Spring Break - Disney Day - Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot

It's a long blog entry today because it was a long day at the parks!
Today we're on a mission to visit a whole bunch of Disney parks. Why? Well it's our goal to visit all 12 Disney parks in the whole world in a 12 month span. We cranked out the 4 Asian parks back in October. The two back home in Anaheim are a given. This trip we'll be getting all 4 parks here in Orlando. And later this summer we hope to cross the two off Disneyland Paris too!

Smile family! We left everyone else back at the house and came out to Disneyland on our own today.

Here at the Animal Kingdom, we're going to explore Dinoland USA.

Aww. Love these sweet pictures.

Here we got to ride the Triceratops Spin. It's fun that the person in the back has a controller too. They can rock your trike back and forth while the person up front controls the height.

I guess it's a little loud.

They're really looking forward to when they'll be big enough to go on the Primeval Whirl.

A dinosaur boneyard you say?

I know two kids who would love to go digging in a dinosaur boneyard.

Shoves and pails provided.

And you get to take home as much of the gravel as you can hold in your shoes!

The climbing playground with the tall slides looked like it would be pretty fun too.

Unfortunately immediately after going down the first slide, the skies opened up and we got some Florida rain.

Time for some snacks while we walk out and head to the next park.

We made a quick stop and the entrance ticket booths. There one of the cast members made the kids buttons. She asked them their favorite animal and wrote it on an "I'm Celebrating" button.
Ian was celebrating Giraffes.

Alli said her favorite animal was Duffy (the Disney Bear). The cast member heard something else, so today Alli is celebrating Dolphins!

Back to the car and over to the next park.

It's rainy here too, but we're inside Disney's Hollywood Studios.

A quick photo in front of the Chinese Theater here.

Wandering back into Toy Story Land. The decorations are all very similar to Hong Kong and Shanghai, but that Slinky Dog Coaster looks like something better. The coasters in those other parks are more of a carnival style that are a complete circle with Slink chasing his tail. This one is a real roller coaster. Much better! We'll have to come back when there's a shorter line.

Back to the car and time to go to our final park of the day.

Alli - Take a picture of me Daddy!

That's right, we're in Epcot!

And a photo in front of Space Ship Earth.

Our very first stop was Club Cool.

You know how much we enjoy doing taste tests of all sorts of different things. This is a free taste test of eight different sodas from around the world!
And the kids are happy they're both big enough to get the drinks all by themselves.

Mmm. Everyone has their favorites.

But they still don't like Beverly, the bitter Italian soda. And by the way, I've been to Italy twice now and I made it a point to look for that drink. I could not find it anywhere.

After drinks, it was over to The Land pavilion. There we'd enjoy a lunch of pizza, salmon, PB&J, and the whole reason T came here, bowls of cucumbers and tomatoes.

Once we finished our lunch, how could you not go over to Living with the Land. It's one of T's favorite rides here.

And it's fast becoming one of Alli's favorite rides too.
Alli - Daddy look at that! Daddy take a picture!

Time to start using our fastpasses for the day and I have to say, I do like the Walt Disney World system of fastpasses. You can reserve 3 fastpasses (only at one park), weeks in advance. Being able to get 3 at one time helps planning all the other stuff you want to do. And once you use all three, you can get more, just one at a time. You can do it all on your phone for free too, unlike Disneyland back home.
Space Ship Earth is the icon of the park and since Ian loves space so much, he was excited to ride it.
And I'm not going to say any names, but someone fell asleep pretty fast on the ride and had to be woken at the unloading zone.

There we are!

Our next fastpass took us over to meet Mickey and his pals. The kids get excited whenever they see them.

Hi Goofy!

Goofy was interested in their celebration buttons. And he pointed out that he's the character on the celebration button, so in a way, we're celebrating him too!

Last up is Minnie.

Great family photos.

Our last fastpass was over with Figment and a Journey into Imagination.

Even though he's a Florida native, we enjoy Figment a lot, and his "One Little Spark" song is a regular in our nighttime song rotation. It's even the hallmark on one of Alli's quilts.

The surprise at the end where you're hit with a big blast of air though is not a favorite.

They both remember the Imagination lab from last time (with Gram and Pop Pop I think), and wanted to make their own Figment.

I didn't realize someone had already started customizing a Figment and walked away, so Ian didn't get to pick some of the items on his. But this was the final result which he named Happy.

Alli's is pink (of course), with a heart tail and silly bunny ears. And she has a habit of adding an extra syllable into certain words, so she named hers Fig-a-ment Flowers.

Now that we've used all three of our fastpasses, I'm looking on my phone for any other fastpasses that are immediate for some of the rides we like. Rides like Finding Nemo.

Looking into the Dolphin tank and trying to see one of those Dolphins that Alli is celebrating today.

I forget the exact circumstances, but duties were assigned (like eat all your food or something) and ice cream bars were promised should those said duties be fulfilled. They each got to pick out their favorites.

Mmm. Nice photo.

Alli is certainly enjoying hers.

And Ian thought it was really fun that his drips made a hidden mickey on his napkin.

So all this time I'm trying to figure out the next ride that we'll fastpass. The top rides here at Epcot are Test Track and the always popular Frozen ride. Since you can make reservations for those weeks and months in advance, they sell out quickly. But every once in a while some magic can happen. Whether it's because someone cancels a fastpass or Disney opens more up, I couldn't say, but I happened to be looking at the right time and found 4 nearly immediate fastpasses available for Frozen! Alli was thrilled!

And we were all thrilled not to be waiting in that 95 minute line. Wow.

Alli really liked it, though she wouldn't sit on the side where Marshmallow shows up. Ian's fairly fearless though.

The Norway gift shop at the exit has some pretty adorable things to buy. You guys look awesome.

Oh my. Such fierce Viking warriors with their shields and swords.

In general, I'd say we get more than our fair share of Disney Magic. That would be evident once again soon. Right after getting off the ride, I was looking to see what we could go to next. And there again, 4 more immediate fastpasses available for Frozen. Let's go again!

Just an 85 minute wait now. I know we're passing some people who were in line the first time we fastpassed this ride. And this time Alli was brave and sat on the side where Marshmallow would appear. Good job girlie.

Please may you buy this?
Eh, not today. Though I know you do love playing dress-up.

It's been a long day and we're about ready to wrap it up. We're over the need to "do it all" and go from open to close now. Instead, we'll head back to the house and have dinner with the rest of the family.

But I think we can pick up dessert. There's so many options, but there's only one thing the guys back home really want.

School bread. They love the sweet bread filled with custard and topped with coconut.

It was a fun day going to so many different parks and getting to experience so many things. Just one more park to go! Next time it's off to the Magic Kingdom!