The Mad Hatters in Florida May/June 2018 - Day 14 – Not Magic Kingdom but Epcot and Friendly’s

[Mad Hatters]

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report

So we are the Hatfield’s: Adam (Me), Grace (Wife), Joshua (Oldest Son), Trayvon (Youngest Son), Mick (My Dad) and Sue (My Mum).

Link to Index: Index

Link to previous day: Previous Day

Thursday 31st May: Day 14 – Not Magic Kingdom but Epcot and Friendly’s

Today was our final Disney park day of the holiday. We had planned to spend the day at Magic Kingdom. Grace woke up first at 6:45am and Joshua and Trayvon were up not longer after her. Seems that I allowed myself to have a bit of a lie in and didn’t wake up until 7:30

We organised our shuttle to Disney (you have to reserve the transport In advance at Homewood Suites) and the four of us sat down for breakfast at 8:04am.

Grace and Trayvon had some toast. Clearly didn't bother taking a picture of that as toast is just toast

Joshua went back to his traditional Mickey waffle covered with chocolate chips and syrup.


I had a bowl of fruit with yogurt, dried fruits and a splash of syrup as I didn’t want it to be too healthy I would have preferred some honey on there instead of syrup, but never mind.


We all had our usual imitation POG juice with breakfast and I also had a decaf coffee.

We headed back up to the room at 8:26am, so a pretty quick breakfast for us. We all got our sun cream on and finalised the packing of our bags.

While we were getting sorted my parents went down and had their breakfast.

We met up with them at 9:10am on our way out to catch the bus. We noticed that there were quite a few more people waiting for the bus to Disney today. We got on the bus at bang on 9:35am. Even though it was quite busy, we still managed to all get seats.

We arrived at Epcot at 10:13am. The one downside of the buses from the hotel was that they only go to Epcot, you then use the Disney transportation to get to the other parks.

We quickly used the restroom before going through security. Once through we headed to the monorail that would take us to the Transportation and Ticket Centre and then one to Magic Kingdom.

As soon as we got off the monorail at the TTC we knew we may have a problem on our hands. IT WAS RAMMED!

For some reason there were no buses running and so the queues for the boat and monorail were crazy. We had a quick group discussion and all agreed that rather than waiting, heading back over to Epcot would be a better option.

We jumped back on the monorail and headed to Epcot. While we were heading there I cancelled our planned FP’s and grabbed what I could for Epcot.

We arrived back at Epcot at 11:20am, a little bit annoyed at the hour we had wasted on our final Disney park day.

As soon as we got in we headed to Sunshine Seasons for some lunch.

Mum went for the Asian fried shrimp and Dad had Mongolian beef.


Both of the boys had mac n cheese with mash, a cookie and coke zero.



Grace had the same Mongolian beef as my Dad. She had a coke zero with it.


I had the fish tacos and a Yuengling beer.


The food wasn’t bad, but nothing amazing either. It did the job anyway and left us close to Living with the Land, for our first FP of the day.

The cost for our meals.


It was 12:08pm as we headed onto living with the land. We all enjoyed this ride. It is very relaxing.

Once we had got off the ride, we decided to see what the wait time was for Soarin’. It was 12:33pm and the stand by entrance time was showing a 40 minute wait. This is on the limit for what we would usually be willing to wait, but we decided to just get in line and wait.

The time was a little bit overestimated and in fact we only had to wait around 25 to 30 minutes which was a great result

I had a little look on MDE as we were heading over to our next Fast Pass and noticed that Nemo was a 60 minute wait I don’t think I have ever seen it so long before. We decided that we wouldn’t bother with waiting for that haha.

Turtle Talk with Crush was our next FP at 1:20pm. We all really enjoyed this and found it to be pretty funny.

When this had finished we spent a bit of time in the underwater viewing area. My photo’s are terrible here, sorry.





Another look on MDE showed a short wait time for Mission Space, so we headed there. We got in line at 1:55pm. It was posted as a 20 minute wait. Unfortunately our earlier luck had run out and we actually waited 45 minutes.

