Disney 2016, Day 3–Epcot

(Mon, Sep 12, 2016)

We woke ready for another exciting day!  The sun was shining and my little (hiding) princess and I hit the road.  (The picture is a bit fuzzy as it was so humid out that the camera lens immediately fogged up the moment we left the room!  I’d wipe the lens and as fast as I could click the shutter button it had started to fog up again!)

We love the bright cheeriness of Pop Century!  This was our first visit since the children’s splash pool

and bigger pools had been fenced.  The fences were themed beautifully and didn’t alter our view, just our opportunities to swim as now once the lifeguards go off duty the gates are locked and swimming is not allowed.  Sadly this meant we only swam at our resort once the entire trip.

On our way to the bus Hannah recreated this pic for me. 

April 2010, 14 months old.  Awe….  Where does the time go???

Our day at Epcot!

After riding Soarin’ twice (still a GREAT ride and was a walk-on both times for us!) we made our way to Akershus in Norway for breakfast with the princesses.  Belle was at the Magic Kingdom telling stories so Princess Aurora was greeting guests on her behalf.

Hannah and I were both really excited to see that Mulan had taken time out of her busy schedule to attend breakfast!  It’s rare that she’s here so we were so glad to see her!  She is our favourite princess!!  (Wonder why??)Hannah was sporting her warrior face for this picture.

Other princesses in attendance were Ariel,

Cinderella  (love Hannah’s sweet, peaceful face in this pic!)

and Snow White.

On our way to Test Track Hannah took the opportunity to cool off in one of the cooling locations found around the parks. 

Test Track is Hannah’s favourite ride!  Can you tell?

Mickey and friends had moved over to Epcot with us so we took the opportunity to drop in and say hi!

We rode the new Frozen ride and loved it!  After that the lines were short so we popped in for a visit with Anna

and Elsa

One of the changes this trip was the introduction of insect repellant stations due to Zika Virus.  We made use of these often.

Supper that evening was at one of our favourite restaurants, Coral Reef.  It’s not everyday you get to eat below the water level of a huge aquarium! 

How’s this for a table with a view?!

By far the most amazing thing that happened was this massive ray floating down and resting right beside us!!  We’ve eaten here many times and this is the first time we’ve ever seen this beautiful lady let alone had her join us for dinner!  Look how huge she is!

The entire restaurant started talking when she showed up!  We were there for about another 15 minutes and she stayed there for the rest of our visit.

After supper we took time to do an activity that Hannah really enjoys called Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure.  Using our phone we helped Agent P capture a villain first in Mexico and then after that another villain in Germany.  As we would walk through the countries we would be given clues about where to go next and what to do.  Based on where we were and what actions we took with the phone, different things would happen.  In Mexico she sat on the fountain and after keying in a password, looked up to see a volcano erupting across the pavilion.

In Germany she did something and these steins sang her a song!

We had 8 days in the parks which allowed us time to slow down and do some of these activities that we might otherwise skip.  On our next Epcot day we participated is a really fun scavenger hunt!  More on that in another post.

The end of our first great day in Epcot!

Tomorrow – Magic Kingdom and Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue.

Disney 2015 ~ Epcot ~ Day 1

(Mon, Sep 14, 2015)

Monday morning we made our way to Epcot to enjoy another wonderful day together!

We made our way to the Norway Pavilion for breakfast with the princesses.  Akershus is one of our favourite character meals and one we try to fit in most trips.  The girls enjoyed their time with the princesses while our little prince was a little more shy amongst royalty.

Even Trish and I got in some princess fun.  Would the real princess please stand up!

The Princess Parade is always a highlight.  Love how the girls were holding hands by the time they came back to our room.  Awe!!

After breakfast we went next door to the China Pavilion where Hannah was able to meet Mulan.

It always melts my heart to see how Mulan takes extra time to interact with Hannah when she has her Mulan costume on.  She is Hannah’s favrourite princess and she enjoys watching both of her movies.

At this point we headed back to Future World to ride Soarin’, The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride and more.  I was excited to ride Soarin’ as the movie will be replaces to ‘Soarin’ Around the World’ by the time we’re here next year.  It will be neat to see The Great Wall included but I sure hope they keep the music the same.  It is absolutely amazing!!

Next up was a visit with some of our favourite characters.

We enjoyed supper at the Coral Reef restaurant which is another favourite.  From there the girls were begging to go swimming so we left the park after a ride on Spaceship Earth and made our way back to our resort.  Bathing suits….quick!!

After a swim it was a change into pj’s and then we enjoyed the Goofy Movie by the pool.  Watching one of these movies is something we’ve wanted to do so it was fun to check it off our list.  There are a number of new things we hope to do this trip!  At Disney, there is always something new to do and experience! 

Sweet dreams.  Tomorrow Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Disney 2014, Day 8 (Epcot)

(Saturday, September 27, 2014)
Today was a day that Hannah and I shared together as each family did their own thing and went our separate ways.  We were excited to go back to one of our favourite parks, Epcot, and enjoy the rides and shows there!
Knowing that the ride Maelstrom was in it’s final days before being closed to be turned into a ‘Frozen’ ride we secured a FP+ reservation for it.  Hats off to my kiddo who was willing to ride this with Mommy even though the troll in it her was scary.  A snuggle in to mommy and closed eyes helped that.  I was glad to ride it one final time but must say I’m really excited to see what it looks like as a Frozen ride.  I’m just hoping they can extend the length of the ride as I’m sure the wait will be long when it opens!  Time will tell….
Since we were right next to ‘China’ in the International Gateway we went back for a 2nd visit with Mulan.  What a sweet picture this is!  I love their gentle hands holding one another as they shared a sweet time together.
Hannah has always been a kiddo who loves stuffed animals and this trip she took a liking to Duffy the Bear.  As you can see by the sky behind Hannah another storm was on it’s way but we decided to wait for Duffy unless the storm arrived before he did.  I call this one, ‘Princess in Waiting’
Doing the ‘Warrior’ pose with Duffy that Mulan had taught her.
After riding Soarin’
we went to one of our favourite restaurants at Disney, Coral Reef, and dined at a table right next to the aquarium.
A visit with a Goofy guy!
Our final ride of the day was Hannah’s choice – Test Track!!  Here she’s showing you the amazing car she designed!
Within minutes of this picture she asked me to pick her up so that she could ‘rest’ on my shoulder.  If you know my gal this was her code for ‘I’m done and going to sleep now’ and that’s exactly what she did! Since we were so close to the ride I popped her in anticipating her waking up as the ride started moving.  LOL – Nope!  Even though it’s fast, slow, swerving, has flashing lights and loud sounds, she was still out.  It wasn’t until the moment we entered the outdoors in the fast part that she woke up….with a big smile!  (I had been holding Hannah’s head during the ride so that it didn’t flop around and this pic was snapped by the ride cameras at the moment she woke up.)
Sadly we had only one more day in front of us but we were ready to enjoy it to the fullest!  Tomorrow…Magic Kingdom!