WDW - Spring Break 2018 - Day 6 - Epcot, Swim, and Magic Kingdom

Today was our final full day at Disney. It wasn't a hot day, the high I think hit 72, but the one thing we had left to get in was the pool. So we made sure to fit that in this afternoon. Since we had been so fortunate to hit all of our must do's while at Disney, today was a day to get in all of our favorites before we left.

We actually had no set plan for the day. We knew we'd start in Epcot to use our final three anytime fast passes and then would end the night in Magic Kingdom. I picked up fast passes that morning for Peter Pan, Tomorrowland Speedway, and Enchanted Tales with Belle. I didn't start the fast passes until 7:30 pm and planned to adjust them up as needed.

The first part of the day was sleeping in. Which for us, was really only 7:30, but the kids needed that sleep. The kids and I ran down to the food court to use up some snack credits for breakfast. We got some orange juice and muffins and some French toast.

After breakfast and getting ready we spent the morning walking the resort and taking photos of all the cool areas. We were on a bus to Epcot by 11:00 and ready to start our day.

Paul and I had two final must do's in addition to the kids. We wanted to meet Belle in France (the only spot in Disney she meets in her village outfit and not the ballgown) and meet Baymax.

We hit Baymax first and were first in line after he came back from break. He was a really fun character. I wouldn't mind going back to see him next time. The kids hadn't watched his movie recently, so I think when we go back next they'd be more into it. But they humored us for this one.

We then went into the World Showcase to head straight to France. We met Belle with a short wait.

After Belle, we walked all the way around the World Showcase and stopped in Africa for the Outpost Refreshment stand. They only had hot dogs and to our surprise we were given the hot dogs for free. It was much appreciated as we were out of our meal plan by this time.

We were ready to get going at this point, so we walked over to test track to do use two of our anytime fast passes and then finished out our Epcot day with our final fast pass for Soarin.

The kids at test track this time wanted to design the car together. So they designed a car, Paul got to design a car, and then I designed a car. The kids also wanted to ride front row together with us behind them. It shows how much Ally grew over the trip with her bravery. She took a stranger in the front row next to her, over one of us sitting by her. 

My car is below. This was the first time I actually got to design it since I usually let whichever child is with me do it all. It is a fun little part of the ride.

Test Track takes awhile even with the fast passes. You get assigned a spot pretty quickly, but have to wait for the design room to open up, then design the car, then get in another line to wait for your car assignment. The kids don't mind at all, but when making your plans and doing twice in a row, even with a fast pass you are looking at an hour.

We ended on a great note from Soarin and were on a bus back to the resort around 3:00. We stopped in the foodcourt for some breadsticks as a snack and then hit the swimming pool.

The pool was heated, but with the temperature outside only in the low 70s, when you got out of the pool it was freezing! I headed back to the room after about 15 minutes and Paul stuck it out with the kids for the rest of the hour. The pool was really nice and it actually played music under the water.  I got cleaned up and started packing stuff up for our departure the next day. Once the kids were done swimming, we went ahead and cleaned up and went to our food court at the resort for dinner. We hadn't had a meal at the food court, so wanted to try one. Paul got Chicken Alfredo pasta, I got pulled pork, Ally got Mac and Cheese, and Sam went with Pizza. 

We were on a bus and on our way to Magic Kingdom by 8:00. We had fast passes scheduled for Tomorrowland Speedway, It's a Small World, and Peter Pan. The kids didn't want to take the time to do Enchanted Tales With Belle (especially since it's in the plans for October) so we switched that one out for the It's a Small World. The kids also wanted to make sure we hit Philharmagic one more time, and Paul and I wanted to stop and get a final pack of cards from Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom so that was our first stop once we entered the park.

We went straight to people mover and could definitely feel the crowds starting to arrive. We lucked out with really low crowds for it being Spring Break, and we were leaving the week before Easter where a lot of schools have break, and it was a Friday night in Magic Kingdom. It took us about 15 minutes to get on the People Mover and then we headed over to the speedway. I have decided I'm not really a fan of the speedway at night. There was a lot of teenagers in the area and they were loud and ramming cars left and right. I was really afraid the kids would be rammed by another car.

