Epcot

     For our Christmas gift to the Apedaile6 crew, we headed to the Happiest Place on Eath, Disney World! When we lived in California, we took the girls there several times, but since moving to Tennessee, we havent been able to make the trek to Florida. JT is was reaching the perfect age for going and with the girls getting older, it was the time to go!

For our first full day, we headed to Epcot. Or as JT calls it, "Fcot" Makes me laugh every time he says it!

Four very excited kids ready to head to the park!

Disney World is huge and we drove to the parks each day. Every day as we approached the various Walt Disney World signs on the way in, John and I were assaulted with the happy sounds of screeches, clapping, and "DISNEY WORLD!!!" By most of the kids.

Stopping for a shot in front of Spaceship Earth.

JT's first ever character encounter! 

Pluto!!!

Our boy doesn't have a shy bone in his body. Big hugs!

Love our family shot. It turned out Epcot was The Place to meet characters. We found the most and waited the least amount of time to meet everyone compared to the other parks.

We next came to a spot that held 3 characters under one roof and waited only 2 minutes! Mickey, Goofy and Minnie!!! I was excited for such A List encounters on day 1.

Mickey was charming like always.

Goofy was next and he was super tall and well, GOOFY!

My men looking tough with the Goof.

He took Lindsay for a brief dance.

Ended this meet up with Minnie. 

She was a little flirt with JT by blowing kisses to him. He of course, returned the favor.

Immediately after exiting that character spot, we came across Chip and Dale! WOW!

We grabbed a fast pass for Test track then headed for our first ride on Soarin'.

In the que line there is a fantastic interactive game. They had 2-3 different games that lasted about 4 minutes. For this one, the family was spreading seeds to plant in the land they had already helped to create.

At the end, all of the plants, flowers, and trees grew in their new land.


Time for Test Track!

Part of the que and ride is making your own test vehicle. Shape, color, engine, and special effects. Tons of fun.

JT's first truck. He made a monster truck that was powerful!

The girls made a sleek blue car.

Front row and so exited!

Backseat drivers.

This ride was so much fun! 

We rode it again later that evening. JT made an even larger vehicle!

The girls were looking for lots of power.

Speeding on down the track.

We then started walking over to the Worlds part of Epcot and found Donald Duck hanging out in Mexico.

After we met Donald, JT declared that we now needed to meet Daisy. We had met everyone from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse except Daisy. Sadly, we never found Daisy.

We did however find Courtney's favorite Princess, Snow White. 

JT was telling her this little fact and Snow White was astonished JT brought his own princesses with him!

This was a super fun interaction with Snow White asking questions all the while remaining in full character, sweet voice and all.

One happy prince with 4 princesses!

We managed to see most of the world at Epcot. 

We hit China....

Norway.

A beautiful butterfly on the way to Germany.

Nearing the halfway point near America.

 Epcot gives your walking legs a good workout! All of the World is on the edge of a large lake with most of the rides being on the side near Spaceship Earth.

Morocco

How many Apedaile kids can fit into the red phone booth? All of them!!!

The United Kingdom, where the Apedaile family originated.

We made it though our trip around the world and saw this beautiful Christmas tree.

We headed to Club Cool to sample soda from aroud the world.

We all started with Beverly from Italy.

Will it be good?

JT gave a thumbs up, but his face clearly says something different!  BTW, the Beverly was gross!!! So bitter!

This was the face many of us had after every drink. We each had 1-2 drinks that we thought were good or ok, but we aren't researching to find out how to ship any sodas from overseas.

Love this spot with the Mouse ears with twinkling poinsettias.

After the drinks, the girls decided they wanted to head to outer space!

They successfully completed their first mission in space and returned back to the family.

We also were able to visit the underworld where Nemo and his friends live.

We look a ride on a lovely shell.

Bruce is trying to eat my family!!! ACK!


After Nemo, we went to the attraction, Turtle Talk with Crush. I had heard about it and just like I imagined, JT took a starring role in the performance. This is an interactive show where Crush is voiced off stage by a cast member who can see/hear what the audience members are doing. All of the children sit on the floor near the screen and the parents since on benches behind the kids.

JT was in typical fashion and wanted to ask Crush a question and raised his hand. Another little boy was selected before him, but JT went right ahead and answered Crush's questions for the other little boy (What's your name, who are you here with?) Since a large part of the success of this attraction is comedy based, I figured JT would get chosen and he did.

I was SO glad that Sarah took out her phone to record the last little bit of the interaction with Crush. This part of the show is supposed to be for the kids to ask questions to Crush. That night we had some hilarious kids making declarations. One little boy talked about how his family had fish, and another talked about their gingerbread man back at home. JT took his time to tell Crush about our pet hedgehog, Wallace. Watch this video for some laughs.

What better first 3D movie for JT than Captain EO?

Our night was quickly coming to an end.

On the way out, Sarah found JT's favorite, Stitch.

Goodnight from Epcot.