We left our resort at about 7:25am on Friday morning (pretty late for us). We got parked at Epcot and to the security checkpoint quickly, but then we were held at security until about 7:50am.
Once they opened, security was a breeze and we got to GG by 8. We waited for a few minutes, and then they got us seated. They are so awesome here…they seriously know what they are doing. As they seated us they reminded us that the characters would be around to say hi, and that we should seat the kids on the ends or where they could get out easily. Then they explained that they serve everything family-style, but that we could have as much of anything as we would like. We started with fruit and stickybuns, and then they brought out 2 skillets with Mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and tater-tot hashbrowns. It was really delicious. The characters were nice and friendly, and stayed for some pics and then moved on. They would’ve stayed longer if we had been engaging them, but we just kinda wanted a pic, breakfast, and then to hit soarin. They read the non-verbals well. I think we had eaten and had our bill by about 8:25am. It didn’t feel rushed…it’s just that they know what they are doing. We decided to linger for about 10-15 more min cause it was more comfortable there than standing around the entrance to Soarin. She gave us some diet cokes to go, and we were on our way. They let us into Soarin immediately…and it made me wish we had gone sooner. I think we were seated in the theater at about 8:55. Wouldn’t be fast enough to ride again without the RD hoard. But we rode again anyway, with about a 10 min wait. We got seated in B1 the second time, which is exactly what my little bro was hoping for. Can’t argue with that.
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Then we hit Mission Space. Some of us went green and some orange. It’s the first time I’ve done the green, and I actually really enjoyed it. I like that they take you around the earth, and talk about what you are seeing on the way. Some people rode a second time, and we made sure everyone had tapped in so that we could be eligible for a tier 1 as soon as they did the TT drop at 11:21. We went to SE to use another FPP but sadly it was down. As we were walking away it came back up!! We tapped in and got right on. (For informational purposes, if you have a wheelchair/scooter they will have you enter on the south side of the ball…there’s a wheelchair symbol there.) We were enjoying the ride when it stopped again. For 14 minutes. Wow…that was a long break. The automatic announcement about staying seated played a few times, but someone must’ve been doing something because there was a CM that kept getting on the speaker, asking guests to stay seated. We were stuck at the portion where papyrus/parchment is created. We got lucky there, because it’s just some nice music in the background. Would’ve been really annoying to be stuck near the newspaper kid that keeps yelling. I actually don’t mind getting stuck on rides though. I think it’s kind of a cool experience, and I would love to be walked off of a ride, with all the lights on.
Side note: We went to DL in CA a few years ago, and got stuck on the Indiana Jones ride 2-3 times in one day. Unfortunately we were all near the exit on all of the breakdowns, so we didn’t get to see anything cool. We did have to go down a ladder to get off though. And then we got some anytime FP’s. It happened to be opening weekend for the new Guardians ride, so the anytime FP’s sure came in handy! We also got stuck on the Matterhorn that trip. There were 6 of us, and we had done the single rider line, so we were all spread out. I could see my husband way up, on the side of the mountain, stuck in his sled. They had to tie each sled from the front and the back, and then help each guest out. Kinda fun. And more magic FP’s.
As we exited SE, it was POURING rain!! We paused for a second, and then went for it. Our next stop was FEA…quite a haul in the rain, but we all made it, and no one melted. It was my goal to tap in for FEA before 11:10, so we could try and get the TT FPP drop at 11:21, but unfortunately the drop didn’t happen because of the rain. Oh well. Still loved the Frozen ride. I don’t know why…I just do.
Although our next stop was Teppan Edo for lunch, we had to grab some School Bread in Norway. I had never had it before but I’ve heard such great things about it that I had to try it. And it lived up to the hype. Although I think I preferred the mousse dome.
On our way to Japan we found some drummers in Germany and stopped to watch them for a few minutes. They were great percussionists, but also just great performers.
I went ahead and checked in for Teppan Edo, and although we had an ADR for 11, they said their tables seat 8-9 people and how would we like to split up. Dang it. We chose 5&6. I had planned on taking a moment to figure out who was going to each table, but my family arrived just as they were calling us back and it ended up being a little helter-skelter. My husband and I ended up with my brother and his wife, and their daughter. And then they put about 4 more people at our table, and they added some additional people at the table with the rest of our family also. The other party at our table were Japanese, and they were having fun interacting with the staff, but in a way that didn’t feel like they were excluding us. And then our chef came out and he was so awesome! If you can make a request about which chef you get, I would DEFINITELY recommend Akira. He was playful and efficient. I really loved his sense of humor. There was a lot of laughing and shouting at our table, and then I looked over at the other table where our group was sitting and it was a lot quieter. Sigh. This is the 3rd time I’ve eaten here, and definitely my favorite. The food was great and the entertainment was outstanding.
After this we dropped down to Future World and did Soarin (my folks weren’t with us for the morning rides) and Figment. I was buying a shirt and some Diet Cokes (are you sensing a theme here?) in the Figment gift shop and the CM asked me if I wanted the shirt sent to my resort. I told him that wouldn’t work because we were leaving the next day. Then he rang up the sodas, and I used some snack credits to pay for them. He looked at the receipt and then exclaimed “you are leaving tomorrow and you have 49 snack credits left?!?!” Too cute. Then he let me know that’s its F&W and all of the booth have at least 2 items that count as snack credits, and that we could use up some credits and eat some good food. Great suggestion!!
The kids had a blast playing in the water near Figment. Then we hit Nemo and TT. At this point we needed to sort out dinner. We had saved a set of QS entitlements for tonight’s dinner and we decided to go to Mexico to use them (mostly because it was close). The food was okay. I had the empanadas, and they were good, but not dinner-y enough. One of the nephews had the nachos, but he didn’t eat much of them, so I helped him out. I really wished I had ordered those.
We sent the 3 older kids (ages 25, 15 and 13) on a journey of their own (they decided to go to HS for a bit and ride TOT and watch Fantasmic), and we gave them instructions to eat lots of snacks. The rest of us tried to use up some snack credits with take-home food at Mouse Gear, and then we split for the resort to do some packing. I think by the end of the night we only had about 12 snack credits let. That’s a lot of snacking!
Next up: AK, MK, flight home and sadness.