Our second full day in the parks started even earlier. Spencer wanted to take Riley to meet Anna & Elsa from Frozen. We had found online before we left that the Anna & Elsa (A&E) Meet and Greet was averaging 3-4 hours wait time. There is no way we are/were going to wait that long. We decided to try and do it first thing in the morning to try and beat the crowd. Well, that was our plan. We got to the park 45 minutes before opening and waited for the rope drop. There were quite a lot of people waiting for the ropes to drop when we got there. There was a little song and dance production before the rope drop and some of the characters came out to say good morning. Then it was like running with the bulls. Everyone was in a hurry to get somewhere. “Somewhere”?? They were going to 2 places: The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and The Anna and Elsa Meet and Great. Our group got split up almost immediately, but we all pretty much knew where we were going. Spence was first there, and then Lisa and then Sam and then me and my parents were last to make it. All of us except my dad and Crosby got in line and the wait time sign showed 60 minutes by the time everyone got settled. It wasn’t even 9:00am and there was an hour wait. We waited about 30 minutes and went in to see A & E. When Riley saw them, she shut down. There was a lady working the line and giving instructions and she asked Riley a couple questions and Riley couldn’t talk. It was pretty funny. She got up to Elsa first and she shut down even more. She just stood and stared at her. When we told her to smile for pictures. She had a really silly smile. It was pretty cute and funny. Ellie got to take pictures too, but didn’t have the same reaction. Anna was a similar experience. She talked a lot to Riley, but Riley was still in shock. It was pretty funny. We finished up taking our pictures and the meet and greet ended in a gift shop. We walked back out to Fantasyland and found that next to A & E, there was a Rapunzel and Cinderella meet and greet. The wait for A & E was over an hour and Rapunzel and Cinderella was only 20 minutes. Riley’s next favorite princess is Rapunzel, so we got in that line. It didn’t take very long. Ellie got a little cranky in line because we hadn’t eaten breakfast. We went in to see Rapunzel and Cinderella and Riley was a little looser for these two. Rapunzel talked to her a lot and she replied quite a bit. Ellie was fine with these two. She again didn’t really have a lot of reaction. We finished and went back out to Fantasyland.
After finishing with the princesses, we went to Sleepy
Hollow for a bite to eat. They have
waffles and waffle sandwiches. We got a
waffle sandwich with fruit for Ellie to split with us. It was pretty good. After breakfast, we had Fast Passes for
Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.
My parents took the kids and the four of us adults went to ride Splash
Mountain. It was fun, we got a little
wet, but not too bad. We met my parents
between the two rides and they had got Ellie to fall asleep in the
stroller. YES!! So they stayed with her and Crosby, who was
also asleep, and Riley rode Big Thunder Mountain with us. She did great. It is a fun ride. The Fast Pass line was crazy. We found on the trip that if you got to your
Fast Pass at the beginning of the time slot, it was really busy. By the end, it was a much shorter line. After Big Thunder, four of us had a Fast Pass
for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Sam and
Spence took the kids and went to Be Our Guest where we had lunch reservations
after our Fast Pass. Mom, Dad, Lisa and
I went on the Mine Train. It was really
cool. It was a fairly gentle roller
coaster, but the cars swayed as the ride went.
They had some great audio-animatronics for the dwarfs too. It was a really good ride.
Next was lunch. We
had been looking forward to Be Our Guest.
It is set in the Beast’s castle from Beauty and the Beast. We didn’t know what to expect at lunch but
the menu looked pretty good. It was a
quick serve restaurant, but they brought the food out to us. It took a little while to get into the
restaurant because of the line to order.
Once we were in, the inside was awesome.
There were 3 main dining rooms:
one set like the West Wing from the movie, one that is like a gallery
with pictures all around and a big statue of Beauty and the Beast, and the main
dining that looked like the dining room from the movie where Belle and the
Beast danced. It was pretty cool. The food was good too. I got a croque monsieur, which was
delicious. We had our first meltdown
here too. Apparently Riley didn’t want
to eat, and that didn’t go over very well.
