Initially, I was going to lump this entire Disney day in with a post I am working on about our weekend, but then the day was just so jam packed that I decided that it was better if I gave it, its own post. So... here you have it. Youngs Do Disney - EPCOT Edition!!
We ended up traveling down to Disney Saturday early afternoon. Initially, our plan was to go down later in the afternoon and have an early dinner before doing a few things that we booked FastPasses for, but we decided that it was the perfect time to take Kenzie to have her first haircut. That meant we had to leave earlier.
We parked at EPCOT because we knew that we would come out there later in the evening and then transferred over to the Magic Kingdom. That was a lot of work with two kids. There wasn't a ton to it, but there was a lot of walking between getting on monorails, switching monorails and getting in and out of both parks. Plus, to do all of that in a crowd with a stroller, much less a double stroller can be a pain. We made it though. And in one piece.
We made it to the Magic Kingdom and were told that the wait for a haircut would likely be around an hour. We decided to go ahead and put Kenzie's name in and then visit a character that was hanging out right on Main Street. I must admit, I am not at all sure who this character is, but Kenzie has a stuffed cat like her from Aunt Juju, Uncle E, and Baby Evie so she seemed to be drawn to her immediately. I was informed by a nice lady in front of me in line that it was Marie from Aristocats (which neither Steven nor I have seen). As usual, Kenzie ran right up to her and got a huge hug. She also got a nose kiss from her she said. Super adorable.
After visiting Marie, she said she wanted to visit Pluto but we decided to go see how long our wait was now for her haircut. It was supposed to be right about 15-20 minutes so we elected to just hang around outside the barber shop and wait. Will had fun walking around. Kenzie even helped him walk some which made her super happy. We went into the barber shop when people came out to get out of the heat. It's about 90 degrees in November! That is just nuts!
Before we knew it, it was time! Kenzie had some obvious reservations, but calmed right now once she was handed an Elsa doll to play with. She didn't even notice anything was happening at that point. After her haircut was done, it was time to style it and get her pixie dust.
Right as all of that was about to take place, things took a sharp left turn and almost derailed the remainder of our day. Will started coughing. He has had this cough for a couple of weeks now but this time he ended up choking (at least that was my interpretation) and proceeded to throw up his entire lunch all over me, himself, some on Steven, and a tiny bit on the floor. Steven took him outside while I cleaned up a bit inside and Kenzie finished her haircut. I hate that it sort of took away from Kenzie, but truth be told... I don't even think she noticed. She ended up choosing pigtails and got her pixie dust. She was one excited little girl!
Will and Steven came back in eventually and he still seemed off, but not terrible. One lady in the place informed me in the most snarky manner possible, that she was a nurse and my son was obviously very, very sick and I should leave with him RIGHT NOW! Um, pardon me chickadee... who are you?!? We (as in Steven and me... not me and Nurse Rude) debated for a while what we should do... though not in that woman's presence. She was a buzzkill. We ended up giving both kids an applesauce pouch and some water while we watched the (very tiny) UAB band march by before the parade was set to begin. Will seemed a bit better so we elected to go ahead and go to EPCOT with plans to watch him like a hawk and leave immediately if he got sick again. I was still saying that I thought he coughed so hard that he choked. I have done it before and this kid gets coughs like me. Steven wasn't sure if he wasn't coming down with a stomach bug, but he seemed a bit better.
We reversed our earlier trip and made our way back to EPCOT. Kenzie was stoked with the big ball. She has been talking about it for months. She saw it on TV and has wanted to visit ever since. On our way into the park we happened to run into none other than Mickey's best pal, Pluto. After some sneaky explanation as to why he was now in EPCOT after we had just seen him (but not said hello) in Magic Kingdom, we waited in his line to say hello. Also, we noticed that lines for characters in EPCOT were much shorter than those in Magic Kingdom. Makes sense.
