Disney World--Epcot

On Saturday morning, we woke up and drove to Epcot. We had a 10:30 reservation to have breakfast with the princesses. We arrived early enough to hang out with the viking outside of the restaurant. The restaurant was in Norway at Epcot.

When you entered the restaurant, everyone was able to take pictures with Belle from Beauty and the Beast and get her autograph. The men didn't care to get in the picture, but they were there with us too.

They seated us at our table and it was so magical because the princesses were walking all around the restaurant visiting with everyone. Not long after we had given our drink orders, they announced for all of the children to come join the princess nearest them for the princess parade. So, our children joined with Sleeping Beauty and went for a walk around the restaurant. It was so sweet to see them walking behind their princess and waving to everyone. I actually teared up because it was so sweet to see their sweet little faces so excited to be there. Eli chose not to walk around with them. He was too eager to eat his breakfast. They had a buffet breakfast. You walked up to a buffet of fresh fruit, bagels, 4 or 5 different danishes, cream cheese, jelly, yogurt, different fish that would be Norwegian cuisine, and some different cheeses. They also brought to each table a platter of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and potatoes and cheese. It was all so yummy!

The princesses that visited our table:
Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella

Ariel

Snow White

I really loved how into their character each princess was. It was so neat to see them talk to the girls about the other characters in their movie and be so into it. Snow White was my favorite! She was just so into what the kids were saying to her and just made it magical.

When we left the restaurant, we rode a ride about Norway that talked about the vikings. We came out and there was this great troll just waiting for the kids to climb on and take pictures.

We traveled from Norway to Mexico and then onto China. We saw Mulan in China.

Each of the kids got their books signed in most of the countries. They stamped them with that countries name and wrote a message in their language. We didn't get it stamped for every country, but the ones I can remember getting stamped are: Mexico, China, Morroco, the UK, and France.

There was a pit stop for everyone to play the drums at.

In the UK we met Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Ginny had been so shy for most of the characters on Friday, but Pooh was the first one she really hugged and cuddled up to. It was so sweet to watch her with them. They took their time with them too. It wasn't just like sign and take a picture. They played around with the kids.

We listened to a band for a while in the UK--the British Invasion. It was nice to sit for a few minutes and relax. Ginny really enjoyed dancing! Eli and Katie sat with me on the ground and just relaxed. Ginny had fallen asleep earlier and got a power nap so she had some energy to burn.

After visiting the countries at Epcot, we went to ride some of the rides in the front half of the park. We rode the Soaring ride, went on a cruise and saw some really cool plants and ways to plant them. We then went to the Nemo building and saw the really neat aquariums there. There were manatees to look at also.

I loved this picture of Katie staring at the fish.

Before we left, there was a cool part of the building that was a play area with a huge shark. Eli and Katie both pretended to be eaten by the shark.

After leaving the Nemo ride and building, we met up with Missy, Charlie, and the girls and rode the "Big Ball" ride. I think it's real name is Mission Earth or something like that. We walked over to the "Test Track" ride and got in line. Ginny was too short, so I waited with her while everyone else rode. They had to wait for about an hour to ride. But, when they came out, Jamie, Eli, and I were able to go in the fast line so that I could ride. We only waited about 10 minutes. It was such an awesome ride! It's put on by GM and it's like a test track that they would use in testing their cars. You go over bumps, up a hill, through cold and hot temperatures, around curves, stopping quickly at cones, and then it ends with the car speeding up very quickly to 60 mph and going out on a track where you go around curves on your side. It was great!!!
Eli and Jamie then went and rode one more ride with Charlie and Olivia that was like riding in a space shuttle. I was too afraid to ride because it's very enclosed and I wasn't sure how I would like it since I'm a little claustrophobic. By the time they came out, the park was closing so we headed out. It was a very fun, exciting day!