January 2, 2019
[-- Trip Index --]

Today was our second-last park day, and our last day going to Epcot! It was due to be another scorcher today, and we decided to take it easy in the morning, swimming at the resort, and going into Epcot later on. I really wanted to see Illuminations one more time (it would be replaced with a new fireworks show soon and I wouldn't have a chance to see it again ever), and we wanted to take Myla to meet Anna and Elsa - better chance of a small queue later on in the day.

I had originally booked a few Fastpasses for the likes of Nemo and Figment around 11 and 12, but I cancelled them, and just on the offchance we got lucky, checked to see what would be available if I changed the Illuminations FP. To my great joy, I was able to pick up an FP for Frozen Ever After for 6PM - perfect! You don't really need an FP for Illuminations anyway, there's so many good viewing spots everywhere around the lake.

We had a leisurely morning in the apartment, and headed down to the pool around 11.








We were in the pool for a good 2 hours, having a blast, and went to shower and get changed around 1PM. Myla had a nap while we ate lunch, and we headed out to Epcot around 3PM, with the idea to explore World Showcase for a few hours before doing Frozen.

We were in the park in no time - could really notice the holiday crowds were starting to drop off. This was the absolute quietest we had seen Epcot this holiday! We stopped for some Photopass photos on the way in.






We headed to Mousegear for a browse next - my husband is a big Star Wars fan and can never resist playing around in the shops lol. Can't wait for him to see Galaxy's Edge on our next trip!




Here's what I mean about Epcot being very quiet this day:


That's us faffing about with the stroller, and like, 4 other people!

By the way, these were the benches we watched New Year's Eve from:

I took a photo of them in daylight to commemorate.

On to Canada we went. On the way, we stopped at the popcorn stand to fill up Myla's bucket - such a bargain, $2 popcorn refills and they keep her occupied for ages!


It was an absolutely glorious day!



My mom loves Canada and has been on holiday there a few times. We took her further back into the Pavilion to look around, but decided to skip the movie. The circle vision gives me motion sickness, and we were all starting to get hungry and wanted to eat in Japan, so we still had a bit further to walk.






We did a similar thing in the France and Morocco pavilions - just browsed around without a particular goal in mind, simply soaking up the atmosphere and admiring all the details around us.









When we reached Japan, it was 4:30 and we were all starting to get hungry as we'd had an early lunch, so we headed up to Katsura Grill. Michael and I ate here a few times on our honeymoon, we love that it's a bit tucked out of the way, and really enjoy the food here!





It was quiet up here today too, so we found table no problem. My mom and I ordered the Teriyaki Chicken, Michael had some sort of vegetable stir fry, and we ordered an extra side of rice. Myla initially said she wasn't hungry - not surprising, as she'd eaten nearly the entire popcorn bucket since Canada! However, she started digging into the rice when it was on the table, and since she's such a picky eater, we encourage her to try *anything* new! She loved it so much, Michael went back in to get a second side dish of rice - yay for a new food discovery haha.

All fed, we headed on, wanting to explore the rest of World Showcase before our 6PM Fastpass for Frozen.





Myla spotted the model trains in Germany and wanted to stay and look, but we rushed her on, as we had to get to Norway for the FP, and promised her we'd go back after the ride.







By now, the sun was setting, and it truly was a gorgeous sunset tonight!







After our mini photoshoot haha we headed onto the ride. This was our second time doing this one, and we had all loved it the first time, so we were excited to get to ride it again!


I know she doesn't look it in the photo, but I promise Myla really did love it haha!

Now, Myla is a huge fan of character meets - so long as they're not face characters. She LOVES all the big furry animals, even Jessie and Woody...but has shied away from any "human" ones and not wanted to meet them. She does love Frozen though, so I'd been suggesting to her for a few days we could go and meet Anna and Elsa, and she seemed carefully enthusiastic about this idea. I checked as we came off Frozen Ever After, and the queue for the Anna and Elsa meet was only 10 minutes, so I asked if she wanted to go and meet them. She shouted "YES! " this time, and off we went to the Royal Summerhus! I loved the queue areas in here, so well done!



It wasn't even a 10 minute queue, we walked straight into the meeting room, and Myla watched the girls before us for a few minutes before it was our turn.


