This was another amazing morning. The park opened at 8 and buses run 45 minutes prior to park opening, so we were ready to go at 7, waiting for the bus at our resort after an early bite to eat for breakfast. A man came by and told us the bus would be here in 15 minutes, so Craig thought he had a minute to run into the gift shop to buy some sunglasses (I've never met anyone who loses and buys more pairs of sunglasses than my husband, I swear!) Meanwhile, the bus showed up about 3 minutes after he left and it wasn't going to wait. So the kids and I hopped on! Ha!
We arrived before 7:30. They were actually letting people in the park! I couldn't believe it. They brought us to another rope and told us they were letting a select few in to ride Test Track early. It was a huge stroke of luck, as that was one ride I hadn't gotten a fast pass for. We kept texting daddy who got on the next bus, but he had trouble getting in as they only opened for a select few!
It was absolutely the most incredible ride and we loved it the most of anything else there. You go in and design your own car! Andrew just loved doing this.
It was so interactive and the kids were completely engaged.
Kerigan's car- we were just lucky they let her ride, since she just barely hit the 40in requirement. It was meant to be! If they hadn't let her, we wouldn't have been able to take advantage of the early access, since daddy wasn't with us!
We rode it twice before they finally let daddy in! (And those sunglasses came at a hefty price! Missing out on Test Track- I'm not sure he thought it was worth it! Ha! And let's just say we didn't split up much after that!)
I had never seen anything like it, they didn't even make us get out of the car to go another time! They just kept letting us go over and over. We only got off once to pick up daddy and have him go through the car design with us!
You could look in a mirror and see your car (by the 4th time I knew this was coming so I had my phone out to take a picture!) I love the kids faces!
Andrew by his favorite character- Stitch
After Test Track we went over to Mission Space. Kerigan wasn't tall enough for that one so daddy took Andrew while we got a rider swap pass. Let me tell you about how great those things are! If someone in your group isn't tall enough for a ride, you get a pass for up to 3 people to ride again and go through the fast pass line! So Andrew always got to go twice. And sometimes, if we had fast passes and Kerigan couldn't ride, we would switch her magic band with Andrew's after he used his, so Andrew would actually get to go 3 times! It worked out really well. Except for some rides I wanted her to ride (like Soarin) and they wouldn't let her on!
She didn't mind waiting at Mission Space- they had this neat play area right outside the exit where kids could play! She loved it!
Andrew getting ready to ride!
When we went back for my turn to ride with him, I didn't particularly enjoy it! It was the only ride I can say that about the whole trip! You are in a small simulator with bars over your shoulders and it is very confining. I am not claustrophobic at all, but it made me feel really uneasy. I couldn't wait to get off! Andrew loved it though! But I can safely say I will never ride it again!
We had some time to kill before our next fast pass so we waited in a short line to meet some characters! One thing I kept saying about Epcot is that I really liked it, but it didn't particularly "feel" like Disney to me. I felt more like we were at a really big Science Center or something. So I enjoyed the characters because it brought the "Disney" back in!
Kerigan did so good with all the characters. She was a little apprehensive about a couple of them, but she usually warmed up to them. We got so one of us would just take her hand and walk her up there, then she would be okay if I stepped back to take a picture.
Goofy giving fist bumps! Ha!
Her favorite!
Then we walked through a few of the "countries" they have around the lake and met Mulan in China.
At each of the parks they had this big, beautiful Christmas tree up. It was fun to see them all and especially lit up at night!
We joked that they were the only trees bigger than our Christmas tree at home! Ha!
We made it back to the rides for our Fast Pass for Soarin! It is one of my favorite rides! Andrew was cracking us up because we had to take our shoes off if we had flip flops on so Andrew thought that was really fun! Ha! This ride is one of my favorites in all of Disney. I got to go twice because Kerigan couldn't ride but I was bummed because I know she would have loved it.
Next we rode the seas with Nemo- the kids loved this one!
They took turns riding with Ga Ga and Papa, or mommy and daddy. Andrew was happy it was his turn to ride with them! Ha! They were the favorite choice!
They had a little play area after the ride that the kids loved!
After that we decided to take a break and go back to our resort to swim since we had lots of time before our special dinner that night.
Epcot Part 2 coming up!
