While waiting for the rest of our party, Briggs and I rode Living with the Land, which was relaxing, enjoyable, and educational. Then we met up with our evacuated group and enjoyed Journey Into Imagination before our late morning princess breakfast at Akershus, where we met Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Mulan.
Belle is always a family favorite.
The girls had more cards to give to the princesses who visited our table.
The food is always good and plentiful at Akershus, but the princesses are the highlight for the kids. The breakfast potatoes and pastries might be the highlight for me.
And Uma got to meet her favorite princess: Snow White!
Mulan was a bit of a surprise as we were expecting to meet human Ariel. (Ariel had been at this breakfast on our past 2 trips.) Adelie was a little disappointed that Ariel wasn't making a breakfast appearance, but Mulan was our best princess interaction at breakfast and a surprise highlight.
After breakfast, we stayed in Norway to meet Anna and Elsa before using our Fast Passes to ride the Frozen ride. Because Briggs did not want to ride, we used rider swap so that Staley got to ride twice in a row. Adelie could have ridden again, but she chose not to.
More cards made for more great princess interactions.
Anna spent a lot of time visiting with the kids, and Staley was jumping around in excitement the entire time.
I always enjoy the Frozen ride and was a little surprised that both Briggs and Adelie passed up on chances to do this fun ride for the first or second time.
After taking in all Norway had to offer, we then enjoyed spending time touring all the other countries in World Showcase. Highlights included the little trains in Germany, watching the street juggler in Italy, meeting Mary Poppins in England, riding the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride in Mexico, and discovering the Kidcot Fun Stops in each country. This was a new discovery this trip that the kids loved. In each country, there was a special station where kids could get an informational card and sticker while talking to people who actually live in those given countries. It was lots of fun...and educational!!
All 3 kids love these little trains. We always spend lots of time in Germany watching the trains. Of course, this is one of Briggs' favorite things about Disney.
This street juggler was a lot of fun, although he did have some fun at Zach's expense. Luckily, my husband is a good sport.
Mary Poppins was practically perfect in every way.
Once we had enjoyed our time in World Showcase, we made our way back to some of the other areas to do more rides. We did Mission Space (with rider swap since Briggs again chose to forego this ride), but this time both girls rode twice. They also joined me for rider swap on Soarin' so that they could do that one twice in a row as well. While I took the girls on Soarin', Zach and Briggs did Living with the Land again. And while I took advantage of a short single rider line for Test Track (not my favorite), the rest of the family enjoyed some Mickey ice cream treats and most of them rode the Nemo ride. We rounded out our afternoon with Turtle Talk with Crush (a family favorite) and Spaceship Earth (which Briggs REALLY liked).
Nothing provides that mid-afternoon boost like a Mickey ice cream treat.
Things seem a little fishy with this crazy family.
I had never ridden Test Track before and was a little disappointed. Based on the wait times this ride can incur, I had higher expectations.
We were able to enjoy Epcot at night while wandering back through World Showcase, grabbing some dinner at Tangerine Café in Morocco, watching the Chinese Acrobats in China (another highlight), and then staying for the Illuminations nighttime show. Briggs didn't care for it, but the rest of us enjoyed it. It wasn't my favorite night time Disney show, but it had been on my to-do list since our first trip, so I'm glad we stayed to see it.
Catching a little night time Epcot magic
I love all the Disney parks at night.
Our Epcot day was long, but fun. We were at the park for over 12 hours, getting there before it opened and staying until after it closed. Even after all that time, the kids still didn't have enough and asked to come back later in the week. Epcot is a great mix of rides, characters, and just wandering around to enjoy all there is to see and do. We could have definitely filled another day, but our return trip to Epcot was derailed when the kids all remembered just how much they love Magic Kingdom. Stay tuned...
