SO by our last day we were exhausted but still up bright and early to get ready for our very last day at Disney. We had an Ohana breakfast reservation at 10:15 at The Polynesian. We got to our bus stop at 9:00 am thinking we would have plenty of time to make our reservation...WRONG! You need to schedule at least 1.5 hours if you're riding the bus to a reservation...ESPECIALLY one that is at one of the resorts.
We rode our bus to Epcot & then switched to the monorail & rode to The Polynesian. We ended up being about 10-15 minutes late for our reservation. Argh. The hostess was really nice about it but then we waited another 30 minutes to get seated. Double Argh. We were starving by this point! While we waited, we had a family picture taken by the photographer (I don't have it yet because it is on our Memory Maker package that I haven't downloaded yet...lazzzzy).
Finally at 10:50 we were seated for our breakfast & the real fun began :) The Ohana breakfast includes Lilo, Stitch, Pluto & Mickey. Leighton is obsessed with Stitch so she was so excited. Like she stalked him around the restaurant the entire breakfast :)
After all of the excitement of meeting Leighton's very favorite Disney character, we hopped back on the monorail to Epcot! With full bellies we were ready to get our last day started :)
Once we got to the park it was already time for our FP for Soarin' so we headed straight there. Once there we realized Gracen was (yet again) an inch too short to ride. Boo! SO we got a rider switch pass for Toby. Lei and I headed to ride first. The ride was so fun and relaxing. I am actually terrified of heights so I was worried I was going to hate it but I didn't. Leighton and I held hands the whole time and loved it! When we got off Lei had to go potty so we decided for Toby just to go on and ride while we hunted for a bathroom.
After he rode we walked over & rode Living with the Land. It was a 15 minute simulated boat ride through the world. We loved this ride haha. Toby said it was his favorite ride haha. We are dorks but it was great! When we got off we walked upstairs to the Circle of Life Show (all of these rides were inside The Land at Epcot). Gracen fell asleep during the show haha! It was very calm and dark in the theater.
Gracen didn't wake up when the show was over so we transferred her (carefully) to the stroller and walked over to the Finding Nemo. Toby and Lei rode (10 min wait) while I parked it up on a bench so our baby could get some rest :) She got a good 30 minute snooze in and after they got off the ride she was awake and ready for our next adventure :)
We took a look at the character meeting times and decided to head around the "circle" of countries and make our way to China to meet Mulan! Leighton is a huge Mulan fan :) On our way to China we ran into Duffy the Bear. Lei insisted on meeting him (even though she had never heard of him before).
We got to China about 30 minutes before Mulan's meet n greet time so we parked our stroller in the line & Toby headed over to get us a quick service meal we could share. He ended up getting a kids meal Sweet N Sour chicken, steamed rice, carrots and a drink. I thought it was pretty good. After we finished eating, the line started moving and the Princess had arrived :)
After meeting Mulan we continued our walk around the countries. We found Epcot so relaxing. We could walk and take our time looking at all the scenery. Epcot is SO pretty. We stopped in Italy for a break (sitting feels soooo good haha).
We loved taking our time with our day at Epcot. It is so nice to walk leisurely and not rush from ride to ride to ride to character meeting, etc like you have to do at Magic Kingdom & even Hollywood Studios. It was beautiful outside the day we were there and we loved being able to just soak up the sun and enjoy our last day! The girls loved looking out over the water and playing on the "baby" bridge.
We made it to France just in time to meet Belle :) The girls loved her (they loved everyone if you couldn't tell). Belle asked Gracen who her favorite princess was and she said "ARIEL!" Haha and then Belle asked her what color she wanted her mermaid tail to be and Gracen said "FIVE!" Sweet little Gracen haha. We loved Belle.
We were right by the Maelstrom Boat Ferry so we decided to take it back to the other side of the Park. Loved this! It was short and saved us a lot of walking :)
Once we made it off the ferry we decided to walk back to the Finding Nemo ride since Gracen didn't get to ride it earlier. Lei was happy to ride again too :)
After the ride the girls played in this small play area and were both obsessed with posing inside the shark :)
Next we headed to Turtle Time, an interactive show. The girls sat in the front row with all the kids (how is Gracen big enough to sit without us ??? lol). Before we knew it Gracen had told the MC it was her birthday hahaha! She is such a ham! The show was cute and the girls seemed to like it.
Next it was time for our Spaceship Earth FP. This is the ride inside the big ball. Both girls thought this was amazing haha. We totally didn't need a FP since the ride was a 5 minute wait haha. We walked right on. After we rode, it was dark out (about 7:30 pm) and we decided to head to Downtown Disney to eat dinner. We felt like we had done everything at Epcot we needed to and were satisfied to end our park day. We did get a cookie & some hot chocolate on the way out :)
We rode the bus from Downtown Disney back to the Art of Animation resort (it was the first bus to arrive haha). It was neat to look inside the resort (it's the newest one) before we bus hopped to Downtown Disney. I know some Disney visitors loathe the busses (too crowded, hate the wait times) but we find using the busses to be super easy and it's nice to not have to worry about parking and driving ourselves. We actually like the Disney busses. It takes a little longer to get there (in some cases) but the plusses definitely outweigh the negatives to us :)
Anyway...once we got to Downtown Disney we headed to Wolfgang Puck Express for dinner. We each used a quick service meal. It was definitely a great choice for quick service. Was probably my favorite quick service meal of the trip! Toby had the Margherita pizza and I had the four cheese pizza. The girls had plain pasta with butter and parmesan cheese (their favorite food haha), fruit and milk. Toby and I also had drinks and Toby had cheesecake for dessert and I had frozen yogurt. All so yummy! Had we not had the dining plan our meal would've been $60! Proof that the Disney dining plan is SO worth it (especially when you get it for free!).
After eating we walked over to the Lego store. Both girls are on a lego kick since seeing the movie. Toby and I realized we will probably be very familiar with legos in a few years...once we add our BOY to the bunch ;) The girls had a great time playing!
We browsed a few more shops and then let the girls ride the carousel before heading back to our resort. Both girls were truly exhausted and fell asleep in the stroller before we made it to our bus stop. What a great last day!!!!
The next morning we slept in (oh glorious sleep) and then raided the gift shop for a few last souvenirs before heading out. Sad to leave Disney but we really did have a magical time!
Before heading back to good ole Kentucky we made a pit stop in Daytona Beach to eat at Toby's favorite crab restaurant (he went several years back on a bachelor trip for one of his best buds, TJ). We had crab legs, shrimp and salad...SO yummy! We stopped to take a look at the ocean before heading home for good!
LOVED this family vacation! Bottom line, if you have little kids, take them to Disney at least once. You won't regret it :)
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