Before we headed out for our fifth day of vacation life, we walked out to the front of the resort to get a picture with the Art of Animation sign in the background.
One of the bike-riding security guys rode by just after we took our picture and offered to take one for us. Not as close to our faces, but you can see more of the main building.
The final park destination was
Epcot, which meant another
Skyliner ride. We just missed a chance to swim in the Big Blue Pool with the timing of our trip, but I took some pictures of it as we walked from the front of the resort back to the Skyliner.
Isn't it a fun area?
Silas made a comment one day about how he thought Florida was supposed be sunny, but this is what the skies looked like most of our time. It was still warmer than Oregon, though, and it was nice to not deal with Florida's heat or humidity. Our building was on the right side of this picture and we had a glimpse of the water from our room.
This was view from our gondola as we headed to Epcot. That tall building on the left side is Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios, the drop ride we'd all done a couple days earlier.
One of Tyler's personal purchases was this bubble wand he snagged as we left Magic Kingdom the previous night. He loved it and had all the bubble solution used up by the time we boarded Test Track, our first ride at Epcot.
Next up was
Mission: SPACE, which offers two tracks and we split up for the ride. A really big deal is made about the intensity of one track, with the other offered to folks who need things toned down. I really like thrill rides, but I can't handle spinning and didn't want to risk ruining my day so early on. Tim and I both opted for the wimpy track, while the sibs all did the exciting one. Silas said I'd have been totally fine. Devon, who gets motion sickness and decided to risk it, said it made him feel a little gross and he wouldn't do it twice, but that it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as they worked it up to do and he's glad he did it.
At this point things began to fall apart for a little while. I thought Epcot was beautiful and was super excited about spending the day there. However, a combination of our routine being disrupted by a later park opening, hunger, communication breakdowns, a point with half our family (led by the oldest W, yours truly) in tears, hunger, communication breakdowns, an awesome plan for the day foiled by the requirement to be stationary while eating (a requirement we obviously knew about, but just didn't consider as we started the day), hunger, communication breakdowns, and the simple fact six people were on their fifth day of travel and fourth day in parks made this our hardest day. And did I mention hunger and communication breakdowns?
There was still plenty of good, but I admit the day was sorta disappointing for me because it was a one shot deal and didn't go at all the way I'd hoped. Such is life. I'd love to go again someday, but either ditch folks I'm with to walk the World Showcase by myself (set my own pace as I snack around the world, which is what I'd most looked forward to at Epcot) or go with others after C19 restrictions are lifted (group pace and eat as we walk).
So, now that I've acknowledged the rough patch because no trip is all dreamy, let's talk about the good stuff.
The Skyliner entrance isn't the same as the main one, so we backtracked to get a shot in front of the Epcot ball, which I recently learned is actually called Spaceship Earth.
Next up was another ride. Cool thing about
Soarin' Around the World? It involves scents as you fly over various countries and world landmarks. It probably mentions that detail somewhere online, but I wasn't expecting it.
We all headed to the World Showcase after that ride and did a family split. Such an awesome part of the park! Check out this assortment of food Silas ordered in France and I got to have some of. Beautiful and delicious! We all ended up back there at the end of the day when he got those two treats again, as well as a few others, for everyone to sample.
Naomi spotted Lumiere as we took a food break. See him?
Now do you?
Just a couple random shots of buildings as we walked around the World Showcase. This area was so fun to look at! I loved how different the eleven different countries were represented architecturally.
The two rides my group did in that area were Frozen Ever After and Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, but we only got a picture at one of them.
We were there during Taste of Epcot: International Festival of the Arts, which meant extra vendors displaying their work. I don't wear much jewelry, but one of my favorite festival booths was Jortra. This small, family-owned business is local to Orlando and makes jewelry from cantaloupe seeds (sounds weird, I know, but it looks really cool), orange peels, coffee beans, and bamboo. I took this picture just to remember the name and didn't intend to post it, but it gives an idea of their style. You can click into their site link above to see what other jewelry they have.
As the day wound down, I turned around to see this.
I love that thing! In the same way I thought the intricacies of Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life were amazing, the relative simplicity of this giant structure was equally beautiful. And just a little while later, this. So pretty all lit up against a black sky!
I took that picture as we all slowly gathered from our splits for our very last park pictures of the week, group shots in front of the ball at night.
Four parks down, none left!
I had to make some final purchases at Ink & Paint on our last night and realized not needing to use the resort lobby all week meant I hadn't taken any pictures of it. I think the wall of paint swatches behind the staff is fun.
The opposite wall is filled with sketches, some that made the final cut and others that didn't, for the four movies the resort is based on.
It's a bright, cheerful space. Even brighter than the little sunburn my pasty white self got on a day where the sun only broke through for a few hours and temps hit the mid-60s. Ha!
Four days filled from beginning to end with Disney parks were in the books. But we still had one more day on the road with more good stuff to come.
*****
Here are links for all the posts about our Disney trip.
The trip was a prize from our orthodontist's office,
Senestraro Family Orthodontics, as our name was drawn from all the established patients who referred new patients to their office in 2019. We've loved that office for over three years now and highly recommend them to anyone within driving distance of their three offices in Sherwood, Wilsonville, and Woodstock. Initial travel information was provided by Kristy and all travel arrangements, as well as really helpful daily tour plans for us to use as suggested launch points for our days, were provided by Tanya, both from
Incredible Memories Travel. I'll definitely use their services if we ever get to travel again and recommend them to anyone who'd like someone else to do all the background work for their next vacation.
