This is day 2 of our Disney world trip report. If you missed day 1, you can check it out HERE. After a long travel day, we got a little bit of a late start for our first full day at Disney World! Our first Fastpass of the day was not until 10:30 so all was good. This was our Epcot day and since we stayed at the Swan, which is in the Epcot resort area, we had quick and easy access to the park. I love the atmosphere of the boardwalk area so we decided to take the walk to International Gateway, the back entrance to Epcot. Here are a few pics of our walk along the Boardwalk.
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We had a great little breakfast at the Boardwalk Bakery. We all thought our food was yummy and the location can not be beat!
Disney World Trip Report –
Epcot and the International Flower and Garden Festival
We needed to get moving to meet up with the rest of our family and make it to our first Fastpass for Spaceship Earth. I have used Fastpasses before but during this trip, I was really surprised how quickly we got on the rides we had Fastpasses for, we literally walked right on. The International Flower and Garden Festival was taking place while we were there and it was a fantastic added bonus to the trip. We enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful flower displays, topiaries and tasting all of the creative food offerings from various booths. Here are some of the pics we took walking from the International Gateway to Spaceship Earth.
Disney World Trip Report-
Epcot World Showcase
Our next Fastpass was for Frozen Ever After! This was our first time seeing this attraction and we were so excited!! We share a strong Norweigan background with the movie Frozen, so it holds a special place in our hearts! In fact, some of the artifacts that were used for reference when creating the film and are on display at Epcot come from the museum here in our small town. We also have an annual Norwegian heritage celebration and two of my children are part of the Nordic Dancers group which performs every year. Elsa and Anna are basically family to us 🙂 I tried taking pictures in the Frozen ride but they did not turn out well, a simple Google search will give you plenty of options for taking a sneak peek at the ride. We thought it was super cute (my daughter and I snuck back later to ride it again!)
On our way to Frozen Ever After we got sidetracked in Mexico! I really love this part of World Showcase and feel it can be easily overlooked but a stop at the Mexico pavilion is a must for me. Currently, there is a Coco inspired exhibit just inside the pyramid. I was pleasantly surprised at how much we loved this movie, I highly recommend it. Farther inside of the pyramid are vendor carts with various Mexican inspired souvenirs such as clothing, home decor, jewelry, and toys. La Cantina de San Angel is also located inside. I have never taken the time to eat here but would love to. It is dimly lit with lanterns and overlooks the beginning of the boat ride Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros. I adore this little attraction!
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
After riding Frozen, we continued walking around World Showcase. We did not stop much in the other countries as we were starting to get hungry and on a mission to find food. Now, you would think that would be an easy task in World Showcase but, with kids and a budget, it is not! Most of the food options were too foreign for the kids and table service options were expensive. With 8 of us, it was difficult finding something that would make everyone happy. My biggest fail, being the main guide for our trip, was forgetting about the Friendship Boats that can transport you from the back of World Showcase to World Showcase Plaza. We could have taken one of these boats and been much closer to a more “food court” type option. I am also not sure why we did not eat at Liberty Inn. I think we were having some serious revolting in the group at the time and were distracted from the option right in front of us. Lesson learned I hope! So, ultimately, we ended split up. The less adventurous group had fish and chips at Yorkshire County Fish Shop and the adventurous eaters ate at the Honey Bee-stro.
All of our food was amazing!! We found a little spot to eat in the Imagination Play Garden which is a special play area set up just for the Flower and Garden Festival. It has some covered seating areas and lots of interactive mazes, gardens and game areas. Ellie got in a game of checkers with one of the cast members.
Our next Fastpass for Mission Space was coming up soon so we needed to get moving and get everyone back together! Not everyone wanted to go on Mission Space, I am too claustrophobic for that ride!! Instead of sitting outside in the sun we enjoyed the air conditioning and seating in Innoventions with an iced coffee from Joffrey’s Coffee and Tea Company. We practically had the place to ourselves and the girls had fun exploring Colortopia. By the way, there are some outlets in the Innoventions building for phone charging 🙂
At this point, we have used up our three Fastpasses that I scheduled before our trip. Once those are gone you can schedule another Fastpass but the size of our party made that a little difficult. We made our way over to Soarin which had a posted standby time of 30 min. Our wait time ended up being a solid 30-40 min. On our way over we made a stop at Mouse Gears were Ellie finally made the agonizing decision about what ears she was going to get! She got the special edition 2018 Flower and Garden ones. They are so adorable!
