In case you missed it, I wrote about our first day in Disney with our morning at Hollywood Studios here and our evening at Epcot here. And in case you forgot, the purpose of our trip was to see Gabbie and her dance group perform at Epcot! So Friday morning, Gabbie was up early getting herself ready!
We dropped her off with her group and took the boat to Epcot. There were a few other parents from our group on the boat, but we saw our friends walking near the hotel just as we were leaving. And when we arrived at Epcot, they were also just walking up! So it takes the same amount of time on the boat and on foot, but the boat is definitely more relaxing.
We decided that the boys – mine and theirs – would be happier if they could go on a ride before we sat to watch the dance performance, so we headed over to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Simon and his friend were so excited to ride together and to catch up on what they had experienced in Disney the day before.
After the ride, we met up with my parents. They live in Florida and are able to get super discounted Disney tickets, so they decided to meet up with us and watch Gabbie perform! We didn’t spend much time with them otherwise, but it was nice to have them there for the performance!
There are a lot of dance schools that attend this program, but the performances are split up into groups of about 10 performances. Somehow our group ended up going last! We kept thinking we’d be next and then it was finally our turn. Our group was smaller than many of the other groups and I did enjoy watching the other performances. Zachary thought it was hilarious that two groups in a row danced to “The Greatest Show” from The Greatest Showman! Our group’s dance had a few parts and Gabbie was in most of the beginning part.
She looked like she was having a lot of fun!
After the performance, it was time for our Soarin’ Fast Passes! I just love that ride. But we had time to cool off at Club Cool and try out their Coke products from around the world!
After Soarin’, the line for Living With the Land was a bit longer than we prefer, but we decided to wait since we were in the Land Pavilion. Right when we got on, there was some sort of technical difficulty, so we had to wait even longer, and everyone cheered when the ride finally started.
We took a break inside the Land pavilion to eat our lunch. We like eating there because there is easy access to utensils and condiments, plus you can get water in the food court without having to ask! We also saw our friends doing the same thing as us!
Next up was the Seas pavilion. We always take a photo with the Nemo characters. The line for the ride wasn’t long, but the queue itself is long and you have to walk through the whole thing to get on the ride! After the ride, we also checked out the aquarium.
We had a Fast Pass for Spaceship Earth, so we headed that way next. And we found the Bubblegum wall!
I always sit with Gabbie on Spaceship Earth and we always laugh at our pictures and story!
There’s Simon’s picture on the Earth too, and the guy looking down at his phone would be Dave!
There are things to do inside Spaceship Earth after the ride, so the boys played a bit there and then it was time to bring Gabbie back to the hotel so she could prepare for her second performance – dancing in a parade!
At this point, we split up, with Dave and the boys staying at Epcot and me walking Gabbie back to the hotel. We tried to take the boat, but one had just left and we were told the next would be in 10 minutes. I think I caught that boat on my way back to Epcot after I left Gabbie at the hotel! Now I had Gabbie’s bag with me and I went off in search of something to drink in the World Showcase. Meanwhile, Dave had taken the boys on the Mexico ride again, gotten a beer in Germany, and went on the Test Track Single Rider line again! Simon and Zachary even rode in the same car this time, but in different rows. They were busy playing with the cars in the post Test Track ride room while I was walking around the World Showcase.
As I was walking, it started getting cloudy, even though you can’t tell from the photos above! I heard from Gabbie that she’d forgotten to give me her sneakers – in the parade she’d be wearing high heeled shoes and if we had to walk back afterwards, she needed sneakers to wear. So I got in touch with one of the other moms who was on her way to Epcot and she offered to bring the shoes for me. I stood here for awhile, stuck waiting for the Illuminations globe to pass, but then turned around to head back to the International Gateway to meet the other mom.
I hung out in the UK store for a little while waiting, and it had started to rain a lot at that point. The other moms had to walk because they closed the boats down due to lightning in the area.
Once I got the shoes, I was finally able to head back to meet up with my parents as well as Dave and the boys in the Land Pavilion! It was still raining, but it passed. While we were there, we rode Soarin’ again! The whole time, the line for Soarin’ was relatively short, so we might not have needed the Fast Pass we had after all! My parents didn’t ride with us, but we still had time to hang out with them after! And then it was time to go outside and watch Gabbie in her parade.
We almost missed the group when they passed us! My mom didn’t even get to see Gabbie. But Dave, the boys, and I chased the parade along the route so we could see her multiple times. The parade is pre-choreographed and all the groups learn it throughout the year and then dance at various times during the program.
Some of the girls and their awesome teacher:
Gabbie and the girls we are closest with:
Joined by the brothers! The girl on the left also has a sister and a baby brother, but they had already left before we took this!
Remember how I had carried Gabbie’s bag around the park and arranged to get her shoes from another mom? We ended up hopping a boat back to the hotel right away, so Gabbie didn’t even change until she got back! Oh well.
A bit later, as we were getting ready for dinner in our room, my friend texted that there was a rainbow over Epcot and we could see it from the room!
That night, we caught the Epcot fireworks from the Boardwalk and walked around the Boardwalk a bit, but took the night off from the parks. So if you are keeping track, we were at Epcot from 9 AM – 7 PM and rode Imagination (everyone but Gabbie), Soarin’, Living With The Land, The Seas With Nemo and Friends, Spaceship Earth, Mexico (just Dave and the boys), Test Track (just Dave and the boys), and Soarin’ again (everyone but Gabbie). Plus we watched Gabbie perform twice! That day I walked 7.6 miles.
We didn’t spend as much time in the World Showcase as we did on our previous trip, but I still feel like we did a lot at Epcot! Next up: The Magic Kingdom!