On our first morning in Disney World, we were all up early and excited to get there. Our first day was to be spent in Epcot, following the tour plan I posted here. Did we follow the plan? Well, sort of! I admit I wrote my plans thinking of the kind of crowds Disney World sees in January, which is the last time I was there. June is not January people! It was much more crowded that I’d imagined. But we were still able to do just about all we wanted to!
So we arrived at Epcot early enough to be there for the opening. However, we decided to do our first ride. The Monorail. My kids are kind of obsessed. So we got on the Epcot – Magic Kingdom Monorail and took a ride. By the time we got back, the park was open! The lines to get in were a little bit insane. So we waited. And finally we were off to our real first ride, at least the one on the plan, Soarin’!
The original plan was to wait in the standby line for Soarin’ and possibly get a Fast Pass for another later ride. However, the first thing we did was find out that Simon wasn’t tall enough to ride. I asked the cast member for a Rider Switch Pass – this allows your family to wait in line once and then switch off, using the switch pass like a fast pass that doesn’t have a return time. I took the switch pass from the cast member and turned to hand it off to Dave, but he was nowhere to be found! It turns out he had headed straight to the fast pass machine. Instead of waiting in the stand by line for Soarin’, we thought we’d use the fast passes when it was time for them, and instead we decided to ride Living With the Land.
The kids enjoyed looking for Hidden Mickeys!
After that I took the Rider Switch Pass, and even though you are supposed to use that AFTER another family member has waiting in line, we used it first, and Gabbie, Zachary, and I rode Soarin’. (Dave took Simon on Living With the Land again while he waited!) Soarin’ is one of my favorite rides. It’s so much fun! Gabbie and Zachary loved it, but they didn’t want to ride it again with Dave. I’m not sure why! It wasn’t time for Dave to ride Soarin’ with his Fast Pass, so we decided to head over to the Seas Pavilion. I love it there because I love Nemo! However, we got sidetracked by the Character Spot! There was very little wait, so we were off to meet our first characters of the trip, Mickey, Pluto, and Minnie!
There are posed pictures to come, when I get my Photopass pictures!
After that unplanned stop, it was time for the Seas With Nemo and Friends.
We rode the ride, watched Turtle Talk With Crush, and looked around the Pavilion a bit. We then went back to the Land Pavilion so Dave could use his Soarin’ Fast Pass. We ate our lunch at that time, which we had brought with us. When we got back outside, we decided to meet Chip and Dale. They were on a short break, but there were already people waiting for them to come back, so we knew where to wait. They were due back out in a few minutes and we were pretty close to the front of the line!
Next, we stopped at Club Cool, which is like a mini World of Coca Cola. And then it was off to the World Showcase!
By the time we got to the World Showcase, Simon was asleep in his stroller. We started with Canada. The kids collected their Duffy Bears to color in and use to collect stamps from each country. They also had the passports that I’d made for them. I had to have Simon’s signed for him while he was sleeping!
After Canada was England, where we had plans to meet multiple characters! First up, Pooh and Tigger. And poor Simon was still asleep!
Working hard on their Duffy Bears
We met Alice and explored the back of England while waiting for our next character meeting…
Mary Poppins! She was lovely, of course. We got in line to meet her before she came out, so you can see a picture of her walking towards us. Dave kept saying we were waiting for Snow White, so that became a bit of a joke along the way. Also, while we were with her, Mary became upset that a teenaged boy was balancing on a fence. She actually walked away to ask the cast member with her to tell him to be careful! It was a very Mary Poppins experience.
After leaving England, we headed to France. The plan for France had included meeting Aurora and Belle, but we weren’t there at the right time. So we tabled those meet ups for later in the week. (The best part about the first day – knowing it’s only the first day!)
Simon got in on the coloring action in France!
Next we headed over to Morocco. Mo’Rockin was just coming out, but we felt too hot to stay and watch them.
We weren’t in Morocco at the right time to see Jasmine and Aladdin, so we tabled that as well and headed on to Japan.
We obviously liked Morocco and Japan, as told by all the pictures I took there!
Japan was our last planned country of the day. We hopped a boat back to the other side of the World Showcase.
We tried on some hats, and I bought one.
Then we did something that was a first for me on a Disney trip – went home for a break! We were staying in a town house with plenty of space and a kitchen to eat in, so we had dinner there before we returned. When we got back, we rode Spaceship Earth.
I was nervous because the 3 kids sat in the row in front of Dave and I, but they were fine!
After the ride, we played for awhile.
Then we headed back to the World Showcase to find a spot to watch Illuminations. We ended up on the bridge between England and France, which is right above where the boat tours watch, so I think it was a good spot!
Spaceship Earth is gorgeous no matter what time of day!
All in all, I’d say Day 1 was a success! Total rides: 4. Total Characters Met: 9. We did the character spot and met Chip and Dale, which we hadn’t planned on. We even had time for a break. We did not see Belle, Aurora, or Jasmine and Aladdin. To find out if we got to see them later in the week, you’ll have to come back next time!