Disney Part 6: Epcot!

So, we left Animal Kingdom around 2pm and rushed over to Epcot for the rest of our day (for some reason, both of these parks closed earlier than normal that night).

We arrived at Epcot by 2:30pm and raced to put our tickets into the machine and start our fun! Well... as I mentioned previously, things didnt go as we, er, Tim had planned. They didnt let us in because we did not have the park-hopper pass. We went over to the Guest Relations desk to see what they could do for us. First she offered us the chance to upgrade to the hopper pass for almost $50 per ticket - I was like WHAT?! To make a long story short, the girl was super helpful and changed our tickets in a way that would allow us to forfeit our extra two days (which we didnt need anyway), enter Epcot AND we got over $50 back as a refund! Can you believe it?! My prayers were answered, I was sweating it out for sure. Tim said I worked my magic! LOL
So, after that adventure, THEN we finally entered the park! My good friend Colleen and her husband Ben have their photo permanently etched into the Wall of Legacy at Epcot. So she gave me the coordinates of their photo and... HERE IT IS!


3:15pm - Honey I Shrunk the Audience 3D Movie
3:45pm - Imagination with Figment ride
-- This one brings back so many memories. It was my favorite attraction when Tim and I went to Disney during our Senior Class trip in High School. So we make sure to visit it each time we're there and it has surely changed over the years. The girls loved Figment almost as much as I always have!


4:00pm - The Seas with Nemo Ride
4:15pm - Turtle Talk with Crush
-- Girls got to sit right up front and be part of the interactive show. During our last Disney trip, this show was not impressive, but it definitely improved since then and the girls enjoyed it this time.

Megan was crying because she sat on a 'poky' rock! Her bottom hurt:
5:00pm - Circle of Life
-- Cute movie with Lion King characters about saving the Earth.

5:15pm - Living with the Land
-- Boat ride through greenhouses with real vegetation, it was interesting.

5:30pm - Innoventions East
-- We quickly walked through here, but it was mostly empty and lots of things were closed already (?)

5:45-6:15pm DINNER at Electric Umbrella (near the fountains)
6:30pm - Ellen's Energy Adventure
-- 45 minute ride/movie with Ellen DeGeneres through the Dinosaur Era. Kaitlyn just finished studying a unit on Dinosaurs in school, so she found this one particularly interesting.
8:45pm - GM Test Track
-- We had a 90 minute wait which was terribly long, but we managed to have fun while in line - playing Rock, Paper, Scissors and Thumb wrestling, along with lots of other fun things. The ride itself was awesome and we all loved it! Definitely worth the wait!

9:00pm - Spaceship Earth
-- This is the ride that goes up to the top of the big 'ball'. We were the last to enter before it closed, there were 2 of us per car, they made some improvements and it was a tad more modern. They take your picture when you enter and you can create a postcard at the end, which was very funny!


Unfortunately, Epcot closed at 9pm, so we didnt make it over to the countries at all. And we missed the night time show because we were trying to fit in as many attractions as we could in the short time we had.

When we got back to the hotel that night, the girls watched all the videos we took while in Disney and I loaded pictures onto my computer. Then it was time to get some sleep, since we had to leave the following day...

Disney Part 5: Animal Kingdom!

First, please be sure to read Disney updates Parts 1 through 4...

Friday, April 17, 2009

For our last day in Disney, we decided to split our day up between two parks - Animal Kingdom first, then end the day at Epcot. We had 5-day passes that included one park per day. Since we were only there for 3 days, Tim thought it would be a good idea to forfeit those extra days to visit 2 parks in one day. Unfortunately, Disney didn't like our idea, but I'll update more on that in next post. For now, here is a glimpse at our 3 hours in Animal Kingdom :)
We arrived around 11am and were out of there by 2pm. As you may be able to tell, this is my least favorite park of the four. If you have more time to spend in Disney, Animal Kingdom can be fun and definitely has some interesting things to check out. But in my opinion, if you have to choose only a few to visit, I suggest this be the park you skip.
We saw a lady bug on the tram ride from our car to the entrance. If you've read The Shack, you will know the significance of that ladybug and why we entered the park with some apprehension. We definitely held our girls a bit closer while there!
11:15am - It's Tough to be a Bug! 3D movie
-- We didnt wait at all our whole time in Animal Kingdom, so it was nice to get through our three total attractions fairly quickly. Once again, the girls (especially triplets) dont like getting wet during these attractions, so they were hesitant. But this is a really fun show!


