Disney World 2023: Epcot days 2 and 3 and Magic Kingdom Day 2

We let ourselves sleep in a bit after our late night at Hollywood Studios. The next morning after a LONG wait for the skyliner, we made it to Epcot. Oscar nad the kids wanted to go to Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavillion for breakfast, but I wanted German treats, so we set off in different directions.

I had lots of photopass photos taken along my way. The caramel in the German pavilion is soooo good!

I enjoyed all the beautiful scenery and architecture at my own leisure and watched the China 360 cinema. I was one of maybe 5 people in there. It's a good place to cool down and watch a beautifully made film, but this was shortly after park opening when everyone is trying to get in their favorite rides while the lines are shorter than usual, so it was pretty deserted. 

I eventually met up with the family in the land pavilion and watched Awesome Planet with them. They'd also gone on the Finding Nemo ride and grabbed Dory scavenger hunt sticker books.

Jenny had arrived and toured Journey of Water before meeting up with us to ride Soarin'.

We watched the Turtle Talk show, then rode Soarin', then rode Figment. Figment is a pretty boring ride, but they have an ImagineWorks play area you walk out into when you're done. I told the kids they could play then immediately had to take them away since our return time popped up for Cosmic Rewind. This was already in conflict with our Space 220 reservation, so we had no time to waste.

Cosmic Rewind was was just fantastic! It's like Space Mountain but so much smoother and so much better. Look at my hair in this photo! I was having so much fun! There's no reason this popular of a ride should ever have an empty seat, though. They need a single rider line.

We were pretty late thanks to our virtual queue, but they still let us dine at Space 220. Here they simulate that you're going on a rocket into space and are viewing earth from above. The ambiance was literally "out of this world!" The food looked really neat, and it all tasted decent for the most part, but it wasn't quite worth the high price tag. You choose from a set menu of appetizer and entree', but I was getting full after just the appetizer. At least they let Tyler order off the kids' menu and didn't charge us an adult price. I booked this for Tyler, and he did like it, but he also seemed just as impressed with what he saw at the Mission Space and Spaceship Earth rides and play areas. 

Oscar hadn't liked the woodsmoke flavor on his salmon, so he sent it back and got a steak. The kids and I were done while he was just beginning to eat. He's a bit of a slow eater, and Jenny wasn't done yet either, so I took the kids back to play in the ImagineWorks play area I'd had to pull them away from earlier.

When Oscar was done he met up with us at Journey of Water. I went back to the Seas Pavillion, rode Nemo again, and explored the aquarium.

After that we rode Remy's Ratatouille Adventure and got some fun pictures just outside the entrance. We got a lot more smells this time. The cheese and french bread were nice and strong. It must depend where you're sitting on the ride vehicle since I hadn't noticed them nearly as much the first time.

From there we took a break back at the hotel before coming back in the evening for a few rides and fireworks. We rode Spaceship Earth and Mission Space, then just let the kids play. At 8:55pm Tyler was so disappointed to be dragged away from the fun interactive areas. We saw the fireworks from a much better spot than where we'd been the first time. I'd told the kids to stand on the high curb behind the trash cans, but then both of them ended up sitting on the trash cans while I stood on the curb.

At 5:00am the next morning Tyler woke up sick. He threw up all over the floor. I wasn't sure what to do since we were changing hotels that day, so we'd have to move him at some point regardless. Allison woke up and said "I feel just fine!" and none of the rest of us were sick nor did we ever get sick the rest of the trip. I still took her to Magic Kingdom as originally planned, but I figured it wouldn't make a good choice for Tyler. I told Oscar if Tyler stayed really sick we'd reach out to the new hotel and see if we could check in early, but if Tyler got some rest and felt better later, going to Epcot again might be the better choice. Tyler had really struggled with crowded busses and big crowds on our previous Magic Kingdom day, so at least with Epcot they could take the Skyliner and Tyler could just do the play and interactive areas he'd loved and not bother with any rides.

Our our way to the busses, Allison walked into a fun dance party. 

Allison and I arrived before Jenny and had pictures taken whenever we saw photographers. I grabbed her a few gummies at Main Street Confectionary.

