AK and Epcot
Today was Animal Kingdom and Epcot! And somehow, our last night already! But we had
LOTS of adventures to squeeze in before heading home.
We woke up after a great night’s sleep at Copper Creek and quickly packed up our stuff. We dropped our luggage at Bell Services to be brought over to Riviera and we were on our way! First I killed a little time waiting in a rocking chair in the WL lobby while Sister finished getting ready - what a
gorgeous lobby this is!
We didn’t have far to go for our first stop - we were getting an early breakfast at Whispering Canyon. Neither of us had ever been here before and honestly, we probably wouldn’t go back. The food was GREAT but the antics are not for us, haha. We each got a heritage skillet and a mimosa flight.
When we needed ketchup I whispered to the server that we needed ketchup but didn’t want to do the whole “ketchup thing” and he said “ohhh you mean the Quiet Ketchup!” And brought it over without causing a fuss,
thank goodness! He also brought Sister a cupcake for her birthday and tried to feed it to her!! This place would probably be more fun with the kids, as opposed to 2 adults who haven’t had their coffee yet, haha.
We caught the bus right away and were at AK by 10:15. We took a quick break immediately to call the kiddos back home, and tapped in at 10:45 for our Flight of Passage ILL, before using our first Genie at Navi River Journey around 11:30. (It’s a bit of a bummer how long FOP takes even with an ILL - that preshow is just
SO long!)
Next stop was my favorite, Thirsty River Bar! I got my usual, the Himalayan Ghost, and Sister got the green margarita. We had a prebooked
DAS for Everest next, then did the Maharajah Jungle Trek while waiting for the Nomad Lounge walk up list.
We tapped in for our safari next which was awesome, and our Nomad spot opened just as we were exiting. Perfect timing!! We each enjoyed an adult beverage and some sort of charcuterie-type snack before heading out of the park to our next destination.
We decided to use Lyft to get to Epcot since we wanted to maximize our time and the ride share location at AK is pretty convenient. We were tapping into Epcot at 3:00 and tapping into Cosmic Rewind (ILL) by 3:07! Unfortunately it took foreverrrrrr to get through the ride and we were late for our Space 220 reservation by about 15 minutes. The hostess initially said they wouldn’t be able to seat us but a few minutes later came back and said they could - woohoo! This was a first for us and probably another one and done. The setting is cool, but in my opinion not cool enough to justify the fixed price. Luckily we had seats in the lounge and each got an app and a drink. It was fun and I’m glad we got to try it!
We had a little time to kill before our Soarin’ LL so we walked onto the Land. I’m sure I must’ve gone on this ride as a kid but have NO memory of it, and definitely hadn’t ridden it as an adult. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it! Next we tapped in for Soarin’ and waited about 15 minutes with the LL. Next up was Remy’s (another 15 minute LL wait) followed by a frozen martini at the France
Festival of the Arts booth. This always hits the spot!!
The festival looked really neat from what we saw - I’d like to come back sometime during this time of year to check it out some more. Sister’s husband had his 40th that same week so she spent a little time looking for a piece of Star Wars art to get for him before we headed to La cava.
This was another place I had never been!! I got the blood orange margarita and Sister got the tequila flight - she LOVES tequila! We also stopped and grabbed a Larry Dotson print of Wilderness Lodge - I am starting to collect these for each of the hotels we stay at. We then tapped in at Frozen at 8:22 and were on by 8:30.
Neither of us had seen Harmonious yet and we knew it was going away soon so seeing it was a priority! We found a spot by Morocco and grabbed a drink while we waited. I REALLY liked it!! But in my opinion, the barges ruining the World Showcase views were not worth it. But the songs, fireworks, etc. we really enjoyed!! We sprinted for the skyliner right before the end of the show which was a great move because a huge line quickly formed behind us. This was our first skyliner ride ever and we were scared!! It stopped for a minute or two and we were freaking out a bit. But the views were neat and you can’t beat the convenience. I’d use it again (but not on a trip with Husband - he doesn’t do heights!)
Our room at the Riviera was on the first floor in the building by the skyliner - so a bit of a hike back from the lobby with our bags. It was an accessible room so set up a little bit differently. We dropped our bags and limped over to Bar Riva - our feet were sore from our long day!! We got there at 10:05 and realized they closed at 10 - but they were nice enough to give us each a glass of wine to bring back to the room! Sister had lost her emotional support water bottle at some point during the day so we also stopped at Primo Piatto to pick up a bunch of water. We headed back to our room and were asleep literally minutes later!