2022 Disney/Universal Trip; Day #3 (EPCOT)

We were up early and hit EPCOT in time for rope drop.  We went to Remy's Ratatouille Adventure.   It was so cute!  






You ride in little mouse cars and go all through all the kitchen


We then rode Figment, Soarin', Living with the Land, and Nemo and friends.  


By 10:50 we headed over to Guardians for our very first (and ONLY!) lightening lane ever; I refused to pay for Lightening Lanes or Genie+ and we mostly worked the crowds to our advantage.  However, for Guardians our virtual queue time was overlapping our dinner reservation and we never would have gotten to ride.  

So I sucked up the cost for this one ride... only to find the ride had broken down! Luckily we were told the Lightening Lane passes would be honored at any point throughout the day.  

We decided to head back to the hotel to get out of the heat, eat lunch, and rest.   

We headed back to EPCOT at 3; making it to the park by 4.  We headed right to Guardians of the Galaxy and it was back up and running so we got to ride.   It was amazing and easily became my new favorite ride at WDW!

We went to dinner at the Rose and Crown Pub. It was delicious and we had beautiful views.... but it was so HOT sitting outside (our only choice despite our reservations; Disney is severely understaffed right now). 


My dinner was delicious-- fish, green beans, and a hot potato salad.


After dinner we walked through ALL the lands of the world showcase.   We started with Mexico and the 3 caballeros.
 

We went onto lots of the buildings and watched several movies, Air Supply was playing at the America stadium and with the food and wine festival going on the whole park was packed.  


We went to get dessert crepes in France and then checked out the patisserie.  Alec used his entire $25 gift card to buy snacks!  I marveled he had room to finish two of them after dinner and crepes.  It began thundering and lightening and POURING so we huddled in the building for awhile.


Alec ate his strawberry tart and beignet and saved the macrons for later in the trip

The storm was not really letting up much so we decided to make the long trek to the buses in the rain; 3 of us had ponchos but we all got wet despite them.


The ball was lighting up in tune to music and all the patterns and colors were so neat to see!


So we missed yet another closing show that we wanted to see and we had had plans to meet up with our family to watch together! We were bummed but tired enough that we weren't willing to sit around the park and see if the show would be up later (it was; but by then we were in our room, showered, and in bed!). 

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Comments

  1. I am hoping to get away without buying genie +. I am not sure I want to try Guardians of the Galaxy because I heard it spins a lot!

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    1. I don't remember it spinning; my husband gets motion sick the easiest of all of us and he thought that ride was fine (and he refused to go on the Rockin' Roller Coaster remembering from previous trips that it wiped him out).

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  2. You guys packed a lot in the park, especially in the morning. The Ratatouille ride looks cute. So you can buy fast passes for an individual attraction or for an entire day? I'll bet it's expensive and I would not want to purchase them! It looks like a very fun day in the park!

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    1. The early morning is the best time to hit the parks since everyone tends to arrive closer to 10. All our wait times were 15 minutes or less right up until 10:50!

      Genie + allows you to set fast passes throughout the day for a set price per person per day (pretty sure it's $35 each) and then Lightening Lanes are individual fast passes that you can purchase (though I believe you are only allowed 2 per day)... and I could very well be mistaken since I didn't plan to use them but I think those that have individual Lightening Lane passes aren't on Genie+. The cost of the Lightening Lane passes vary by attraction and time of year too so if it's a super new ride or a super busy season the cost goes up.

      I really used to LOVE Disney and we went every other year... I honestly don't see myself going back. I was very disgusted with them and all that has been taken away since the pandemic-- no bus service from the airport, no dining plan options of any kind, the extra magic hour was cut in half and only some rides are open in that 1/2 hour so we were lucky to squeeze in 1 ride during extra hours. I mean I get some of it (no dining plan with a severely shortened waitstaff and kitchen staff) but most of it just felt they were charging because they could and people would pay. I think 90% of the people we saw were on their phones constantly trying to get passes and set their day and I just refused. They were all so stressed and we heard a few moms swearing that their whole day was ruined now because they messed up.

