Tag Archives: Epcot

Walt Disney World Day 4

Friday kicked off with the first RunDisney event of our trip: the Walt Disney World 10K. For me this technically counted as a warmup for the marathon, but it was Chelsea and Sammy’s first RunDisney event and it was really great. We stopped to meet Ralph and Vanellope, Chip and Dale as the Rescue Rangers and Jiminy Cricket, and I’m so proud of how they did and happy with how they paced me.

After we’d showered, changed etc, we went back to Epcot in time for our lunch reservation at Teppan Edo. It was my fourth time eating there and it never fails to disappoint! After eating, we went round to Norway to meet Anna and Elsa and then used our fastpass for Frozen Ever After. When we came out from there, we saw that Soarin had a 25 minute wait time so we bombed over there, but actually I don’t think we waited more than 15 minutes to ride. We then hit some Epcot walls, then went to Starbucks and Club Cool for drinks, then went to meet Baymax and Joy and Sadness, and then went back to Mexico to meet Donald.

With our little legs all feeling the long day, we finished up the day in Epcot at Mouse Gear before catching the monorail back to the resort for an early night and the best nights sleep of the trip so far!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 7

Today kicked off with a nice long lie in, but our plans were further delayed somewhat following a fight that I picked with some sort of wasp or bee.. Long story short I have a horrible sting on my finger and spent a great deal of time with my finger soaking in ice water.

Eventually, however, we made it to Epcot, and today’s agenda was hitting the Food and Wine Festival hard, and making use of our abundant snack credits. We started off with mac and cheese, there was a chocolate torte thing, and at the festival centre we even got some free Ghirardelli samples, yay!

As well as sampling the foods around the World Showcase, we were also very interested in keeping in air-con as the day was getting super warm, so we hit a few attractions that I would normally skip, such as Impressions de France and The American Adventure, purely for the sit down in the cool! We sampled dishes from Brazil, China, India and more, filling out our Food and Wine passport as we went.

To give ourselves a little break from the Epcot crowds and the heat, we took a mid-afternoon detour to the Polynesian Resort and spent some time just chilling out on the beach there, and then got the monorail back to Epcot for the rest of the evening. We hit The Seas with Nemo and Friends, then our fastpass for Test Track, and then made our way to the Japan Pavilion for our dinner reservation at Teppan Edo.

It was my third time dining at Teppan Edo and as per usual the food was great. By the time we left it was only 15 mins til park close so we just slowly made our way back to the park entrance and called it a night!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 5

Today we were up bright and early to get to Hollywood Studios for opening. We grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and then headed to Toy Story Midway Mania, riding it once via the standby queue and then again using our fastpass, although the standby still wasn’t more than 30 mins even an hour later. From there we did One Man’s Dream, which is showing a preview of the new Pixar film, Coco, which looks so good!

After that, we decided to brave the standby line for Rock’n’Roller Coaster, but despite the line saying 45 mins, and a cast member announcement warning that it might be slightly longer, we definitely didn’t wait more than about 30 mins. My head took a bit of a bashing on the ride, so we opted for a sit down in Muppet Vision 3D after that.

Lunch was at Sci-Fi Dine In, and I was a happy girl with a steak/mac and cheese combo which was to die for! After lunch we did Star Tours, and we had hoped to do Beauty and the Beast afterwards, but unfortunately my head was really giving me grief after RnR, and I was starting to feel dizzy so instead we went back to the hotel room so I could have a lie down.

Once I was feeling a little better, we decided rather than going back to Hollywood Studios, we’d head to Fantasia Gardens mini golf, then walk along the Boardwalk into Epcot. I’ve been wanting to do mini golf in Disney for a while now, and despite having to wait about 25 mins before we could start due to it being quite busy, I really enjoyed the course, plus we timed it with the end of Fantasmic, so we could actually hear the show from the course!

