WDW Day Four; Epcot Center

By the third day I am sick and tired of wearing the exact same outfit. Looking at our pictures so far you could easily assume it was all the same day. Each picture you see the lovely Old Navy hoodies worn by the boys. Plus after looking sadly at the weather it will be the coldest day Florida has had in YEARS! We are so lucky to be there to witness this-ha! Any time we had the opportunity to talk to someone who lived there the topic of conversation would be the crazy weather they were having. "It is NEVER this cold!" they would proclaim. Well. . . . lucky us.



We lazily hung out in our hotel room dreading the fact we would be out in the cold. We decided to take a quick trip to Downtown Disney and buy some warmer clothes. The place was like a deserted island, nobody was there! First stop for breakfast, McDonald's! I drank two cups of hot chocolate trying to warm up while we waited on all the stores to open.



We browsed through the Lego Store(amazing)for quite awhile. I love to see what designs people come up with using Legos. They have way more creativity than I could every have!



Over the next hour we walked up and down visiting every single shop looking for cold weather apparel within our budget. We are now the proud new owners of three pair of Mickey gloves, one Mickey scarf, three Mickey hats, two Mickey pull overs and one Pirates of the Caribbean hoodie. Just what I was hoping to spend our extra money on! The important part was that we were feeling a tad bit warmer.



For lunch we headed over to the newest restaurant in Downtown Disney, T-Rex! It is owned by the same people who manage the Rainforest Cafe so the atmosphere is really impressive. We were first seated in the Ice Age room, but the lights were a bit much that I was feeling dizzy so they moved us to another section. Every ten minutes or so was a Meteor Shower and all the dinosaurs and others came to life. The boys were in awe!



After lunch we tried to find the quickest way to our third park of our trip, Epcot Center. One option was to get back on our hotel bus and then catch another bus from our hotel to Epcot. This seemed a waste of time. We decided to catch a cab since it was only a five minute ride to Epcot and plus the boys thought that was really cool. Our cab driver seemed aloof, but assured us he knew where Epcot was and that indeed it was only a five minute trip. Brian rode in the front and the three of us got in the back seat.



Five minutes later we pull up to a big building that he says is our destination. It doesn't look like I thought it would, but there were many people heading inside. I had never been here before so I didn't have any expectations of what Epcot would look like from the outside. We hopped out of the cab and went to enter the building when we were stopped by an elderly security guard.


"ID, please."


look of confusion between Brian and I. See picture on left. It is the look I had most of the day. I was none to thrilled to be out walking in the cold even with my new hoodie, scarf, gloves plus the extra shirt underneath and my sweater coat.


"Can I help you all?"


"Yes, we are trying to get into Epcot and this is where our cab driver dropped us off."

"This entrance/building is for cast members. Epcot is another two to three miles down the road."


See my face again. I was not pleased.


"Could we walk up to it?"


See my face again. I am thinking my husband is crazy if he thinks I will even attempt to walk two miles.


"No! You can't walk there. That would be to dangerous. You need to tell your cab driver to take you there."


"Are cab driver is gone, sir"


The security guard looks at us and shrugs his shoulders.

See my face again as I look directly at Brian and walk back outside with the boys.


A couple of minutes go by and Brian joins us informing me that the WDW police will be picking us up and taking us to the gate.

If it were warmer outside I think I would have enjoyed this park alot more than I did. The first half of Cooper's history lessons have focused on the seven continents of the world and as we visited different places. I intended to get a Passport as we checked out the "Showcases of the World" Epcot has to offer as there were many of the same places we studied so far.




With the cold wind and freezing temps we bypassed most of the Showcases and watch a few of the shows offered like the band above and the Chinese acrobats on the left. Cooper was in a mood this day(like me)and was not open to hearing anything. After a snack he was in a much better mood, but by that time we had already been three fourths around the "world." Our last stop was the acrobats and they enjoyed watching their 'tricks.'

The next ten minutes after the show was over Cooper was showing us his own tricks on every bar he could see. It was too cute!



The majority of our time was spent inside the different buildings at the front of the park. One of the favorites was an interactive game where the boys were the actual person IN the game! First we had to get in front of a camera and do certain things like run, jump and dance. Then the information was put into a computer and we moved over to the gaming center where WE showed up on the screen while we played the game. It was very neat!

At another building we were able to put together a human skeleton, bone by bone, as he told us why each bone was important. It was another chance to put on the cool 3D glasses as the day before!



One other game that sticks out is the "Where's The Fire" activity. Brian & Wyatt teamed up together against Cooper and myself. We each had a flashlight and were given the task of traveling from room to room to find common fire dangers. The fast pace game took about three to five minutes and we had a fun time running around trying to beat each other! Unfortunately Cooper and I lost, BUT not by much!


For dinner we had reservations at the Coral Reef and were looking forward to some seafood in the underground restaurant fish tank. My salmon was delicious and it was a good ending to the cold day.

Since we had a late start getting to Epcot is was after dark when we were leaving. Another full day of walking in the wind led to some very quiet boys on the bus ride and a good night's sleep for everyone.

Favorite parts?

Cooper: "I liked the fire game even though we lost. Remember the dinosaur restaurant? That was cool."

Wyatt: "The cab ride was fun. I also like my new legos."

Up next? WDW Day Four; back to Magic Kingdom