I’m excited to continue reliving our Disney trip by sharing Part Two of our week at the most magical place! If you missed Part One, check it out here.
I’m picking up where I left off, with the morning of our second park day! On this day, we were headed to Epcot so we got to take the Skyliner directly from our resort which was so nice!! We left right when the Skyliner opened at 7:30 and arrived at the International Gateway entrance of Epcot at about 7:50. We were able to enter the park early because we had a pre-park opening breakfast at Garden Grill! We loved this meal – the food was great and the characters were perfect! I loved that the meal was served family style and everything was brought to our table. I also appreciated that we were served fairly quickly. The end of our meal felt a bit rushed as we noticed crowds of people entering the Land Pavilion, and we knew we wanted to rope-drop Soarin’, so we hurried to finish so we could head down there. Other than the rushed ending, we thoroughly enjoyed everything and the cinnamon rolls were a family favorite.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait long for Soarin’, and since we needed to use rider switch, half of us enjoyed Living With the Land. If you’ve never heard of rider switch, it’s a service available to families who have kids who are too short and/or apprehensive of rides. You go up to a designated spot at the entrance of the ride and tell them you want to use rider switch. They scan the magic bands of those who will ride second (maximum 3 people). Then the first group goes through the queue and enjoys the ride. After they’re off the ride, the second group gets to go through the fastpass line. So essentially, the first group does the waiting for the entire group, saving everyone time!
After the Land Pavillion, we went to Spaceship Earth, then explored the Epcot Experience to see all the exciting things to come at Epcot!
From there, we headed to the World Showcase and enjoyed the afternoon exploring all the country pavilions and snacking around the world, which is one of my favorite things to do! It’s the Festival of the Arts right now, so each country has kiosks featuring delicious drinks and bites and we enjoyed trying several of them.
All the snacks were delicious, and my favorite was the brie and champagne from France. YUMMMMM! I also loved the barbacoa and margarita from Mexico. Another YUMMMM! And the PBJ funnel cake ice cream sandwich – amazing! Really, everything was delicious. No complaints!
After our world tour, we headed back to the Seas Pavillion to visit Nemo and friends, then made our way back to our hotel via the Skyliner.
Our third park day started with breakfast at our hotel, and then a quick bus ride to Animal Kingdom. We rope-dropped Navi River Journey in Pandora and enjoyed seeing all the incredible sights and details of Pandora. From there we headed to Africa for our safari and the Lion King show. We always love the Safari and the Lion King show was fantastic!!
After the show we enjoyed lunch at Flame Tree Barbecue, which we all agreed was our favorite quick service meal of the week! Chelsea and I split a barbecue chicken salad and barbecue mac and cheese and both were delicious.
We popped over to Pandora after lunch to ride Flight of Passage which everyone loved so much! I was so happy to get to share it with my fam after I had enjoyed it on my most recent trip.
We park hopped to Hollywood Studios, and our first stop was Tower of Terror for some and a character meet and greet for the rest. Next we made our way to Toy Story Land for a little Midway Mania. Our next stop was Oga’s Cantina in Galaxies Edge for some cocktails and snacks. The fuzzy tauntaun cocktail was a group favorite. It is a peach cocktail topped with “buzz” foam that gives your mouth a tingling feeling. It’s weird yet delicious, and the perfect unique drink to try in Galaxies Edge. We also tried the Batuu Bits, which were a unique array of chips with a spicy hummus. Another unique, out-of-this-world snack!
My brother and his family split off from us at that point to head back to the hotel for the night, while my parents, Chelsea and I enjoyed dinner at the Brown Derby Lounge before heading to the Fantasmic Dessert Party.
The Fantasmic Dessert Party was wonderful! We got a specialty cocktail and a whole tray of treats! We also enjoyed reserved seating for Fantasmic, which is my favorite show. Loved every minute!
After the show, we took the Skyliner back to our hotel and called it a night!
One of the biggest advantages of Pop Century is the access to the Skyliner! We loved the convenience of being able to take it to both Epcot and Hollywood Studios. It’s quick, easy, and gives you awesome views of the property on your trip!
Stay tuned for part three of our trip!
Party on!
JW
Great recap!!