We were heading back to Epcot today, so when I woke up and my foot was still super swollen I knew I was gonna have to break down and wear my sneakers. Luckily I had brought them with me because I almost didn't! Once in the sneaker, my foot felt so much better! I was ready for the day.
We got to Epcot and took another round of photopass photos in front of Spaceship Earth. You really can never have too many of those.
Then we started to walk a little and noticed that Daisy was out greeting people. I had never met Daisy before so she was a must for me.
As we left meeting Daisy, poor Stitch was standing all by himself with no line at all! Poor guy! We felt a little bad so we paid him a little visit as well. I love when a character doesn't have a line of people waiting to see them so neither of us feels rushed. Stitch was able to interact and goof around with us and we could take our time. It is really nice. Stitch was having a fun time with Kendall about her Mickey Mouse shirt!
Our main goal for today was just to do the things that we didn't get a chance to see on our first day here. We headed back in Epcot so we could make our way to the World Showcase.
Along the way we ran into Carol and her sister-in-law so we stopped to chat with them for a minute and see what they had planned for the day. Standing still for more than one minute means being a target for Love Bugs.
After that visit we headed over to Club Cool so I could try the different sodas. It was fun! There were quite a few good ones and some not so good ones as well. Of course we had to get a photo of me trying the Beverly for the first time! It was NOT good, but not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
After Club Cool we took some photos at the Fountain of Nations and then decided to to ride Test Track as single riders before moving on to the World Showcase for the rest of the day. Heather and I got lucky and got to ride together and poor Kendall had to ride by herself.
We strolled along the way to the WS and took some scenery shots of the areas along the way. There is so much land and greenery! I love all the different walkways and the little lakes all around.
The Epcot Food and Wine Festival was going to be starting the weekend after our trip (of course!) so there was already some basic stuff starting to pop up for it. At the entrance to the World Showcase they had up some super cute Donald & Daisy topiaries that were food & wine themed.
We headed in the direction of Mexico first since we started the opposite way on our last Epcot day. But first I saw the one thing I had been looking for! A coffee stand!! It had been 4 days since my last iced vanilla latte and I needed one bad! The coffee was good, but I don't recommend getting any food from this particular stand if you can help it =(
Happy with my coffee in hand, we headed to Mexico! I loved this pavilion! Mostly I loved that it was all indoors out of the heat. But there was a ton to see. Lots of shopping, a restaurant and even a ride. Which is what we did. I can see how people would think that the Grand Fiesta Tour is totally cheesy. Because it is. But I loved it! It probably helps that I am a huge fan of the Three Caballeros. I found it to be quite enjoyable.
After the ride we checked out some more of the merchandise and took some silly photos before heading back out into the heat.
The view of the World Showcase from Mexico was awesome! Took quite a few photos from this spot.
Mexico Donald was on a break and we had some time to kill before he would be back to we headed to Norway. Norway was pretty cool. The detail in the architecture was awesome.
There was one specific item for pretty much every pavilion that I knew I just had to take a photo of. For Norway it was a photo of me with the troll. While I was wearing a viking helmet of course. The troll is hideous, but it is just one of those things you have to do and I love my photo!
After checking out the rest of the shops we went on Maelstrom. What a weird ride. First off, the mural in the loading area? I am not even sure what was going on with that thing. I did love that the boats were little Viking ships. The ride itself was ok. It was one of those rides that I always remember seeing in the vacation planning videos from when I was little so I knew we had to ride it, but if the line had been more than 5 minutes I would have been mad.
After Norway we headed back over to Mexico to get in line for Donald. Donald in his sombrero is just the cutest thing ever. I love my photo with him because he is kissing me on the cheek!
After Donald we continued on to China. This is a pretty good sized pavilion and the detail on everything is out of this world! It was VERY hot out today so Heather and Kendall grabbed some frozen fruity drinks at the Joy Of Tea kiosk and we grabbed a bench in the shade while they drank them.
We just sat there for quite some time taking in the beauty of the area. It was really nice. There was a TON of stuff to see in this pavilion.
They had a display up about the Tomb Warriors that was amazing. A small replica of what they had actually uncovered along with tons of artifacts and stories. We spent a good amount of time in there before heading out to the shopping area.
The store here was pandas galore! Soo much panda stuff. It was hilarious and Kendall was a good sport and tried some of the awesome stuff on for me to get photos of her.
The scenery around the whole pavilion was so pretty so I made sure to take photos of it all.
As we were moving further along, I kept having to remind myself to turn around and take photos across the water. There really is no way to get a bad shot. It is all so picture perfect!
After China we stopped at a couple photopass photographers that were taking photos with Spaceship Earth and Mexico in the background. These photos ended up being some of my favorites that we took the entire trip! They are gorgeous. We seriously rocked that hear/see/speak no evil pose at least once in every park. LOL!