At Epcot, we decided to trial some of the Food and Wine festival offerings, starting from the International Gateway and working anti-clockwise. As it was late, and we’ve got a whole day planned for this next week, we just hit a few booths but I’ve discovered a serious love for Brazilian cheese bread so yeah that’s gonna happen again..

Once we were back at Future World, we washed down the food with a few samples from Club Cool, then headed out of the park just before the Illuminations crush incurred, and managed to get a resort bus to ourselves!

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Lottie and Matthew Do Disney: Day 3

So for some reason yesterday’s report published today instead of yesterday, so today is a double post day!

This morning we finally slept through til our alarm, yay! We set it a little later as although we had breakfast reservations, we decided to get an Uber to The Boardwalk rather than having the hassle of getting two buses.

The Bon Voyage breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno was amazing! The food was so good and the character interaction was great, plus we had the nicest server who brought us extra pancakes when I couldn’t make my mind up! After we’d eaten, we took a nice long walk around the Boardwalk, along passed the Yacht and Beach Club resorts before finally heading into Epcot via the International Gateway, and wandered back towards Future World. Bubblegum wall photos were taken, Baymax was met, it was fab.

After meeting Baymax, we headed to Test Track for our fastpass, only it was closed temporarily, so instead we went over to Soarin’, which only actually had a 25 min wait, and then grabbed a Starbucks before hitting Spaceship Earth and our second fastpass, the Epcot Character Spot.

From there, we made our way back to the World Showcase and to Norway to meet Anna and Elsa – random side note, the toilets in the Norway pavilion are really nice – and then trotted back to Future World for our second time on Soarin’, this time because we had a fastpass. While in The Land, we had dinner at Sunshine Seasons, and then we headed back over to Test Track, which was now back up and running, and finally made use of that fastpass, which became valid for the whole day when the ride broke down.

Because I’m really not bothered by Illuminations, we decided to head back to the resort and spent the evening chilling out there!

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February Disney Trip Day 8

Happy Tuesday guys! Our day kicked off in Hollywood Studios, and with quite the bang – a fastpass for Rock’n’Roller Coaster, and of course we were pretty hyped to be in the back car of the limo. Sensibly, we saved breakfast for afterwards, grabbing a drink and a snack from Trolley Car Cafe and sitting to watch the First Order March through the park.From there, we had to make a quick detour to guest relations before heading back to Tower of Terror for our second fastpass of the day. Sarah dared me that I couldn’t do it without holding on – which I always do because I’m awful on this ride – and for the first time ever, I had my hands in the air for almost the whole ride! Yay me! I got myself a celebration button as a reward.

Out of the blue, we discovered Bolt meeting in front of the Chinese Theater, so of course we stopped for a quick photo with him, then got in line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid, but as we got to the front of the line to enter the theatre, the cast member announced it was at capacity and we would have to wait an extra 25 minutes for the next show, which we couldn’t really be bothered to do in the heat, so instead we went and did Muppet Vision 3D, then grabbed lunch at Backlot Express.

Bellies full of bacon cheeseburgers, we headed back to the Chinese Theater for the Great Movie Ride (cowboy, if you were wondering), then as we went to leave the park, Sarah remembered that it was coming up time for character palooza again, so we decided to swing by before we left and boy was it worth it?! Unlike the 4 character we met the other day, they brought out 11 characters, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw Pocahontas appeared followed by Meeko, and the two of them met together which made my little heart so happy! Also out were Robin Hood, Pluto, Donald, Rafiki, Evil Queen, Snow White, and Smee and Prince Ali – we were so lucky to see that many! On a side note, I’m super sunburnt today, and had to buy sun cream, and I also managed to drop and smash my phone screen, so I fully believe in karma today.

Riding the palooza high, we left the park and got on the boat to Epcot, and as we got into International Gateway, we decided to hang out in the UK pavilion for a bit in order to meet Alice, then wandered round to Mexico for a bit of air con inside the temple and a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour. From there, we headed back to Future World and met Baymax again, before doing Living with the Land and the Circle of Life, and a quick Seas with Nemo and Friends, before going back to the UK pavilion for dinner.

