{Disney 2018} Day 2 - Epcot

Because I'm a light sleeper, staying in a hotel can sometimes be frustrating.  At the Grand Floridian, I heard every toilet flush, every door close, every conversation in every hallway.  At least I didn't suffer from insomnia as I often do when traveling.  To make my night of restless sleep even more fun, I also had one of what I refer to as "my attacks."  I don't really like to go into too much detail about this but when Abigail was born, some damage to my body occurred, which now causes these attacks.  By now, I know when it's happening and I can head it off but I'm usually left feeling really crummy for an hour or so.

Epcot opened at 9:00 am and we had planned to try to arrive before park opening.  Unfortunately, I was slow going that next morning due to a bad night.  I knew it would be worth the hassle in order to have connecting rooms, but packing up that morning ate up precious time.  We had brought cereal and breakfast bars in a suitcase so that we could eat breakfast in the room a couple of mornings.  We did this to save time and money.  Rich, Grammy and the girls walked over to the counter service restaurant and filled all the mugs while I showered.

I finished packing up all of my items after I had helped pack everything else.  I was letting my hair air dry (before a blow dry) and used that time to pack.  The last thing I planned to do before we walked out the door was dry my hair.  Even though I wasn't completely ready to leave, Rich said he was calling Bell Services to come pick up the luggage because he didn't want to wait 20 minutes for them.  I started drying my hair, and I had two items left to pack - my brush (a big round one) and my refillable mug, which at the time held my morning caffeine.  I was not interested in lugging either one around Epcot, especially as there was no room in my camera backpack.

Well, it took Bell Services all of five minutes to show up.  I rinsed out my mug, shoved it into a bag, and then tossed my brush into my suitcase.  While my hair looked decent enough at the time, I knew once I hit the humidity outside, it would be another bad hair day.  Every day I've spent outside this summer has been a bad hair day.

To travel to Epcot from the Grand Floridian, you take the monorail from the resort to the Ticket & Transportation Center, and then you transfer to the Epcot monorail.  Disney security changed after our last trip.  They no longer have a bag check area outside of the gates at Magic Kingdom.  Guests are screened at other points prior to reaching the gates.  The Grand Floridian has bag check tables and a metal detector set up before the monorail boarding area.  All guests are screened prior to stepping onto the monorail, regardless of your final destination.  Because guests tend to trickle out and there are two tables, we never had to wait very long.

So much for making it to the park before it opened.  We didn't reach the monorail platform until 9:00.

Monorail selfie . . .

Sometimes I'm jealous of women who have completely straight hair.  My hair has body to it so when it's cut into a bob, the ends either have to curl under or flip out.  While my stylist does a really good job of cutting it so that the ends will stay curled under, there's no fighting humidity.  Flat ironing doesn't really work either.  Or maybe it would if it'd be willing to fry my hair.  Back in April, I had my hair cut short again.  This is the best photo I have of it, because you know how much I love being in photos.  I'm not the best person for short haircuts because I don't like going in for a trim every eight weeks.



On my way to a bad hair day monorail selfie . . .

with my resting witch face.

Despite having gone through bag check and security before we boarded the monorail, we were still required to go through bag check and security again before entering Epcot.  Unfortunately, the lines were long and slow and made even slower by guests attempting to smuggle in restricted items, such as a broken glass jar of jelly.

It took us just over an hour to travel from the Grand Floridian to inside the gates of Epcot.  While Disney transportation is super convenient, it is not fast.

Our first stop was Test Track to use our FastPasses.  Our original plan had been to ride Soarin' before using those Test Track FastPasses, but we arrived too late to do so.  This was our first time experiencing Test Track and even with FastPasses and no wait time, the girls weren't so sure about it, mainly because it was based on car design and they have zero interest in that.  This is Disney though, so of course it was going to be fun.

Here's the car that Emily and Allie designed . . .

The girls were not expecting that car ride at the end.  Ha ha.  When we walked off the ride, I said, "Well, that was a little exciting."  Emily responded with, "A LITTLE?"  All in all, they did like it and I'm glad we tried it out.  After Test Track, we walked over and rode Journey Into Imagination With Figment.  The girls like this one and there's usually not a line.

We had early lunch reservations at Via Napoli, which is a table service restaurant in Italy, so after Figment, we decided to take our time walking through the World Showcase.





We've eaten at Via Napoli before and enjoyed it.  My only real complaint is that the serving sizes are huge.  We ordered 2 arancini appetizers, 1 chicken parm, 1 salad, 1 kid's spaghetti and meatballs, and 1 large pepperoni pizza that supposedly feeds 2 to 3 people.  This was way too much food for the six of us and felt like such a waste, especially seeing as we couldn't take any of it with us.  That large pizza should not be advertised as feeding 2 to 3 people.  It was 8 to 10 large slices.  One person eating 4 to 5 large slices of pizza is not realistic for us.



After lunch, we walked back around the other side of the World Showcase.  We are not really fans of this part of Epcot.  While the theming is impressive, it almost feels like the countries are simply money-makers, whether that be through food and drink or from all the gift shops.



We stopped in Norway for photos with Anna and Elsa.





Our next stop was First Aid to take care of Anna's needs and then we made our way to Spaceship Earth.  This was our first time on this ride.  Although, I did ride it in the '80s.  The kids were not really fans and one even said it was the worst ride ever.  When we exited the building, it was torrentially raining and storming so we hung out under the overhang.  That area quickly became packed with people who also wanted to avoid the rain.  After 10 minutes or so, we pulled on our rain ponchos and headed out.  So while ponchos are super awesome and convenient, they do not keep your shoes dry.

I will probably comment on this again but, especially after this trip, I am of the opinion that a majority of guests do not thoroughly plan out their Disney vacations.  This rainstorm was a perfect example.  It's the middle of summer and rainstorms in Florida are pretty much daily occurrences yet hardly any guests had rain gear.  We witnessed people in soaking wet clothes or stuck inside buildings waiting for the rain to end.  Only a handful were wearing ponchos or carrying umbrellas.

Our next ride was Nemo, which had no line.  When we exited the ride, there were a ton of guests without ponchos or umbrellas waiting for the rain to end.  Keep waiting, my friends.  We walked over to the next building and headed to Soarin'.  I was fearful that there would be a long line due to the rain but there was no line at all.  In fact, we barely had time to take off and store away our ponchos before we reached the loading area.  After Soarin', we rode Living with the Land.

Finally, the rain ended and we walked over to Mexico for the Gran Fiesta Tour ride, which the girls enjoy, and afterwards, we met Donald Duck.



Then it was time for a churro break before riding Frozen Ever After.  On our way out of the park, we stopped for some shopping and then the girls (mainly Anna) wanted to try out Cokes from around the world at Club Cool.  We decided to grab dinner at Gasparilla Island Grill, the quick service restaurant at the Grand Floridian, and then the girls swam in the Beach Pool.  The main attraction at that pool, which the girls loved, was the water slide.

Despite arriving inside Epcot shortly after 10 and leaving before dinner, I feel like we had a full day and experienced a good amount of attractions.  Here's a list of everything we did at Epcot that day:

1.  Test Track
2.  Journey Into Imagination With Figment
3.  Met Anna and Elsa
4.  Spaceship Earth
5.  The Seas with Nemo & Friends
6.  Soarin'
7.  Living with the Land
8.  Gran Fiesta Tour
9.  Met Donald Duck
10.  Frozen Ever After
11.  Club Cool              

To read the other posts in this trip report, click here.  That page also contains links to all of our other Disney trip reports.