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Zach dropped Briggs and I off at Disney Springs while he took the girls back to the outlet mall from the previous day so they could all do a little more shopping together. They had seen a number of stores (including running shoe stores) that they felt needed to be checked out. Staley found a cute Disney sweatshirt at the Character Warehouse that she bought with her souvenir money.
Briggs had zero interest in going shopping again, so we took a bus from Disney Springs to Animal Kingdom Lodge, which was on my list of Disney resorts I really wanted to see. It was beautiful!
We walked around the resort, checked out the animals on the resort savannah, and then grabbed some zebra domes (a snack that I had read were a must try) to enjoy with the family later in the evening.
Briggs had humored me with our Animal Kingdom Lodge stop, but what he really wanted to do with our day off was ride the Skyliner. So after we finished our visit to Animal Kingdom Lodge, we took a bus to Hollywood Studios and then rode the Skyliner to Art of Animation.
Art of Animation is one of our favorite resorts to visit. Briggs played on the Nemo playground for a bit and then made our way through the Cars area.
Briggs wanted pictures with a bunch of the cars, so we walked around and took lots of pictures before getting on a bus to head back to Disney Springs to meet Zach and the girls.
We got back to our Airbnb, the kids enjoyed a later afternoon/evening swim, we had a taco dinner, I did laundry, and then we watched 'Ratatouille' (to prepare us for our Epcot day the next day) and ate zebra domes. They lived up to the hype. So good!! Then we packed up our stuff for our early morning check out the next day.
We love the space, freedom, privacy, and amenities (private pools, kitchens, multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, laundry) of staying in an Airbnb, but Disney has brought back some of their on-site perks for those staying in Disney resorts. So for the last two days of our trip, we checked into a deluxe Disney resort for just one night so we could take advantage of Early Entry on Wednesday and Thursday and Extended Evening Hours on Wednesday night. (You can take advantage of these perks on both your check in day and your check out day.) We stayed at the Yacht Club so that we could be within walking distance of both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. The room was nothing special, but the common areas were very upscale and nice with regally dressed gentlemen in sailing garb greeting us as we came and went. Our kids referred to it as our "hoity-toity hotel." Not really our scene, but sometimes it's fun to see how the other half lives.
We left our Airbnb by 7, parked in our hotel parking lot, and then walked on over for Early Entry at Epcot. With both Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours, I did not buy a Lightning Lane Multi-pass for our day, although I did get single passes for the girls and I to ride the new Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster. I had a great plan of being towards the front of the line for Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and then hitting Frozen before the park opened to regular guests. That plan was almost immediately thwarted by Remy's being closed for Early Entry.
We just pivoted and instead lined up to start our day with Frozen. (Getting up early to wait in a line just to wait in a line isn't Zach's favorite way to start his day, but he was a pretty good sport about it.) We rode Frozen with a short wait and then Zach grabbed a coffee on our way to ride Soarin' before the lines started to build. It was nice to check off 2 of the high priority rides before the park was even opened to regular guests.
We all love Epcot. With each trip we take, it becomes more and more the favorite park for at least some of us. After this trip, Zach and I both decided that Epcot is our definitive favorite. We love how it's big and spread out. We love the countries. We love all the things to walk around and see rather than just going from one ride to the next. We love that it is not as people-y and line-y as Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. It is a more laid back, spend the day exploring kind of park.
After riding Soarin', we hopped on Living with the Land, walked over for the Nemo ride, checked out the manatees in the Seas aquarium, and enjoyed Turtle Talk with Crush.
We then popped over to check out the new Moana water play area. It was super cool! There were tons of neat interactive water features, and the kids spent a lot of time playing and checking them all out.
After that, we headed back into World Showcase to walk through the countries. Remy's Ratatouille Adventure had re-opened mid-morning, but the line was really long. Since we wanted to ride it and didn't want to wait over an hour, we all jumped into the single rider line and had literally no wait to get on the ride. Although single rider means you are generally split up from your group, Briggs and I ended up in the same ride vehicle as did Staley and Adelie. It was perfect!
I was told by a frequent Disney visitor that I needed to try a Tokyo Sunset from the Japan pavilion as she declared it the best drink in the entire park. So I did. And it was!
And, of course, no visit to Epcot is ever complete without spending ample time watching the miniature trains in Germany.