As we waited for our Rose and Crown Dining Room reservation, we stuck our heads into the pub to see how authentically British it was, but the floor wasn’t sticky and it didn’t smell quite like a proper pub, so we definitely didn’t feel like we were in the UK! Our table for dinner was right on the lake edge, giving us a beautiful view of the now lit World Showcase as we dined on fish and chips and chicken tikka masala, cos y’know, UK tradition, and we were lucky enough to be served by our friend Milly who’s out here on the CRP, so between ordering we could discuss important matters like Character Palooza and a certain Wilderness Explorer.. We also got to watch Illuminations from our table, and while it’s probably my least favourite nighttime show, it was a pretty view for it.

After dinner, we hustled our way back up to Test Track as extra magic hours meant the park was open til 11pm, so we dived in the queue while it said it was a 40 minute wait, we were in and out within that time, before heading out of the park for the night, again opting to get on the bus to French Quarter rather than Riverside because the queue were that much shorter!

Goodnight y’all!

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February Disney Trip Day 3

So after our crazy early night last night, we ended up awake super early this morning. Typical.Our plans for the morning were to hit the RunDisney expo so I could get my bib and tshirts, so we had a fairly chilled morning at the hotel, grabbed some breakfast there and jumped on a transportation bus to the ESPN centre. Because Sarah had never been to an expo before, I was pretty excited for her to see what they were really like.


We got my bib and race shirts, and collected the pre-ordered pin I got for Sarah and my event jacket, then got stuck into the official merchandise, before getting into the 40 minute queue to pay. Yes, 40 minutes.. We also had a quick look around the main expo hall, but with fastpass commitments looming, jumped on a bus back to the hotel so I could dump my stuff, then hopped on another to Epcot.

Our only fastpass of the day was for Soarin’, a ride I haven’t done here since 2014 as it was being refurbished last year, and the new update is incredible! Honestly if you do no other ride in Epcot, do this.

 

Having seen that she meets in the French Pavilion on the World Showcase, I decided to bring my Aurora themed outfit forward, so we dashed from Soarin’ to the 2:30 meet, and while we were in the queue we overheard rumours that Belle would also be out in her blue dress, so after Aurora we got in the mystery line to meet Belle. She was super lovely, and it was my first time meeting her in her blue village dress, and another princess off the list!

Onwards, we grabbed a Starbucks and jumped onto a monorail across to the Magic Kingdom, then a bus across to Fort Wilderness for Mickey’s Backyard BBQ..


You guys, I cannot put into words how much fun Backyard BBQ was. There will be a full review in the coming weeks, but OH MY GOSH. There was amazing food, incredible entertainment and we just had the best time dancing with Mickey and the gang! 100/10 would recommend, and yes, that is 100 and not a typo.

From Fort Wilderness, we got the bus back to the Magic Kingdom, rejoiced at the park being much quieter than Tuesday, and took a good spot to watch Once Upon a Time and Wishes. The whole area between the partners statue and castle was sat down which was amazing. That was, until about 5 minutes before it was due to start, when the whole front of the audience decided to stand up. Ugh. We actually ended up leaving midway through in order to make our fastpass for Buzz, but having already watched it this trip and knowing we’ll see it again, it wasn’t really a problem.

After Buzz, we had our last fastpass of the day at Haunted Mansion, then as we still had 10 minutes til park close, we decided to run over and get on Big Thunder Mountain because the queue was pretty short, plus I love riding Big Thunder in the dark – it just seems to make it more fun!


Now past park close, we walked through a fairly empty Liberty Square back to the castle, and decided to hang out until Main Street emptied out a bit to get some photos in front of a clear castle, and we managed to sneak a photo shoot with one of the remaining Photopass photographers on Main Street. We eventually left the park about 11pm – an hour after park close – and got back to the hotel about 11.40, now pretty wiped and ready for a good nights sleep!

Today:

– Characters met: 7

– Total steps: 20,226

– Total distance: 8.46 miles

Tomorrow we’ll be in Animal Kingdom!

