Continuing our busy day (
Part 1 here)...After experiencing the Winnie the Pooh ride, we spent some time waiting in line at the carousel. It broke down as well (really it was more of a young worker trying to lay down the law and ended up pushing a button to stop the whole thing and couldn't get it working again), so we opted not to wait and headed for a spot to watch the parade.
It was such a fun way to see all the characters!
The dancers and costume were also fabulous.
It all does feel so magical!
Next up had to be the most frustrating experience for my Engram 1 self. I had attempted to get us all Dole Whips before the parade, but seeing the long line and wondering how I would carry them all back, I decided we could wait until after, in which I would order some online and we could then quickly pick them up. This idea must have been shared by way to many people then their system was set up for. We ended up waiting FOREVER to pick them up after they texted me that they were ready. Part of the reason was that others, who also got similar texts, just stalled up (aka cutting the online order line) and got theirs while we just not so patiently waited. While I will speak for myself on that, as I hate inefficiency (and, yes, I know I could not never live in another country that just doesn't abide by lines - well never say never).
Butttt we eventually did get the reward, found a shady place and enjoyed the novelty item.
Even though seeing characters was not our priority, my brother-in-law (yes, that is not a typo) raved about the Beauty and the Beast experience. Seeing that we had used all our fast passes up, we got to choose another, and this one was available, so we headed that way.
I will say, it did not disappoint. It is done in small groups, and after walking through a magic mirror (it did seem to magically open up to another room), the characters were assigned. My little shy boy got chosen (after volunteering) to be the beast.
Beach was one of the guards.
We then went in and met Belle, where they acted out parts of the movie. Ezra even gave a big Roarrr to get her to turn around and introduce herself.
The girls (who waited it out in hopes of being Belle themselves, as we didn't know there would be a real Belle), ended up with roles divided out in the end but were all still introduced, like Shiloh the dish...
and Zoe the mirror...
and of course the Beast.
They then proceed to dance together for awhile and something in my heart just melted. Perhaps, it was thinking that my own little prince would make his future wife so very happy one day!
Everyone, then, got to met Belle and take a picture with her.
Receiving a bookmark from her.
Seeing we were out of fast passes again, we snagged up another for It's a Small World.
The calmness of the ride had Ezra exclaim in the beginning, "Now this is fun!" We found something more his speed ;-)
Another pleaser for him was going on the race track! Ezra was my driving buddy...
and Shiloh drove around her dad.
What I didn't think to explain to the solo driver ahead of time, was how the ride actually worked (her needing to push on the pedals and that she couldn't actually break the car and drive it off track). Poor Zoe went at a painfully slow pace, as she had not been properly informed. She was already nervous due to a go-cart incident when she was 5 years old at Frankie's fun park and actually ran over a teen staff member's foot (bless her heart, she also had not been informed then either).
The rest of us didn't know the turmoil that she was going through, as we just sat and waited and slowly went from time to time.
We took an emotional support break after that to gather the troops and then headed to Epcot. A mess up on our end, as it was not clear how to actually use the monorail to get there, and we ended up going on the loop twice, just missing the window for the last fast past that I had gotten.
I have to admit I was getting a little hangry at that point, and wanted some real food. So we may have forced some smiles and headed for the Mexican spot that we had picked out. Epcot was undergoing much construction (and it was now dark), so this was no easy task and brought a bit of frustration along the way.
However, we finally made it to our tacos and thankfully secured a seat in the busy restaurant.
I purposely did not make restaurant reservations, as I didn't want to be locked in on a time (a trigger of stress for me) and this aspect worked out well for us.
We, then, headed across the street to Mexico? Which looked pretty awesome but we just beelined...
to the back where we took in a quick Duck ride.
We then headed back to Spaceship Earth, where at that point there was not a line at all, and hoped on. We played a bit with the interactive activities afterward.
It was nice as the place was pretty empty besides us.
I had to get a picture, too. Also, as a side note, I am pretty sure I was the ONLY person I saw that day that was wearing a dress. While I do normally find it so comfortable, the miles that we walked that day proved a little chaffing of the legs toward the end.
Our last ride we hit up was Nemo, where again there was no line. While the ride itself was nothing spectacular, I was in awe when we can out to an aquarium in the end which seemed to have a dolphin swimming through the ride.
It had to be one of the highlights of the day, being in the dimly lit space of magic where there were few other spectators.
I could have easily stayed another hour!
However, the park was going to close soon, so we grabbed a couple of more pictures...
and headed to where everyone else was waiting (again a long walk through confusion).
So the kids plopped down pretty much as soon as they could see anything. However, after awhile I encouraged them to get a bit closer.
It was super crowded where we were at but we still enjoyed what we could see around the lake.
The littles had a some spending money, and the plan had been that they could use it at some of the stores at the end of the day (it would also pass some time while the crowds cleared out a bit). This would not have been an issue at all had we been at the other parks, where there are stores galore, but the ONE store we could find at Epcot was closed. So we walked against the crowd in attempts of finding something open. We finally gave up, realizing that we were going in the opposite direction of the exit and not having any luck.
So we turned around, decided we would go into the tiny gas station size one at the entrance. Along the way Ezra got tripped up with his sister (which he interpreted to be on purpose). The MILES that we had walked that day caught up with him and he was inconsolable again. Which meant me caring a crying 5-year-old around. The store proved fruitless and we promised to the disappointed littles that we would go to one of the large shops near our AirB&B the following day to hopefully score some better deals.
One more blurry pic with my love, who so graciously allows me to plain pack full days! This will be remembered instead of how Ezra got very mad at not making to to the tram in time and we had to walk a bit more (aka him being carried) and declared another "worst day of his life". Fortunately, when we were all tucked in that night he had changed his tune. We all went to bed quickly with lifetime memories!
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