Walt Disney World: Epcot

Today I am sharing the highlights of our trip Epcot. Better late than never right? You can read about our fun outside the park and exploring Animal Kingdom here and here. 

We visited Epcot over the course of two days. One day we made sure to arrive right as the park was opening to get in the popular rides without the hour long lines. Within an hour of the park opening we were able to ride Soarin', Mission Space and Test Track. 

Soarin' is a flight simulator ride that takes you on a hang glider ride over California. This was surprisingly the group favorite. I was surprised how fun the ride was due to it's unassuming location. It is located in The Land Pavillon down a long hallway with little fanfare. 

Not a favorite, Mission Space.  Mission Space is another simulator ride but extremely intense. The simulation was built to mirror the g forces astronauts experience when going into space. Thanks to this ride I know I will not be singing up to go to space. This ride made all of us extremely nauseous. Not in a fun roller coster way. If you want to do this ride, choose the Green Team!

Another favorite was Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush interacts with the crowd answering kid's questions about the ocean. I was amazed by the ability to recognize and respond to  specific individuals in the room. 

We also made sure to ride the most iconic ride at Epcot, Spaceship Earth. 

The end of the ride now features an interactive story. It uses your picture to tell a story of how life might be in the future based on answers to a series of questions. June and my story placed us on vacation under the sea while an automated robot took care of our dogs!

We also took one afternoon to enjoy drinks around the world. I could have spend days enjoying the different countries and trying all the unique food and beverages. We also stumbled upon one restaurant that served cronuts which of course we had to try!

Nome in Norway

Drinks in Italy

Delicious Cronut

We enjoyed dinner at Canada and hung out to see the fireworks around the world showcase lagoon. Everything was beautiful lit up at night!

There you have it our trip to Epcot in a nutshell!

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Walt Disney World: Animal Kingdom

Since it is coming on on two weeks since I came back from the happiest place on earth,  it's about time I share the rest of my trip! You can check out my first recap here. We snuck in time at the parks as much as week could between attending sessions at conference. So that meant visiting the same park across multiple days. I thought it would be easier to share the highlights of each park.

 First stop, Animal Kingdom! We visited the park first thing in the morning which meant minimal lines and crowds. I highly recommend taking advantage of extra magic hours if you are staying on the resort property. Thanks to getting to the park early we were able to ride multiple popular rides with minimal wait. 

There were so many highlights of Animal Kingdom. I believe it may be the most underrated of the parks. However, it should not be as it has so many attractions! The group favorites were Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris (and the nature walk nearby) and The Lion King Show.

Photos from Expedition Everest. A great tip I learned was you use your magic band to save the pictures at each attraction then when you get home you can screen shot the ones you love. No paying for unnecessary pictures! Also, the photographers around each park are more than happy to take a picture with your personal camera. 

Behind the Tree of Life

We stumbled upon a meet and greet with Baloo and King Louie. 

Of course, the highlight of the park was all the animals you get to see! 

Up next, Epcot! 

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Walt Disney World Resort: Fun Outside the Parks

It's a surprise snow day here in NC. Last night there was no reports of ice or snow in the forecast.  Then this morning I woke up to 6 different phone calls from the school system. It changed from 2 hour delay to closed for school and staff all just hours before school starts. I am happy that I decided to stay in bed and wait on the final decision. 

I finally got the chance this morning to upload the hundreds of pictures from our conference trip to Walt Disney World. The reason behind the trip was attending the National Association of School Psychologist conference which was held at the Swan and Dolphin Resort in Walt Disney World. I made plans with friends from my grad school cohort to attend the conference and squeeze in time at the parks in between sessions. The conference was held Tuesday- Friday. We arrived Sunday around lunch and took time to explore resorts on Disney property. There truly is a lot to do just exploring the different resorts and restaurants. 

First, Anna and I checked into Pop Century Resort and grabbed lunch at the nearby Art of Animation Resort. The weather was beautiful that afternoon so we took the time to walk around and explore the campus while catching a few rays before meeting up with Megan and Robbie. Then we used the complementary buses to head to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The complementary buses are great for heading from your resort to the parks. However, they are a bit of a pain when traveling from resort to resort. Think a 45 minute trip when it may have only taken a 20 minute drive. 

We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge with perfect timing- it was dinner time for the animals!! From the overlook at the resort, we could see the giraffes and zebras feeding. 

Check out that baby trying to pick up food off the ground! So precarious with such long limbs.  We also took advantage of the activities being held outside while there. The resort was hosting marshmallow roasting by a fire pit. 

After enjoying roasted marshmallows we headed to the monorail to check out a few other resorts. Our last stop was the Polynesian resort where we met up with June and enjoyed tropical drinks as well as a delicious dinner!

We ended our night watching the Electrical Water  Pageant  from the beach at the Polynesian Resort. It's a 5 minute light show set to music on the lagoon. It hasn't changed a bit since my family visited over 10 years ago. 

After the light show, we took the ferry back to the Magic Kingdom where we took a bus home. It was a cold boat ride but we could see the fireworks and the castle lit up from the water.

I could have spent a week just exploring the resorts and taking in all the amazing Disney magic. Can't wait to share more on our time in the parks and highlighting how much fun you can have in Disney as an adult!

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