Winter Break 2025. Part 3. To EPCOT and Beyond.
EPCOT Day! Expectations weren’t too high after the lack of hustle yesterday.
While we did most of the rides at Magic Kingdom, we didn’t do Carousel of Progress, the Railroad, OR the Hall of Presidents. [Tzvi: Can you even call those rides?] Today we also had my parents in tow, which meant we had to factor in a few hours of bathroom trips.
Anyway, we got up, got food again from the coffee shop and headed to EPCOT. Our hotel is right next to EPCOT, so you can walk to the park and enter in the World Showcase right near France. It’s a short walk (and free), so It would make sense to just walk, right? Nope. My mom made the (I thought) very good case [Tzvi: I did not think] that you enter the park in the world showcase, and then have to walk all the way around the park back to the front to Spaceship Earth, which is where we wanted to start. This would mean a whole lot of extra walking, so why not just take a Minnie Van to the front of the park. So, that’s what we did.
Upon entering the park there was a Disney photographer taking photos in front of the Epcot ball. We got online and there was one family taking photos in front of us. Well, this was a family of about 10 people and if I tell you they took every combination it would be an understatement. You don’t even take that many photos for a wedding. I think it was like three different families and they took every combination – all three families together, each family individually, the kids from each family indivdiaully, each of the adults from each family individually. It was extremely obnoxious. The photopass people were apologetic (“this doesn’t usually happen”) but there wasn’t anything they could really do. Finally they finished and we took a few pictures, but not many because at that point the line had really built up.
We did Spaceship Earth and then walked over to Guardians of the Galaxy. I did it twice. I still think it’s the best ride in Disney World. Then we walked through EPCOT. It’s Festival of the Arts so they feature different artists and Disney Art. They also had a whole Disney on Broadway pavilion where they showcased props and costumes from different Disney Broadway shows. As we were walking through it at one point Hallie was like “oh my God, the genie’s lamp” and these two guys were like so touched by her innocence. It was cute.
We had lunch at The Land and then hit Living with the Land and Soarin. We did the Seas with Nemo and Friends and of course Figment. Then we walked over to the countries. Very upsetting is the fact that the boat ride in Mexico is closed. We did do Frozen in Norway and then I took the girls to meet Anna and Elsa. There is no Lightning Lane for that and it said 45 minutes, but it was no more than 20. We got some caramel at Germany, rode Remy in France, and then went to the French bakery for a pre-dinner snack of baguettes, croissants, and chocolate mousse.
We walked around some more and then went to Mexico for our dinner. I had spoken to them in advance about the bill, so there were no issues there. And it was delicious as usual. Still sad about the lack of boat ride though. Shabbos started at some point during the meal, so we have no photos of the food and don’t really remember what we ate, other than multiple portions of guac and tons of chips, but it was all good. We spent most of the meal entertaining ourselves with a game of telephone.
We finished eating and went outside to get ready for fireworks. Madeleine started melting down because she wanted to leave, but I wasn’t missing these fireworks. It was our first time seeing the new show – Luminous: The Story of Us. The fireworks themselves are really nice, but the accompanying music and storyline was so boring. Super disappointing. I guess combined with Madeleine tantruming made for just a difficult situation. Tzvi then was all upset because he didn’t leave earlier with Madeleine.
Then we walked back from EPCOT to the hotel through the Boardwalk. It was hopping. We got back to the hotel, made kiddush and motzie with rolls that Pop Pop had brought from home, and went to bed.
Good day.
Shabbat was relaxing. We got up late and the kids ate some of the leftover French bread from our pre-dinner for breakfast. We walked on the Boardwalk a little and just spent the morning relaxing. We walked by the pool where the girls played a bit on the playground and foosball table. We also walked into the main Disney store on the Boardwalk, where Madeleine found a baby Dumbo that she just HAD to have. We told her she JUST bought a Dumbo at Magic Kingdom. She insisted that her Dumbo needs a baby Dumbo. Well, that’s some good logic. We told her we couldn’t buy it because it was Shabbos and she was not happy. I wish I could say that she forgot about it and that was the end of it.
At 1pm we were scheduled for an afternoon tea service at The Cake Bake Shop, a new place on the Boardwalk. The place is beautiful – it’s all white with flowers everywhere. We were escorted to a private room at the back of the restaurant and were greeted with menus with each of our names printed on it. Then the server came and presented the six teas they are featuring and let us smell each one. Then they brought an orange cranberry scone with cream, butter, and jam. It was delicious. Then we got our tiers of tea sandwiches and a million amazing desserts. There were raspberry bars, lemon bars, magic bars, raspberry truffles, chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream, and more. We were able to get multiple teas and hot chocolate too. It was so good and by the end we were so full.
After tea we went back and hung by the pool. It wasn’t hot, but it was nice enough for the kids to use the pool and for me to use the hot tub. Madeleine was still trying to explain to everyone why she needed the baby Dumbo. We had scheduled a 5pm dinner at Trattoria al Forno, the Italian place on the Boardwalk, but that wasn’t going to happen. I stopped by to tell them there was no way we were making it, and they said because we had a reservation they would be able to seat us whenever we showed up, we just might have to wait a little. So, we showered and changed and made it around 6. Dinner was decent, typical pizza/pasta.
By the time we finished eating Shabbat was over and we decided to go get ice cream for dessert. The ice cream place was very stringent about allergies and they had the manager go make Tzvi’s sundae separately.
So, the entire day Madeleine was talking about the Dumbo. And by talking I mean whining. I wasn’t having it, but others are nicer than I am. Out of the goodness of her heart, Hallie “bought” Madeleine the baby Dumbo. She was over the moon. It was cute. We are bad parents.
Then we walked back and stopped at the fancy art store on the Boardwalk. It was all Disney art, but super expensive. There was a nice Mickey shaped chandelier that I asked about and was told that it started at $50,000 for 36 pieces. Maybe in my next house… Pop Pop saw this cool giant pressed penny made out of resin and asked how much it cost. That was a mistake, which led to a half hour of discussion with the artist and the entire family telling him he should buy it. Thirty minutes later he walked out saying “I was just curious how much it cost!”
We came back to the room and packed up. We watched the Epcot fireworks from my parent’s balcony, which I enjoyed more than watching them on Friday night because I didn’t have to listen to the dumb audio track. Off to the high seas tomorrow!
Good day.