Day 6 – EPCOT, Magic Kingdom,
Today was our last full day at the parks. We decided to sleep in a little later today
and then go to EPCOT and spend some time at world showcase. Our only ADR for the day was schedule for Via
Napoli in the Italian pavilion at 4:30pm.
Our fast passes were scheduled for Magic Kingdom in the evening for
Space Mountain at 6:25pm, Big Thunder Mountain RR at 7:25pm and Splash Mountain
at 8:25pm.
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| So thirsty! |
Daughter decided to give homage to the Villains and Disney’s dark side
by wearing a black asymmetrical skirt dress, sash and tiara with the black knee
high chucks. Say it with me,
adorable! She wanted to get photos in
the Little Mermaid courtyard so we spent a little bit of time taking funny
photos of her.
We caught the bus to EPCOT and I wanted to stop at the restroom near
the entrance. When I came out daughter was
sitting on her dad "noming", as in nom nom nom, on his face.
She told me she was being a lazy zombie. A+ for creativity!
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| Daughter sitting on Dad |
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| Lazy zombie noming on dad's face |
We went to the Electric Umbrella for a late breakfast/early lunch of
burgers and fries. We just sort of hung
out and took our time, enjoying our last full day. We were sitting across the breezeway from
Mouse Gear and as I was looking at the sign I suddenly got the idea that daughter needed maleficent ears. She agreed! After we finished we headed over to mouse
gear and shopped. They have so much
interesting stuff in there but our mission was those ears. I am happy to say out mission was completed!
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| My lunch at the Electric Umbrella |
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| Mouse Gear - must get ears! |
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| In touch with her Disney dark side! |
We headed back toward world showcase and stopped at the memory maker
stop in front of the Sorcerer Mickey topiary. Daughter cracked this photographer up as she kept casting pretend
fireballs and thunder spells in the photos.
We skipped the Mexican pavilion and went straight to Norway. We took a few photos and then headed back to
Maelstrom sans fast pass. The wait was
around 30 minutes but we really enjoy this ride. As it turns out it was t be our last ride on
Maelstrom before they changed it over to Frozen.
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| Rune Stone |
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| Troll Topiary |
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| Maelstrom |
We walked through the stores and then into the Stave Church for the
new World of Frozen Exhibit. The exhibit
was actually really interesting. They
would post a photo of a scene from Frozen and below a location photo from
Norway that inspired the scene. The
exhibit talked about the people and culture, the clothing, etc. Kristoff was based on the indigenous people
of Scandinavia called the Sami. There
were displays of clothing, jewelry, household goods, musical instruments and
other artifacts. It was really quite
interesting. Daughter was especially taken
with the Hardanger Fiddle. It had eight
strings, four were played or bowed. The other four were strung just below the
bowed strings and reverberated off the sound they made. She wanted to play it so bad. (She plays violin) We really enjoyed this exhibit because while
it was about the Making of Frozen, it really got into the culture of Norway.
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| Stave Church |
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| Doorway to Stave Church and Frozen exhibit |
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| Creating the World of Frozen |
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| Stave Church model |
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| Musical instruments and household goods |
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| That amazing fiddle |
We walked around world showcase, skipping the pavilions we had spent a
lot of time in during our October trip and focusing on the pavilions we had
missed. We passed some wonderful
topiaries and Flower and Garden Festival booths.
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| Lion King Topiary |
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| Flower Festival Booth |
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| She marches to the beat of her own drum |
We made our way to the German Pavilion. We took a peek into Karamell-Kuche but didn’t
buy anything. We enjoyed all of the
shops especially the Christmas shop. I
found a cuckoo clock just like the one my Grandma had. It gave me a thrill of nostalgia when I saw
it. We sat outside and watched the Hummel’s
come out of the big clock. We got a
pretzel to share and hubby got a beer in a collectible Germany EPCOT mug.
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| Approaching the German Pavilion |
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| The Christmas Store |
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| Mushroom and acorn ornaments |
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| Horn steins on the top right. |
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| "I know a little German" T-shirt |
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| Glass violin |
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| German glass |
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| The clock tower |
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| The Hummels ringing the bell |
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| The Toy Store |
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| Cuckoo Clock - Just like Grandma's |
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| Enjoying a beer in a collector's mug |
We discovered the very large train display which we had never taken
the time to observe before and spent quite a bit of time looking at all of the
details.
We also enjoyed looking at the
topiaries of Snow white and all of the dwarfs and the Muppets.
We headed over to the Italy Pavilion and looked at the architecture
and statues.
It was still a little early
for our dinner reservation so we went over to the American Pavilion. We checked on the times for the next American
Adventure show but it was during our ADR. As we were coming back out a nice
cast member asked us how many years we had been married and we told him we were
celebrating 20 years. He had a pad of
paper that was printed with the fab five and could be customized for whatever
celebration he saw happening. He made
one up for us to commemorate our 20th anniversary and then told us
we had a phone call. He directed us to a
phone and told us what number to dial.
On the other end was Mickey wishing us a Happy Anniversary! It was so cool! After our call he told daughter to dial a
different number and it was Goofy wishing her a Happy Birthday! (We were our wearing our anniversary and
birthday buttons this day) It was a nice
little bit of extra magic.
