A couple of months back Tara made plans with Samantha to spend
the day together, along with Jayden and myself. The original plan
was to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios, but we always go there with
Sam, so we instead switched our reservation over to Epcot. In my
mind, this would finally give Sam her first chance to ride the Guardians of the
Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind ride, as we have missed out on the queue
during other trips to the park with her. Thankfully I was able to
secure a boarding group this morning, which meant that she was going
to get her turn! We finished getting ready so that we could get
out of the house early enough to make it to Epcot for our callback
time on Guardians, stopping for some caffeine on the way. We made it
to the park with time to spare, so we first headed over to the
Creations Shop to get in line for our Annual Passholder magnet -
this time it was Stitch, Sam's favorite! We browsed around the shop
for a while, looking for gift options for Sam's soon to be "nephew".
Our group was called for Guardians of the
Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind while we were shopping, so we headed over
to join the queue. Although we missed most of the initial room
explaining the basis of the Xandar pavilion, Sam seemed to get a
kick out of the waiting areas and pre-shows. Like us, she enjoyed
the ride even more! Though we didn't get the song we wanted
('Everybody Wants to Rule the World') we still have a good time, and
ended up with 'I Ran' for our ride song (at least it wasn't
'Conga'!). As always, we wished we could get back in line to ride
again, but alas we'll have to wait until our next visit. We stopped
outside of the ride for some PhotoPass pictures with the Nova Corps
Starblaster ship on display near the ride entrance.
We then decided to head across the park to take in the Turtle Talk
With Crush show. The show was fun as usual, but I've yet to see
one of those Instagram hilarious versions that I see online from
time to time. One day! While we were on that side of the park we
headed into The Land to take a tour on
Living with the Land, which is one of Tara's all time favorites.
After completing our boat ride, we headed over to Sunshine Seasons
to sample the Annual Passholder-Exclusive Stitch Cake Cone. I didn't
try it as it was covered with coconut, but from the feedback from
both Tara and Samantha, it was not worth it. It was cute, though!
We left The Land and headed over to the United Kingdom pavilion,
stopping at the Bambi's Butterfly House
in World Celebration on our way there. We ended up at the Yorkshire
County Fish Shoppe for lunch, with the changed intention to eat the
lunches that we packed later in the day for dinner (and which we
predictably didn't eat at all). We ended up splitting two meals, as
that allowed us to snack on other park offerings later. While we
were in the UK, we decided to try out an in-park game that Tara saw
online - the Disney’s DuckTales World Showcase
Adventure, which activated various activities throughout the
World Showcase. It was a fun, but time consuming, side trek through
the World Showcase that allowed us to see different parts of the
various countries, which were Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Japan,
France, and the United Kingdom, leading to a grand finale (and
apparently we completed the adventure in reverse!).
After the United Kingdom we stopped in France to see the Beauty and the
Beast Sing-Along show at Jayden's request. Samantha and Jay were
definitely the stars of the show, singing along to each of the songs
in the show. We then moved on to Japan, and while there Sam got a
Ramen Cup from Hanami, which was a ramen salad shaken in a cup with
fresh vegetables, grilled chicken, and dashi broth with chili oil
and yuzu. While all of the ladies loved the ramen, they weren't as
big of fans of the Ozeki Pineapple Nigori Sake drink that she got to
wash it down.
After completing our adventure around the world, we found
ourselves at Test Track for a quick test drive, getting in
one last drive before it is shut down for a refurbishment beginning
in June.
At this point it was time to leave, but we made one last stop
back at the shop at the Guardians of the
Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind ride so that Sam could pick up a baby
outfit for her "nephew".
All in all it was a great day spent together, even if we didn't
get on as many rides as some of us would have liked. We got to try a
new adventure and see plenty of new things on our tour of the world.
Either way, I can't wait to spend another day with my girls! Love
you guys! |