Day 5 of Disney - Epcot

Yesterday was the final day of our Disney Theme Park adventure - Epcot! It did not disappoint. The kids each declared it "The best Disney park!" and Daniel gave it "20 stars out of 10!!" We loved the food, the themes, and the rides. Highly recommended!

Arriving at the park, late as usual.

Our first ride - The Universe of Energy. This is a slow-moving ride that shows the history and future of energy, featuring Ellen Degeneres. As the ride announced multiple times, it was 37 minutes long. We all enjoyed it.

Next up - our first Fast Pass, for Spaceship Earth! You ride inside the giant ball and learn about the history and future of knowledge.

Designing an ideal future.

We headed over to The Seas area next.

The first ride is a theme on Finding Nemo, where you ride on a giant clamshell.

At the end, there is an aquarium with all kinds of animals - sharks, fish, and this cool eel below.

We then headed over to "Journey Into Imagination," another peaceful ride, this time featuring the dragon Figment and the five senses.

At the end, there were all kinds of displays to play on, including making music by waving your hands.

Our final Fast Pass was for the awesome ride Soarin', which is just like the ride in California Adventures. It truly feels like you are flying over the California countryside. This was the favorite ride for 3 out of 4 of us (Annika loved Test Track, which we did at the end of the night).

Next year - The Land!

We watched the movie "Circle of Life," which is a conservation movie featuring the characters from The Lion King.

Living with the Land was a really cool boat ride that featured a tour through greenhouses and showing all kinds of vegetables and flowers growing.

The greenhouse!

We then got ready to head into the World Showcase area and discovered something really cool - a Phineas and Ferb Scavenger Hunt!! We received a phone that gave us interactive clues. We did this for Mexico and China and it was so much fun!!

We used lots of our snack credits in the World Showcase area - churros from Mexico.

Mexico.

One of the most awesome parts of the scavenger hunt - we found this skeleton in the Mexico area, and he came to life with singing and dancing after we activated our scavenger hunt phone! We totally were not expecting that and the kids were delighted.

Boat ride in Mexico, featuring both videos and animatronic dolls.

Norway! Home of absolutely delicious pastries.

China! We did another awesome scavenger hunt here, including saying a code word to one of the workers and receiving a fortune cookie with a clue in return. ;)

Germany.

We stopped for a (non-alcoholic) drink break.

Italy.

America. Our non-adventurous kids opted to eat here for their dinner. ;)

Japan!

Morocco!

France! Will and I had a delicious dinner here and we all enjoyed the delicious pastries for a snack/dessert.

The U.K.

It's almost impossible to tell, but below is Canada. ;)

Epcot had Extra Magic Hours from 9-11 p.m. last night for guests staying on Disney property, and we decided to go for it and stay the extra two hours, because why not? We went on Spaceship Earth again, this time with only a 5-minute wait. We also had a blast playing some of the games at the end of the ride, including a cooperative game involving trying to power a city.

Artwork from within the ride. Will and Annika are showing off that they are the only ones in our family who can roll their tongues. ;)

Test Track!! We could either receive a Fast Pass for Soarin' or Test Track and had decided on Soarin', but at the end of the night decided to see if we could go on Test Track. Daniel opted to skip it so Will stayed with him, but Annika and I hopped in the single rider line. This is a super cool ride where you design a car, and then ride through on a track with all kinds of twists and turns and see how your car does. The best part was when we went outside in our open-air car at 65 mph and took the turn on the side of the car. Really cool and Annika's favorite ride!

Finally, since there was time and "only" a 30-minute wait, we opted to ride Soarin' again. It did not disappoint and I think was even better the second time.

What a wonderful day!! We would highly recommend Epcot and hope to come back sometime. We are heading back to Kansas this afternoon and are so grateful for this magical week to all just hang out together.

