Summer Vacation: Disney's Epcot!

Last time we left off we had gone to Magic Kingdom. The next day Epcot was on the agenda! I started the day with a one mile run for the run streak. After the run I headed back to the room for a quick shower, some breakfast, and coffee! I was fixing my cup of coffee when all of a sudden Stephanie's little boy Mason threw up! Uh oh! Not a great way to start out our day at Epcot. Poor Mason threw up a few more times so Stephanie knew Epcot wouldn't happen for them that day. She decided to take Mason to Urgent Care (where he was diagnosed with strep throat) and we took her other two kids, Sydney and Zoë, to Epcot with us for the day. 

We were able to park fairly close to the entrance so we walked to the gate. Our first stop...as it would be for every park that week...was the bathroom! Rehydrating from my runs every morning always caught up to me at the entrance to each park lol! 

We made it through the turnstiles and stopped for the must have picture in front of Spaceship Earth!

I LOVE Epcot!!! It was also Father's Day and since Epcot is Andy's favorite park he was in heaven! One of the best things about Epcot is that a lot of their rides are inside....in air conditioning! So on this day we didn't get quite as hot as we did on the other days and that was nice.

Our first ride was Spaceship Earth in Future World East! And the line was super short...maybe 5 minutes! (Yeah I was that annoying person who held up the line for a few seconds for a quick photo)

After Spaceship Earth we headed straight to Future World West to grab fast passes for Soarin'. This is one of the most popular rides at Epcot and fast passes go quick! I think our fast pass time was already around 2:30...and it was only about 9:15 in the morning!

From there we headed to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends! This was Sawyer's favorite ride when we were there two years ago...and I think this year it was still one of his favorites! It's so cool to see the aquarium with all the fish, sea turtles, and sting rays after this ride.

And of course we searched for the Hidden Mickey that we knew was located in the aquarium!

We also saw some manatees...and for some reason I didn't take a picture of them! :-( It was neat to see how big they were. All the ones there had been rescued. And there was some "brown stuff" floating in the water...leave it to the kids to ask the cast member if it really was manatee poop!!! Lol!

You can't leave the aquarium without visiting Bruce, Anchor and Chum!

As we were leaving we stopped to see a display about sea turtles. A cast member came over to us and explained all about baby sea turtles and how they hatch out of their eggs. As you can see from the photo the kids were in awe!

We headed back outside and stopped for one more picture in front of Nemo and his friends!

After Nemo, we went and rode Living with the Land. I knew the kids would love seeing all the greenhouses and the nine pound lemons and Mickey shaped pumpkins! I loved listening to them naming everything they were seeing!

We stopped for lunch at the Electric Umbrella in Future World East. We were all hungry! I ate an awesome Angus burger! I needed those carbs for walking around the park.

After lunch we headed to Ellen's Energy Adventure. This is a ride I had never done before. But I love Ellen so figured I'd like this ride even though it was 45 minutes long! It started out in a huge room with 3 huge movie screens on one wall. The screens had Ellen talking and basically the ride was her wanting to be a Jeopardy contestant but she had to learn a few things about energy first by going back through time. You then sat in seats that moved you through different rooms with different things. The dinosaur part was the absolute best part of the ride! We loved it!

Pictures outside Universe of Energy where the Ellen ride was!

After this ride we headed to Test Track. To our disappointment it had been closed due to technical difficulties. Supposedly the ride kept shutting itself down. We checked back later but it still hadn't opened back up. I was sad the boys didn't get to ride this one...I think they would have loved it!

We decided to head toward World Showcase. On the way we saw Duffy the Disney Bear! The line was super short and the kids all wanted to stop.

We walked through Mexico and made it to Norway. I love how Epcot decorates the World Showcase and makes each country feel real! This is where we stopped to ride Maelstrom. This was the ride we waited the longest for...about 20 minutes. We always love this ride and afterwards the kids wanted to ride it again!

