Disney 2015 ~ Epcot Day 2, Part 2

(Friday, September 18, 2015)

Hannah and I made our way to Disney Springs to meet up with my brother and his family for supper at Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant.  What a fun little place! 

While we waited for our meal to arrive we enjoyed the live entertainment. 

I’ve had little bits of salmon in the past and decided to order it for a meal but must admit it just wasn’t my thing.  While it was very good, I enjoyed Hannah’s fish and chips more.  That’s just my taste buds though and has nothing to do with the food.

Part way through the evening the dancers came around and asked the girls if they would like to dance.  Hannah initially said yes but then changed her mind before the dancing began.  Makenna participated though and was adorable!

After supper we went our separate ways.  Hannah and I went to Disney Quest.  It was a first for us and since it’s closing in the new year I wanted to check it out.  It wasn’t really our thing with the exception of the room with creative games which Hannah really enjoyed so we didn’t stay there long.

When we left there it was around 9:30.  I checked the MyDisneyExperience app and confirmed the hours of Epcot before I asked Hannah a question.  I was pretty sure I knew the answer but checked anyway.  I asked her if she would like to go back to Epcot and ride Test Track?  My question was met with a resounding YES and shouts of happiness! 

Knowing how late it was and my girl’s stamina I asked her what I should do if she fell asleep on the bus.  She said she wanted me to wake her up so that she could ride Test Track. 

We entered Epcot with her in a deep sleep.  These cast members giggled as I lifted up Hannah’s limp arm to scan her MagicBand. It was 10:45 at this point and we were like fish swimming upstream as everyone else was leaving the park.  We arrived at TT with minutes to spare…and Hannah still fast asleep.

She woke up as we got in line and after a quick potty stop got back in line to ride.  She looks a little weary here but trust me, she was excited as Test Track is her favourite ride at all 4 parks!

Check out her amazing car!  She ended up winning in our car with her great design.  Here is my girl enjoying her ride!  SO thankful we were able to do this!

We’re both looking a little worse for wear here but after a long day I guess that’s to be expected.   I checked my fitbit at the end of this day (most Disney days  had averaged around 14,000-15,000 steps) but that day I was just under 22,000.  Those tired eyes and feet were well earned!

Tomorrow:  Resort fun and the Magic Kingdom.

Disney 2015 ~ Epcot, Day 2, Part 1

(Sorry for the gap in posts.  Adjusting to a new school with a new language meant extra time with Mommy was needed to kinda just settle Hannah into her new routine.  She’s doing great now!!  Add to that our amazing Toronto Blue Jays and how well they did in the post season and my blog posting suffered.  Thanks for hanging in there and still being here now that I’m finally posting again.)

On Friday Sept 18th, Hannah and I went back to Epcot to enjoy our second day there.  There is so much to do at Epcot and even with 2 days we still didn’t get to enjoy all that we’d hoped to.  Just leaves more to do next time.

As Hannah had reached 48” (48” sounds much better than 4’ as 4’ makes her sound too grown up!!) a few new rides opened up to us.  One new one we tried and Hannah enjoyed was Mission Space (Green) as it’s the milder version.  After being a little timid to ride it at the last moment, a little bit of encouragement that I knew she could handle it and we were off.  It was deemed a success and next time I think we might try the orange version as my girl loves spinney rides!

We had FP+ reservations for Soarin’ so headed there to ride it one final time with the current version of the California movie.  By the time we return next year Soarin’ will have been closed down for an extensive renovation period (January 2016 – Summer 2016) in order for them to open a 3rd theatre, update the movie to ‘Soarin’ Round the World’, as well as a new projection system.  We love the current movie (and especially the soundtrack) but I have a feeling the new one will be amazing as well!  We’re really excited as the new version is going to take us Soarin’ over the Great Wall of China! 

After riding Soarin’ we visited ‘Living with the Land’ that had just reopened that day after a short refurbishment.   I take a lot of teasing for enjoying this ride but Hannah and I enjoy this quiet time to sit back, relax and be reminded of how hard people work to grow the foods that we too often take for granted.  It’s always neat to see the innovative ways they are growing crops too.

The Land building has a good quick-service dining option called Sunshine Seasons so we stopped there for lunch.  As happened more than once, I looked down at our lunch tray and was thankful to be able to travel during the free dining promotion and realize that I’d paid very little for our food and the relief of not thinking of cost each time we ate was priceless to me.  We did not eat it all and desserts were packed away to enjoy later but this was our lunch on this day.  (Stir-fried beef with rice, Tortilla soup, watermelon, chocolate croissant and a macaroon with iced tea and chocolate milk.  Yup….all for free!)

When we left The Land we stopped to take a few pics.  I can’t believe how grown up she looks in these pictures!  The first is a selfie she took while I was getting the stroller.  Where did my baby go??

