No, we're going to Monkey Joe's...a June 2021 TR (UPDATE 7-28)

[kclark9830]

Thanks Goodness!!!


I can only imagine. I can't wait till we get that high.


Doing stand by first thing is the best way to do it... The que is great!


A great way to honor Emma!


Yuck! It amazes me how rude some people are... And self absorbed!


I hate when I look back on something and think the smae thing.. But these days.. you never know. You hear the stories of people freaking out about masks and all. Probalby for the best.


Perfect!!!! It makes the day worth it just for that!


Ugh! I can't even image the anxiety you must have. I am sure it will all go well, but totally understand your fear and stress!


This happened to my girls. They were SO mad... I kind of avoid it for that reason now.. It's not worth it. ha.


That is the hardest part with the lines. I mean there has to be lines... but it's hard with little kids.


I love it!!! raising another Disney lover right!


This is hilarious! I don't think we even went on the right our first trip but probably would ahve thought the same thing...


This is good to hear. I feel like all I have heard was horrer stories of people having to wait hours to get a time slot.

Yes, Mobile order was great for us!

 

[Araminta18]

Hi everyone! In real life, today we had to do all of Miles’s preadmission stuff for surgery on Monday. It caused lots of anxiety and stress, and so many emotional memories, and I won’t go into it all on a Disney chat board, but if you pray I sure would appreciate prayers for an easy and successful surgery and recovery. I’m OK, but I kind of wish I could bury my head in the sand until it’s all over.

Praying for Miles, and you, and your whole family! *hugs*

Miles was so excited, and Ashlyn was so excited to show her brother the fun of WDW.

This is so cute!

(Miles had mapped out his whole itinerary, lol. Maybe he’ll be a planner too.)

Yes! Good job Miles (even though fastpasses aren't a thing and lines are lines...boo)

It’s so…happy. I feel like I keep using that word, but I guess it’s just because that’s how WDW makes me feel.

Same! I feel like at Disney, all my normal adult/real-life anxieties and worries drop off for a bit and I can be carefree and happy and just enjoy the magic.

These were the shortest lines we encountered this week, overall, and we managed throughout the week, but I very much missed FP. Like I said in my last post, we pretty much FP'ed our way through every ride in the past.

*crossing fingers that FP comes back soon!!*

It turned out Miles loved the show and didn’t play with his toy at all while watching it. And we all loved the show, as always. Since then, I’ve caught each of us singing or whistling “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” several times. (Yay!)

I love "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" too!!! Glad you all had such a good time.

But Emma was begging for one more carousel ride. We looked at a park map and saw CoP so headed that way. We were not expecting what we got, and Emma was super confused as to why this was called a carousel, lol.

That's hilarious! Definitely not a normal carousel!!

On the bus, there was a lively conversation going on. Several people on the bus were discussing how excited they were for the fireworks. As an avid Dis'er, ahem, I knew there were no fireworks going on. There was one other family on the bus who was trying to explain the no fireworks thing, but one woman in particular was not hearing it. I thought it was so strange to spend so much money on a vacation and know nothing about what’s going on there. Not that I don’t know it happens all the time the world over, it’s just foreign to my personality.

100%. How can you POSSIBLY spend all the money and not do enough research to realize that there are no fireworks? I do not get it. Like you said, must just be completely different personality type.

We talked about doing some shopping, but there was quite the line to get into the stores on Main Street so we passed on that.

I saw this too on our trip! Threw me for a loop, though I guess I should have expected it. We passed too, and went to the Emporium later in our trip, and did not wait at all to get in.

Love the pictures at your resort!

 

[CruellaNY]

That is hysterical about the guests who were looking for fireworks! I know you felt bad in a way; dealing with this way too often I do not feel bad lol. All you need is research- and a good TA

And glad mobile order worked well for you! It has in the past on the rare occasions we used it but this trip earlier this month not so much. I feel like it's hit or miss and while I'm not opposed to keeping it around I just hope they open back up regular ordering all over too.

Hi everyone! In real life, today we had to do all of Miles’s preadmission stuff for surgery on Monday.