It was almost our Fast Pass time for Soarin' so we headed back towards Future World. There wasn't much left to see in the World Showcase for the kids...although us adults would have liked to explore more! We stopped by the jumping water and the kids LOVED it! They couldn't understand how the water was jumping! And yes...they got soaked trying to catch the water! So fun!

Finally it was time to ride Soarin'! Everyone was super excited! And of course it did not disappoint! It was Sawyer's first time riding this one and he loved it!

All buckled up and ready to Soar!

We then headed to Epcot Character Spot to meet Mickey and his friends! Surprisingly, we had no wait!

This was so funny! Pluto's ear kept getting in front of Sawyer's face! He tried to move it several times but it didn't work lol!

I had to have a picture with Minnie...my favorite! I of course told her that I was running her 10K in January and she got super excited! :-)

After meeting the characters it was time for some ice cream! My absolute favorite is the Mickey's Ice Cream Bar! So good!

All the kids made a mess with their ice cream but Sydney had it ALL over her face! I had to take a picture and she hammed it up for me!

After ice cream we went and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends again. And of course we looked at the fish again!

Then we decided to call it a day. It was almost dinner time and there were rain clouds in the sky. We headed out...but stopped one more time to ride Spaceship Earth! :-)

We had an awesome day in Epcot! The teacher in me loves this park because with every ride you learn something!

Stay tuned...our day in Legoland is next! :-)

QOTD: What is your favorite ride and/or restaurant in Epcot? Any must haves that we didn't do?

Summer Vacation: Disney's Magic Kingdom!

Get ready for tons of pictures! As I mentioned yesterday, the first day in Disney we decided to head to Magic Kingdom! This park is my absolute favorite! There is just something about it...it really feels magical! Since we weren't staying on Disney property we had to drive each day to the parks. It wasn't a huge deal...it only took a few minutes to get there. But $15 parking fees each day added up to be almost as much as a park ticket! Holy moly!

Parking was the only inconvenience we had at Disney. It is just a pain to park and then trek all the way through the parking lot in the hot sun to get to the main gate. When you stay on property they drop you off close to the main gate. What's more walking though right? ;-)

In Magic Kingdom you can't just park and walk to the main gate. Instead you park at the Ticket and Transportation center. Then you choose to ride the ferry boat across Seven Seas Lagoon or the monorail. We always like riding these two...the boys think it's just another ride! This trip we chose to ride the ferry boat! If you have younger kids with strollers...the ferry is great because you don't have to fold up your stroller (which you sometimes have to do on the monorail if it's crowded).

Riding the ferry boat also gives you great views of Cinderella's castle and Space Mountain!

Once you get off the ferry you head to the main gate where you have to get your bag checked and then enter with your ticket. Then you head to Main Street, U.S.A. for that must have picture in front of Cinderella's castle!

Sawyer also got his beloved Mickey balloon from Grandma! When we came to Disney two years ago he wanted a balloon so bad! We never ended up getting him one and he was so devastated. So Grandma made sure to get him his balloon first thing! He was a happy camper!

Next, we headed to Tomorrowland so we could grab fast passes for Space Mountain. We grabbed the passes and then hopped on the ride because the wait was only 10 minutes! It was Hayden's first time on Space Mountain and he LOVED it!

Stephanie doesn't like the roller coasters but I LOVE them! And so does my hubby! So I promised Stephanie I would take her little girl Sydney on all the roller coasters while we were at Disney because Sydney loves them too. We actually ended up kid swapping a ton this trip! My two boys and Stephanie's two girls had to pick one adult to ride with for almost each ride. They picked from me, my hubby Andy, Andy's mom, and Andy's dad. Stephanie rode the rides with her son Mason. And when we rode rides that the younger kids couldn't ride Stephanie stayed with them while we rode...because usually it was a ride she didn't want to ride anyway. It worked out great!

We were able to ride Space Mountain back to back because our fast pass time wasn't long after we got them. It was awesome!

Then we headed to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin! This is a favorite for all my boys! We ended up riding it that morning and then again later that afternoon!

