WDW Day 3: Epcot!!

Good morning, from the balcony of our Old Key West villa!  I snuck out after the kids woke up (on their own, without an alarm) and captured these peaceful views.

Cereal and iPads they insisted upon wake-up.  The rest of us were busy getting ready for a full day in Epcot.  Spaceship Earth would soon be in sight!

A quick bus ride over there and we were in the gates ready for the obligatory shots in front of the "giant ball".  Plus, I had to throw in a few Pinterest ideas.

Our schedule today started in Future World and ended in Future World with stops in the World Showcase and dinner at Coral Reef.  We had to tweak plans a bit by dropping Test Track first thing at park opening.  We were exhausted from the past two days and knew that we weren't up for a long wait first thing in the morning.  Instead, we did the following:

Breakfast at the hotel (cereal, etc.)
Spaceship Earth
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
The Seas with Nemo tanks and exhibits
Character Meets (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy)
Mission Space (Fastpass at 11:00am)
Lunch at La Cantina in Mexico
Mexico's Exhibit and Ride
Stroll through the next few countries
Meet Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco at 12:45pm
Watch movie in France and get a crepe!
Stroll through more countries...
Soarin' (Fastpass at 2:50pm)
Living with the Land
Dinner at Coral Reef at 4:45pm

Spaceship Earth was such a fun way to start the day!  The boys loved the ride, even though it was very dark!  The inside space after the ride was fun too with games and computers to type in your email address to receive your special picture!

We were supposed to still be in the Test Track line/ride, so we decided to do The Seas with Nemo and Friends even though we had a FP for it later in the afternoon.  It was a great ride and we loved the exhibits even more!  We got lucky and saw divers in the tanks feeding the fish and turtle!

It was hard peeling the boys out of this section of the park, but we knew we needed to move on.  We made a last minute decision (based on the wait time) to see the characters in Epcot.  This was not a part of my initial plans, but it made sense.  They were ready to see Mickey and friends!  It was a 20 minute wait and well worth it!

It seemed like waiting 20 minutes was a good choice considering we'd see 3 of the main Disney characters and it got us out of the heat since it was all indoors.

The kids had a great time meeting them for the first time!  And then it was off to Mission Space for our FP.  It was only for me, my dad, and Scott.  The boys hung back with my mom and used the indoor play area at the exit of Mission Space.  Meanwhile, I was miserable.  I hated Mission Space: Orange.  Way too much pressure, way too intense of a simulator.  Yuck!

I felt much better once we walked to the World Showcase and grabbed some lunch at La Cantina in Mexico!  It was the best Quick Service we had the entire trip.  You have to get the Nachos!  Holy cow!  And the Churros for dessert were loved by all - especially Evan!

Of course we had to spend some quality time in Mexico so I could soak it all in.  We went to the "marketplace" inside and rode the ride, which is fabulous by the way!  The boys loved trying on the sombreros and getting their first stamp in the Passport we bought.

From there we had no real game plan.  I just knew I wanted to see Aladdin and Jasmine in Morocco at 12:45pm.  We strolled through several countries, not getting stamps to save time (hey, future trips we can get those, right?!).

It's kind of funny that we ended up in Morocco since Evan has an obsession with guitars.  We stood in a very short line waiting for Aladdin and Jasmine and of course, he found a guitar!  We had to buy it for him.  He asks for very little and this made him so happy while we waited!  And it was well worth the wait!  They were so friendly to Evan (Sean was napping in the stroller).  He wasn't too sure of them, but it made for a cute meet and greet!

Sean napped a bit longer, but we strolled through other countries.  The UK was a big hit with the gift shops and our surprise Character Palooza in an alley!  We hit the character jackpot!

We just happened to be walking by England when we noticed a few characters with minimal people in an alley.  We wandered in and were next in line to meet some rare characters like Rafiki, King Louie, and others.  They closed the doors to the alley and it was just 20 people or so to meet 8 characters!  Unbelievable experience that I've read about, but never thought it would happen to us.  What an amazing experience!