Will be thinking about you Monday xoxo

 

[kclark9830]

Double post

 

[kclark9830]

Will be thinking about you Monday xoxo

Thank you!

 

[kclark9830]

Praying for Miles, and you, and your whole family! *hugs*


This is so cute!


Yes! Good job Miles (even though fastpasses aren't a thing and lines are lines...boo)


Same! I feel like at Disney, all my normal adult/real-life anxieties and worries drop off for a bit and I can be carefree and happy and just enjoy the magic.


*crossing fingers that FP comes back soon!!*


I love "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" too!!! Glad you all had such a good time.


That's hilarious! Definitely not a normal carousel!!


100%. How can you POSSIBLY spend all the money and not do enough research to realize that there are no fireworks? I do not get it. Like you said, must just be completely different personality type.


I saw this too on our trip! Threw me for a loop, though I guess I should have expected it. We passed too, and went to the Emporium later in our trip, and did not wait at all to get in.

Love the pictures at your resort!

Thank you!

 

[Navychica]

Just caught up- hope everything goes well tomorrow, and I’m loving your pictures! My oldest will be turning 5 on our next trip, so it’s fun to see Miles’s reactions.

We’re also from North Alabama- glad to see some other Disney fans from the Rocket City area!

 

[kclark9830]

Happy Birthday to Emma! Animal Kingdom Day

Hi everyone! Miles came through surgery with flying colors and is doing so well. I couldn’t be happier or more relieved!

I also wanted to show you my finished puzzle. I finished Sunday night before his surgery Monday .



Now on to our Animal Kingdom day! We had a lot of hopes for this day, and all of them were met, honestly. It was Tuesday, and it would have been Emma’s 15th birthday. I mentioned earlier it has been 5 years since she’s been gone from us, and we have never gone out of town during this time of year since then. Because of that, we were really unsure how we would actually wake up feeling.

With that in mind, we purposefully chose Animal Kingdom for this day, and we purposefully made mindful decisions to take it slow.

So! I woke up early because I always wake up early. Everyone else was fast asleep, but I was up checking emails. That turned out to be a great decision because guess what?! I had an email from my editor offering me a new book contract! I thought that maybe that was a special hug from Emma, that the contract would arrive on her birthday. ❤ I shot off a reply to my editor letting her know I was out of town but I’d get back with her later.

Then I got up and dressed and ate breakfast…and everyone else was still sleeping. Not even kidding, y'all. I ended up doing a load of laundry.

At some point, everyone did eventually wake up. We had a lunch ADR at Rainforest Café at 12:30. Our plan was to head into AK around 11 or 11:30.

Today would be the first day we would be meeting up with the rest of my family who was in FL, and my parents would be eating with us, so I was excited for that.

Eventually, we were all dressed and ready to go to the bus stop. We waited around 20 minutes for a bus, and I think we were on it with one other family. It was around 11:15.

At Animal Kingdom, we breezed through security (the new security is SO MUCH BETTER). Then we stopped for a photopass picture before tapping into the park.



You can clearly see how interested Miles was in cooperating with that. So we bailed and headed into the park. We may or may not have had a little talk with Miles about behaving for all future pictures. Something about Disney World having lots of toys he could buy, but only for little boys who smiled for pictures. We didn’t have any more trouble after that.

Our first stop was the Wilderness Explorer’s station so the kids could get sworn in and receive their booklets. Let me just go ahead and tell you, this was the highlight of the day for them. I’m so glad we chose to focus on that this day, because we had a blast doing it. If you’ve been wanting to try it and you really know your family would enjoy it, but you’re not sure it’s worth spending time doing that when there are rides to be ridden? I highly recommend doing it. Do it!



Next, we stopped for tree of life pictures. These ones went much better.







Now it was around noon, so I called my mom to find out where they were so we could meet up for our lunch ADR. They met us right in front of the tree of life, with my sister and her kids in tow. All the kids were very excited to see each other.

Then we split up so we could get to Rainforest Café. We used the back entrance, and the place was packed! We ended up waiting 20 minutes past our reservation time. But we were in the AC, and everyone loved browsing the gift shop.