I can't ever get a good picture of Buzz in the line for this ride! His face always looks like a glowing blob!

Zoë and I rode Buzz's ride together! I tried to get a picture of the picture they took of us during the ride but it didn't show up very well.

We then headed towards Fantasyland! First we stopped so everyone could ride Mad Tea Party...except me. I don't like the spinning within spinning rides. But I spotted Alice and got in line to see her...until she left to go get "water." Yep...I was the next one in line to see her and she left! :-( Everyone was finished riding so I left...without seeing Alice.

We made it to Storybook Circus (where Mickey's Toontown Fair used to be) and got in line for Dumbo the  Flying Elephant! I was happy to see that there was an air conditioned waiting area here as well as two of the rides instead of the former one. Our wait time...about 5 minutes! :-)

And you can't leave Storybook Circus without riding the junior roller coaster...The Barnstormer! Everyone enjoyed this one...even Stephanie! :-)

We then ventured to Frontierland to grab fast passes for Splash Mountain. Then we headed to find some lunch because everyone was starving! We ended up going back to Fantasyland and eating at Pinocchio Village Haus. I wish I had taken a picture of my lunch. I got the Chicken Caesar Salad and it was soo good! After lunch we went right next door to ride "it's a small world!" The wait time was only about 10 minutes!

Short little video of us all riding "it's a small world!"  Sorry it's so dark...I forgot to turn the flash on for the video! I love the way Andy was swaying back and forth to the music at the beginning of the video. We were just happy to be in some air conditioning!!! 

Next was Liberty Square to ride the Haunted Mansion! Wait time was only 10 minutes! Sawyer had been wanting to ride this one since we got there. But once we got inside and he heard the spooky voice talking he got a tiny bit scared!

Then we headed to Adventureland for Pirates of the Caribbean! Again the wait time was only 10 minutes!

Next we crossed over to Frontierland to get in line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. While we were waiting (the wait time was around 20 minutes) it started pouring down rain! We crossed our fingers they wouldn't shut down the ride before we got to ride it. We got lucky! We got to ride...in the rain! It made a very different experience riding a roller coaster with rain pouring down on you! But it was a blast!!!

After that we got in line for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room! Hayden and Sydney were super excited about this one because they learned the song in music at school. And believe it or not...I had never done this one! We all loved the singing birds and singing flowers! So cool! And we sang the song for the rest of the week lol!

All the kids loved the misting tikis after the ride!

It was time for our fast pass for Splash Mountain...but they shut down on the outside rides because of the thunderstorm. We had some very disappointed children! And me too! ;-)

It was raining but we kept walking through the park. We were all soaked already anyway! We headed to the new Fantasyland area called the Enchanted Forest!

The Beast's Castle! This is also where the new Be Our Guest restaurant is...which I hope to try next time!

And here's Ariel's World!!!

We got in line (about 20 minutes wait time) for Under the Sea- Journey of The Little Mermaid. I was super excited about this one because it is brand new! As always...Disney outdid themselves with the directions! The waiting area and ride was decorated to the tee as if you were underwater! We loved it!

For the ride you sat in shell seats! I took a ton of pictures during the ride because Sawyer kept telling me, "Momma, take a picture of that!" :-)

After Ariel's ride we checked to see if Splash Mountain had reopened but no luck. The kids wanted to ride the Prince Charming Regal Carousel so we did! I snapped a picture of Cinderella's castle while we waited in the 5 minute line.

We headed back to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin again. And then we did the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Show...which is hilarious if you've never seen it! After that we decided to call it a night. The thunderstorms weren't letting up and they weren't reopening the outside rides so we headed out to grab some dinner.

But first we stopped and took a few last pictures!

If you made it this far through this post...congratulations! And thanks for reading about our day in Magic Kingdom! We really had a magical day!

Stay tuned for our day at Epcot!

QOTD: What's your favorite ride, restaurant, etc. in Magic Kingdom?