We left our hotel around 8 am and took a round about way to Epcot so that Carter could get a short morning nap in the car. We eventually woke him up in the parking lot because we really liked getting into the parks right when they opened. We bought our tickets and waited about 5 minutes in line for the park to open.
Our first stop was Spaceship Earth (which is the ride in the big dome). The wind was so strong that we thought the stroller might blow away from where we parked it! Here's a picture of Carter all bundled up before we got on the ride ...
Carter was really happy on the ride. He really liked the parts that were dark with little lights that looked like stars.
Our next stop was the Epcot Character Spot which is where you can get your picture taken with the characters. For some reason, starting today, Carter no longer liked the characters. He wasn't really scared of them, but he didn't trust them and got really shy with them. There were no high 5's given anymore.
All of us with Mickey ...
Dad, don't let that guy get any closer to me!
Don't touch me!!!
Dad, he's touching me!
Um, Mom, what's he doing???
I'm not taking my eye off you!
Brian took a short video of Carter and me when we were meeting Minnie Mouse. You can see that Carter didn't really care about her too much ...
I was a little disappointed that we didn't get any good pictures, but you can't force it.
We went over to The Seas with Nemo & Friends next. There was no line for the ride (so nice!) and Carter paid attention during it, but didn't seem to think it was anything special (he may have still be "traumatized" from his experience with the characters). After the ride, we did the interactive show Turtle Talk with Crush (it was like the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom). Though it didn't fully keep Carter's attention, he did a good job behaving during it.
Afterward, we walked through the aquarium associated with the ride and show. The coolest part were some dolphins that were playing with one another. They were really active and fun to watch.
Carter checking out some fish ...
Another picture of Shaceship Earth ...
Our next stops were Journey into Imagination with Figment (no line) and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (we got there right before the show started). Carter did fine during the ride and pretty good during the show (he played with a pair of the 3-D glasses most of the time).
Carter liked the jumping water fountains outside of the Imagination! building. He loves moving water - fountains, waterfalls, anything like that.
We took a break from the rides and shows then and headed to the World Showcase. We started on the right side of the loop at Canada. We were hungry so we stopped at the second country (United Kingdom) and had lunch (we had fish and chips, of course). We ate outside because it was starting to warm up. There were tons of birds though where we were at. Carter loved it though. There were a pair of ducks that hung out at his feet and kept walking under his stroller even though he never dropped a thing.
After lunch we continued our walk through the World Showcase. We got a few pictures with Carter and then he fell asleep.
There were a ton of cool topiaries in the shape of Disney characters.
Beauty and the Beast characters ...
Goofy and Donald ...
Pluto ...
Mickey and Minnie ...
Lady and the Tramp ...
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ...
Since Carter was still sleeping, Brian went on a couple of rides. He did Test Track (he used the single rider queue and had no wait) and Mission: Space (I think this wait was about 20 minutes). Brian did the "intense journey" and it made him a little nauseous so it wasn't his favorite ride of the week.
The outside of Mission: Space ...
Carter woke up during the second ride that Brian was on so we relaxed and ate snacks while we waited. It had warmed up to about 60F and was sunny (though windy still) so I enjoyed just hanging out for a little bit.
The next ride we all did was Ellen's Energy Adventure.
Brian and Carter before the ride / show started ...
Carter did amazing on this ride even though it was 45 minutes and only moved occasionally. He SCREAMED during the big bang portion of the movie when it got REALLY loud - it was happy screaming though and really funny. Carter jumped when the first "real" (animatronic) dinosaur roared, but then he thought they were funny and laughed and pointed at them.
Next we went back to the World Showcase to do the rides that were in a couple of the countries. We did Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico (no wait) and Maelstrom in Norway (which had a 10-15 minute wait). I liked the second ride the best. There were a few fun drops. The one forward facing drop is relatively long (for being an open boat with no seat belts) and Carter screamed a few seconds AFTER the drop finished. It was really funny.
We finished walked about the World Showcase, taking our time, and enjoying the beautiful weather.
Our last ride of the day was Living with the Land. This is just another boat ride that goes through some interesting gardens and a farm. I thought it was going to be pretty lame, but Carter really liked it. He was really happy and chatty during the ride and pointed out lots of things to us.
On our way out, we stopped at a couple of spots to get our picture taken. Disney has lots of their photographers out at good photo locations to take your picture for you. They give you a reusable card that gets scanned everywhere you get your picture taken and then you can look at the photos online and order anything you want. Most of the photographers are nice enough to take a picture with your personal camera too so we took advantage of this a lot.
We left the park around 5:15 pm and Carter fell asleep almost immediately once he was in his carseat. We drove to a Panera that was a little bit away from our hotel so that Carter could sleep a little longer before dinner (naps in his stroller just aren't as refreshing). Carter was much better at dinner than the night before which was so nice after a long day.
After dinner we headed to the hotel, gave Carter a bath, and had him in bed around 8 pm. Carter's cheeks were looking really pink as we were getting him ready for bed, but since I'd put sunscreen on him a few times, we figured it was windburn (he's gotten it before). I'm still not sure which it was, but I got plenty of dirty looks the next morning at breakfast.
We had another fun day. It was a long day again, but we took it pretty slow so it was still relaxing.
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