After months of planning, it was hard to believe the day was finally here... we were going to Disney! The first park that our family visited was Epcot.
Our matching shirts were gifts that Grammy and Papa had purchased for the family on their recent trip to Cancun. We figured these Mexican shirts were perfect for the cultural experience of Epcot.
We chose to go on some of the most popular rides before the lines got too crazy. The first one we tried was Test Track. The kids enjoyed selecting their own car design prior to getting on the ride.
Surprisingly, even Adley agreed to go on this fast-paced thrill ride. During the ride, she screamed in a way that sounded like she was scared, but as soon as the ride was over, she happily declared that she loved it!
This carful of brave boy cousins all said the ride wasn't quite fast enough-- ha!
Another popular ride that the younger cousins tried was the Frozen ride. The older kids went on the Mission Space Green and Orange rides with the uncles. No pics of the G-force rides! Both were hits!
Another favorite of the day was Soaring, a flight simulator ride in front of an IMAX screen that mimicked a hang gliding experience across the world. So cool!
We were amazed by the beautiful landscaping and plant sculptures (which I learned are called topiaries) throughout the park. What unbelievable artists and gardeners!
The portion of Epcot that I'd personally love to visit again someday is the World Showcase. We only touched on a few "countries" in this section of the park, mainly as we were on our way to various rides or shows. The kids weren't all that interested in the cultural aspects, but I was impressed with the many world landmark imitations. We did make the kids stop for a photo in the Mexican Pavilion, since the Mayan pyramid looked just like the one on our shirts!
Throughout the day, we stopped for a couple fun shows. These "JAMMitors" drummers in the Canada pavilion reminded us of Stomp.
At first, the family simply sat and enjoyed our front row seat for this show, but it didn't take long for the kids to get up and move and groove along with the active drumbeat.
Soon, even Papa got up to dance along. Hilarious!
Another show we enjoyed was the Beauty and the Beast Sing-a-long in the France Pavilion. The air conditioned room sure felt nice too!
When we weren't in the air conditioning (which was most of the time), the kids made great use of these water sprayer/fans we had purchased ahead of time. At the start, the kids just sprayed themselves to cool off. Then, their entrepreneurial minds kicked in, and they decided to create a little business of sorts. The kids called their spray treatment a BSF (bath, spray, fan) and would "spray down" any desiring aunt, uncle, or grandparent, in exchange for some pocket change we promised to give them later. Ha! Every penny was worth it. Their treatments felt great in muggy Florida!
Later in the day, a small group of us visited the aquarium in the Nemo and Friends exhibit. I think this was when the older kids wanted to ride the Mission Space ride again.
Unfortunately, we ran into some afternoon rain showers at Epcot. Thankfully, most of what was shut down due to rain were things we had already seen. We were also thankful for our ponchos which kept us mostly dry.
The day that we visited Epcot happened to be our 18th wedding anniversary. We felt that a romantic picture in the rain was necessary-- haha!
Happy Anniversary to Matt and Kim as well!
The kids were in good spirits and didn't complain about all the walking we did. Family favorites included:
Adley - Test Track
Jaden and Cody - Mission Space Orange
Jason and Amy - Soaring
We got several Disney PhotoPass family shots, taken by professional Disney photographers, during the day. Uncle Rick called himself the crazy uncle on this first one since he didn't have a matching shirt! We loved having him join us for the day.
What a fun first day at Disney!
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