Epcot, June 2016

Yay, It's Epcot day!  Fair warning, this day was kind of crazy.  Patrick's sister (Kara) and husband (Eric) joined us this day and I took advantage of this when scheduling our fastpasses.  Since we would need to do a rider swap and we now had six adults, we split up some of the fastpasses.  Patrick and his parents got fastpasses for Mission: Space (9:35-10:35) and Test Track (10:55-11:55) while Kara, Eric, and I got them for Soarin (9:55-10:55).  As a full group, we also got fastpasses for The Seas with Nemo and Friends (1:20-2:20). These passes were tight and I knew it would be an interesting day.  So, here's how it all worked out.

8:00

As always, if staying on property, I recommend trying to be at the bus stop an hour before the park opens.  Like at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, even though there is no welcome show here, there will be plenty of people waiting to get in when the park opens and you want to be among those early few.

9:00
You know me, the first thing we did when we entered the gates was to take our picture in front of the iconic Spaceship Earth ball, or the golf game as Littlecjc called it.

In the past, I would have always said to skip Spaceship Earth, but since we already had fastpasses for all the big attractions and this is what Littlecjc really wanted to do this was what we did.  Spaceship Earth, attraction #1.  By time we got out of "the golf game" and had a quick Starbucks stop, we headed to Mission: Space, attraction #2 for those that had this fastpass.  For those of us that didn't have this first pass, we went in the exit of this attraction.  If you walk through the gift shop, it will lead you to a room with games and a playplace that was perfect for Littlecjc.

10:00 - 11:00

Instead of rider swapping right away, we all headed over to The Land pavilion.  Those of us with fastpasses for Soarin', attraction #3 went that direction, while the others took Littlecjc to ride Living with the Land, attraction #4.  When both groups had finished, we switched making Soarin', attraction #5 and Living with the Land, attraction #6.  At this point, we needed to get back to Test Track so that those with fastpasses could use them.  So, Patrick and his parents rode Test Track, attraction #7.

12:00

At 12:10, we had lunch reservations at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  We absolutely loved this restaurant.  We thought the food was great and Littlecjc loved seeing all the princesses.  Belle, character #1 of the day greeted us when we first entered before being seated.

After we were seated, we also go the opportunity to meet Aurora, character #2; Cinderella, character #3; Ariel, character #4, and Snow White, character #5.

1:00

When we finished eating, we headed to the The Seas with Nemo and Friends, attraction #8 to use our fastpasses.  After the initial ride, we let Littlecjc explore the aquariums with Patrick and his parents, while the rest of our party took the accumulated rider swap passes to catch the rides that we missed.   

2:00

We ran to Mission: SPACE, attraction #9 first.  Then we went to Test Track and made it all the way to the final line area when it closed down due to inclement weather in the area.  Thanks to smart phones, we were able to look up a weather map and we realized that the rain wouldn't be moving out anytime soon so we decided to leave and meet up with the rest of the family.

3:00-5:00

At this point, we headed back to the World Showcase, starting our journey in Mexico with Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, attraction #10.  We took our time wandering around all the countries, taking everything in.  We got a few snacks and drinks and enjoyed our down time.  After walking around the showcase, we walked to the Electric Umbrella for dinner.  I normally would have eaten dinner somewhere around the showcase, but Patrick's parents are a little more picky with food choices than the rest of us.  

6:00

By 6:00, we were taking advantage of our Visa meet and greet with Minnie and Pluto, characters 6 and 7.

We then decided that we had accomplished most everything we had planned for the day, so we decided to stand in our longest line of the day.

7:00

Our long wait paid off, and we met Joy and Sadness, characters 8 and 9.  

8:00

After meeting these two fun characters, we walked just across the hallway to a much shorter line, to meet Baymax, character 10.  

When we left Baymax, we headed back toward the World Showcase to watch IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth at 9:00 before calling it a day and heading back to the hotel.

I didn't seem to have as many pictures today and I think this is why I struggled more in writing this post.  Sorry if it sounded more like we did this then that for the entire post.  Even though I don't have as many pictures and as much to say about this day, we still had a great time.