It's EPCOT day!!
I hadn't been to Epcot for about exactly 10 years. I could barely remember it at this point, other than a few rides. I hadn't been on Soarin' yet (because 10 years ago the line was soooooo long that I couldn't bring myself to wait in it) and obviously not FEA. I had been studying maps and had a pretty good game plan for the day, including fast passes for Spaceship Earth at 11:30, Mission Space at 12:30, and FEA at 6:30 (earliest I could get us in). There were a few characters we really wanted to meet (Elsa and Anna, Donald duck in Mexico, Joy and Sadness) and we had dinner reservations at Garden Grill at 4:15.
Originally, I had wanted to take a break at the hotel during the day to nap, head back to Epcot for dinner, and stay late to watch Illuminations. I really really wanted to see Illuminations. But I wanted to be at Magic Kingdom at 6:30 AM more, and I didn't think the kids could handle a late night at Epcot, plus a super early morning at MK. So we changed our plans and took out the resort break, and headed for the resort after our FEA fast pass that evening.
Since Epcot didn't open until 9, we were able to "sleep in" a little bit (as much as anyone with an early-riser toddler can sleep in) and I took a shower.
I should share my shirt, since it's hard to see in pictures. My friend has a Silhouette machine so we made all our shirts for Disney world. Here's the one I was wearing for Epcot:
Eee! I love my shirt, lol.
We got all the kids dressed and fed them breakfast in the hotel room (a nutritious meal of doughnuts and juice boxes) and headed out early for the bus.
I had to take a picture to commemorate our first day of Disney.
We were a little over ambitious and got to the bus stop by 7:45 even though Epcot didn't open until 9 and it wasn't even listed on the bus schedule yet! Oh well. Here's my husband and my daughter on the bench waiting (His shirt says "My favorite Disney princesses are my wife and daughter"):
Several Magic Kingdom buses come and go while we wait. I start to think my 4YO is going to completely lose his mind if an Epcot bus doesn't show up soon, and finally it does! And we're off!!
CBR was a super quick bus ride to Epcot. I wasn't expecting that. We arrived at Epcot by probably 8:15. It was already fairly busy and people were lined up by the entrance. We got through security and stood in line, and immediately my 4YO was whining. This will be a common theme for the day (it's a common theme for my life, lol). I distracted him with a sucker. Those suckers are too damn small so it didn't last long!
I was pleasantly surprised to be let into Epcot by 8:40, even though park opening wasn't until 9! I snapped this picture quick as we flooded through the entrance.
It was a little cloudy and drizzly that morning, but it didn't last long. The rest of the day was hot, sunny, and humid!
Our Rope Drop plan was Soarin' (along with many other people!). My 2YO wasn't tall enough and my husband didn't want to go on it because those types of rides make him sick (he has a super weak stomach) so he headed off one direction with the baby to go on Finding Nemo while I took the other 3 kids to Soarin.
Someone asked my husband to take a family picture for them, so then they took a picture for him too.
Meanwhile, I was getting into line at Soarin' with the big kids. It was up the stairs so it seemed really long, but I overheard some people saying they didn't think the ride had actually opened yet so we were technically in line to get in line. Closer to 9 am they started filing people in and it went pretty fast.
Soarin' was so much fun! I wish it had lasted longer, I could have sat in there all day.
I wasn't sure what my 4YO would think (he had been adamant that he wanted to go on Soarin' and not Nemo) and he LOVED it. All the kids did. It was so fun to hear their joy during the ride.
Right before we boarded the ride, my husband had texted that they were done with Nemo. I told him that our next stop was going to be meeting Joy and Sadness at the character spot. He headed that way and decided to jump in line to meet Baymax with my 2YO because there was only one family in line.
Hubby said my 2YO wasn't sure about the whole thing but he did fine! Baymax seems like one of the harder character interactions because he can't move much. But I think he's pretty cool!
By the time we finished the ride and headed for character spot, my husband was already halfway through the line so we kinda snuck in. Then I realized I had forgotten my photo mat that I got for characters to sign, so I had to sneak back out again to get it from the stroller, and sneak back in again, lol.
