Hard to believe it’s been over two weeks since this vacation ended. I guess a lot of this blogging has really been for me. I don’t want to forget all the wonderful times we had on our two week Florida vacation, especially the days in Disney. Some trips you make once in a lifetime. This was definitely one of those. My husband teased me that I took too many pictures on our trip. I am actually glad I did, so that long after the post vacation glow has left, I can enjoy the pictures of this amazing trip. Well, without further ado, here is the last entry from our two week Florida vacation.
Dear Readers,
I have come to the conclusion that packing up after a vacation is both easy and hard. Easy, because you don’t have to decide what to pack, nor do you have to be as careful because you’ll just be unpacking it all at home and probably doing a ton of laundry. Hard, because you know you’re at the end of your vacation, and that’s kind of sad. Today was a wonderful last day of vacation though, with just the right about of sleep in time, Disney park time and pool and hot tub time with my daughter.
This morning we all got up about 8:30 – a far cry from the 7:30 we did the other previous park days – and ate a leisurely breakfast of biscuits with butter and apple jelly, as well as some yummy freshly cooked bacon. And then followed that with glasses of juice. Then we all piled into the van for one last trip to Disney and drove to Epcot for a 10 am arrival. I booked us three FastPasses today and we ended up doing only two but being quite satisfied that we’d done our last park with all we wanted to do.
First, we went to the TestTrack ride by Chevrolet where we as a family got to design a really cool race car, then take it on the SIM Track, which was both indoors and outdoors and put it through its paces. I was so glad I’d gone on a few fast rides at the other parks, because I was pretty ready for this one. We went from 0-60 in less than three seconds a couple times and then when we really stayed up to speed, we were almost completely horizontal to the track. I was quite nervous as we started, but I pushed through my fear and really enjoyed myself. I think my family enjoyed themselves a ton too. My daughter especially liked designing her own cool car.
After the TestTrack we decided to go check out the World Showcase and went all the way around through the major countries of Japan, The UK, Canada, America, Morocco, China, Italy, Germany, Norway, France, and Mexico, where you really felt like you were in those countries. I got lots of pictures of the various buildings and even got pictures of a few gondolas in Italy. My daughter was able to meet Anna and Elsa in Norway, Mulan in China and Mary Poppins in the UK. What I really loved about the character meets at Epcot was that each character really took the time to talk to my daughter and she got hugs from three of them! It was as if she was the only girl in the whole park and they had all the time in the world to talk to her. I have to say, Disney staff really know how to treat kids. I was so pleased and very glad we decided to do Epcot after all.
And I was so glad we did what we did, in the rides we took and the various places we went. There is one ride called Spaceship Earth that I would highly recommend to anyone going to Epcot, where we went in a ‘time machine’ through the various eras of earth, learning about computers, verbal and written communication and how our civilization changed over the years. It was really educational and done in such a way as to be interesting to even an eight year old.
Then we of course went on the Imagination ride where we met Figment, the Purple Dinosaur and Nigel Channing, the scientist. What a fantastic ride that was! The best part was of course when we went into the smell lab and got ‘sprayed with skunk scent’. That was pretty funny. And then near the end we had wind blown in our faces as part of the ride and my daughter’s hair was all in her face. She thought that was pretty funny, as well as the What If Imagination Lab afterward. There was also a whole innovation section of the TestTrack ride where we got to make commercials for our car, try out various things and nearly every ride we went on today had some kind of hands on ‘lab’ afterwards. It was really fun for my daughter and we the adults had some fun too.
Towards the end of the day we finished up with the Disney and Pixar Film Festival in their 4-D theatre with moving seats. I had seen Get A Horse! but not La Luna or For The Birds. I will have to look those up on YouTube sometime soon. It was quite the fun experience. One thing this whole Disney trip has taught me is a more true appreciation for all the Disney movies, the staff, pretty much everything Disney. I went into an exhibit called One Man’s Dream in Hollywood Studios and learned so much about Walt Disney. He really was an incredible man.
We stood in line for 55 minutes for the Frozen Ever After ride and ate our lunch. It was well worth the wait. I was told it took four years to make the ride and all the sets. It was a really fantastic ride, although a bit short after such a long line up. If not for the lines, I would have gone on it a second time, it was that good.
After we left Epcot around 4:30, and got a tour of the orange groves due to traffic on the 192, I took my daughter to the heated Recreation pool for a nearly forty-five minute swim followed by a short dip in the hot tub. While in the hot tub, my daughter had a nice little chat and we also saw a cat come visit on the pool deck.
The coolest part of Epcot, besides the World Showcase, was definitely the miniature village. It had working trains and not a detail was missed. These are just a few shots, but you get the idea. I could have sat and studied it all day long if we weren’t trying to get my daughter to all the character greets and determined to see all of the World Showcase in the meantime. It was just fascinating.
Well, we have to get up pretty early for tomorrow’s trip back to Canada, so I’d better sign off for now. Will write more when we are officially back home. I’m sad to leave our wonderful vacation, but looking forward to seeing family and friends and telling them all about our wonderful trip.
Until next time, keep dreaming and never give up.
Amy McGuire
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