Once we made it all the way into the park, we ended up going over to the Figment ride (Imagination something or other, maybe?). Both kids seemed to enjoy it and Will was doing much better since getting out of the heat. I love that so many of the rides in EPCOT have educational areas at the end of the ride that Kenzie can interact with. Some of the things kids can do are a bit old for her, but she likes to try most of them. She had a blast dancing and hopping around on the squares that made different instruments play.
Eventually we pulled her away from there and headed out towards the Land ride. On the way there, we found a bunch of ducks. Forget Disney and rides... give the kids ducks. Kenzie and Will were loving it. Will even managed to get one duck to hang out nearby so he could pet its bill over and over again. Kenzie attempted to get into the duck area by squeezing by the fence. We had to explain to her why that wasn't a good idea because she was gung ho to go play with the ducks. Also, Will picked up a new word at that point... "duck". Thankfully, he is really good at the /d/ sound so his "duck" actually sounds like "duck". Phew! That is always a word that makes me nervous.
We rode the Land ride and I even told Steven during it that thankfully, Kenzie is old enough to understand a lot of what is going on and is interested and Will is entirely different from his sister because both of them rode what is probably one of the longer rides at EPCOT with no issues. There is NO WAY we could have ever taken Kenzie on this ride at Will's age. She was just too active and crazy. Will is active, but so chill when we are doing most things, that it works. After Land, we went over to the Nemo ride. Kenzie really liked that one. They had an aquarium area once you finished the ride that both kids were enamored with. Will even cried when we eventually had to move on to something else.
We then decided to go ahead and ride Spaceship Earth aka "the big ball ride" as Kenzie refers to it. I think she was less than impressed with the actual ride, but I know it is one of Steven's favorites. Will rode with me and Kenzie rode with Steven. Will wasn't as enthused at this point, but he was obviously getting hungry. He was still manageable but we knew once we finished, that it was time to find some dinner.
We ended up eating at the Electric Umbrella. Note: Free soda refills!!! Sold! We brought the kids' dinne like usual,. Will ate almost an entire sandwich, mandarins, and goldfish. Kenzie ate her uncrustable, mandarins, goldfish, some of my fries, some of Steven's fries, and a couple of Steven's chicken nuggets. I guess she was hungry. Haha!
By the time we finished dinner, it was getting dark so we broke out the Dollar Tree glow necklaces and such. She was ridiculously excited! Good call on going to the dollar store. I spent $2... everyone else that bought something there probably spent at least $10. Now, ours aren't battery powered and are now garbage, but it worked while we were there and kept her entertained.
I'm glad we decided to do all the rides we wanted prior to dinner and not worry about our fast passes because that let us go through the countries after dinner. Downfall... Food and Wine. Now, I'm sure that if Steven and I were alone (and a few years younger when that sort of thing was more fun for us), we would have loved it... with kids... not so much. Too many people. At this point, a ton of them were very drunk. It wasn't a lot of fun being crowded in with all those people, but we made it work. We stopped in Mexico to ride the boat ride. We managed to catch Donald Duck outside of Mexico and said hello.
After that, Will fell asleep so we were just going to mosey around the countries. On our way to Germany, we caught sight of none other than Snow White. Now, I'm not sure how it happened, but Kenzie is obsessed with Snow White. She has never seen the movie, but she loves her. Unfotunately, at this point Kenzie also had to potty. So, Steven decided to wait in line while I rushed to find a bathroom. We knew there was one in Germany, but being that this was Food and Wine and Germans like their beer... it was a popular area. Thankfully, once we found the bathroom, about 5 or 6 women let me take Kenzie in front of them since they could tell she really had to go. Thankful for the kindness of strangers. I ended up making it back to Snow White just in time and Kenzie was a bit starstruck. That didn't stop her from carrying on what seemed like a 10 minute conversation with her. We eventually had to pull her away from there. We heard her telling her all about Jack, her fish, her brother... everything she could come up with.
After that we continued our trip around the countries and made a stop in France to pick up croissants for our neighbors. They love them but can't get them very often. I've never had one, but I might try it next time. Those pastries were awesome looking.
