Our May 2014 Disney Trip - Day 2...Epcot!

On our second day we headed to one of my favorite parks in Disney - Epcot!  I can never get over how many people think this is a park to be skipped when traveling to WDW and how many think their kids won't like it!  It is one of my kids favorite parks.  We love it there!

My two in front of (in my opinion) one of the most impressive sites in WDW - Spaceship Earth!

Upon entering we got to take part in some of the final days of the Flower and Garden Festival.  It was ending on Sunday, so I was very excited to see all the awesome sites and sculptures.  We also walked through the Butterfly Garden and the kids got to hold a butterfly.  Very cool!!  :-)

Here are some photos of the wonderment of the Flower and Garden Festival 2014....

My kiddos and I at the main entrance with a Daisy Duck topiary.  

Behind Spaceship Earth after you have entered the park you find sculptures of Mickey, Minne and Pluto!

The kiddos with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto!

Inside the Butterfly Garden!  So pretty and well done!

Some butterfly topiaries.

Sculpture of a soccer field.  We have more pictures of this on another day.
It is the only part being left up until after the World Cup!  :-)

Panoramic Shot...I love the floating flowers!!

Sorcerer Mickey and the brooms!

One of my favorite shots!!  Got a little bit of everything in there!

Sand sculpture for DisneyNature's Bears Movie...did you see it?

Bambi, Flower and Thumper!

Tick Tock Croc...look out Emma!!

He's coming for you Owen!!  The kids got a kick out of all the topiaries!

Arrrr!!!  Captain Hook was who Tick Tock Croc is really after!!!

Pooh and friends topiaries in the UK!

Beauty and the Beast in France!

Cogsworth and Lumiere! 

If you have the opportunity to see the Flower and Garden Festival you definitely should!!  They are now offering food around all the countries too, much like Food and Wine.  Snack credits from the dining plan can be used.  We didn't overly experience everything.  We did go back to Epcot again the day after it ended and it is amazing how fast all the topiaries are just GONE!!  

We had some fastpasses set up for this day as well.  Epcot is a tiered park, so we had to pick between Soarin' and Test Track.  Since Owen is scared of Soarin' we went with Test Track for day one in Epcot since that is a favorite of his!  Really besides those two rides FP are not needed, but you are made to book 3.  We did Spaceship Earth and Mission Space (green side) as our second and third FP selections.

Stopped for a quick picture as we zipped through the FP line at Test Track!

Owen's "car"

Emma's "car"

Checking out the cars after the ride!

Being goofy before entering Spaceship Earth!

Playing Power City after Spaceship Earth!

So far as you can see, my kids are more than enjoying Epcot!  So take that naysayers!!  LOL  :-)  Spaceship Earth is one of their favorite rides.  I think it is because you get to go in the "BIG BALL" and you get to design a little jibjab type movie towards the end.  They also enjoy the after area with all the games.  And it is a great A/C break as well!  They also LOVE Test Track, Mission Space (green side, although they want to try orange...not with mommy, sorry guys!), Living with the Land, Emma likes Soarin', Journey into Imagination, the list goes on!!  So continuing on....

We went to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends and we were pleasantly surprised that upon exiting there was a dolphin demonstration going on!  Very cool and we got to see all three dolphins give us a quick smile for the camera!!

We also tried a new ride this trip - Sum of All Thrills.  This is a build your own virtual coaster experience found in the Innoventions building.  The lines were fast for this, but it is popular.  Take note that this building closes at 7pm, so so does the ride!  Emma rode alone and I had to ride with Owen.  We did this ride three times over the course of our trip.  It is fun because you can see the person you are riding with in a small screen.  You have to be 48 inches to ride and 54 inches to go upside down.  One day Emma was tall enough to go upside down, but the other two times she wasn't...go figure!  Both kids really enjoyed this experience!!  

Not the best picture, but you can see the feet hanging, that is the simulator for Sum of All Thrills!

The Character Spot had a super short line as well this day, so we decided to dart over and see some favorite characters!!  

It rained a bit, but we just waited it out.  It was a very fast moving storm and was the end of the rain for the rest of our trip, so no complaints there!!!

Break out the Mickey Ponchos!!

Another favorite activity for my kids in Epcot is Agent P's adventures.  This can be done in the World Showcase, there are several kiosks to set up your adventure.  I will write a more detailed post about it.  We started out in the UK.  Just as we were starting, Mary Poppins was coming our for a meet and greet, she stopped and chatted with my kids about what they were up to!  Very sweet interaction!!  :-) I love those candid moments!

We topped off our evening on day two with Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.  This may be my favorite fireworks show in WDW!

Walking out I had to get a couple more shots of Spaceship Earth lit up at night!!

If for no other reason than to see Spaceship Earth, you must not skip Epcot!!  It really is an amazing park and the last one that Walt had a hand in imagining!  :-)

When we arrived back at the resort we grabbed a bite to eat and then Owen just had to swim!!  He got to take a quick swim, because the next day was our early morning day to see the opening show of Star Wars Weekends!

Well that is all for day two....stay tuned for day 3!  We hopped on day 3!  I love park hopping!!  :-)

~Teresa

Our May 2014 Disney Trip - Days 1! Travel and Magic Kingdom!

So I have never really done a trip report, but based on the interest I decided to write one up.  I am going to attempt it  to share our amazing trip with you all!  :-)

Day 1 - May 14th

We flew into MCO and landed pretty much right on time. We proceeded to the rental car location, got our car and headed to Pop Century!  It was pouring rain out, one of two or three days we dealt with rain, so no complaints there.

When we arrived at Pop, I checked into the room.  It wasn't what I had requested - 50s, building 3, so I asked for them to change it.  They did so with no problem!  We headed to the room!  It was in a great location!  Just seconds from the elevator and only a 5 minute walk tops to the main building!  My favorite building after my many stays there!

 After we got ourselves settled and the rain stopped we headed for the Magic Kingdom!  It is always our day one stop, so there was no question as to what we were doing that day!

Once we were in the park we headed to the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.  We had had a bad experience with this not working in 2013 so I was skeptical, but all went well this year!!  Owen especially loved this FREE activity in the Magic Kingdom!!  I will write up a more detailed post about Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom!

We rode some rides with minimal waits.  Pretty much everything was a walk on this day.  It was probably our best crowd day in the parks!  It was rated as a 2 out of 10 on touring plans!  I had some fastpass+ booked, but we really didn't need them at all!  We used them basically because we had them!  We got to see cast members riding Dwarfs Mine Train too!!  Which only made Owen want on even more than before!!

Some of the rides we rode with no wait were - Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Dumbo, Barnstormer and more!!

To top off night one, we walked up to Be Our Guest (love the name!) and were able to walk in for dinner reservations!  They told us it would be a 45 minute to an hour wait, we waited 7 minutes!!  Service was great, food was good, but honestly minus some of the dinner selections and the Beast you can get the same experience as lunch time!

Owen was very tired at this point in the day!  We had been up since 5am!!  We kept going for a bit longer and called it a night and headed back to the hotel for an early day 2 at Epcot!

All in all day 1, travel and all, was great day!  We got to do so much thanks to minimal crowds!!  Probably our lowest crowd level day of the 10 park days we were there.

Stay tuned for day 2.....

~Teresa