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February Disney Trip Day 2

Still can’t really believe we’re actually here, and still can’t get over yesterday, but today is an Epcot day!


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We got into the park just as it opened, and after a quick chat with guest relations regarding my failing Memory Maker, we headed to meet Baymax – and waited probably all of about 30 seconds – and then jumped into the shortish queue for Sadness and Joy! Three characters under our belt, we made our way to The Land so Sarah could do Living with the Land, which she’s never done before, and then grabbed some breakfast in Sunshine Seasons. Then a wild Milly appeared!

It was so lovely to see Milly after so long, and we sat in Sunshine Seasons for ages having a catch up before she left to go to work, but we’ll see her later in the trip! After buying ponchos, courtesy of the now pouring rain, we headed out and to the World Showcase – first stop Donald, I mean Mexico..


If you didn’t know my love of Donald, I planned my whole outfit for today around him, and he was so sweet! I’m so happy I got to take photos with him inside the temple because it was too wet for him to go outside! After that, we did the Gran Fiesta Tour, then headed round to Norway and met Anna and Elsa in the Royal Sommerhaus with only a 15 minute wait! Then it was time for our fastpasses for Frozen Ever After, which was cute, but I definitely wouldn’t queue as long as some people were in standby!

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With the rain dying off a little, we headed round the World Showcase towards Japan, where after a wander around the big Japanese shop, we stopped for our lunch at Teppan Edo. Despite having already eaten here before, I was still blown away by the meal. Our chef was super funny and really talented and the food was, of course, incredible!


Tummies full of food, we headed back towards Future World via the rest of the World Showcase, and had our fastpasses for Character Spot, meeting Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, then courtesy of the awful rain, Snow White was also meeting by the exit to Character Spot, rather than her usual place in Germany, so we saw her, then dashed to China to meet Mulan inside the Great Temple.

After meeting Mulan, we practically waded back to Spaceship Earth. NB: drainage in Epcot sucks after bad rain! We had Spaceship Earth fastpasses, then headed over to The Seas with Nemo and Friends, then did Turtle Talk with Crush, which was hilarious as usual cos some kids say the stupidest things..


I always have to say hi to the manatees of The Seas when I visit Epcot, so we did that, then wandered across to Journey into the Imagination with Figment, which we walked straight onto, then dashed quickly into the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival to avoid the rain which had started yet again, and that got us both feeling pretty sleepy, so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel for the rest of the evening!

Today:

– Total characters: 12

– Total steps: 12,574

– Total distance: 5.25 miles

Tomorrow we’re gonna hit the RunDisney expo first thing so I can collect all my race gear, then we’ve got another busy day so stay tuned!

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Amigo Donald

Its another Disney outfit day, and today’s is a Disneybound with a slight difference!

My love of Donald Duck is well known among my friends, and I’ve done a Donald-bound before, but something I’ve never done, and always wanted to do, is meet Donald in his Mexican pavilion outfit at Epcot, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do this trip!

Mexican Donald Disneybound

The inspiration for this whole outfit actually came from the ears, which were made by the lovely Maggie from Elephant and Mouse, who I was lucky enough to meet back in January, and thus the outfit idea was born!

I found the skirt in the H&M sale months ago – its a little large, but it matches Donald’s poncho so well, so what’s a little alteration! I’ll be pairing it with a blue top and my favourite yellow and white Converses, and the amazing fluffy ears to complete the look!

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Teppan Edo

If you’re looking for Disney dining with a difference, look no further than Epcot’s World Showcase for a huge selection of international cuisine, and after my trip to Japan last summer, I couldn’t wait to eat here.

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Teppan Edo shares its location in the Japan pavilion with Tokyo Dining, which is a regular sit-down dining experience, but offers guests a much more unique experience as your meal is cooked right before your eyes on the table in front of you!

Each table sits eight people, so as a party of two, we were sat with another family – small groups be prepared for this – but we were so immersed in the experience that it was totally fine, even though the other family was a little dramatic at times..

