Travel Mum
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 26, 2010
Monday 03 October Epcot
This was our third theme park day in a row and third early morning a row so I knew it would be hard on my family. However, they were great and got up and to the bus depot in time as Id planned. We had no breakfast booked this morning so we had bought some bananas the night before and took them to eat while we were waiting for rope drop at Epcot.
Waiting for Epcot to open
Once the gates opened, I went to Soarin to get fastpasses while DH and the girls headed to Test Track and waited for me there. I knew Epcot was big but it really has to be experienced to be believed it is massive! It felt like I was walking (very fast walking) for ages and ages before I got to Soarin and then of course I had to go all the way back and across to Test Track. To complicate things, after two days of wearing trainers to the parks, I had changed and worn my Croc Cleos today which are really not designed for fast walking or running. On a side note though, thanks so much to those who recommended Croc Cleos because they were ideal! They were so comfy and I could wear them day after day without getting any blisters plus my feet kept so cool wearing them. Never wore trainers again after that day.
Anyway, back to my morning, when I got to Test Track, DD6 came running over to me crying and I wondered why. Turns out that on the way to Test Track, they had come across one of those fountains that randomly squirt up from the ground. She had taken a risk and it hadnt paid off! Her shorts were all wet and she wanted to go back to the hotel to change. No chance sorry darling, we are going on Test Track with no wait while we can! We went on Test Track and, even though it broke down momentarily when we were half way through, we loved it. As soon as we got off, we went straight back in for another time and this time it didnt break down. Test Track was certainly our favourite ride at Epcot.
Next we on Mission Space, again with barely any wait. DD10 and myself went on the mild version while DH, DD13 and DD6(!!) went on the intense version. It was good and I think we all went on the version that suited us so we had chosen well (by the way, DD6s shorts were dry by now). After that, we went over to Nemo and the Seas. We did the Nemo ride and then watched Turtle Talk with Crush which was cute. Since we were over that way, we rode Soarin using our fastpasses. Wed been on it before in DCA but it was DD6s first time. It was good but we dont find it that amazing and Im glad I hadnt dragged the family over there first thing in the morning to do the fastpass and ride scenario in order to get two rides of it in.
As we had an 11.55 am (about that time I know it was the earliest lunch seating time anyway) dining reservation at Akershus, we needed to head over to Norway so, given the size of Epcot, realised we should get going! Luckily Norway was one of the first countries as you walk clockwise so we got there in time but it was really hot and we needed to walk quite fast so the family got a bit flustered. We registered and were soon called in to have our photo with Belle. That is actually a good value (especially when you are on free dining like we were!) meal as we were given two large photos in a frame one with Belle and the girls and the other with Belle with all of us as well as four 4x6 size photos of each of the two images which came as part of the lunch package! The lunch started by going to a cold buffet which offered some tasty Scandinavian food and then came your ala carte choices. Far too much food for lunch of course! As we ate, we were visited by Mary Poppins, Princess Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White. So I thought that was great that we got to meet four Disney princesses plus Mary Poppins and needless to say the girls autograph books were fast filling up.
(can't seem to get Mary Poppins photo to resize so can't include one of her)
This was our day that I had scheduled an afternoon break so I knew we needed to head back to POR after lunch. However, since we were there, we did the Norway ride as we had grabbed fastpasses for it before lunch and so could get on it straight away. After that, we headed back to the main gate and, as we walked under the giant golf ball, we noticed there was no line for Spaceship Earth so we jumped in the line and quite enjoyed that ride.
Thought the Spaceship Earth photos were funny and clever:
We went back to the resort and had a relaxing swim and a rest in the room. I think I did some handwashing from memory. I guess we had 3-4 hours back at the resort and then late afternoon we went back into Epcot.
Boarding the bus to go back to Epcot
We had a 6pm reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico so we were back in Epcot by about 5pm. The World Showcase was very busy because of the Food and Wine festival so we slowly made our way to Mexico. We enjoyed our dinner at San Angel Inn and the setting was great. After dinner, we did the boat ride in Mexico and I thought that was pretty lame!
DH put the camera on a different setting so this photo came out very yellow!
Tonight was our night to watch Illuminations but we had a while to wait until 9pm so this was also our opportunity to explore the rest of the World Showcase countries. We walked clockwise from Mexico around the lagoon and it was a lovely cool time to do that compared to the heat of the day. However, it was pretty busy with people and Im not sure we saw the countries in all their detail since it was night time.
Pleased to see New Zealand represented
Looking back across the lagoon to Future World:
At about 8.30 pm we realised we should be getting into place for Illuminations so we were at Canada by that stage and got a good spot at the railings. Illuminations was great and, although I did try to take some photos, they dont do it justice so I soon gave up. Afterwards, we knew to wait a while before attempting to exit so we went into one of the huge Disney stores for 20 minutes before going to the bus depot which seemed to work well.
See, my photos were useless!
Back to the resort and finally nothing scheduled for early the next morning so we could have a sleep-in. Yay!!
