Disney World. October 2021. Day 2. Two Dinners and a Lot of Snacks.
Disney Day!! Woo woo!!! Today is Epcot day.
Hallie got up around 7:30 but Madeleine didn’t wake up until 8ish. I was up bright and early at 6:45. I didn’t even plan that, but my body woke up because clearly it knew I had to book my first lightning lane (read: old fastpass). With the new system, you have to pay $15 per person, per day, to be able to book rides on your phone, and if you’re staying in a Disney hotel you can start booking at 7:00am. I got a Test Track reservation for 11:00 am. Oh, and there are two rides in each park that aren’t included, but you can pay an upcharge ($7-15 per ride, per person) to book those. In EPCOT that’s Ratatouille and Frozen, but you can’t book those until 10am.
Breakfast came at 8:30. Tzvi and Robyn had avocado toast, except because we said Tzvi has a nut allergy they gave him gluten free bread. He was not happy. The bread was thin and sad looking and the multigrain bread was huge. Hallie had a waffle, my mom and I shared a frittata and toast and avocado, and Madeleine had oatmeal. We kept making the guy leave and come back. First he brought Tzvi better bread, then he brought milk for Madeleine, and then I think he came back a third time with spoons. Are we high maintenance?
Anyway, we were out the door at 9:30, which usually is considered “afternoon” by Disney standards. I was ok with it because Epcot didn’t open until 10 anyway (yes, we could have gotten in at 9:30 for extra magic hours but whatever). I should add that grandpa isn’t joining us until later because he is at lecture. We took an Uber to the park and finally made it inside by 10:30. Our first ride was Spaceship Earth. The wait was probably 15 minutes. Hallie was scared of the dark and Madeleine just kind of laid on me. Unfortunately our picture thing didn’t work on the ride, but it worked for my mom and Robyn.
We then headed to Test Track for our lightning lane pass. There is so much construction that you have to walk in such roundabout ways to get anywhere. We did a rider switch, so my mom stayed back with Madeleine, and then one person was able to go back with my mom, so I volunteered as tribute. Literally as we were about to get into the car for the ride, they shut it down for weather. They shut it down while it was still sunny, but eventually it started to pour and they sent us away and gave us a pass to return to any ride in the park (aside from Ratatouille and Frozen). We bought ponchos on the way out. Anyway, this was Hallie’s first time on the ride and she really enjoyed it.
While we were waiting on line for Test Track, Tzvi had taken the girls to the Land to get them kosher food. [Tzvi: That was a whole to-do. First we had to wait for them to bring a chef from another restaurant. He had a book with pictures of all of the different kosher dishes. Usually they show you photos of beautiful food that look nothing like the actual food you’re served. Well, these photos were pretty accurate. After waiting about 20 minutes, we got two trays of chicken nuggets with potato latkes. They were supposed to come with corn, but for some reason they just had double latkes, so they gave us some fresh sides of corn. Madeleine ate a little bit. Hallie did not like them.]
We met them and sat for a bit, and then Tzvi, Hallie and I went on Soarin’ using our lightning lane passes. Hallie was scared. I think she really thought we were in the sky and Tzvi had to keep explaining that we hadn’t left the room. Then Hallie and I did The Land and Tzvi walked to get Madeleine to sleep.
[Tzvi: As soon as I started walking it started to rain. It was getting harder so I took Madeleine under an umbrella and as soon as we got coverage it started to pour. It rained for a few minutes and then stopped, so we kept walking until we go to the Noodle stand (part of EPCOT Food and Wine Festival), where I got tofu pho, which was good but crazy spicy and by the end I couldn’t feel my lips.]
After that we started our walk around the countries. I can’t believe we didn’t do Figment or Nemo. Oh well.
The whole afternoon is a blur. First we stopped at Brazil and Tzvi got a frozen Caipirinha and cheese bread. We had to go into some stores because Tzvi was looking for specific merchandise. Someone in a scooter started backing up and it makes that loud beeping noise. Well, that woke Madeleine up. Then we went to Mexico and rode the Three Caballeros, which I think the girls enjoyed. Then it was time for our Frozen lightining lane pass. Hallie liked it, but she was afraid of the giant snowman and hid her face in my lap for half of the ride. After the ride we got Mickey Ice Cream Bars. As soon as we got them it started pouring again, so we hid in the entrance to the women’s bathroom (Tzvi included). From there we walked all the way around to France for the new Ratatouille ride. They basically built a whole new part of France behind the old France. The ride was great. It’s a 3D ride but totally new ride mechanism. It was unlike anything I’ve been on in Disney, or anywhere really. 45 dollars to skip the line was money well spent.
Then we walked to England and Canada. At Canada we got apple cider and crumble, as a pre dinner snack, which we ate on top of garbage cans, which are basically tables in EPCOT. Then we walked to meet my dad who arrived for his 5pm park entry. My mom decided she wanted to take the boat across the world showcase. That boat cost us 45 minutes and a Tzvi tantrum. He was upset because he was planning on leaving early with the girls after dinner, and we wasted 45 minutes waiting for a boat, which by the way, took us like 4 countries away from our final destination of Italy and we still had to walk 5 minutes. Anyway, we were only a few minutes late for our Italy reservation. Dinner was fine, I had gnocchi. The girls were nuts, but they’re always nuts.
After dinner we had fun looking at (and purchasing) perfume in Italy. We walked around some more and got ready for our 8:15 Mexico reservation. This was our dessert reservation, except once we were there we couldn’t not get chips and guac and a margarita. I had made the reservation because I knew they had a special 50th anniversary dessert and it did not disappoint. Also, we rode the Mexico ride again, which the kids loved. After that, my parents went to Test Track using the passes we had gotten earlier. The rest of us went to shop at the Creations store which use to be called Mouse Gear. They had all of the Ratatouille stuff and we bought a bunch of it. The fireworks tonight were at 9:45, which was too late for the girls, but there was no way I was missing it, so Tzvi, the girls and Robyn went back to the hotel and I walked back to the countries.
The fireworks show was great, except my parents said it was too “liberal.” There was no mention of Walt Disney or the classic Disney princesses. I thought the show was great though. Then we headed out, obviously stopping for shopping (yes, I bought more Ratatouille stuff). We had to wait a while for our Uber because the entire park was getting Ubers, but we eventually made it back. Good day.