It was Flower and Garden Festival day! And our most stressful morning since we were going to a new breakfast spot on Boardwalk and had to rope drop Soarin'. Our ADR was for 7:30am, so it was an early one! We were heading to Trattoria al Forno on Boardwalk for the new Bon Voyage Breakfast. It debuted a few days before we ate there, so I was excited to be among the first to eat there. The attraction to this breakfast was getting to meet Rapunzel, Flynn Ryder, Prince Eric, and Ariel! Plus, the food choices sounded different.
We arrived at the Boardwalk resort and paid to valet there all day instead of having to drive to Epcot to park after breakfast. It's a very short walk from the Boardwalk to Epcot and we planned on entering through the entrance in the World Showcase by Italy. Boardwalk was pretty empty and it was so calm and peaceful there that early in the morning.
We were served juice, coffee, water, and a frying pan full of pastries. The boys got the standard coloring books and crayons at all the Disney restaurants. The characters started their rotation immediately with Flynn being the first to stop at our table. He did his typical "Flynn smirk" and posed for some pictures. The other characters came one by one after that. At one point, when Ariel was introduced in the dining room they did a parade with the kids. Sean enjoyed being a part of it, but Evan sat out.
The food was pretty good, but I thought the presentation of it was better than the actual taste on most of the items. We still really enjoyed our breakfast and we wrapped up with enough time to walk over and make it to rope drop. So, I was one happy camper.
And we were off to Epcot! One the park officially opened, we booked it over to Soarin'. I mean we were walking as fast as we possibly could, while pushing a double stroller through some crowds. Soarin' ended up being a 40 minute process between the wait and actually riding it. And I'm proud to report my mom joined us! I loved the new updated Soarin'! It was so amazing! I was so sad when it ended and Evan said, "Can we ride it again, mom?" Sure kid, when there's not a long line...
After Soarin', we had our first Fastpass for Test Track. We didn't ride Test Track the last time we came so I was really looking forward to it. It's quite a process! You go into a room with computers and design your own concept car. After that, you're loaded into a blue test car and it tests the agility, speed, and other conditions of each car designed and ranks them. The best part was when it goes outside and goes really fast! Hold on to your hats!
We hit up a gift shop after Test Track and I bought my Flower and Garden Festival Tervis cup with lid that I had my eye on and a new Alex and Ani bracelet to add to my collection. The store was huge and we all got a little separated. Oops! Next up was our Fastpass for Spaceship Earth, which is always a favorite. I was surprised at how slow the Fastpass line moved, but we made due.
Since we had a little time to spare before our next Fastpass, we opted to go to the front of the park to do some obligatory photos in front of Spaceship Earth and the Flower and Garden Festival sign.
We made a last minute decision to change up our third Fastpass. It was supposed to be for Turtle Talk with Crush over by the Seas with Nemo and Friends, but we spent a lot of time in that area on our last trip and had already rode the Nemo ride earlier in the morning. We decided to grab a Fastpass for Figment since we missed him on our last trip. It was a good decision! The boys enjoyed it and the interactive stuff after the ride was fun, including a photo booth!
It was perfect timing as we got out of the Figment ride to get in line for the 1:00pm Disney Chase Visa Card special meet and greet. I figured we might as well make use of one of the credit card perks. We were second in line and ended up meeting Minnie and Pluto!
And now it was finally World Showcase time! We started at the beginning, stopping for some photos of the Flower and Garden displays. I grabbed a snack at the Mexico quick-service counter since I had a little Mexi-meltdown in the middle of Mexico. Sean was whining non-stop about when he would get to pick out a souvenir (I know, first world problems, right?) and I reached my limit. Needless to say I didn't get to ride the Mexico ride, but at least I got some nachos. We saw Norway and did the picture by the gnome too!
China, Germany, the United States, and Japan were the next few countries. We stopped to see a few people pick a pearl in Japan and that was really cool. Scott wasn't too keen on me getting one, so we just watched others. Party pooper...always. We spent some time shopping in Germany and of course had to get some of the caramel treats and a beer.
Sean was absolutely loving the Passport for the countries. We bought it on our last trip and were only able to get a few stamps. This trip he was on a mission to get the rest of them and complete the book. And he did! He even enjoyed adding all the stickers to it while we ate dinner. He was definitely the right age for the Passport.
By this point, it was blazing hot. Like sweat dripping down your back hot. Of course it had to be a 95 degree day with full sun as we walked the World Showcase. We found a small play ground in between some of the countries that provided some shade and let the boys blow off some steam. It just felt good to sit down and get some water.
France, the United Kingdom, and Canada were absolutely breathtaking with their scenery! Since we saw the movie in France last time, we chose to walk over to Canada to see their movie. It was really nice and it was fun since I knew the music from our CD at home. After that, it was time to walk back to Italy for our dinner at Via Napoli. Salad, bread, and pizza - yum! It was a fun restaurant and the food was very good!
We had an amazing day in Epcot! It was a full one, but after dinner we were ready to head back to the hotel and swim. We all cooled off at the smaller, quieter pool at our hotel (well, it was quiet until we showed up). It was a relaxing evening at the hotel as we got ready for our last day in Disney before heading to Clearwater Beach.
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