A Life Filled With Love & Joy

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early to take advantage of extra morning hours at Epcot. That meant we got in an hour early than the regular guests. Between my research and this being our second day at Epcot we were a bit more prepared for today. Even with showing up a little late, to get those few extra winks of sleep, we were right on schedule. Funny note, we met a family on the monorail and happened to sit next to them later for lunch, what are the odds? While everyone was running through the gates to hit the three main attractions, we got in line for a character meet and greet with Joy & Sadness, this is a bit unheard of because no one prioritizes meet and greets, but we do! The lines for these can get pretty long and just as you inch your way up the character goes on break. Nope, not happening to us. Plus, we hit one of the attractions the other day and had a Fast pass for the other that we would use after our meet and greet!

So, we were one of the firsts to meet Joy and Sadness, who were just as fun as expected. Sadness kept trying to console Caroline, even though she was as happy as could be. Joy kept tickling George and fist bumping him. Then Joy & Sadness made a Caroline and George sandwich. It ended with everyone going after poor Sadness and tickling her! Afterwards, Caroline went over to meet Baymax from Big Hero 6. George had no interest in meeting him.

After that it was off to Soarin' with our Fastpass. Love those things, you get to skip the lines! The ride was everything it was hyped up to be. We loved it so much and meant to ride it again later in the day but we opted not to in fear of running out of time. While I liked Epcot, it wasn't my favorite, but I'd go again just to ride Soarin'! After that we headed over to meet Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie. We really only needed to meet Minnie as we hadn't seen her yet, but you had to meet the boys to get to her! Then it was back to the Land Pavilion to ride Living with the Land. That was a great tour of how agriculture works and through Epcot's own green houses where they grow most of the food served at Epcot. We all really enjoyed that. Afterwards, we headed over to the quick service restaurant and grabbed a quick snack and headed off for more fun.

Next we were headed over to the other side of Future World. We didn't get to explore this side too much, but there is always next time. We did ride Mission Space, the green (easy) version and the kids really had fun with that. George still talks about it as one of his favorite rides. Except next time he wants to be the pilot :) Once that was over we ran over to ride Journey Into Imagination with Figment. I wasn't originally planning to ride this since it was kind of hokey, but everyone told me the kids loved it. Well, they liked it. What they loved was the area after the ride where you can hang out and play except we were running late and had to rush out of there for our lunch reservation literally across the park in Italy. Next time :/

We enjoyed a delicious and very large pizza and a little relaxation at Via Napoli, got a few more Duffy stamps and headed towards the front of the park. We rode one more ride in Mexico and called it an afternoon. Planning on coming back later, just like we did with Magic Kingdom. We stopped for our hundredth refill of popcorn and headed back to the hotel for a little decompressing time.

Once back at the hotel we hung out for a bit and then watched the kids take hula lessons. It was so adorable! Caroline chatted it up with the instructor before the lessons and with some of the older ladies who were making leis, headbands, and flower clips. After the lessons we bought her an orange one and headed over to grab a Dole Whip before going back to the room to kick up our feet for a few.

On the way back to Epcot George fell asleep in the stroller on the monorail. We tried to keep him in the stroller for as long as we could. Taking pictures in front of Epcot, strolling around and looking at things, but then it was time to eat so we could get the show on the road! We grabbed a quick dinner at The Land Pavilion again so everyone could have what they wanted versus a table service restaurant. Then we headed into the World Showcase to check out some countries we had skipped and to finish collecting those Kidcot Duffy Bear stamps! It's actually a pain when you are looking for the Kidcot stations and they have them tucked into corners!

We made our way to Japan since there were a few things we wanted to do while we were there. I wanted to try the special Flower and Garden show Frushi and I also wanted to take Caroline in to watch the "Pick a Pearl" show and souvenir. I had a feeling she would want one so I wanted her to see it before she started picking her last things to buy. There are pictures and a video below, but basically for a pretty small fee you pick an oyster and they shuck it in front of you and bring out a pearl. The little girl in front of us got two small pearls. Caroline and I got pretty large pink pearls and the person after us got a beautiful gray pearl. We learned some Japanese and had a great experience. Then it was back on the Duffy bear chase before it was time to see the fireworks. The only other thing we didn't get to do was Henna in Morocco for Caroline, but it was late and she would have to wash it off before really enjoying it. After we collected our last stamp, in America by a woman from Portland Maine!, we headed over to France to grab some desserts and then we briskly walked back to the entrance of the World Showcase to grab our spot for the fireworks display!

The fireworks show, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth was great, although we had a pillar in our way. It definitely lights up the sky, but I was partial to the sentimental Magic Kingdom show. We laughed as our preferred Fastpass seating was next to the purchased ticket dessert party. Our french pastries were much better and our seating almost as good :) After the fireworks, there was a mass exodus out of Epcot, but it really wasn't bad and we were on the monorail in no time and headed back to the hotel. The kids were hoping for a quick dip in the hot tub (either this night or after the Magic Kingdom) but we knew that wasn't going to happen. Way to tired! Time to hit the sack and get ready for departure day. Luckily, we grabbed a late checkout time! Good bye Disney World parks! It's been fun!