Epcot Center

After our cruise, we had one full day to spend in Orlando before our Jet Blue plane took off. Hmm what does one do with a day in Orlando and a rental car? Disneyworld Magic Kingdom? Harry Potter World? Temple? A boat ride to see gators?

Well we ended up deciding on....Epcot Center!

I had never been there, and it had been several years for Jake, so it was fun to have that experience together. The flower and garden festival was also going on, so there were really cool Disney topiaries and flowers everywhere in the park. Minnie and Mickey!

The park is huge! We were kind of clueless as to what to do first and where to go. We got some fastpasses for a couple attractions, then headed to the Fast Track ride. You can design your own car, and then ride it.

It was fun...not as cool as Carsland. We also did a simulated astronaut ride, where you train to go into outer space in a rocket, strap into a rocket with a team of 4 people, then do your job and steer/push buttons while you're being jolted and jostled in this little machine. Not my favorite! But I'm proud of myself for doing it. AND, the plus side was I was still wearing my patch from the cruise, so I could go on anything I wanted and not get sick!

This is a pretty lake in the middle with colorful flowers.

As you can see, it was a pretty gray overcast day, and even started raining on us a little bit. Nice warm humid Florida weather.

The butterfly house had lots of chrysalis' ready to hatch butterflies.

Mickey Fantasia display

Mike and Sully!

We saw this playground and said awww man the girls would love this! The park also has a "Kids Cot" thing where certain attractions have things or crafts for kids to do. Mostly though, I'd say the park is more for adults. It's pretty scientific/environmental/educational.

Bambi!

Hook, Pan, croc...

Alice in Wonderland was funny and flitting all over the place.

We went over to the countries on the other side of the park, where you can walk from country to country and there are gift shops, restaurants, cool buildings in each country. Beauty and the Beast were in France.

We stopped in France to get some dairy free gelato. It was hot, and gelato sounded so refreshing!

Mmmm check out that super creamy mango goodness!

Snow White and all her Dwarves were in Germany

Ahhh...it was like being on the mission again! So fun.

We stopped for lunch here, to get some yummy bratwurst.

China

This ceiling was amazing!

I love when you have a reason to look up!

Norway

They had a little Frozen section, showing the clothes that Kristoff here wore.

Mexico

This was the only ride in the countries. It was like A Small World....ride in a boat with the Mexican 3 amigos duck theme.

We did some more rides and attractions. Like a fun Ellen DeGeneres show/ride, where you go in a big theater with her talking about learning about energy, then you go on a ride with her that goes into the dinosaur era. She's funny, but it's from like the 90's, so pretty dated. It seemed like most things at this park were pretty dated. But still fun. We went on a garden tour where you can see how they have these crazy high tech gardening techniques and all the foods and plants they grow there. This was just another cool ceiling in a building.

The Finding Nemo ride was fun. :)

And our last ride was the one that goes up into the big sphere, and it shows evolution of technology and things. This was a big mural on the wall when we were about to get on the ride.

Interesting! All in all, it was a fun day. We spent a good 8 hours there! Then we left, took our rental car back, hopped on a shuttle to the airport, and flew home late Friday night to our sweet girls. We missed them a lot! But they had a blast without us. I'm super glad Jake talked me into going on a cruise, and that I did it! I survived and had a great time! We even booked another cruise already. :)