We knew it was time to finish walking through the World Showcase and make our way to Soarin'.  This ride was awesome!!!!  Definitely a favorite for me, my dad, Scott, and Sean!  The smells, the feeling of flying over landscapes in the United States, was surreal.  A bit of a wait, even with a FP, but definitely worth it.

Shortly after we rode Living with the Land, which was neat to see the foods being grown in Disney.  Sean really enjoyed it as Evan took his turn at napping in the stroller with Scott.  And then it was dinner at Coral Reef.  Ultimately, it was our worst Table Service dinner the entire trip.  An inattentive waittress coupled with food that wasn't prepared correctly led to a miserable dining experience.  The boys were burned out, the Wifi wasn't working well since we felt like we were inside a fish tank, and I was ready to go.  Disney made up for our experience with returning 2 Table Service credits, a $25 credit, and many apologies.  We just will make sure we try other restaurants in Epcot in the future.

We returned to some crazy looking skies that never amounted to any rain, but made for a cool picture as we got off the bus.

Scott and I freshened up and my parents put the boys to bed.  We decided, after much consideration, that we'd spend our night out in Magic Kingdom!  We rode The Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain!  We grabbed a cinnamon roll and some frozen apple juices (that we thought were beers...) in Gaston's Tavern in Fantasyland before heading out as the Electrical Parade and Wishes started.  It was a fun date night in a romantic place at night!

WDW Day 2: Magic Kingdom!!

Our first full day in Disney and I couldn't imagine going to any park other than Magic Kingdom!  Discussions about "Mickey's Castle" (my kids think it belongs to Mickey), It's a Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Be Our Guest, and many other attractions have been going on in our house for months!  And today was finally the day!

As you can see in this picture here, Sean woke up a bit crabby.  He was up at 5:45am the day before for our flight, only took a quick 15 minute power nap, and stayed up late.  Then we woke him up at 6am this morning with a call from Baymax so we could get to the EMH park opening at 8am.  I should also add that he got a huge Lego set the night before as his gift from us and only had time to build a part of it with Grandpa.  We realized later in the day that was part of the problem.  He wanted to be at the hotel with his Lego's.  Ughh...

Okay, here was our schedule for day 1 at Magic Kingdom:

Breakfast in our hotel room (cereal, Eggo's, fruit, etc. - we ordered from a grocery company)
8:00am Opening ceremony and rope drop
Peter Pan's Flight
It's a Small World
Winnie the Pooh Ride
Meet Ariel at the Grotto
Under the Sea Ride
Mad Tea Party
Enchanted Tales with Belle (10:30am Fastpass)
11:05am lunch at Be Our Guest
Barnstormer
Dumbo
Regal Carousel
Philharmagic (Loved this show in the heat of the day!)
Magic Carpet Ride
Festival of Fantasy Parade (2:45pm Fastpass - get there earlier than that if you want a spot on the side facing the castle)
Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride (3:30pm Fastpass)
Back to the hotel to rest, swim, eat a Quick Service dinner at the resort, and an early bedtime for all!

Opening ceremony was nice to see, but we could have done without it.  In fact, considering how tired the boys were, they were not that impressed.  Sean was overwhelmed.  We discovered on this trip that he can't handle extremely loud noises and it went from being calm letting people through bag check to suddenly loud and intense!  Poor thing.  Next time we'll bring the noise cancelling headphones.

Once the ceremony was over, it was chaos.  Stick together and have a plan.

We cranked out the first 6 items before 10am and we did not rush down Main Street!  I totally thought we would walk briskly to Peter Pan's Flight, but I just couldn't do it.  I wanted to get some pictures in front of the castle and take in all the sights.  Plus, we were figuring out our lay of the land.

The kids loved everything about Fantasyland!  Every ride from Peter Pan's Flight to Dumbo in our itinerary was a hit!  I loved that Winnie the Pooh had things the kids could play with while waiting in line and Dumbo was amazing with a play area (they give you a pager like you get a restaurant while you wait and it's inside in air conditioning!).  Well played, Disney.

