Rainy Disney Round 2

For our second day at Disney (first day recap here), the weatherman was unfortunately right for once and we woke up to more rain. We had debated between going back to the Magic Kingdom or venturing to somewhere new like Animal Kingdom or Epcot. Looking back, we definitely made the right choice to go to Epcot. Some people would say that it’s not as friendly to younger kids, but I personally thought it worked out great. There were a few rides that Carlyn couldn’t ride, but it was definitely still the right decision.

We didn’t get to the park quite as early as the previous day, but were still parked and inside about 25 minutes after the park opened. Then we were at it with our Fast Passes again, and were able to score three passes for one of the harder ones to get on Soarin’. Carlyn was too small for this one, so Crosby and I went on first. It was a really cool experience. Imagine a huge movie screen in front of you and being suspended and moved up and down as you glide through the air on a hang glider with some 4D effects to go along with it. You see the Great Wall, the Eiffel Tower along with many other wonders of the world.

We also only needed to use two of the three FastPasses since I could get a Rider Swap for Korey. Crosby immediately wanted to go on it again, so the two of them went right back on it. As we were waiting, I took Carlyn to go on the Living with the Land ride on a small boat which was pretty neat as well. The exhibit parts were ok, but not amazing, but the trip through the actual greenhouse was really cool. They had all sorts of odd planting arrangements. Some of them were designed to conserve water, others were vertical plantings, others still were interesting ways to increase the output of a single plant. The tomato trees are something that stick out in my mind as being pretty interesting. They also had some aqua-culture or something like that where, the water from a large fish tank was cycled through the plants and then drained back into the fish tanks. Carlyn really liked the greenhouse part as well.

Next we went over to see the Crush interactive exhibit from Finding Nemo. This was similar to the setup to Monster’s Inc where a live comedian would tell jokes and interact with the audience — except this was a much more intimate setting. This guy was pretty funny as well. Lots of dudes, and awesome, and talking about people’s shells. Carlyn was again skeptical about this one, but Crosby seemed to really enjoy it.

After that we spent some time in the aquirium itself in Nemo-land. Both kids loved looking around at the tanks, but probably enjoyed the little sharkplayground thing inside even more. I can’t say that I blame them though. I mean, who wouldn’t want to take a picture from inside the shark’s mouth?

After that we sort of snuck through the Fast Pass line with only two valid ones, but we managed to make it on the Nemo ride. This one was similar to the other continuous slow rides that we went on the day prior at the Magic Kingdom. This one was a lot more modern given that Nemo is a newer movie. There were lots of screens built into the ride as opposed to just having simple motorized actors. Regardless of that, it was still fun.

We then got another chance to see the main man, Mickey Mouse. We had Fast Passes (of course) so the wait was again minimal. They weren’t quite as excited the second time around, but they both definitely liked seeing Mickey.

It had been raining most of the morning, but it started letting up about that time. We then went over to Mission Space. I don’t quite remember why, but I went first and did the more aggressive version of it. I can’t quite remember all the details, but for some reason Korey then went by herself as I watched the kids. She was not a big fan of the confined space and spinning, so when it was time for Crosby to start going, we decided to split up.

I also only had one Fast Pass for Frozen which was the big driver, so Crosby and I hung out at mission space for a couple of back-to-back rides while the girls went to the Frozen ride. When we wrapped those two things up, we caught up with Gary and Joe Anna and their kiddos.

They were gracious enough to do a swap with us so that I could take the kids on Frozen again. Carlyn was super excited to go on it again, but when the big snow monster came out, she was literally shaking and squeezing the heck out of my leg. Two other things stand out about the Frozen ride: the fact that all the people that worked there were actually from Norway and that it was really cool for the boat to turn around and go backwards down the mini waterfall.

After that, the three of us trekked across the park to check out some of the things in one of the areas we hadn’t been to yet. We started off with the science ride that talked about all of your senses. All four kids then spent some time running around the exploratory play area at the end of that when the main ride finished. There were musical exhibits, light exhibits, and a few other things they enjoyed doing. They were all really cute together.

We then checked out a 3D show of several different shorts. Even the waiting area was pretty interesting. They were showing behind the scenes footage of some of the Pixar studios including how they came up with their now-famous lamp. The shorts inside the theater were pretty entertaining as well.

