Day 5 – Epcot (Future World & Frozen) & Late Night Cinderella’s Castle Dinner
This was a day we were all excited about. Not only were there going to be some great rides, but we had our PPO ADR for Garden Grill, a lunch reservation at Biergarten, and a very late night reservation for Cinderella’s Royal Table. So much to look forward to!
We started this day bright and early again. Leaving the house by 7 am EST in order to make our PPO ADR at Garden Grill, this landed us at the security tables of Epcot by 7:30. They didn’t let us through until 7:40, but our timing still got us to the front of the line for both security and the gates. It was funny watching the twitchy people behind us who also had 8 am reservations. They kept asking the gate attendants when we would be let in and kept getting the same response of, “You won’t be late, we will get you there on time.” Trust goes a long way, people!
At about 7:53, we were let in the front gates for our breakfast reservations. As we were the first ones in, we booked it to the Land pavilion and were also the first ones to check in. We had made our ADRs as two separate parties of 4 and 2, and decided that we wanted to keep it that way to simplify the billing. So my sis and nephew went one way and the kids, DH, and I went another. We sat on opposite sides of the restaurant, but we were fine with that. We hadn’t been sitting down 2 minutes when Dale shows up at our table. My kids, not knowing this was a character meal, didn’t know what to do here. I told them to give him a high five, which they did, and Dale moved on.
The waiter was extremely nice here (I wish I remembered his name). I ordered the juice blend and it was amazing! My DD didn’t think so, as she tried some of mine and commented that it was “sour”. Before we knew it, we had fruit and a cinnamon bun in front of us. My kids were ready to devour the fruit, but I made sure they knew there was more coming. Just as soon as the waiter sat the giant skillet down with all the fixings, Pluto shows up. This time, he is gesturing the kids to come over to give him a hug. My DD obliged quickly, and my DS took a little more convincing. But they both gave their hugs and we got some photos. A little later, Farmer Mickey comes by, as well as Chip, and they know exactly what to do this time. Photos and hugs! I text my sister to let her know we are finishing up, and they meet us out front 5 min later. After a quick restroom break, we are going down the stairs to Soarin’.
Making our way through the long queue of Soarin’, we see the trivia game that we will miss. But we have to get this ride in before park opening. By the time they load us in, it is 8:50 am. We ended up in the second row, so the entire show was spent with dangling feet in front of us. Now, I understand why people request the first row. But it was still an amazing ride, and the scents were definitely strong. We loved this ride so much that we wanted to go back on. So we practically run out of the ride to jump back in line. We should still have time for one more. Sadly, by the time we reach the front, the rush of people is already flowing down the steps. It’s too late. Boo 
Oh, well. We move on with the TP for the day. There is still so much more to do. Next up, we complete the Land pavilion by hopping on Living with the Land with no wait at all. We get our own boat and off we go. My DH, who is a self-proclaimed green thumb loves this ride. At the end, he claims that Disney stole all his ideas (with a smirk on his face). Next up, we take the short jog over to Journey into the Imagination with Figment.
I’m excited for this ride, only because it’s one of the few rides I remember from my very first visit over 30 years ago. As we make our way through, I notice it is much different (this is not what I remember). Still a cute ride, and the disappearing butterfly in the cage still baffles me today. At the end of the ride, we realize we are way ahead of schedule, so the kids stop in the play area for a while. That only lasts about 5 min though as they are way too old for this kind of stuff. We decide to move on.
Next up is our first FP of the day, Test Track. I went with this for our Tier 1 FP because it’s notorious for breaking down a lot (and we got Soarin’ in with our PPO ADR). I figured if it broke down during our FP, we would likely get another FP. But if it broke down while in a normal line…well…no promises there. We had also heard that you can design your car ahead of the line by going into the interactive area at the ride’s exit. We each went in and designed our cars ahead of time, saved them to our Magic Bands, and hopped in the FP line. I was glad we decided to do this. Once in the FP line, each group of people (they grouped us in two sets of 3) had about 2.5 minutes to design their cars. That would have never worked out with my snail’s pace kids. All in all, the kids loved the ride, although nervous about the speed. My nephew’s design won amongst the 6 of us.
