Petersons Never Give Up: Walt Disney World: Travel and Epcot

We gave the kids a trip to Disney World for Christmas. I spent lots of time researching how to get around, how the lightning lanes work, and how the meal plan credits work. As we were looking at the flights I booked I realized we wouldn't land in Orlando til midnight which meant we likely wouldn't get to the resort til 1:30 AM. We were planning to go to Epcot on Monday morning and really wanted to be there for early entry. I called Southwest and they said we could change our flights to an earlier flight with no charge if we call on the same day. Sean and I stayed up til midnight on Saturday night so that we could call. It was actually really nice. We have been so busy with so many things that we haven't had as much time to talk. Staying up late together was actually the best way to start our vacation week. We were able to get our flight switched to earlier in the day so we landed at around 9 ish and then were able to get to the resort and get settled much earlier. We left on Palm Sunday and there was only Sacrament meeting that day. We attended a different ward at 9am and then Dad Zaelit took us to the airport right after. The kids did a great job at packing their clothes and backpacks and they did a great job carrying stuff as we got through the airport. The flights went smoothly and when we got to the Orlando airport we were able to find the Mears shuttle service really easily. We had to wait about 20 min to get on the road and then they dropped us right off at the lobby of our hotel.

As I was preparing Oreo's things to go over to Grandma and Grandpa Z's house I brought his pillow down from upstairs. He was so happy and laid right down on it! This is just a decorative pillow that we put on our bed when we make it, and Sean always puts in on the floor and Oreo loves to sleep on Sean's side of the bed.

I ordered a grocery delivery from Walmart with some snacks, breakfast things, water bottles, and sunscreen. We got all checked in, got shown the map of the resort (which was huge), picked up our groceries and grabbed a luggage cart to go find our room. Our room was about a half mile from the lobby and it took awhile to find haha. It was about 11 by the time we started heading to our room and I was feeling pretty grateful we had changed our flight time. We got to the room, unpacked and got all settled in, read scriptures, and zonked right out!

Epcot had early entry at 8:30 which meant Sean was able to get a hot breakfast from the lobby that morning. The hot breakfast opened at 7 and we left earlier than that every other morning. I was impressed with how early we kept getting up considering 6 AM felt like 4AM to us!

Lizzie's cute pull down fifth sleeper bed:

We loved using the Disney Transportation busses. Although our room was super far from the lobby, it was super close to the first bus stop so we got seats every morning and were the first to get dropped off when we came back. We never waited very long for the bus either. I think it was like 5 minutes at the most.

When we got to Epcot the early entry had already started, but normal guests weren't allowed in. We decided to wait for Guardians of the Galaxy because it was an individual lightning pass and we really wanted to ride it. We waited about 50 minutes and it was totally worth it. It was such a great ride with really fun music, awesome visuals and really fun cars that turn and go backwards. It was like Space Mountain on steroids. We all loved it! It did make Sean a bit motion sick though haha. Our one other complaint was that the story was really strong before the ride, but then at the end, none of us are really sure what happened. We haven't watched the guardians movies either so maybe that would have helped.

After we rode Guardians, we went to ride Spaceship Earth in the big ball. We had to wait about 20 min to ride which was a little much for that ride. I liked it for the nostalgia, but the rest of the family would have rather skipped it.

After Spaceship Earth we went to the Moana water walkthrough. There were lots of interactive exhibits with the water. You could play music or hold your hand at different heights and the water would match it. It was also very beautiful. We went during the Flower and Garden Festival and there were so many beautiful topiaries all over! We also enjoyed finding lizards, squirrels, and bunnies!

Next, we went to the land pavillion to ride the Living with the Land ride. We used our first lightning lane and loved skipping the line. Its a very fun ride. Everyone liked it, although Lizzie said it was interesting and boring at the same time.

The next stop was lunch at the cafeteria there. Sean and I got some yummy sandwiches, the kids all got pizza and we got a lemon meringue and chocolate cookie to share. Lizzie somehow got cookie on her eyebrow!

After lunch we went to the Sea's pavilion. We had a lightning lane to The Seas with Nemo. It was a cute ride. Then we went to look at all the aquarium stuff. Our favorite part was the way dozens of fish would swim right under a ray. They looked like best friends. We saw so many of them doing it. We also saw sharks, turtles, cuddle fish, and manatees.

We went and did turtle talk with crush and then found more lizards outside the bathroom. They were so fun to watch! We went and did Journey into Imagination. It was very cute and nostalgic for me, but pretty silly. We had fun playing in the interactive stuff afterward and then looked in the gift shop.

We walked through Canada then watched the Canada movie.

We walked through England and wished we could buy some fish and chips for Grandma and Grandpa. The flower gardens were beautiful!

We went to the Boulangerie in France and got baguette, chocolate cookie, almond croissant, and a regular croissant. It was delicious. Lizzie and Alana got their picture with Beast.

We went to Morocco where we learned about this epic super marathon through the Sahara. Brett and Sean got smoothies, and the girls both got Henna.

We went to Japan and enjoyed the big store where we watched them harvesting pearls from oysters and then enjoyed walking through the Japanese Gardens.

We then went to Italy and Germany. In Germany we looked in the Christmas shop, found a cuckoo clock magnet for Mimi and Alana got some caramels. Next we went to Norway and waited for about an hour to ride Frozen Ever After. It was so cute and may have been my favorite ride in Epcot. We found an Oswald Easter egg in Norway. The Norway ride used to be about Trolls and they had one of the original trolls in the gift shop. Lizzie climbed up it to get a picture and I told her she wasn't supposed to climb it. Right as I took the picture a worker told her not to climb. We decided it was worth it to get the picture.

We went to China for dinner and it was just okay, not great. We then went to the Three Caballeros ride in Mexico. We saw bunnies and more flower and garden sculptures.

We had a lightning lane for Test Track at 7ish but the ride went down. I was super bummed. Alana and I went to ride the Mission Space ride on the intense orange side to experience what it's like to take off into outer space. It was rather uncomfortable but also cool and neither of us got sick so we counted that as a win. Alana said she loved it and would ride again. I felt pretty dizzy and had to keep taking deep breaths the whole time and didn't really want to go again. It was way fun to do together though!

While we rode that Sean, Brett, and Lizzie went back to France to get some Ice cream. Alana and I went and met them there and helped finish the ice cream. Then we used our multi pass from the canceled Test Track to ride Ratatouille. It was adorable! On the way out we were able to see the fire work and light show on the water. It was really fun to enjoy as we walked out.