      Even their wait times/signs were mostly way over- inflated. My husband went to ride one of the Star Wars rides even thought it said 125 minute wait; he was on the ride in 45! It said 7 Dwarves was going to be over an hour and we were on the ride in 15... stuff like that drove me nuts. They used to be much more accurate and I'm not sure why they were so way off this time. But I speculated it was to sell more passes. I think only once or twice did we wait longer than the sign said and that was usually when a huge line of fast pass holders went by.

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  3. Lovely photos! It looks like you had a great time despite the rain.

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  4. I never thought about it being FLORIDA and storms and heat and humidity and stuff. I can see how you just have to roll with it. lol Those little mouse cars are the cutest and how fun that they go through a kitchen set up!

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    1. Yep, we were actually pretty lucky with the few storms we had as it is currently hurricane season in Florida; I'll take a thunderstorm over a hurricane any day! We thought that mouse ride was the cutest.

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    1. EPCOT is so neat since you really do feel like you're in each country! Usually all the workers in each country are from that country too.

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  6. I'll live vicariously through your trip. I miss Disney!

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    1. Please do! I do the same thing when I stumble upon bloggers that are recapping their trips. I just love it.

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  7. Guardians of the Galaxy wasn't open yet when we went in April, so we're excited to have something to look forward to for next time. I am so excited that you loved it so much. Now I'm really excited about it!

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    1. It was awesome and it didn't have any loops or upside downs so it's pretty good for most ages too.

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  8. Interesting comments (above) about your experience. We were there in 2018 and everything worked smoothly. Very disappointed to hear some of those things are missing or changed now. Glad you're making it work for your family without the Genie+, it would be super annoying to be on your phone all of the time to plan it all. We thought about going this year but I think we'll wait and maybe they will improve some things the farther we get away from the pandemic.

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    1. I sure hope so; though they have said they have zero plans to bring back the airport transportation shuttle but I figured renting a car and driving to the resort was minor (though I was surprised to find we had a parking charge!). I just couldn't help be a bit bummed because it was so NOT the trip we had planned in 2020 (we had fast passes/ dining/ etc. already booked). But we still made the best of it and had a great time! It is Disney and it wasn't like I was miserable. LOL.

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  9. Looks like another fun day and delicious food too but sorry it ended up raining and you had to miss out on some stuff!

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    1. We had some really great meals the whole week! I don't know it if was just that I was starving by the time we took breaks or if the food was just that good but I felt like I had never eaten that well. LOL.

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  10. Despite the storms - and a few disappointments - looks like you were having a great time!!

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    1. We definitely had a great time despite the few (minor) disappointments and in Florida you really have to learn to just be flexible with the weather.

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  11. Love Epcot and you squeezed in all the fun- love your outfit this day too!

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    1. We squeezed in lots of fun and this was my second favorite outfit of the trip! LOL.

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  12. Going to the park so early is such a great idea. You certainly had a fantastic time despite the heat and the rain.

    -Soma

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  13. It's interesting how they've come up with that system to have lightening passes. It makes sense, but in a way seems unfair. But I get it.
    XOOX
    Jodie

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    1. I get it too but it's just a bummer since they used to offer free passes to anyone with park passes; however it is supposed to help cut the times waiting in line to draw people more consistently throughout the day.

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  14. The pictures look great and glad y'all enjoyed the rides. I know the rain is always a little bummer, but looks like you made the best of it. I just wish we had Disney pre-pandemic! It may be a while before I go again, but I would love to see some of the new attractions they have.

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    1. We tried! LOL. We were all set to go in 2020; I wanted one last trip in the off season before my son started public school and so while this trip was not at all what we envisioned we still decided to go with a positive attitude and make the best of it. You can't be sad in Disney. Just seeing the parks makes me smile-- getting to ride everything we wanted to was just an added bonus.

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