We made it around to England right in time to hear a cover band playing British hits. Kenzie HAD to get out of the stroller and dance for a while. So cute.
We finished our trip around the world and found the place that the Fastpasses for the fireworks was situated. I highly recommend Fastpassing the fireworks if anyone wants to go. It is a huge open area, with not too many people. Kenzie made a friend with a little girl next to us that happened to be her age and they played for the 20 or so minutes while we waited. It was awesome! Right as the fireworks were set to start, a crazy storm started to blow in. We actually debated just leaving so we wouldn't be soaked but we elected to wait and I'm glad we did because it drifted by us, thankfully. Will woke up right before the fireworks started.
We were so close to the water that it was LOUD! Will wasn't a fan of the really loud fireworks, but he loved the music and quieter parts. Kenzie loved it all. The only real downfall is that with the crazy storm wind, the smoke all blew right at us. At the end we were even pelted with bits of cardboard from the fireworks themselves that were blown towards us. It was nuts.
We made it out fairly easily once it was all over, changed the kids in the car, and headed home. Right as we got to the car, Kenzie had a meltdown, but luckily the day was done so we made it about 9 hours in the parks with these kids and very, very few issues. This was one of the longer days we have done. It wasn't supposed to be as long, but once we added Kenzie's haircut in, we added a couple of hours. We also walked A LOT! I took my Fitbit off for about an hour and a half while we were home to charge it. We also didn't go anywhere in the morning so I only walked around the house... but by the end of the day, I apparently walked over 20,000 steps. Nuts! I have heard that EPCOT requires the most walking and it is true. We were wiped! It was fun and worth it though. (And yes, I am aware that my phone has 1% battery. It died shortly there after this screen shot.)
It was an awesome day. Our next Disney day is actually going to be the Osbourne Lights which I am super excited about and I know both kids will love. Then, we are going to EPCOT with Aunt Juju, Uncle E, Baby Evie, Grandma and Grandaddy so I know that will be a lot of fun. Can't wait for the next trip!
Now that we have done every park, I want to work on an overall thoughts/tips/tricks post at some point with some things we have learned (at least what works for us), but that is for another day.
We ended up traveling down to Disney Saturday early afternoon. Initially, our plan was to go down later in the afternoon and have an early dinner before doing a few things that we booked FastPasses for, but we decided that it was the perfect time to take Kenzie to have her first haircut. That meant we had to leave earlier.
We parked at EPCOT because we knew that we would come out there later in the evening and then transferred over to the Magic Kingdom. That was a lot of work with two kids. There wasn't a ton to it, but there was a lot of walking between getting on monorails, switching monorails and getting in and out of both parks. Plus, to do all of that in a crowd with a stroller, much less a double stroller can be a pain. We made it though. And in one piece.
We made it to the Magic Kingdom and were told that the wait for a haircut would likely be around an hour. We decided to go ahead and put Kenzie's name in and then visit a character that was hanging out right on Main Street. I must admit, I am not at all sure who this character is, but Kenzie has a stuffed cat like her from Aunt Juju, Uncle E, and Baby Evie so she seemed to be drawn to her immediately. I was informed by a nice lady in front of me in line that it was Marie from Aristocats (which neither Steven nor I have seen). As usual, Kenzie ran right up to her and got a huge hug. She also got a nose kiss from her she said. Super adorable.
After visiting Marie, she said she wanted to visit Pluto but we decided to go see how long our wait was now for her haircut. It was supposed to be right about 15-20 minutes so we elected to just hang around outside the barber shop and wait. Will had fun walking around. Kenzie even helped him walk some which made her super happy. We went into the barber shop when people came out to get out of the heat. It's about 90 degrees in November! That is just nuts!
Before we knew it, it was time! Kenzie had some obvious reservations, but calmed right now once she was handed an Elsa doll to play with. She didn't even notice anything was happening at that point. After her haircut was done, it was time to style it and get her pixie dust.
