JaimeK
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2009
- Messages
- 481
Epcot always gets slammed here for being boring for kids but they absolutely loved it! All the little games and play areas after rides like Test Track, Spaceship earth, Mission Space and Figment are 100% right up their alley. They did Phineas & Ferb while their parents got margaritas - win win all around. Plus you can drink crazy sodas for free!
We are a family of 4, two boys ages 7 & 9, plus a very spry grandma. The younger boy doesn't like any exciting rides at all while the older one loves them so we split up a lot. I also used some of the group's FPs for my older boy to ride more things, but every day we ended up with unused FPs.
We are not die-hard Disney fans (in fact my husband was most definitely NOT enthusiastic about going again) but we had a great trip in 2014 and after my husband and I managed two kid-free vacations in 2015 I wanted to do something more for them.
Epcot Day 1: Got up SUPER early to fly to Orlando, checked into PO Riverside and was at Epcot at 10am. (Not in order): Sum of all thrills, Spaceship earth (a not-needed FP), Test trak (FP), Club cool, Mission space green, Visa picture spot, Ellen's (I needed, and took, a nap), lunch at the Boulangerie in France + ice cream (both excellent!) some drinks at the F&G booths, and left at about 3pm to relax at the resort.
MK day 2: Arrived at 8:30am for a 9am opening. Headed to the lovely and empty frontierland and did BTMRR, Splash, Haunted Mansion, Small world, Winnie the Pooh, Speedway, Mine train (FP), Carousel, PP (FP), lunch at Pinocchios, walked around fantasyland and took the train around to frontierland. Tom Sawyer Island (their happy place) for a loooooong time then BTMRR (FP) again. Finished up in tomorrowland for Space Mountain (FP), the People Mover and the Carousel of Progress. We left during the FoF parade - we were exhausted! Went to Disney Springs (Raglan Road) for dinner.
AK day 3: lazier morning and got to the park around 9:50, just made it into the 10am FotLK show. My favorite show at the park! Then we did the Safari (FP), Primeval Whirl, and the 12pm Nemo show. Then to Everest (FP, twice) and the nearby trails. Then left for a late lunch at AKL Sanaa - so good.
Swimming and dinner at the resort for the evening. Again, we do not do AK justice but I wanted a short, easier day and my only "must-do" items were Lion King and Everest there.
HS day 4: Arrived later than I intended, maybe 9:15. Then it took forever to get through bag check and I wanted to get to Jedi signups. But fortunately signups were a breeze! No line, walked up and they had shows from 4pm on still available. Easy peasy. I found this park VERY difficult to plan since I wanted to go to a lot of shows. We did: Great movie ride, ToT (FP), TSMM (FP), Star Tours (FP), HiSTK playground, lunch at Sci Fi. Indy stunt show, VotLM and BatB shows for the ladies while the boys made light sabers. We were running short on time so I gave the kids a choice of Launch Bay and seeing the LMA show and they chose Launch Bay. We did the visa Kylo Ren pic, traded with the jawas--we all loved this!! I bought a plastic bracelet and ring to trade and earlier that day the Starbucks cm's suggested they take straws to trade. The jawas gave them droid parts for the "jewelry" but for the straws one put them in his hand like wolverine and chased my younger boy all around. Hysterical! The jedi show was really good. Then we got dinner and carried it into Fantasmic. This was the only time all week I stopped at a kiosk to get a 4th FP. I think I went at 4pm and got Fantasmic for all 5 of us. This was our first time watching and we really liked it! I REALLY wanted to stay and watch the Star Wars fireworks but everyone else was completely wiped out and declared that Fantasmic had "enough" fireworks.
Lazy/Resort change/Disney Springs/MK day 5: I booked a split stay and this was our resort change day. The boys swam, we packed up (bell services transferred the bags for us) and took the boat to Disney Springs. But first the boat stopped at POFQ so we hopped off, ate beignets, walked around then caught another boat to DS. We shopped, kids + grandma went to WPE for lunch, parents to Morimoto. Then bussed to the CR, where our room was ready and our bags were then delivered to the room. New resort = new pool = swim time needed. Then we walked to MK at around 5pm. Played the Sorcerer's game, BTMRR (FP), Pirates (FP), dinner at Pecos Bill, Buzz (FP), Astro Oribter, People Mover, Space Mountain (FP) and then left during the parade. I had FPs for the Wishes spot but again no one wanted to stay. Parents ended up getting drinks and watching from the 4th floor deck of the CR. They didn't pipe the music in though so that was disappointing.
