Here we go Again! Charlotte's 2nd WDW trip Jan 2019 - Day 5 Akershus, Epcot and a dessert party

[vics18]

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Day 5

Monday 28th Jan 2019

This morning we had an early breakfast reservation at Akershus, in Norway in World Showcase. Charlotte is really in a dressing up as Princesses phase at the moment, so I had bought her a new Belle dress for this morning.

She hadn’t seen it so we hung it on the drawers at the bottom of her bed, so it was the first thing she spotted when she woke up. She was absolutely beside herself and couldn’t wait to put it on. I may be biased, but she looked super cute in it!

Our ADR was 8.30 so we were up and out as fast as we could be! Thankfully we were a short walk from our destination, which was the main reason I booked Akershus as I was torn between it and Cinderella’s Royal Table.

We strolled up to the International Gateway, and were the only people there! There's lots of construction around this area, for the Skyliner, and you can also get a good look at the Ratatouille construction in France.

A cast member scanned my magic band to confirm we had an ADR before allowing us through security and the magic band tapstiles.



Once into Epcot, we meandered through England and Canada, savouring the emptiness!

It feels so nice and calm being there without the sea of people. We paused to take some pictures, then carried on into Mexico and reached Norway.

There was a short queue of people waiting outside which we joined. The cast member at the podium was shouting family names then taking them through. We briefly chatted with the American family in front of us who had a little girl slightly younger than our Lottie. She was in a Minnie dress and was so sweet.


They were called shortly, and we were next. We were taken into another queue (classic Disney) but this was only a couple of families long, and it was to meet Belle before we were seated. Charlotte was SO excited when she saw Belle, dancing on the spot and asking “am I next Mummy, is it my turn?”

When it was, she ran full speed and gave her a big hug. The photographer with Belle was absolutely rubbish, and only took a couple of pictures . I was a bit disappointed, especially as she had her Belle dress on. Martin was taking video and I can’t believe the photographer didn’t even take a picture at this moment –

It's a screenshot from the video Martin was taking.

This was the only picture he took

Anyway, moving on. We were seated in a relatively quiet area which was great, I love that. We had only just sat down when the princesses came and led the children round in a little parade. Lottie didn’t want to go without me so we went together. I spoted Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella but no Ariel, turns out she wasn't there today which was a bit of a shame but I guess that’s why they don’t actually tell you which princesses will be there on any given day. We hadn’t told Charlotte who we would be seeing (except Belle of course) so she was none the wiser.


Once back at our table, our server brought us drinks (I think we both got juice, and milk for Charlotte) and I headed up to the buffet a little look around! There was loads of choice, continental style breakfast with pastries, cold meats, loads of fresh fruit etc. I got plates for me and Charlotte and when I got back to the table the hot plate of food had been delivered. We were all really impressed with the food at Akershus, and ate very well! My favorite was the potato casserole, it was so yummy.

Obviously at various stages we were rudely interrupted by the princesses visiting our table

Cinderella wasn’t the best, Snow White was lovely but by far the best was Aurora. She was so sweet, was chatting with Charlotte for ages (I have no idea what about!) I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Charlotte asked for an Aurora dolly (which we couldn’t get, but more on that another day) and since then (to this day) Aurora has been her favourite princess.

Twirling together

So Akershus was a big hit for us. We had a fastpass for Frozen Ever After in an hour, so we decided to keep up the princess momentum and pop into the Royal Sommerhaus to meet our pals Anna and Elsa. Luckily I had brought a suitable change of princess clothes so we were soon suitably attired and in the 20 minute queue. Having never been in here before we were really impressed with the theming, and particularly enjoyed the little nod to Maelstrom (gone but not forgotten).

Anna and Elsa were brilliant, as were the photographers who were with them. I could see they were taking so many photos so I could just enjoy watching their interaction, and Martin took a bit of video.

