Dec. 30th, Epcot Center

On Dec. 30th, we went to Epcot. We started out in Future World and did the Nemo ride and met some characters, and then headed over to Norway for the Princess Storybook Dining breakfast at Akershus, which was fabulous.

The whole gang with Mickey

Haylie and Pluto

Haylie and Minnie

Haylie and Donald

The Lundgrens and Goofy

Haylie loved the Nemo and friends ride, and the aquarium area at the exit of it.

The lake with a view of Morocco and France.

Our reservation, which I made 90 days in advance (thank goodness), was for 9:40. We were greeted by Belle, and the Disney photographer took pictures with just Haylie and with all of us, which they later came with prints of during breakfast. This character breakfast was less expensive than the one at the Cinderella castle at Magic Kingdom, and the only place where Ariel can be seen (in dress, not fins), so it was what made us decide to go to Epcot. We were glad we did, because we had a nice time with a little slower pace but still lots of stuff Haylie liked.

The rest of the princesses came out one at a time and stopped for a chat and photos at each table. Breakfast was a buffet with bagels, croissants, salmon, cream cheese, berries, yogurt, and more. It was great. After that they came out with family-style scrambled eggs, potato bake, bacon and sausage. Haylie loved the food (we all did) and was so busy eating, it took a minute for Sleeping Beauty to get her to put down her fork and stand up.

Sleeping Beauty and Haylie

Cinderella and Haylie

Haylie and Snow White

Haylie and Ariel

For lunch, my mom had made a last-minute reservation and took the only thing available, which was Teppan Edo at Japan, a teppanyaki place. It was at 14:15 which was ok since breakfast had been so late. We also got reserved seating for the fireworks, which was nice, and tickets for the candlelight processional. We didn't do that though, because choir singing and stuff isn't much for a 5 year old compared to doing rides.

Despite the look shown here, she liked the food.

The chefs made our order right at the table. Here you see him making a volcano out of an onion.

The seas was a fun area for kids, with aquarium, Nemo ride, and Turtle talk with Crush, the turtle from Nemo which was an interactive show where the kids got to talk to him and ask questions. It was some avatar kind of thing, so he was on screen answering. They mostly kept asking, "Why do you talk like that?" I don't know how much Haylie understood of all that "Dude" talk, but she liked it.

Haylie fell asleep before the fireworks, and we couldn't wake her up. She woke up (slightly) when they started to bang, and watched a little. I think Stefan was impressed. My tinnitus wasn't thrilled with 18 1/2 minutes of loud explosions.