(Dispatch #1 can be found here along with all 2026 travel)
Tuesday 3.31
In contrast to Monday’s early start we took it a bit more relaxed on Tuesday since our first Lightning Lane wasn’t until 10:30. Josh went running, I went downstairs to work/plan a bit, and the kids slept in. We all got up and had some bars for (minimal) breakfast and headed to the bus for EPCOT by ~9:30 AM.
We had a little bit of time before our first ride so we headed to Moana’s Journey of Water. This was an interactive walk and it was cute.
Then we headed to our first ride: Spaceship Earth. (Honestly the multi Lightning Lane pickings were a bit slim for EPCOT . . .)
After that, we had a princess-heavy brunch at Akershus. The princesses were lovely, but the food was pretty meh and I think in retrospect I would have skipped this character meal in favor of lunch in one of the countries.
After lunch, we headed to (EPCOT) France to wait in line for Ratatouille — I hadn’t been able to get it on Lightning Lane, but we had heard it was really cute so we figured it would be worth ~60 minutes. I don’t even think it took that long (40-50?) and it was a very fun ride! Definitely recommend.
After that we had the Frozen ride (so . . . back to Norway!) which the kids liked a lot, and by this point people were a little hungry so we stopped in (EPCOT) Italy for gelato, which was as mediocre as breakfast (and really, I feel like it’s hard to mess up gelato . . .).
(We powered through and ate it anyway, in case anyone was concerned.)
Then we headed back to the Land part of EPCOT for our Lightning Lane Soarin’ reservation. This ride is always so delightful!
AND THEN . . . we were kind of done. I know it doesn’t sound like all that much, but there was a ton of walking in there! And some shopping, looking at stuff, checking out the other ‘countries’ too.
We had dinner reservations in Japan but I ended up cancelling them in favor of heading back to our hotel for some pool time and a more relaxed dinner. This ended up being absolutely the right call! The kids played for something like 2 hours . . .
We quickly changed and headed to the Roaring Fork for a late-ish dinner where we managed to feed all 7 of us for under $100 – so basically a Disney miracle. (It was better food than the brunch, too!)
Everyone crashed into bed around 9:30 or 10:00 super happy with the day. Josh and the kids would have loved to go on Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind (and I was even considering it) but the wait was 120 minutes and we didn’t have Lightning Lane passes so we ended up letting it be. (And Test Track was closed!)
Steps taken: “only” 18K (compared to 20K the day prior!)
Wednesday April 1
Once again I got up early-ish and Josh went running while I did some work in the lobby, and then we all reconvened to pack up from ~8:30 – 9:30. We were checked out and ready for brunch by 9:45 and I was pretty impressed with our efficiency!
I LOOOOVE the banana-stuffed French toast at the Polynesian Hotel (they call it “Tonga Toast” and it’s like a brick of sugar and butter and deliciousness), so we headed to Kona Cafe for one last fun meal before departing.
We even managed to get a group shot prior to departure:
Everyone in the end agreed it was a great trip and we started discussing round 2 in 2029 (Disney every 3-ish years is about right for our fam!).
We dropped my sister off at the Orlando airport (they had an on-time flight!) and drove the ~3.5 hours home, followed by a 45 minute recovery/change period before we headed to Miami Beach for Passover. (WHEW, but it was by design – we didn’t want to miss the holiday with Josh’s fam).
We had an absolutely lovely meal together (thanks to Josh’s parents, his sister and their two teens who did all the cooking!) and promptly passed out upon arrival home at 10.
AND NOWWWW here we are and I’m a bit overwhelmed with work / email / tasks / etc but a) I expected this and b) it was worth it. April is going to continue at this pace and I’m just going to try to keep up!!!
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