EPCOT- Day 3

Our third park day was EPCOT.  On our last trip our EPCOT day was somewhat of a disaster planning and weather wise and we actually loved the park way more than we had anticipated so we knew we wanted to spend as much time as possible in this park.  The weather was supposed to be a little warmer but also maybe rain some.  We had fast passes for Frozen Ever After, Mission Space and Figment.  We knew we wanted to ride Soarin' so we planned to ride it a rope drop.  We left POP right at 7:30, we were in line to get in the park by 8:15, lined up for rope drop by 8:45.  Once the rope dropped we headed straight to Soarin'.  AveryAnn just barely made the height requirement to ride.  So all four Horton's boarded our flight.  I wasn't sure how the kids would feel about the ride.  It's not really scary but it can be somewhat intense.  

AveryAnn hated it and cried nearly the entire ride.  Barrett said he liked it but didn't need to ride it again.  Patrick loved it (this was his favorite ride from our last trip so I knew he would). The line was still really short when we got off so I rode again with Jackson because he wanted to ride it again and I didn't get to really enjoy my first ride since AveryAnn was so upset.

Our first fast pass was for Frozen.  The wait to meet Anna and Elsa was less than 30 minutes So we decided to jump in that line before our fast pass. Well it ended up being closer to 45 minutes.  But it was worth it!

AveryAnn was just speechless.  It was so funny!

I just loved all the character interactions! 

After Frozen we headed to our Lunch reservation back at the Land building.  We had lunch at Garden Grill with Mickey, Pluto Chip & Dale.  

AveryAnn was cracking me up so much!

We missed our Mission Space fast pass because of lunch. (I didn't do a great job scheduling fast passes and meals.) After lunch I think we rode Nemo and Friends with the Moore family before our Figment fast pass.  I love the Nemo ride and the kids did too!  

After we rode Nemo and Figment we were going to wait to meet Wreck It Ralph.  But the line was not moving and it was hot so we decided to go walk around the world showcase instead.  I was in a bad mood at this point.  The day was not going how I envisioned it and I was not handling it well.  I think at one point I told Patrick lets just go back to the hotel.  It started to sprinkle rain and it was cooler than it was supposed to be.  I was just having a pity party.  There was a snack I wanted to get in France so we headed there.  I ordered it then realized it wasn't a snack credit on the dining plan.  Then I came out of the shop and AveryAnn had to potty so I didn't even get to enjoy it while it was warm.  At this point I was really done.  

We met up with John & Hope and walked some more.  I got a margarita at the margarita stand and was feeling better.  Ha!  We headed to Spaceship Earth. 

We'd never ridden it and it was slow and John thought the kids would like it. 

AveryAnn loved it!  She said it was her favorite ride.  

After Spaceship Earth we headed back over to Nemo and Friends to ride it with John and Hope.  While we were parking strollers I snapped some pictures of us with the Spaceship Earth ball.  There's so much construction at the entrance of the park we didn't get a good shot when we came in.

I love this one of the cousins!  The girls got matching Elsa dolls.  They really enjoyed getting to be together so much, it was so sweet!

I have this same picture of Barrett from our last trip.  It makes me smile so much!

We also did Turtle Talk with Crush.  AveryAnn got to ask Crush a question and it was so funny.

I tried to take as many pictures with the photo pass photographers as I could.

The Maxwell's headed back and we decided we were going to get a quick service dinner in the world showcase before we headed back.  Jessica and I had Mexican, the boys had Chinese.  It was a good time.  We walked back International gateway to ride the skyliner back and we noticed it was not moving.  So we snapped a picture with the Eiffel Tower. 

 

When we realized it didn't look like the skyliner would be running any time soon we headed to the bus stop.  (this would prove to be a huge mistake)

We were able to snag a picture with the ball before leaving!

We got to the bus stop and waited forever for a bus.  Probably an hour.  We were all about to lose it.  We ended up having a pretty great day but that ending almost ruined it for me.  All in all I'm still not pleased with how I planned this day but we made the most of it!  One thing I'm so mad I didn't do (that I fully intened to do) was get the kids passports to get stamped in each country.  Especially after seeing how much they enjoyed the wilderness explorers the nest day in Animal Kingdom.

Disney World- Epcot

I'd never been to Epcot but I'd researched it a lot and I had big plans to get reckless with my snack credits.  Also the number one thing that everyone said was you have to ride Soarin'.  Several people listed it as their number one favorite ride (both people in real life and on the internet).  I was really looking forward to this day.