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We ordered our drinks and starters first, which were brought out to the table really quickly while we waited for our chef to arrive. I had ordered assorted tempura which I shared with Dad, who had ordered sushi which was prepared by the chef when she arrived.

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For the main course, all of the dishes had the same udon noodle and vegetable base, and then you chose the meat – steak, shrimp, chicken, swordfish or a combination – or the vegetarian option, and then they also come with a bowl of rice and a selection of dipping sauces. Our chef prepared the noodles and vegetables on the hot plate in front of us, while simultaneously cooking each of the different meats to perfection AND performing tricks like making an onion volcano; it was completely amazing to watch, and it was delicious!

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Now a few things I will mention if you’re thinking about eating here:

  • Firstly, this is an experience that takes time – it was maybe half an hour to 45 minutes before our main course was served, not that you noticed the time, but if you’re starving hungry I can imagine the wait would be a little torturous!
  • They don’t offer any substitutions – one of the dramas of the family we were sat with was that one of the girls was super fussy and wanted regular steamed rice instead of the rice on the menu, and unfortunately that couldn’t be accommodated, so double check the menu before booking with fussy eaters.
  • As well as being sat with other people if you’re a small group, if you’re a group larger than 8, you will probably be split between two tables.

Now all that said, it was one of our favourite meals of the whole trip – 100% unique! If you’re on the Disney Dining Plan, it counts as a table service meal, and if not you’re looking at about $40pp excluding tax and gratuity. Oh, and don’t forget to make those reservations 180 days in advance to avoid disappointment!

What’s your favourite World Showcase pavilion?

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WDW Day 7!

Well that’s Four Park Challenge off my bucket list!

We started this morning with Extra Magic Hours in Animal Kingdom, and first stop was obviously Expedition Everest – did you catch it on Periscope? Rollercoaster out of the way, we stopped off at Creature Comforts (the AK Starbucks) for hot drinks – yes it was that cold – and breakfast pastries, then onward to Kilimanjaro Safaris where we got to see two baby white rhinos playing, eek! We decided that for our challenge, we would get photos with Mickey at each of the parks, so we stopped off at Adventurers Outpost to see him and Minnie before catching a bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge to park-hop.

From AKL we transferred onto a bus to Hollywood Studios, where we first stopped off to see Mickey, this time in his classic Sorcerers Apprentice costume. On a character meet roll, we also got a selfie with a green army man, and went to see Mike and Sully, but as we’re headed back to Studios tomorrow, we decided not to queue for any rides.

Now midday, we caught another bus onto Wilderness Lodge, for a quick look around but also so we could transfer to the Magic Kingdom by the boat that runs direct from the resort, handy right? Again, first things first, we went to see Mickey in Town Hall Theater, then grabbed lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. Would you believe we’ve never done Astro Orbiter before? Well we have now! With that experience under our belts, we got a spot near the castle for Festival of Fantasy, which was just as magical as it always is, and finished up out MK time with an obligatory Its a Small World.

 To throw another form of transportation into the works, we obviously had to take the monorail across to our final park, Epcot, and actually it wasn’t Mickey we went to first, it was Baymax. Yes again, no we don’t care. Mickey was next, at the Epcot Character Spot, then we went across to Journey into the Imagination. We had a Fastpass, but there wasn’t much of a line to bypass! Not quite hungry yet, we stopped off to watch Circle of Life in The Land, before dinner at Sunshine Seasons, probably my favourite quick service in the whole of Walt Disney World. From there we went to Spaceship Earth for our Fastpass, but again there was no line so we didn’t even bother scanning them. With time before the fireworks, we figured a 40 minute wait at Test Track (which we discovered a love for the other day) would keep us warm and indoors, but we actually waited less than 10 before we got to the design stage, then another 10 before the ride itself. In fact, we ended up doing it twice! That took us right up to our last Fastpass for the day, for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, which was beautiful as always. It was pretty chilly, so as soon as the display was over, we joined the brisk hoard of people leaving the parks and jumped on our last bus: back to the resort!

