3/23/23: Our Second Day at EPCOT

Our third “Disney Day” was our return trip to EPCOT. Originally we were supposed to have a breakfast at Topolino’s Terrace (over at Disney’s Riviera Resort) but the events of the night before led to us completely scrapping that plan. (Still working on that post). Instead, we decided to sleep in some. When we woke up, I chugged one of the OWYN protein shakes I packed for the trip as my breakfast, and we set the kids up with pop tarts and shelf-stable milk as we all rotated through our morning routine. My wife took the younger kids back to the playground for a big while I finished up, and by noon, we were on the bus heading over to EPCOT, listening to the toddler sing “The Wheels on the Bus” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Photos: the middle kid with his hands in the sand, two photos of the younger two kids climbing at the playground, the toddler singing on the bus. All photos have emojis covering kids faces for privacy reasons.

When we first got in to the park, my wife went to the scooter rental to ask if there were any available. There were not, but they had a wait list, and she signed up. My legs were not happy with me, and I was slowing our group down. I’d never used an ECV before, but we were going to give it a shot.

We stopped for another quick photo and I asked a cast member about how to access the ride without leaving my rollator way up at the front in stroller parking again. Turns out there’s an accessible back entrance inside Project Tomorrow for guests with mobility devices. When you face Spaceship Earth from the park entrance, you walk past the queue, and find the door with the wheelchair marking on the left side of the building. You enter Project Tomorrow there, wait a few minutes, and the cast members escort a group onto the ride via the exit. We were on Spaceship Earth just before 1:00 pm. While we were on the ride, I got our Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind time reserved, and we set up DAS returns for The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Photos: Me in front of Spaceship Earth, on Spaceship Earth with one of the kids, and me sitting on my rollator with my toddler in my lap.

After we got off Spaceship Earth, my wife took the younger kids to use the restroom, and they stopped over at Club Cool because our middle kid asked to go back. They really liked the flavor of the soda from China, it reminds them of barbecue. While they were over there, my oldest and I started walking over to Nemo. We decided to stop and wait for the rest of the group in the shade of the monorail.

When they caught up to us, we took a short break and let the kids each get a frozen treat from the nearby ice cream cart. We were on Nemo by 2:30. Nemo is a short dark ride using the clamshell car omnimover system. (If you’re familiar with the “Under the Sea” ride at Magic Kingdom, it’s the same ride vehicles.) The plan was for everyone to queue for Turtle Talk with Crush afterward, but we ran into a… hiccup.

When I went to queue the kids and I for Turtle Talk with Crush, my daughter’s DAS was still showing a Nemo return time. I asked a cast member in the pavilion what to do, and she said I needed to go to the Guest Services umbrella (over near the ice cream cart we had stopped at) and they would be able to fix it. It took a few minutes to get over there, but the actual process of fixing the DAS was fast. We got the return time for Turtle Talk and headed back to the Living Seas pavilion.

At that point, my middle kid told us there was no way he would go in to the show. Apparently there had been some sibling drama between him and his sister, and he wanted to ask a question about whether Crush was the turtle in “Moana” and she “ruined it” by looking up the question on google and… yeah. He just wasn’t going in. My wife isn’t the biggest fan of Turtle Talk, so I decided to take the oldest and the toddler.

We left the stroller with the others, and my toddler held onto one of the handles of my rollator as we walked in. Turtle Talk has a separate waiting area for guests with mobility needs, because they enter before the crowd from the regular waiting area does. Wheelchairs and other mobility aids have seating at the ends of the rows. There are two levels of benches that are also available, so guests who have a harder time getting off the low benches at the front can sit in the back.

I chose to sit up front, primarily because I know my toddler wouldn’t do well if I wasn’t within arms reach, and I still wanted him to be able to see everything going on. My oldest sat up front and reallllly wanted to ask Crush if he knew the Greek god, Poseidon (this kid is on a *major* Greek mythology kick… can you guess what the excitement level in my house is like over the Percy Jackson series coming to Disney+?). She did not get the chance to ask her question, and was disappointed, but Crush DID choose to talk to me. This is the second time this kid has gotten me picked to talk to Crush. Crush did ask her where she was from, and when she named our home state, cheers erupted from several other guests in the room. Apparently, there was a big crowd of other guests from our area visiting.

While we were in Turtle Talk, a lizard leapt onto the middle kid’s face. When it got knocked down, it decided to be extra friendly, jump back up onto him, run across, climb my wife, jump onto the stroller, and then scurry away. After it was off of everyone and our things, the kiddo took photos and video of it (and another video of a squirrel) while waiting for us.

We also found out that we had another DAS issue to fix… because the middle kid decided not to do Turtle Talk after we had already queued for it, they were still stuck on a DAS return for Turtle Talk instead of being able to queue for our next planned ride, Soarin’. We made a return trip to the Guest Services umbrella to remove that reservation, set up the DAS return for Soarin’ and then decided to go grab some lunch from Sunshine Seasons before they closed.

I’m not going to do a full post about Sunshine Seasons’ allergy offerings as part of my trip review posts. There was one option on the allergy menu that was listed as safe for me – the chicken leg with white rice kids’ meal. I really needed to just quickly get some food into my system and take my medication, and the restaurant was closing within the next ten minutes, so I decided to go with that as the path of least resistance. We got everyone’s food, and sat down to eat. Honestly, my food wasn’t anything to write home about, but it did the job.

