Day Three. - Epcot

The alarm woke us at 6:30am as we were heading out to Epcot at 7:30am.  We had breakfast booked at 8:10am in the Anker Haus Restaurant. This was well set up as one of our concerns was getting there on time.  There was someone on the gate to check for breakfast reservations. We were then given priority entry, so were first into the park. We had to go the long way around. We entered via the International Gate, but the World Showcase doesn't open until 11am. We had to go to Norway via the UK, Canada and Mexico.

This was an all you can eat buffet. We had a table in the Tower. This had only four tables, so it was really quite. The arrangement was a little strange as we were directed to the cold food and the hot food would be brought to the table later. For me this is the wrong way round. I like to have hot food and then the cold (as this involves generally sweet offerings).  The selection was not as wide as we had in Hollywood Studios.  The hot food consisted on small sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese and potato pie.  We asked about vegetarian food and was offered a hash brown, but this was more like a potato rosti. Although not offered we asked for waffles and as a result got some Mickey Waffles with maple syrup. 

The cold food consisted of a selection of fruit, cold meats, cheese, breads and some sweet pastry.  My personal favourite was the iced cinnamon buns.  There was coffee and a good selection of soft drinks. During breakfast our table was visited by a selection of Disney princesses and they had a parade around the tables with all the young princesses having breakfast.  The only downside to the breakfast was that 5 of us were on two small tables only really suitable for 4. It would have been fine for a regular meal, but for a buffet we quickly ran out of space. We had our 5 plates, cups and beakers as well as assorted cutlery and then three plates of cooked food came out and there was no where to put them. At no point did any of the servers consider removing any of the used crockery.

We had a fast pass for later in the day for the new Frozen ride, but our server informed us that it was open and we could get on pretty much straight away.  This we did and freed up a fast pass.

Our next ride was on Mission Earth.  We had a leisurely stroll, going against the tide as the main entrance was now fully open.  Having deviated from our plan we were winging it. We decided to watch the Disney \ Pixar short movies which was part of a festival.  These were excellent. The first was a Mickey Mouse adventure, the second was about a young sand piper and the third about a stray dog that was adopted.

The next stop was the Universe of Energy with Ellen.  This is probably our last visit where this will be here. Unfortunately, tiredness caught up with me and I slept through the ride.

We had time to kill before our next fast pass so spent a little time looking through the shops.  This had the added advantage of us getting out of the heat for  a little while.  We went to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. Lots of pictures with the characters.

Lastly we headed to France to play the Agent P game. These are really clever games based around Perry the platypus from Pheneus and Ferb.  This used to be played on smart phones which were given to players, but now you need to bring your own.  We played on a tablet with Wi-Fi.  There are six adventures to play each based in a different country of the World showcase.

On the way to start the game we took in the O' Canada 360° film show.  We then looked through the shops in the UK, to see what was on offer. I looked at a tartan scarf and was horrified to find in was made in China.

Finally, we arrived in France.  Time for a snack in the excellent patisserie. Then on with the game.  We were given a set of clues and sent to various locations around France. At each one there is some form of interaction. It is really cleverly done and most of the people in the area have no idea of the game going on around them.  We went for a ice cream after successfully completing the mission.  I had the rather unusual cinnamon and apple crumble flavour, delicious.

Back to the hotel for some time by the pool.  Yet again we didn't make it. The thunder and lightening beat us to it.  So we had a short rest and replanned the rest of our day. We left the hotel before the rain stopped.  Destination Disney Springs. On the journey we passed a spot where some work was going on. The rain had been so torrential that it had caused a mini mudslide across the first lane of the road.  On the bus we sat towards the back and discovered a design flaw. There is an escape hatch in the roof of the bus.  With all the heavy rain water was flooding through.  The seat on either side below the hatch had puddles.

At Disney Springs we headed for Blaze Pizza. We all had individual pizzas cooked in 180 seconds. These were very tasty and fast.

Our plan had been to catch a bus directly to Epcot, but this was not an option as they don't go to the parks from Disney Springs. So we returned to our hotel (this gave us the chance to ditch the rain gear) and then onto Epcot.

We arrived just as the fireworks started. These are always amazing no matter how many times you see them.  We walked from the International Gate towards The Land.  Checking the queues on the app showed that times for Soaring had fallen as everyone was watching the fireworks.  The other thing in our advantage was there were Magic hours between 9-11pm for Disney guests.  We had our MagicBands checked to get into the building and then we walked straight onto Soaring. Personally, I have no head for heights, so this is not one of my favourite rides. I asked the cast member for the lowest row and they were happy to oblige.  On the ride I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead and I got through it.  At least I can say that I have done it.

It was getting late so we had a quick snack and took in Figment before heading for the exit. As we arrived a boat pulled up to the jetty and being tired we took the boat back to the hotel.  We would have been much quicker walking.