Where were we..
We had a wonderful morning in Epcot, and the kids were resting up for more fun this afternoon. Thank goodness my parents were with us, because they were able to stay in the room with the sleeping beauties while TT Dad and I ran off to pick up our bibs at the Expo.
I’m not sure why we thought that this situation would be any different than any other time we’ve used Disney transportation. We left for the bus stop around 2pm, and we had a 6pm dinner reservation in Epcot. Our rental stroller was to be delivered that afternoon to bell services, so our plan was to grab our bibs, then head back to the hotel to get the kids up, grab the stroller, and head to Epcot. Makes sense, right? We could do that in 3 hours, so problem. Or so we thought.
We waited for a bit before the motor coach rolled up to Wilderness Lodge. Okay, we were still in pretty good shape.
We went to the Contemporary to pick up more runners. Still not worried… We were smart and budgeted a lot of time.
We went to Fort Wilderness to pick up more runners… Okay, there can’t possibly be another resort- we’re running out of seats on the bus!
Phew, we turned toward the Wide World of Sports complex. Wait. No, literally. We waited. There was a ton of traffic, and we were barely moving. I think we were on that bus for over an hour. At this point we did start to worry. When we finally arrived at the Expo, it was getting close to 5pm. We called Nonie & Pops, who said the kids had slept for a good long time, but were up now.
New plan- They would grab the stroller, and we would all meet at Epcot, hopefully in time for our 6pm reservation at Akershus!
We navigated the Expo fairly easily. There was one hiccup, as we hadn’t printed off our waivers, since they were sent to the Travel Agency, instead of us. Once that was settled, we were in and out in no time. TT Dad was able to pick up the duo’s bibs, too. We did the math, and decided to take an Uber to Epcot, hopefully buying (literally) us a few extra minutes to check out the shirts, and other goodies for sale.
Purchases made, we called for an Uber.
The driver picked us up right in front of the WWOS, and headed towards Epcot. Most of the traffic seemed to be going in the other direction (still) but we did run into a little delay. Luck was on our side, and we pulled up to Epcot with time to spare (okay, a minute or two- but that’s still time!!)
That minute was spent running through Epcot- we’ll call it a warm up for the week’s events.
We made it to Akershus, and tried to check in, even though we were missing most of our party. We were shunned, as you can imagine, and sent to the side to wait. I guess we didn’t need to run 😉
Finally, we were reunited with our kids, and Nonie & Pops. We were able to head right in, where we were presented to Belle. This was our first character photo opportunity of the trip… but not the last for the evening. The Akershus Royal Banquet Hall is located in Norway, in the World Showcase.
Photo Cred: Disney Photo Pass
Throughout your meal (which consists of a buffet with starters, bread, and salad), various princesses come to your table for a meet and greet. This would set the tone for the rest of our trip.
I wanted to start with face characters, instead of the large cartoonish animal characters. The thought was that if they were just people dressed up, maybe they wouldn’t be as scared. We discussed at length that we’d be meeting a lot of new friends, and we had watched umpteen you tube meet and greets.
As you can see…
We may have been better off doing nothing.
With that experience over, we wandered around Epcot, in no rush to jump on any rides, since we still had another full day scheduled there.
We did, however, rush to make some changes to our Advance Dining Reservations. It was too late to change our brunch at the Crystal Palace the next afternoon, but we were able to make some other changes, and cancel some other character meals. I made the executive decision to keep our Disney Jr breakfast, however. If there were any characters that would be welcomed with open arms, it would be Doc McStuffins.
The kids were still in great spirits, since they had taken such a long nap. They were happy to expend some energy running around Epcot, as we scouted out a couple more Photo Pass photographers.
We made it back to our room and once again, the kids went right to sleep. I could really get used to this.
It was time for the adults to start getting ready for bed- until we all heard a noise. It was music, but we didn’t know where it was coming from- until it hit us. The Electrical Water Pageant was visible from our deck. What a delightful surprise.
With that, we all headed to bed. More Magical Adventures awaited us in the morning!