Epcot

Our last Disney day was at Epcot, and we had decided to move a little slower this morning, since there weren't as many rides to reserve at this park and just a couple that we really didn't want to miss. I woke up early and reserved Remi's Ratatouille adventure (for an extra $9/pp!) and Soarin', both for around mid-day, and we were set. We slept in a little and casually caught a bus after the park had opened, so it was less hectic and crowded than the past two mornings.

We checked out the sphere (Spaceship Earth) from the outside and noticed some of the themed landscaping for the Flower and Garden Festival.

Our first thing on the agenda was Remi just before an early lunch, so we headed toward the world showcase and France. On the way, we stopped off in Canada. We viewed the Canada 360 film, which highlighted its wild, natural beauty and totem poles, much like the outside did. 

The next stop was the United Kingdom. It was Saint Patrick's Day, and let's just say that we saw a lot of green shirts and beer drinking at 10 in the morning. And maybe even some green beer? This pillar was actually a sun dial clock; I should have gotten a picture from the clock face side, but you can see the little triangle sticking off the top.

Mary Poppins was having a photo shoot in the English tea garden (is there anything more English?), and there were red phone booths in both Canada and the UK. I had to explain to the kids about phone booths because why would you need a special booth to use a phone? I also discovered the kid's passport here, so I collected a little card from each country we visited, which was like a scavenger hunt. The kids weren't interested, but I thought it was cute!

France was very Parisian, and Remi's ride was very cute, but a little frantic for me. You ride in a mouse with 3D glasses on and get chased throughout the kitchen while you get mop water sprayed on you, scurry under tables, and even scoot under the stove where it got a little too hot. I think they should offer some free ratatouille as part of the ride, but we had to settle for some French crepes for lunch nearby, instead. Hadley totally scarfed down her crepes, but Owen was less of a fan. The kids' meal came with both a savory and sweet crepe! Yum!

After lunch, we headed back to the World Celebration/Nature/Discovery area where we bounced around from ride to ride. I don't know if I finally figured it out by Day 3 or if Epcot was just less popular for Genie+, but I could reserve rides much closer to the time I was actually on the app, and then reserve our next ride as soon as we scanned in for the first ride. So we rode Soarin' Around the World, Spaceship Earth, Seas with Nemo, Turtle Talk, Living with the Land, and Mission: Space all within an hour or two, plus we walked through all the aquarium exhibits. Test Track was the only ride that we couldn't squeeze into our day. 

Soarin' was our favorite - they lift you up with your feet dangling as you fly over world landmarks and almost don't clear things like the Eiffel Tower.

Living with the Land was a slow boat ride, but it was relaxing and educational to learn about different gardening techniques and how they grow food for a lot of their restaurants on site.

Hadley was excited about Mission: SPACE, but she was a little disappointed when Owen and I made her go on the green mission, instead of the more nausea-inducing orange mission. I still had to close my eyes for parts of it, and it was a little claustrophobic for Owen.

After we exhausted all of the rides in that area, we decided to continue our loop around the world showcase. The first country on this side was Mexico. I was surprised when the pyramid actually opened up into a dark and cool huge interior lined with restaurants and shops. We walked onto the Three Caballeros ride.

Outside, they had some beautiful orchids on display. I've never seen them so full of flowers.

Next up was Norway, which was styled like a Nordic ski village. We did stumble upon a small museum of Norse mythology, which the kids found to be very interesting after our Marvel movie marathon introduced them to several of the characters. I liked the random trolls in the stores.

We saw another 360 movie in China. They only had lean bars, but I could really have used a seat by then, so I watched from the floor. I wish I had a Fitbit to track our steps on this vacation! My feet were killing me, and I had a new blister each day.

Germany resembled a Bavarian village, complete with a Beer garden. If not for our Italian dinner reservation, I definitely could have enjoyed a beer and some pretzels and sat for a spell. This duck in the fountain would have to do.

Nevertheless, we pressed on to Italy, for our pasta/pizza dinner. It was overpriced, per usual, but we were starving and so happy that they brought out bread before our food!

We skipped over the USA because, hello! We were also losing daylight and had two more countries to visit. So it was on to Japan. They had a huge store with everything from kimonos to Samurai swords, which was fun to peruse.

Our final country was Morocco, where we learned about an ultra-marathon held in the desert and appreciated the gorgeous mosaic tiles everywhere.

We walked back around the lake towards the exit to get a good seat for the fireworks. All of the prime spots were taken, but we found a decent spot and sat down. We realized that we still had about 30 minutes until the fireworks show, and the kids said they'd be fine with just going back to the hotel instead of waiting that long. So that's what we did, especially knowing that we had an extra early morning the next day. At least we got a bit of a light show from the Spaceship Earth sphere on our way out!