Something happened while we were waiting to pull in the cars and they had all the cars stopped before we could get back in to unload.  So we had a long wait to get the cars parked and back in their spot. After the speedway the fireworks started up for the night, so we watched them while we walked over to Winnie the Pooh. This was definitely an interesting ride. It ended up breaking down when we were on the ride. It was announced for us to stay seated and that a cast member would be with us momentarily. We are use to rides stopping as we ride them, especially continuous load ones, as they need to pause them to help those in wheelchairs transfer over.  But this one was clear it was unplanned from the announcements. Sam was freaking out a bit because he doesn't like it when things don't work according to plan. We had a cast member walk past us and say he would be back shortly. We were the only people in this area due to the car in front of us being empty. We could hear the cast members and other guests coming closer. They formed a train of guests and we walked behind a cast member out of the ride. We were given a fast pass to use for any ride for having to be evacuated. It was a cool experience once Sam realized we would all be fine to see how Disney handles ride breakdowns.

We left Winnie the Pooh and thanks for the breakdown were able to avoid the rest of the fireworks for Ally. We headed off to our Its a Small World fast pass and then went straight over to Peter Pan for that fast pass. I felt like a bit of a terrible parent at Peter Pan because this was the first day we remembered to bring Sam's glasses. He was taking all the details in and was amazed that he could see cars down on the streets below us.  Oops next time we'll remember those glasses every day!

After Peter Pan's Flight we went to watch Philharmagic one more time. We then went over to see Rapunzel one more time before we left. Sam was tired and ready to go, but said that he knew Ally wanted to see her again, so would go once more. 

We left Rapunzel and headed down Main Street to do some shopping at the Emporium. Ally and Sam picked out their final souvenirs and Paul and I got some extra cards for the SOTMK game.

Because we were leaving Magic Kingdom basically at park close, we had a crazy long line for the bus back to Art of Animation. It would be one of our longer waits, and we ended up having to stand on the ride back. We lucked out and had a double bus which had a big area to stand and we were able to tuck the kids into a corner so they could sit for the ride back. Ally was so exhausted she fell asleep on the floor of the bus.

We got back to our resort at about 11:45 that night and hurried to buy a few final souvenirs and use the final 6 snack credits that expired at midnight that night. We went to bed as soon as we got back to our room since we'd have to be up early the next morning to finish packing and hit the road for the long drive home.

STEP COUNT - 26,201 steps plus an hour of swimming for kids ACTIVE MINUTES - 174 plus swimming

9:30 Snacks from Food Court for breakfast
10:15-10:45 Photos of resort Area
11:00 Bus to Epcot
11:30 Met Baymax
12:05 Met Belle in France
Walked World Showcase
12:35 Lunch in Africa
1:20 Test Track (anytime fast pass)
1:45 Test Track (anytime fast pass)
2:20 Soarin (anytime fast pass)
3:00 Bus to Resort
3:30 Snack from Resort
4:30-5:45 Swimming
6:00 Getting Ready
7:00 Dinner at Resort
8:00 Bus to Magic Kingdom
SOTMK picking up cards
8:25 People Mover
8:45 Speedway (fast pass)
9:00 Winnie the Pooh (ride plus evacuation)
9:15 It's a Small World (fast pass)
9:30 Peter Pan's Flight (fast pass)
9:55 Philharmagic
10:10 Met Rapunzel and Tiana
10:30 Shopping at Emporium on Main Street
11:20 Bus to Resort

WDW - Spring Break 2018 - Day 5 - Epcot with a tiny bit of Magic Kingdom

Today was going to be an Epcot day. We had a morning reservation at Bon Voyage at Trattorio al Forno at the Boardwalk. We planned to drive over to the Boardwalk and eat breakfast and then go into the parks for the day. The original plan was:

8:05 ADR Breakfast Bon Voyage

9:15-10:15 Spaceship Earth Fast Pass

10:15-11:15 Mission Space Fast Pass

11:30-12:30 Test Track Fast Pass

8:00 Frozen Ever After Dessert Party

However, we were exhausted from the night before, so we decided to just drive over to breakfast, and instead of leaving the car at Boardwalk and walking over to Epcot, to drive back to the resort and take a bit of downtime before taking the bus over to Epcot.

