Epic Epcot

On Monday morning we slept in a bit more and told the kids they needed to stay in bed until 7am, an hour longer than normal, due to us staying up late almost every night.  Besides since the park opened at 9am we didn't plan to leave until 8 and we didn't want the kids to get restless in the camper.  Yesterday I talked about how we used touring plans and how some days it worked really well, unfortunately Epcot was not one of those days.  I don't know if it was because we didn't get there early enough (we didn't leave until closer to 8:30) or if we didn't take the most direct route to the rides, but the wait for Soarin' was supposed to be 8 minutes and it was posted as 60 when Jason and Jeff walked up.  It ended up being about 30, but we weren't getting off to a very good start to the day.  Before their Soarin' adventure we all started off with the Seas with Nemo, a retelling of the finding Nemo story, that Jeff found pretty uninspiring.  Elizabeth and I explored the rest of the aquarium while Jeff and Jason went to Soarin' and since the wait ended up being so long they had to rush to use their FP+ for Test Track.  Jason really loved making his own car (the red one with stars) and riding around the track.

 

 

While the boys were occupied Elizabeth and I saw Crush from Finding Nemo (are you sensing a theme here?) talk to the kids.  After we finished up there we headed over to the land pavilion and rode Living with the Land.  Elizabeth was much more interested that we were riding on a boat then any environmental education.




When we were all done with all of our activities we met up to see Lightning McQueen's playground, checked out a shop and decided to head back to the camper.  I felt a little bad for Elizabeth because she didn't get to do anything really fun for her that morning, but, oh boy, did we have plans for her that afternoon!

 

While we were resting Jeff called up the roadside assistance for our camper to get the slide worked on that I wrote about here.  He had to go through a bunch of levels to get the right person coming to help us.  When he finally did get someone out to us they were able to force the slide in and out, but the gear really wasn't working right.  The repair man could order the right parts, but we opted to just have the guy help us shove it back in and take it to Dallas to get fixed.  So Jeff scheduled him to come back on Saturday to help us get set up to leave.  Unfortunately the repair man didn't show up until after the kids had woken from their nap so the kids and I took the bus to Epcot and left Jeff to catch up with us later.

The bus took quite a while to get there, but when finally did get to Epcot we started with the world showcase  since we had done most of the things in future land.  We tried the Agent P's spy adventure thing, but I think at 5 and 3 my kids just weren't mature enough to listen to all those directions.  We started in Mexico and they really loved the boat ride with the three Caballeros.   Next we headed to Norway to give Maelstrom a try.  The line was pretty long, but I think the kids enjoyed it when we got through everything.  Jason was funny, he was pretty confused by the fact that we were "traveling to other countries" but still staying in Disney World in Florida.  This trip we worked a lot with him on what was pretend and what was real.  We had to rush from Maelstrom to get ready for our dinner with the Princesses!!!





Cinderella came up behind Elizabeth and let her help lead the Princess Parade around the room.  Then she spent so much time talking to her at our table, Elizabeth was in heaven!







We also got to meet Aurora, Belle, Ariel, and Snow White.  We were so lucky! 













After dinner we continued around the world showcase.  Jason was especially impressed with the train display!  Before we left I debated so hard on what strollers to bring.  We have a single BOB revolution, umbrella strollers, Ergo carriers, and a double bike trailer that can be converted into a stroller.  There are benefits and detriments to each of these and I was so indecisive that I convinced Jeff to bring the BOB, Ergos and the Bike Trailer.  The plan had originally been to have one kid in the BOB and the other one walk, but as the week progressed we found it easier to put one kid in the BOB the right way and have them move their feet and have the other kid sit in the foot well.  The one day we did use the bike trailer was when I took the kids to Epcot.  I wanted a place for each of them to be strapped in.  What actually happened is that they switched off who got to walk and who got to ride between each country.



When Elizabeth was out she treated us and many other guests to her performance of "Let it Go" from Frozen.












Finally Daddy finished with the camper and was able to join us for the last bit of the world showcase and the firework show.  We didn't get time to do Spaceship Earth or see much of some of the countries.  I think ever time I go to Epcot I start on the Mexico side  and always miss seeing Canada, UK and France.  Next time I go, which will probably not be very soon, remind me to start on the other side.  Before we knew it, another day was over and tomorrow we would visit Magic Kingdom!

first park: Animal Kingdom

EEEK! We were finally here, ready for our first day!  During our planning I used the Unofficial Disney World Guide and the Touring Plans website to schedule what we were going to do each day.  Some parks it worked really well in and some it didn't.  Animal Kingdom it did and we got a lot done quickly.



We started off heading to a dinosaur style spin ride that is similar to Dumbo.  We wanted to start with something fun for the kiddos.  Next up we had a Fast Pass Plus (FP+) for Expedition Everest, one of the newest rides in the parks.  Jason was so excited about this ride even though I made it clear to him that he was too short to ride it.  Jeff and I took turns riding it and were quizzed after we finished by Jason.  Next it was off to Kilimanjaro Safari to see some wild animals!








While we were on Safari we saw some storks, I didn't get a picture, but Elizabeth called out "Those are the ones that bring the babies!" and cracked up the entire bus.