How’s that for a busy day?

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WDW Day 3 and RunDisney 5K!

3.55 was the dreaded alarm for this morning. First race day was here!

Why so early? Well for starters, the races are all super early, today’s being 6am, and to ensure we had enough time to get to where we needed to be, we had to be on a bus to Epcot by 4.30, yikes!

It wasn’t so bad really; we were in bed about 9pm last night so we got a solid amount of sleep, and we were just so focused on the event that tiredness didn’t factor at all. The bus took us from the resort to the Epcot parking lot where all the race start and finish lines are. It was a huge area – had to be for 20,000 participants – and just like the expo, it was seamless; we could see exactly where we had to go, there were no queues for anything!

We were in Corral C, which meant we were set off about 10-15 minutes after the first group, but we were right at the front which was awesome! The count went down, the fireworks were set off and off we went! The course took us around the side of Epcot from the parking lot, underneath the Test Track course and into the park through Mexico, before running around the World Showcase, down the stretch to Future World, a quick detour by The Land and back out of the park by Spaceship Earth and to the finish line!

After the race, we went through the classic routine of collecting medals, water, Powerade and a cute little snack box of crisps, Oreos, a banana etc, then to the only queue: the wait for the bus back to the resort!

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Quick shower, change and snacks and we were back at Epcot just after park opening. We started off with Spaceship Earth, then went to meet Baymax(!!!) before doing the new Pixar short films show, and Living with the Land before starting on the World Showcase, this time in daylight! For lunch we had a reservation at Teppan Edo, which was awesome, and we to let that settle before going on Test Track, we stopped at China to watch the acrobat display. After TT, we did our last two Fastpasses for the day: Character Spot and The Seas with Nemo and Friends, and totally exhausted from our early start, we headed back to the resort to recover!

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Did you catch us on Periscope?

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What I’m wearing – Heroes

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I don’t know what’s going on with my face here, I look super bored!

Well all loved the San Fransokyo locals when they appeared on our screens at the start of the year, and this Redbubble fan-art makes such a great skirt!

I’ll be wearing this to Epcot, when we’ll be dining at Teppan Edo – the same day we’ll be running the WDW 5K dressed as Honey and Baymax!

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Friday Favourite Five – WDW Quick Service Restaurants

I’m getting super excited about my upcoming Disney World trip, and when I’m excited my planning goes into overdrive! Because we’re on the Quick Service Dining Plan, I’m pretty excited to try out a lot more of the QS restaurants on this trip, but for now, here are my favourite five from the last trip:

1. Pizza Planet Arcade

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My absolutely favourite restaurant in Hollywood Studios, Pizza Planet is like walking into Andy’s favourite place to eat: pizza, arcade games, and plenty of Little Green Men!

2. Be Our Guest (lunch)

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Be Our Guest is quick service for lunchtime only, and even then getting in can be pretty competitive, but we managed it! If the perfect setting isn’t enough, the food was amazing!

3. Sunshine Seasons

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Sunshine Seasons is inside The Land at Epcot, and boasts a pretty amazing range of international cuisine. My Mongolian Beef, fried rice and whoopie pie might have been the best QS meal I had last year!

4. Pinocchio Village Haus

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We loved Pinocchio’s so much we ate there twice! As well as great food, there’s loads of seating both indoors and out, and if you sit by the big window you can watch the boats on It’s a Small World!

5. Boardwalk Bakery

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The Boardwalk is possibly the most beautiful and underrated place in Disney World, and the Bakery is full of yummy goodies, from incredible cupcakes to handmade deli sandwiches, and if you ever need to order a celebration cake, this is the place to go!

Where are your favourite places to eat in WDW?

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Epcot Tips and Secrets

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Future World

°o° One of the best ways to meet characters is at the Epcot Character Spot. Its just past Spaceship Earth on the right of the park, and if you head there as soon as the park opens, you’ll get to see Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy all in one go, with a wait time of under 15 minutes.