Breakfast was fantastic. The restaurant is on the boardwalk and it was beautiful. It was also absolutely freezing (40s) so we didn't stick around outside to admire the scenery. This was a character table service breakfast where you meet Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Ariel, and Prince Eric. The characters were amazing, the details of the restaurant were amazing, and breakfast was really good. 

Flynn Rider was the first to stop by and he was great. He worked on the smolder with Sam and asked Ally about Pascal who we brought with us to breakfast. My camera was just not working at all with the lighting and the speed light ran out of batteries. Our waitress was wonderful and had Flynn stop back by so we could get a photo on my iPhone. Wouldn't it figure I have this really expensive camera and have to use my iPhone instead. However, I did just upgrade my iPhone before vacation so it did take pretty good pictures as well. The one below is before my camera just stopped working.

Rapunzel was next followed by Ariel. When Prince Eric stopped by he also did a great job. He asked Ally to dance and spun her for a twirl next to our table.

We finished up the meal and walked back to the car to head to Art of Animation to take about an hour of downtime before starting the day in Epcot. Once back in the room I called down to the front desk. Yesterday while we were in Animal Kingdom I missed a call from the manager of the resort regarding the email I had sent on Tuesday. She was offering to move us to a suite. However, since I didn't call back until this morning (or listen to the voicemail until this morning) I didn't think it was worth it to move us all for one night. So I called and while that manager wasn't available, I did get to speak with another assistant manager. He was great, and completely understood that I didn't want to pack us all up for one night. So he said instead he saw that we had planned on Epcot that day and the next day, so would go ahead and give us three anytime fast passes for Epcot each day. Which was super nice of him.

Because of the way fast passes are scheduled at Epcot, you have to use your three (one tier 1 and two tier 2) before you can book any additional tier 1 fast passes. The Tier 1 fast passes are really the only three you need fast passes for, and those are Frozen Ever After, Test Track, and Soarin. Having those three anytime fast passes per person (which work for everything except Frozen) really helped. However, because I knew we didn't really need the tier 2 fast passes, I went ahead and let them expire, so we could just show up to the park and ride Test Track and then start looking for Tier 1 fast passes and it worked perfectly.

At 10:45 we caught a bus to Epcot and by far had the longest lines of the week getting to security. We pretty much picked the one slow line but at that point we were committed and just waited the 30 minutes it took to get through bag check.

We took our obligatory photos at the entrance at 11:30 and were on our way to use our fast pass at Test Track by 11:45.

We got our own car for this spin around the test track.

Because I let our earlier fast passes expire as opposed to rescheduling them, we were able to look for new Tier 1 fast passes immediately. I found a Frozen Ever After fast pass after some modifying, so we grabbed it, and headed over to Norway.

We got in line for our fast pass at 12:30 and had a surprise as we were almost to the boat. Ally had a good friend from school that she kept telling us was at Disney the same week we were. She kept saying she wanted to meet up with them. Now, I don't know this mom's name or number, so we just kept telling her, it's a big place there is no way we will end up seeing them at Disney. Well, guess who was in line behind us at Frozen. Her friend! So she got to ride Frozen Ever After with them and we got a few photos.

After saying goodbye to her friend and her family, we went over to China for the use of one of our Quick Service lunches. It was a great meal and we had a nice place to sit that was covered and free of wind. We then walked around Japan and some of the world showcase to get some more photos. We were trying to see Belle in France but she was closed at the time we went through, so we just jumped on the friendship boats to take the boats across the lagoon to future world.