12noon - Festival of the Lion King Live Show
-- Phenomenal performance! If you see nothing else in Animal Kingdom, please see this show! It is beautiful and mesmerizing with fantastic music... I cant say enough good things about it! We loved it even more this time than our last time (and we loved it ALOT then!)

1:00pm - Finding Nemo: The Musical
-- Blah... this is a new attraction since our last Disney visit and I was not too impressed. First of all, if you've ever seen the Nemo movie, you'll know that there really isnt any music in it. So my question was, how can they turn THAT into a musical? Want to know how? They created music especially for this attraction... ugh. Therefore, they are songs we dont know and the kids had difficulty connecting to the characters as well as the music. We had horrible seats all the way on the back bleachers. A kid barfed right in front of us. It was way too long. I kept dozing off and wanted to leave the show early, but Tim was 'partially' enjoying it, so we stayed...
We have done the Safari before and it is definitely awesome - but we were limited on time and knew there would be a long wait. We were also curious to try out the roller coaster there, but again, no time.

So, overall, nice time in Animal Kingdom - but I was ready to go when it was time! Then we were off to Epcot for more family fun!

Disney Part 4: Hollywood Studios!

First, please be sure to read Disney Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3...
Thursday, April 16, 2009
This was our day to visit Hollywood Studios (previously known as MGM) and it was another HOT and sunny day! After our glorious breakfast at the hotel, we arrived at the park around 11:15am -- ready for the fun to begin again!
11:30am - Watched part of the High School Musical 3 show along the main boulevard - girls loved the music and sang along to every song!!

12:15pm - Voyage of the Little Mermaid show
-- This was the attraction Morgan was most excited about (Ariel is her absolute favorite princess!) however it did not meet up to her expectations. First off, there was a long wait. Second, we had bad seats all the way in the back. Third, Tim missed the show and didnt get to see it with us because he ran over to get a Fast Pass ticket for Toy Story. Fourth, you get wet and she did NOT appreciate that! And finally, Ursula (the big scary octopus) is part of the show and the girls are definitely not a fan of her. But I still feel it is a beautiful show and I enjoyed it!
1:00pm - The Great Movie Ride

1:30pm - Muppet Vision 3D Movie

2:00pm - Studio Backlot Tour (35 minute tour)



3:10pm - Met Sulley from Monsters Inc.

3:20pm - Playhouse Disney Stage Show
-- We got to sit right up front and the girls had fun dancing and singing along with the characters. I know by the next time we go, they will surely have outgrown this attraction, so I soaked up the cuteness :)
4:00pm - American Idol Experience
-- This was my favorite part of the day... It was an awesome show. They have 3 contestants sing (which are real visitors to Disney who had to try out and all). There were also 3 judges and they acted similar to the real ones (Randy, Paula & Simon - Colleen, they dont include Kara, sorry! heehee) Very cool!
4:45-5:30pm DINNER Rosie's All American Cafe for girls, Tim & I got BBQ Pork sandwiches. We ate in the outside seating area just in front of the Tower of Terror.
5:45pm - Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
-- Beautiful performance, we love this show more every time we go. The looks on the girls' faces were priceless
7:00pm - Tower of Terror
-- Longest wait of the day, girls were nervous while in line - spooky hotel, great ride. Tim & I thought it didnt seem to drop as much or as fast as it did the last time we were there.



7:30pm - American Idol finale
-- We sat in a crowd outside the Idol studio to watch the finale on a big screen. The guy we voted for made it to the Top 3 of the whole day, but didnt win.
8:00pm - Journey into Narnia
-- Commercial-type movie in a circular theater - awful - I dont recommend it

8:15pm - Disney: One Man's Dream
-- Walk through tour with an inspirational movie at the end. All about Mr. Walt Disney - he had many failures and never gave up, very interesting story
We walked around a bit while waiting for our Fast Pass time for Toy Story...

9:50pm - Toy Story Mania
-- SO much fun, probably the girls' favorite part of our visit to Hollywood Studios! Its a ride where you shoot targets and it keeps score - bright and fun!

We skipped all parades and fireworks shows... did well at avoiding crowds leaving the park.

10:30pm - We took the girls to the 'World's Largest McDonald's' near our hotel for Hershey's ice cream. Then the girls had fun in the playland for a bit before crashing back at the hotel :)