Baxter Bunch: Disney World Trip Day 2

Day 2 was our first full day at Disney World. We were all up bright and early. Everyone had said we needed to be at the parks by opening in order to avoid as many lines as we could. As a result, we set alarms every morning so we didn't oversleep. We all just ate a quick breakfast in the room and then headed to the monorail around 8:15. On the walk over to the monorail, the kids caught a glimpse of Cinderella's castle at MK and seeing their excitement in that moment, made the whole trip worth it. I told them they had to wait 1 more day though to see it up close.

The kids couldn't wait to see "the big golf ball" and were super excited once we got there. We got to Epcot about 20 minutes before park opening and I could already tell it was going to be packed! Since Epcot has the tier system for fast passes, there were a few rides I wasn't able to get fast passes for, but really wanted to be able to do. As soon as the gates opened we headed straight to Soarin. It said it was already a 50 minute wait by the time we got there, but it moved much quicker than that. I'm so glad we waited in line for this ride though. It was my favorite of the whole trip! Evan was a little scared, but the rest of us loved it.

Before the trip, I had planned all our days out using touringplans.com. I quickly realized though that I was going to need to be very flexible with the kids, so with the exception of MK, I really didn't stick to those plans all that closely. I had hoped to make it over to Test Track after Soarin, but it was showing a 60 minute wait by now so we skipped it. I think it was for the best as the kids were already antsy from waiting in the Soarin line. We headed over to the Living with the Land boat ride instead and we all enjoyed it. By now I could see on the app that all the ride lines were getting long. However, it showed the Nemo ride was only a 15 minute wait. Boy, was that wrong. We got in line and waited at least 30-40 minutes. I was disappointed we waited since it was such a quick ride. By now the kids were about done waiting in lines, so we took a break and walked around some shops and looked at all the pretty flowers. We were there during the Flower and Garden Festival and all the topiaries and flowers were so pretty!

Waiting in line for Soarin

The Big Golf Ball otherwise known as Spaceship Earth


Evan loved to throw money into every fountain we would pass. He would say his wish out loud. They were things like. . I wish I could fly, I wish I could live at Disney World, I wish I could live in this fountain with all this money.

After some walking around we used our fast pass for Spaceship Earth (the big golf ball ride as my kids called it). This was the longest fast pass line we waited in all trip. I think even with the fast pass, we still waited about 15-20 minutes. It was worth the wait though, as we all enjoyed this one. Then it was on to use our fast pass to meet Mickey, Goofy and Minnie. Evan was soo shy meeting the characters for the first time. I don't think he knew how to act! He warmed up a bit as the trip went on, but was still pretty shy with them.

As we were waiting to meet Minnie, Evan loudly said "I do not want to meet Minnie!" Not sure why he said that, but we convinced him he should. Poor Minnie!

We were all ready for some lunch after meeting the characters, so we stopped at the first quick service location we could find, Electric Umbrella. It was nice to sit for a bit. After lunch we decided it was time to go back to the hotel for a nap break. We were all tired from getting up early and then walking around. Since we were on the monorail, it made it super easy to make these afternoon breaks and they were so needed by all of us! Both kids (and Shawn) napped for about 2 hours and after they woke up, we headed back to Epcot for dinner and a few more rides.

We started the night walking around some of the countries in World Showcase and I actually enjoyed this much more than I thought I would! In fact, walking around this area quickly became one of my favorite parts of our trip. We had dinner reservations at Biergarten in Germany. It was just an okay restaurant in my opinion. We had to wait about 20 minutes before we were seated and then I didn't love the buffet food, however, Shawn really liked it. They did have some fun entertainment for the kids though, so that helped keep them occupied a bit.

After dinner we headed over to Norway and used our fast pass for the Frozen ride. This was another highlight of the trip. We all loved this ride and the few hills in it surprised us! After Frozen, I took the kids on the Donald Duck boat ride in Mexico since there was no line, while Shawn tried some of the beer from around the world. :) By now, it was almost 9:00 and the fireworks show, Illuminations was starting. This was probably my least favorite of the fireworks show, but I'm still glad we saw it (twice in fact during our trip). When the fireworks were done, we made the mad dash to the monorail to head back to our hotel for the night. This was one of our latest nights since Epcot stayed open later than the other parks.