Right as all of that was about to take place, things took a sharp left turn and almost derailed the remainder of our day. Will started coughing. He has had this cough for a couple of weeks now but this time he ended up choking (at least that was my interpretation) and proceeded to throw up his entire lunch all over me, himself, some on Steven, and a tiny bit on the floor. Steven took him outside while I cleaned up a bit inside and Kenzie finished her haircut. I hate that it sort of took away from Kenzie, but truth be told... I don't even think she noticed. She ended up choosing pigtails and got her pixie dust. She was one excited little girl!
Will and Steven came back in eventually and he still seemed off, but not terrible. One lady in the place informed me in the most snarky manner possible, that she was a nurse and my son was obviously very, very sick and I should leave with him RIGHT NOW! Um, pardon me chickadee... who are you?!? We (as in Steven and me... not me and Nurse Rude) debated for a while what we should do... though not in that woman's presence. She was a buzzkill. We ended up giving both kids an applesauce pouch and some water while we watched the (very tiny) UAB band march by before the parade was set to begin. Will seemed a bit better so we elected to go ahead and go to EPCOT with plans to watch him like a hawk and leave immediately if he got sick again. I was still saying that I thought he coughed so hard that he choked. I have done it before and this kid gets coughs like me. Steven wasn't sure if he wasn't coming down with a stomach bug, but he seemed a bit better.
We reversed our earlier trip and made our way back to EPCOT. Kenzie was stoked with the big ball. She has been talking about it for months. She saw it on TV and has wanted to visit ever since. On our way into the park we happened to run into none other than Mickey's best pal, Pluto. After some sneaky explanation as to why he was now in EPCOT after we had just seen him (but not said hello) in Magic Kingdom, we waited in his line to say hello. Also, we noticed that lines for characters in EPCOT were much shorter than those in Magic Kingdom. Makes sense.
Once we made it all the way into the park, we ended up going over to the Figment ride (Imagination something or other, maybe?). Both kids seemed to enjoy it and Will was doing much better since getting out of the heat. I love that so many of the rides in EPCOT have educational areas at the end of the ride that Kenzie can interact with. Some of the things kids can do are a bit old for her, but she likes to try most of them. She had a blast dancing and hopping around on the squares that made different instruments play.
Eventually we pulled her away from there and headed out towards the Land ride. On the way there, we found a bunch of ducks. Forget Disney and rides... give the kids ducks. Kenzie and Will were loving it. Will even managed to get one duck to hang out nearby so he could pet its bill over and over again. Kenzie attempted to get into the duck area by squeezing by the fence. We had to explain to her why that wasn't a good idea because she was gung ho to go play with the ducks. Also, Will picked up a new word at that point... "duck". Thankfully, he is really good at the /d/ sound so his "duck" actually sounds like "duck". Phew! That is always a word that makes me nervous.
We rode the Land ride and I even told Steven during it that thankfully, Kenzie is old enough to understand a lot of what is going on and is interested and Will is entirely different from his sister because both of them rode what is probably one of the longer rides at EPCOT with no issues. There is NO WAY we could have ever taken Kenzie on this ride at Will's age. She was just too active and crazy. Will is active, but so chill when we are doing most things, that it works. After Land, we went over to the Nemo ride. Kenzie really liked that one. They had an aquarium area once you finished the ride that both kids were enamored with. Will even cried when we eventually had to move on to something else.
We then decided to go ahead and ride Spaceship Earth aka "the big ball ride" as Kenzie refers to it. I think she was less than impressed with the actual ride, but I know it is one of Steven's favorites. Will rode with me and Kenzie rode with Steven. Will wasn't as enthused at this point, but he was obviously getting hungry. He was still manageable but we knew once we finished, that it was time to find some dinner.
We ended up eating at the Electric Umbrella. Note: Free soda refills!!! Sold! We brought the kids' dinne like usual,. Will ate almost an entire sandwich, mandarins, and goldfish. Kenzie ate her uncrustable, mandarins, goldfish, some of my fries, some of Steven's fries, and a couple of Steven's chicken nuggets. I guess she was hungry. Haha!
