Our plan was to hit World Showcase right as they opened at 11:00. I figured that most people would still be doing all of the rides at the front of the park and wouldn't make there way back to World Showcase until early afternoon. I was right! The first half of the World Showcase was nearly empty. As we made our way around, it gradually started to get busier. As we were exiting World Showcase, we ran into huge crowds of people heading IN to World Showcase, so our plan to avoid crowds worked really well.
The only problem was that we toured World Showcase right after eating a huge breakfast. We really weren't hungry to eat much of anything at all. Many people like to "snack" their way around the world, getting various snacks in each country. We were there during Food and Wine Festival, which means the countries were offering even more food and drink options than normal. I know our "foodie" friends will be so mad at us, but we did not taste any of the Food and Wine offerings. We were too full, plus it was hot and we were walking a ton. I just didn't have much of an appetite the whole trip.
The next country we visited was Germany. We stopped in a little toy store and found our first Kidcot station. Kidcot stations are set up in each country, and they have Duffy the Bear pictures that the kids can color. The idea is that the kids carry the bear with them through the countries, color a little of their bear in each country, and then get a stamp from each country they visit on the back. My girls LOVED this! It's a simple idea, but a lot of fun for the kids. We got all of the countries except Norway and Mexico (they were closed when we walked through for breakfast) and China (because we forgot!).
Isla displaying her Duffy the Bear that she was coloring through the World
In Germany, we also stopped at Karmelle-Kuche, a famous shop featuring lots of yummy caramel treats. We weren't hungry, but we got a bag of caramel corn (it was really good!) and munched on it all day.
Audrey by a fountain in Germany
After Germany, we walked through Italy. We didn't do much here except take a couple of pictures and find the Kidcot station.
Next up, we stopped in America for the Kidcot station and a bathroom/water break.
Then, it was on to Japan for a "kakigori" snack, which is Japanese shaved ice. The girls were a big fan of this treat!
In Morocco, we were hoping to meet Aladdin and Jasmine, but we just missed them and they weren't going to be back for 30 minutes. I didn't want to wait around for them, so we just colored, got our stamp and moved on to the next country!
Next up was France. I know there is a lot of good food to be found in France, but we were so full. I wish we would have stopped at the bakery and at least got something to take back to the resort with us. But we didn't, so I guess we missed out on the yumminess!
In the United Kingdom, I was hoping that we would be able to meet both Alice and Mary Poppins. And we managed to meet them both without much wait! Alice was greeting people right as we arrived at the UK, so we hopped in her line to get an autograph and picture.
We walked through the UK and went through this fun little hedge maze that is in the back (and seems to be totally ignored by everyone else, because it was empty back there!). Then we found the Kidcot station for more coloring and stamping.
As we were getting ready to leave the United Kingdom,we saw Mary Poppins walking down the street! So we followed her to her greeting spot to meet her. The line here formed really quickly, so I'm glad we spotted her when we did.
The last country was Canada. There wasn't much going on there, and we were getting tired, so we found the Kidcot station and made our way back into the front portion of Epcot, Future World.
Now it was time for a few rides! I thought Journey into Imagination with Figment would be a nice kid friendly ride. And it was, until the end of the ride, when the Figment character pulls the plug on something and all the lights go out and you get sprayed in the face with a big puff of air. It freaked my girls out, they both screamed and Isla started crying After that, they were not a fan of the Figment ride. At the end of the ride, there is a little play area, and the girls loved that. We had to drag them out of there, because I knew there were better things ahead!
It was right around 2:00 at this point, and Daniel had a Fastpass to use for Soarin. I don't like heights and have issues with motion sickness, so I didn't really want to ride it. I was hoping I could convince Audrey to be brave enough to give it a try, but she was not interested. So we sent Daniel on the ride, while we got lunch at the Sunshine Seasons food court.
We loved the Disney dining plan, and we especially loved that we got it for free. But going through food courts on the dining plan was stressful! Every time I thought I got the right amount of food to go with the dining plan, and every time the cashier would tell me that I still needed to get more things. So much food!! Here is all the food that I got for me and the girls. Cost for all of this would have been about $35.
The picture doesn't do justice to how big that salad and piece of cake were. When Daniel finished his ride, I was full and done eating. So I gave hi the rest of my salad and cake. When he was finished, we still had both cake and salad leftover!
Now that we were full (and really tired) and still in the Land Pavilion, we rode Living with the Land. I thought this would be boring, but it was actually kind of interesting. It is a boat ride through the greenhouse where Disney grows a lot of the food they serve in their restaurants. We all enjoyed it.
We headed towards the Seas next to ride the Nemo ride. It was fun, and both girls liked it. Although Isla says she didn't like it because she was scared of the shark. But she acted like she enjoyed the rest of the ride. After that, we walked through the aquarium, then went to watch Turtle Talk with Crush. This is an interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo, and it was really cute. And pretty impressive how the cartoon character is able to interact with a live audience!
When we finished Crush, Isla was getting really crabby. But Audrey really wanted to ride Nemo one more time. So I took Audrey back on Nemo, while Daniel took Isla for a little walk in the stroller. We thought she would fall asleep, but she didn't.
We walked on to every ride today with no waits at all. It was marvelous!!
At this point, we should have just left for the day. But I wanted to stop at one more place: Club Cool. This is a little place run by Coke, where you can try out different sodas from around the world. Our first mistake was to push our big double stroller into this place. It was more crowded than I was expecting, and our stroller was hard to maneuver.
Our second mistake was letting Isla pass her cup to Audrey so Audrey could try it. Isla dumped her whole cup on Audrey, which led to both of them screaming. We were THAT family, walking out of the park with two screaming kids. I was really frustrated at this point, but I tried to remind myself that it was after 4:00. We had been in the park since 8:30 with no naps or breaks, so they probably had reached their breaking point for the day.
I did snap this picture on the way out, while the girls were crying and pouting in the stroller. Good bye Epcot!!
Isla did fall asleep on the way back to the resort. So we got back, and Daniel and Audrey went swimming. After Isla woke up, we joined them at the pool. (I'm going to do a full post on the resort someday, so I will post pool/resort pictures then). Then we all ate dinner at the food court. It wasn't all that good, but it was convenient. Then it was off to bed! I had contemplated going back out to watch fireworks, but we were all so tired. Plus I really wasn't in the mood to wait for and get on/off another bus, so we just went to bed. Maybe when the kids are older we will be able to be night owls and see the fireworks each night!
Next up: Our second day at Magic Kingdom
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