Frozen Ever After was next on our TP, and I was a little nervous about putting this one off until later in the morning. But the reliance on the TP paid off, as our wait was no different than the approx. 25 min we expected. I can’t say that this ride is worth it though, if you don’t have a Frozen fan in your midst. My DD was obsessed with Frozen when she was 6-7, but then 8 yrs old hit and she was “over it”.
Our next was a FP, so we decided that we had time to stop at the Norway bakery for the School Bread. I really wish that we got a chance to visit the permanent location, but I knew that it was under renovation, so we didn’t get to try the Troll Horn or Berry Pastry like I wanted to. Seeing that we just ate a huge all you can eat for breakfast, we planned ahead and brought plastic containers to put our school bread in for later. Side note here…none of us liked the school bread at all. The custard in the middle is great, but the bread itself tasted heavy on the cardamom, and that’s not an easy spice on the palette.
Our second FP was for Spaceship Earth. As the FL heat started to ramp up, I remembered why I picked this one for a FP. Watching all those poor people standing outside in that line made me feel good about that choice. This one wasn’t as thrilling, and my kids let me know how bored they were afterwards. But my sis, DH, and I got a kick out of trying to find the re-used presidential animatronics. We only caught one, and it was Eisenhower in the Egyptian scene. Made for a good laugh!
We had some time before our next FP, so we made our way over to Nemo and Friends. When we arrived, the Disney wait estimate was 35 min, and the Lines app said 30 min. Since our TP had us going to the aquariums first, then the ride with a 12 min wait, we decided to follow the plan and made our way into the aquariums. My family knows how much I love aquariums and this one was no different. I could sit there for hours watching everything swim by. We wandered for our scheduled 20 min, then headed back outside only to find the wait times had now increased to 40 min (by Disney estimate). Uh, no! Guess we won’t be riding this one after all. We had wasted enough time to be able to get to our last FP for Mission Space, so off we went.
Early on, I had talked to some co-workers who had attempted Mission Space Orange. They did NOT recommend it. And since I figured my kids would also have trouble handling it, and we all wanted to ride together, we opted to go to Green. After it was over, I really wish we had given Orange a try. The Green side seemed too tame and wasn’t very thrilling at all. But my kids quickly forgot that when we entered the interactive play zone at the end of the ride. They were in heaven! I went outside to get my DH (who skipped this one for motion sickness), and we all played a couple games on the big board. I have to say that this was pretty fun, even for the adults.
By this time, it was nearing our scheduled reservation at Biergarten, so we started our long trek to Germany Pavilion. We make it with 2 min to spare, but end up waiting for a table for about 10 min. We are seated right next to the dance floor and stage up front and are asked to leave the last two chairs at our table empty. Several minutes later, another couple is sat next to us. We knew this was a shared table situation, so we weren’t surprised by this, but I don’t think the couple realized it. They seemed a little anxious.
The food at Biergarten is amazing! We are big fans of German food, and this was not a letdown. The best things I had were the marinated mushroom salad, cucumber salad, the pork schnitzel, and of course, the spaetzle covered in brown gravy (remember from the Poutine I LOVE gravy!). We also made sure to try one of every dessert, along with the apple strudel which we doused in vanilla sauce sitting nearby. Not sure that you are supposed to eat it that way, but I did!
While we sat, the band came out to play on stage. They encouraged the kids to come dance on the floor and gave quite a performance. These guys were top notch musicians, and really knew how to entertain. Their set also included the long giant horns (don’t remember what they are called) and a table of bells. I got a video of the guy playing the bells, I wish I could post it here. He is truly talented!
While sitting at our table waiting on our group to finish, I start to scan through the MDE app and happen upon some FP for Nemo and Friends for 3:15 pm. Since we skipped it earlier, I snatch them up and we don’t miss the ride after all. Can’t say that this is a favorite ride, but the kids enjoyed seeing the screenplay, and I enjoyed seeing the fish again.
My DD and I snapped a selfie in our clamshell!
And my DS just had to have his photo of him “holding up the ball”.