We probably only waited a few minutes but this was not a good few minutes for my 4YO or 2YO! They were running around and just totally disregulated. I'm sure the people in line loved us.
We finally got in to meet Joy and Sadness! I love this movie, so I was excited to meet them.
We had some really fun character interactions, but the pictures weren't great. My 2YO hugged both Joy and Sadness and it was sooo sweet but the photographer didn't have great angles so you can't see him clearly. They really liked my 7YO's shirt (in case you can't read it, it says "I'M JUST HERE FOR THE SNACKS"). The cast member who was with Joy and Sadness joked about how "Hangry" would be my son's emotion, which we all totally agreed with!!
After character spot, we went over to Figment. I know a lot of people think this ride is outdated, but I have fond memories of the ride from when I was a kid. Figment was a favorite of mine and I still have a Figment stuffed animal that I got in Disney when I was little. I was excited to introduce my kids to him! They all seemed to enjoy the ride. We went to the little play area after the ride but it seemed like about half of the things were broken so the kids were getting frustrated.
We swung over to the Pixar 4d movie but it was broken down. I think that was the only broken attraction we encountered during our trip so that's not too bad. We never did get a chance to see it because we didn't head back in that direction, but that's ok, it wasn't a huge priority anyway!
So next we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush. The kids thought that was great! I saw my 4YO with his hand raised to ask Crush a question towards the end, but he didn't get called on. I would love to have heard what came out of that kid's mouth!
We did some quick pictures with Bruce the shark, of course!
But at this point it was really close to 11 am and my 4YO was getting majorly worked up, so we decided we NEEDED to go eat lunch ASAP.
I had read good things about Sunshine Seasons over by Soarin' so we decided to head there.
It was a somewhat stressful place for us to eat, I wish we had either gotten there a tiny bit earlier (before everyone was starving) or maybe chose somewhere else. I think because it has "bays" for the different types of foods, it made it more difficult for us to all get the food we wanted. I was hauling around my 2YO because if I put him down, he just went running off like a crazy person, and trying to deal with 3 kids all talking to me at once about what food they wanted.
Once we finally got all the food and sat down at the table, you could feel the calm wash over us all, lol. Thank goodness for food!!!
My 4YO got macaroni and cheese. I'm telling you this because now that you know that he got macaroni and cheese, you know what he ate for every.single.meal for the rest.of.the.trip.
He never even seemed to like it that much. But he wanted it every time and he ate it. So whatever. Lol.
We had to rush over after lunch to go to Spaceship Earth because we had fast passes. I was so relieved we had a fastpass, because the line for SE was estimated at 65 minutes at that time! Everyone seemed to enjoy it and they were happy to finally get to go in the "big ball".
We made our way over to Future World East to use to our fast pass for Mission Space.
My 4YO was really upset that he couldn't go on this ride (not tall enough) so my husband took the two little boys to the interactive play area at the exit of Mission space.
My daughter and 7YO LOVED this ride. They really liked that they each had a "job" to do and took their jobs very seriously.
After Mission Space, we all needed a break. It was REALLY REALLY HOT and humid that day and it was around 1 pm at this point. I decided a 45 minute ride on Ellen's Energy ride was just what we needed. I was HOPING my 2YO would sleep.
Well, everyone enjoyed the ride but noooobody slept. Ugh. Oh well, at least we all got to sit in A/C in the dark for 45 minutes!
So I'm only halfway through the day at this point, but since it only lets me upload 10 pictures at a time and I've done 10 already (anyone know how other people are able to post with more than 10 pictures in a post?!) I'll probably end here for the day.
I'm realizing how long it's going to take me to write my entire DTR, lol. But that's ok because I enjoy it!! Hope everyone else is enjoying it too, thanks for reading!!
We did make the best memories though, and Disney is where my sisters and I bonded the most. CBR was where we always stayed (Jamaica!) so your report is very nostalgic. We just love it there. I am taking my kids in March to CBR, I can't wait to experience it again, this time as a parent!
