The trip of many changes August 2017 - Day 5 Epcot and Disney Springs

jothp · 4 Sep 17, 10:23 PM

Index here

Today was another early start as we had an 8.10 breakfast reservation at Garden Grill. We arrived at Epcot at 7.45 and joined the line for early breakfast reservations. We were soon allowed in and made our way to the restaurant. They seated us virtually immediately and our waiter was very good. We had plenty of food that was all fresh and tasty. We hadn't done this one on our previous trip but it would certainly make it onto the list again in future.

We skipped Mickey as we wanted to get on Soarin before the crowds from park opening and we knew we would have plenty of other opportunities to meet him. We got to Soarin and weren't held for long before we were walking through the queue to get on the first ride of the day. At the end they were calling out that we could ride a second time, so we went again without leaving our seats.

It was only 9.10 and we had already ridden Soarin twice.

I had heard that queues build quickly for Joy/Sadness and Baymax so we hurried there once we'd finished on Soarin. There was only one other group in front of us in the line so we were done quickly and moved on to Baymax. By the time we had finished there were fairly lengthy queues for both characters so we got our timing just right.

The next destination was the seas pavillion. We used our fastpass for the seas with Nemo but we really didn't need it this early in the morning - it was basically a walk on. We got lucky and walked into the next turtle talk with crush show just as it was about to start. We did have a FP for this but didn't use it. We walked out of the show dead on 10 having completed everything we wanted to do before the
world showcase opened at 11. I then had the brainwave that I could modify the FP we hadn't used to something else. I scored LWTL for 10.25 so we slowly wandered back in that direction. Despite my completely ungreen fingers I always enjoy the relaxed pace of this ride and today was no different.

We came off about 10.50 and began to make our way towards France in the WS so we could meet Belle. The girls couldn't resist a stop at club cool on the way.

I was expecting to find a long queue by the time we arrived at about 11.10 but there were actually only a couple of families in front of us and we were soon meeting the lady herself.

The pace slowed somewhat now as we had a wander around France. The girls were complaining of starvation despite the big breakfast so we stopped in the boulangerie for a snack and a drink. We browsed the shops and the younger two grabbed a Duffy bear to colour in. Next we started to make our way around the lagoon with the aim of making it to China for 12.45 to wait for Mulan.

We were moving very slowly so we took a long sticky walk straight past America, Italy and Germany to try to make it to China, but it was 12.55 by the time we got there and the queue for Mulan was already very long so the girls decided not to wait.

At around the same time I got the dreaded email to say that Frozen - our next FP due to start in a few minutes - was down. We needed to reevaluate our plans so we sat inside the China pavillion enjoying the cool from the air con to think. Plan made we continued around the lagoon to see if there was any chance Frozen had reopened - it hadn't. In fact it seemed like it may have been closed all morning. We carried on moving and took a trip on the Fiesta tour in Mexico along with adding a bit more to the Duffy bears. As one final ride of the day we used our Frozen FP at TT. It seemed lots of people had the same idea as the FP queue was long but it moved relatively quickly. We had car design competition - children v adults and I'm ashamed to say that the children won.

We left the park to make our way towards our second destination of the day - Disney Springs. I had done my research and as we wanted to be in the marketplace area we parked in the lime garage. It was well signposted and we parked up at 2.45. The first job was to pick up our gift voucher from World of Disney. Ollie went with the girls to look for gifts for their friends and any souvenirs they wanted whilst I went for the voucher. The process was fairly straightforward and there was only one person being served in front of me. Once I was done I couldn't get a phone signal to phone the others but I somehow managed to find them. They had done a good job of choosing things and I actually managed to escape with $10 left on the gift card! Although it was only 4.00 we were feeling a bit peckish having eaten only a snack since breakfast. We settled on Wolfgang Puck Express and had a lovely meal. After dinner we visited the Christmas shop for the traditional holiday bauble and then Goofy's for some dessert before heading back for an evening at the hotel. Hattie and Evie took part in the drum cafe and then they all had an hour in the pool before the lightning started and we returned to the room for an earlyish night.

I'm quite sad that we didn't make more time to do some of the activities on offer at the hotel as the girls really enjoyed this.

collybird · 5 Sep 17, 11:24 AM

What an awesome morning! Can't believe you got two rides on Soarin' and still managed to meet Joy & Sadness quickly. We were the very first people on Soarin' after our Garden Grill breakfast but we didn't get offered another go, boo! You were so lucky with the wait for Belle too.

jothp · 17 Feb 18, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by collybird

What an awesome morning! Can't believe you got two rides on Soarin' and still managed to meet Joy & Sadness quickly. We were the very first people on Soarin' after our Garden Grill breakfast but we didn't get offered another go, boo! You were so lucky with the wait for Belle too.

We were just thankful to get one ride on Soarin so a second was a great bit of pixie dust.

Luck seemed to be on our side today with the short queue for Belle too.

Waltdisnae · 24 Feb 18, 08:46 AM

A great day. I hadn't realised you could meet the princesses in Epcot - off to research. Thanks.

Stu · 24 Feb 18, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by Waltdisnae

A great day. I hadn't realised you could meet the princesses in Epcot - off to research. Thanks.

there is a Character location list here on the DIBB
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/Dis...er-p-1537.html

**Custancia** · 24 Feb 18, 01:59 PM

Im guessing Chip & Dale loved Hattie�s choice of top!

jothp · 24 Feb 18, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Custancia

Im guessing Chip & Dale loved Hattie�s choice of top!

Yes they did. Robyn had a Chip and Dale top too but forgot to wear it this morning and I didn't notice until we were already there.

Excitedx4 · 26 Feb 18, 10:24 AM

Wow another jam packed day! You got loads done!