Each day that we spent in Florida was special for its own reason, and because of that we looked forward to each day. It's pretty amazing to have twelve special days in a row!
When planning any kind of trip, we always take Sunday as a down day. The reason for this is because it is the Lord's Day - whether we are on vacation or not - and we want to honor it as such. It was wonderful to know from the get-go that we'd have a good place to worship since Tia's brother preaches at a congregation just about 45 minutes from Orlando. It's also wonderful to travel with friends who have the same values and priorities as we do. We all knew from the initial stages of trip planning that Sunday would be set aside for worship . . . it makes everything so much better to be on the same page about such things!
After a fantastic day at Animal Kingdom on Saturday, we all slept great that night. We awoke refreshed and ready for Sunday! Like I mentioned above, it was about a 45 minute drive from where we were staying to the congregation Terrance preaches for in Eagle Lake, Florida. One of the best things about making worship a priority on vacation is that we meet saints with "like precious faith", and it's often a great experience. We enjoyed meeting several families that morning, and it's always fun to see our kids connect with other kids where ever we go.
After church services were over, Terrance and Shenia graciously invited us to their house for a baked potato and brisket lunch. The Stephanus family were still visiting, so I think there were close to 20 of us for lunch! I can't say enough how grateful we are for their hospitality.
Once we finished lunch, the kids (and Ross) spent several hours playing football in the backyard. Chris was out there some too, but Tia and I stayed inside to visit.
This is the one photo I have from that day of our trip!
Evening services began at 4:30pm, so the afternoon was over before we knew it. We all headed back to Eagle Lake (from Lakeland where the Dindys live), and stayed afterward visiting with people for close to an hour. It's a huge blessing to have a place to belong and church family to connect with all over the world!
On our way back toward Orlando, we stopped at Taco Bell for dinner. We had to go through the drive-thru (as the lobby wasn't open) and eat in the van. Later in the week, I mentioned to Shenia that we had stopped at Taco Bell, and she said, "Girl, WHY?" Lol. The real reason was that we knew we could eat for cheap, and we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity, haha! We went to bed early that night, knowing we had another BIG day to look forward to on Monday!
I mentioned in another post that because of the pandemic, Disney had adjusted opening and closing times for their parks. I think the park most affected by this was EPCOT, as they weren't opening until noon at this time. I tried not to feel too cheated by this, but it made me a little sad that we had the fewest hours in my favorite park. However, it really worked out for the best because I was able to plan our EPCOT day for the same day we moved onto Disney property.
We awoke Monday morning to pouring rain, so I was thankful again that we weren't heading straight to EPCOT. The rain lasted several hours, but ended in a beautiful sky and faint rainbow.
We spent the morning getting all our things packed up and collected from our suite at the Vacation Villas. At about 10:00am, we got everything loaded into the van, said good-bye to Vacation Villas, and headed toward Disney World!
The remainder of our time in Florida would be spent at Bay Lake Tower in Disney World, and we were pumped for this! We were hoping our suite would be ready for us to move in before we went to EPCOT for the day, but that didn't happen. Instead of moving in to our suite, we met up with the S family to explore the Bay Lake property a bit. The sun had come out, and all signs of rain were gone!
The one and only maskless photo I have of the kids at Disney World :-)
We were able to leave our vans full of luggage in the Bay Lake Tower parking lot and catch a Disney bus to EPCOT from the Contemporary (which is connected to Bay Lake by a skybridge). By 11:30am, the bus was pulling up to EPCOT. Eeeep!
There were no lines, no crowds, and no problems getting into EPCOT. We were taking our turn with the photopass photographer in front of the iconic Spaceship Earth ball before the park was even officially open!
Haha!
As you can see, there was quite a bit of construction going on at EPCOT. It really didn't affect our day much, though!
As soon as we finished with the photos, we asked the kids where they wanted to go first. They decided Mission Space sounded exciting, so we went that direction. The S family had already headed toward Test Track, but we would meet back up with them later.
Excited for Mission Space!
I rode this ride when I went to EPCOT in 2004 and hated it! I remember being legitimately sick afterwards, so when we had to choose between a Mars mission or a less intense mission where we orbited the Earth, we went for the gentler mission, for sure!
Captain Chris and his crew (Brecklyn and Brenson) ready to go!
I snapped a quick photo of me and my crew, but it was super blurry. We really enjoyed this ride, and it was much better than I remembered it being! Brecklyn was the only one who said she didn't like it. No surprise there, haha!
The wait time for Soarin' wasn't too long, but I could see that my crew was fading pretty fast. Then I realized . . . it was almost 1:00pm, and we hadn't eaten lunch!