Grandma (my mom) ended up buying the kids lots of souvenirs, which made them happy of course. Ashlyn got a sketch pad and colored pencils set and one of those oil and water drip timer things. Miles got a huge bouncy ball with a lion inside and he got a bag of rocks. Marbles and rocks, y'all. They’re all over our house!

We were at last called to our table and our server was right on top of things. Our drinks came out, our food came out, and everything was delicious. To be honest, it ended up being our favorite meal all week. Okay, to be fair (and spoiler alert) we did end up canceling all other ADR’S throughout the week (we had several). So this was our only TS meal. But it was so good.

When our meal was finished, we headed out to meet up with my sister and her kids. They were just coming out of ITtBaB. We found them, or rather, they found us. Then we headed toward the safari. We actually skipped this attraction when we came in 2018, so it was a must do. Plus, we were trying to take it slow. Hakuna Matata, right? Right.

It was right at 2PM at this point, and all I can figure was people were leaving and hopping. The safari had a 25 min posted wait, but it was a walk on. That was so nice!

The safari was in the heat of the day, and the animals weren’t super active. No lions, and the animals we saw weren’t very cooperative for pictures.



I had to grab a picture of Miles with the giraffes, though, cooperation or no, because I wanted to make this picture.



Emma in 2014, Ashlyn in 2016, and Miles in 2021.



Miles ended up falling asleep and when we came off it and put him in the stroller he stayed asleep. What to do next? We decided to go ahead and do the Gorilla Falls Trail. We had never done it and Ashlyn saw there were several Wilderness Explorer’s stations on it, so that’s where we headed.

Continued in next post...

 

[kclark9830]

Continued from last post..

Lots of neat things inside Gorilla Falls Trail, and the kids enjoyed collecting badges.








The gorilla did not want a picture with Ashlyn, which reminded me of our last trip in 2018 when the tiger didn’t, either.



When we finished up the trail, we took a potty break then did some evaluating. We knew we were headed to the train to visit Conservation Station and do the Animators Experience drawing class. My sister and her kids wanted to ride rides.

So, my parents chose to ride the train with us but then ride it right back and meet up with my sister again.

We split up, and luckily we caught the train just before it left! We had watched the special on Disney+ about Animal Kingdom, so it was kind of cool to see some of those behind the scenes places on the train ride. We saw elephants and rhinos as we rode by.

When we got off the train, Ashlyn eagerly stopped at each WE station. Miles was STILL SLEEPING.

He did wake up when we got to the petting zoo station, but he wasn’t interested in seeing the goats, sheep, pigs, or donkeys. To be fair, he sees all those animals on a pretty regular basis. Well, maybe not pigs but all the rest.

We went inside and saw all the little exhibits, and then it was time for the Animators Experience class. We could tell Miles was not going to sit through that, so Micheal took him aside to play with his souvenirs from the Rainforest Café while Ashlyn and I took the class.





We absolutely loved it! We drew Dumbo, as you can see. We heard they had done baby Yoda and Tuk Tuk from Raya and the Last Dragon earlier in the day, and Ashlyn was a little disappointed in getting Dumbo instead, but overall we were really happy. We would definitely do this again!

We met up with Miles and Micheal and headed back for the train. It was the last train of the night!

I called my sister and she said our parents had gone back to Coronado Springs where they were staying, but she’d meet us in Pandora. We headed there and met up with her and the kids. Meanwhile, Ashlyn stopped at more WE stations. She ended up with 16 badges and was very happy about it.

At this point, it was nearing 6PM and the park closed at 7. Miles wasn’t tall enough to ride FoP, so we decided Micheal would take Ashlyn and our niece Alice on that, while my sister and I would take our boys on Navi River Journey. While I love FoP, I was secretly excited because I’d never done Navi's before.

It was a 30 minute wait, which I admit was a bit trying with Miles, but overall it was OK. I did have a terrible experience here with a CM, but I think something terrible must have happened before I got to the CM because he actually ended up leaving the area crying.

So, as we approached his station in the line the lady in front of us asked him very kindly how far we were from the ride.

He snapped at her that it was 5 minutes. I smiled and made a comment that, hooray! He was our new favorite person. I was trying to be nice to him purposely because I could see he was upset. Well, that was dumb of me.