The first short showed the interaction of some old Mickey characters that then burst through the old screen and were running around on a virtual stage. The second short was about a little bird on a beach who learned how to hunt little crabs by ducking under the water from a friend. Then the last was about a man, his dog, and the progression of their newfound relationship. All three were funny and cute.

Later in the day we started to make our way through the remaining rides that we hadn’t yet been to (and several others that we had). The eight of us all went back over and rode the living with the land together. Then I was able to get another Fast Pass which turned into a ride for each of us and Crosby twice to Soaring which worked out well — as we traded off watching Carlyn as we ate dinner. We then hit the second to last ride in the Epcot ball itself. While the ride is a bit dated, it was really interesting to see how the progression of knowledge grew over time from no communication, to spoken language, written language, the printing press, all the way up through semi-modern tech. On the other hand, the speed of change is also alarming. Where will we be 50 years from now? I hope to be able to find out.

It was about that time that a Fast Pass popped up for Fast Track — one of the last rides that we hadn’t ridden. It had been closed off and on most of the day because of the rain, but I saw that they opened it up. After the issues with Space Mountain the day before, I suggested that Korey go first. That left time for me and the kids to go over and ride the little boat ride in Mexico. That one was cute, but nothing crazy. It was funny to chase Donald around various sites around the virtual country and the kids both enjoyed it.

We started walking back to meet Korey so that Crosby and I could use the rider swap to ride on it. I could tell that the weather was about to turn again, so we really hustled over to the entrance only to find out that they had just closed the ride again. Needless to say, Crosby was really upset not being able to go. The workers kept saying that they weren’t sure when or if it would open, and I certainly had my doubts given that it was still raining with more coming that way on the radar. They also stated that it not only needed to stop raining, but that the track also needed to dry. I kept trying to tell Crosby that we should go to another ride so we could at least do something.

But my stubborn little man persisted for nearly 45 minutes. At that point, I finally convinced him to go back to Mission Space so we could at least do something. There was no wait, and so we did walk right up and get to ride one last time. Korey and Carlyn had come over to meet us after going to see Elsa, so that we could all watch the fireworks together. It was 8:59 and we came out and I saw it. The were letting in people to Fast Track!

I grabbed Crosby out of the stroller and took off running! It wasn’t too far, but we made it to the back of the line just as they were letting in the last group that had been waiting. I’m guessing that there were about 50 people total that made it in, and we were two of them. They definitely didn’t need to since it was closing time, but I guess they felt sorry for everyone. Regardless of any of that, I’ll take it!

They had us all design our cars in pairs (which we would have done in any case), and shortly after that we were ushered into the racing cars. We buckled on up and then zoomed around the track — supposedly at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour. We didn’t have much time to look at the scores after the fact, but of the dozen or so we did see, ours was the fastest. And really to Crosby’s credit, he did make the vast majority of the design decisions.

By the time we made it out, the fireworks were well over, but neither of us cared. We met back up with the girls and headed back to the find the rental. That proved to be a bit harder than it should have, but we did find it after a little of extra walking. After another long day, the kids were exhausted! I don’t think they made it out of the parking lot before they were both asleep.

When we got back to the Haydon’s, we took advantage of the last little time that we had to spend together and shared some stories from the day as well as some last minute catching up. We were so blessed to be able to stay, catch up with, and learn all the trips from the experts. We also polished off the rest of our leftover pizza, before knowing that it was time for us to bed… because we had an eaaaaarly flight back home.

We left the following morning with plenty of time, but were again stuck without Pre-Check. The check in line was really long so we opted to just fight with carrying the stroller and car seats through regular security to make sure we caught our flight. It was definitely a hassle to do so, but it paid off a bit on the other side since all our bags were just sitting there as we got off the plane in Austin.

It was a crazy 72 hours, but we certainly made the most of it! Looking back, there’s no doubt that it was worth whatever it cost. The kids — both young and old — definitely had a great time. And while we can always go back again in the future, the kids will never be like they are now. So, I’ll finish with, “Well done Korey!” Here’s to another successful (albeit random decision) vacation!

What is your best Disney tip? Using the Fast Pass app to the fullest extent was definitely ours. Let me know @TalkToErik.