Our first day at Disney World is Monday, January 3rd. We plan to go to Epcot that day. We are taking a rather relaxed approach to this trip, but I still like to have a general idea of what we will do.
Here’s our plan:
Arrive by 8:30 am for Rope Drop
Jason will head to Soarin for a Fastpass
I will take the kids to Epcot Character Spot to meet with the fab five. Plus when we leave we will look for the bonus character that is almost always waiting in the lobby
We will then head over to The Seas and do Finding Nemo
By now it’s time for Turtle Talk with Crush
When we finish head over to Soarin and use our Fastpasses
Swing by Test Track on our way to World Showcase and grab Fastpasses
Now this is where it gets tricky. I can’t really plan any more until my favorite site Steve Soares updates with this week’s schedule. I usually plan our day around character appearances. We also make sure that we ride Maelstrom and the 3 caballeros ride in Mexico.
Each trip we like to have a mission in the countries. The first trip we bought candy. The second trip we bought magnets. What do you suggest for this trip?
We also plan to do the kidcot stations with the kids too. We won’t buy the passports again. That was an absolute waste of money!
Hats Around the World: on out last trip to Epcot, we took a photo of our girls in each of the gift shops with a hat on from each country.
If you aren’t solid on the pressed pennies ~ candy from every country is fun and relatively inexpensive. We wanted to do chocolate, but could not find chocolate in two countries. Another “free” thing is to put on a hat in each country and take a picture of the kids. Have fun and I hope you have warmer weather; we froze two weeks ago. Have a magical time!
I am so excited for you!! We had to cancel our Christmas trip to Disney. :( I will be living vicariously through you, update as often as you can! :) Have fun!
Ornaments? Not sure if that has been mentioned… but they should be on sale by the time you get there :)
Hi!
I’m a pin collector and trading is so fun for the kids no matter the age. You can actually go on eBay and buy lots of pins for cheap say $15 for 20 pins and trade them through out the park. Disney employees wearing green lanyards only trade w/ kids and black lanyards trade w/ anyone. It’s fun and the kids can choose there own pins. Don’t buy pins to trade at Disney unless you buy the kits that are 6 pins for $29.99 not worth it. Otherwise buying pins is expensive but fun. Also check out Walmart they have cheaper pins!!! Have a wonderful trip. Don’t forget to get to get your pixie dust!!!!
kristin – what about a small snowglobe or something with an angel on it? maybe do something like find the hidden angel in the design? or a hidden mickey in the design? the angel could commemerate the reason for the trip without making it too difficult to look at in the future! just a thought!
Every time we go on a trip I buy a Christmas decoration for the tree :)
We just left Disney this morning — oh, so sad! — after a wonderful week and a beautiful Christmas Day in the Animal Kingdom. We absolutely love Epcot, and you have picked a great time to visit! I suggest picking up the little flags that each country sells as your mission. Or, here’s an idea that I’ve always wanted to try: Find the water feature in each nation’s pavilion and take a picture of your kiddos in front of it. You could have a whole section of your photo album dedicated to those water pictures. I haven’t looked with a purpose for the fountain at each pavilion, and can’t say dogmatically that there is one at each. I think it’s a nice idea, though.
I just wanted to plug the Kim Possible missions. They are absolutely awesome. I have been to Epcot 7+ times and I have NEVER seen as much of the countries as when we do KP missions. They really open your eyes to things you might have missed!
I love – and am stealing – the ideas for pressed pennies and maps in each country’s language. We usually make a lot of pressed pennies but it never even occurred to me to look in the countries of World Showcase.
LOVE IT!
Each country has a pressed penny but they aren’t necessarily in that country, if that makes sense. We walked the world around twice trying to find one a couple years ago, I’m thinking it was Morocco – there is a list at guest services and some other spots that will tell you where they are, just a little fyi to save you a few miles lol
Becky
We just got back from a short Disney vacation and had a blast! My friend made it a challenge for her girls to get their picture made in a hat from each country. They had a ball! At China the young salesgirls spent tons of time dressing her daughters in full garb! That made an awesome picture! I wonder if you can buy writing instruments from every country? Have lots of fun! (Oh – we discovered the chocolate caramels at the caramel shop in Germany this year – yummy!)
OH the hat idea is brilliant too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love a challenge in the countries. It makes it more fun for the kids.
Pressed pennies are so much fun! It i 50 cents plus your penny to press. I can’t remembe for certain, but I think the ones made beore 1982 work the best. You could look it up I’m sure! =)
Take an empty mini m&m’s container and stack the coins….2 quarters followed by a penny so you are all set! :D I even cleaned our pennies in some vinegar so they were nice and shiney! You can also use a eraser on a pencil to clean them up! =)
Oh..and an empty mento’s gum container holds the pennies once they’re pressed! Have fun!