°o° Innoventions East and West are full of tonnes of interactive activities to entertain all ages.

°o° Complete habit heroes in Innoventions East, and you’ll get a free rubber wristband!

°o° If you’re susceptible to motion sickness, there is a separate queue for Mission: Space which leads to a version of the ride which isn’t so spinny!

°o° Take a trip to Club Cool for free samples of international Coca Cola brands – trick your family into trying Beverly, its gross!

°o° The large fish tank in The Living Seas is the second largest tank in the US, and could fit Spaceship Earth inside it with room to spare!

World Showcase

°o° Only one of the totem poles in Canada is real, see if you can work out which one it is.

°o° The Rose and Crown pub in the UK is so named as ‘rose’ and ‘crown’ are the two most common featured names of English pubs.

°o° Although it may not seem like it, each country’s pavilion is the same width, to give all countries equality.

°o° Between the UK and France is a path that leads out of the park via the International Gateway. From here you can take a quick 15 minute walk across to The Boardwalk, or explore some of the resorts gathered around the lake. There is also a footpath that leads to Hollywood Studios; its about 30 mins walk, which at times is quicker than other transportation.

°o° Sometimes Chef Remy will visit you at Le Chefs de France.

°o° The Morocco Pavilion was actually built by and paid for by the Moroccans.

°o° In the Japanese pavilion, you can purchase a range of souvenirs from authentic tableware to Pokemon toys.

°o° The statue on the right as you enter Japan was a gift from the Japanese government.

°o° While the American Adventure building appears to be only 3 stories high, it is actually 5!

°o° Check out the big clock in Germany. On the hour a wooden boy and girl pop out and twirl around a bit.

°o° If you buy a fan or parasol in China, you can have it personalised for free with your name in traditional Chinese writing.

°o° The acoustics of the temple in China are so perfect, if you stand in the centre of the room, your voice will echo back to you!

°o° Buildings in Norway have grass growing on the roof, to reflect traditional Norwegian buildings, but a lack of Epcot goats to munch on the grass means cast members have to trim it!

°o° La Cava del Tequila in Mexico has over 200 tequilas in its cellar, hello margaritas!

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Coral Reef

Tucked round the corner from The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a real underwater dining experience.

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Coral Reef in Epcot shares a wall with the enormous fish tank from the ride next door, so you can enjoy dinner with fishy company!

While the food was really good, with options from fish dishes to chicken to steak, we didn’t have the best time here; they forgot to book us in when we arrived, so after a half hour wait, we were told we’d have to wait a bit longer for our table due to their mistake. We were also sat on the back row of tables, furthest from the tank, so the whole experience was kinda lost on us, except the occasional swim-by from a turtle or ray.

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The restaurant setup wasn’t overly family friendly either, so unless you’re sat right by the fish, entertaining small children is a little tricky, and the restroom isn’t actually situated inside the restaurant; its outside in the waiting area.

I would recommend Coral Reef for families with older children, or as a place to eat if you want to use up table service credits on a dining plan, but if visiting with small children, I’d opt for somewhere a little more kid-friendly

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Sunshine Seasons

For a selection of Asian inspired cuisine, definitely hit up Sunshine Seasons in The Land pavilion at Epcot

A quick service restaurant with tonnes of seating, it has three counters, each serving a different range of mains, desserts and snacks, with good portion sizes and something for all the family.

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And you absolutely have to have a red velvet Mickey Whoopie Pie!

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So if you’re heading towards Soarin’ or Living with the Land, definitely do it around lunch time and stop off here for some fuel!

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Akershus Royal Banquet Hall

Located in Norway in Epcot’s World Showcase, Akershus is one of the lesser know princess character meals, probably because you don’t often see princesses outside of the Magic Kingdom. Nevertheless, I’d read about it on DisneyFoodBlog.com, and I can’t deny they had me at words ‘cheapest princess meal’ (not that it mattered much to us on the Disney Dining Plan), and when travelling with young girls, princesses are super important.