After we finished with the Safari we hopped on a train to go to the petting area.  We were a little disappointed that most of the animals seemed to be in the "rest" area, but the kiddos did find a few to love on



After washing our hands well we rode the train back to the main park.  Jeff and Jason headed over to Kali River Rapids while Elizabeth and I watched a show on birds.  Elizabeth was more interested in climbing on the bleachers, but it was something to do rather than just wait for the boys.  They finished just about the same time we did, except Jason needed to change his clothes because he got soaked on the ride!   He loved it though and at the end of the day proclaimed it his favorite ride.



For lunch I had a special surprise planned.  We were going to Tusker House to have lunch with some great friends!  The kids were so amazed to see Mickey, Daisy, Donald and Goofy at lunch I think they almost forgot to eat.  They kept watch to see who would come over next.  We did learn an important tip to keep the kids on the outside so they could easily get to the characters.

















By the end if the lunch Elizabeth was tuckered out so she decided not to participate in the parade around the restaurant.  Jason was thrilled to march behind Goofy.





After lunch we left the park to go back to our camper and rest.  We did this every day and it was such a good idea even though it took a chunk out of our day.  We got out of the sun, some of us slept, but all of us got a good rest.   When we got back to the park we headed over to the Finding Nemo play.  At first I was a little concerned about how the kids would behave and if the actors playing fish would be too distracting, but it ended up being amazing.  The kids did well and Elizabeth absolutely loved it.



After the show we were heading over for a potty break (very important to remember!) and saw that Pooh and Tigger were right next door with almost no wait posted.  When we got down there we were the only ones there and got to spend so much time with them and get quite a few photos





Next we headed into the tree of life to see "A Bug's Life"  Originally I wasn't planning on that because I knew it could be scary for kids, but Jeff really loves it, so we went.  The kids hated it!  They didn't like the grasshopper bad guy, they didn't like the special effects, and they really didn't like the bugs crawling under their bottoms!  Jason was shaking and clinging to Jeff most of the time and Elizabeth kept quietly saying "protect me Mommy", at least they didn't start screaming.  Since we had done most of the things we wanted to do I took the kids over to the playground area and Jeff did a ride the kids were too small for then we switched.  We were letting the kids finish up when Jeff texted me to come across the "big bridge" where we found a large bone dig.  As Jason's t-ball team mates can attest, he loves nothing more than digging in the dirt.  So we ended the day on a good note and headed back to the camper to get some rest for our next big day.




Check back tomorrow to hear about our day at Epcot!

Driving To Disney

Since I have tons to say about our trip to Disney I am breaking our vacation tales into a couple of posts. Today I'll cover our trip to Disney, what worked for us with our 5 and 3 year old. 
We left on Friday morning by 5:30.  We had our car and camper all packed up and organized the night before.  It didn't stay organized for very long, but at least it started that way.  I had small gifts to give to the kids at each big city.  We had things like coloring books, travel games, invisible ink books, play dough in balloons to avoid making a mess, and quite a few other things.  I let each kid pick out a few movies to watch on the built in DVD player and they picked out their own bag of toys to play with along the way.  Along with bags of snacks and water for everyone to keep us happy campers.  I made us our own trail mix because I hate when you get the cheep chocolate pieces in store bought trail mix. 

Like I said we started very early in the morning and just threw the kids in with PJs on.  We didn't have any delusions that they would go back to sleep, but we figured it would keep them more comfortable. The first thing I gave them was the cookie sheet covered with black board paper, some magnetic letters, and chalk.  They each had suction cup shower containers to hold random things like chalk and crayons, but because of how big Elizabeth's seat is and how short her arms are she couldn't get to it.  The first day passed quickly interchanging toys, movies and leap pads (we got Jason a new LeapPad Ultra for the trip)  We tried not to spend too much time on one thing because then they kids started to get bored and whine.  For example on that first day they only watched one movie in the morning and one in the afternoon because from experience if we let them watch more than one movie back to back they start asking for things during the second movie.  By the end of the day we had made it out of Texas, through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and we had a campground reservation near Tallahassee, Florida. We got to the campground right after night had fallen and Jeff found out, in the dark, that there were a couple of dead ends on the campground roads.  All's well that ends well and we got parked and to bed at a reasonable hour.

On the second day we had a much later start.  I took the kids to get a very cold shower at the comfort station before we headed out for our 4 hour trek to Disney.  The kids were a little more restless the second day since they understood we would get there sometime soon, but didn't know when.  We got a bit of rain, but were so happy when we pulled up to Fort Wilderness!

We got to our campsite and the road to get into it was narrower than we would have liked.  It took quite a bit of maneuvering for Jeff to get it in the spot.  We had quite a few gawkers and one woman even posed that Jeff wouldn't make it in.  Ahhh ye of little faith, he made it in without a scratch.  Unfortunately when he was setting up the camper Jeff discovered that the slide only went 95% of the way out.  One side was pivoting while the other wasn't going in or out.  The slide was stuck in the out position and would need to be fixed before we headed home, but it would be fine to be in for us to stay in.  We would need to call someone during business hours, but until then we decided to explore a bit. 

 

 

 

 

 

We tried out the bus system to get a feel for it when we didn't have time pressing us to get to a park.  We rode down to the settlement and found some ponies to ride.  The kids loved that, especially Elizabeth!  After that we walked around a bit, we found a playground the kids were happy to enjoy.  After we got our bearings we headed back to the camper for some dinner.  Then decided to head over to The Meadows where they hosted a s'mores cookout and sing along with Chip and Dale.  Elizabeth was very exhausted by the end of all this so we knew we needed to head back to the camper for the big day we had tomorrow.

 

Check back tomorrow to hear about our first day in the parks!