By the time we finished dinner, it was getting dark so we broke out the Dollar Tree glow necklaces and such. She was ridiculously excited! Good call on going to the dollar store. I spent $2... everyone else that bought something there probably spent at least $10. Now, ours aren't battery powered and are now garbage, but it worked while we were there and kept her entertained.
I'm glad we decided to do all the rides we wanted prior to dinner and not worry about our fast passes because that let us go through the countries after dinner. Downfall... Food and Wine. Now, I'm sure that if Steven and I were alone (and a few years younger when that sort of thing was more fun for us), we would have loved it... with kids... not so much. Too many people. At this point, a ton of them were very drunk. It wasn't a lot of fun being crowded in with all those people, but we made it work. We stopped in Mexico to ride the boat ride. We managed to catch Donald Duck outside of Mexico and said hello.
After that, Will fell asleep so we were just going to mosey around the countries. On our way to Germany, we caught sight of none other than Snow White. Now, I'm not sure how it happened, but Kenzie is obsessed with Snow White. She has never seen the movie, but she loves her. Unfotunately, at this point Kenzie also had to potty. So, Steven decided to wait in line while I rushed to find a bathroom. We knew there was one in Germany, but being that this was Food and Wine and Germans like their beer... it was a popular area. Thankfully, once we found the bathroom, about 5 or 6 women let me take Kenzie in front of them since they could tell she really had to go. Thankful for the kindness of strangers. I ended up making it back to Snow White just in time and Kenzie was a bit starstruck. That didn't stop her from carrying on what seemed like a 10 minute conversation with her. We eventually had to pull her away from there. We heard her telling her all about Jack, her fish, her brother... everything she could come up with.
After that we continued our trip around the countries and made a stop in France to pick up croissants for our neighbors. They love them but can't get them very often. I've never had one, but I might try it next time. Those pastries were awesome looking.
We made it around to England right in time to hear a cover band playing British hits. Kenzie HAD to get out of the stroller and dance for a while. So cute.
We finished our trip around the world and found the place that the Fastpasses for the fireworks was situated. I highly recommend Fastpassing the fireworks if anyone wants to go. It is a huge open area, with not too many people. Kenzie made a friend with a little girl next to us that happened to be her age and they played for the 20 or so minutes while we waited. It was awesome! Right as the fireworks were set to start, a crazy storm started to blow in. We actually debated just leaving so we wouldn't be soaked but we elected to wait and I'm glad we did because it drifted by us, thankfully. Will woke up right before the fireworks started.
We were so close to the water that it was LOUD! Will wasn't a fan of the really loud fireworks, but he loved the music and quieter parts. Kenzie loved it all. The only real downfall is that with the crazy storm wind, the smoke all blew right at us. At the end we were even pelted with bits of cardboard from the fireworks themselves that were blown towards us. It was nuts.
We made it out fairly easily once it was all over, changed the kids in the car, and headed home. Right as we got to the car, Kenzie had a meltdown, but luckily the day was done so we made it about 9 hours in the parks with these kids and very, very few issues. This was one of the longer days we have done. It wasn't supposed to be as long, but once we added Kenzie's haircut in, we added a couple of hours. We also walked A LOT! I took my Fitbit off for about an hour and a half while we were home to charge it. We also didn't go anywhere in the morning so I only walked around the house... but by the end of the day, I apparently walked over 20,000 steps. Nuts! I have heard that EPCOT requires the most walking and it is true. We were wiped! It was fun and worth it though. (And yes, I am aware that my phone has 1% battery. It died shortly there after this screen shot.)
It was an awesome day. Our next Disney day is actually going to be the Osbourne Lights which I am super excited about and I know both kids will love. Then, we are going to EPCOT with Aunt Juju, Uncle E, Baby Evie, Grandma and Grandaddy so I know that will be a lot of fun. Can't wait for the next trip!
Now that we have done every park, I want to work on an overall thoughts/tips/tricks post at some point with some things we have learned (at least what works for us), but that is for another day.
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