1st Park Day - Epcot!
Overnight we had a pretty bad scare with DS. He’s 4, but at home he still has a toddler rail on his big boy bed to keep him from rolling out. We thought with the queen size bed he would have enough room to be fine, but somehow he managed to launch himself off of his bed and hit his head on the side of ours! This happened around midnight, and we were really scared he might have a concussion. He cried right away though, and after we got him to calm down a bit we did some concussion tests (like to see if he could follow things with his eyes, if he could count to ten forward and back, and if he could walk in a straight line) and he did OK. We pushed his bed up against the wall and decided I should sleep on the other side of him just to be on the safe side. This proved a good idea as at one point I woke up to find him draped horizontally across of me about to fling himself off the bed again. I don’t know what he dreams about but if I were him I would wake up exhausted!
Anyway, we got up at our usual time of 7:30, had breakfast at the Mara and got on a bus for Epcot around 8:30. I think I might have taken a pic of DS’s Mickey waffles but y’all have seen those before so I’ll spare you! I got the bounty platter and it was pretty blah. The best breakfast I had there was the breakfast flatbread a few days later.
We got to Epcot just before RD and waited with the big crowd heading to Soarin’. Since I’m pregnant and DS had a health scare a week before our trip, neither of us could go on thrill rides so Test Track was out. As we followed the crowds, DH said nervously, “are we going where they’re going?” I just grinned and pulled him to the left, where we joined exactly one other family (who happened to be on the same AKL bus as us!) on the first Figment ride of the day.
Now, Figment gets a lot of grief on these forums. The old version was better, the character is annoying, yada yada yada. But now it’s time for another
Unpopular Opinion! Because we loved Figment! What’s not to love? Former Monty Python castmember Eric Idle, good. Charming mischievous dragon, good. Catchy song about using the imagination, good! Am I missing something?
We were dumped out into the nearly empty Imagination Pavilion and let DS explore for awhile.
He would have happily stayed here all day but we had our first FP to get to: Soarin! And here is the part where I forgot to take anymore pictures until lunch. TR Fail! But I'll try to keep the text brief. The line at Soarin' had already reached 90 minutes. We got in the FP line and still waited a little while, probably about 15 before we were finally lined up in our rows. And we got Row 1! I was so excited we lucked out for our first-ever ride. Of course, this would prove a problem later, as DS never wanted to be in any row other than Row 1 once he'd tasted the high life. We all loved Soarin' and DS would later declare it his favorite ride in all of WDW. For DH it's #1 or maybe tied with Pirates of the Caribbean. I was so glad we got to see it before the refurbishment. One cute story: my husband's sister lives in California. So in line DS kept asking, are we going to see Aunty ____? When we saw her for New Years a few days later he immediately had to tell her all about his adventure flying over her home state.
When we got off Soarin' the standby time had ballooned to 120 minutes. We headed over to Living with the Land, which both of my guys also enjoyed. At this point, DH was so impressed with the educational aspect of Epcot that he declared it his favorite park! He said, "I didn't know Disney could be like this too." Yes, readers, my Disney Grinch's heart grew 3 sizes that day. It was truly a Christmas miracle.
We stopped for a potty break and I noticed that the wait for Soarin' was now 180 minutes! I thought maybe one of the theaters had gone down, but it could also have just been the Xmas week crowds. We were glad to be moving on. We headed to our next FP for Spaceship Earth. I think the standby was posted at 35 minutes, but we waited in the FP line for at least 15 so it must have been longer than that (it certainly looked longer). I rode with DS who of course was more interested in the touch screen than the scenery. Luckily they shut it off after the beginning so he was forced to actually look around. I let him make all of our future selections and we ended up in an eco house riding everywhere on bikes. Kid, jetpacks are the only way to go!
Like many parents we hardly ever actually get to go see movies in the theater so we recently only caught Tomorrowland onDemand. I thought it was charming! And jetpacks! DS has recently been mourning the realization that humans can't fly without planes or rocketships. Someday, kiddo. Someday.
Our next FP was for Nemo but it was down. A quick scan of the workers trying to fix it didn't look too optimistic. We got in line for Turtle Talk with Crush instead, and I guess the last show had just been let in because we waited at least 20 minutes. Finally we were let in but DS opted to sit in the front row bench with us rather than join the other kids on the carpet. Crush answered a lot of kids questions, and I thought DS would be missed since he wasn't on the carpet. But then Crush called on DS! I said, do you know what question you want to ask Crush? DS nodded confidently: I've got this Mom. And then he said:
"In the morning when I wake up I like to get my toys in my room and then I play with them." Not exactly a question. There was a pause. Then Crush swam back behind the coral and produced a Buzz Lightyear toy! He asked DS what he should do with it and DS said, "You should play with it!" Everyone laughed at that. The technology behind this attraction (and Town Square Mickey, which I'll report on later!) is just so cool. All the kids left saying Duuude.
When we got off Nemo was still down. I looked over and those clamshells weren't moving anywhere. Duuude. We decided to explore the aquariums a bit. The manatees were enjoying their lettuce lunch. DS refused to get in Bruce's mouth for a photo, but he was willing to pose in front of the hammerhead guy. Finally it was time for our lunch ADR at Coral Reef. Unfortunately, the Force was still not with us when it came to getting a window table, and we were seated as far from the aquarium as possible. But we were too hungry to really care. The waiter informed us that we couldn't substitute soups or apps for desserts here, but DH could get a latte after the meal. We ordered appetizers anyway. Here's the octopus:
We ordered 2 because DS is an octopus fiend and that was the only way we would get a single bite. I no longer see my lunch entree on the menu. I had seafood pasta with really plump and perfectly cooked shrimp, scallops and mussels. DS had the kid's roasted pork tenderloin and he loved it. And I think DH had the Mahi Mahi.
Coral Reef has gotten unenthusiastic reviews, but we thought our meal was great! Everything was fresh and well-cooked. For dessert we got the Vanilla Panna Cotta with Key Lime, DS got the kid's strawberry skewers with yogurt, and DH got the aforementioned latte. All were delicious, and the tarte is probably one of the best desserts we had during our trip.
I would definitely come back to Coral Reef, and maybe make our ADR for 30 minutes before we really wanted to be seated so that we could do the extra wait for an aquarium-side table. It's tricky because there are so many restaurants in World Showcase I want to try, but our meal here was so good that DH is already a big fan and will probably want to repeat it. I checked
MDE on my phone and it said Finding Nemo was up! Before they could change their minds we hustled over there. The FP line before the first FP tapstiles was long, with 2+ hours of backed up FP riders trying to get on, but it moved quickly. The standby queue had already built up to 45 minutes! People often question whether Nemo is worth the FP, but in this case it definitely was. I timed it and we were in our clamshell in 11 minutes.
After our journey through the BIG, BLUE WORRLLLDD we headed to MouseGears to get DS his only requested souvenir of the trip, his very first pair of Mouse Ears! We got them embroidered with his name, and while we waited I sped him over to the front to try to get some PP shots in front of the big ball. We also saw a Pluto meet with a super short line so we hopped in it and were giving Pluto hugs in about five minutes. At this point it was waaaaay past DS's nap time, like 2:45 I think. We picked up DS's ears and just for fun I checked the wait times on MDE. Soarin was at 210 minutes, and Figment was at 45! We were happy to be heading out to take a break. We had a bit of a wait for a bus, about 15 or 20 minutes I think. Soon we were headed back home to AKL!
Up Next: DHS evening with Minnie's Holiday Dine!
