Disney World-Day 5

Epcot

It is a good thing our family is made up of morning people.  This was our fourth park day, and we were still able to get to Epcot before it opened.  Being in the parks early is the best way to get on the most popular rides with little to no wait.  This was our only day in Epcot.  Epcot is a huge park so we knew we would have to pick and choose what to see.  The park is divided into two main sections-Future World and World Showcase.  From the last time we went, I knew the kids would only be interested in a few things in the World Showcase area.  (Too bad because I love this part of the park.  I get why the kids don't though.  It is more about seeing than doing.) When the park opened, we went straight to Test Track.  We got fast passes and then got in the line.  This ride has been updated since the last time we went, and we all decided we liked the old version better.  Ha!  It was still a fun ride though.  Riley especially liked the end where the car goes around the track at 60 mph.

After Test Track, we headed to Sum of All thrills, a roller coaster simulator ride.  Both Reed and Riley were too short for this ride.  Steve, Cole and Trent rode it while I took Reed and Riley to another exhibit close by.  By the time we were done there, it was time to use our fast passes for another ride on Test Track. 

We headed to the other side of Future World and got fast passes for Soarin', the other one of Epcot's most popular rides.  The fast passes weren't good until late that afternoon.  We rode Living with the Land.  We then went over to The Seas area and rode the Nemo ride and watched Turtle Talk with Crush, a funny, interactive show.

One of the things that Trent, Reed and Riley were looking most forward to at Epcot was meeting Duffy the Disney Bear.  He started appearing at 11am so we headed there next.  I am not quite sure why but the kids started to get obsessed with Duffy in the months leading up to our trip.  Santa had brought stuffed Duffy bears to Trent and Reed.  Riley used her souvenir money at Disney to buy a Duffy of her own.  They brought their Duffy bears with them that day for the pictures.  Duffy did turn out to be really cute and fun to meet and the Disney photographer took lots of pictures of the kids with all the bears.

Duffy

Duffy

 By this time, we were getting pretty hungry.  We headed to Mexico in the World Showcase area and ate lunch there.  The lunch was pretty good but we had several close calls with birds swooping down trying to get a nacho.  Ha!  We rode the two rides in World Showcase-Gran Fiesta Tour located in the Mexico pavilion and Maelstrom, located next door in the Norway pavilion.

At this point, we decided to separate for a little while.  There were several princesses meeting around the World Showcase.  Riley couldn't wait to see them.  The boys weren't quite as excited about that.  Steve and the boys took another ride on Maelstrom and then headed to Spaceship Earth to ride that.  Riley and I walked around the World Showcase, stopping to meet Mulan in China, Snow White in Germany and Jasmine and Aladdin in Morroco.

waiting to meet more princesses

Mulan

Snow White

Jasmine and Aladdin

Riley and I in the France pavilion

Riley and I in the France Pavillion

After we made our way all the way around the World Showcase, we met back up with the boys at the Character Spot to meet Mickey, Minnie and Pluto.

Mickey

Pluto

Minnie

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was finally time to use our fast passes for Soarin'.  We all really liked this ride.  We grabbed a snack and rode Journey into Imagination.  Reed had been asking to go to Club Cool for the past couple of hours.  We made our way there next.  Club Cool is sponsored by Coca Cola and you can try different soft drinks for free from around the world.  Some of the drinks are okay but one in particular is very, very bad.

Reed at Club Cool

Trent at Club Cool

After Club Cool, we went back over to the other side of Future World to ride the things we missed that morning.  We first rode Mission Space.  This ride has an intense and a less intense version.   It isn't a scary ride but makes you feel like you are blasting off to outer space. We had rode the intense version on our last visit in 2008, and it was not something I wanted to repeat.  I remembered spending the whole ride worried that I was going to toss my cookies.  Trent really wanted to try the intense version again though.  He and Steve did that while the rest of us went on the less intense side.  We all made it out okay.

Following Mission Space, it was getting to be well past dinner time.  There were still a couple of things we wanted to do though.  We rode Ellen's Energy Adventure and then made a final stop at Spaceship Earth before heading out of the park.

We got back to the resort and the kids begged to go swimming.  We agreed that they could go for 30 minutes.  By the time they got out of the pool and changed, it was almost 9:00.  We headed to the food court for a late dinner and then headed to bed.

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth

Disney World-Day 4

The Magic Kingdom was the park that we were most excited to see.  They had an expansion to the Fantasyland area recently and most of it was princess themed.  There was a certain little princess in our group that was beyond thrilled to check it out.  As soon as the rope dropped, we headed right to Enchanted Tales with Belle, a Beauty and the Beast themed attraction.  This show is really cute.  Basically, kids get picked to play different roles to act out part of the movie with Belle.  Riley really wanted to be Chip, the teacup, and that is what she was chosen for.  Trent was Maurice, Belle's father, and Reed was a picture frame.