We waited about 35 minutes for our turn to ride Soarin', and it was worth every minute!
Due to social distancing guidelines, only four people could sit in each section. That meant Brooke and I had to sit in a different section, separated by a plexiglass divider.
Soarin' was one of my favorite rides of the day. If we had a little more time in the park, I would've done it again!
Since we were already in The Land pavilion, it would have made sense to jump right in line for Living with the Land. However, we had a hungry crew, so we headed outside to take a snack break. And to take a few photos . . . because of course!
Brenson, Brianna, Brooke, and Brecklyn . . . look how beautiful the day ended up being!
Brianna and Brooke
Brecklyn and Bren
While we were snacking, the kids spotted The Seas with Nemo and Friends and decided they wanted to do that next. We were really just enjoying ourselves and letting them lead the way. Since many rides were low wait times, we had the freedom to do this! The Nemo ride was actually walk on!
Brianna and Brenson loved riding by themselves!
Daddy and Brooke
Momma and Brecklyn
I know this photo is super blurry, but I like that you can see the shells we rode in during the Nemo ride.
After the Nemo ride, we headed back the The Land pavilion to ride Living with the Land. Thankfully, Nemo is close to The Land pavilion!
This ride is casual and about the furthest thing from a thrill ride. Brecklyn had not enjoyed Mission Space or Soarin', but Living with the Land was right up her alley!
We could see that many of the trees and such were decorated with Christmas lights. This is another ride we would have done again (at night, though) if we'd had a few more hours in the park.
Our next stop was Journey Into the Imagination with Figment. I wasn't on board with giving this ride a try because I had read that it's the worst ride in Disney World. Chris said, "We'll never know until we try!" Thankfully, we walked right on and didn't actually wait to ride this.
We were not impressed . . . we should have trusted those people who said it was the worst ride in Disney World. But, now we know!
Having a blast in my favorite Disney park!
While EPCOT is my favorite Disney park, the World Showcase is my favorite part of EPCOT. I was eager to head to the World Showcase and enjoy that area of the park. Norway is now home to the new Frozen ride, so we decided to meet up with the S family and see what Frozen was all about. The queue looked really long, but we all felt like we'd regret not riding this ride!
The girls did really well in the long line, but the sun was BRIGHT!
Excited for Frozen!
I was amazed time and again at how Disney is really good at mind games, haha. We thought we were close to being able to ride when we went inside the building. We were wrong, but it didn't even matter because Disney had done so well with the queue that we didn't even mind waiting. I mean, we felt like we were in Arendelle!
We even got to walk through Oaken's Cloakens!
Finally, it was our turn to get in a boat!
Here we go!
I must say, I was impressed with the Frozen ride! The scenery, music, snow, and even the boat going backward during one part were all on point! And, we only got a little wet!
While we were all enjoying Frozen, Chris and Bren decided to go back to Mission Space and do the Mars Misison. I'm pretty sure Chris came very close to getting sick on this one!
They immediately followed Mission Space with a spin on Test Track. Bren doesn't look thrilled in these photos, but he insists he enjoyed the rides! They had invited Ross to come with them, but Ross wanted to experience the new Frozen ride so he hung with the girls.
The posted wait time for Frozen was 60 minutes, but we only waited about 45. While we were waiting for Chris and Bren to make their way back over to the World Showcase, we decided to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico since we were right there and the posted wait time was 5 minutes.
My pretty girl in Mexico!
The wait ended up being waaaaay longer than 5 minutes . . . probably closer to 45! We probably would have skipped it had we known :-).
Miss C wanted to ride with Brianna
By this time, it was after 4:00pm and my crew had only had a few snacks since breakfast. I texted Chris to be waiting for us at San Angel (the table service restaurant in Mexico). He and Bren were able to get a table just a few minutes before we finished the ride! The S family went to ride a few more rides, and we were happy to sit down and eat!
The restaurant has really cool scenery.
Not to beat a dead horse, but have I mentioned that food at Disney World is expensive?!? This restaurant was nice because we had chips and salsa to munch on while we waited for our food. The food was very tasty (it always helps when you're hungry), but the kids could see the prices when looking at the menu. They were in shock, even though Chris and I felt it wasn't too bad comparatively. The portions, however, were quite small. When my food came, Brianna said, "Wow Mom, that is the cutest little food I've ever seen!" Hahaha . . . thank you, child!
Brooke and Momma
Momma and Bri
The wind had picked up quite a bit while we were eating, and once the sun started to set we realized very quickly that we should have brought our jackets! I had been following the weather for the week and knew a cold front was blowing in, but I just flat forgot to grab jackets. As long as we kept moving and kept away from the water, we were okay.