After lunch, we walked through the Big Top Circus area. We went through the souvenir shop and then
went by the kids water area. It was
cute. Ellie was too young to play, but
beyond that, I was trying to get her to take a nap in the stroller. We then walked on the path that goes behind
the speedway and Space Mountain to Tomorrowland. The lines were crazy. Even the Peoplemover had a crazy wait. Sam and Lisa waited in line with Riley to see
Buzz Lightyear so Spence and I went for a walk to get Ellie to sleep. It didn’t work. She wouldn’t go to sleep. After they met Buzz, we went to the Monster’s
Inc Laugh Floor. This was new to
us. It was kind of silly, but they had
some really cool technology. They update
the show each time with new jokes and interact with the crowd. It was pretty cool, but it was not something
I would go out of my way to do.
After the Laugh Floor, we went to watch the parade. This was one of the highlights of the trip
for me. We had seen the parade the day
before partially by accident and it was really cool. The rest of our group wanted to see it
because we had talked highly about it.
This time we were up closer to the castle on the Tomorrowland side. The hub in front of the castle has been
changed and they have added more walkways and grassy areas to walk
through. While we were waiting on the
parade, Ellie, Lisa and I went to play in one of the grassy areas. It was awesome. Ellie could walk all over with less chance of
getting hurt. We could run around with
her and play as much as we wanted, with no one around. And, it was with the castle in the backdrop
so we got some great pictures. We had a
lot of fun. We went back to our spot for
the parade, and Ellie enjoyed watching it just as she did the day before. Everyone else did as well. They agreed that it was a really cool parade.
Next, we decided to head back to the hotel to rest and let
Ellie take a nap. Just Lisa, Ellie and I
went back, the rest of the group stayed at the Magic Kingdom. We loaded up on the bus, and about halfway
there, Ellie fell asleep. That sounds
great, but when we got off, we got her into the stroller (still asleep), rolled
to and into the room (still asleep), and then we laid down to rest and she woke
up. Darn it. Not much of a rest.
We got up, cleaned ourselves up a little bit, and headed to
EPCOT. Our goal, or our hope, was to
explore the Food and Wine Festival going on in the World Showcase. Lisa and I had really enjoyed this on a
previous trip, but we had not done it with kids. Come to find out, not a great idea. First of all, it was packed. We started at a Craft Brew stand at the
Odyssey. They had Florida craft
beers. Now I am used to Missouri and
Colorado craft beers. There is some
really good beer that comes out of those two states. Florida is not quite there. The couple of beers we tasted, we a step
above home brewed beer. They were
getting there, but not yet. We then did
some shopping at Mouse Gear in Future World and headed to the World Showcase to
eat. There were people everywhere and
the lines for food were crazy. None of
the three of us had eaten and Ellie was starving. We couldn’t wait long for her. The first stand we found that didn’t have
much of a line was Africa. Not a good
choice for a 1 year old. She wouldn’t
eat it. We decided to head toward the
American pavilion and found a turkey leg stand.
Since Ellie loves chicken, turkey and pork, we thought we would give it
a shot. She loved it. The three of us shared the turkey leg. It worked out pretty good. When we got done with the turkey leg, there
was a concert starting in the theater at the American Pavillion. Come to find out, it was Rick
Springfield. This became Ellie’s first
concert. She loved it. She clapped and danced and laughed and
squeeked. It was really cute. Rick Springfield was not great. He played two of his own songs, one of them
“Jesse’s Girl”. He started with “Roar”
by Katy Perry. He played “Wipeout” and
“Wild Thing”. It was interesting. At the end of the concert, my dad, Sam and
Spencer showed up. We hung out in EPCOT,
had a couple beers and bites and then watched the fireworks. EPCOT puts on a great fireworks display. It was a little too much for Ellie. She didn’t really like the big booms, and the
music confused her. The show was
happening in front of us, but the music was behind us. She kept turning around during the show
looking for the music. It was cute. After that, we went back to the hotel and
crashed.
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