He scowled at me then immediately looked past me and screamed (I do mean screamed) at a lady that she had to wear her mask or leave the line. I literally startled backward a bit, it was so surprising. It wasn’t a moment later another CM approached and told him he could go, and he began crying and left. Obviously, his behavior had nothing to do with either me or the lady in front of me. It was just shocking and sad, because I’m sure whatever he had gone through must have been extremely stressful.

We did indeed make it to the ride in about 5 minutes. We got the front row (yay! No plexiglass!). The boys loved it, and I thought it was a great little ride, too. We really enjoyed it. I would totally do it again.

When we came out, we stopped for some more PP pictures then sat around eating snacks from our bags while we waited for Micheal and the girls.





The FoP posted wait time was 55 min, and they waited right at that. They ended up coming off after the park had closed. At that point we headed out of the park together then split up as we headed to the buses.

This was where we had our worst bus wait of the trip. Over an hour long, it was torture in the heat. I’m pretty sure we honestly could have walked back to Movies in less time than waiting for the bus. It wasn’t that there were hoards of people. It was that there were only 2 buses going back and forth to Movies, and while they were filling most seats, that was it. So we waited, and waited, and waited. It was pretty terrible, y’all.

We did finally make it back to Movies where we picked up a mobile order which included a birthday cupcake for Emma. It was delicious .



After eating, we headed down to the pool for several hours before heading up to bed. It had been THE BEST day. No stress. No grief. We loved the laid back approach to this park day. Really, if I could change one thing it would be that I wish we could have fit in FotLK, but it had only just opened like a week before and lines were still very long for it and we didn’t want to wait in lines on this day. So I don’t regret skipping it, but I still wish we could have seen it. You know?

Anyway, that is all for now! I will be back another day with our next day at Epcot!

 

[kclark9830]

Just caught up- hope everything goes well tomorrow, and I’m loving your pictures! My oldest will be turning 5 on our next trip, so it’s fun to see Miles’s reactions.

We’re also from North Alabama- glad to see some other Disney fans from the Rocket City area!

Thanks so much! It's definitely a fun age for WDW .

 

[rdkeim]

Enjoying your TR! What a lovely AK day. Other than the buses and the stressed out CM, it sounded very laid back. Sometimes being with a group is hard but it's nice you all split up at times and also spent time together. I'll be watching for your Epcot day!

 

[Araminta18]

Hi everyone! Miles came through surgery with flying colors and is doing so well. I couldn’t be happier or more relieved!

I also wanted to show you my finished puzzle. I finished Sunday night before his surgery Monday .

Yay!! So happy it went well, and so happy it's over so you don't have to be worrying or stressed about it! Also, gorgeous puzzle

So! I woke up early because I always wake up early. Everyone else was fast asleep, but I was up checking emails. That turned out to be a great decision because guess what?! I had an email from my editor offering me a new book contract! I thought that maybe that was a special hug from Emma, that the contract would arrive on her birthday. ❤ I shot off a reply to my editor letting her know I was out of town but I’d get back with her later.

Congratulations! And what a lovely hug from Emma

Then I got up and dressed and ate breakfast…and everyone else was still sleeping. Not even kidding, y'all. I ended up doing a load of laundry.

I'm just over here giggling at you being at Disney and doing laundry cause everyone else is sleeping.

At Animal Kingdom, we breezed through security (the new security is SO MUCH BETTER). Then we stopped for a photopass picture before tapping into the park.

100% agree- the new security is SO MUCH BETTER!

Our first stop was the Wilderness Explorer’s station so the kids could get sworn in and receive their booklets. Let me just go ahead and tell you, this was the highlight of the day for them. I’m so glad we chose to focus on that this day, because we had a blast doing it. If you’ve been wanting to try it and you really know your family would enjoy it, but you’re not sure it’s worth spending time doing that when there are rides to be ridden? I highly recommend doing it. Do it!

Trevor and I signed up for Wilderness Explorer on our trip a few years ago. We didn't do any of the stops but we quote the Wilderness Explorer call ALL the time!

Emma in 2014, Ashlyn in 2016, and Miles in 2021.

Love it!