China
We visited a gift shop in China that the kids enjoyed . . . or maybe they were just thankful to be out of the chilly air for a while!
Brecklyn and Momma
Germany . . . notice we busted out our light-up necklaces!
Italy
'Merica!
Japan
I thought this was a neat shot!
When we got to Morocco, we went into the gift shop because I was looking for coffee beans to buy for my dad. I had asked at several of the countries, but had zero luck. Despite my best efforts, I never did find any. However, when we came out of the gift shop in Morocco, we noticed there was a photopass photographer just waiting to take our photo :-).
Morocco was pretty and romantic . . . minus the four kids tagging along with us!
France
The Christmas decor in France was just right!
And, we were pleased to find another photopass photographer taking pics in front of the Eiffel Tower!
Kiss me under the mistletoe, baby!
Not sure what this pose is about . . .
Better!
By this time (about 6:30pm), the sun had fully set and the moon was showing out. We were also in a spot that was more protected from the wind. It was beautiful and peaceful!
The United Kingdom
We wandered up a short path to the World Showplace Events Pavilion. It was closed, but we had really gone that way to see the lights. So pretty!
When we walked back toward Canada from our little detour, we smelled a delicious smell. There was a little booth set up selling donuts and coffee, so we all agreed that we needed some! They tasted just as good as they smelled!
Canada
The GIANT Christmas trees in the parks just made everything more magical.
While standing by the Christmas tree, I asked everyone if they were satisfied with the day. We only had a little over two hours before the park closed (at 9:00pm), so I wanted to make sure we fulfilled everyone's "must-do" list. The boys were happy, but the girls all said that they really wanted to ride Frozen again with Daddy and Bren. So we turned around and trekked alllllll the way back to Norway to get in line for Frozen.
The line was long but was moving fast. We were in Arandelle before we knew it!
And, pretty soon we boarded our boat!
One of the best parts of social distancing was that we were rarely (almost never) seated with other families or people. So most of our ride photos only have us in them!
Of course, many of the rides exit directly into a gift shop that is themed like the ride. The Frozen gift shop was one of the few places that the kids were tempted to buy things. They didn't, but my brave ones did take a photo with this giant troll! Brecklyn wanted nothing to do with this guy, and Brenson just had better things to do, haha.
With less than an hour left until park closing, we decided our final ride should be Spaceship Earth. Sadly, it was closed for maintenance. Isn't it pretty, though?
On our way toward Spaceship Earth, my right foot was really bothering me. I had gotten a blister on the bottom of it the day we went to Animal Kingdom (I made the rookie mistake of wearing new shoes). Chris had doctored it up with moleskin, and I had been fine most of the day. However, as the day had gone on, it had bothered me more and more. While we were walking toward the park exit, I suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot through the blister, and I knew it had popped. I had to sit down for a minute, and Bren was so worried about me. He didn't want me to get up, but I had to get out of the park somehow! While I was taking a minute for my foot, Chris noticed a pin trading store at the entrance of the park. This was great as the kids hadn't been able to do any pin trading all day! He took all the kids and visited the store, and I joined them just a few minutes later. Sadly, even the pin trading store wasn't pin trading (due to COVID), but Bren did buy a couple Star Wars pins.
When we walked out of the store, we ran right into the S family! These two were cute pushing the double strollers to the bus stop!
Although riding the bus wasn't my favorite (I would have preferred the monorail but it was not running to EPCOT at this time), we only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus to take us back to our resort. AND, our bus driver gave us a little singing performance before we rolled out! It's the little things like this that truly bring the magic.
Upon arriving at our resort, we still had luggage to carry up to our rooms to get settled for the night. Our room was the very last room at the end of a very long hallway on the tenth floor. The S family was also on this floor, but quite a ways down the hall from us.
My foot was killing me by the time we made it to our suite for the night. However, I'm not sure I noticed too much because I was too starry-eyed over our accommodations. Our suite had a large living area, kitchen, and eating area right as you walked in, a bedroom with a bathroom on either side of the living area, and even a third bathroom off of the living room. It also had a decent sized washer and dryer! One bedroom had two double beds and the other had a king sized bed. The bathroom connected to the "master" bedroom had a full shower, and it also had a soaker tub! There was also a balcony with a beautiful view of the lake. I wish I had taken photos of our suite, but I never thought to do it. The living room had two chairs that folded down into beds, and the big kids (who didn't want to sleep together) took turns sleeping on one of those. I know I've already said this, but we are so, so grateful that our friends shared this with us!
Our day at EPCOT had been wonderful! We all went to bed tired from the day but ready to get some rest and be recharged for our next park day!
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