My family of 3 with DS8 visited Epcot on Monday, sandwiched into our plans all around Orlando. Earlier we’d done Chef Mickey and Disney Springs, but this was our only Disney park day. We’d come to the other parks over the past year but never got to Epcot, so we gave it a dedicated visit this time. Unlike our usual fast-as-possible pace around the park, we took a more leisurely approach to focus on things we hadn’t seen before.
Here’s our rundown:
We didn’t stay on-site so we had to drive in to park at Swan & walk to IG entry. We were not on our usual A Game, so we didn’t arrive early enough to get in before the masses arrived. I believe we finally got through at about 8:30-something and made our way to Remy which was posted with a 75min. wait. Actual wait time was about 35 minutes, so that was very pleasant. Before we left the hotel I’d secured a GOTG boarding group, so the day was off to a good start. I projected a 2pm ride but they called us at 1140am.
- Remy (posted 75, actual 35)
- Frozen (posted 70, accurate if not undershot)
- Donald meet (he wasn’t at Chef Mickey, so this was a must)
- Club Cool since we’d never had the chance to visit before
- GOTG (~35min. once in line)
- snacks
- Test Track (posted 60, maybe a bit overshot)
- Goofy meet (wife’s favorite)
- Nemo (posted 30, actual 30-40)
- Figment (posted 5, accurate)
- Vanellope meet (didn’t realize Ralph was gone, glad we met him before! Maybe a 3min wait)
(lunch was somewhere in here as we toggled back n forth between the Nemo and Imagination areas)
- Pixar film festival (this was great, a nice surprise attraction we’d overlooked before. walk-on)
- Turtle Talk (walk-on)
- aquarium viewing
- 3 Caballeros (posted 10 min, accurate)
I believe this was everything we did aside from photo opps, popping into some stores, etc. We skipped Soarin because the wait while we had lunch jumped from 60 to 90 min! We’d done it a couple times before and just did it last month at Disneyland, so it wasn’t a priority.
Now that we were back in the International Gateway, we were touring foods! In our last Epcot visit, we extensively toured the country buildings and looked at a lot of the “stuff”, my son collected pressed pennies, and we made a good time out of it. This time we just looked at food and wanted to get in a couple show viewings. Unfortunately only China was open, but it was a first of this type of show for any of us and we liked it a lot. We grabbed a few food items as we strolled, and pretty much the only country building we visited was France so we could get the ONE penny we missed during our last visit (machine was broken).
My son had an earache and at this time it was bugging him too much, so we stopped the tour at France and let him nap it off as much as possible before Harmonious started. We skipped the countries on the other side of France, not sure what we missed besides some other good food items.
Harmonious was cool, but we prefer the castle type projections/shows/fireworks. High-tailed it out of there before the masses exited (phew), and another one was officially in the books 
FWIW here was the rest of our week:
Wed: Busch Gardens (absolutely crushed that Iron Gwazi shut down the exact day of our arrival and didn’t re-open during our entire visit. Would have been my son’s 100th roller coaster but he had to settle for Cheetah Hunt to be it instead. Ugh.) Fed kangaroos on a tour
Thur: Busch Gardens again hoping Gwazi would be open. No luck so we rode a couple others and left for Orlando. Hit Aquatica for a couple hours and then headed to Chef Mickey.
Fri: Discovery Cove. First visit, we loved it. Swam w/the dolphins, son got to snorkel for the first time (loved it), the biggest ray in the reef tank and I swam into each other a couple times and bumped heads which was hilarious when I looked up to see him staring at me 
Sat: Kennedy Space Center, another first visit. Rushed it a bit but got the bus tour done. Did as much as we could before heading back to Orlando for the Wonderworks magic show. This was awesome, and we were crazy tired at Kennedy by the time we left anyway that it was just as well. Stayed and explored Wonderworks for the night.
Sun: Seaworld. We’ve been here a lot, and to every Seaworld and BG park in the country, and have NEVER seen The Count, Oscar, or Big Bird. We finally did this time, although the first 2 were only in the parade. We did get a pic w/Big Bird though! Finally got to ride Ice Breaker too, but it was very lackluster compared to the similar Pantheon we rode earlier in the year at BG Williamsburg. Good ride though, very fun, and the short line made it even better. Pantheon blows it out of the water, but it’s a great addition to Orlando for sure.
Mon: Epcot
Tues: Last half-day, and our most chaotic! We had a GoCity pass for 5 attractions (these things are great if you hustle and make the most out of them), and had 4 left after visiting Wonderworks earlier in the week. We had a 530 flight and the attractions we wanted to do opened at 11. So, on we rush! Arrived @ Chocolate Kingdom for their open but realized the tours don’t start until 12. We ran to Madame Tussaud’s and did that as quickly as we could, tried to get on the Giant Wheel but it was delayed an hour. That wouldn’t fit into our plans so I booked us quick reservations at the Museum of Illusions also at Icon Park, we were still in & out before The Wheel was open. Back to Chocolate Kingdom to hit their 2nd tour of the day, bought a bunch of chocolate, and chit-chat w/the folks there for a bit as we waited out the heavy rain. For those who have never been, we recommend it. We get chocolate everywhere we go, and this was by far the most reasonably-priced place we’ve seen. Candies and such at most places we go are upward of twice the cost per piece!
The rain cut out and we ran to FunSpot for a 4-ride sampler, the last of our GoCity pass choices. We got to ride the 2 big coasters they had (important note, so my son could add it to his list! and my wife and I to ours, too) and a couple others, and then took off. Of course the airport was an absolute zoo so we had to walk across it entirely to get to our bag check, the lines were crazy, the kiosks weren’t working, so on and so forth. We usually hang out in the lounges prior to takeoff but we had no time here. Thankfully we got through security in a minute (CLEAR + Pre-check for the win! Highly recommended!). I had no more than 10 min or less to run into the Delta lounge so grab some food, so I did while the others got something at counter service in the airport. I was done & back by the time they ordered but did grab them some nice desserts. I get free access but theirs would be $40, so in case anyone is wondering why only I went…that’s why. It’d have been $40 each for a plate of food and ~5 min. of sitting down for them, to heck with that. Anyway, me going here saved us from another $10-15 or so at the counter service so it’s a win.
Lastly, we get to our gate and they tell us we’re bounced to another flight. Our direct flight is now INDIRECT, and it has a layover. This was my wife’s birthday, the kid’s ear still hurt, we were not having that. They did offer $800 compensation for the inconvenience, but the later flight + a layover on top of everything else was just not agreeable. Thankfully they “found seats for us” and we got on our original flight. If the changed flight was either a later flight but direct, or a layover leaving at the same time as our original flight, we could have found that argeeable, but a midnight arrival for a kid going to school the next day, who already doesn’t feel good…pass! I’m just glad we were able to push back on that.
Disneyland + 3 other pars in Sept/Oct., this FL trip in Nov., and now we “only” have a non-park trip to Marco Island area in Jan. and a Disneyland stopover before heading to HI for a week in Feb. I need to get cracking on planning our spring trips now