Belle and Maurice's cottage

the look on Riley's face is priceless to me

Riley playing Chip in Enchanted Tales with Belle

Trent and Belle

Reed and Belle

Riley and Belle

After Belle, we headed to the new Little Mermaid ride, only to find out it was down.  We grabbed fast passes for Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo and went in to see Mickey's Philharmagic, easily the best 4D movie in all of Disney World.  We rode Winnie the Pooh (the kids were not impressed) and the new Dumbo (Riley liked it.  The boys were starting to itch to do some bigger rides.)  Before I gave in to the boys, we stopped in to meet some characters.  There were two separate lines.  The boys all chose to meet Donald and Goofy.  Riley met Daisy and Minnie.

outside the Winnie the Pooh ride
 

Minnie

Goofy

 Daisy
 
After meeting the characters, we headed toward Tomorrowland.  We grabbed fast passes for Space Mountain.  Steve and the kids rode Stitch while I went to get fast passes to meet Mickey Mouse and the princesses.  I met back up with them and we saw the Monster Inc. Laugh Floor show which was just as funny as we all remembered.  By this time, we were hungry.  We grabbed some lunch from Casey's Corner and sat outside to eat.  

Riley eating lunch

As we were finishing up, a short parade was passing by and Reed and Riley were excited to watch that.  After lunch, we had reached the time to use our fast passes to meet Mickey and the princesses.  We all met Mickey.  Just Riley and I met the princesses while the boys shopped and watched some performers.

Mickey!

Cinderella

Rapunzel

Sleeping Beauty

 When Riley and I were finished, we met back up with the boys and headed to Tomorrowland to use those Space Mountain fast passes.  Space was great.  We then grabbed fast passes for Buzz Light Year and went on Carousel of Progress.  We rode Buzz and headed out of Tomorrowland. 

 

I can't remember the exact order of things from here on out but I believe our next stop was Adventureland for a ride on the Pirates of the Carribean.  We followed this up with a couple of rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which we all really enjoyed.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

It was approaching evening by this time, and we were hungry once again.  We had dinner at Columbia Harbor House and then headed for a ride on the Haunted Mansion.  After the Haunted Mansion, it was time to get seats for the Electrical Parade and Celebrate the Magic, the castle projection show.  Reed was wiped out by this time but managed to stay awake to enjoy the parade and show.  The parade was good but the castle show was what blew us away.  It was incredible!

Electrical Parade

Celebrate the Magic show

Celebrate the Magic Show

Although the park was open until 1 am, we were all ready to call it a day.  It was the Sunday of MLK weekend.  The park had been pretty crowded.  We felt like we accomplished a lot though and knew we had another 1 1/2 days in the Magic Kingdom to see what we had missed and ride our favorites again.  We headed back to the resort happy and tired.

Disney World-Day 3

 We were up bright and early again this day and made our way to Animal Kingdom.  We were there before the park opened (like every other day of our trip), so we took some time to get a couple of Disney photopass pictures.

Once the park opened, we were off to one of the most popular rides at Animal Kingdom-Kilimanjaro Safaris.  This is a ride that makes you feel like you are on a true African safari.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Kilimanjaro Safaris

After the safari ride we headed over to Expedition Everest, the park's roller coaster.  Riley wasn't tall enough for this ride.  Steve and the boys rode first.  Although they liked it, one ride was enough for both Steve and Reed.  With the combination of fast passes and child swap, Cole, Trent and I were able to ride it three or four times in a row.  We had a blast!

Expedition Everest

Expedition Everest

Expedition Everest





Expedition Everest

The Finding Nemo musical was next on the agenda.  We didn't see this our first time at Disney.  It was a really well done show.  We then went to DinoLand and rode Dinosaur.  This was another ride I thought Riley most likely wouldn't ride that she ended up loving and wanting to ride again.  In fact, we all did. From Dinosaur, we headed inside the Tree of Life to watch "It's Tough to Be a Bug", a 4D movie.  The movie is really cute and funny.  The Tree of Life is Animal Kingdom's centerpiece.  It really is amazing.  There are hundreds of animals carved into the tree.

"It's Tough to Be a Bug"

The Tree of Life

We had lunch and then used fast passes for another ride on Dinosaur before heading to the other side of the park.  Riley had her sights set on meeting her first princess of the trip-Pocahontas.  The kids also then met King Louie and Baloo from The Jungle Book.

Pocahontas

King Louie and Baloo

We saw the Lion King show, had Mickey shaped ice cream bars and headed back to the resort.  It was about 4:00 by this point. The kids had one thing on their mind-swimming. It really wasn't warm enough for swimming-maybe 65 or 70 degrees.  The pool was heated though.  While they swam, I did a couple loads of laundry in the nearby laundry room.  Steve and I sat by the pool and drank hot chocolate while it got darker and cooler.  The kids had a great time.

When the laundry was done, we had to pry the kids out of the pool.  Luckily, they were hungry.  The lure of dinner got them out.  Instead of eating in the food court again, we took a bus to Downtown Disney.  We had dinner there and did some souvenir shopping.  We made it back to the resort around 10 pm or so and went straight to bed.  Tomorrow, we were headed to everyone's favorite park-Magic Kingdom.