The Walters meet Walt for the 1st time - day 1 Epcot Teppan Edo & Disney Springs(Thur 30 March 2017)

[Jaynew]

Travel day is here

Despite the fact I had had very little sleep for the past few days I still couldn't sleep and was awake every hour. At 3am I was dibbing about our awful experience at Atlanta airport while Taela and the kids snored away. I gave up by 5am and thought about going for a swim in the quiet pool but when I poked my head out of our front door I decided, although it was pleasantly warm, it wasn’t warm enough to go for a swim in the dark. I showered, and got dressed and Taela woke soon after. We left the kids to sleep and finished off packing our park bags. I had a Kipling multiple bum bag (or fanny pack) which was a fantastic purchase second hand off Ebay and we each had a Quechua Arpenaz small rucksack.

It was at this point, when I went to put a small amount of cash and our Revolut card in the bumbag, that I couldn’t find the Revolut card! All of a sudden I realised why. It was in my large purse when we left the Travelodge the previous morning and I must not have transferred it to the little purse I had actually taken with me!

I had a major stomach dropping moment when I thought, “Oh sh*t, we’ve got no money with us!” We had £1,500 changed into dollars on it and intended to use it until it ran out then use my Santander zero credit card once it was empty. I realised we would just have to use the Santander card for everything, including withdrawing money and pay it off as soon as we got home. Although not the best card for the exchange rate it is at least free to use abroad. My major panic was over, I was now very conscious that we only had one credit card between us and if it got lost or stolen we were b*ggered!

Our friends were up by now as well and Riley was stirring. Oscar was still happily in the land of nod and, as he can sleep for England we knew we would probably have to wake him up every day. So while Taela got the kids sorted, I took our friends over to the food court as they hadn’t paid much attention to anything when they arrived so late last night. I showed them how to get their resort mugs, filled ours up and got some pastries for us using snack credits including my long awaited first cherry Danish – wow it was good. I think I ended up having one nearly every morning.

Food court at 6am

Our friends decided to not bother with EMH at Epcot as they still hadn’t unpacked but we were raring to go so I left them to it and headed back to the room. The boys were up and dressed and we loaded up the buggy with our stuff and set off for our nearest bus stop, which was the east depot, at just before 7am. It was just starting to get light.

I remember being nervous and excited that we were finally on our way for our first day at the park. I didn’t know how everyone would react to the park, the rides, everything really. I had read so many people’s trip reports and I was so happy that we were there ourselves.

It was only a minute or so walk to the east depot and there were several people there waiting for buses. I will talk to anyone so started up a conversation with a family and told them this was day one. The information board said the next bus would be there at 7.10am and it arrived right on time. There were no seats left and by the time it left the main South depot it was absolutely jam packed with people. We arrived at Epcot at 7.25 so we were impressed with our first trip on Disney transport. There were loads of people already at Epcot including what looked like a huge school group.

The boys were taking no notice of their surroundings as they were too preoccupied with Pokemon Go! In the end I got cross with them and took their ipod touches off them which made Riley sulk as he was excited to find new American Pokemon.

But he soon perked up as we started moving. We went through our first security check easily, remembering to open all the compartments to our bags to get it done quicker. We scanned our bands for the first time and the cast member told me to use my finger for Oscar so I had to do mine twice although Oscar wanted to wear his band so he had to scan it.

Waiting for rope drop selfie!

We were through and, although I had pretty much memorised where everything was, I checked the park map to confirm we needed to wait on the right hand side to head to soarin. An American older couple were next to us in the line and asked us where we were from as they loved our accents. When we told them this was our first ever Disney day, they were so happy for us, telling us they had been so many times over the years with their family but still loved it.

Everyone waiting for rope drop

As the rope dropped, they trotted off and I held hands with the boys and off we went. I had tears in my eyes as we walked towards Soarin and I’m sobbing now as I remember it – man I am such a crybaby!

I had told Taela and the boys that it would be very busy and people may be running so to stay close but they didn’t believe me. We had a good laugh as people ran past us! It was so funny.

A photo can't really show you the running people!

The sun had hit us by now and it was lovely and warm. We took off our cardigans which we took with us everywhere following a tip on the Dibb about freezing aircon.