When we got off the train, Ashlyn eagerly stopped at each WE station. Miles was STILL SLEEPING.

shoot, you go Miles.

We drew Dumbo, as you can see. We heard they had done baby Yoda and Tuk Tuk from Raya and the Last Dragon earlier in the day, and Ashlyn was a little disappointed in getting Dumbo instead, but overall we were really happy. We would definitely do this again!

How fun! I wanted to do this and then totally forgot. Gonna have to make sure we do it next time!

He scowled at me then immediately looked past me and screamed (I do mean screamed) at a lady that she had to wear her mask or leave the line. I literally startled backward a bit, it was so surprising. It wasn’t a moment later another CM approached and told him he could go, and he began crying and left. Obviously, his behavior had nothing to do with either me or the lady in front of me. It was just shocking and sad, because I’m sure whatever he had gone through must have been extremely stressful.

Oh no! That poor CM, and poor you guys! Hope his day got better

We got the front row (yay! No plexiglass!).

Ah, the things we now get excited about -- and yes, no plexiglass is definitely a thing to get excited about!

This was where we had our worst bus wait of the trip. Over an hour long, it was torture in the heat. I’m pretty sure we honestly could have walked back to Movies in less time than waiting for the bus. It wasn’t that there were hoards of people. It was that there were only 2 buses going back and forth to Movies, and while they were filling most seats, that was it. So we waited, and waited, and waited. It was pretty terrible, y’all.

Good grief that's horrible!! I have a love hate relationship with the buses for exactly this reason. Rough.

e did finally make it back to Movies where we picked up a mobile order which included a birthday cupcake for Emma. It was delicious .

That looks so good!!!!

 

[CruellaNY]

At Animal Kingdom, we breezed through security (the new security is SO MUCH BETTER).

YES! I hope this sticks around! Love not having the huge lines and to have to open my bag every time and unfortunately I can't handle going bagless lol.

You guys had a really good day for Emma's birthday
And jealous you drew Dumbo! We've done the drawing class out there 4x now and EVERY TIME we draw Simba. I mean he's certainly cute and all but I'd like to try someone else!

And glad you liked Rainforest. We ate there once a few years back at the boys request. We weren't looking forward to it as we didn't feel it was anything special but the food was very good!

 

[kclark9830]

Enjoying your TR! What a lovely AK day. Other than the buses and the stressed out CM, it sounded very laid back. Sometimes being with a group is hard but it's nice you all split up at times and also spent time together. I'll be watching for your Epcot day!

Very true about big groups. It worked well this trip.

 

[kclark9830]

Yay!! So happy it went well, and so happy it's over so you don't have to be worrying or stressed about it! Also, gorgeous puzzle


Congratulations! And what a lovely hug from Emma


I'm just over here giggling at you being at Disney and doing laundry cause everyone else is sleeping.


100% agree- the new security is SO MUCH BETTER!


Trevor and I signed up for Wilderness Explorer on our trip a few years ago. We didn't do any of the stops but we quote the Wilderness Explorer call ALL the time!


Love it!


shoot, you go Miles.


How fun! I wanted to do this and then totally forgot. Gonna have to make sure we do it next time!


Oh no! That poor CM, and poor you guys! Hope his day got better


Ah, the things we now get excited about -- and yes, no plexiglass is definitely a thing to get excited about!


Good grief that's horrible!! I have a love hate relationship with the buses for exactly this reason. Rough.


That looks so good!!!!

No plexiglass is definitely a big deal!

 

[kclark9830]

YES! I hope this sticks around! Love not having the huge lines and to have to open my bag every time and unfortunately I can't handle going bagless lol.

You guys had a really good day for Emma's birthday
And jealous you drew Dumbo! We've done the drawing class out there 4x now and EVERY TIME we draw Simba. I mean he's certainly cute and all but I'd like to try someone else!

And glad you liked Rainforest. We ate there once a few years back at the boys request. We weren't looking forward to it as we didn't feel it was anything special but the food was very good!

Simba would be great but yeah, 4x is a bit much, lol.

 

[kclark9830]

Soarin' Around the World: Epcot part 1

Hi everyone! Happy 4th of July if you’re in America. I hope you all have a good weekend (even if you’re not in America)!

