The Poprik's Go to Disney -Part 2 Epcot

Sunday morning was our first day in the parks.  We ate a small breakfast in the hotel because we had very late breakfast reservation at Chef Mickeys. 11:50 was more like lunch so we treated it like that. We decided to start off at EPCOT because the lines for that day were predicted to be lower, they were having the fireworks that night and honestly, I couldn't imagine trying to drag the kids out of the Magic Kingdom to head over for breakfast.

For those of you that have been to Disney World, you know that you usually can't just drive up and go in. Depending on the park you are going to you will ride trams, monorails, boats or take a guided Sherpa tour to get to the gate. We lucked out and got to the parking lot early enough to just hop on a tram to the front gate. We were there for the last week of the Flower and Garden Festival and it was gorgeous. The flowers were amazing and Rowan was in heaven. I think we spent half of our morning checking out the flowers.



David decided to take care of finding a locker and the easiest way to get to our lunch reservation while the kids and I went on our first ride. We started off our trip with Spaceship Earth. There was no line so we walked right on and it was a nice relaxing ride. The kids loved it and our trip was off to a great start. We rode it again with David and then headed of to  Mission:Space.  This was where our trip made a bit of a turn. Rowan was too short to ride, so she and I went to the playscape area while we waited on David, Alan and Ashley.  The play area was really cool and reminded me of the local Mcdonald's playscape, but with an outer space theme. Everyone was having fun, except Alan. He was not a happy camper with the ride and was very resistant to going on anything else. We ended up just hanging out in the play area for a bit and then headed over to the Innoventions center until we needed to leave for our Chef Mickey's reservation.

Chef Mickey's is at the Contemporary resort, so we took the monorail over. We ended up taking the TRON themed monorail ( The TRONorail) and  this seemed to perk Alan up.  The kids thought the Monorail was great and we were all happy and ready for lunch at Chef Mickey's.  There is a post just on our character dining experiences at It Happens at Dinner. It was fun, the kids liked it and Rowan hates costumed characters.

After lunch we headed back over to EPCOT on the monorail and picked back up in Future World where we had left off. For weeks we had been watching Disney resort dvds to get the kids ready for the trip and Rowan had decided that she HAD to ride Test Track. I was really surprised that she liked it and sad that Alan did not. It was very loud and a few parts were designed to make it look like you were going to crash, so he just hated it. They all loved playing in the showcase cars in the pavilion when you leave the ride though.





After this we went to the other Innoventions center and everyone played for a bit, even David. He got to check out the segways.



and I tried on more Goofy hats.


From here we ventured over to The Land Pavilion and rode Soarin. It was a hit! The ride makes it feel as though you are gliding over California, complete with sent of ocean spray and orange groves. We ended up riding this one several times.





From here we rode the Living with the Land boat ride that was an unexpected favorite. The last portion of the ride takes you through some of the Disney greenhouses and the kids though it was great to see tomato and watermelon trees and started planning what to plant in our garden at home.



By then it was starting to get dark and the Future World attractions were starting to close so we made a quick run around the World Showcase and tried to stake out a spot for the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth show that is put on in the World Showcase lagoon.

By now the kids were getting pretty tired, but were really into the show.






After the show we tried to hustle out before the crowd, but we ended up stopping to take lots of pictures instead. :)







We got back to the hotel and hopped right into bed. The next day was going to be our first exciting day at The Magic Kingdom!