through the crowds to the up escalator – the Fastpass return for Soarin’ is now 11:20 p.m.! – then up around the upper level to the doors. After a quick break to, um, take care of nature, we head under the walkway through Innoventions West to Club Cool.

This “Club” was Ice Station Cool on our last two visits. Today’s weather is much like yesterdays, cloudy and in the 70’s, so we don’t really miss the former “ice cave” cold entrance. On the other hand, gaining access to the place just by walking through a single set of doors is kind of anticlimactic.

We don’t come here for the atmosphere, though, but for the free soda. As before, there are several stations with eight soda dispensers each – and an endless supply of small paper cups – giving us a taste of various Coca-Cola products from around the world.

I go straight for Beverly, the bitter Italian soda with a bad reputation. It’s still not as bad to me as some people find it.

There are a few replacement sodas from our last trip. Vegita Beta is a new one from Japan. To me… ick, but Brandon says he likes it.

There’s a new apple soda from Mexico that I enjoy – in fact, I think I like it better than my previous favorite, the watermelon soda from China, but it’s close. Maybe it just brings back memories of the Aspen apple soda I remember liking from my youth, which only lasted on the market for a year or two.

After we’ve each tried most or all of the drinks – with double or triple helpings of our favorites – we head out the south doors. Or, we start to, at least. Benjamin’s given his mom a cup with an innocent “try this” on the way out. Turns out the cup was filled with Beverly, so we wait while Becky goes back to the dispensers for a cup of watermelon soda to get the bitter taste out of her mouth!