Then we moved on to Germany. I was excited about Germany for a couple reasons. The first reason is Karamell Kuche. OMG, the smell of that place! I could live there. It was our first stop and I just couldn't wait to try some of their treats. Heather and Kendall both went for the chocolate and caramel drizzled strawberry, which looked amazing. I got a giant caramel drizzled peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and a big 'ol hunk of pure caramel. They were both seriously delicious. I really wish I would have gotten more of the caramel squares because it was by far the best thing I have ever had.
After we finished out treats we headed into the German Christmas Corner shop. I just love Christmas shops. This one was amazing because they had a pickle ornament tree! We picked a pickle ornament for our tree at home just a couple years ago and seeing a whole tree covered in just pickles was hilarious! I just love that German tradition.
We went in the other gift shops they had here too. There were such amazing things! Giant gummy bears, cute German themed Disney shirts, beer steins and beautiful coo-coo clocks! They were seriously stunning and so detailed. I really wish I could have brought one home with me.
There wasn't much to do when we moved on to Italy, since we had already visited it on our last day here, but I wanted to take a quick look into the shops to find their pressed penny machine. Unfortunately, while we were there it started POURING rain. There wasn't much we could do but try to wait it out for a little bit. We grabbed a bench and re-organized our gear.
I did manage to snap some photos around the pavilion with the help of my umbrella.
Here is a quick little video of Heather and Kendall blaming me for being the reason we were stuck in boring Italy during the downpour. Lol!
It took quite a while for the rain to even let up a little bit so we could try to move on. Once it did let up, we were on the move!
Next up was the America Pavilion.
We got to the America Pavilion just in time for the last performance of Voices Of Liberty. I knew I wanted to stay and watch them because I grew up listening to a Voices Of Liberty tape that my mom had purchased from Epcot back in 1986. Since it was still really wet outside, they performed outside the building I am guess so people wouldn't track in water and make the floor super slippery. It was a great show! They sounded amazing. Just like I remember hearing on the tape all those years. I made sure to video tape it for my mom and to pick up a CD of their songs for her.
Here is a quick little snippet of them performing as well. I chose this clip because of a funny thing that happens during it. From the closed doors emerges the most skeletal looking CM that I have ever seen. And if that isn't enough, she tries to be totally inconspicuous and not take away from the performance. You can totally hear me laughing because it was pretty hilarious.
Next up was Japan. Since we had already been to this shop on our first Epcot day, we just did a quick run through so I could pick up a couple things that I wanted to buy.
In the back of the first shop there is a little room section where they sell Kimonos! The super nice CM that was working helped us all get into some of them and take some photos! That was a lot of fun.
On the way out of the pavilion we stopped for a second to watch the lady making the candy art! I wish we could have stayed a little longer but she was just wrapping up her presentation and it was starting to rain again so we decided to move on.
We made a quick little run through Morocco so I could grab some photos. I really liked this pavilion even though there really isn't much to do there. The shops were really eclectic and colorful! There were some really pretty things in there.
Kendall is probably gonna kill me for posting this photo of her, but I don't care because it is seriously hilarious!! So funny =)
Now it had really started to pour again to we seeked shelter inside the France pavilion to try and wait it out once again. After France we would be leaving through the international gateway to head to the Beach Club for dinner so I decided to use this time to run to the UK and Canada pavilions to grab my pressed pennies. Kendall and I threw on our ponchos, left Heather to watch the bags and made a run for it. We were pretty soaked my the time we got back, but I had my pennies! He gathered up our things, rearranged out ponchos so everything would stay dry and headed off to the Beach Club resort.
Stay tuned for part 2!!
1 - Finally Being Able To Scrap A Album
2 - MNSSHP
3 - Wearing My Custom Bow Minnie Ears
4 - Tea At The Grand Floridian
5 - Tower Of Terror
6 - Photopass Photos
7 - France
8 - Figment Merchandise
9 - Illuminations
10 - Rock N Roller-coaster
11 - The Tree Of Life
12 - Phineas & Ferb
13 - Vinylmation Trading
14 - Test Track
15 - Magical Express
16 - Yak & Yeti
17 - Tomorrowland Transit Authority
18 - Extra Magic Hours
19 - Boma
20 - Splash Mountain & Space Mountain
21 - The Big Hat
22 - Finding Nemo The Musical
23 - Kilimanjaro Safari
24 - World Showcase
25 - Sci-Fi Dine-In
26 - Country Bear Jamboree
27 - The Hotels
28 - Pressed Pennies
29 - Spaceship Earth
30 - Earl Of Sandwich
31 - 1st Visit & Happy Birthday Pin's
32 - Haunted Mansion
33 - Dole Whip
34 - Animation Academy
35 - Seeing Heather in action on Toy Story Mania
36 - Meeting Lots Of Characters
37 - Expedition Everest
38 - Meeting Heather & Kendall
39 - First Vacation On My Own
40 - Walking Down Main Street