We had a FP+ reservation for our final ride of the day to ride Test Track which is Hannah’s absolute favourite ride at all the parks!  My Mommy heart dropped when shortly before our FP+ window opened I received an email advising me that the ride was closed for an undetermined amount of time and we were welcome to use our FP+ reservation at any other ride, at any time that day.  I know there’s nothing we can do when rides need to suddenly be shut down for safety/maintenance but I still felt terrible relaying the message as I knew it was the one ride she’d most been looking forward to riding all week!  In grand Hannah style she took the news like a trooper and asked if we might be able to do an Agent P assignment instead.  She’s awesome friends….absolutely awesome!!

We quickly made our way to the International Gateway and picked up our transponder, ready to save China! 

Hannah used her transponder to find special places in China and then trigger actions. 

I’m happy to say with the amazing ‘Agent H’ leading our mission we were successful and China is once again safe!  Thank you Agent H!!

Up next: Raglan Road and Disney Springs.

Disney 2015 ~ Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney)

(Thurs, Sep 17, 2015)

Thursday was a day of flexibility and change.  We had originally planned to go to Animal Kingdom (AK) but woke up to the 1 rainy day of our trip.  Since Hannah had requested that we skip AK this trip and the weather wasn’t cooperating we decided to do some other things.  Dave and Trish had a ‘down day’ planned so these changes also gave us an opportunity to spend some time together since we’d spent the majority of the previous couple of days apart.

We started with breakfast at our resort then a swim in the Hippy Dippy pool.

After this we boarded a bus and made our way to Disney Springs (DS)which was in it’s final days as Downtown Disney as it was formerly renamed to Disney Springs last week.  Our families each set off in different directions with plans to meet for lunch a couple of hours later.  Since it was still raining Hannah and I headed to the Lego Store and hung out there in the ‘create’ area for an hour or so.  My girl was in her glory and I was determined to build something other than the only thing I knew how to build….a rectangle house with possibly a window and door.  This was Hannah’s final creation which I thought was neat with all the clear blocks.

This is Mommy’s flower garden…minus a rectangle house.  Woot!

On our way to lunch we noticed that many of the signs had already been changed to ‘Disney Springs.’

This picture was taken on a new walking bridge that saved us a lot of steps.  For those familiar with DS/DD it goes from the area near Rainforest Cafe and goes over to the Lego Store.   We used this bridge often while we were there.

Although a little blurry I like imagining what was happening while the girls played together.  They are the best of friends and I am so thankful for how close they are!

After lunch it was time to browse around some of the stores as well as pick up a few souvenirs but first it was picture time at our traditional spot.  I can’t begin to count the number of pictures we’ve taken in this exact location!

Here are but a few….

Apr 2010

Feb 2011

Aug 2012

Aug 2013 with my Aunt Chris, Uncle Tim, Cousin Bridget and her 6 kids.

Feb 2014 with Nana before our first Disney Cruise

Aug 2014

Back to this year’s trip.  After an afternoon of shopping fun with my girl we boarded a bus back to Disney’s Beach Club Resort.  We had a supper reservation at a new to us restaurant called the Beaches and Cream Soda Shop.   It’s a cute little shop with just 10 tables and 10 more spots at the soda bar.  Reservations are a must although there is a walk up counter for those without a reservation.  Hannah and I hoped to see someone order ‘The Kitchen Sink’ but they didn’t so we’ll have to go back again.

It too a lot of no effort to convince Hannah that tonight’s supper would be nothing but ice cream!!

Oh yes!  We’ll return here another year for sure!

One of the ‘extras’ Hannah enjoys doing to Disney that we don’t often get to do elsewhere is to play mini golf.  We asked and were told that the mini golfing was ‘less than a mile away’ so we set off.  Can I tell you how thankful I was for the stroller that pushed so easily since ‘less than a mile’ was a good hike!  We made it but oh my, with a tummy full of ice cream it was a workout!  Guess it was a good way to wear off some of my peanut butter and chocolate sundae.

The theme of this mini golf location was the movie Fantasia.  Other than one hole that was in a cave, Hannah enjoyed it.  To skip the ‘scary’ hole we walked back from hole 8 to hole 1 and then backwards from 18 to 10. 

I have no idea what our scores were but it would not be wrong to say we were well over 150 each! LOL!

We left mini golfing around 9pm which meant shortly into our walk Hannah was sound asleep.  (I love how safe I feel around Disney and was quite comfortable walking back to the Swan and Dolphin to begin our travels back to our resort.  I learned A LOT about Disney transportation and different routes this trip!!) 

So pretty at night!

This one’s for you Auntie Deb.

We took a boat from the Swan and Dolphin to Disney’s Hollywood Studios  and then a bus back to our resort from there.  My sleepy girl.  We go hard at Disney and one of the reasons we can is because she sleeps when she needs to.  Sweet ice cream dreams my love.

Tomorrow….back to Epcot!