Once we arrived in Future World I just started grabbing a fast pass at a time as they came up. We first went to Figment and rode at 2:10 with a fast pass and then I was able to grab a fast pass for Soarin at 3:00 right after that. So we ended up riding Figment, walking over to Soarin for a fast pass we found, and then getting right back on Soarin with one of our anytime fast passes.

We are seriously spoiled after this trip and the number of times we got to ride certain attractions.

We left the Land and Soarin behind and went to use our final two anytime fast passes at Epcot and rode Test Track back to back at 4:05 and 4:35. You would think the kids would have been tired of this ride by now, but not at all!

We grabbed some Mickey Ear Ice Cream Bars and walked towards the monorail to jump on for a ride over to Magic Kingdom around 5:15.

Our original plan was to have this be our final full day at Disney, and leave early afternoon Friday for home. However, a winter weather advisory was in place for Indianapolis and talk was of 4-8 inches of snow arriving and having terrible travel conditions when we would be arriving. So we ended up booking an additional night at our hotel (hotel cost only, not a dining plan and already had the ticket) for under $200 and would spend a full day in the parks on Friday and leave early Saturday morning.

So because we had additional time, we decided to go to Magic Kingdom to finish up our Sorcerer's adventure. We went to Adventureland and completed the mission and then went for dinner at Peco's Bills again. We had just ate there the day before, but the kids loved it, so we got it again. We only had 2 Quick Service meals left, so Paul and I got our meals on the meal plan and we paid out of pocket for the kids. The kids this time went with Nachos, I got an adult Nachos, and Paul got tacos. We used quick service again and it was so nice just walking in and waiting for the order and not standing in lines. 

We took another spin on the magic carpets with a fast pass and then were on our way out of Magic Kingdom to the monorail after stopping to get some more cards for Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom.

We got back to Epcot and walked over to the World Showcase to check in at Mexico for our 8pm dessert party. We had a dessert party which was Frozen themed. This one was really nice in that it included outside seating along the lagoon to watch Illuminations. Then, after the park closed, we were walked over to ride Frozen Ever After. 

This dessert party included desserts, appetizers, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It also came with the fun glasses you see above which turned the fireworks into snowflakes. After the show is over (around 9:15) you wait about 10 minutes for the park to clear out  and then are walked over to a private ride on Frozen with just the guests from the party. It was fun to walk against the flow of traffic and have a really relaxing time leaving the park after the ride. 

While the Star Wars party had more to do while you were waiting for the fireworks, it didn't have the seating (or the tier 1 ride after it) that this one did. The view was great for Illuminations and while there wasn't as much to do once you were done eating desserts, the kids had their books and were fine to just sit and read and relax until the show started.

After the ride we walked back to the bus stops for Art of Animation.

STEP COUNT - 29,063 steps.    ACTIVE MINUTES 148 minutes

8:05 ADR Bon Voyage (met Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, Ariel, Prince Eric)

9:30-10:30 rest time in hotel

10:45 Bus to Epcot

11:30 Photos in entrance of Epcot

11:45 Test Track (fast pass)

12:30 Frozen (fast pass) 

12:55 Lunch in China at a quick service

1:45 Photos in Japan

2:00 Friendship Boats from France to Future World

2:10 Figment (fast pass)

3:00 Soarin (fast pass)

3:25 Soarin (anytime fast pass)

4:05 Test Track (anytime fast pass)

4:35 Test Track (anytime fast pass)

5:00 Mickey Ice Cream Bar Snack

5:15 Monorail to Magic Kingdom

Sorcerer's of Magic Kingdom

6:15 Pecos Bill Dinner

6:45 Magic Carpet (fast pass)

7:05 Stopped to get our daily pack of cards for SOTMK

7:25 Monorail back to Epcot

8:00 Mexico to check in for Dessert Party

9:15 Illuminations Fireworks Show

9:30 Frozen Ever After ride

10:00 Bus back to Art of Animation