We were able to park fairly close to the entrance so we walked to the gate. Our first stop...as it would be for every park that week...was the bathroom! Rehydrating from my runs every morning always caught up to me at the entrance to each park lol!
We made it through the turnstiles and stopped for the must have picture in front of Spaceship Earth!
Our first ride was Spaceship Earth in Future World East! And the line was super short...maybe 5 minutes! (Yeah I was that annoying person who held up the line for a few seconds for a quick photo)
After Spaceship Earth we headed straight to Future World West to grab fast passes for Soarin'. This is one of the most popular rides at Epcot and fast passes go quick! I think our fast pass time was already around 2:30...and it was only about 9:15 in the morning!
From there we headed to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends! This was Sawyer's favorite ride when we were there two years ago...and I think this year it was still one of his favorites! It's so cool to see the aquarium with all the fish, sea turtles, and sting rays after this ride.
And of course we searched for the Hidden Mickey that we knew was located in the aquarium!
We also saw some manatees...and for some reason I didn't take a picture of them! :-( It was neat to see how big they were. All the ones there had been rescued. And there was some "brown stuff" floating in the water...leave it to the kids to ask the cast member if it really was manatee poop!!! Lol!
You can't leave the aquarium without visiting Bruce, Anchor and Chum!
As we were leaving we stopped to see a display about sea turtles. A cast member came over to us and explained all about baby sea turtles and how they hatch out of their eggs. As you can see from the photo the kids were in awe!
We headed back outside and stopped for one more picture in front of Nemo and his friends!
After Nemo, we went and rode Living with the Land. I knew the kids would love seeing all the greenhouses and the nine pound lemons and Mickey shaped pumpkins! I loved listening to them naming everything they were seeing!
We stopped for lunch at the Electric Umbrella in Future World East. We were all hungry! I ate an awesome Angus burger! I needed those carbs for walking around the park.
After lunch we headed to Ellen's Energy Adventure. This is a ride I had never done before. But I love Ellen so figured I'd like this ride even though it was 45 minutes long! It started out in a huge room with 3 huge movie screens on one wall. The screens had Ellen talking and basically the ride was her wanting to be a Jeopardy contestant but she had to learn a few things about energy first by going back through time. You then sat in seats that moved you through different rooms with different things. The dinosaur part was the absolute best part of the ride! We loved it!
Pictures outside Universe of Energy where the Ellen ride was!
After this ride we headed to Test Track. To our disappointment it had been closed due to technical difficulties. Supposedly the ride kept shutting itself down. We checked back later but it still hadn't opened back up. I was sad the boys didn't get to ride this one...I think they would have loved it!
We decided to head toward World Showcase. On the way we saw Duffy the Disney Bear! The line was super short and the kids all wanted to stop.
We walked through Mexico and made it to Norway. I love how Epcot decorates the World Showcase and makes each country feel real! This is where we stopped to ride Maelstrom. This was the ride we waited the longest for...about 20 minutes. We always love this ride and afterwards the kids wanted to ride it again!
It was almost our Fast Pass time for Soarin' so we headed back towards Future World. There wasn't much left to see in the World Showcase for the kids...although us adults would have liked to explore more! We stopped by the jumping water and the kids LOVED it! They couldn't understand how the water was jumping! And yes...they got soaked trying to catch the water! So fun!
Finally it was time to ride Soarin'! Everyone was super excited! And of course it did not disappoint! It was Sawyer's first time riding this one and he loved it!
All buckled up and ready to Soar!
We then headed to Epcot Character Spot to meet Mickey and his friends! Surprisingly, we had no wait!
This was so funny! Pluto's ear kept getting in front of Sawyer's face! He tried to move it several times but it didn't work lol!
I had to have a picture with Minnie...my favorite! I of course told her that I was running her 10K in January and she got super excited! :-)
After meeting the characters it was time for some ice cream! My absolute favorite is the Mickey's Ice Cream Bar! So good!
All the kids made a mess with their ice cream but Sydney had it ALL over her face! I had to take a picture and she hammed it up for me!
After ice cream we went and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends again. And of course we looked at the fish again!
Then we decided to call it a day. It was almost dinner time and there were rain clouds in the sky. We headed out...but stopped one more time to ride Spaceship Earth! :-)
We had an awesome day in Epcot! The teacher in me loves this park because with every ride you learn something!
Stay tuned...our day in Legoland is next! :-)
QOTD: What is your favorite ride and/or restaurant in Epcot? Any must haves that we didn't do?
