Friday, January 31st Epcot/Animal Kingdom
We got up bright and early and were so excited to take on our first true day at Disney! We caught the bus around 8 am and made our way to Epcot. We were super excited to see the iconic sphere, Spaceship Earth. After making our way through bag check and the ticket line, we headed to wait in line to rope drop since we made it before the park even opened.
Once the rope dropped, we headed straight to our first fast pass ride: The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We got a little turned around trying to find it but eventually made our way there. This ride was a perfect first ride for my little guy! Grant got a kick out of telling the “mine mine mine” screaming seagulls to hush. Disney’s theming skills are so spot on! We rode through the scenes of Finding Nemo in cute little coral reef styled cars. After this, we looked around the aquarium for a little while and Grant played through the glass with the scuba diver cleaning one of the tanks. Side note: aquariums are my very favorite places to explore! They are so calming! So it was perfect that it was one of the first things we did at Disney. Penny presses were also made in the gift shop.
After this we were able to walk on for Turtle Talk with Crush. While waiting in the que, we enjoyed watching sting rays in the tank. One even took a selfie with us. The show was super cute! Grant was the first kid Crush talked to. He was so sweet talking to him and not scared at all like I thought he would be.
After this attraction we got in a short line for our first character meet and greet with Pluto. Grant was so so so excited for this. I was very worried that he would not enjoy the characters because he is always a little hesitant at Silver Dollar City and Christmas parades. But he proved me wrong for sure. He gave Pluto the biggest hug and had the best smile on his face. We had Pluto sign our castle cut out and got pictures taken with the memory maker photo pass. I am so thankful we purchased the memory maker for this trip. We have so many wonderful pictures. All we had to do was scan our magic bands and we were on our way with pictures being sent to the app on our phones! Disney has things figured out!!
Next up came snack time for James. He got the first of 585000 Mickey pretzels lol. We purchased Grant a Buzz Lightyear bubble wand along the way to our next attraction and this provided so many smiles for him while we waited in lines.
We walked to the World Showcase section of Epcot and got in line in Norway to meet Elsa and Anna which was at the top of Grants bucket list for this trip. We waited about 35 minutes for this meet and greet which I didn’t think was bad at all. We found the nicest people in front of us in line to chat with while we waited. They had a 4 year old little girl who Grant shared his bubbles with. Best purchase ever! Once we got in to the Royal Summerhaus and saw the princess and queen Grant was so so star struck. It was so cute to watch him meet some of his favorite characters and be so in awe of them. Again I am thankful for our memory maker photo pass. Anna asked him if he would help give Sven a bath and when he declined she charged him with helping Kristoff with his ice business. Grant agreed he could do this job.
After this meet and greet, it was time for our second fast pass of the day. Frozen Ever After was an amazingly beautiful ride and definitely one of my favorites of the trip. I believe I enjoyed it more than Grant did! It felt like we were really in Arendale. Grant picked out a snack after this ride and got another Mickey shaped chocolate chip cookie…are you seeing a pattern here??
After this we decided it was time to head to Animal Kingdom since we were park hopping this day and it was already around noon. On our way out, we found a character meet and greet line for Goofy. This was such a fun meet and greet to end Epcot with!!
Looking back I wish we had planned a full day for Epcot because we didn’t even touch all the different countries or even get a glimpse of “The Land” We listened to the reviews that said there wasn’t anything to do in Epcot, but that was a huge lie! We loved it!! More on Epcot later…
Animal Kingdom.
We caught a bus and rested for a little while on the way to Animal Kingdom. When we got there we had to go through bag check and ticket lines again but before we went in we found a memory maker with a lion king back drop so I knew we had to stop.
We had a lot more time to explore this park. We stayed here until park closing so we had about 9 hours here. We made our way in to the park and I was on the lookout for the tree of life. It was so pretty! We took advantage of another memory maker opportunity here and then headed to find some lunch.