We got to the Land but weren’t sure what to do with the buggy. That was a theme of the holiday actually – where to put the damn buggy when we went on rides and how to find it when we got out! I had covered the handle in a bright stripy luggage belt that I bought off Ebay for a couple of quid and it really helped in identifying ours quickly in a sea of often identical black buggies in the stroller parking areas.

We walked onto Soarin, and when we got to the front asked if we could wait for the front row. We got front row middle which was fantastic. I had chosen Soarin as our first ride as I thought it would be one we could all do together and all enjoy. We all loved it except Oscar, who hated it! He was so scared I had to put my hand over his eyes for the entire ride! And Taela, although he obviously knew it wasn’t real, had to close his eyes a few times as well! I have to admit I did think, “Uh oh, I hope Oscar is not going to be like that for the entire holiday!”

Once we had finished Soarin left the Land as none of us had any interest in the Living with the Land ride and the Circle of Life show was a maybe only if we weren’t too shattered later on. So we headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends and we walked straight on. Oscar loved it, Taela just rolled his eyes! Then we walked straight into the Turtle Talk with Crush show and we all loved it. Taela kept saying, "But how did they do it?" We had a good wander around all the tanks as the kids love fish. They loved the turtles and the manatees, and it was great for them to see an animal that they hadn't come across before. The boys took lots of photos on their ipod touches, most of which weren't very good!

It was now 9am and our fast pass for Test Track was open. I had us all down to do this but I was a bit apprehensive about Oscar doing it following his reaction to Soarin. Taela was gasping for a coffee by now as he hadn’t had one yet (I had brought a travel kettle as I can’t function without a cup of tea first thing but he had taken a look at the coffee machine and said it looked too complicated!) We had until 10am to do Test Track and our friends told us they were on our way. Riley wanted to do Test Track with their boys so Taela stopped at Joffreys for a coffee while I walked over to meet our friends.

Now I had explained the DDP to Taela umpteen times – I had told him that we had 2 snack credits each every day and that we could use them to get most snacks and drinks in the parks as we were bound to have some left over at the end. He got a coffee and two doughnuts for the kids but when the cast member asked him if he wanted to use snack credits or charge it to the room, he said charge it to the room!

By now our friends had arrived so the three boys went on Test Track together and we sat in the sunshine waiting for Taela to drink his coffee.

We could see that the standby queue was already long, over 60 minutes I think, and this was our first experience with Fastpass so we didn’t know how long it would take. We went on with Oscar in the end but he kept asking what sort of a ride it was. I told him he could design a car then drive it round a track and it would be like driving fast in Daddy’s car! He seemed happy with this and he actually loved it. He designed the car and it was awful! Taela tried to get him to change it but he was happy with it.

We all loved going round the track and Oscar was shouting “Weeeeeeeeeeee” as we went fast. So it was definitely a hit!

It took quite a while to get through Test Track as the kids played about in the advanced training lab afterwards so our FP for Mission Space was now open.

This was always going to be just me and Riley and our friends had FPs for it as well. It ended up being just me and the three boys as the adults all chickened out so we braved the orange version. Wow! It was so good! The boys were a bit scared and it made me really queasy so I didn’t want to do it again but we did love it. I was amazed at how they manage to make it seem so real.

While we were doing Mission Space, Taela and our friends found the fountains and Oscar played in them for ages.

It was really hotting up now so we bought a couple of slushies, this time actually using snack credits, and sat down chatting about our plans for the rest of the day while Oscar splashed about.

Our last fastpass was for Journey into Imagination with Figment but the boys had read the review in the guidebook and didn’t fancy it so I cancelled it and booked one for the Disney Pixar short film festival after lunch. We said goodbye to our friends who had the QSDP rather than the DDP which we did and just wandered round world showcase drinking it in, making our way towards Japan for our Midday ADR at Teppan Edo.

I checked out the menus as we walked at the Flower and Garden Festival food booths as we had planned to come back later in the week to eat and drink around the world. We passed the Frozen ride which had a stupidly long standby wait time and when we got to Germany, we stopped at Karamel Kuche as I had been dreaming about trying the popcorn for ages. I didn’t want o spend loads of credits on the first day so I just got one large popcorn and one caramel apple, but I didn’t let anyone try them as we were on our way to lunch.

