Our last day at Disneyworld brought us to Epcot. We had only briefly visited Epcot earlier in the week, so we were looking forward to seeing some new stuff. We got there really early and Lisa and I headed immediately over to Test Track for some adult ride time. There was no line, but since we had the kids we had to take turns riding single. Pretty fun ride, and we were glad to have gotten to try it. Ellie didn’t like the noise though, so we went to get some breakfast while Lisa rode. Coincidentally, right next to the restaurant was Soarin, and Lisa and I got Fast Passes to ride that later on.
Eventually we met up with Colin and the grandparents and headed over to the Seas featuring Nemo.
I think this picture was actually taken later in the day, but it fits in with the Nemo theme. Ellie actually wore her bathing suit, as you will see shortly, and had lots of fun getting wet.
After our ride on Soarin, which actually had a somewhat long wait even with a FastPass, we headed over to Les Chefs de France for lunch. Lisa snitched on me to the waiter, who was actually nice and didn’t speak rapid-fire French that I couldn’t understand. I think he was secretly pleased when I ordered the escargots though.
After lunch, we took in some of the sights of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. They had some interesting topiaries, and some activities for the kids as well. Ellie made a clothespin caterpillar, and they also had a ladybug release.
The ladybugs were in a box where they had been sleeping until we let them out to crawl on my hands. Ellie liked looking, but not feeling them.
Told you she wore her bathing suit. She also didn’t want to change afterward, in case you couldn’t tell.
They also had a cool little railroad, complete with a village and teeny tiny little crops. That killed a good 30-45 minutes for the kids.
Ellie wasn’t too interested in meeting this guy, she hasn’t seen the Lion King yet. But then we told her he was a meerkat, and she went nuts. She likes watching the occasional episode of Meerkat Manor and has been known to take in a YouTube meerkat video or two.
Quite possibly the best topiary ever.
As it turns out, Epcot has a lot of nice slow boat ride-type rides that the kids enjoyed. There was one we took in “Mexico” featuring Donald Duck as one of the Three Caballeros. There’s Living with the Land, with the look at the Disney experimental greenhouses. And Ellie’s favorite was Journey Into Imagination With Figment. She loved that little dragon guy.
We finally got the cousins to sit for a decent picture together. Unfortunately, the older kids didn’t quite support Evan as well as we had hoped.
We stopped off at a fun playground on the way over to our last dinner. Evan did his best Spiderman impression. Not bad for 5 months old.
Our dinner was a buffet-style gathering with a whole lot of other people. Most were there for family reunions or special occasions. The cool part was that we got to hang and dance with Minnie and Goofy, and we got front row seats to the fireworks show afterward.
I guess we should have warned Minnie that Evan puts everything in his mouth. Luckily her nose was not a choking hazard.
I left the table for a minute to go get some more food, and left Ellie and Lisa dancing around with Goofy and Minnie. By the time I got back to the table, Goofy had grabbed Ellie and was leading her along in a Conga line! Luckily I was quick with the camera. It was one of the few times that she wasn’t shy around the characters.
A fine memento of our last night at Disneyworld. We can’t wait to do it again!
The D's 