Thursday 17th August

6:30 alarm is placed into Daddy’s face. Daddy needs to get up while Mummy activates two more snooze buttons. Elliott is awake asking Daddy questions about today, Nathaniel is asleep and hiding under his pillow when Daddy asks him to get ready.

We head for the Skyliner heading towards EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) and get on with our notorious cereal cups (remember those). About 3mins into the ride. Yep, all over the floor – again!

We are hitting EPCOT for our first rope drop. The park opens at 09:00 for the general public, as we are staying at a Disney hotel we get in at 08:30. We arrived at the park around 08:00 and there is already a queue.

We are hitting the Ratatouille ride, a relatively new ride that gets very popular. The swelling queue charges forward at 08:25 and is placed/held in front of the ride. 08:30 hits everyone charges into the ride. We are on the ride within 5mins.

It’s a 4D mad chase with Remi being chased around the kitchen. The screens move quickly and the technology is very slick. There are a few water squirts and jump scares, but overall it moves very quickly. Elliott gives it 3/10

We finish up the ride, head for the exit and see the queue is already 45mins long. It’s not even 09:00 yet! People who enter at opening time have no chance of getting on that ride unless they pay extra. That is the Disney business magic!

We took a walk over to Mexico land, as the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride had just opened. If ratatouille was a Mercedes, then Gran Fiesta was a Ford Escort. The ride was slow, the puppets looked weird and there was nobody on the ride. The boys loved it and we rode it three times!

As we came out Elliott found these giant screens from Coco which allowed us to create some characters. Easy win!

We grabbed a Lighting Lane for another mega popular ride, that was already pushing 60min queue at 09:00 Frozen Ever After!

The Frozen technology and robots are much more realistic, the ride moves quickly, but the backdrops and reveals are amazing.

We didn’t see the photo flash. Also the ride is clever enough that the photo appears instantly in our Disney app! After the Aerosmith ride we needed to tap our Magicbands to download the photos. On this ride it’s 1984 we are tracked and tracked again.

We are on Day 3 of using the 5th birthday badge for all things free. Nate is even saying “thank you” in a clear loud voice! Elliott wants to use the badge on the next park days! Why not!

We headed back to Elliotts favourite ride, played some racing games:

Went on the Journey into Imagination with Figment (which probably needs shutting down) it’s the same ride with Eric Idle from 1998. Very dated, but at the end we met some new characters! Easy win!

Lunch was out of this world, literally. We booked Space 220 restaurant:

Step inside Space 220 Restaurant—featuring a celestial panorama from a space station—for a delicious meal. To begin your journey, board a special space elevator that will ascend to the stars! Along the way, viewports will give you an aerial view of EPCOT as you travel high above the planet. As you dine, peer out and enjoy amazing daytime and nighttime views of Earth from 220 miles up.

Now the concept and space elevator up to the restaurant is amazing. The staff all play the roles and don’t break character.

Once you enter the restaurant, the reveal of the giant screens is very impressive! We had a great table and interstellar views.

As we sat down and our server Edwin arrived. It looked like Edwin was either about to quit or about to go Micheal Douglas in Falling Down on us. He hammered through the menu options, Nate asked politely if he could have chocolate + vanilla ice cream for dessert, to which Edwin said “chocolate or vanilla only” the sternness took us all by surprise as everyone here is so over the top, when you get a bit of sourness it’s really surprising.

We just started discussing how a waiter or waitress can completely shape how you feel about a dinner when we were joined by Michelle.

Michelle tells us that she will be our waitress now. Has Edwin lost it? Did he quit? Did Disney hear us talking and send in Michelle who was happy, bouncy and had amazing teeth?

Michelle brings our starters out and we enjoy. Edwin is still walking around the dining room but missing out of table. Once we have finished the starters, Edwin comes over and asks if he can take our plates. Should we give them to him? He probably needs this job!

Edwin takes Daddy’s plate and cutlery. Only problem is we need the cutlery for the entree, Daddy wonders if Edwin did that on purpose. Michelle brings the mains and a new set of cutlery for Daddy. We tuck into the mains and enjoy. Edwin pops by again and asks “do you like carrots” and walks off. Edwin has either been fired and has reverted to a Heath Ledger Joker esq character or he is so useless, the restaurant is trying to keep him for messing things up for the customers.

We finished our food and boarded the lift back down to Earth where it was time to head to Test Track. This ride has been here at EPCOT since the park opened in 1982 but recently it’s been renovated and upgraded.

We had a Lighting Lane booking for Test Track (now sponsored by Chevrolet), where you design and build your own car, then test drive it on the speed track. We weren’t sure if the boys would go on this one, as the speeds reach 65mph and you can hear the cars screaming by near the ride entrance.

We got Elliott on via telling him about building the best car, like a real life Lego set and making sure it’s fast and aerodynamic. Nate is a law unto himself, so we just kept quiet and walked him forward.

We designed our vehicles and were taken from the Design room (everything is fine) to the queue before the ride. This is where the boys started to get even more upset.

Elliott was crying his eyes out as we boarded the car. Daddy spent the entire ride hugging Elliott tightly and Mummy spent the ride hugging Nate. We had a fantastic family photo. We just felt sorry for sunglasses lady and Chow Yun-fat who had to put up with the noise.

Daddy resorted to bribery and offered Elliott $2 if he stopped crying. It worked and after the 65mph part, Elliott started to perk up. Nate walked out and said “that was my favourite ride ever” there is no rhyme or reason with Nathaniel. Now he wants to ride Test Track again!