The boys finally slept in a little on Thursday! I consider 6:15 am sleeping in.
We still made it to Epcot at 8:30 am. We got in line and they let us in about 8:50 am. While waiting, Carter decided that the Spaceship Earth ride was a giant golf ball. So all day he pointed out the "giant golf ball" to us.
We hadn't seen some of the main characters yet (like Mickey) so we went straight to the Epcot Character Spot. It was very nice not having to wait in line.
Rylan was not happy about meeting the characters. He pouted and wouldn't even look at them. I only attempted a few pictures with him. We mostly hung back and took pictures of Carter and Brian. Carter was most excited to see Pluto and Goofy but did great with all the characters.
After meeting the Disney characters, Brian and Carter got us Fast Passes for Soarin' while Rylan and I checked out the Nemo seagulls saying "mine, mine, mine". The boys would say this randomly through out the day. Luckily it hasn't stuck!
We rode the Seas with Nemo and Friends ride next. Rylan liked it because he got to keep pointing out Nemo to me.
After the ride we did Turtle Talk with Crush. It's a fun live show that appears to be a cartoon but mixed in with the show, Crush (the turtle) takes questions from the kids and talks to them. He even pointed out the "kid with the stripes sitting on his dad's lap" (which was Carter). I don't think Carter got it though and realized Crush was talking to him. He kept asking us, "What happened?"
While waiting for our Fast Pass time, we did the Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Then Brian watched the kids while I rode Soarin'. I thought the ride was okay but not as good as hyped. Next it was Brian's turn and the kids and I snacked and then played with the fountains in the Imagination! area.
While we were at Epcot, they had their International Flower & Garden Festival. They seem to always have a lot of topiaries of Disney characters, but they definitely had more this time.
We walked a bit after Brian got back and Rylan fell asleep. We were hungry so we went to Mexico and ate at La Cantina Restaurant. Rylan slept through lunch again and was still asleep when we finished. While waiting for him to wake up, Brian and Carter rode the Maelstrom ride in Norway (I was actually a little disappointed that I didn't get to ride this one this time). This is a fun little ride in a Viking boat with a backwards drop. Carter was so excited when he found me after the ride - he loved it.
By this time Rylan had woken up so we did the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico (it's a boat ride featuring Donald Duck). Carter decided he liked this even better than Maelstrom.
At this point Brian started feeling bad from lunch but he was a trooper and continued on. Though he did say he was never eating in Mexico again.
So we decided to walk a bit.
The boys really liked these Peter Pan and Captain Hook topiaries.
Next we walked through the Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden (which was part of the Flower & Garden Festival). Carter has seen a couple of Tinker Bell movies on Disney before and really likes Tinker Bell so he was excited to see the Fairy topiaries.
At the end of the garden was the Weevos playset. It had been sprinkling a little (we really missed our raincoats!) and Carter decided to dry the slide with his shorts.
Rylan was happy that Carter had dried it for him!
Then Carter decided it was fun to go down the slide like this (I've never seen him go down like this before) ...
After playing for a bit, we rode Spaceship Earth in the "giant golf ball".
When we finished the ride, Brian was feeling terrible and the heavier rain was staring to come in so we decided to go back to the hotel for awhile. We left around 2 pm and settled back in to our room. Brian slept for a couple of hours in the bedroom while the boys and I watched TV and played in the main room. They also ate and ate and ate (I think they finally slowed down enough to realize they were starving).
We left the hotel around 4:30 pm to go back to Epcot. On the way we got sandwiches from Jimmy John's and ate in the car.
When we got into Epcot, we headed to the World Showcase to check out all the countries. I took the boys on the Gran Fiesta Tour ride in Mexico again (I love this ride because it never seems to have a line).
As we walked we found a neat little model train area. It was really hard to tear the boys away from it!
Next Brian got Carter set up with the Kim Possible Adventure. It's kind of difficult to describe what this is so I copied this from Disney's website ...
Disney's Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is an
ultra-interactive quest at Epcot theme park based on the Disney Channel
animated series, Kim Possible. Transform into secret agents, join
Team Possible and help save the world from super-villains with the help
of a high-tech "Kimmunicator".
Upon reporting for duty, recruits receive their super-secret
Kimmunicators—interactive, handheld, cell-phone-like devices that help
maneuver agents through their mission. Using state-of-the-art
technology, your Kimmunicator will connect agents with a variety of Kim
Possible characters who will provide clues to help stop super villains
from carrying out their dastardly plans.
Disney's Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is really 7 different experiences with 7 unique super villains.
In the China Pavilion, for example, you must rescue the precious Jade
Monkey from Lord Monkeyfist and his monkey ninjas. In the Germany
Pavilion, you must stop Professor Dementor from using his evil
mind-control device to influence world leaders.
Carter was so into getting his communicator. He stared at this guy listening so carefully!
Listening to a description of his first mission ...
The first adventure was in Japan. When Carter figured out where he needed to go using the clues given to him, he'd push a button on his communicator and something would happen in the landscaping or in a store. For example, in this box, smoke came out and a new tree appeared in it.
Rylan was getting upset that he didn't also have a communicator so I took him to check out the Cars topiaries.
When Carter finished the mission, he run up to me saying he saved the world! Carter loved doing this so much that we did a second mission (Germany this time).
One of the clues led him to these cuckoo clocks that he then made go off ...
The mission ended with Carter opening these doors and the characters chasing each other around in circles ...
I was extremely impressed with this activity. There are so many hidden surprises that you would never know about without doing the missions. It makes the countries so much more interesting for the kids.
After this we continued walking through the countries. We stopped by this Toy Story topiary (which Carter thought was awesome).
Next we rode on The Seas with Nemo & Friends again. We considered sticking around for the
IllumiNations show (it was 8:15 pm and the show stared at 9 pm) but decided not to push the kids and headed out.
We got back to the hotel later but still fit in baths and showers and then all went to bed. It was another great day!