We got to Teppan Edo, checked in outside and left the buggy next to the check in desk. Oscar was still wet from the fountains so I got him changed in the toilets while we waitied and by the time we were done our table was ready. We were sat with two Japanese ladies and two German ladies and unfortunately there was no atmosphere as nobody talked to each other. It seemed to take ages to get started but we had a cocktail while we waited. One of the other diners had very particular food allergies so her food had to be cooked on it own before everyone else’s. Everyone else on the other tables seemed to be having a far better time than we were unfortunately. The boys did enjoy the onion volcano and the tricks the chef was doing but I’m not sure if she was very good as she never once managed to get the prawn in her hat!

The food was lovely and we all ate everything, even Oscar who can be quite fussy. We had a mixture of steak, chicken and shrimp and shared it all out. It took at least 90 minutes to get through lunch though and while we enjoyed the experience I don’t think I would do it again. It would have been very expensive for what it was and even though we were on the DDP it still cost $60 for three alcoholic drinks and the tip.

Now Riley is Pokémon mad and has been for a couple of years so I knew he would be in his element in the Japan shop so, after lunch, I told him we had a surprise for him and in we went. There was loads of Pokemon stuff as well of other stuff and we left about $100 poorer but we had one happy 9 year old and a happy 4 year old as we couldn’t leave him out. We got a Pokémon gengar plush, a bumblebee transformer, some small figures and loads of trading cards. I enjoyed it though and love it when Riley is enthusiastic about something as he is turning into a teenager far too quickly!

It was about 2pm by now and we were starting to flag so we carried on wandering around the World Showcase. I saw a cart selling frozen drinks so suggested we got one each. Taela said he felt a bit strange about wandering around Disney pushing our child in a buggy and drinking alcohol! But I had no qualms so got a pina colada slushy for me and Taela a beer.

We didn’t go in any of the countries but there was so much to look at outside and lots of music going on, it was lovely. We came across one of the pop up flower and garden festival play areas so stopped and sat in the shade finishing our drinks while the boys ran around for a bit.

We decided not to do any more rides as had had enough so I cancelled our last fastpass and we headed out of the park. We found the photo pass photographer and had our first park photos.

We got to the bus stop just as a bus for POR was arriving but we weren’t sure we would get on it as we at the back of a long line. We got on but had to stand and it was really crowded. The bus went to the west depot first, then north then east so the boys got off at the east depot and I stayed on until the main south depot and filled up our resort mugs then popped to the shop to get some more beer and cider for the room.

We had planned to do a quick supermarket shop for snacks and drinks in our first couple of days but due to yesterday’s delay in getting there we hadn’t had time. Nobody could be bothered to do it today either so we chalked it up to experience and just bought the expensive snacks and drinks in the POR shop! If there is a next time we will do Garden Grocer as I hadn’t been able to persuade the others to do it this time.

When I got back to the room, we got changed and went straight to the quiet pool. Our friends were back by then as well so we sunbathed, swam, chatted about our day and laughed about yesterday. It was lovely.

Nobody could decide what to do for dinner and we were all shattered but we didn’t want to waste the evening as we only had 7 days at Disney so we decided to head to Disney Springs.

We all got ready in record time and headed towards the boat dock. There was a boat there when we arrived but we couldn’t get on it and we didn’t know how long until the next one. It was only about 10 minutes but it took so long to take an ECV off when it arrived, we were all grumbling about how slow the boat captain was.

Once we were on the boat it was a lovely trip. We passed Port Orleans French Quarter and the pool looked fantastic, then passed some more hotels, some treetop villas which looked gorgeous and into Disney Springs.

The boys looking shattered on the boat

We had looked at all the quick service menus at Disney Springs and decided on Wolfgang Puck Express. We weren’t quite sure what to do as hadn’t used any qs credits yet so when I ordered I forgot to say I wanted to use qs credits and the server was so rude when I remembered. He told me the price and I said, “Sorry I'm on the dining plan, can I use credits please?”. He said, “No that will be $90, I've done it now”! Then sighed and swapped it over. I wasn’t too impressed with him!