We slept in a little.  Several people said it wasn't really a full day park so we took our time getting there.  (this is the one day I would do differently if we had the chance to redo it.) I would have gotten there at rope drop and planned to stay all day long.  I also would have done the fast passes a little differently. 

Our first fast pass was to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  Again we weren't really sure how Barrett would react so we went in with low expectations.

And then this happened.  He ran right up to him and gave him the biggest hug.

And this is where I had my ugly cry moment.   

I also love that his bear is in all these pictures too.

I was trying not to cry, while smiling.  Not the best picture face.

I wasn't sure if we would get any pictures of just AveryAnn with the characters.  But Mickey knelt down and the photographer told Patrick to sit her in his lap and it was so perfect.   

And then when I thought it couldn't get any more perfect, Barrett sat in there with them. 

It was so sweet!! 

Then we met Goofy and I had to fight tears again. 

I just love the character interaction. 

Minnie is my favorite and Barrett was smitten with her too.

AveryAnn was trying to grab her nose.

After we met the characters we went to Turtle Talk with Crush and it was really cute.  Then we rode the Nemo ride, it was really neat.  We spent some time walking through aquarium and then we set out to find some lunch.  We walked all over the world showcase and finally settled on China for a quick lunch.  Okay that's not the whole story... we thought we wanted a quick lunch in Italy but it turns out Italy doesn't have a quick service restaurant.  So while we're standing in Italy trying to decide what to eat, it starts pouring.  And it's not your typical florida, it'll be over quickly downpour.  So we debate about what to do.  We finally decide to poncho up and head to china.  It worked out perfectly.  About the time we were finished with lunch the rain had stopped and we finished our day in the sauna.

(i'm pretty sure my timeline is off because we made two passes around the world showcase)

The other thing that I really wanted to do in Epcot that I'd read about was the "pick a pearl" thing in Japan.  You go in and pick an oyster and they open it and you get to keep the pearl. 

Here we are choosing our oyster.  I'd read to choose the ugliest one for a better pearl. 

It was a fun little "show" she made us count down in Japanese and then she opened our oyster.

She opened it and her eyes got big.  I was so excited...

She said "You are very lucky, because you got two pearls!"

They are the same size and are going to make perfect earrings.  I was so excited.

AveryAnn had pooped on her other outfit.

After this we headed to Norway for our Frozen Ever After fastpass.

I'm not a fan of the tiered fast pass system at Epcot and Hollywood studios, I understand why it's necessary but it makes things a little tricky.  (If I had realized how to take advantage of the rider swap system I would have totally done it).  We had fast passes for turtle talk, character meet and greet and Frozen Ever After.  No Soarin', I just knew we would be able to get one later in the day after we used our 3.  I was wrong.

Here we are on Frozen.  Jackson fell asleep in the stroller so Jessica stayed back with him.

Our plans were to go back to the room after Frozen and rest because we had an 8:45 dinner reservation.  So we headed out, then it started pouring rain. We went ahead and left but if I had it to do over again we would have stayed.  It rained so much that we didn't even go to our room when we got to the resort, we just hung out in the little play area and then headed back to the park for dinner At Le Cellier in Canada.  We seriously considered cancelling our dinner reservations.  We didn't want to pay the fee and it was our two table service credit dinner so I knew we wouldn't be able to eat two more table service meals to cover it.  So we poncho back up and headed to the park.  The bus driver actually told us we were a little nuts when we all got on the bus.  There was a young couple that asked where we were eating and then said it was totally worth it.  The rain, the kids, the late night was all worth this meal. 

And they were right.  This was Patrick's favorite meal of the whole week.  Barrett was a total nightmare of a kid that night.  He required multiple trips to the restroom for discipline but it was still worth it.   There was a couple at a table next to us that joked with their server that they were celebrating the fact they didn't have any kids due to our kid's behavior.  It was a little annoying.  I didn't know they'd said this until we had left or I might have walked over to their table to tell them that while dinner was less than ideal, they're also missing out on seeing their kid meet Mickey Mouse.

After dinner the wait for Soarin' was something crazy like 5 minutes so we rushed over there and got to ride it.  At first it was Patrick, me and Jeremy.  As soon as we got off we knew we had to force Jessica to ride it.  Patrick wanted to ride it again so I sat with the kids.  I was so glad we went back.  We would have missed the awesome meal and getting to ride Soarin'.  If I ever did an adult only Disney trip I would definitely spend two days at Epcot.  I would love to take my time strolling around the world showcase. And I would definitely use some snack credits.  I didn't use a single one and I'm still disappointed about it.

There were a few rides we didn't get to ride like Test Track and Mission Space that I will definitely do next time.