It was made worse as we had the most annoying people in front of us in the queue. They were constantly messing about hitting each other with the flight cards that you get handed out and as they were messing about, they were stepping on people’s toes. I would also safely say from the smells coming from them, they had eaten there beans for breakfast



Anyway, Dad, Joshua and I went on the orange mission. Grace, mum and Tray went on green. We really enjoyed the ride as usual. Shame the wait was so frustrating.

Next up, my notes say “Awful experience in club cool immature idiots”. I actually can’t remember this at all; maybe I was just a little grumpy after the experience in the queue for Mission Space.

My favourite drink was the Bibo with mango, Trayvon’s was Sparletta and Joshua wasn’t sure what his was. My Mum had nipped over to Starbucks for a Frappuccino while we were drinking in here.





It was just gone 3pm now and a thunderstorm was just starting. We hurried over to Figment for our FP. Again, I think my notes show me being a little grumpy as I wrote “Figment voice is annoying”. I suppose it is a bit, but the ride is a bit of fun and we enjoyed it.

I made a FP for Nemo once we had finished with Figment and before it was time for that we went in to the Disney Pixar short film festival. This was enjoyed just as much as the last time we watched it.

It was 4:10pm and time for our Nemo Fast Pass.

Once we had come off Nemo, it was about that time for us to start making a slow walk towards the exit, popping in a few of the shops on the way out. We spent a bit of time in the Disney Art Store, there is some really lovely Disney Pictures in there.



We loved this one


We grabbed some Popcorn to share as a final little Disney nibble on the way out and got to the bus stop at 5:12pm.



Trayvon stuffing his face with popcorn



The bus turned up very quickly and we were on by 5:19pm.
On the ride back we agreed that we would go straight to Friendly’s, our choice for tonight’s evening meal, as it’s a very casual place.

We were sat down in Friendly’s not long after 6pm. Not too bad timing from leaving Epcot.

We ordered up some drinks first.

Mum got one of their amazing milkshakes. She chose Strawberry. Joshua, Trayvon and Grace got diet coke. I had a sprite and Dad had a Fanta orange.

I really don’t know why I didn’t get a milkshake as they are really, really good from Friendly’s Ah well, onto the food.

I was really craving tuna, so went for the Tuna salad supermelt (Freshly prepared Albacore tuna salad, melted American cheese and tomato on freshly grilled sourdough bread. Served with golden fries). I switched the fries for onion rings.


Dad went for the same as me except he had his with the fries.


Mum had her favourite Friendly’s dish: New England Fish ‘N’ Chips (Premium, wild caught fish fillets fried in a golden brown, tavern batter, served with golden fries, coleslaw, a lemon wedge and tartar sauce).


Grace had what she always gets too; the Honey BBQ Chicken Supermelt (Country-breaded all-white chicken tenders smothered in sweet honey BBQ sauce, melted cheddar cheese, Applewood-smoked bacon and Ranch dressing on freshly grilled sourdough bread. Served with golden fries). She got the fries loaded.


Joshua had a hot dog with fries.


Trayvon had a grilled cheese with fries.


Included with the kids meals is a free desert. Both of them chose the make your own sundaes.

Joshua had cotton candy ice cream, sprinkles, cake pieces, marshmallow sauce and gummy bears.


Joshua clearly enjoying this………..


Trayvon had strawberry ice cream, cookie dough, Oreo cake pieces and sprinkles.


The food as always at Friendly’s was really simple but very tasty and definitely hit the spot. We much prefer it to Denny’s.

We got back to our hotel which is literally over the road from Friendly's, at 7:15pm, so we were pretty quick with our evening meal tonight. We all got our showers and baths.

Joshua did a little bit of his diary before we headed across to my parents room for our usual games of dominos. The women managed to win again This was becoming a very bad habit.

We were back in our room just after 8:45pm and we put the boys to bed.

We ended up watching most of Taken 3, before going to sleep ourselves not long after 10pm.

Total steps for today: 16,189.

Thank you for reading

[Palm trees]

Your wasted trek to MK sounds frustrating but it sounds like you made the most of your revised plans. The food at sunshine seasons looks nice, we've never eaten there but might just give it a try on our next trip

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

Your wasted trek to MK sounds frustrating but it sounds like you made the most of your revised plans. The food at sunshine seasons looks nice, we've never eaten there but might just give it a try on our next trip

See more...

