Day 1 - 16/08/18 EPCOT

[pcnine28]

Well, you always know you are going to wake up early, especially if you don't stay awake long enough the day before, but we are all wide awake at 3am today - YUK. Still, it meant I had plenty of time to unpack properly and make our little POR room feel more like home. We were showered and bathed and out of the door by 730am.
EPCOT is our nearest park, and we were soon parking and walking in - no need for the tram this early. Hubby was so excited to be getting 'free drinks' i.e. snack credits, that he used his first one straight away at the Joffery's right outside the entrance and get an iced coffee.

We went swiftly through bag check (my friend Steve used to be a WDW security guard, and would sing to people as they were queuing for checks. He's now a WDW K9 officer, but sadly was away training whilst we were there) and straight into the park. We saw the people waiting in front of Spaceship Earth for rope-drop, but we were able to scoot past as we had a breakfast ADR at Akershus! I made sure to take the opportunity to get photos of an almost empty park ...

We arrived at the Norway Pavilion in World Showcase just after 8am, and checked in right away. We were called through, and firstly we met Belle before we were taken to our table - there is a Photo Pass photographer with Belle too.

The theming inside Akershus is lovely - if you can't get CRT, then this is a well deserved next best thing in my opinion. We were seated at lovely table right in the middle of all the action and had a wonderfully attentive server called Silje. Nothing was too much trouble for her.

You go up to the cold buffet, which has a variety of regular breakfast and continental items such as cereal, yogurts, pastries, fruit etc. and hot food is brought to the table - scrambled egg, cheesy potato hashbrown type thing, sausages and bacon. We also asked for Mickey waffles as they do not come as standard, but no trouble to be requested. We also had plenty of coffee and juice.

Cinderella and Aurora came to the table first (they sign autographs and pose for pictures, but there is no Disney photographer), and they were both delightful, taking time to notice Felicity had a personalised princess tshirt on.

Next was the Princess Parade, where the children could follow the princesses around the room if they wanted too (Felicity loved all of these).
Next was Ariel (who is my favourite princess and I was a bit of a fan-girl lol) and finally Snow White, who were also perfectly in character. We were not at all rushed.

All this time Silje kept checking we had plenty to eat and drink too. A really wonderful experience.
As we headed out (baring in mind we had already been awake for 7 hours or so and were just finishing breakfast!), we saw Frozen Ever After only had a 10min standby so we shot on there! It was good fun as always, Felicity is still a HUGE Frozen fan.
It was time to leave World Showcase and head over to Future World ready for our first FP, and a first for Felicity - Test Track. She was super nervous all through the line. She liked the car design part but alas she HATED the ride. It was too dark inside and too fast and high outside apparently ... hubby and I loved it as always! She did enjoy sitting in all the mega expensive cars at the end however ...
She was beginning to flag already and complaining about how hot it was and she was tired (she is only 8) so we popped to Fountain View Starbucks and used 2 snack credits - 2 venti cinnamon dolce frappachinos ... mmmmm :-)
Luckily one of the carts just outside were selling the plush Baymax that she wanted, so he was purchased with her daily dollar allowence, and we slowly headed out of the park.
We drove straight to Super Target on the 192 to pick up a few of those American essentials such as painkillers, Goldfish, Dunkin Donuts coffee and some milk, cereal, snack etc. for the room. They were refurbing and didn't have a huge Disney or toy section, but Felicity did manage to get a Cinderella Lego set that she'd been after in the UK.
We stopped in at Taco Bell just so hubby could get a quick fix, then drove back to POR for a little rest.
Hubby and madam had a quick swim in the 'quiet pool' which was hardly ever quiet this holiday as one of the other pools was closed during the refurb!
We then freshened up and headed over to the Riverside Mill food court for dinner. We ate here a lot on our last 2 visits when we were on the QSDP, and I think it is still one of the best CS resort options.
We had - Felicity = kids pasta with garlic bread and apple
hubby = cajun chicken burger
me - caprese sandwich. YUM.

We popped into the shop, had a little walk around and then headed back to the room, just to chill and relax and look ready to MK tomorrow.

TS = 3 Akershus
CS = 3 Riverside food court
Snacks = 3

Step count = 15,000

[mick]

A good first day

Joan

[Dizzny Momma]

Sounding good so far
Margaret

[pcnine28]

Thank you! I am not very technical so adding in photos after writing ...

[minnie29]

Loved your review of Akershush - can't wait to go there

[mouskevik]

Brilliant Nine! Xxx