Day two Epcot.
Hearing horror stories of kids waking at 4am the first few days were glad we went to bed early last night and although theyre not too bad and they make 6am, were all feeling pretty groggy.
Theres no food in the apartment
The plan to go to the supermarket last night didnt happen
.Hold on! we bought a quart of milk in the pool bar last night and I bought snacks from home for the girls, let see what we can hash from this
..
So its pink milk (I bought nesquik magic straws from home
) and an organic goodie bar each for the girls and coffee and jammie dodgers for the adults well get something when we get to EPCOT.
We get everybody and everything in the car. I pack a huge change bag with nappies for DD19mo, wipes, sacks, changes of clothes for both as well as a towel, sun lotions and all the medication under the sun. I am prepared for the whole day. Im driving so they say to me get the Tom Tom on then Mum, lets get there I've already set up all the places we are going to visit as shortcuts in it before we came away as I use it on my PDA. We have a signal, we ask it to take us to the kingdom of EPCOT and were off.
Left out of the resort, right at the end of the road then straight on for WDW, this is east peasy, were chatting away, the Tom Tom is chatting away and weve reached our destination
..or have we?
This isnt a very inspiring entrance, I can see the back of spaceship earth but whats with the electricity plant, high fences and huge barriers and the not so welcoming welcome. I fathom that Tom Tom has taken us to a cast member entrance of the park, I do a u-turn and we decide to not use tom tom for directions on property anymore, just to get us there. This isnt the exciting entrance to WDW for the girls and my Mum that I had in mind, but hilarious when we look back on it. I wonder how many people this has happened to!!
We get to EPCOT proper, park real close its only 0930 so the place is quiet, so quiet in fact that once Ive exchange the Virgin voucher for the 14 days ultimate tickets nowhere is open to get refreshments in FW and although early we wander around WS anti clockwise and find a quick stop before England for iced coffee, muffins and smoothies. WS is deserted everybody is off sensibly riding Soarin and Test Track! It was lovely to walk around the countries when its quiet, the girls ran around everywhere but particularly liked Morocco and England, it was deserted. Annas got pink
crocs at the Outpost, I think it was. There is a childs playground with a climbing frame, slides and a kidcot stop, the girls loved it, I cant remember where it was but we spent a while there. Its time for our lunch adr so we head to the restaurant Akershus for the princess storybook lunch and oh no I have no autograph book for the girls, Ive totally forgotton my Mum runs over to the cart outside and none, the shop opposite is closed so we have no autograph book, I feel Ive let them down because I forgot.
The girls have their official photo taken with Sleeping Beauty, and were shown to the first table on the right in the little round room at the rear of the restaurant. We visit the yummy buffet for our starters and before our mains arrive we start getting our visits. Ariel approaches our table and calls out to my youngest (she has red hair) Dont ever change your hair, promise? It was so cute
We can see Snow White, Belle and Cinderella visiting the tables we are over the moon that Cinderella is there, as Id heard that was very rare. Eldest was quite tired and overwhelmed by it all. For our mains, Mum and I had the lamb, DH had the pulled pork. Everybody rated the meal as very good, we loved the way dessert is served where you all help yourself from one large plate of four mixed puds
..the cold rice pudding one was particularly yummy
.
When we get outside its very hot and Maelstrom is a walk-on before going back to the buggies, it was lovely and cool and totally revives the eldest, she loved it! We head for Future world.
We walk on to The seas with Nemo and then Turtle Talk with Crush, we all love both, even if Nemo did make us dizzy! Crush is hilarious, eldest lost a jibbitz from her crocs whilst sitting down the front and started crying, crush made a fuss of my little dudette and calmed her.
As we cant take buggies into the land building and youngest is napping, I go to Soarin to see the wait time, its about 3.30 and its a 45min wait so we decide to miss it. I'm in no way a lazy person but I was very disappointed that I had to walk the whole way into the building, down the ramps and stairs to find out wait times, it would be nice if they had a wait time board outside the building for the rides unless I missed it! This would really split your group if you wanted to queue and you had a little one napping (outside in the heat!). Would it hurt so much to let buggies in this building? This is a big shame as the one thing I personally wanted to do with DD4 was Soarin. Test Track wait was the same and as eldest is approaching a melt down we decide to miss that too.
She throws that massive tantrum over what I cannot remember so its time for a sit down and a drink so we head for the electric umbrella for refreshments.
As were all quite tired we decide to head for home, the girls nap in the car so Mum and I visit the publix and do that Supermarket shop. We make a greek salad with French bread for dinner, bath and bed for everybody early Im shattered.
To review the day we probably should have done Soarin, and TT before heading to WS too early but I wouldnt change some of the laughs we had the morning walking around WS, it was a lovely morning and a nice leisurely start to the trip. Sometimes little children love the simplest things like playgrounds and freedom to run around. In some ways the whole of WS was their playground that morning.
Soarin will be there next time.
Note my daughter's finger up her nose - this is typical her.
Note my buggy, I never had to hunt for it after getting off a ride, even if it was moved!
and crashes out on My Mum's lap on a bench outside Animation Courtyard. This gives me an opportunity to take eldest for a walk on her own, she wants to go to the shop outside Voyage to look at the Princess dresses, and look for characters under the hat. 
to some Wasabi paste 
- sorry) Credit where it's due I thought walking around WS in the evening with the torches blazing and the "street" atmosphere was fantastic. I didn't enjoy my first trip to EPCOT in 2001 - but I've come to really love it now.
