Park Day Seven: Epcot (cont’d)
On our way back past Italy, we saw a PP photographer with no one waiting.
As you can tell, we were a bit sweaty and windswept.
In Germany, we headed straight to find kidcot station and the pressed penny machine. We were making our way toward a 3:10 concert. During our visit, the band at the Germany was Groovin’ Alps, who play on a variety of unusual instruments including using ladders and wooded spoons. We decided to use the band photo as our picture for the country as well.
We were all getting a little hungry and, if you’re in Epcot on the
DDP, a stop at Karamell-Kuche is mandatory, right? The line wasn’t quite to the door, and it was moving, so we decided to go for it. About ten minutes later, we picked six snacks between the five of us, including a caramel apple, popcorn, and several of the candies with chocolates and nuts. From there, Hubby took the girls to try to find a table while I went to use one of our snack credits at Sommerfest on the Nudel Gratin. Despite the line looking short, it was another ten minutes to get that food as well. In the interim, Hubby had found a seat at the picnic tables out by the lagoon. While I was ordering, the kids tried the caramel apple and decided it was too chewy (they were wrong, it was delicious!). The girls worked on the mac and cheese while I sampled the sweets. I think the milk chocolate caramel with sea salt was my favorite, but it was all incredible. I love caramel that is super soft and rich, so it was just my style.
We packed up and continued around to our next show of the day.
We saw the 4:10 performance of the Chinese acrobats and it was much thicker crowds than anything we’d done so far. I don’t know if they are extra popular, or if it’s just that more people make it from Future World down to WS as the day goes on, but it was tight. After an impressive show, we grabbed a photo and visited the kidcot station.
On our way out, we did a little souvenir shopping. At recommendations from Dis (I’m pretty sure
@StarWarsMomofGirls! suggested it), each of the girls picked out a parasol and the CMs then wrote their names in Chinese on them. There was a bit of a headache as the last one in the color that C picked had a hole in it. The CMs had to go to another area in the pavilion to get additional supplies before they could make hers. Rather than carting it around, we had it sent to the giftshop by the IG entrance to pick up on our way out. On our way in that day, we had stopped in that shop to press a penny and ended up picking out a Christmas ornament, so that would make two packages waiting for us upon our departure.
It was 4:37 and our FP window was open, so we continued our travels. Our original plan at this time was pretty tight. We were going to try to leave China immediately following the 4:10 acrobat show, visit Anna and Elsa, ride FEA on our 4:30 FP, and make it to a 5:25 Akershus reservation. With the ADR out of the way, we instead opted to visit the prettiest bathrooms in Epcot and hang around a bit for the Vikings’ next set at 5pm.
Initially, the girls were in no way interested in this picture. I don’t think they knew what Vikings were so, when a dude came out in armor and I encouraged them to go pose for a picture, they were skeptical. If you look carefully at the picture, you can see that, while the acquiesced, they still didn’t get particularly close for their shot.
From there, we tapped into our FP and were riding along about 10 minutes later.
I love this photo because none of the kids are sure about what’s going on. For an animatronic dark ride about a child’s movie, this has a surprising kick! After enjoying the ride, we found the kidcot station and pressed penny machine. Then, we obviously had to meet the royal ladies of Arendelle themselves. On the way, we bumped into their topiaries first. When we stopped to take pictures, the girls were initially worried. They thought, when I said we were going to meet Anna and Elsa, that I was talking about the display! Upon reassuring them that we were going to meet actual princesses, not just plants, they wanted to pose like the topiaries.
We got into line at 5:24pm with a 35 minute posted wait. The Royal Sommerhus was really cool, with lots of interesting details, but the girls were too tired to take much of it in. I had booked throwaway tier 2 FPs earlier in the day, so I was able to pick up 6pm and 6:25pm Soarin’ in the FEA line. I brought it up to everyone and the girls vetoed that suggestion. A wanted to ride Test Track again, B wanted another go on FEA, and C landed on TT as well after some back and forth. After not much refreshing, I had the FPs lined up as follows: FEA 7:35 Hubby and B, TT 7:45 A and I, TT 7:50 for C. I tried a bit to get Cs earlier, but eventually gave up when the kids started getting whiney about the wait. I wanted a little more lead time to get us through TT and back to a spot to watch Illuminations, but I figured that Hubby and B would finish up in plenty of time to get us a good spot even if A, C and I were sneaking in at the last minute. FPs figured out, we still had a little while to kill before our meet. Thank goodness for our character encyclopedia, as it once again kept not only our crew but a good chunk of the line entertained until it was time for our meet.
Anna saw the girls’ dresses and asked if they were coming to Arendelle for a ball, which quickly turned into dancing lessons. I believe they were doing The Reindeer.
When we switched over to Elsa, she started talking about how hard it is to dance with Olaf because he has to remember to keep his nose in. Both sisters were incredibly charming and fun to meet, well worth the wait. When we entered the line, it was posted at 35 minutes and took us just under 30 to get through. When we were done, Hubby took the girls to the bathroom and I grabbed a few more treats for us to share.
The school bread wasn’t nearly as sweet as I was expecting. It was denser and with spices that would make it a good contender for an Epcot breakfast, especially if one’s RD goals included FEA and the meet & greet. The troll horn was more what I was expecting, fluffy and sugary. The girls liked both, but neither was a favorite.
The next stop on our country tour was the only pavilion we had already visited. One our first Epcot day, we had already enjoyed the Gran Fiesta Tour, pressed a penny, and visited kidcot. Since we now had to fit in dinner and FPs before Illuminations, we opted to just get a quick picture and keep going.