When we were finishing up eating, my wife got a text that there was a scooter available, and she needed to head over to pick it up. We took a minute to figure out whether we were going to keep the rollator with us or have it stored at the ECV rental. My thought process was that there may be some rides that an ECV couldn’t go through the queue, and I didn’t want to not have the option of transferring to my rollator, knowing that the wheelchairs provided by the park for transfers only hold up to 300 lb. She then headed up to the entrance to grab the ECV.

I had never used an ECV before. It took me a couple minutes to really learn how to work the controls and get a handle on things like speed and steering, and to navigate tight corners. We headed for the Soarin’ Lightning Lane. We had the youngest get his height checked, but sadly he was just a hair too short for the cut-off. We had to split up and use rider swap. They let the kids and I go first, which gave me a few minutes to get some real practice in with the ECV. By the time we got up to the end of the queue, I texted my wife: “I am a menace on wheels and I love it and I WANT ONE THE REST OF THE TRIP.”

I had an issue with Soarin’ and almost couldn’t get the seatbelt to click. I struggle with seatbelts sometimes, and Soarin’ is one of the trickier ones for me. Usually, my wife is able to assist, but since she stayed behind with the youngest, I was on my own. It took me a few tries, and my middle kid helping me line up the seatbelt with the buckle (because I can’t typically see what I’m doing.) I did manage to get it to work, and we were soon up in the air. After our ride, we went back out, and my wife took them the kids through again. I stayed with the toddler, who at some point during my time on Soarin’ decided to take a bite out of my rollator’s foam. Once my wife and kids were done with their turn, we took the toddler to get changed and went over to ride Journey into Imagination Figment via the standby queue.

Figment was fun. None of the kids had ever been on it before, so it was a new experience for them. It wasn’t their favorite ride. Honestly, I ride Journey into Imagination with Figment for Figmet nostalgia. I really, really wish that they would restore this ride to it’s pre-1998 glory. My kids would have loved that iteration, with the Dreamfinder. They’re very creativity oriented, and while they like science, they much prefer the arts and writing and things of that nature. I feel like the original version is more aligned with creativity and was a better ride in general, but I digress.

Photos: The youngest and I on Journey into Imagination with Figment, the Figment topiary outside of the Imagination pavilion

After we finished up it was just before 6:30. My oldest hopped into a line to get photos with Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph and I waited for her, while the others investigated what Imageworks had to offer. My oldest was the last person in line for the Vanellope meet and greet, and by the time she finished up, I had gotten the notification that we needed to head over to Cosmic Rewind. We sped across the park, cutting through Project Tomorrow.

This time, I went first on Cosmic Rewind, taking the middle kid. The ECV was able to go through the line, and we had a great time. I opted to have them remove the panel on the side of the accessible car for me to get in, and it was a lot easier than having to do the tippy-toe side step that I usually have to do for similar rides. We swapped, and by the time my wife and the oldest went through, we were running late for our dinner reservation at Garden Grill. My wife stopped into the gift shop to get the Loki horns my daughter had asked for as the rest of us sped over to The Land pavilion as fast as possible, but the restaurant closed the system down before we made it.

At that point, it was 8:20 pm. We were hungry, kids were starting to melt down, and it was late enough that we were running out of time to make alternate plans. EPCOT would close soon, and it’s not known for being the most accommodating park for guests with food allergies due to the number of non-Disney-operated restaurants. Most places were already booked full, but then I remembered we had an ‘Ohana dinner reservation the next night, and if we just switched that to happen now, we’d get to stay in Magic Kingdom later. I checked the app for availability and there was a spot open at 9:30. ‘Ohana closes at 10:00.

I told my wife I knew what we were doing but I needed everyone to move FAST to get us to the monorail at top speed. My wife pushed the stroller, my oldest pushed my rollator, the middle kid speed-walked and I sped along ahead of them to the front of the park. In front of Spaceship Earth, I took a mad dash photo with the middle kid as I got off the ECV, grabbed my walker, and kept powering through, up the monorail ramp and to the platform. I didn’t want to reserve the spot and risk another cancellation fee if we didn’t quite make it to the Polynesian Village Resort in time, so I kept checking the app as we waited to make sure the opening was still there. My wife kept the kids entertained with a bubble wand she had bought for the toddler. We made it onto the monorail at approximately 9:00, swapped to the Resort Loop at the Ticket and Transportation Center, and at that point, I made the 9:30 reservation as we pulled out of the TTC. We arrived at ‘Ohana at 9:33, and we had a table ready at 9:35.

Photos: two of me and the middle kid on our rush to get to the monorail station, and one photo he took of Spaceship Earth as we were coming up to it.

This was one of my favorite meals at Walt Disney World before my allergies became an issue, and I am happy to say that it still ranks as a favorite, even with modifications. Knowing that the chef, who also has an anaphylactic food allergy, understood the risks involved with cross-contact made me feel at ease, and the food is easily some of my favorite on property, period. (A full review of the experience will be coming soon, I promise)

Just after 11:00, I snapped a quick photo through the window of Cinderella Castle in the distance as we headed back to the monorail station and transferred to the resort bus. The next morning was going to be an early one.

Bonus Photo: I got a few people ask me about my outfit this day. It was a Torrid top, belt, and skirt with a pair of Old Navy bike shorts underneath. The top is at least a year or two old. The skirt was in clearance in January. I honestly don’t remember when I got the belt. I don’t have a full-body photo with the belt on where it’s easy to see but here’s what I do have.

Photos: Me sitting on my rollator in the accessible line for the bus, and another photo of the shirt from the hotel bathroom. I’m wearing a black sharkbite-style shirt with a poison apple image and text that reads “Just One Bite And All Your Dreams Will Come True”