Epcot
After flying in late Wednesday night, we were up early Thursday morning to be at Epcot for the Extra Magic Hour starting at 8:00am. Before heading to any ride, we stopped to take a picture. What could say Epcot better than a picture in front of the giant sphere that is Spaceship Earth?
Um, Leah, I think there’s something on your hand there. Thanks Disney Magic!
First, we headed to take a ride in Spaceship Earth. Then, we headed over to our first character meet-and-greet - Mickey Mouse. The girls had their autograph books ready.
Next to Mickey was Goofy.
And next to Goofy was Minnie Mouse - one of the characters the girls were really looking forward to.
They even got to do some dancing with her.
Next, we decided to meet a much newer character - Baymax. The girls even got to give him a fist bump.
We then headed to Test Track - an awesome ride where you get to design your car (using a large touchscreen computer), then get to ride in a simulation car and see how your design performs. Here we are in the simulation car.
After Test Track, we hit a bunch of the fun attractions at the front of the park before the World Showcase opened. We went to The Seas with Nemo & Friends and other aquatic fun there like SeaBase and Turtle Talk with Crush. We ate our PB&J sandwiches. We journeyed into our imagination with Figment, after which the girls of course made their own figments (Nancy is Leah’s, Mig is Molly’s).
Then it was off to the World Showcase. We started off by meeting some more characters. We first headed to the United Kingdom and found Mary Poppins. She said our girls’ grey shirts reminded her of a chimney sweep, so she decided to teach them the Step In Time.
We then walked down to France to be the last people in line to meet Belle.
Also in France, we found Aurora.
After meeting so many characters, we decided to take on an adventure. The Phineas and Ferb: Agent P's World Showcase Adventure is an interactive mission, in which we were given a smartphone to guide us through a secret agent mission in France. It led us to different places around France, and activated hidden features. The mission was fun, but enough at 30 minutes. At the end of the mission, we were asked if we wanted to another mission in the next country, and the girls chose not to.
Instead, we decided France was an excellent place to get a sweet treat. That was an excellent choice. Jen and Leah went to the ice cream place, while Molly and I went to the patisserie for some tarts. Yum.
After our treats, we headed down to Japan to listen to some Japanese drumming. They had a really big drum.
We then wandered down to the U.S.A. to listen to the a cappella music of the American Music Machine - lots of fun. Then we walked to Italy and saw an entertaining juggler. The girls also tried out one of the Kidcot Fun Stops, though we just did the one. Then on to China to see some acrobats.
We then walked back to Italy for dinner. We figured we’d be eating pizza on this trip, so we thought we’d go for a high quality one. We had reservations at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria. The girls were hungry for it.
It was good, though not great, pizza. Sadly, Leah was not a fan of the pizza. Combined with being tired, she turned into a bit of a grump. So, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel rather than sticking around for the fireworks.
After heading out of the restaurant, I took a quick picture of the ladies with the far off Spaceship Earth in the background.
After the long walk back (Leah rode on my shoulders), we even got a magical shot of the four of us.
When we finally got back to our room, Leah was very happy to see her bed. Which was a good thing, since we were getting up early the next morning to head to the Magic Kingdom.
Overall, Epcot was lots of fun and served as a good warmup day for the trip, with smaller crowds and fewer things planned. I don’t think any of us would say it was our favorite park, but it was still awesome.
