EPCOT ENDING

Sissy slept through the wait for the monorail, the ride over to Epcot, the bag check and park entry, the "standing in front of the giant ball" photos, a FastPass acquisition, and the walk over and into The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride. And we had to wake her up before we boarded the ride.

Had to do it!

 After the Nemo ride and attending Turtle Talk with Crush afterward, the kids played in the indoor (air conditioned!) Nemo/shark playground until we had to head to Norway for dinner. After dinner, they started getting their passport stamps (and climbed all over the troll in the Norway store)... 

 The way FastPasses work is that you can reserve up to 3 in ONE park ahead of your visit. Then, the day of those FastPasses, you can get three more AFTER you complete the initial three. But only one at a time (after those initial three). And only in the park you are currently in (which they track via your MagicBand - your all encompassing room key/credit card/park ticket bracelet). We couldn't get one for Test Track because they were all taken, but we decided to try it anyway. The clock out front wasn't showing the wait time, so we got in line, then quickly realized it was LONG (almost out the door). So Jay ducked out to ask the FastPass employee how long the standard wait was. When the guy said 80 minutes, we bailed (the park was closing in an hour and a half anyway, and we didn't want to miss the Illuminations fireworks show). But there was Disney Magic at work... the guy followed us and stopped us, saying that he didn't want a birthday "princess" (all the employees called Cora, Jean, and I "princess" everywhere we went, which was pretty fun!) and first-time visitors (it pays to wear the buttons!) to miss out, so he gave us free "extra" FastPass cards and we walked right in. The kids were designing their cars within 10 minutes!

So excited to be in the FastPass line!

Comparing his car to Cora's and betting on whose will be faster...

You can't see Cora in this high speed (65mph) shot, but she's there, buried in my arms and crying her eyes out. James was scared, but loved it anyway and wanted to do it again immediately. Cora, not so much. She actually cried for 10-15 minutes afterward before Gramma finally calmed her down. Not the best way to end your birthday... I can completely understand her fear though - I was holding onto her with everything I had as that car sped around the outside of the building! For two little kids who still wear a 5-point-harness and drive with extremely cautious, defensive drivers, the simple lap belt and convertible car were just a bit much. Luckily, those girls who rode with us (pretty sure they were park employees, based on all the info they were giving us) didn't mind our hysterical daughter, and did their best to make her feel better too. Poor Sissy really just needed to get to bed...

What Gramma did while we rode Test Track.
(She had to avoid any and all back-jarring rides, of which we rode quite a few)

Watching Illuminations from a ways back, so as to beat the majority of the crowd out to the resort buses afterward. We brought a bunch of dollar store glow sticks/toys that the kids enjoyed on the two nights that we were in the parks after dark.