The food was lovely but the red wine was vile. I ordered a cabernet sauvignon and it was disgusting. I had the meatloaf which I enjoyed, Taela had the meatloaf sandwich which he enjoyed, and the boys had pizza. I decided to use 1 adult credit and get them half and half but they would only do it with plain on one half which the boys didn’t want. Oscar had pepperoni which he enjoyed and Riley asked for the chicken meatball one which he decided he didn't like so he ended up eating some of Oscars and we brought his home for in room eating.

I was starting to feel really spaced out by this point so knew I just needed to get gome and go to sleep. We decided to get the bus instead of the boat but didn’t realise how far away it was. Disney Springs looked lovely but we hadn’t scheduled much time there so I said we would have to come back on a free evening once we had left Disney. We never did unfortunately!

As we walked we spotted World of Disney so we went in to pick up our $300 gift card. The boys stayed outside to try to get spat on by Stitch, which they managed so successfully they were soaked!

We had $300 instead of $200 as had booked our stay using a recommend a friend code so had been given an extra $100 giftcard. I found the info desk eventually but the guy serving on it was so slow, he was like the sloth from zootropolis!

Once done, we found the bus station and were so thankful there was a bus there already. It was practically empty so we all got seats and we experienced the weirdness of the lights going off on the bus in the dark! It was so strange! Not one person I asked knew why they did that and I didn’t think to ask a driver so I left Disney still in the dark about why! It was so disconcerting, especially when you are knackered. We were all nodding off when we stopped and were blinded by the lights coming on.

Once we got back to the room, the boys wanted to go in the pool, and the men wanted a drink. So we stood on our balcony (the outdoor walkway which came in handy!) having a chat and a drink. I had put Oscar straight to bed and he was asleep in seconds. We all followed him not long after and were in bed by 10pm ish.
It was a really good, relaxing first day for us and I’m glad we did Epcot as it wasn’t too much for us. Our friends though, said they wished they had done Magic Kingdom on their first day, especially as they didn’t make early morning hours. It hadn’t been Disney enough for them and they were a little underwhelmed by Epcot.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom, Ohana & Hoop de Doo Review here

[DisneyPunk]

Crying at Epcot? Can imagine how you are gonna feel at Magic Kingdom 😎

[Jaynew]

Originally Posted by DisneyPunk

Crying at Epcot? Can imagine how you are gonna feel at Magic Kingdom 😎

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LOL. I don't think I cried at Magic Kingdom funnily enough.

[mick]

A good first day

Joan

[Loopylooloo]

Lovely first day Jayne! Teppan edo sounds really good, would love to try that next time. Your kipling fanny pack is gorgeous! Shame about your revolut card hope you were able to withdraw the money you had on it?

[jengibbo]

We had a really rude server at Wolfgang Puck too. He made a mistake with our order and tried to blame me.

[firsttimemouse]

Great first day. Well done for writing, I'm really enjoying reading along.

[Jaynew]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Lovely first day Jayne! Teppan edo sounds really good, would love to try that next time. Your kipling fanny pack is gorgeous! Shame about your revolut card hope you were able to withdraw the money you had on it?

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Thanks. The food was good at Teppan Edo. I think you need to have enough people for a full table or talkative table mates which we didn't have!

I had planned to sell the Kipling on after this holiday but as I'm trying to convince the hubby to go again next year I might just have to hang on to it!

Yes, I could transfer the money back into my current account and I actually got a slightly better rate doing it as well 😀

[Jaynew]

Originally Posted by jengibbo

We had a really rude server at Wolfgang Puck too. He made a mistake with our order and tried to blame me.

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And I have to admit I was a little taken aback that it would have cost $90 if we weren't using qs credits 😯

[collybird]

I swear my heart actually stopped when I read you had left your card behind. What an absolute nightmare. I always take two currency cards and leave them in separate places so if I lose one I can transfer the balance to the other.

I think the server in WPE was just being awkward, I don't think they ring up meals any differently regardless of how you pay for them.

You really capture the emotions of your first day in Disney so well! Looking forward to reading more.