My mom and sister were a little skeptical about going on Soarin. They don’t love heights or drops but we assured them it was fine and they would love it.
Well…….we had not been on Soarin since it was updated in 2016 and it had been probably 4-5 years since we were on the older version. Let’s just say it was a little more intense than we remembered. My mom hates heights so she barely kept her eyes open. In fact, she referred to the ride as terrifying! So if someone in your party does not like heights, they may want to skip this one 😉 The rest of us thought it was amazing!! Just for reference, row 1 stays closest to the ground, it is still 30 feet up, row 2 is 40 feet and row 3 is 50 feet. I am going for row 3 next time 🙂
Here is a free printable listing attractions by their thrill level, drops, darkness and special effects.
Disney World Trip Report-
Disney’s Swan and Dolphin
Some of us were starting to drag so they went back for a swim and to wait for my other sister and her kids to arrive. The rest of us were also ready for a Minnie break (i am so punny) so we took the Friendship boat from Epcot back to the launch between the Swan and Dolphin. As I said in my previous post, we were staying at the Swan but the Dolphin has more food options so we went there to find a little afternoon snack.
Our first stop was at Sweet Treats which is the walk-up counter service for the restaurant The Fountain. It is located just inside the back entrance to the Dolphin. These are SINGLE scoop, waffle cones and cost $5.50. The kids said they were really good but let’s be real, how can you screw up ice cream? The next stop is upstairs at Picabu for a frappe!
After a quick rest in our room, we are off to join everyone else at the Art of Animation Resort. The easiest way to get between resorts is Uber or taxi. Disney buses do not run between resorts so you would have to take a bus to a park, then catch another bus to the other resort which is way too time-consuming so we opted for Uber. We used Uber several times throughout our trip. Every ride averaged around $8.00 which was well worth it for the convenience.
Disney World Trip Report-
Art of Animation Resort
Here are just a few pics of the resort.
My sister and her kids had arrived so all of the kids went swimming for a while. The pools at this resort are really kid-friendly, lively and the theming is so fun!! I would have liked spending more time exploring it but I wanted to get back to Epcot. If I am going to burn a park day I want to get the most out of it. My oldest daughter came with me. Yes, the one with the walking boot and knee scooter. She wanted to go…..the poor girl is Disney crazy too.
Disney World Trip Report-
Evening at Epcot
Once there, we went straight back to World Showcase. We enjoy exploring all of the counties, taking our time perusing the shops and finding fun foods to try. Finding an evening snack was definitely on our to-do list and Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie, in France was the perfect stop. Emma loves a good macaroon so she picked some of those up for later and we shared the Bacon and Cheese Roll (Roule Lard et Fromage) It was very good!! This thing is bacon, cheese, lard, and pastry so how can you go wrong? We did not, however, take any pictures while we were here. I was too busy on the phone with my younger daughter. She had changed her mind about wanting to stay with her cousins for the evening and wanted me to come back and get her!! Are you kidding me right now!? I just got here and you want me to come back? I convinced her to stay a little longer, hoping she might change her mind again before I made the trek all the way back to the Art of Animation. We continued on with our exploring and came upon the most amazing discovery!
The standby line for Frozen Ever After was 15 min!! There was no way we were not going to pass that up. When we rode this earlier in the day it was packed and the Fastpass line moves fairly quickly so we did not get to really take in the adorable line queue. For a newer ride, it is surprising that this queue is not more interactive, it is your basic switchback line with nothing going on. But the theming and details are Disney spot-on. In one small section of the line, you go through Oaken’s shop which is so charming and packed full of fun little surprises to discover. I think you need to see if for yourself so if you can strategically sneak on when the standby line is not too long, it is worth it 🙂
Unfortunately, the delay did not change her mind. So off I went to walk all the way back to the bus stop at the front of Epcot from all the way back in World Showcase. Then I had to take the bus to Art of Animation. At that point, it was very late and I was tired so….. Uber again. Our next day is Magic Kingdom!! This is by far our favorite park. Check out our day three trip Disney World trip report and hang out with us bright and early on Main Street, USA!
4 Real Disney Mom
