Do you know what today is?! Well, usually Mondays are just Mondays around here. Not anymore… now they are Magical Mondays and I’m sharing our recent visit to Epcot during our last trip! With hopes to share more Disney content, I’m planning on using Mondays to get your week going with the help of a little Disney Magic. First, I’ll be sharing OUR days at Disney. From there, we’ll share anything I find, tips, tricks, favorite things, etc. Just a little Magic for your Mondays…
EPCOT
So, on our recent trip we were in the parks for five days and there was quite a bit to go through. I mean who takes 2500 pictures over five days?! Oh, that’s me. Whoops! Sorry, not sorry. We also purchased the Memory Maker so there was another almost 300 photos taken because when you have the memory maker, you make EVERY cast member with a photographer take a picture (or ten) of you! Hahah.
The first day we visited, we headed to Epcot. I’m always a bit unsure how to set up the trip, but in my opinion, Epcot is not a park to close the trip with so this time we choose to head there first. After this trip, I was happy with how we had chosen to do it and there were only a couple things I might have changed, but that’s for another day.
Epcot.
One of the 4 theme parks at Walt Disney World. Did you know it’s twice the size of Magic Kingdom park at 300 acres? It’s like two parks in one — featuring Future World & the World Showcase.
WORLD SHOWCASE
I always feel like I’m not going to fully enjoy this park until I get there. Lots of walking and not many rides, but this trip I was pleasantly surprised. First, there are rides, some of which I feel are hidden. Second, the food here is delish. And there’s something for everyone at Epcot. If you travel in February as we did, you will most likely encounter the Epcot Festival of Arts which was a nice touch in every corner of the World Showcase. You’ll find artists’ booths and also lots and lots of photo ops.
We started the day in Norway at Askerhaus Royal Banquet Hall for a princess breakfast. This is how we started the day at Epcot on our last trip too. We really enjoy this restaurant. Someone tipped us off that it’s a better bang for your buck than Cinderella’s Royal Tables and we fully agree. While we can’t compare it fully, because we’ve not yet been able to snag a table at THE castle, we think Askerhaus is one of the best picks to meet & greet. Here you’ll enjoy visits from Princesses Aurora, Ariel, Snow White, and Cinderella while you eat delicious food with a Norwegian touch. Not to mention you get to talk to Belle before sitting down to eat.
ASKERHAUS
Our first fast pass for the day was FROZEN which wasn’t open the last time we were visiting and we were sure would be a hit with the girls. And since I’m quite possibly the worst with making sure I have the right time for our reservation, we got to Askerhaus a few minutes early… Just early enough to sneak in a ride before we were seated. The line wasn’t long {yet} and Mike & the girls went to check it out while I took care of a few things.
They ran out just in time to hit our reservation….
And when we finished, we went again using our fast passes.
KIDS PASSPORTS
Then our next move was to head into the World Showcase. We had big plans to find Mary Poppins (which we failed) and also try to knock off a couple of other princesses too. When looking for princesses, check the times on the guides you can find all over the parks, and look for people running like crazy or lining up. I feel like when there’s a line, go ahead and join. You can change your mind once you are in it, but you can’t once it’s closed.
We walked back towards Germany and picked up the kid’s passport thing. Throughout the day, we did our best to hit all of these, but we did miss one. This was a fun thing to get us “around the world” as well as learning a little tiny thing about each country.
Then we headed back towards our next fast pass, Turtle Talk with Crush. Last time we were here, we closed the park with this show because Crush didn’t pick Ella for a question and she cried and cried and cried. It had been a long day. So we went back 2 or 3x in a failed effort to get chosen. This time around, she didn’t even raise her hand. It is a super cute show though. And it still gets me every time because, how do they do that?! I mean I have a general idea, but how magical. Disney does everything right.
I’M GONNA WRECK IT
After that, it was time to find Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope, quite possibly some of our favorite characters ever. We are all fans of these two. Well, we thought we were… Not Olive. She’s not a fan of the costumes, but they were great.
Next, we headed over to Test Track.
Olive napped so I waited outside while Mike & Ells rode.
I’ve still never been on this one, but I must say that Ella does the ride photos!
When we were done there, we headed back to the World Showcase but went the opposite way this time. We met Alice, stamped pennies, met Jasmine and collected more stickers for our passports.
We were almost to Mexico, we had to B line it for our reservation at Garden Grill. Another character dining meal with Mickey & Friends and a lovely way to give our feet a break. Still, Olive was not a fan of any characters up close and would only wave from afar.
GARDEN GRILL
The food at Garden Grill is served family-style and is actually very tasty. I’d not suggest this meal for a day where it’s very hot out because it can be a bit heavy. It’s still pretty tasty and hit the spot since we’d accidentally and on purpose skipped lunch. When you plan the days out you don’t want to always be sitting to eat so we had planned to snack for lunch, but well, Disney…
After dinner, we were perfectly placed to head right down to Soarin’ so we didn’t have to walk too far to hit that one! And of course, we used the rider swap so Ells got to ride twice.
ALL OUR DISNEY FUN
And then the night was over…
We finished out watching Illuminations and waiting for some really cool photos on our way out.
The things we missed.
-Mary Poppins
-Mexico Ride
-Donald in Mexico
-Spaceship Earth
Those are the top things we missed but there is so much to do that I’m sure we missed more! I’m already starting to plan our next trip and I swear I’m making a checklist and we won’t be able to leave until we’ve done whatever’s on the list! It’s such a huge park though! It’s like two in one and it’s just so hard to get to it all!
But that was our day in a nutshell!
What are your favorite things to do at Epcot and what would you say we missed?! I’d love to hear what is on your Epcot Must Do List!
While I feel like we do pretty well with our trips, I know there’s a lot to learn and still so much we don’t know!
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