The day we went to Epcot, Noah and I went alone (except not really because we went with my parents). Josh had gone back to his parents' house the night before and was on his way back to Orlando with Anna. He met us at Epcot at lunch and after that we stayed only long enough to have Josh and Anna experience first-hand Noah's favorite (and almost only) ride of the day: Finding Nemo. We did it 3 times. I gotta say, if not for the Nemo ride, Epcot would have been a total waste. We didn't bother going around the different countries, but we did hit Mexico and ride the musical boat ride with "The Three Caballeros" they offered there. Cute, but not critical.
We did let him play this piggy banking interactive game, but he was just too young to really understand what it was about. Thankfully, he had fun pulling the levers, relocating the piggy bank for each station, and pressing whatever other on-screen button he could get his hands on.
He did get to make this Velcro frog for Anna, who was very pleased with the surprise when she got there.
Just outside the Nemo ride:
Heading into the Nemo Ride in his "seasell." Whenever he asked to ride again, he would say "Noah wide seasell again!" There was a great aquarium section as you got off the ride, but Noah was not interested. He indulged my excitement about the dolphins and scuba divers and sea turtles. And I am sure he would have enjoyed the "Turtle Talk with Crush" but he could not be sidelined from riding that seashell again. Fair enough. We ditched the aquarium after a few minutes and headed back around to ride with Nemo again. It was a good little ride, nonetheless.
If you look closely, you can see my dad's head just behind Noah holding him up for this photo op. Noah was so amused with the view from there he kept going back...and getting in other people's pictures in the process! I had to step in then and make him leave. Did not go over well with Noah.
Had to get a sweet little shot of my peeps before we got out of Epcot. It was Anna's first Disney experience. That popsicle Noah's enjoying fell out of his hands shortly after this picture. And I may or may not have snatched it up off the ground, rinsed it off with our water, licked the germs off for good measure, and gave it back to the boy. A little dirt or a total meltdown from a disappointed preschooler - priorities, people. Priorities. :)
While we didn't get much done at Epcot, we did run into some old friends/coworkers whom Josh and I taught with back in GA. That was a neat and coincidental run-in. We hadn't seen them since just before we adopted Noah. Their triplets were babies when we saw them last and they are all grown and in school themselves now.
The real redeeming value of our 1/2 day at Epcot took place at the Epcot Character Spot.
We got in line and waited (again only about 20 minutes) to have Noah's picture taken with all the Disney Characters. The entire time we were in line, Noah kept saying he didn't want to do it. I told him if we got up there and he still didn't want to, he wouldn't have to. I am so glad I didn't give in to his fear in line. Once we got to the front and he saw other people having fun with Mickey and the gang, he gave in to the moment and gave it a go again. I didn't even have to hold him or his hand to get him to go to Mickey. And once he finished Mickey, he was all giggly and excited to get to the next character in the room. I don't know who was happier about his bravery... me or him.
A word about pics at Disney. They offer this wonderful Photopass service. You know - the guys/gals at the park with the cameras offering to take your picture. They scan you a card and all your pics from all the parks can be viewed and redeemed (order prints, gifts, downloaded) online. Catch is....they are not cheap! It cost us $14.95 a picture to download. Needless to say, we only downloaded 3 from our Photopass collection. These two with Mickey and the shot of us kissing Noah in front of the castle at Magic Kingdom. For sure, there were more I wanted, but not for $14.95 a shot! I'll labor with my own camera, thank you very much!Next Up: Final post of other details and pics from our stay in FL and our travel back home to the sweet cool weather of Tennessee.
2 comments:
I wonder if Brooklyn would have gotten her picture with the characters if she saw Noah do it...a little cousin peer pressure. Who knows.
Next time you make it to Epcot. Turtle talk with Crush is amazing! One of our favorites from our whole Disney trip. An animated crush interacts with the audience and answers questions. Kevin and I sat with our mouths open trying to figure out how in the world they were doing it! The Kids Fun Stops made the trip around the world fun for our kids as well, however as a whole I agree that Epcot is better for older kids. At 6 years old, David did really well there. I've loved hearing about your trip!
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