We ate a yummy lunch at the Regal Eagle, and then it was about time for the girls and I to head over for our Guardians roller coaster. We wandered back through the Moana water exhibit (it was a favorite!) on our way. Zach and Briggs stayed in World Showcase and watched 'The American Adventure' show.
The new Guardians of the Galaxy coaster was amazing! It combined a fun backstory and pre-show, screens, music, spinning, and a roller coaster. It was a blast! We all enjoyed it, although we were a bit wobbly getting off. I'm happy to we decided to buy a Lightning Lane pass for the ride as the posted wait time was never less than an hour the whole day.
Epcot was just beautiful when we were there. We had perfect weather, but they were also getting ready to start the Flower and Garden Festival the next week. It was perfect timing as we were there before the festival (and, thus, the festival crowds), but still got to enjoy the flowers in bloom and fun Disney topiaries that were all around the park.
After Guardians, it was time to meet back up with Zach and Briggs to head over to Magic Kingdom. Although we would have enjoyed more time to just walk around and explore at Epcot, we had hit all our priorities. Staley was really wanting to be at Magic Kingdom in time for the Festival of Fantasy Parade, so we jumped on the monorail, got into the park, found a place to sit in the shade (score!), and grabbed some ice waters to drink while we relaxed and waited for the parade to come by.
The Festival of Fantasy Parade is one of our favorites. I love that my kids still get excited about watching the Disney parades. I know I still do!
Much like our Hollywood Studios day, we used the middle portion of our Magic Kingdom day to focus on low wait time rides and shows, waiting until evening and our Extended Evening Hours to take advantage of low wait times for the more popular rides.
While we were waiting for crowds to thin out, we rode the train (one of Briggs' top requests), watched the Country Bear Musical Jamboree, ate Dole Whip, rode the Liberty Square Riverboat, walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse, rode Pirates of the Carribean (where Briggs used his souvenir money to get a sword), and ate dinner at Columbia Harbor House. It's one of our favorites with some good, healthy food options and scrumptious hush puppies.
Adelie really wanted to meet Ariel in her grotto, so Zach took Adelie and Staley to meet Ariel followed by the Dumbo ride while Briggs and I rode Goofy's Barnstormer together.
As evening came, we started taking advantage of some lower wait times for other favorite rides like the Little Mermaid ride and It's a Small World. I really wanted to ride Haunted Mansion as it's about the only ride at Magic Kingdom that I've never done, so we did that as a family...much to the chagrin of the youngest member of our party. But he sort-of bravely handled it while insisting that he'll never do it again. It was really cool and well-done, although I decided that I'm also less of a foreboding-house-of-ghosts fan and more of a happy- children-from-different-countries-singing-a-catchy-tune fan.
Although we do enjoy a good evening Disney fireworks and projection show, we decided to take advantage of low wait times during the fireworks to fit in some of our rides instead. We lucked into a very low wait time right at the beginning of the fireworks at the reimagined Tiana's Bayou Adventure (previously Splash Mountain), which we all really enjoyed. And as we took advantage of the end of the regular hours and commencement of Extended Evening Hours, we then started to enjoy some of the more popular rides.
We rode Tiana's Bayou Adventure again right before the park closed to regular guests (as Tiana's was not available during Extended Evening Hours). We then rode Peter Pan's Flight and Seven Dwarves Mine Train. After that, the girls and I crossed into Tomorrowland to do Space Mountain and Tron Lightcycle Run while Briggs did Seven Dwarves Mine Train again and then he and Zach did Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.
Tron is the newest ride at Magic Kingdom. It was really cool, but it felt super short...I would have liked it better if it had lasted a little longer. By the time we rode Tron, Adelie was too worn out to even really enjoy it. (She didn't even want to be in the picture.) It had been a long day!
By the time we got off our last rides, it was midnight and the end of our Extended Evening Hours. The park was eerily uncrowded as we made our way to the bus stop and rode a bus back to our resort. Staley and I did a quick streak-keeper mile around Lake Crescent while Zach and the littles got our luggage from the car and found our hotel room.
It was a marathon day of Disney parks fun, as we were at Epcot before 8 in the morning and left Magic Kingdom after midnight. As I have been told now (repeatedly) by my husband, a full day and late night in the park like this should NOT be followed by another morning of Early Entry. Oops!! Unfortunately for him, I did not get this memo until after these plans were already in motion...but it has been noted for our NEXT visit. So we enjoyed a quality 6 hours of sleep in our fancy hotel before embarking on our final Disney day. Stay tuned...
