Up first was Epcot. Here we are by the iconic Spaceship Earth:
Our kids (Lydia and Derek) have long been obsessed with the Finding Nemo and Finding Dory movies, so the Seas with Nemo and Friends section of the park was a highlight. We went on the Nemo ride multiple times and watched Turtle Talk with Crush. Karina was called on and spoke to 'Crush' on the big screen. This is a playground just outside the ride:
Above is Bruce, the shark from Finding Nemo, and below is 'Chum'.
One of the few places it was easy to get the kids to smile on demand for a picture was by their fish idols Dory, Marlin, and Nemo.
We had planned on touring all the countries in Epcot, and sampling food at each of them, but after going on the rides in the Norway and Mexico pavilions, and eating food at both places, we decided to go back to the main section of Epcot and skip most of the countries. In the evening, we did come back and briefly see the UK and Canada pavilions. It didn't help that the country pavilion after Norway in Epcot is China. Karina has a weird obsession with disliking China, and has convinced Lydia to think likewise. From foot binding, to female infanticide, to factories, etc., she is not a fan despite us telling her of nice people we know who are Chinese. As a side, it was rather ironic that Karina's pull-out gifted class at school this semester will be studying extreme weather and will focus exclusively on .... China! I laughed when I found out. So to avoid China in Epcot, we skipped about half of the country pavilions.
Outside Mexico, in the picture below, Lydia and Karina did secret agent quests in the Mexico pavilion and had fun. Lydia ended up doing another secret agent activity in England in the evening. After solving clues and pushing buttons on a phone app, the secret agents could make all sorts of random things in the pavilions move and communicate. Derek did a kids' activity there, and made a 'suitcase' out of a ziploc bag. For the next 5 days, he carried around his 'suitcase' religiously and was very distraught every time it was misplaced (which was frequently). His 'suitcase' was in shambles by the end of the week, but it was his treasure that he had made.
Everyone's favorite ride in Epcot was Soarin' and we were lucky enough to go on it a few times. One of the times, we got the best seats in the ride - right in the middle at the top tier so no one's feet are dangling down in your field of vision. Lydia was scared that she was sitting too high and was inconsolable. Unfortunately, by that point, everyone else in the theater was already seated. So Lydia and I left the ride to get on the next one in a "safer" and lower seat. It was fun to see different parts of the world projected on the huge screen, and Lydia especially liked seeing all the different parts of the world we would "visit" on the map while we were waiting.
Spaceship Earth at the end of the evening.
Next up was Animal Kingdom. We somehow got Derek and Lydia, who dislike scary rides, to go on the ride 'Dinosaur'. Lydia was furious after the ride saying we had tricked her. Derek wasn't as scared, but didn't want to ride again. I didn't think it was particularly scary, but there are some large dinosaurs that pop out at you as you are driving in a jeep that is going on a bumpy and jerky track.
Some family shots:
At the end of the Festival of the Lion King show, Derek was selected by a cast member to be one of the few kids to join the cast on the stage. He joined the cast member on the stage, but suddenly became shy, just standing there, when he was supposed to walk in a parade (or maybe he just had no clue what was expected of him). The lady came back for him and held his hand, and then he was willing to walk around the stage in the parade during the final dancing/singing scene, holding her hand the whole way. His job was to shake a noise shaker/rattle to the music as he walked. He did great!
On Kilimanjaro Safari we saw lots of fun animals. Our faces were so sweaty from the heat, that we didn't get any good pictures of anyone except Karina:
Looking at some gorillas in the zoo-like exhibit:
Despite Karina being brave on the Magic Kingdom roller coaster, she decided she did not want to ride Expedition Everest in Animal Kingdom. It is in the background of the next picture:
There was a Boneyard digging play area with a fossil theme that we went to for a short while:
In front of the Tree of Life in the middle of the park:
Derek was pretty good at napping in the middle of the day in the stroller. He went down without any crying or protest. Nate had one of the park photographers take this picture of them where he is pretending to scream "Wake Up" at Derek so he could see the floating rock islands in the air of the Avatar area of the park. Derek didn't react.
Silly boy wearing Daddy's hat on the monorail back to our hotel:
In our hotel there was a Mickey statue in the foyer:
When we went to Disney World a few years ago, we got a wonderful picture of Lydia kissing Mickey Mouse on the cheek. Derek tried to replicate that moment with the statue:
From January 2016:
Our final day in Disney World was spent in Hollywood Studios.
Minnie Mouse was very friendly:
Mickey Mouse was great too, and Lydia did give him a kiss, like she did when she was 2.5 years old. For Halloween this year, Lydia is going to be a wizard, and she wanted a wizard hat just like Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey's.
By Cruz Ramirez, one of the cars from the movie Cars 3:
We loved the ride Toy Story Mania - it is my favorite ride in all of the parks. I think we all got to ride 3 times, and if it were easier to get fastpasses for, it would have been more.
Karina and I waving on Slinky Dog Dash:
A wonderful, but hot, week!
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