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| American Pavilion |
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| Goofy wishing her a Happy Birthday! |
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| Mickey wishing us a Happy Anniversary! |
It had
started to sprinkle so there was an announcement that the Drum and Fife band
would play in the Liberty Inn. We headed
over to catch their show. I enjoy drum and fife and was happy we got to see
them perform. As it turned out, this was
to be our last time to see them perform in EPCOT because they (and several other
performance acts) were phased out shortly after.
We went back to Italy and to Via Napoli for our dinner. Via Napoli is a traditional Neapolitan
pizzareia with big beautiful wood burning pizza ovens. The restaurant is beautifully decorated and
had a great atmosphere. Our cast member
was very enthusiastic and I had to focus very hard on what he was saying to
take it all in. My daughter was so
excited because he sounded like the character of Italy form one of her favorite
Anime, Hetalia.
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| Via Napoli |
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| Beautiful chandelier |
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| Pizza ovens - Named after Italian volcanoes |
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| Very fun cast member at Via Napoli |
Hubby ordered a build your own pizza with pepperoni and black olives. I ordered the Prosciutto e Melone Pizza which
is a white pizza with fontina, mozzarella, prosciutto, cantelope and
arugula. It was pretty darn tasty. Daughter ordered the spaghetti and veal
meatballs. They both ordered lemonade
but I had two glasses of fruit sangria.
I was feelin’ mighty fine! They
both ordered the pistachio gelati and I opted for the tiramisu for
dessert. It was all very tasty and
filling.
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| Spaghetti and meatballs |
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| Fruit sangria |
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| Hubby's Pizza |
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| Abby's Pizza |
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| Gelati |
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| Tiramisu |
When we left Via Napoli it was pouring down rain. We had to get out our OSU rain ponchos and
umbrellas. We waited for a little while
under the awning but I soon realized we were still getting very wet and our
back pack was soaked. Once the rain let
up a little we headed over to the monorail to park hop over to the Magic
Kingdom. On our way we were met with a
chorus of O-H and go bucks!
Our first fast pass was at Space Mountain so we made a beeline to Tomorrowland. Hubby decided he wanted to look in the stores
and told us to text him when we were finished.
We let him know that depending on stand-by wait time we might ride twice
and he was fine with that. We headed
over for out fast pass and got in line. The lines were pretty short on both sides. We rode, cackled the whole time and in
general had a great time. We exited, saw
the wait times were only about 10 minutes and hopped back in the stand –by
line. As we got near the loading area
the cast member pulled daughter and I out of line and asked about our birthday
and anniversary pins. We explained and
he congratulated us both and then he gave us a fast pass good at Space Mountain
for up to 4 guests that could be use by 11pm that evening! We were so excited! It was very unexpected and really made my
night. I tucked it away for use as the
last ride of the night. We rode and
again cackled with laughter and enjoyed the ride.
We were in our splash mountain fast pass window so I called hubby and
let him know we were on our way to Frontierland. He had managed to get all the way over to
Main Street USA and said he would mosey over and meet us. When we got to Splash
Mountain it was closed. However the cast
member told us it would be honored at a list of other rides. One was out next fast pass of Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad, which is located next door, so we went there. We ended up riding it twice. I had never ridden this ride before. I’m not sure how it happened but it did. Daughter and I loved this ride with great Disney
themeing and atmosphere. It is a runaway
train in a mine town complete with new dynamite special effects. It was really fun!
We hooked up with hubby who shared his fun shopping adventures with us. We decided to head toward adventureland and
catch a boat at the Pirates of the Caribbean. On the way we realized that the first show of
the Electrical Parade was getting ready to start. We had planned on catching the second round
but decided to go ahead and watch the early show since it was starting and we
were in a great place to watch. Daughter and her dad took funny selfie photos while we waited for the parade to get to
our location.
Finally, it was
here! The music, the lights, the
characters! I love that parade! This was daughter’s first time seeing it. She loved it too! Cinderella waved at us!
We next headed over to Adventureland and got it line to ride
Pirates. Sadly, it broke down while we
were in line and they had everyone leave the queue and told us to check back in
20 minutes. We tried to go to the Tiki room
but it was also closed. So we headed to the
Jungle Cruise. I don’t think we had
haven ridden in the dark before so it was fun.
I had forgotten how corny all the jokes were but we enjoyed all the
yucks and groans.
We decided to go to the bathroom and when we came out there was a custodial
cast member drawing the famed water art.
We had never seen this before so we watched in awe as Mickey came to
life in water on the concrete! It was
super cool!
We headed back to Pirates, which was still closed so we decided to
head back to Tomorrowland and use our special fast pass to ride Space Mountain
one last time before saying good-bye to the Magic Kingdom. Hubby looked in the Tomorrowland stores while daughter and I had one last ride!
We decided to make our way back to the park entrance. As we walked we saw the castle all lit up in beautiful pastel colors so I had to take photos. Then we realized there was a Disney photographer so we had to get photos from him too.
We caught the
tail end of the second round of the Electrical Parade in Town Square, then we headed back to Art of Animation happy and
tired.
As always, you can view our Day 6 photos at our
Flicker album
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