Charlotte was on cloud 9 after the dream morning she’d had, and we headed into Frozen Ever After next. With our fastpass we were in a boat within 5 minutes. The last time we went on this ride on our last trip Elsa wasn't working, so this was our first ride on it working properly. We really enjoyed it, mainly because Charlotte loved it. There was lots of pointing, oohing and ahhing. I had warned her a few times that we might get splashed by Marshmallow, because the last time we went on we got bloody soaked! We didn’t get too wet on this ride, but I think the drop took her by surprise judging by the ride picture!

Exiting into the gift shop we had some major pestering for a toy, but managed to escape unscathed.

We popped into the Odyssey building where they had some Festival of the Arts stuff going on and some merch.

The official artwork for the festival

A cast member came up to Charlotte who was still dressed as Princess Anna, and asked her for her autograph. I think you probably heard my heart explode , her little smile was just the sweetest and it was a really special moment. The cast member’s autograph book was full of little scribbles, and I just thought what a lovely thing to do, walk around and make little kids feel so special.

If we weren’t with a 2 year old I would have definitely enjoyed some of the things that were on here. Some were free and some were an extra charge.

They were playing Donald Duck cartoons on the big screens which we enjoyed watching for a few minutes!

Exiting the Odyssey building, we walked over towards Mouse Gear and sotted the Taste Track festival booth. One of my “must have snacks” was the paintbrush churros from here so we decided to get some – gotta get on those snack credits.

They were good, although the coloured ends didn’t really taste of anything in particular. Me and Lottie polished these off as Martin doesn’t like cinnamon, so he isn’t a lover of churros. All the more for us I say!



There was a small playground which was themed to Wreck it Ralph, so we parked up the stroller and let Charlotte loose in there. She had a great time.

On the way into MouseGear there was a little section where kids could do chalk art so she had a go at that too.

Once she was all played/chalked out we went into Mouse Gear and I had a quick look at the Dooneys. None jumped out at me, so it was onwards towards Figment!

En route Martin spotted a Wreck it Ralph meet and greet and was keen to fist bump Ralph haha! We ended up behind 2 American children who were the ACTUAL spawn of the devil. They were fighting with each other, swinging off the ropes, undoing them, pulling the tape up off the floor, rolling around, screaming, shouting. You name a behaviour you wouldn’t want your child to do – they were doing it. The parents were completely ignoring them. Every now and again when a cast member saw them doing something they shouldn't be, and sometime doing something actually dangerous like playing with the wires hidden behind the boxes during the last bit of the queue they asked them not to, they didn’t even stop and the parents DID NOTHING. Now, I know Charlotte isn't an angel (see day 3 for documented proof haha) but I would never let her behave like this and ignore her.

Me and Martin were just staring at each other, our eyes getting wider and wider. There was a Spanish speaking family behind us. Our eyes met and we spoke in the international language of eye rolls and tuts.


Ralph and Vanellope had to go for a little break just as it was our turn, so we were chatting to the photographer and cast member at the front of the line, who were both so nice. The photographer took some lovely pictures (my faith in photopass had definitely been restored after this morning’s disappointment). This was a cool meet and I love the pictures.

These were as she spotted Vanellope and Ralph coming back from their break

Our Figment fastpass was active now so we went over there next. She enjoyed this much more than on our last trip, and loved the musical activities in Imageworks. She asked for a Figment plush in the shop, but I persuaded her to wait and get it another day if she still wanted it.

Next up, it was time to do some Living with the Land.

We love this ride.

We considered doing the Behind the Seeds tour, but I think Charlotte is a bit too small so hopefully it will still be around when we go back when she’s bigger.


She was looking very sleepy now so popped her in the buggy and walked back towards world showcase. We felt a bit thirsty so called into Club Cool to sample some beverages.

Charlotte was fast asleep by now. We stopped in the Port of Entry shop on our way into World Showcase, to pick up the Epcot reusable bags, and I wanted to get a wine stopper! All the essentials haha.

