On our third day of Disney, we headed to Epcot!
Aside from the boys’ polos, ,they’re all wearing outfits by Shrimp & Grits Kids. How sweet are they? Plus, add in that they’re super comfy and can be washed/dried no problem, and they’re perfect!
As soon as we arrived, we headed straight to the Test Track ride. We loved this one so much the last time we went, we knew we wanted the boys to experience it. While we had our three Fast Passes to use throughout the day, we wanted to go ahead and get to this ride, as we know it’s super popular and wait times can get long as the day goes on. That way we wouldn’t have to use up one of our Fast Passes so early. It’s a really fun ride. You get to design your car and see how it matches up to others you race against. Vaughn designed this one. Sidenote: If it’s raining, this ride does not run.
Just like last time, it was so fun!
As soon as we finished this ride, we headed over to the Frozen Ever After ride. It’s another one that is known to have longer wait times, so we used our Fast Pass for it. It’s one of the newer rides at Epcot, hence it’s popularity. Plus, it’s Frozen-themed. We loved it! It took the place of the Maelstrom ride and is on the same track as the previous log flume ride.
Frida!
The week we went to Epcot, they were celebrating the Festival of Arts so there was lots of beautiful artwork and flowers throughout the park.
After riding on Mission: Mars (we used another Fast Pass), we headed to a character lunch at Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast at Garden Grill. The food was delicious and filling and the kids obviously loved seeing all of their friends and especially Mickey dressed up in overalls. The restaurant also slowly revolves, so you get to see different settings throughout your meal.
Love this pic of Logan and Dale. Matching gap-toothed grins. 😉
While waiting for our ‘Talk with Crush’ we visited Mr. Ray’s Aquarium and the fish were extremely friendly and swam everywhere. We were surprised. Knowing how much Vaughn loves visiting the Charleston Aquarium, he could’ve stayed in this area all day. They had two manatees, a sea turtle and all kinds of other cool sea animals!
After talking to Crush, we hopped onto the Nemo ride. No wait time at all for this one.
These live statues were so entertaining! They moved just a little and interacted a little too, which the kids got a kick out of!
We met Daisy in Mexico as we were about to embark on our first trip around the world.
Sweet Vaughn taking a breather.
The girls indulging in some yummy treats – frozen ice and funnel cakes! After all, that’s one of the perks of being in Disney World, right?
Met Alice in England.
So along with these red telephone booths in England, they also still have pay phones in Disney World. The kids were mesmerized. They also thought they could dial my number and call me from them. Was really cute!
After making it around the world, we headed to ride on Soarin’ (another Fast Pass and ALWAYS love this one!), Journey to Imagination and then to watch Pixar Movie Shorts. Super cute movies!
Then, one of the more exciting rides for the kids was getting to go on the ride inside the ball, Spaceship Earth. No wait time for this one. Afterward, we headed back to Mexico for dinner. Then, we decided to take one more trip/walk around the world for desserts and a concert.
I know I’ve mentioned it before, but this is the girls’ second time to Disney. They went five years ago and it was just the two of them (the boys stayed home). They had the best time and we did everything girly and princess-themed with them. So this time they knew this trip was geared toward the boys. BUT, one thing they didn’t get to do on their last trip was meet Anna and Elsa. The movie had just come out and the characters weren’t that popular at Epcot yet.
Five years ago, we enjoyed a princess dinner at Akershus Palace and saw that there was a line to get their autographs (they hadn’t built their Sommerhus back in 2014 yet). Well, we told the girls that after dinner we would go and see them and get their autographs. And after dinner, we tried to do just that. But we got halfway through the line (only about seven people were in front of us) and they told us the line was closed and that we’d have to come back. Unfortunately, it was our last night at Disney so we couldn’t come back to visit them. The girls were okay with it, only because we explained that it was just something they could look forward to doing on their next visit…
…well, five years later and here we are! Finally getting to meet Anna and Elsa! And let me tell you, we went in the evening and there wasn’t a single person inside the Sommerhus! We got to slowly explore everything and meet Anna and Elsa at our leisure. Not sure if it was the time of year or what, but we were seriously so surprised that no one was in line.
Okay, I also have to tell you that the funniest thing was that after we met Anna and Elsa, we gave them the boys’ autograph books to sign, since they were still finishing up dinner. When Elsa was signing the boys’ books she insisted on meeting them. So when we were finished with our visit, we ran and got them and told them that they needed to come in and meet them.
Can you tell that the second time we visited them, which was maybe a mere ten minutes, that this was a different Anna? When we walked in just like we did the time before, it was a completely different room. Like a mirror image of the previous room. It was seriously the wildest thing, a different Anna and Elsa and even different photographers. I thought for sure that the girls would notice that the Annas were different people, but they didn’t even bat an eye. Thought they were the same. Cracked me up when we left, but I didn’t say a thing.
As we walked around the world for the second time, we bumped into Snow White and grabbed a quick photo too. For all of our character greets in Epcot, we didn’t have to wait in a single line that day. So nice!
And of course, we enjoyed our sought-after sweet dessert treats.
The kids were so excited that the woman performing shared my name. And they kept repeating it throughout the performance and they giggled every time.
Ashley Brown originated Mary Poppins on Broadway and Josh Strickland is actually from Charleston. What are the odds he was performing on the same night we were there? He originated Tarzan on Broadway. Y’all know how much we love our Broadway performances, so this was especially cool that we got to watch this to end our night in Epcot!
All in all, we enjoyed another amazing day in Disney World! We are just so very thankful that the weather continued to be so clear for us! And we really couldn’t have asked for better weather. It’s another reason we always enjoy visiting this time of year. The lows were in the high 60s and the highs were in the upper 70s. It was perfect! As for what I wore, I wore this comfy tee (only $19.50!), these shorts (on sale for $21.99), these shoes and these sunnies.
Happy Tuesday!
As you use up fast passes, you can get more. The limit is three unused at a time. You can also check local crowd calendars, that rate the crowd sizes of all the parks. This is very useful in planning. The last three weeks of January and first three weeks of February are generally the slowest. If you get the app, you can get fast passes, showtimes, reserve dining, order food and ride wait times there.
We had the app and used it all the time, but didn’t know that about the fast passes. We’ll definitely remember that the next time we go. Thanks!
Was this President’s Day weekend/week? Is this typically a slower time of year (less visitors) at Disney World?
Yes, definitely less visitors. It was the week before President’s Day weekend, but they had Friday off.