We got a great spot for Mickey's Magical Friendship Faire. Allison danced along while Elsa sang "Let it Go," and she shared her treats with other kids. During the last few minutes she got bored and started picking at her hands, so we went into Fantasy Land to get some more food.

Allie and I drank a queen of hearts slushie and grabbed a cheshire cat tail. I'd heard a lot about the cat tail on the Disney food blog, but I thought it was overrated. I wished we'd grabbed a cinnamon roll from Gaston's Tavern instead. The slushie was delicious though! 

Tyler did feel much better after getting some more sleep, and as I'd predicted, he decided to do another day at Epcot rather than joining us at Magic Kingdom. They got checked out and took all of our luggage to the front desk, then he and Oscar hopped on the skyliner and got yummy treats and breakfast at Sunshine Seasons. Tyler mostly did the Ducktales' Scavenger Hunt and all the interactive stuff he'd loved from the previous two days, and he also felt good enough to ride Test Track, Mission Space, and Cosmic Rewind. Tyler seemed to really appreciate having a day to geek out with daddy. 

And the three of us enjoyed having a girls' day. Allison and I met up with Jenny and got some cute photos of us in front of the Beauty and the Beast castle. 

Tyler and Oscar rode Test Track around the same time we went to Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room. 

It was fun to ride and get pictures on Haunted Mansion with Allison.

We also rode Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean before taking the train back around to Main Street to go to Tony's for lunch. Allison agrees with me that Big Thunder is just okay because of the lack of big roller coaster dips. 

Tony's is where Lady and the Tramp get their spaghetti and meatballs in the movie, so I had to take a picture of Jenny eating her spaghetti. Allison got Alfredo pasta, garlic bread, fruit, and a cupcake, which was pretty much her perfect meal. I got a yummy caprese appetizer and that with some of Jenny's garlic bread was more than enough food for me. Allison had been used to getting a nap on all of our other busy Disney days, so she started getting tired after lunch. She said she needed a nap, but I told her I didn't have a hotel to take her back to and she'd just have to tough it out.

Fortunately she perked back up upon discovering that the Dumbo play area was open this time. She had a lot of fun while Jenny staked out a good spot for the parade. We met her over there after Allison had gotten her energy out and was ready to sit in my lap and enjoy the parade. 

After the parade we watched Philharmagic and rode Seven Dwarfs' Mine Train.

I'd been able to snag us an afternoon virtual queue for Tron. This time Allison rode next to me and said she preferred to ride this way more than with the lap bar in the back seat.

We then rode It's a Small World with Jenny before she separated from us to go get some souvenirs. Allison and I went back so she could play at the Dumbo play area. Unfortunately it had closed at 5pm, so we rode Dumbo and had a few more photos taken. 

After getting the super zoom shot Allison was super exhausted and struggling to walk. I offered to give her a piggy back ride, but I hadn't squatted down low enough and fell over on the way back up. She scraped up her back and cried. I saw a bench and told her we could try again with her standing on the bench and climbing on my back, but she said "I don't want to risk it. I'd rather have the side pain of walking."

Oscar and Tyler found a photographer near Guardians and got some fun magic shots.

Tyler and Oscar were also able to snag a virtual queue for Guardians, but they still had to wait 80 minutes. We all agreed that the virtual queue is useless at that point since you have no idea how long you're going to have to wait. It'd be better to have a 3 hour standby line when you know how long you're waiting than to wait 80 minutes with no clue. 

After Magic Kingdom closed Jenny, Allison, and I went over for dinner at Sanaa at Animal Kingdom Lodge. It was fun to see the animals and eat tasty naan and butter chicken. We ordered a bread service appetizer, I just ordered soup, and Allison got the butter chicken kids' meal. She ate the fruit and dessert from it along with some naan with spicy sauce while I ate her butter chicken and rice. It tasted delicious and was plenty of food. I was even able to take most of my soup back to the new hotel and enjoy it a few days later. 

After our yummy meal we went back to Jenny's hotel to pick up her luggage then grabbed an Uber over to our new Sea World hotel.

After Cosmic Rewind the boys went into Journey of Water for me. I'd seen it was lit up the previous night, but it was closed and I couldn't go in. They went in and took pictures for me.

They finished the evening taking the skyliner back and enjoying one last view of Spaceship Earth all lit up before picking up our luggage and meeting us back at the new hotel.