February Florida Fun - Day 5, Blizzard Beach, Chef Mickey and Epcot

[Eccle]

After our later night, we had a more relaxed morning planned as we weren’t at a park first thing. I had suggested that we go to Blizzard Beach as everyone was keen on going to the water park. My water park experience is fairly limited, we went to them both for the first time on our last trip, but even then had only been in the main pools and lazy rivers. This is possibly why this wasn’t my best thought through plan!

We aimed to get to Blizzard Beach for opening at 10, but were slightly later. Most of the cast members were lined up on the way in blowing bubbles and throwing balls which Barnaby loved, I struggled to get him away to get him to the changing rooms. We got lockers, and then went to explore. It seemed like everyone in Blizzard Beach was either British or a South American tour group! We went in the lazy river, Barnaby enjoyed this until the tunnel when cold water went on him. I then took Barnaby to paddle in the younger children’s area, whilst the others went on a group raft ride (Teamboat Springs I think). As there were 7 of them they had to split across two rafts, and David and my two had to wait for other people to ride with as they needed at least 4. They all loved it and came back saying it was the best ride they had been on yet. After a bit of splashing around we realised that we were going to have to go and get changed to have time to pop back to the villa and get to our Chef Mickey reservation at 2pm. I felt a bit bad my suggestion had ended up with a rather flying visit, but everyone else was happy that we’d had a chance to get a feel for it and would definitely be back another day, at least the only cost was the locker.

We popped back to the villa to shower properly and get our things together for the rest of the day, then drove over to the Contemporary. The security guard was lovely and after checking my passport to make sure we had a reservation, suggested that David dropped us off at the entrance before parking to save walking the kids across the car park. I also let him know that the car behind us was with us too. Once we were all parked, we headed up to Chef Mickeys. We were close to the end of the brunch service (I think the last time is 2.30), and there weren’t too many people waiting. The photopass photographer and assisting cast member were lovely and chatted to us about our day and were good at trying to get Barnaby to look in the right direction.

We didn’t have much of a wait to be seated and got a nice big round table on the left side, which I prefer to the right side which I think is a bit dark. The buffet had a good mixture of breakfast and lunch food and as the restaurant was fairly empty we didn’t have to queue up. Our server was hopeless though, after bringing our drinks she pretty much disappeared, we had dirty plates stacking up on the table, had to try and find her to get drinks refills, and even struggled to find her to pay the bill at the end.

The characters were good, but for some reason there was no Goofy today which was a bit disappointing. I did have the feeling that despite how much Barnaby loves the Mickey characters, he was slightly annoyed at being removed from his highchair and food to meet them! I was pleased I had booked a late slot, it was nice having a quiet restaurant and the food was still being refilled. At $42 an adult and $25 a child, even with Barnaby being free our bill came to $167 including the compulsory 18% gratuity because of our group size. We have done Chef Mickey on every trip, and I did enjoy it, but as on our next trip Alex will be classed as an adult and Barnaby will also be a child not an infant, I’m not sure I would pay for it again. Having said that, talking to the boys the other day it is on their list for the next trip, so we will see!

Having seen the monorail going through the hotel, Sam was keen to go on it again, and whilst we could have got it to Epcot, we needed to move the cars. So we decided to go for a ride around the loop before going back to the cars as we were in no rush.

We then drove over to Epcot and got parked. The first fastpass was Mission Space for David, Steve and the three oldest boys, though they stuck to the green side. I have done it once and didn’t have any strong desire to go on. Whilst they were doing that, we saw that Nemo only had a small wait, so Anna and I took Sam and Barnaby for another go on that, then wandered around the aquarium before meeting them at the Land pavilion. Sebastian and I went on Soarin first, we were quite near the end of a row and I found it made the picture a bit bendy, particularly the Eiffel Tower, so it wasn’t quite as good as the other day when I had been right at the front near the centre. The others went on Living with the Land again. Whilst the others went on Soarin, Sebastian, Barnaby and I went to get some water from Sunshine Seasons as I was feeling a bit headachy. A lovely cast member saw me struggling a bit with the two boys and came over to chat with us.

After they came off Soarin, everyone else went onto Test Track and I took Sebastian and Barnaby to meet Anna and Elsa as the wait wasn’t too bad at 25 minutes. At one point, they were his favourites and were top of his list to meet on our last trip, but they have dropped down his princess list a bit since. The new meeting place is very well done. I was feeling quite ill by now and managed to find some painkillers in my bag and take them whilst we waited. Sebastian was quite shy again but they were good at chatting to him, and Elsa in particular was really lovely, kneeling down to talk to him and asking him if he had built a snowman (fortunately our snow in December meant that he had!) Although so far Barnaby had loved the furry characters, he was very wary of any human characters and as with Ariel, only went near Anna and Elsa when I was holding him despite their efforts. He is giving them suspicious looks in the photos!

Coming out and walking back to Test Track I felt a little bit better, and it was well timed as the others were just coming off as we got there. Sebastian and I went on. Just as we got near the front, the man from the family in front of us asked me if we’d been on before and how scary it was as one of his daughters was only just tall enough. I reassured him that it was fast but fun rather than scary, and that Sebastian had done it when he was only just 4 and loved it. I saw them again coming off and thankfully his daughter had enjoyed it!

Meeting up with the others, we then decided to stay for Illuminations. Earlier on we had been flagging and thought we might not, but by now it was about 8.30pm, and I had managed to get fastpasses for it so we thought we may as well stay. We walked over to the viewing area and found a spot. I have seen Illuminations twice before, but from La Hacienda rather than outside. I have to admit I was quite underwhelmed by it, but at least we had seen it. As the viewing area is on the edge of the World Showcase, we walked out fairly easily afterwards, and whilst David and Anna walked to the cars with the younger two in pushchairs, Steve and I took the older three on the tram as there was one there when we were walking by. The tram conductor was great and very funny, and really cheered us up at the end of the night.

Back to the cars, and back to the villa and bed!

[collybird]

We have never bothered with water parks, although I'd like to see them, I feel like it takes up too much of the day having to shower after it etc.

[Eccle]

It does, as we discovered, take longer than you think! Personally I'm not much of a water person so I wouldn't do them if it was just me, but the boys love them, Alex cried before we went when I told him Typhoon Lagoon was closed whilst we were there, and he wants to do Volcano Bay on our next trip

[Goldia]

My kids love the water parks, I'm glad you managed to squeeze in a visit, even if it was a bit rushed. Chef Mickey sounds fun and a nice idea to do the monorail lap!

[Mortimer Mouse]

Sounds like you hadn't drunk enough water today.
Not sure I'd pay oop for Chef Mickeys, but we love a visit to the Contempory resort.

[Eccle]

Originally Posted by Goldia

My kids love the water parks, I'm glad you managed to squeeze in a visit, even if it was a bit rushed. Chef Mickey sounds fun and a nice idea to do the monorail lap!

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Mine do as well, we did manage to get back and do a longer visit later in the trip too

Originally Posted by Mortimer Mouse

Sounds like you hadn't drunk enough water today.
Not sure I'd pay oop for Chef Mickeys, but we love a visit to the Contempory resort.

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I think you could well be right, I do better at making sure the kids drink enough but don't always follow it myself!
I might not have done Chef Mickey this trip but our friends were keen to try character dining, I think it will be too much oop for future trips, we are going to have a few days onsite on our next trip though so it could feature again!