We are now on Wednesday of our trip, Epcot Day!!! If I haven’t mentioned it yet, Epcot is my #1. I could take a week long trip and just go to Epcot every single day. In fact, when my sister first decided to join our trip, she could only get reservations for Epcot and she asked me if I thought it was worth it for that…and I was seriously like, what?! Of course it is! (But she doesn’t love Epcot like I do, and regardless she was able to get APR’S to every park over the course of the next couple days.)

Anyway, back to the day at hand. We woke up and had a relaxed start to the morning, but we were out at the bus stops by around 9:30. A bus was there and loading for Epcot, but there was quite the line and we had to wait for the 2nd bus. Still, it pulled up shortly after the 1st left so it wasn’t a big deal this go around.

We were in the back of the bus and there was another family on the bus near us in the back. It was a big family group, like multi-generational. A woman in the group who I would say was around my age (mid to late 30's?) was doing a business zoom call during the entire bus ride. There were noisy kids all around her, including her own kids (and mine), and this woman never missed a beat. It was super impressive, I have to say. I don’t think I could have focused, so ten points for her mad skills.

We arrived at Epcot, got through security and were into the parks. Ok, so I had been having a great time at the parks already, but when I saw Spaceship Earth I promise y’all I had like endorphins or something shooting through me. It just made me SO HAPPY! I couldn’t stop smiling.

Epcot is kind of a mess right now with construction walls, etc. So, two things really helped me out.

First, I had done a bit of research and I understood where the walls were at the entrance, and which way to go to do what. There are signs everywhere, but it can be a little overwhelming, so having an idea ahead of time can be helpful.

Second, I had been keeping up with ongoing WDW news, and I knew that just the day before they had done an actual, old fashioned rope drop at Epcot. I am really glad I knew this and could be prepared for it mentally, LOL.

We were heading to Frozen Ever After so I knew we needed to go left at Spaceship Earth. We headed that way and were stopped not too soon after in a huge herd of people trapped between construction walls and behind a rope. People all around us were pretty irritated. Also, there were line cutters galore, people just shoving their way through the crowd because most people were confused and were letting them through.

One guy got past us and Micheal was like, huh-uh. Not happening again. And he did not, indeed, allow it to happen again .



We waited probably ten minutes before the rope was dropped, but we were not really near the front at all. We walked en masse toward Test Track. CM’s were standing along the path telling everyone TT wasn’t running yet. Most people took them for their word and advice and kept walking…to FEA.

When we got to the Norway Pavilion the line was at 30 minutes. We headed to China, where the line ended, and got in.

It did take us right at 30 minutes.

I only managed to get one very bad picture in the queue. Sorry.



This time we got the back row, and the plexiglass was a huge deal. It was difficult to see much of anything. Still, we sang along and enjoyed the ride. We never got our PP on ride picture.

When we came out of the dump shop, a princess cavalcade was coming by! Miles continued to be very uninterested in characters.

Next up we headed to the Mexico Pavilion. We waited about ten minutes to get inside, but we took a couple pictures just for fun.





Once inside, I took Miles to potty while Ashlyn and Micheal shopped. They didn’t find anything they wanted, so we headed to the Grand Fiesta Tour with Donald. A ten minute wait to get on the ride wasn’t bad, though the plexiglass in line was . (Are you getting the idea that I don’t love the plexiglass? Lol)

Miles loves Donald, and he loved the ride. I love the fireworks scene at the end.



We ate at San Angel Inn back in 2018, and while we didn’t love it I do love this Pavilion. It just has such a cool atmosphere.

At this point, we were getting a little hungry and it was getting close to lunch time, so I grabbed a MO timeslot at Regal Eagle (been wanting to eat here!!!) and we headed that way. I wanted to stop at the Germany pavilion, but I got voted down. We did stop in Italy for a few PP pictures.





And I forgot to mention! We saw the barges on World Showcase Lagoon. When you see them in person? It is so much worse than I had imagined, honestly. I felt like it really impaired the views. Hopefully they’ll be better when the fountains are being utilized.