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You’ve gotta hope you visit in good weather, cos you’ll be waiting for your table outside until your ‘Royal Family’ is announced. Before you’re seated, you have the opportunity to have photos taken with one of the visiting princesses, we had Belle. Don’t miss this, you’ll get 3 poses, which during your meal are printed up and presented to you by the end of your meal, all included in the price much to our surprise!

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The dining style is a little odd.. Once seated, you’re invited to serve yourself appetisers from a buffet style selection of bread, sliced meats and cheeses etc. You then select your main from the menu of Scandinavian style options, sit back and enjoy as the princesses come to you!

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We were visited by Aurora, Snow White, Ariel and Cinderella, having already met Belle on our way in. They chatted to the girls, signed autograph books and posed for photos, it was a great way of meeting lots of princesses without having to queue elsewhere. Following your meal, there is a prince and princess procession where kids can line up with the princesses and parade around the restaurant to music and applause from everyone else, little ones will love it!

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Following the main meal, dessert is served family style; a selection of options are presented on a single plate for you to pick and choose from.

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Overall the food was alright, but definitely wasn’t the best meal we had. That being said, the experience of the meal was great as it meant we got to spend a lot of time with princesses, and the included photo prints were a fab plus!

°o°

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Days 11 and 12: Well, all over the place really..

Yesterday was another Universal day, mainly for the minions, so kept short and sweet and wrapped up with dinner at Planet Hollywood in Downtown Disney. I personally didn’t eat but that’s a whole other story..

After a much needed lie-in, we started the day with a trip into Epcot. While we’d covered all the rides we wanted to do, I was seriously lacking in the photo department and wanted to have a proper look round the World Showcase during the daylight hours, so had some quality photo-snapping time with my dad, while Mum browsed Innoventions; that place is a magnet to science teachers!

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Also dropped into the Art of Disney store there and treated myself to a total beauty of a canvas: a print of a stunning painting of a Tangled, gah!

We then monorailled from Epcot into the Magic Kingdom (via the transportation center as there’s no direct line) to meet up with the rest of the group for lunch at Be Our Guest, but unfortunately we’d left it too late to chance a walk-in and they were at full capacity 😦

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After another lunch at Pinocchio’s Village Haus, we headed across to Tomorrowland for a Space Mountain. The previous few times we’d done it we were lucky enough to have short wait times without a Fastpass, but the standby queue time had hit 85 minutes when we arrived, so we were very grateful that this time we did! Shooting past a queue of slightly disgruntled people, we boarded the ride on the opposite track to the regular riders, and to our surprise had a totally different ride experience.. The right side track was much faster, but felt longer, and had more wild twists and turns, it was great!

We also rode the Liberty Belle around Frontierland and caught a bit of Dreams Come True and the Move it, Shake it Dance Party Parade before heading out of the Magic Kingdom.

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Oh, and fall/autumn has begun in Main Street!

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So beautiful °o°

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Day 3: Epcot

What makes a good morning? Well today it was a lie in and a swim in the hotel pool 🙂
One Mickey shaped Rice Krispie treat later and we jumped on the bus to Epcot and were soon greeted by the familiar sight of Spaceship Earth.
Gonna keep this one short and sweet as it’s been a long day, and I’ll stick photos in later on, but here are the main points:
1. Soarin’ totally lives up to the hype. We were lucky enough to get an early fast pass, and Disney well and truly put in a phenomenal effort to make it a true experience for all senses.
2. Akershus Royal Banquet Hall was a booking well worth making – 5 princesses, 3 course meal, 1 table service credit
3. Great lunch at Seasons in The Land
4. Bella got to ask a question in Turtle Talk with Crush.
5. Illuminations was a perfect end to the night 🙂

Final Fitbit stats:
Steps: 16388
Distance: 6.86 miles
Calories burnt: 2197

Full posts about various activities will go up once I have some time, but for now, goodnight dreamers!

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