Epcot – Monday, November 26, 2018
I was told the process for switching rooms at the same resort involved calling Bell Services to pick up our bags, and we had to be in the room when they came. They would keep our luggage in storage all day, and then when we returned to the resort, we would call Bell Services again to deliver our luggage to our new room. I wondered, if they knew what room we were going to be moved to, why couldn't our luggage just be delivered while we were at the parks? I thought this is what happens when you move between resorts? There must be some sort of security reason for it.
I didn’t want to call Bell Services until we were close to being packed up to go in case they came quickly (ha!). So it was 7:20am when I called, and I was told we were 4th in line to have someone come to our room for the bags. We waited 30 minutes. I tried to not stress too much because the park wasn’t opening until 9:00am, but I was eager to get to the bus stop. We enjoyed some time on the balcony while we waited, but I think we just saw some birds and other animals at a distance. Still, not a bad view to have while waiting!
I suggested we swing by the Mara for coffee on our way. This was going to be our “busiest” day at the park, as we only had one day to spend at Epcot and our list of “must do’s” list was quite long. I used Touring Plans to make a plan to fit it all in, but I warned the group that there wouldn’t be time for a coffee stop when we got to the park. This was one day that we had a schedule to follow! And I needed all the adults to be in good moods.
We ordered regular coffee for Grandma, an iced latte for Pat, and a flavored hot latte for me. I watched the barista fill the iced coffee cup up with 80-90% milk before adding any coffee so I called out to ask if she could dump some of the milk so that it was more coffee than milk. I didn’t see signs posted telling me how much my latte would be, and I was curious, because it was smaller than the cup they gave me for the regular coffee. I asked the cashier at check-out how much the lattes were, just out of curiosity. Her response was, “I only charged you an extra $0.50 for the flavoring.” So I had to wait for the receipt to check - $4.50. I know I’m not supposed to stress about costs at Disney, but it says something when they won’t even tell you how much it costs as you are paying for it!
The adults weren’t hungry, but I grabbed a bagel and cream cheese for the girls. We had breakfast bars in the room, but I knew they would want a snack soon and didn’t want to spend park time that morning looking for one. We had a schedule to follow!
We were on the bus at 8:23, and at security by 8:49. It was 9:01 before we were in the park. The girls were not in the mood for a picture! I was disappointed we didn’t see any Photo Pass photographers so we could get a full group shot. But I'm not sure if they're ever on this side of Spaceship Earth?
We had a 9:00am FP for Spaceship Earth, but the line was so short that they hadn’t even opened the FP line yet. We parked the stroller and walked right on. DD4 rode with Grandma and DD2 rode with me and Pat.
I always enjoy this ride, and the girls loved seeing our planet at the very top.
Did I mention we were on a tight schedule? Oh, only 3 times so far? I needed things to go exactly according to plan if we were going to make it to see Mulan in China for her 11am meet. But the park was busier than anticipated, and I quickly realized that was not likely to happen.
We headed to the Land pavilion next. Living with the Land is a favorite of ours, so it was on our “must do” list for the day. It was over a 10 minute wait, which is the longest we’ve ever waited for it! We shared the bagel and cream cheese while we waited in line. I still didn't have much of an appetite, but my stomach wasn't hurting like it had the day before.
I loved all the holiday decorations they had added.
I think I spotted a hidden Minnie!
They really had a lot of holiday decorations mixed into the plants, and these made me so happy.
The vegetable wreaths were my favorite.
Touring Plans actually thought we could be in China by 10:52, but at 10:30 we still had the Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk to hit before heading back that way. We decided to skip Mulan and try to see her later in the day if we could, because we really wanted to catch these two attractions before moving to the World Showcase for the rest of the day. We stopped for a PP picture since the girls were wearing Nemo outfits.
We got on Seas with Nemo at 10:33 with a FP. The standby wait was over 30 minutes so I was glad we had the FP! DD4 loved keeping an eye out for Nemo.
Next up was Turtle Talk with Crush, no FP needed. We were in line at 10:45am. I had the joy of sitting behind a man who had a nearly naked woman on the back of his shirt. DD4 surprised us by wanting to sit in the front with the other kids! I was happy to see she was feeling comfortable. The show was great as always. I love how they interact with the audience.
With the show over, we had checked off all our must-do’s outside of the World Showcase. I really wanted to ride Soarin’ but had agreed we could miss it if needed. If we had time and could get a FP at the end of the day, we would come back for it – but we never did ☹ It will be a must-do on our next trip! We also planned to skip Test Track and Mission Space, neither were absolute favorites for us and we wanted this trip to be more focused on the girls, so we only planned for Rider Swaps on our favorite thrill rides.
We headed off to the World Showcase! Next up, lunch...