As we neared the America pavilion, we could hear the Voices of Liberty performing in the outdoor theater. It was beautiful! We headed inside and wanted to eat then get back out to listen, but once we got inside, the air conditioning felt too good, LOL. We lollygagged.

The food was good, and we were happy with it. While we ate, we talked about what to do next.

We wanted to a) wait for the next VoL set or b) go watch the American Adventure.
Our kids vetoed those choices. Ha! Miles was begging to go to the store in the Japan pavilion because we had been watching a Disney vlogger on YouTube a couple weeks prior and he had seen a whole section of Super Mario Bros. merchandise in the store there. We had been promising him since then that he’d get to go choose something. In fact, he had saved his birthday money for it.

Ashlyn also wanted to shop, because Pokémon.

So off we went to the Japan pavilion. Miles ended up with a red Yoshi, and Ashlyn got a search and find Pokémon book.



So now we wanted to go back to the America pavilion, but I made the mistake of mentioning the Beauty and the Beast singalong, and Ashlyn begged to do that.

Obviously , we headed off toward France. We walked right into a show that was about to start, which was nice.

I don’t like saying it (BatB is my favorite), but this attraction should not be happening . It was so bad.

But my kids loved it, even Miles, so what are you going to do but smile?

We checked out the Ratatouille area. Super cute! Why on earth didn’t I take any pictures?! Sorry guys. I don’t know what I was thinking.

I’m going to leave you here for now, but we had a bit more fun to be had in Epcot on this day. I will say, in writing this update I find I am very upset with myself for taking so few pictures in Epcot overall. I dropped the (Spaceship Earth sized) ball on this day!

I also want to add that the way we spent this day and the way I had planned to spend this day are sooooo different.

I had planned to do lots of Flower & Garden Festival stuff. We did approximately zero of the things. Oh well, we still had fun.

 

[Araminta18]

One guy got past us and Micheal was like, huh-uh. Not happening again. And he did not, indeed, allow it to happen again .

Good for Michael!!

This time we got the back row, and the plexiglass was a huge deal. It was difficult to see much of anything. Still, we sang along and enjoyed the ride. We never got our PP on ride picture.

Bummer! I had a hard time with our photopass ride photos this time too - I only got about half of them and had to submit missing photo requests. They did find them all but it took like 2 weeks.

At this point, we were getting a little hungry and it was getting close to lunch time, so I grabbed a MO timeslot at Regal Eagle (been wanting to eat here!!!) and we headed that way. I wanted to stop at the Germany pavilion, but I got voted down. We did stop in Italy for a few PP pictures.

We did a latenight snack at Regal Eagle -- the theming is great.

And I forgot to mention! We saw the barges on World Showcase Lagoon. When you see them in person? It is so much worse than I had imagined, honestly. I felt like it really impaired the views. Hopefully they’ll be better when the fountains are being utilized.

100% agree! In person they are SO SO SO bad.

We checked out the Ratatouille area. Super cute! Why on earth didn’t I take any pictures?! Sorry guys. I don’t know what I was thinking.

Isn't it adorable? I can't wait til it's actually open.

I had planned to do lots of Flower & Garden Festival stuff. We did approximately zero of the things. Oh well, we still had fun.

haha are you me? Saaaaaaaaaaaame.

 

[CruellaNY]

was doing a business zoom call during the entire bus ride. There were noisy kids all around her, including her own kids (and mine), and this woman never missed a beat. It was super impressive, I have to say. I don’t think I could have focused, so ten points for her mad skills.

Ah no way lol! I can barely handle taking a work call while walking through a park; I need to be in the room to do it! But good on her, I bet her kids never made it back to school and she was coming off 15 months of working at home while they ran around!

I love the fireworks scene at the end.

My favorite part

When you see them in person? It is so much worse than I had imagined, honestly. I felt like it really impaired the views. Hopefully they’ll be better when the fountains are being utilized.

YES It looks terrible and I HOPE but don't feel confident that it'll look better when the fountains are on. Hopefully the new show is worth it......

 

[lziol]

I really enjoyed reading your trip report. I am sorry to hear about the loss of your daughter Emma. It is wonderful the way you are honoring memory during your trip.