We hadn’t planned on going to Epcot at all. We bought three day Florida resident tickets and we were going to just pick three parks and do one park each day. After juggling our breakfast reservations (trading Chef Mickey breakfast on a Friday during Lent for the less expensive Ohana on a Thursday when the Irishman could enjoy his breakfast meats) and a few other things we had enough room in our budget to add a park hopper option so that we could visit all four parks and make it to Magic Kingdom on the first and last day of our trip.
We actually never made it to Animal Kingdom. As much as we loved taking Caitlin there last year, we had so much fun at Epcot we went back there a second time instead. The flower and garden expo is going on, so we got to enjoy all the pretty flowers.
Our primary reason for going to Epcot the first time was to eat at my favorite French restaurant. It was good, but not as enjoyable as usual. The tables were too crowded. The waitress with Ratatouille was terrible. In the past they stopped at each table and made him sing and pose for pictures. She breezed right past us.
The food was good though!
One of the surprise highlights was Marie. Caitlin LOVED the kitty cat. Better yet there was not much of a line so we got to spend a lot of time with Marie. She was the most interactive of all the characters we saw and Caitlin ate it up! She got back in line again for a second visit!
Grammy and Daddy were happy to take a break while Caitlin enjoyed the playground.
Daisy came with us, too. We brought the double stroller (which I would recommend), though Caitlin often preferred to walk. Being a stubborn two-year-old she decided at some point to adjust the hand holding situation. We couldn’t argue.
Of course she was even happier to discover Daisy herself at the exit!
We wanted to do something special for our last night so Grammy treated us to dinner at the Garden Grill. We hadn’t been there before, but the menu looked good and we figured Caitlin would enjoy the characters. Halfway through the meal we realized that the restaurant was actually moving. In between the character visits we suddenly noticed that our view had changed and the entire restaurant was rotating. It was rather funny!
(It also makes it hard to find your table when you slip out in the middle of the meal to change a diaper, but that is part of the fun!)
It was all-you-can-eat served family style. The Irishman REALLY enjoyed the streak. We’d asked for more twice. Then the waiter brought this plate out just for my husband. I’m pretty sure we ate a half a cow between us all. Morgan could hardly walk after enjoying that dinner, but it was a lot of fun!
(Caitlin got a haircut at Magic Kingdom – more on that later - in the time between our visits to Epcot. You can see her face now!)
I was disappointed that we didn’t make it to Animal Kingdom, but I don’t think I would change what we did. Caitlin loved everything we did at Disney. The four of us didn’t move too quickly, so we decided to slow down and pick the things we liked most instead of trying to fit in more just to do it.
We also did the Character Spot at Epcot, but I already have a million pictures in this post, so I’ll share those another time. Caitlin is still talking about the trip and all the characters!
