EPCOT is one of our very favorite parks and we were really looking forward to enjoying it for our first time as a family of six. As we got ready, I tried to take a picture of the hidden Mickey's in the bedspread...but I sort of couldn't help myself and got more of the
Little Prince instead. Ha ha ha. If you look closely, you can see that a few different Mickey heads are hidden within the pattern on the bedspread.
Once we were ready, we took the LONG walk from our room to the lounge on the 7th floor.
As we walked through the halls of the 7th floor we were taken by a beautiful sight outside of the windows. I had to snap a picture of a quiet morning at the lodge. Ahhh...how serene it was!
As we enjoyed breakfast,
Aladdin found a display of Grand Canyon fossils and rocks. All of the bigger boys spent awhile taking those in.
Our eagle eyed,
Stitch even found a fossil embedded in the fireplace rock!
As intriguing as exploring the lodge was, we stopped doing that when we finished up our club lounge breakfast and made our way out to the van. Along the way (I bet you can guess what I did)....I stopped to snap another picture. I actually somehow missed out on seeing these buffalo myself (I must have been dreaming of riding Soarin.
I was alerted to them when dh yelled out "Tatonka, Tatonka". Which along with making me aware that the buffalo were there, totally cracked me up.
Even with stopping to take all of the pictures, we made it to EPCOT by just after 9:00 AM and made our way into an un-crowded park (thank goodness for Disney in the off season combined with the knowledge of Tour Guide Mike)
Stitch, Goofy, Aladdin and myself headed straight for Mission Space while dh, and our
Little Prince headed over to pick up Soarin' fast passes.
Mission Space was another one of
Stitch's "first times" as far as big thrill rides. We chose the wimpy side for his first time on the ride. It was
Goofy's first time on Mission Space as well. Since there were four of us, we had our own "spaceship" to ourselves. We had a GREAT time and acted like fools (screaming, pretending we had to REALLY save ourselves, etc) but with nobody else around to bug, we just let loose and had fun.
Goofy enjoyed his trip to Mars but said he thought space travel was dangerous. HA HA HA. As far as
Stitch liking it...he had so much fun that as soon as we were done, he wanted to ride on the more thrilling (read spinning) side of Mission Space. AND WE DID!! OH MY!! What got into me?!
Aladdin and
Goofy chose to sit that ride out with their dad and baby brother. That may prove they have more sense than I do.
I thought the intense side was just that, intense, but I will grudgingly admit that I did also have a lot of fun (along with being worried that I might really be being hurled into space).
Stitch once again loved every second of his space vacation. "MORE!!" seems to have replaced the word caution in his vocabulary! He is a thrill ride junkie
Once we were finished up on Mission Space we took a tour around Test Track. Well two of them really. First dh and the boys walked right on and then Aladdin and Stitch accompanied me with the parent swap pass. Goofy was not interested in a second tour through the testing facility so he and dh and the baby explored the cars displayed at the ride's exit.
Up next was Spaceship Earth. Here are
Stitch and
Goofy as we made our way over.
It had been closed for refurbishment during our last trip, so we wanted to be sure to see it this time. I wasn't expecting anything with "WOW" factor but I was excited to see the improvements they had made. It started off much the same way as it had last time with the exception of they snapped a picture of you as the ride started. A few more recent communications scenes were added toward the end of the ride and then...my favorite addition of all. A series of questions appeared on the touch screen. You picked your answers and then presto...a clip with your own picture (the one taken at the start of the ride) was inserted and you starred in your very own mini infomercial about the future. It was really neat. The first time we rode, we split up three and three. The bigger boys in one ride car and dh, myself and the baby in the other ride car.
We liked it so much that we did it again right away! We switched up who rode with who because
Stitch and
Goofy wanted to pick Japanese as their language for the ride (you could pick the language your ride would guide you in at the start of the ride) and the rest of us were all for sticking with English as our language of choice.
Dh and our
Little Prince rode together which left
Aladdin and I to enjoy a ride together as well. I didn't manage to catch the first video clip (I had no idea it was coming) but I was able to record the second one. Please click on the link below to see it. I have NO clue why I have a horn sticking up from the top of my head.
That did NOT happen the first time we did it. Nor did I have a horn made of hair (or anything else) sticking up. The clip was still fun, so I have included it...hair horn and all.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eLbS3teE2s
After our second ride, we wanted to go again (your clip changed based on the answers picked and we wanted to try it yet again with different answers) but we noticed that our fast past window was almost closed and more importantly that if we wanted to ride Soarin' before lunch, we were really going to have to hustle. Our morning had been a busy one so full of rides that we hadn't noticed the time flying by us.
We hustled back to the Land Pavilion and straight over to Soarin'. We showed them the baby and got a baby swap pass. Dh took the big boys for the first ride while I sat in a quiet corner and fed our
Little Prince a bottle and got him to sleep. When they finished up, dh switched with me and since we had a fast pass plus the rider swap pass (so good for four riders total) all of the boys and I enjoyed a ride. Our EPCOT morning ride total stood at: 2 Mission Space, 2 Test Track, 2 Spaceship Earth and 2 Soarin'. Talk about fitting a lot in!! PHEW!
Before we made our way up to the Garden Grill, we grabbed another set of fast passes for Soarin. TO BE CONTINUED...
It only seems 5 minutes ago you had him! He is gorgeous BTW 
Too many good ones to comment on that's for sure!
.
She had 1 EI after that, about 4 months later, right at the start of the winter season. She hasn't had another one since, 4 years later!!!
) Last year though after months of getting him prepared, he finally went up to Mickey. That picture is priceless to me. He would have nothing to do with any of the other characters though. He would hand me his autograph book to give to each of the characters. I am hoping this year he enjoys them more. 
