WDW 2022, part 3

Our second park day was spent at EPCOT, which was the park I was most excited about. It was also the first day that we rode the Skyliner! That's the gondola/sky bucket transportation system between some of the parks and the resorts. We loved the Skyliner! (especially in comparison with the buses that run between the resort and Magic Kingdom, which we did not enjoy at all)

Good thing I checked the backpack that morning- Trumpkin definitely did not have a park ticket.

By the way, we got this Eddie Bauer backpack before we moved to DC in 2019, and it has been one of our MVP items of parenting ever since. 

Wearing her Pooh Bear shirt in hopes of seeing him in the wild!

The theming at our resort really was very exciting.

The Skyliner was as much a favorite activity for the girls as any of the rides in the park. We still had to wear our masks in transit, and the timing for rolling the stroller into the moving gondolas was a little finicky, but otherwise, it was delightful. (By the way, we have this in-line double stroller, which we also got before we moved to DC. We got it for $200 on Facebook Marketplace, in great condition, and it was also an invaluable part of our life in DC. It was incredibly useful in both DC and at Disney because it is in-line, rather than double-wide, and takes up so much less space in crowded areas.)

We were at EPCOT first thing and didn't have to fight too much of a crowd right off the bat. The girls were really excited about the Winnie the Pooh topiaries in the England pavilion.

Our goals for EPCOT revolved quite a bit around characters we wanted to see, so we weren't too stressed about getting to any particular rides at specific times.

More fun topiaries (there were also ducks that captured our attention for quite a while)

The Finding Nemo ride was a walk-on, so we did that first, followed by watching the fish in the aquariums.

Cuddle buddy party!

Amiee got us Genie+ reservations for the new-ish Ratatouille ride, so as we waited for our ride time to roll around, we snagged a bench and passed out kid snacks, while Brad found the Starbucks and acquired caffeine for the grown-ups. This was essential to our ability to function that morning.

Found Alice on our way to Ratatouille

Made it! Chef's kiss (sort of)

Ready for Remy!

Our next stop was to meet Anna and Elsa, so we hoofed it from France to Norway. On our way, we met Jasmine!

The wait to meet the Scandinavian princesses was lengthy, but at least much of it was inside. While we were still waiting outside the Sommerhaus, though, we met another little dressed-up princess. She and Brynnie became fast friends. She was dressed as Elsa, and Brynnie was dressed as Anna.

It was very cute to see Anna react to Brynnie's matching her.

These two princesses were pretty good at the interactions, although Lily and Brynnie were disappointed that Elsa didn't conjure some real snow when they asked so nicely.

Norway posing

Amiee took the little girls (in the stroller with snacks and the fan) on a slow stroll while Brad, the big girls, and I headed to ride Soarin'. We saw Minnie on the way!

And her topiary counterpart

After Soarin' (which we all loved, of course), it was super hot, so we got Mickey pretzels, assessed everyone's status, and decided to head back to the resort for lunch and a rest. We never regretted taking breaks for air conditioned rests. Not even once.

Borrowed Bo's ears

Back on the Skyliner after rest!

Found Pooh Bear!

This was definitely a favorite part of our day.

Pooh Bear was right next to the Figment ride, so we headed in there and were all surprised at how much Hallie LOVED it! She was delighted the whole ride.

And on our way out of the Figment ride, we met Joy from Inside Out!

There was a fountain outside of the ride that was very exciting to Hallie.

We also picked up a bucket of popcorn and Mickey ice cream sandwiches. It felt like the right thing to do before the bottom fell out. Which it did very shortly after this photo. 

We've been to Orlando enough to know that afternoon showers are such a thing, so rain wasn't a surprise. I tried really hard to cover our stroller (which we had to leave in the outdoor stroller parking area) with ponchos so it wouldn't get soaked (which only sort of worked), while we went in to ride The Land. Again, Hallie absolutely LOVED The Land! The rest of us really enjoyed it, too, but she legit squealed over it.

By the time we got off The Land, there was a gullywasher outside. We just hung out until it *finally* subsided. We talked about trying to get on another ride, but all of the wait times were far too long for our crew, so we decided to be done for the day. Unfortunately for us, the Skyliner doesn't run in the rain, so we had to trek A WAYS to get on a VERY CROWDED bus. It was...less than fun, for sure.

Amiee told us that she was going to watch the girls that evening so that Brad and I could go back to the park for a date night. She's truly the best. We helped get the girls showered, Amiee picked up a pizza for all of them, they turned on Lady and the Tramp, and Brad and I went back for supper. We ended up getting Moroccan, and it was DELICIOUS.

I would have liked for the rain not to have been so robust on our EPCOT day, as well as a bit more time to do a few more things, but overall, we had a really fun day and got to see so many beloved characters. We all went to bed happy, so it was a WIN.