Between Mexico and Canada, there were a few topiaries that the girls wanted pictures with, so we stopped for a photoshoot.
At this point, our country tour became focused on just getting our pennies, pictures, and passport stamps and moving on. The last two pavilions didn’t have any specific entertainment we were trying to see and it was clear that the girls were going to hit a wall soon. They had crossed over into goofy exhaustion, where they start to get extra squirmy and have trouble focusing on what we’re actually trying to do. They would ask for pictures with something, but then couldn’t stand still and smile at the camera long enough for us to take them.
Case in point: we took the bear picture right on the way into Canada which I figured would count for our country picture. We had to search a bit for the pressed penny machine and, upon finding the totem, the girls immediately requested another photo. Over a dozen pictures later, that’s the closest I have to them all smiling for the camera.
In the UK, we went for the classic phone booth photo to finish out the night…
… but the girls requested another in front of a fountain.
They were being so goofy that they nearly all went tumbling down. Miraculously, they managed to catch themselves before they fell in, but I officially shut down the shoot at that point. Another woman there even said she was impressed because she though that was ending with at least one kid falling in the fountain.
We completed the full country sweep at 6:50pm and stopped by the hedge maze to regroup. While the girls ran through the maze a half dozen times, Hubby and I worked out the action plan. We would get QS dinner, split up for our respective rides, and meet back up on the bridge between the UK and France to watch Illuminations. After offering up food options for the kids, we ended up with a repeat of our first night’s dinner. I stayed in the UK to get fish and chips for the girls while Hubby went ahead to Mexico to get another order of nachos and a margarita. At 7:10pm, we were back eating at La Cantina and everything was as delicious as we remembered.
After eating, I took A and C over to Test Track while Hubby finished up the nachos with B. Since we had a longer walk and a longer ride, I needed to get moving but he had a little time to relax. Of course, B said she had a bathroom emergency immediately after we left, so he had to chug the remaining margarita and take her into the pavilion to use the restaurant bathrooms. They then rode FEA, picked up an order of churros, watched some of the rock band in the UK, and found a spot on the bridge to wait for the fireworks.
Meanwhile, I left Mexico using the cut through past the Odyssey building so that we could all have a bathroom break before the ride. We continued over to TT and the CM let us tap in at 7:42. A and I were in the grace period for our FPs, but they could have made C wait a few minutes for her FP if they wanted to be sticklers about it. The FP wait was much more manageable this time and we were quickly being assigned to our design stations.
The girls each wanted to design their own cars, so I asked the CM about it. He said that he’d assign us to one spot but, if there were stations open once everyone filled in, we could go ahead and spread out. Luckily, there were a few slots left at the end, so each of the girls started designing a vehicle while I tried to pop back and forth reading the directions to them.
I wish I could show you the lovely cars they designed, but such is not the case. With about 90 seconds to go in the design room, A said she had to go to the bathroom. I asked if she could wait, especially considering we had JUST GONE on the way over, but she said it was an emergency. She started doing the squirming-kid-pee-dance while I looked for a CM or a way out. The doors at the end of the room don’t have any handles to open them, so I told her we’d at least have to wait to be let out. The small scene we were making (“But I can’t wait, Mommy!” “You just went ten minutes ago, you can wait another minute.”) finally attracted the attention of a CM who said we could just push the doors to exit. (Seriously, how dumb am I? Just push the door! You don’t need a door knob to push!).
We walked straight through to the next CM in the line and I asked him for the emergency pee exit. After chuckling and telling me he’d never heard it called that before, he showed me a door behind him and explained how to get to the closest bathrooms. I asked if they’d let us tap our FP again, but he said that we could come right back to this door and he could let us back into that spot in line. It wasn’t all that confusing: we went left out of the emergency exit and followed a path that lead us back to the TT entrance, then straight ahead to the bathrooms. What’s funny is that, while the path was easy to find on the way back, it would never draw your eye if you weren’t looking for it. After a very quick bathroom break, we were back in line and ready to ride.
We were off the ride at 8:10 and headed back into the World Showcase. We found Hubby and B at 8:30pm at a great spot right on the bridge between the UK and France. Since there was time, I snuck down to L’Artisan des Glaces for a treat. Surprisingly, I was the only one who wanted to try to macaron sandwich. Hubby picked a flavor and I let the girls pick two to share between the three of them. There are no trays at this location, so walking things back was moderately perilous, but it was so worth it. The gelato was delicious and it helped the girls stay awake while passing the time waiting for the show to start.
With maybe 5 minutes to go, I remembered that I had Disney glow bracelets with princess beads that I’d found at the dollar store. Of course, the packaging nearly impossible to open so Hubby and I ended up handing them out right as the show was starting. Illuminations is so gorgeous, and we had an awesome view from the bridge. I know that spot can be hit-or-miss depending on how the wind is that day, but it was absolutely perfect for us to see the show and then quickly head out the IG back to our resort.
We stopped to get our packages on the way (I was honestly proud that I remembered, as tired as we were) and the girls were asleep in the stroller before we even made it to the exit. Rather than waking them up for showers, we opted to put them to bed in their dirty clothes and just let them clean up in the morning.
We had a wonderful day in Epcot and I think this was the perfect day in the trip for a late park entrance and a lower key tour around the lagoon. After days of heavy crowds and waiting in lines, waking up late, watching a bunch of shows, and trying lots of snacks was the right way for us to rejuvenate a little. We visited 11 countries, tried 20 snacks, met 4 characters, saw 7 shows, rode 1 family and 2 divide-and-concur rides, picked pearls, and enjoyed a classic nighttime spectacular.
