Day two of our Disney trip was an Epcot day! We woke up early, but not ridiculously so. Now that fast passes to Frozen Ever After are easier to obtain, it's not necessary to do the Frozen 5K first thing in the morning.
I took this photo of a lovely tree on the walk to the park from the bus stop.
And of one of the pillars of flowers in Epcot for the Flower and Garden Festival.
All the topiaries around Epcot for the festival make it so incredibly beautiful. It's our favorite time of the year at Epcot.
Tom was wanting this shirt on the trip, but they never did get it into stock in his size. Now it's at the outlets, but I doubt it's in his size there either. :(
Heading into the park, we took photos by Figment's topiary. He's just the cutest. My outfit was Spaceship Earth themed, with leggings and ears both in the signature pattern.
Heading over to Norway for our Frozen fast pass, a photo pass photographer was there, and we had a couple of photos taken.
It's worth noting that by this time we'd already gone to MouseGear, the best shop on Disney property, and one of the things we got was the Baymax wrap bracelet/plush I'm wearing here. I mean, who couldn't resist the ability to have Baymax hug one's wrist all day long??
Frozen time:
After that, we went over to meet Joy and Sadness, and had one of our favorite experiences of the trip. I bought the shirt you see Tom wearing on TeePublic a couple years ago, and it's the perfect thing to wear for these meet and greets, because the space where Joy and Sadness meet is right next to the space where Baymax meets. They have two separate set-ups, but you can sometimes peek out at Baymax from the exit to Joy and Sadness' area.
As soon as Joy saw Tom's shirt, she literally ran over to Sadness to show her.
And Sadness took Tom over to the exit to look at Baymax.
But that wasn't enough for Joy. She was so in love with Tom's shirt, she went right over to the exit and waved (I say waved, but she literally was jumping up and down waving her arms) until she got a response from Baymax in his area.
But that wasn't enough for Joy. Oh no. She had apparently gotten the idea in her mind that wouldn't it be wonderful if Sadness and Baymax could take a photo with Tom recreating the shirt.
The problem with this is that it's a big ol' no no for Disney. Joy and Sadness belong in Riley's mind...in Riley's zone. Baymax belongs in San Fransokyo. They really aren't supposed to leave their area. So when Joy led Sadness and Tom out of the exit and into the space between the two areas, the Cast Members lost their minds.
As you can see, they didn't quite make it all the way to recreate the photo before the panic in the Cast Member's voices took them back to their spot, but it was a moment of chaotic fun. And something we'll definitely never forget!
After we took our official photos with them and exited, the Character Attendant for Baymax went over to the edge of the rope and told Tom as we passed by how much she loved the shirt. Then Baymax walked over to the rope to talk to Tom about the chaos that had just ensued.
What an experience! Tom told Baymax that we were getting lunch, but would be back.
On our way to grab some food, Tom saw this dapper gentleman in a Spider-Man inspired suit. Nice! Dapper Day, FYI, is actually both weekend days...Saturday in Magic Kingdom, Sunday in Epcot. The MK day is the bigger event, but there were still plenty of people dressed up at Epcot too.
For lunch, we were curious to go over to the Land Pavilion and try Sunshine Seasons. All of the vegetables served there are ones that are grown at the Land area right in the building. And there are several cafeteria style kiosks waiting with different food options. Sounds ideal. Only one problem...I'm vegetarian (but will eat occasional fish), and there were only two or so options. My first choice was a Chinese bowl, but when I walked up to ask if it had garlic in it (I'm also allergic to garlic), he said it did. So I waited in another line to ask if the salmon had garlic in it. It also did. By this point I was tired, hungry, and starting to get very frustrated. But at the second kiosk, the employee called the chef over. He had a fresh clean piece of salmon, he said, and would make me up an entire plate of things without garlic.
Definitely going that extra Disney mile. I so appreciated it. And the food was soooo good. Potatoes, green beans (heaps of them...I took this photo after eating a bunch) and fresh salmon.
After lunch, we went back to the Future World meet and greet area, and had a fast pass to meet Mickey and friends. Mickey was first.
When he saw our anniversary buttons, he wanted to take a special photo. LOL
Next was Goofy, who we joked with about his rocket ship being the most dangerous ride at Epcot.
And then a bit of a change of pace. I went up to Minnie alone, because I wanted to tell her how much my Grandma, who just passed away in December, loved her. And how much joy she brought to her life. I did get a bit emotional.
From there, we decided to walk around World Showcase.
And I really wanted to try the famous Violet Lemonade that's only available during the Flower and Garden Festival.
After we took a couple more photos with a photographer in a lovely Flower and Garden spot, we went to the air conditioned spot near Club Cool with my Violet Lemonade (which was delicious by the way) and just rested for a couple of hours. I'm not going to lie...as we get older, it gets harder and harder to do a park open to park close day. It was about 3:00 in the afternoon and we'd arrived at Epcot around 9:20 or so. It gets exhausting. So we just sat in there and rested for about an hour or so.
After our refreshing rest, it was time for one of our favorite meals of every trip...Via Napoli! Home of the most delicious pizza I've ever had.
Our tradition of taking photos across the pizza from each other continued...
The only thing I really have to remember is to pack a scarf in my bag on the day we do Via Napoli. The last two times we've eaten there, we've been seated directly underneath an air vent, and my enjoyment of the meal has fought against my FREEZING COLD. Next time I'll pack a wrap scarf, and be able to enjoy it much more.
After dinner, it was getting dark-ish, and we aren't big fans of Epcot at night (Illuminations isn't our favorite night time show, and night also brings out the inebriated people wandering around World Showcase). So we went back to meet Baymax. Surprisingly, hours later, the same Character Attendant was there, and was thrilled to see us return.
I showed Baymax my wrap plush.
And got a hug.
He stuck out his hand and asked us to wrap the lil' Baymax around his finger. He then strolled around a bit with it on, until it fell to the floor.
Baymax hugs!!!
And fist bumps, of course.
Tom got a hug too.
We decided to head out, and since we had gotten a second wind from our afternoon rest, we agreed to go to Animal Kingdom, since we had other plans for the evening of our scheduled AK day, and wanted to be able to see Pandora at night.
This photo from Expedition Everest is the only proof we went to Animal Kingdom that evening, but we did! And we even got to ride Flight of Passage for the first time thanks to a sweet Cast Member friend.
Flight of Passage was truly truly remarkable. It is now my third favorite Disney park ride, behind Haunted Mansion and Guardians of the Galaxy:Mission Breakout. To say it is immersive is an understatement.
After we rode Flight of Passage, the second wind was gone, so we went back to the resort to sleep. But not without some marvelous in-flight entertainment from our bus driver, who apparently missed his calling as a Jungle Cruise skipper.
Day three was to be a very special day...our vow renewal! Stay tuned.
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