Epcot again day 6: We started with breakfast at the Wave so got to Epcot around 10am. Did Nemo ride + aquariums, Living with the Land, Figment (FP, because there's not a lot to FP here), Club Cool, Spaceship Earth (FP), lunch for the kids at the Electric Umbrella, then Test Track (FP). Test Track closed while my husband and son were in it so they got paper FPs to use there or elsewhere and the rest of us had "anytime" FPs for Test Track. Unfortunately they were among the last off the line/ride so the area was flooded with people. Mission Space and Sum of all Thrills now had big lines. Headed to Mexico for the Fiesta boat ride, Phineas & Ferb & margaritas. We then attempted to walk around the world showcase but it was SO HOT. I don't understand how people manage in the summer. We had several stops to cool off, get ice cream, got a few F&G foods/drinks (currywurst and burnt ends were great!) and then took the boat from Morocco back across. Now the lines were a bit better we did Test Track (FP) and the play area of Mission Space. Then took the monorail to the Poly for dinner at Kona (we really like this place and have been every trip). Then grandma + kids went to the CR and the parents went to Trader Sams to spend all the moneys. Such a fun bar and the food was pretty good there too.
Day 7: For our last day the boys wanted to go to Epcot AGAIN but since we were at the CR I convinced them we'd each pick a ride to do again at MK. I only wanted to be there from about 9-11 so were could say bye to grandma who was leaving first. We did Space mountain, Astro Orbiter, Buzz (FP though not needed), People Mover, Haunted Mansion (FP) and left! Boys swam again then it was time for us to leave too. Sad to go back to school & work but not too sad about leaving. I do feel like we did everything we wanted to. It will be a few years before we are back, not Disney's fault but there are just SO MANY other places to go.
Overall a really nice family trip!
We are a family of 4, two boys ages 7 & 9, plus a very spry grandma. The younger boy doesn't like any exciting rides at all while the older one loves them so we split up a lot. I also used some of the group's FPs for my older boy to ride more things, but every day we ended up with unused FPs.
We are not die-hard Disney fans (in fact my husband was most definitely NOT enthusiastic about going again) but we had a great trip in 2014 and after my husband and I managed two kid-free vacations in 2015 I wanted to do something more for them.
Epcot Day 1: Got up SUPER early to fly to Orlando, checked into PO Riverside and was at Epcot at 10am. (Not in order): Sum of all thrills, Spaceship earth (a not-needed FP), Test trak (FP), Club cool, Mission space green, Visa picture spot, Ellen's (I needed, and took, a nap), lunch at the Boulangerie in France + ice cream (both excellent!) some drinks at the F&G booths, and left at about 3pm to relax at the resort.
MK day 2: Arrived at 8:30am for a 9am opening. Headed to the lovely and empty frontierland and did BTMRR, Splash, Haunted Mansion, Small world, Winnie the Pooh, Speedway, Mine train (FP), Carousel, PP (FP), lunch at Pinocchios, walked around fantasyland and took the train around to frontierland. Tom Sawyer Island (their happy place) for a loooooong time then BTMRR (FP) again. Finished up in tomorrowland for Space Mountain (FP), the People Mover and the Carousel of Progress. We left during the FoF parade - we were exhausted! Went to Disney Springs (Raglan Road) for dinner.
AK day 3: lazier morning and got to the park around 9:50, just made it into the 10am FotLK show. My favorite show at the park! Then we did the Safari (FP), Primeval Whirl, and the 12pm Nemo show. Then to Everest (FP, twice) and the nearby trails. Then left for a late lunch at AKL Sanaa - so good.