Yeah it was frustrating but just one of those things. We could have queued and it not been too bad a wait but we plated it safe.

Sunshine seasons is ok. There is better in Epcot, but there is plenty of variety and it more than did the job. I’m probably being too critical, it’s just we ate so much fantastic food at Epcot that it sits towards the bottom of the list for our favourites.

Thanks for reading.

[Cinderella]

Sounds like a frustrating day😟

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Sounds like a frustrating day😟

See more...

There were a few frustrations I have to admit. Looking back I’d happily take a frustrating day in Florida over a normal day here haha.

Thanks for reading.

[Goldia]

Shame about the faffing around at the start, it seems like you managed to have fun at Epcot in the end though so despite starting later in the park it was all good. I'm not sure I approve of your note about figment having an annoying voice, Tut Tut! Given that you booked your fast passes on the day I think you did really well with rides and it sounds like a fun last day even though it wasn't quite what you originally planned.

[caitlinsmummy]

Such a shame about not getting to MK.

The food at Sunshine Season looks lovely especially the beef.

60 minutes for Nemo! I definitely wouldn't wait either. Turtle Talk with Crush is fab isn't it, they boys and Chris loved it!

I hate people messing about especially in queues. It's not so bad if it doesn't affect other people but stepping on toes and knocking people is just taking the biscuit, I'm afraid it would have been the rude American woman all over again with me and I would have had to say something. Common courtesy doesn't cost anything

Caitlin, Noah and I loved it club cool, I honestly can't remember which our favourites were, I think Noah's was the strawberry one? Looks like the boys had fun.

you definitely were grumpy that day weren't you! Poor Figment, what's he ever done to you haha.

I love all the pictures but the Beauty and The Beast one is definitely my favourite too!

Friendly's looks lovely, reminds me a little of Steak N Shake type food.

Another fab day, even though you didn't get to where you wanted to go! Xx

[mouselover22]

Epcot isn’t a bad place to spend your last Disney day You did well with the fastpasses and riding Soarin on the day. I think you were grumpy because it was you last Disney day and quite rightly so!

Friendly’s sounds like a hidden gem

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Shame about the faffing around at the start, it seems like you managed to have fun at Epcot in the end though so despite starting later in the park it was all good. I'm not sure I approve of your note about figment having an annoying voice, Tut Tut! Given that you booked your fast passes on the day I think you did really well with rides and it sounds like a fun last day even though it wasn't quite what you originally planned.

See more...

I apologise for the figment comment haha. I do actually like the ride and figment himself.

It did actually all work out well in the end. Not to mention I love Epcot anyway.

Thanks for reading.

[Mad Hatters]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

Such a shame about not getting to MK.

The food at Sunshine Season looks lovely especially the beef.

60 minutes for Nemo! I definitely wouldn't wait either. Turtle Talk with Crush is fab isn't it, they boys and Chris loved it!

I hate people messing about especially in queues. It's not so bad if it doesn't affect other people but stepping on toes and knocking people is just taking the biscuit, I'm afraid it would have been the rude American woman all over again with me and I would have had to say something. Common courtesy doesn't cost anything

Caitlin, Noah and I loved it club cool, I honestly can't remember which our favourites were, I think Noah's was the strawberry one? Looks like the boys had fun.

you definitely were grumpy that day weren't you! Poor Figment, what's he ever done to you haha.

I love all the pictures but the Beauty and The Beast one is definitely my favourite too!

Friendly's looks lovely, reminds me a little of Steak N Shake type food.

Another fab day, even though you didn't get to where you wanted to go! Xx

See more...

Thanks for reading again 😃

It was a shame not getting to MK although my love for Epcot meant it was fine by me haha.

Turtle talk really surprised us with how fun it was, we have definitely been missing out on that one.

The messing in the queue was the worst part of the holiday except for coming home for me. It really was so annoying. I definitely think that’s why I took it out on figment haha.

We love club cool. It’s something I never knew what it was until I read about it on the dibb. It’s a must visit for us.

I think friendly’s will be a similar thing too. It’s so yummy 😋 could have a shake right now.