Chris, Angela, Noah + Audrey: Disney World: Thursday at Epcot

After a late night Wednesday, we all agreed to sleep in a little on Thursday, disregarding the early Extra Magic Hour we I naively planned on utilizing. Luckily, because I planned to spend two days at Epcot and two days at Magic Kingdom, we had the luxury of shortening our second day, knowing that we had already seen quite a bit of the park. Drew and Jamie opted to meet up with us even later because of Drew's ankle starting to protest. I think we arrived around 10:00 in time to use our fastpass for Soarin', a fun experience that makes you feel like you're hang gliding over beautiful parts of the world. We then relaxed with some coffee until it was time to ride Living with the Land with our fastpass. This is a boat tour through the greenhouses of Epcot where we saw how Disney horticulturists use innovative growing techniques to produce some of the food used in their own restaurants. I took a lot of pictures on my phone to show that Noah was still getting an education! (His school is a designated school of Agricultural Leadership, so this was right in line with his curriculum!)

Mickey-shaped plant!

After Living with the Land, Jamie and Drew joined us and we had to make a crucial first stop at the kids' favorite, Club Cool.

After free refreshments from around the world, we headed to the World Showcase to find some lunch.

Photo credit: Alice Bennett
More opportunities for pin trading, of course!

We visited Canada for some souvenir shopping, then ended up in the UK for a lunch of fish & chips! Noah was skeptical but it was probably one of his favorite meals. (Duh: fried, fried, fried.)

Photo credit: Alice Bennett

Photo credit: Disney

It was a busy day as we strolled through France...

...and spent awhile in Japan.

Disney spares no expense in trying to emulate the architecture and landscape of each country!

The kids had started making souvenir pressed pennies in different locations, so luckily the grandparents made sure to have change on hand for when the opportunity arose.

Some of our group wanted to shop in Japan, so Audrey found a Kidcot stop where we spoke with some native Japanese women, one of whom wrote Audrey's name in Japanese on this paper for her to color.

The finished product!

Photo credit: Disney

We headed to America in time to see what was one of my favorite experiences of the whole trip, the Voices of Liberty singers in the rotunda of the American Adventure building.

Photo credit: Disney

Following the Voices of Liberty, we saw The American Adventure, using more amazing animatronics, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

Audrey, however, found it to be an excellent opportunity to observe the inside of her eyelids.

We breezed through Italy...

...and Germany (where Dad spotted some enticing cookies--more on that later)...

Photo credit: Disney

...then headed to China, but first had to stop for some slushes (Dad's influence) and drum playing.

China had some of the most striking architecture!

Photo credit: Disney

We watched the film "Reflections of China"...

...and caught the end of a Chinese acrobats street performance.

Photo credit: Disney

Even though it was quite a trek, I wanted to head back to the Innoventions area of Epcot to ride a few things we had not yet done. First, though, sustenance from a Norwegian bakery:

Because of our Disney Visa cardmember perks, we could experience an exclusive character meet & greet. We didn't know which character it would be, but we were so thrilled when we walked in!

I warned the group that the nearby ride experience, "Journey Into Imagination with Figment," got such horrible reviews on the blogs I follow that I was hesitant to take them to see it, but also a bit curious to see what all the fuss was about. They were game, and we certainly agree with the horrible reviews! It was so bad, it was memorable.

Here we go: riding Journey Into Imagination with Figment

To cleanse our palates from that disaster, we headed over to Mission: SPACE for our fastpass reservations.

Of course, I had done some research about this ride and warned the kids and "seniors" in our party that they might prefer the milder version of the ride, the "green" side, which is an Earth mission. Chris and I, though, opted for the "orange" side, a mission to Mars.

The ride is a centrifugal motion thrill ride meant to simulate astronaut training. The more intense Mars mission applies strong G-forces at liftoff and throughout the ride, and even simulates "hypersleep" with a weightlessness. Chris and I both experienced some tunnel vision and were surprised at the realistic feeling of the ride! I later shared with him that I had read that a couple people had died after riding it, but both had preexisting conditions. Still...

We hiked back across to Turtle Talk with Crush, a show in which the animated character Crush from Finding Nemo has a real-time, improvisational conversation with kids in the audience. It is pretty cool!

Front row seats, but neither asked Crush a question. Figures.

Finally, it was time for dinner! We had reservations for a princess dining experience at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway. This was the only "character meal" we kept out of all the options and plans I made, mainly because I thought it would be a magical experience for Audrey as we finished up the week, and a relaxing and delicious meal for the adults.

When we arrived, we were invited to meet Belle and take pictures with her.

Then, Audrey started peeking into the dining hall and spotting princesses!

Even Noah was curious...

We were seated and invited to visit the salad bar, but then the princesses started arriving!

Aurora from Sleeping Beauty

Ariel from The Little Mermaid

Cinderella

Snow White

Soon, they invited all the kids to join the "Princess Parade." Audrey didn't want to do it without Noah, so he obliged after some protesting.

The food was pretty good and the salad bar and desserts were included. I think Audrey was enraptured by the princesses and the setting, and she didn't eat even a bite of her overpriced meal. (But, really, were we expecting her to get our money's worth?) We definitely saw plenty of princesses and I think everyone enjoyed the meal.

If you only want to hear the Disney version of our trip, skip the next paragraph...

Full disclosure: Akershus Royal Banquet Hall was not worth the money (to me, at least). It was ridiculously expensive and the princesses had minimal interaction with the kids. It was almost like an assembly line of princess photo ops. My meal was not great, but I think everyone else was pretty happy with what they ordered. I also was disappointed with the volume level and the crowded seating. Considering the fact that we had a party of eight people, all paying full price for their meals, I expected interaction from the characters on the level of what we got with Ariel or Anna and Elsa. At the least, I was hoping for an excellent meal in a quieter, less crowded setting. Two thumbs down.

Moving on! We walked over to Mexico and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour, which started out promising but went downhill from there. Lots of Donald Duck and friends wearing sombreros. Yikes! This ride needs to be replaced. However, the scenery was pretty!