I’ve talked to you about the booking, the saving, the experiences, the food, the interactions, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. That brings to the final two parks that I have left to talk about, Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
Epcot
So, we did Epcot from early entry to late afternoon, and depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, this park is worth staying all day, or hitting what you came for and leaving.
We were there mainly to see Elsa, Anna and Moana and ride the Frozen Ever After ride. We also had a breakfast reservation at Akershus, but other than that everything else we got to do was just bonus. For those who don’t know, Epcot is split up into countries; Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, The American Adventure, Japan, Morocco, France, UK, Canada, and then there is World Nature where Moana and the Finding Nemo ride are and World Discovery, which I believe is where Guardians of the Galaxy is.
We started out in Norway and rope dropped Frozen Ever After, because Elsa is Natalia’s favorite character. And then we went next door and waited for the Character meet and greet with Anna and Elsa, which turned out to be a great idea, because we met a guy later in the day at the Moana meet and greet, who said they waited over an hour for both the ride and the meet and greet.
After, that we ate lunch at Akershus, where the kids got to meet several princesses including, Belle, Tianna, Ariel, Aurora and Snow White. We had already met, Tianna, Ariel and Snow White, but it was OK, they were all very nice. After lunch I went forward to China, because it was hot and I wanted my Bamboo hat, that if your friends with me on Facebook you saw in many pictures.
Then we backtracked past Norway to Mexico and went into the Pavillion, which was super cool, and I didn’t even know a lot of that stuff was in there. And you wouldn’t know unless you actually go in there, because on the outside it’s just a really cool looking Aztec building. There is a fun little Gondola ride and there is a restaurant and shops and Mariachis that play, I think it was every 30 minutes, or every hour.
After that, we went back through Norway to continue forward, we tried to find Mulan, but the cast member that was where she was supposed to be, said she was, “On a mission for the Emperor.” So we missed her again.
We skipped ahead to France, where Marisa and Jaden got to ride the Ratatouille ride, because it was only a 30 minute wait, again, very unusual, because most people purchase lightning lanes for. We also did Belle’s Sing Along, which I thought was going to be like the other shows we watched, but it was just on a screen, so we would probably skip that next time.
After that we made our way towards World Nature, where we rode the Nemo ride twice, walking on to it both times, we did Turtle Talk with Crush from Finding Nemo, which was cute and interactive for the kids. And then we waited in line for Moana and were second in line for her last meet and greet for the day. After that we cooled off in Moana’s walk- through Journey of Water, which has different spots throughout where the kids can play with the water and look like they’re controlling the water.
After that we were pretty much wiped out and went back to the resort to eat, but we accomplished what we set out to do. Epcot is definitely geared towards older kids and people who are interested in drinking, but there is still quite a bit to do for the little ones, and again, I recommend trying it at least once if you’ve never been.
Hollywood Studios
This was actually the first park we went to on our trip. Again, we got early entry and went straight to Tower of Terror, because Jaden told me he was going to ride it and I didn’t want him to chicken out on me, so we hit that first... I told him it was just an elevator. We got in there and prior to the ride they take you into a room and it goes dark and an old TV comes on and shows you a video of how it became the Tower of Terror, and I looked down at him after the lights came back on and he was like what in the world is going on, but he didn’t back out.
Then some doors open and you get in line one more time before they put you on the ride. He went in on his own got buckled and was ready for the ride. Marisa asked him who he wanted to sit by and he said me and Papa, which is usually not the case, I think he knew it was a little more than an elevator. It takes you up slow like normal, but once you get up to the top, the doors open and you see holograms of the ghosts and then it takes you up some more and some doors open again and you can see out over the park and then it shakes and then it drops you and it does it two or three times taking you up and dropping you. My babies poor heart was racing 100mph, but he rode it. Papa said Jaden grabbed a hold of his shirt and was not letting go. I’m a big guy and I was coming up out of my seat, so I know he was too.
I was proud of him for going through with it, but every ride after that he had about 100 questions on what it was going to do before he got on.
After that we headed over to Toy Story Land, where we ate at Round Up BBQ, which was amazing, and we also got to meet Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Jessie. We rode Toy Story Mania, which wasn’t bad, we probably waited longer than we should have, but it was something both kids could ride, so it was OK. Natalia wanted to go ride Slinky Dog, so her and Marisa went up there, but she was about half an inch to short.
Marisa said the cast member really considered letting her ride, but couldn’t do it, and she said if looks could kill, Natalia looked at him with the meanest look like, I dare you not let me ride after I waited in line. But they came down and we headed over to Pixar Plaza, where we got to meet Sully from Monster’s Inc. Frozone, Mrs. Incredible and Joy, all characters I have never met before, so that was really cool.
We made our way back towards the middle of the park, and caught the Frozen sing- along show just right and were able to walk into it without waiting. It was really cute, but poor Natalia was exhausted and fell asleep during “ Let it Go.” After that we took it the Little Mermaid Show, which we just missed so we had to wait 35 minutes for the next show, but still not bad.
We did Mickey’s Runaway Train, which was a cute little ride that we all could do and then we ended the night with Fantasmic. We didn’t plan that out very good and had to sit in the nose bleeds, so I recommend getting there about an hour to an hour and a half before the last show time to get in line. But Fantasmic is something you don’t want to miss, it is an awesome show.
All-in-all, it was a great trip, I don’t regret doing it the way we did, and would definitely do it again with a few small changes. But it is definitely beneficial to stay on property at a resort, the meal plan, if you can get it with a deal after you book is worth it, the memory maker is absolutely worth it. And, any of the character dinning’s we did are worth giving a shot. Keep in mind that at some of them the characters only come out at breakfast/ lunch and not dinner.
I hope this gives some insight into booking your first/ next Disney trip and if you have any questions, feel free to holler at me.