Darrow Disney Vacation Days 4-5

 Thursday we woke up and had a great breakfast at our hotel cafeteria (I love the dining plan and how easy it makes eating in Disney) and then we went to EPCOT for the day. Our hotel is on the Skyliner so we hopped on it and rode our way to the park, which is great. We started in France and riding the new Ratatouille ride since the line wasn't too long. It was cute; not my favorite but definitely cute and my kids love that movie so they really enjoyed the ride. 

Then we went to Future World where we did Turtle Talk with Crush, the Moana water experience (which was fun) and then the boys did Mission Space while we shopped and then we all did Guardians of the Galaxy. I knew it was unique but I was still unprepared for how different of a ride it was until we were on it. Emma and Brandon were not fans and Emma totally cried afterwards but I am thrilled to say those were our only ride tears all week. It is a totally cool experience and so different from anything I've ridden before; it was fun. 

 

 

Then we went back to the World Showcase, starting in Mexico. We got churros and rode the boat ride. They don't have the dulce de leche sauce anymore that I totally love but the churros were still good and the best ones in Disney World. Then in Norway we ate school bread and we just walked through China and Germany. My kids weren't really feeling the shows or movies in each country so we just kept moving. In Italy we did get pizza and that's when Kori and her girls met up with us. It was so fun to see them! We watched some drummers in Japan and got terriyaki buns and went through the shops, then totally skipped by America and then walked through Morocco and ended up getting pastries back in France. It is fun to eat your way around the world showcase. Unfortunately a lot of people were drinking their way around so it got kind of crowded by the evening. We went back to do the Moana water thing in the dark and ride Soarin' then Kori had to go and we went back to ride the Frozen ride, on which I got rather wet. We headed over towards the Skyliner where we watched the fireworks show. I liked it; I love fireworks and lights and music and it was fun. 

 

 

 

Then we ran to the Skyliner to beat the crowd, which we did, but when we got to where we transfer to our hotel, that bit of the Skyliner was closed so there was a huge group of people making their way out of the station to wait for a bus. It looked like too much and I was tired of crowds so I suggested we ride the Skyliner from there the Hollywood Studios and take some kind of transportation from there. The bummer is that our hotel doesn't bus to HS because we can take the Skyliner so we were kind of stuck but we ended up just getting a Lyft and it was way better than waiting in a huge line to get on a bus. We had refillable Disney cups so most nights the kids and I would swing by the cafeteria on our way back and fill up on their delicious hot chocolate. It can really be the little things sometimes on trips that make such fun memories. It was a wonderful day! 

Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. We had planned to get there early but our kids were all still sleeping so we let them sleep a bit and then we decided to just get to the park and get breakfast there. So we went straight to Toy Story Mania when we got there and actually rode it two times in a row because the line was pretty short, then we got breakfast sandwiches at a cafe and then we watched the Indiana Jones Stunt show, which we missed five years ago so I was glad to see it. Brandon especially loved it. Then we did the Mickey ride (which Josh loved but I thought was kind of silly), Star Tours and then Rise of the Resistance. We also did the Muppet 3D movie and got pizza at Rizzo's. Then the Wilsons came and met us again and it was so fun! Lily took Emma and Brandon to the Beauty and the Beast show while Josh, Curtis and I went with the Wilsons on Tower of Terror. I love that ride and it had been a long time so it was awesome to ride it again. We did some shopping and then did Toy Story Mania again. We also got the pop tarts at Woody's Lunch Box and they were amazing! It think it was my favorite thing we ate all week; they were so good and more cookie-ish than the gross actual pop tarts. Then we wanted to ride Rise of the Resistance again so we did that while the Wilsons ate dinner and then we met up again to go for Slinky Dog. The line had consistently been 2-3 hours all day, which is nuts, so we weren't going to do it but since we had done everything else, we decided to get in line about an hour and change before the park closed and just to wait the 120 minutes. It was a very slow-moving line but we chatted with Kori and Thomas and Luke and Brandon played games and Anna and Lily talked and it was all good. We ended up waiting about an hour and fifteen minutes and it was a super fun way to end the day. HS is definitely the most festive of the parks and it was beautiful to walk out with all the lights on. It was great to see the Wilsons and I'm so glad we're still friends after all these years. We got to ride the Skyliner back to our hotel (so much more fun than riding a bus) and that was the end of another great day.