Family Vacation at Disney!

Monday we got to have a 12-hour family vacation. A friend we know gave us tickets to Disney World for the day. Bob had never been and it has been years since I had been to all the parks besides our visit in February. From my nominal experience I suggested EPCOT was the best park for us to visit. Due to some miscommunication we actually started our Disney Experience at Magic Kingdom and watched a parade and danced in the street party.

We then took a boat and monorail back to EPCOT to spend the rest of the day. There is a Flower and Garden Festival going on at EPCOT so there were amazing topiaries all over the park.

EPCOT has 2 parts, Future World and the World Showcase. We started at Future World. We did several activities at the Innovations Pavilions. It was fun to have Lydia participate with us. On touch screen computers she helped us make our choices and when we had things to push she helped with that too. Lydia earned a sticker for being Emergency Prepared. She completed a giant shape sorter with Dad’s help

Our next family activity was about trash and waste management. WE had several challenges to complete and Lydia was a willing participant and she pushed our Garbage Truck between the stations.

Bob got his turn to shine at the next activity, an interactive game show sponsored by Velcro. Bob was selected for one of the games and to change the most diapers in 1 minute. He has been preparing for this challenge for 15 months.

We also went on the Finding Nemo Ride and visited the Sea attraction, which had a large fish tank. We got there in time for a feeding demonstration. One dive fed 15,000 fish at once.
Next we started on the World Showcase. This is a series of mini villages representing 11 countries around the world: Canada, UK, France, Morocco, Japan, USA, Italy, Germany, China, Norway and Mexico. Each country has authentic shops and restaurants, most also have movies or rides to share the culture. We got a special treat when we visited France, Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty was there and there was no line! So Lydia got to meet her for the second time.

We also saw a pair of street artists who stacked and climbed a tower of chairs in France. In Japan Bob was mesmerized at a Candy sculptor. She could make any animal out of candy and was taking requests. In Italy we saw a mime perform with soccer balls and other tricks. In Germany there was a miniature village with a model train running through it. It reminded Bob of his dad’s train set. We made a point to see the Chinese Acrobats perform in China. There was a girl who juggled a table on her feet and a group of boys who did a routine using cylinders that they sat in to do tricks with each other.

We rode a Viking boat in Norway, that seemed to break down right before we got to the end, but we weren’t delayed much and didn’t have to swim to shore. We only had time to walk through Mexico before returning to Japan for dinner. We had some yummy chicken, beef and rice dishes. Soon after we ate it was time for the big firework show. We had seen it from outside the park but never inside, so it was a treat and it didn’t disappoint us.

We had a great 12-hour vacation. No one got sunburn, but everyone was tired. It was a much-needed break for our family and we have great memories and pictures to remember it by.