With Charlotte asleep we took the chance to paint the squares on the Festival mural wall. This might sound mean, and she would love it but there’s no way she would appreciate being told to only do a few squares, and would either have a meltdown or make a mess on the wall, so it was in everyone’s interest to do it now

I picked up an Orange Bird print for Jo that she had asked me to get for them from one of the Festival of the Arts tents, and spotted the official Festival print again, but decided to get it another day.


We made it into Canada and had a little regroup. We were off to Magic Kingdom later for a dessert party, something we’d never done before. We debated whether to all head back to the room, but in the end decided Martin would pop back with all the things we didn’t need (princess dresses, print, wine stopper etc) and pick up a few things we would (light up stuff for Charlotte etc). We agreed to meet in France, but as we walked through the UK we heard the band were on so quickly popped in to listen.

That done, we went our separate ways. I got a frose in France and sat and chilled by the little fountain for a while and people watched. Bliss!

When Martin returned, we carried on around World Showcase and had a look at some of the artwork and food.

We were feeling a bit peckish as we hadn’t really eaten since breakfast, but didn’t want to fill up before the dessert party, so we got a couple of dishes I’d heard good things about – the beef wellington from The Artist’s Table (they also had amazing cookies but no filling up on sweet stuff with a dessert party later!) and red wine braised beef short rib from Cuisine Classique.

Oh my goodness, these were unbelievably good. We had some water too and decided to plough on to the monorail now to make sure we got to Magic Kingdom in plenty of time.

Lottie woke up as we were on the monorail and was really excited to watch everything go by out of the window.

She had a big drink of water and a little blueberry muffin to keep her going. We arrived and got a lovely photograph outside the front of the park.

I looked on MDE to see what fastpasses were available. They had some for Dumbo, so grabbed those and strolled up Main Street, soaking in the lovely atmosphere. There’s something much less manic about arriving at Magic Kingdom much later in the day.

We walked up to the castle for a little look at it, and walked through and towards Storybook Circus, onto Dumbo.

Our stroller had been moved right into the back of the parking when we got out so took us a little while to find it! We spotted this person as we were looking.

If you need to sleep on a wall I think it’s a sign you should go back to your hotel and have a nap!


Having never done a dessert party before, we weren’t sure what the savoury options would be like so decided to grab a hot dog and fries from Casey’s to share between us all. Martin went in to get the food, I spotted an empty table outside so walked over to it with the buggy. As I got there, another woman literally ran over and threw herself on one of the chairs. I shot her a look and spotted another table right at the back, so went and sat there. It was a pain trying to navigate the buggy through all the chairs but we got there in the end. I was pretty fuming and kept looking at the woman (hoping she could feel my eyes boring into her skull). She sat by herself the entire time we were there and didn’t even get anything to eat or drink! She was just playing on her phone. I tried to let it go, but I just can’t understand the behaviour of people sometimes.


Anywayyyyyy, we decided to figure out where we checked in for the dessert party. As we left the Mouskedance parade was passing down Man Street, so of course we waited for a while and watched that. It was starting to get a bit dusky so we made our way to Tomorrowland , took some photos because it just looked so beautiful.

We found the Tomorrowland Terrace and checked in with a cast member, who got someone to show us to our reserved table. I don’t know if the tables are reserved for specific parties or if they just show you to an approprtiate empty one, but we were amongst the first ones there and were taken right to the front, at the side.
I took a load of pictures so you can see what they had!

Cheeseburger egg rolls!

Our view

It was a really lovely evening, we definitely didn’t get our money’s worth (and we didn’t even have to pay for Charlotte as she was under 3) but it felt like a lovely treat. When we were done, a cast member walked us over to the viewing area for Happily Ever After which was in the Plaza Garden. It was nice and spacious in there, we didn’t feel packed in at all like you do on Main Street and our first (proper) viewing of Happily Ever After was lovely and special.