By this time, our Epcot morning was over and it was time to head back to the house. It was about 4 pm and the adults had a 10 pm dinner reservation at Cinderella’s Castle. Once we get back to the house, we have time for the pool and some naps. But by 8 pm, the three adults are headed back to Magic Kingdom. What the kids didn’t know (and we never told them) is that I also managed to snatch up FP for Big Thunder for the three of us at 9:15 pm. I was hoping for a view of the fireworks from the ride, and Disney did not disappoint!
We got to Big Thunder just in time for our 9:15 FP to kick in. By this point, I knew the fireworks were already going off (as we saw them on our walk over). We are headed down the ramps to the ride vehicles, and I start to hear less “bangs”. Oh, no, did we miss them already? Just as we get to our designated car number, I hear the booms again. We didn’t miss them. I can say that Big Thunder is way more fun with Fireworks…and in the dark! We get off just in time to see the finale from the viewing porch near Big Thunder’s exit. It was beautiful!
We start to make our way over to Cinderella’s Castle. I see the bustle of people leaving after the show, and start to think those people who said the park clears out after fireworks are right. We get checked in and wait for our name to be called. Once inside, we are immediately placed in line to meet Cinderella. With it just being us adults, we have no interest in photos with her, so we kindly ask to be moved out of the line. The CM obliges, although he looked a little put off by our request, and asks us to have a seat on a side bench next to the stairs. As I sit there, I notice a panel blocking the stairway. I peer through the slats to see two CMs on the floor of the stairs and get a strong whiff of cleaner. Oh, I know what this is…a code V! It was a sad thought knowing we weren’t going to walk up the grand stairway, but we make it to the top on the elevator.
The dining room was much smaller than I anticipated. We are sat near the windows, but not directly next to them. From my point of view, I can see the colors of the shows going on outside. It casts a beautiful hue of colors on the windows. Now, I see why people have these late-night reservations. We are greeted by one of the best waiters we had on the whole trip (again, I am horrible with remembering names). We already know what we want, order quickly, and the experience starts.
Not even 5 min after we order, the first princess arrives…Snow White. She starts a couple tables behind us and is to our table quickly. We greet her, and all the other princesses, with the utmost politeness, but decline their offers for photos or autographs. We decide that they should spend more of their time with the kids in the room.
The food was absolutely delicious, but not the best we had in Disney. We all ordered the charcuterie plate for an appetizer. I gave half of mine to my husband due to allergies to some of the cheeses, but he didn’t mind. And we all also ordered the same entrée…the braised pork shank over carrots and mashed potatoes. This one was worth the price of admission. Cooked to perfection! We forced ourselves to finish, as leftovers weren’t going to taste nearly as good. Finally, dessert came and we all ordered differently for once. My DH got the Clock Strikes Twelve, my sis had the Jaq & Gus, and I had a citrus chiffon cake with raspberry and coconut brittle. The coconut brittle was the best part, but very sticky.
After dinner, we quietly exited as many other families were still struggling to get their kids to eat. I felt sorry for them (just a little) but was ready for a good night’s sleep. And we did finally get to see the stairway on our way out…with no sign of a code V anywhere. Good job, CMs! Our plan is to take some photos of the park all lit up at night. When we are outside in the spoke, we stop for some castle photos. It is really a brilliant sight at night. But I’m also surprised to see SO many people still here, now being 11:15 at night. I knew the park closed at 11 pm and the Main Street Shops at 12 am, but there were people still just hanging out. We decide to find a bench nearby and take a seat to wait out some of the crowds exiting. I glance over to the monorail station and can see the line winding down to the park entrance. We wait about 15 min before we decide we need to just deal with it and go stand in line.
The monorail line doesn’t take long to load, surprisingly, and we are on before we know it. We arrive at the TTC by 11:45 pm and think we’ll be to the car in no time. Until we see the lines for the trams. Wow, even at almost midnight and there are still SO many people here. We don’t think we can make the walk to the far reaches of the villain lot, so waiting it is. After waiting for about 3 trams, we are finally on one and back to the car. Knowing that we are all going to regret this very late night, we get back to the house for our short-lived sleep. Tomorrow starts with an 8 am Be Our Guest reservation, after all…
Lesson from today – the crowds do NOT leave the Magic Kingdom, EVER!
Next Up – Day 6 is Magic Kingdom morning & Hollywood Studios