We mobile ordered for the first time! Such a nice perk to the Disney app!! We didn’t wait in any long lines. You order from the app and tell them when you are at the restaurant. They prepare the food and you pick up from a different mobile ordering pick up line. Best thing ever!!! Mom, James, and I ordered from Flame Tree BBQ. Mom got the Pulled Pork Sandwich and onion rings, James got the ribs and chicken combo and I ordered the baked Mac and cheese with pulled pork. I tried to remember to take pictures of all our food but I didn’t do so hot at this. Grant wouldn’t eat anything off this menu, so I trekked to the pizzafari while mom waited on our food and got him another pepperoni pizza which he scarfed down. Mom lost half of her sandwich to some very persistent and not scared at all birds lol! She wasn’t offering it, but he sure took it! This was some amazing bbq and we loved it!
We were so full after this we decided we needed to walk around and explore a bit. We made our way to our third fast pass of the day the Kilimanjaro Safari. This is an open air safari ride and was a nice way to see some amazing animals, although being on the back of the car made for a pretty rough ride. Grant loved spotting all the animals from the “menu” above our heads.
After this ride, we stayed in Africa for a while. Grant wanted some popcorn so we got him a souvenir refillable simba bucket. It is so cute! And it allowed him to have popcorn refills for $2.50! This boy loves his popcorn. We found a little park area that had lots of African musical instruments and he loved playing here while we rested for a few minutes. It had also started to rain this day but we just threw on ponchos and enjoyed the day.
Next up was the Festival of the Lion King show. Grant fell asleep while we waited in line so he was so surprised when he woke up in the middle of it. I wish I had his reaction on camera. It was priceless. Lion King is one of his favorite movies and this show did not disappoint. It was beautiful in the costuming and the whole setup was just amazing.
After the show, we made our way to our dinner reservation at TuskerHouse. Here we got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy(The Fab 5) in safari outfits. After getting our drink orders, I left the table to go to the bathroom and fix mine and Grants plate. Of course, during this time I missed Grant meeting Mickey for the first time. My sweet momma and hubby took lots of good pictures for me though and he did come back around to the table again later. I’m still a little bummed out about this but I learned my lesson for future character meals! This meal was a Buffett style meal and had lots of different African themed food! Our waiter saw my birthday button and gave me a signed birthday card from the fab 5 along with another free fast pass! That was a little more Disney magic for us!
After dinner, we walked in to the It’s Tough to Be A Bug show which featured characters from A Bug’s Life. James wasn’t too happy about the large spiders falling from the ceiling. But Grant didn’t seem to mind at all. This was a 3-d show and he kept reaching his little hand out trying to touch all the bugs! It was so cute.
After this we walked to the tree of life to get some sunset pictures. So so pretty! My camera did it no justice at all.
Next up was Dinoland. We got right on the Triceratops spin ride and Grant absolutely loved it. He hasn’t been a huge fan of bigger rides in the past but he did great on this trip! I was so proud of him.
After we got off this ride, we waited in a very short line to meet Chip and Dale in fluorescent dinosaur costumes. A lot of the rides in this area were already closed down for the day by the time we made it here.
To close out our first park day, we had VIP seating to the Rivers of Light:We are One Show. Second only to the fireworks at Magic Kingdom for sentimental reasons, this was one of my favorite things of this trip! It was truly beautiful. The main focus of the show were these beautiful lotus flowers. Lotus flowers have a lot of special meaning to me due to their ability to grow through the mud and become such a symbol of beauty. This show got me all in my feels! And it even kept Grants full attention the whole time.
After this show was over we made the long trek back to the buses to head home for the night. We passed by the illuminated Tree of Life in the darkness and it was magnificent.
This was long day number 1. We left the resort around 8 am and got home around 10:30 pm. Grant wasn’t ready to calm down just yet after a catnap on the bus ride so James and I took him to the food court to refill our mugs and explore the 101 Dalmatian area and the rest of the Fantasia buildings. Then it was time for showers and bed!
Cagle Family Adventures 