We hung around for a little while after it was all done to let the hordes exit, before we left. I haven’t made any more notes, but assume we got the bus home!

I have a picture of Lottie in the lobby, and remember Martin went to ask about booking his round of golf but wasn’t able to do it yet.

This was an absolutely lovely day. With regard to the dessert party, I think you’d have to have the sweetest of sweet tooths to be able to make the most of it! Especially as I always think American desserts are even sweeter than what we’re used to. The overall experience was worth the money for us, and the savoury options were a nice addition. I think the other parties where alcohol is served may give you a better shot at getting good value for money

Tomorrow- Magic Kingdom, Yachtsman Steakhouse and some more Epcot

[CC71]

What a fabulous day with some amazing character meets for Charlotte who is heart achingly cute by the way! Shame on the selfish table grabber in Casey’s Corner, I honestly don’t understand some people’s actions, especially when she could see you had a little one in a buggy I think most people feel the same way about the dessert parties, not really value for money but worth it for a more relaxed experience with a decent guaranteed view.

Really enjoying your report, thank you for sharing

[GezzasGem]

What a great day and you did so much! How wonderful to see Charlotte meet the princesses 😊❤ never done a dessert party as DH not got a sweet tooth at all though I would love to have a crack at it 😆 super photos 👌

[Mel49]

Fantastic day and so cute to see the photos of your little princess with the "real one's" - one regret I have was never dressing up my DD for photos but she had 2 big brother's so I was used to just t-shirts with shorts (disney t-shirts at least). Maybe I can persuade her to wear a princess dress for MNSSHP in October but as she will be 13 then I can guess the answer !

Glad she managed to have a nap so you could enjoy your dessert party and fireworks. We've also got the dessert party booked for MNSSHP as a late birthday treat for me but partly so I can get a seat to have a rest and watch the fireworks (dodgy knees when standing too long).

[Palm trees]

What a lovely day, Epcot looks great first thing in the morning whilst it's so empty, I'm fantasizing about an early breakfast there on our next (currently still fantasy too!) Trip.

[mick]

A great day lots of character interaction for Charlotte and the food at the party looked lovely


Joan

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Oh you are not biased at all, Charlotte looked absolutely adorable in her Belle dress! So annoying that the photographer let you down... glad all the other later in the day made up for it!

I love that the CM asked for her autograph, just the sweetest thing... I would have been in tears!

Such a wonderful day, all those desserts looked so good! I have a very sweet tooth but I don't think even I could get my money's worth on this one!

[collybird]

Lottie looks so cute in her Belle dress, it’s lovely how pleased she is with it. What a shame that you didn’t get good Memory Maker pictures of the meet with Belle. It’s a bit rubbish you only got three Princesses at breakfast; we’ve always had four at Akershus. I think you made the right choice opting for it over CRT, only one credit and the food is better!

I love Lottie’s little Epcot t-shirt.

[sheluk]

Awwwww how adorable is Charlotte in her dresses, so hope Penny loves her princesses too! Or even Charlie for that matter

Sounds like a fab day, especially that solo cocktail with sleeping toddler. And relax...

It looks like the MK dessert party offerings have improved since we did it in 2017. It all tasted quite “samey” then and I have one heck of a sweet tooth too. Totally worth it for the view though!

Very much looking forward to your next instalment! Xx

[vics18]

Originally Posted by CC71

What a fabulous day with some amazing character meets for Charlotte who is heart achingly cute by the way! Shame on the selfish table grabber in Casey’s Corner, I honestly don’t understand some people’s actions, especially when she could see you had a little one in a buggy I think most people feel the same way about the dessert parties, not really value for money but worth it for a more relaxed experience with a decent guaranteed view.

Really enjoying your report, thank you for sharing

See more...

Aw thank you! She definitely racked up the Princess count today!

Yeah, there's no accounting for people's actions sometimes.

Yes, that sums up the dessert party experience perfectly. Glad we did it, but would be a while before we did another I think.

Thanks for reading