Day 4 of Disney - Animal Kingdom

Today's adventure was to the newest Disney theme park . . . Animal Kingdom! This park opened in 1998 and is a combination of a zoo/amusement park. We visited more of the "zoo" features when we went in the past when the kids were little, since our kids were too small at the time for many of the rides. Today, we got to experience both - although I think that everyone's favorites are still the zoo-type parts. I told Will that we really need to take the kids to the Omaha Zoo soon given how much they love seeing animals!

We arrived early this morning (although of course not as early as planned) and took the bus from the hotel.

The circle of life! Or rather, the Tree of Life. ;)

Our first Fast Pass was for the Kali River Rapids, which is a water ride and was perfect on this hot morning. (For my Kansas friends, this is a lot like "Fury of the Nile" at Worlds of Fun, only cooler. ;) )

Getting ready to start! Daniel was initially quite apprehensive, but he ended up rating it as one of his favorite attractions of the day. We all got wet but not completely soaked.

Next up - the Jungle Trek! This is a walk-through "zoo" section of the park.

Up close and personal with a tiger. I asked the kids if it was a tiger of cheetah, clearly having forgotten that cheetahs have spots. ;)

World's Largest Bats below! These are Fox Bats and have an impressively large wingspan.

Birds! I have already forgotten this one's name. But the blue color was very cool.

One of the kids' favorite parts of the day, especially for Annika, was the Bird Scavenger Hunt. In the Royal Forest area, they had a ton of different types of birds wandering around, along with a labeled guide sheet that you could use to try to identify them. Annika talked to a worker and figured out that not all of the birds on the sheet were necessarily here today.

Next up - Fast Pass for the Primeval Whirl!

This was a roller coaster with a lot of sharp twists and turns, plus some backwards motion and spinning around. Again, Daniel was pretty apprehensive but ended up loving it.

Our favorite part of the park from previous visits was The Boneyard, which is a giant playground complete with a "fossil dig" area in the sand. This did not disappoint and was another fan favorite again today, too.

Getting ready to run off. Will and I did some excellent parenting and played on our phones while the kids ran around and played. ;)

The Fossil Dig Area! Both kids spent almost all of their time here, and Daniel had to be dragged away at the end.

Next Fast Past - the Dinosaur ride. You "go back in time" to see dinosaurs, and ride in a car around on a track with lots of bumps, turns, and dinosaurs jumping out at you.

View in the waiting area. Honestly, the ride itself was a bit intense and I have no desire to go on it again, but glad we checked it out.

We had another huge lunch today with way too much food (my desire for value is winning out over my desire for health, and I feel compelled to eat every.single.item included with our dining plan). After lunch (or maybe it was before lunch? Sometime :)), we went to see the show It's Tough to Be a Bug. This is a 4-D simulation show with the characters from A Bug's Life, and most famous for movement in your chair at the end of the show that is supposed to feel like cockroaches crawling under you.

Okay, this next show was definitely after lunch. ;) We had Fast Passes for Finding Nemo: The Musical and enjoyed hanging out in the air conditioning before it started. The show itself was about 40 minutes long and was the whole movie of Finding Nemo recreated, only as a musical with singing, dancing, and puppetry. It was quite sweet.

After the show, we headed over to another "zoo" area, to see Planet Watch, which is a giant educational area on conservation complete with a petting zoo area. Annika remembered this from almost six years ago.

We took a train over that was another fun ride, and got to see all of the behind-the-scenes buildings and where the animals slept at night.

Daniel's favorite part of the Conservation Area was getting to pet a snake. This actually may have been one of his favorite memories all day. Forget Disney - we need to visit Reptile World in Manhattan again! ;)

Both kids also enjoyed the petting zoo area, particularly brushing the goats.

We finished up around 5 p.m. There were other parts of the park that might have been nice to have seen (the zoo area in the Africa section, standing in line for the Safari Ride), but both kids were beat and wanted to get back to the hotel. We are currently relaxing in the hotel room, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, while Annika reads a book and Daniel is dressed again in his Harry Potter robes. ;) Next up tonight - swimming!!! And more over-eating. ;)