The Robinsons: Day 5- Christmas at EPCOT

Christmas morning we slept in. When the kids did finally wake up there were a few presents (under my fabulous tree) from me and Chet since Santa gave them the trip to Disney World.

Yay presents!

Harris smelling his presents to see if can can sniff what it is. He picked this up from Chet who does this as well. :)

We made a total mess!

When we finished unwrapping our presents we got ready for the day and headed out to EPCOT. We spent the whole day there because we had several things that we had reservations for later in the day. We started the day by getting fast passes for Test Track. It was so busy that even tough we were there by 11 our fast passes weren't until 5:30! We had some time to kill so we decided to go over to the VIP area of Mission Space. Mission Space is a space shuttle flight simulation made by HP. Since Chet is an HP employee they have a special room reserved just for them. Well, come to find out it was closed for Christmas. How lame is that! Since it was closed they let us use the fast pass line instead of waiting 75 minutes in the regular line. I was a little worried about this ride because they close you into this tiny little simulator room and then spin you around and stuff. There is also a less intense version, which is the one we did but while we were standing in line someone said that it was like Tower of Terror and I had a mini meltdown. I was freaking a little and the cast member that let us into the simulator actually asked me if I was going to be ok. I did survive the ride but decided once was enough so we moved on to finding characters. :)

The way they do characters at EPCOT is pretty cool. They match the characters to they countries they are from. Like Mulan in China and Donald from The Three Caballeros in Mexico (we missed him unfortunately). There were others but I cant remember who was where. :)

Marie from the Aristocats in France

The Beast and Belle also in France

Liv wants to be Belle one day.

We also saw lots of princesses this trip. They are way more accessible at WDW than at DL. Sleeping Beauty was in France so we stopped to see her as well. She was so cute with Harris. Telling him what a handsome prince he was and asking him if he had slayed any dragons. His answer to the dragon slaying question was that he would find one and punch it in the face! Silly boy.

We finished with the characters in France and headed to explore the rest of the countries in the world showcase. We only made it to Morocco before we realized it was time for our dinner reservations at the Coral Reef Cafe.

Headed into the streets of Morocco

Hanging out in Morocco

I would have loved to spend more time exploring all the rest of the countries but there is just so many things to do in each country we just didn't have time. Maybe next time. ;) After our visit to Morocco was done we took the ferry back to the other side of EPCOT where the restaurant was.

Enjoying the view while waiting for the ferry.

My adorable family on the ferry.

Our dinner reservations were at the Coral Reef Cafe. I was really excited to eat at this place because it is a restaurant with an aquarium inside. Chet made sure that our seats were right next to the tank! It was so cool!

That turtle sat there the whole time we were eating. The waiter told us that is her favorite spot in the aquarium he also told us that she is 92 years old!

After a wonderful dinner we went next door to the restaurant to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. It's a dark ride. It's really cute. You can't really compare it to the one at Disneyland because they are completely different. For Harris it was less scary. So that was a plus. :) At the end of the ride you exit into The Seas with Nemo and Friends Pavilion. It was awesome! It was a Disney themed aquarium! We spent quite a bit of time there and had a blast! (Chet and I decided that if we could somehow merge The Georgia Aquarium and Disneyland I would live there.)

They had 2 manatees that they rescued. One of them was hit by a boat propeller and the other beached herself.

In all of the aquariums that I have been to, and there has been a lot, I hardly ever see anything that I haven't seen before. Leave it to Disney to have several fish that I have never seen!

So pretty!

So creepy! Yes that is a fish and I have so idea what kind.

The tanks were all pretty small but very beautifully done.

The Lion fish tank.

This Rock fish was doing his best at hiding in the coral reef tank.

The eels. You know I had to text Linz a picture of these guys. ;)

One more picture and then it was finally off to Test Track!

The kids being eaten by Bruce.

When it was finally our fastpass time for test track we still had to wait another 30 minutes or so in the fastpass line. It was a really fun ride! Especially when you are going on the track at 65 in an open car. It's a very different feeling from a roller coaster. I wish we could have done it again but the fastpassses were gone for the day and we couldn't wait in line because we had reserved seats for the Candlelight Processional with Edward James Olmos.

I'm not sure why but they take your picture at the end of the ride instead of during the fast part.

To close out the night we had reserved seating for the Candlelight Processional and the firework show IllumiNations. I was really excited for the Processional. The Candlelight Processional is a celebrity reading the Christmas Story with a 50 piece orchestra and a choir. It was amazing! I had tears in my eyes through the whole concert.

Edward James Olmos was intense!

Edward James Olmos and the choir and part of the orchestra

It was kind of weird to feel the spirit at Disney World but it was there. It was an amazing way to end Christmas day, thinking about the real reason of the season. I will never forget it.

After the concert it was starting to get really cold. We were debating whether or not we should stay for the fireworks or call it a night because we didn't have our jackets. It had been 78 degrees during the day so we didn't think it would get that cold. Boy were we wrong! We decided we would stay and just huddle close together to stay warm. When the fireworks finally started the wind had picked up and was blowing the smoke and ash right in our direction. I even had a giant piece of ash fall in my eye and it watered and swelled up! We stuck it out for about 10 minutes and then bailed. It wasn't that great of a show anyways. :)