Day 3 - EPCOT

EPCOT - we love EPCOT - Experiment Prototype Community of Tomorrow. An acronym that bus drivers like to quiz you on while you are traveling between your resort and the park. This morning we took it easy getting ready in the morning, and meandered to the park.
All of the kids really love The Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion. The entrance area is a must stop. Hudson just loved the seagull area with the big sprays of water and all of the birds chirping "mine, mine, mine", just as in the movie.





Oooh, I loved Jon Owen's Mickey glasses - so fun - they even had flip out lenses.
They have a great new ride (of the same name) where you ride in a "clammobile" into the underwater world of Nemo and all of his friends. It is such a great ride. There are loads of fun things to do when you get off of the ride in the interactive area of the pavilion. A picture in Bruce's mouth is always a must. The Coral Reef Aquariums are fun to look around at too. Emily loved the aquariums, as Riley did at the same age. We also went to Turtle Talk with Crush, where the animated Crush called upon Lauren I believe once again with a question. I wish I could remember what they discussed this time. Jacqui, if you remember, please put it in the comments. You see, she gets called upon pretty near every time she has been to the show, if not every time. It is always so cute.




I believe we stopped at The Land Pavilion before crossing over to The World Showcase for lunch. This was our first KIDCOT FUN STOP. Like the Kids Discovery Club at Animal Kigdom, these are stations they have set up for educational activities. At the stops in the Future World Pavilions, you get to collect charms and decorate them to hang from you KIDCOT LAPEL. The charm at the Land was a venous fly trap with a bug.

Emily is wearing one in this photo.
They have similar, but even better KIDCOT FUN STOPS in the World Showcase.

At your first Pavillion they give you a mask (which you can decorate) on a stick (ours was a Christmas theme). Then at each country's pavillion you can collect a charm which you can hang off the mask and they stamp the stick with the logo of that country.

On top of that, you can purchase Epcot Passports (which we did), that they can take around to each country and a representative from that country will write you something in their native language and stamp your passport. It also comes with stickers for you to place on each country page.
We snuck in a ride on The Three Caballeros boatride (similar to It's a small world)in Mexico and the Fun Stop there before heading over for lunch at Biergarten Restaurant in Germany.

What a fantastic place this was to go for lunch, especially how beautifully it was decorated for Christmas. We sat at a long family table, had a great buffet of sausages, soups, potatoes etc. etc, drank very large beers and danced and listened to all of the great music. I think our children prematurely got up onto the dance floor, as they were dancing around a guy playing an instrument, and then asked to sit down when they brought out these huge horns. After that they invited all of the chidren up, which was probably the intended time. But they were having a great time.






The best part of the meal was when Lauren was chosen to go up for the lighting of the Christmas Tree. They asked her what was her favorite part of Christmas and she said "because that was the day that Jesus was born". The entire room filled with aaaahhh's, and I think it was a proud moment for mom and dad.
Riley and Lauren were really excited to do more of the Kidcot Fun Stops and fill their passports as much as they could. After completing the stop in Germany, they went on to China, where there was a suprise waiting.

Mulan and Mushu. After and photo op with them and then a lengthy amount of time in the China Pavilion, they were able to make one more stop in Norway before it was time to go. We'll have to wait until next time to fill the rest of the passport.

In the meantime, Jon Owen, Jay and Jacqui went on to experience Test Track - looked like fun. It was a great day.
We brought all of kids back to the hotel along with Grandma and Papa, who had graciously agreed to look after them that evening so the Big Kids could have a night out. We decided to go back to Epcot. The Christmas Lights at Epcot were beautiful. A fantastic backdrop for a great photo op, so we took advantage.




We had reservations for dinner at The Angel Inn Restaurante in the Mexico Pavilion. We had an excellent dinner, but who are we kidding, it was all about the Margaritas.
The World Showcase at Epcot was just beautiful at night with the "Holidays around the World" displays and lights. After dinner we walked around the lake, shared a funnel cake and stopped to watch the amazing fireworks display. I'm not kidding you, it was an amazing display of fireworks along with a laser and a light show with images projecting on a huge globe that moved across the water, I'll while a beautiful children's choir, possibly even a boys choir sang "Let their be peace on earth" with their angelic voices. Jacqui and I both had tears, seriously.