Swimming and dinner at the resort for the evening. Again, we do not do AK justice but I wanted a short, easier day and my only "must-do" items were Lion King and Everest there.
HS day 4: Arrived later than I intended, maybe 9:15. Then it took forever to get through bag check and I wanted to get to Jedi signups. But fortunately signups were a breeze! No line, walked up and they had shows from 4pm on still available. Easy peasy. I found this park VERY difficult to plan since I wanted to go to a lot of shows. We did: Great movie ride, ToT (FP), TSMM (FP), Star Tours (FP), HiSTK playground, lunch at Sci Fi. Indy stunt show, VotLM and BatB shows for the ladies while the boys made light sabers. We were running short on time so I gave the kids a choice of Launch Bay and seeing the LMA show and they chose Launch Bay. We did the visa Kylo Ren pic, traded with the jawas--we all loved this!! I bought a plastic bracelet and ring to trade and earlier that day the Starbucks cm's suggested they take straws to trade. The jawas gave them droid parts for the "jewelry" but for the straws one put them in his hand like wolverine and chased my younger boy all around. Hysterical! The jedi show was really good. Then we got dinner and carried it into Fantasmic. This was the only time all week I stopped at a kiosk to get a 4th FP. I think I went at 4pm and got Fantasmic for all 5 of us. This was our first time watching and we really liked it! I REALLY wanted to stay and watch the Star Wars fireworks but everyone else was completely wiped out and declared that Fantasmic had "enough" fireworks.
Lazy/Resort change/Disney Springs/MK day 5: I booked a split stay and this was our resort change day. The boys swam, we packed up (bell services transferred the bags for us) and took the boat to Disney Springs. But first the boat stopped at POFQ so we hopped off, ate beignets, walked around then caught another boat to DS. We shopped, kids + grandma went to WPE for lunch, parents to Morimoto. Then bussed to the CR, where our room was ready and our bags were then delivered to the room. New resort = new pool = swim time needed. Then we walked to MK at around 5pm. Played the Sorcerer's game, BTMRR (FP), Pirates (FP), dinner at Pecos Bill, Buzz (FP), Astro Oribter, People Mover, Space Mountain (FP) and then left during the parade. I had FPs for the Wishes spot but again no one wanted to stay. Parents ended up getting drinks and watching from the 4th floor deck of the CR. They didn't pipe the music in though so that was disappointing.
Epcot again day 6: We started with breakfast at the Wave so got to Epcot around 10am. Did Nemo ride + aquariums, Living with the Land, Figment (FP, because there's not a lot to FP here), Club Cool, Spaceship Earth (FP), lunch for the kids at the Electric Umbrella, then Test Track (FP). Test Track closed while my husband and son were in it so they got paper FPs to use there or elsewhere and the rest of us had "anytime" FPs for Test Track. Unfortunately they were among the last off the line/ride so the area was flooded with people. Mission Space and Sum of all Thrills now had big lines. Headed to Mexico for the Fiesta boat ride, Phineas & Ferb & margaritas. We then attempted to walk around the world showcase but it was SO HOT. I don't understand how people manage in the summer. We had several stops to cool off, get ice cream, got a few F&G foods/drinks (currywurst and burnt ends were great!) and then took the boat from Morocco back across. Now the lines were a bit better we did Test Track (FP) and the play area of Mission Space. Then took the monorail to the Poly for dinner at Kona (we really like this place and have been every trip). Then grandma + kids went to the CR and the parents went to Trader Sams to spend all the moneys. Such a fun bar and the food was pretty good there too.
Day 7: For our last day the boys wanted to go to Epcot AGAIN but since we were at the CR I convinced them we'd each pick a ride to do again at MK. I only wanted to be there from about 9-11 so were could say bye to grandma who was leaving first. We did Space mountain, Astro Orbiter, Buzz (FP though not needed), People Mover, Haunted Mansion (FP) and left! Boys swam again then it was time for us to leave too. Sad to go back to school & work but not too sad about leaving. I do feel like we did everything we wanted to. It will be a few years before we are back, not Disney's fault but there are just SO MANY other places to go.
Overall a really nice family trip!
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