I like the pressed pennies. I am also wondering if you and your famliy have considerd purchasing annual passes this year since you are planning 2 trips. Would it benefit you? Do the discounts given with the passes equal the 20+% for a room discount and the savings from the dining plan? What do you think?
You could collect postcards and then use them as part of a scrapbook :o) Hey, just a warning, the Kodak picture/email area after the Figment ride is closed for remodeling. If you are hoping to send out picture emails, you will need to use the area at Mission Space. Have a great trip!!!
ooo the penny press one sounds fun!!! and yes, the parks will probably be a bit busy because of the marathon, and simply because Disney is usually packed through new years (MK was at a phase 3 closing before noon on christmas day, which means no one but resort guests, premium annual passholders, or people reservations are allowed into the park). so be forewarned. it should clear out, but then there is still the risk of the marathon making it a little busier.
we usually get an ornament for our vacation souvenir or something that is hand made – (bonus points if it is a handmade ornament! ;))
have an amazing time! your family deserves it!
Make sure you have them write the kids’ names in the different languages on the back of the bear cutout. We went to world showcase without the kids when we were there a few weeks ago. My husband impressed the woman in Morocco with his ability to write our son’s name in Arabic. She gave us 4 bears (one for each of us) and wrote all our names on them. Then we went to China and Japan, we had them write our names on the back of them as well. They do the stamps on the handle. I like the pressed penny idea for each country. Not too terribly expensive and a cute souvenir! Have a great time!
Find a hidden Mickey in each country and take a picture of it with the children…maybe have them point to that flag on the maps for the shot.Oh,and don’t forget to take your email list to Mission Space so that you can send some silly free email postcards to family and friends when you exit the ride :o)
Tracie :D
you could always buy a pin from each country, but that could get expensive.
Have a blast! I can’t wait to hear about your adventure!
My son loved the kidcot stations and he and his dad love doing the pressed pennies so in each country they did a pressed penny it was pretty fun and super cute everytime he saw a penny presser machine! and they have great books for you to put the pennies in:) Have a blast!
How much does it cost to do pressed pennies? I think my daughter would like that. Where did you find the book to put them in?
I think it’s 50 cents, plus the penny. Think any of the stores have the holders. We have one called a penny passport. They are great and worth the money, otherwise you just lose all the pennies!!
I think the pressed pennies idea is PERFECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that is what we will do. Thank you for that idea. :)
We did the pennies and the boys love it. We were able to make them into keychains as well.
Someone else mentioned it already but putting the coins in empty mini m&m containers is great! We did it on our trip to Disney a few months ago. You can fit enough coins in one tube for 20 pennies! We did one tube for each of our girls. But if you’re only going to do it for the countries (we did as many as we could find!) you’ll be fine with just one. Have fun!
I heard a great tip about the pressed pennies…
Get one of those little tubes of mini m&m’s. Stack 2 quarters and then a penny, 2 quarters and then a penny until you fill the tube up. Then you just pour out what you need for the penny machine and it’s all nice and neat in there so you don’t have to go digging around in purses or pockets for change.
I know Target has the x-mass mini tubes of m&m’s on clearance at…I just picked some up this morning. :)
Kristin-
Pressed pennies are so much fun, we did them on our trip and the girls LOVED it. We bought tons. We stored them like some of the others mentioned in mini M&M tubes. They also have some pressed quarters and nickel machines too.
We are planning to drill a small hole in our pennies and make a pressed penny charm bracelet from them. Each girl would get their collection and they love the idea. It doesn’t take much, some jump rings, a hook for the clasp and the pennies your already getting. One of my daughters wants hers to link each narrown tip to the next like jump ring jump ring
the others want their to dangle like the charm bracelets.
Not sure if you have been to Epcot since the kidcot has changed…it’s now Duffy and not the mask. Kind of a cute story about Mickey’s teddy bear…he is always available for pics. I like taking pictures of the kids in each country. Hope you have a great trip! We moved to FL the end of ’09…Disney and the weather were the main reasons why we moved! :)
I remember reading that they had changed it to the bear. That will be a good change for the kids.
What if you try to collect maps of Epcot in the countries in their languages? Or you could do mini flags.
Oh do they have that? The maps in different languages? I had no idea!
I know they have them in a majority of the countries. My oldest grabbed ones in Mexico, Japan and China for school.
You’ll have a great time!! Right now they are doing Duffy’s cutouts instead of masks at the Kidcots but it’s still really fun. It maybe a bit on the busy side Samantha because the marathon is the first week of the month but it slows down after that. Enjoy we’ll probably be playing in the parks later that week too.
So exciting, and I’m glad to find another person who plans everything out. We will be at WDW at the same time although our plan for the 3rd is to be at AK for EMH. Hoping we can make it. :) Tried to change our ADR for CM’s and couldn’t find a breakfast ADR for the entire week. Wondering if that means it’s going to be really crowded??? Have a fantastic trip!!!