This was our third theme park day in a row and third early morning a row so I knew it would be hard on my family. However, they were great and got up and to the bus depot in time as Id planned. We had no breakfast booked this morning so we had bought some bananas the night before and took them to eat while we were waiting for rope drop at Epcot.
Waiting for Epcot to open
Once the gates opened, I went to Soarin to get fastpasses while DH and the girls headed to Test Track and waited for me there. I knew Epcot was big but it really has to be experienced to be believed it is massive! It felt like I was walking (very fast walking) for ages and ages before I got to Soarin and then of course I had to go all the way back and across to Test Track. To complicate things, after two days of wearing trainers to the parks, I had changed and worn my Croc Cleos today which are really not designed for fast walking or running. On a side note though, thanks so much to those who recommended Croc Cleos because they were ideal! They were so comfy and I could wear them day after day without getting any blisters plus my feet kept so cool wearing them. Never wore trainers again after that day.
Anyway, back to my morning, when I got to Test Track, DD6 came running over to me crying and I wondered why. Turns out that on the way to Test Track, they had come across one of those fountains that randomly squirt up from the ground. She had taken a risk and it hadnt paid off! Her shorts were all wet and she wanted to go back to the hotel to change. No chance sorry darling, we are going on Test Track with no wait while we can! We went on Test Track and, even though it broke down momentarily when we were half way through, we loved it. As soon as we got off, we went straight back in for another time and this time it didnt break down. Test Track was certainly our favourite ride at Epcot.
Next we on Mission Space, again with barely any wait. DD10 and myself went on the mild version while DH, DD13 and DD6(!!) went on the intense version. It was good and I think we all went on the version that suited us so we had chosen well (by the way, DD6s shorts were dry by now). After that, we went over to Nemo and the Seas. We did the Nemo ride and then watched Turtle Talk with Crush which was cute. Since we were over that way, we rode Soarin using our fastpasses. Wed been on it before in DCA but it was DD6s first time. It was good but we dont find it that amazing and Im glad I hadnt dragged the family over there first thing in the morning to do the fastpass and ride scenario in order to get two rides of it in.
As we had an 11.55 am (about that time I know it was the earliest lunch seating time anyway) dining reservation at Akershus, we needed to head over to Norway so, given the size of Epcot, realised we should get going! Luckily Norway was one of the first countries as you walk clockwise so we got there in time but it was really hot and we needed to walk quite fast so the family got a bit flustered. We registered and were soon called in to have our photo with Belle. That is actually a good value (especially when you are on free dining like we were!) meal as we were given two large photos in a frame one with Belle and the girls and the other with Belle with all of us as well as four 4x6 size photos of each of the two images which came as part of the lunch package! The lunch started by going to a cold buffet which offered some tasty Scandinavian food and then came your ala carte choices. Far too much food for lunch of course! As we ate, we were visited by Mary Poppins, Princess Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White. So I thought that was great that we got to meet four Disney princesses plus Mary Poppins and needless to say the girls autograph books were fast filling up.
(can't seem to get Mary Poppins photo to resize so can't include one of her)
This was our day that I had scheduled an afternoon break so I knew we needed to head back to POR after lunch. However, since we were there, we did the Norway ride as we had grabbed fastpasses for it before lunch and so could get on it straight away. After that, we headed back to the main gate and, as we walked under the giant golf ball, we noticed there was no line for Spaceship Earth so we jumped in the line and quite enjoyed that ride.
Thought the Spaceship Earth photos were funny and clever:
We went back to the resort and had a relaxing swim and a rest in the room. I think I did some handwashing from memory. I guess we had 3-4 hours back at the resort and then late afternoon we went back into Epcot.
Boarding the bus to go back to Epcot
We had a 6pm reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico so we were back in Epcot by about 5pm. The World Showcase was very busy because of the Food and Wine festival so we slowly made our way to Mexico. We enjoyed our dinner at San Angel Inn and the setting was great. After dinner, we did the boat ride in Mexico and I thought that was pretty lame!
DH put the camera on a different setting so this photo came out very yellow!
Tonight was our night to watch Illuminations but we had a while to wait until 9pm so this was also our opportunity to explore the rest of the World Showcase countries. We walked clockwise from Mexico around the lagoon and it was a lovely cool time to do that compared to the heat of the day. However, it was pretty busy with people and Im not sure we saw the countries in all their detail since it was night time.
Pleased to see New Zealand represented
Looking back across the lagoon to Future World:
At about 8.30 pm we realised we should be getting into place for Illuminations so we were at Canada by that stage and got a good spot at the railings. Illuminations was great and, although I did try to take some photos, they dont do it justice so I soon gave up. Afterwards, we knew to wait a while before attempting to exit so we went into one of the huge Disney stores for 20 minutes before going to the bus depot which seemed to work well.
See, my photos were useless!
Back to the resort and finally nothing scheduled for early the next morning so we could have a sleep-in. Yay!!