This was probably one of the most magical moment of the holiday to me - I wasn't "pushing" Myla to do this at all, and if she'd turned shy when it was her turn, we would have just left it. But no - Anna turned to her, and Myla just RAN over to give her a big hug! Anna herself was a bit taken aback haha, and my mom and I were just going, awwwwww. It felt stupidly special, when normally Myla didn't like the princesses!






Anna was so good with Myla too, chatting away to her even though Myla was too starstuck to talk back lol. Absolutely lovely girl!

Then it was Elsa's turn, and again Myla walked over without hesitation, even reaching over to stroke Elsa's braid!






There was no one in the queue behind us, so while Myla was with Elsa, Anna was leaning over the little table between the two meets, watching the whole thing and laughing/smiling. After we took the pictures with Elsa and were saying thank-you, she came over and said to Myla, "You know, your dress is SO pretty, I think we should take some pictures all together, what do you think, Elsa?" Elsa of course agreed, and both princesses posed for pictures with Myla, who was still completely star struck! It was just sooo precious, and so sweet of the CMs to take so much time with her - we were very lucky as I've heard this is pretty rare!







We said thank-you like a million times to them for absolutely making our evening, and they were both just so lovely and gracious. 🥰

Myla was absolutely buzzing as we walked out, and so were we! I was still kind of expecting her to not have wanted to meet them, but she had run right over, and hugged them and all, and we got such gorgeous special photos with both sisters! In the gift shop Myla spotted the Olaf plushes, and of course we bought one for her - she STILL (more than a year after the actual trip) sleeps with it every night and still talks about having met Anna and Elsa. ❤️



To be honest, we were all totally buzzing after that - it's hard to describe, but this made us all so happy and we were on a total high from seeing Myla so happy! Magical is honestly the only way I can describe it. Initially the plan had been to head home after this, but we decided we wanted to stay and see the fireworks instead. So we headed on to Mexico and did a bit more exploring there. There was no queue for Grand Fiesta so we hopped on that too.







It's like a Small World Lite lol - we all enjoyed it. I still think though, that this ride would be AMAZING with a Coco overlay! Maybe one day?

By now, we were all a bit peckish, so we decided to head back to Italy for some yummy dessert, to let Myla look at the trains in Germany some more, and maybe find a spot for the fireworks.

I queued up at the Gelati cart while my mom sat down on a nearby bench and Myla went to look at the trains with Michael. Myla and Michael shared gelato, my mom had a cannoli, and I had the Coppa Del Nonno, which was SOOOO delicious!



We then just entertained ourselves there until it was fireworks time. The trains were right across the path from our bench, so Myla was over there quite a bit. We also went into the Germany and Italy shops, and the lady in Italy gave Myla a bunch of stickers to her own delight!

When it was Illuminations time, we discovered we were in a good spot - right in front of our bench was a Disabled viewing area, but because the ground sloped, we had a great view too! And it was fairly quiet here, such a nice reprieve after all the busy park days so far.




It was great seeing the show again - one last time! And nice for my mom to see it properly too, as the only other time she'd seen it, was on New Year's Eve.

We made our way to the exit, and were at the car for 9:30PM.


My mom noticed this was the first time since we'd landed in the States nearly 2 weeks ago, that the flags were at full mast and not half mast! She asked one of the security guards about this on our way out, and he explained this had to do with George W. Bush dying a little while ago - after the death of any President, all flags are at half mast for a full 30 days. Interesting, I didn't know that!

We were back in Windsor Hills for 10, and all rolled into bed. I have to say, all in all, this was one of my absolute favorite evenings of the trip. We were all so relaxed, it was so nice strolling around without too much of a plan, and the meet n greet had been SO magical. Just a perfect evening! 💕

Lovely day, however I need to ask did your husband get changed just after arriving at Epcot 😳 he’s wearing a different T-shirt on the first few photos 😊

Yes he did! Well spotted! He had the t-shirt on, and the tank top with him in case he got too hot. I'd said, just put the tank on, you're always too warm but he didn't listen, and indeed decided I was right after all about 10 minutes after we arrived!

Typical man didn’t listen

Thanks for clearing that up, I thought I’d blended two days into one

Wow! Those Anna and Elsa photos are incredible! The one of them both hugging Myla made me well up. What a special experience for you all!