Our first character meet was Ariel (my favorite Disney princess of all time!).  The line was a solid 20 minutes and it felt like it barely moved.  But, we were out of the sun while we waited so we couldn't complain too much.  I was nervous while waiting.  I wasn't sure how the kids would react (they've always loved characters and Santa, but would it be worth waiting 20 minutes?).

Yup, it was definitely worth the wait.  Big smiles from the boys...and from me.

The ride was amazing too!  Look at Evan's face - pure joy!  That Disney magic was doing wonders.

Next up was Enchanted Tales.  Everything I read, and believe me, I did extensive research, said this was a must-do and a must FastPass.  I found myself feeling totally unimpressed with it.  Maybe if I had girls that were big into princesses things would have been different, but the boys weren't that in to it.  I just liked the pictures with Belle at the end.  Sean and Evan played the roles of...wait for it...salt and pepper shakers.  Seriously.

In the Beauty and the Beast mood, we dined at Be Our Guest for lunch after the show.  My one regret was not walking around and seeing other rooms.  We picked the ballroom, the first room you see upon entering.  It was beautiful!  And my lunch was fantastic!  I pre-ordered all the food (sooo smart and quite the time-saver) and chose the Braised Pork and the Master's cupcake.  OMG...so good!  I see why people are die-hard about getting this ADR.

After lunch Sean was ready for a nap in the stroller.  He was still complaining about the heat and wanting to build his Lego's.  Evan was totally ready to hit up some rides.  Barnstormer was next on our list with a very short wait!  Scott got to ride with Evan on his first "big-boy" rollercoaster.  He loved it!  And the cutest part was asking Scott the rest of the trip what his favorite ride was or his favorite memory and he picked that one.  Why?  Because Evan's face was priceless.  I'm bummed I missed it sitting behind him.  But, I did get this gem as the ride ended.

Dumbo, Tea Cups, and Magic Carpet were all fun rides too for their age group!  And we loved the mid-day break out of the sun to see the 15 minute Philharmagic show.  It was fabulous!

We had a couple of character sightings throughout the day, but today was mostly about the rides!  Character meets would come the following day in Epcot and later in the week.  I can't believe I was worried about getting autographs in the book or on the photo mats.  We got a ton!

We grabbed a snack (Mickey ice cream bars of course!) and Sean headed back to the hotel around 2:30pm with my dad.  He was done - poor guy!  This was the worst day for him out of the whole trip.  He was getting adjusted to the schedule, the heat, and being away from his Lego's.  And to think we thought Evan would be the challenging one...

The rest of us were off to grab our Fastpass spot for the Festival of Fantasy Parade.  Here's a ton of pictures we got as we were in the "Hub" by the flagpole and the exit and the parade ended around the corner from here, so we got some great views and interactions with the characters.

At the end of the parade, the "traditional" characters made their appearance.  Apparently Chip and Dale loved Scott's Rescue Rangers shirt he was wearing, so they came right on over and gave him a hug, high fives, and kept pointing at his shirt.  Since Evan was on his shoulders, he got quite the view!  What a special moment!

As the parade ended, we swam upstream to get back to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride for our last FastPass.  My dad and Sean were supposed to come too, while my mom waited with Evan (she's not big on rollercoasters and Evan wasn't tall enough).  But, since they went back, it was just me and Scott.  It wasn't anything super exciting and definitely not worth the 60-85 minute wait it usually has, but fun!

After that, we were ready to head back.  It was going on after 4pm and it had been a long, hot first day.  We were ready for the pool and some dinner!  I snapped some castle shots on the way out and we all left with a smile on our faces.  There's just something about Magic Kingdom...it truly is the happiest place on Earth!

My parents were brave enough to head back to Epcot this evening to walk around the World Showcase and catch Illuminations at 9pm.  Scott and I were content swimming with the boys and putting our feet up after they fell asleep.  Epcot was next on our schedule with a 9am start so we were looking forward to an extra hour of sleep.