Day 3: Cape May Breakfast, Epcot, Pool Time and Jiko.

From previous trips we have found that the morning jet lag tends to hang around until about day 5 with the girls (equally, we don’t keep them up late for the first 5 days as that would not a happy family make!) so today I had a 7.30am breakfast booked at Cape May Cafe with the plan to make rope-drop at Epcot straight afterwards and queue for Soaring before our Test Track and Spaceship Earth fast passes. Everyone woke up naturally by 5.30am, including Steve (although he was asleep about 5 minutes after putting the girls down at 7.30pm whilst I was trying to tiptoe around clearing the balcony of things we’d left out there using my phone torch. I’m sure if any of them had woken up they’d have thought I was a burglar (although I promise I wasn’t wearing a balaclava!!)) We had a nice steady get ready and left the room around 6.50am to get an Uber/ Lyft.

Now, I’m a country girl. I think I’ve probably used a taxi less than 10 times at home (and 9 of them were with Steve!) but with Lyft and Uber it is such an easy process. A quick search on the app and you get a message telling you how long your driver will be, what car they will be in (I strongly suggest rejecting it if it comes up with a souped up Subaru that has a nitrous oxide injection system…I’d take a rollercoaster over that drive home any day of the week!). Our driver was 6 minutes away so the girls watched a bit of TV and then played a game of praying to King Donald (I find it best not to ask too many questions!!) before heading out to the entrance.

The journey was uneventful (although the car had an odd smell about it…rather herbal with possible medicinal benefits? Winnie kept commenting and but the Mummy glare finally shut her up!) We arrived at the Beach Club around 7.15am. I told the girls they could watch some TV in the foyer, but as they sat down they realised there was no signal. That was when I realised my first mistake of the day. From their perfect, TV viewing positions, the hotel gift shop was directly in their line of sight! I attempted to do the wide stance to block their view, but Winnie’s nose started to twitch as she smelt the opportunity to buy more unnecessary tat! I did think about saying it was closed (although the wide open door may have been a giveaway) but before we left they sold a load of unwanted toys on eBay raising over £100 to use as spending money, so instead I pulled up my big girl pants, did some internal meditation and accompanied them inside.

The gods of retail must have been shining on me as in the 5 minutes we were there both girls found something they loved. Winnie found a charm necklace which she wants to add to every visit…I’m hoping she means one charm every trip and not one charm. each time we visit a gift shop! Polly found a sketch book and as she currently wants to be an illustrator/ animator when she grows up and has asked for art supplies for her birthday (including easel to paint on and beret to wear whilst painting! Please don’t call the stereotype police on me!) it was a perfect choice. She also saw a book on how to draw Disney characters and they found 2 pins they loved, but didn’t ask for those so instead we bought them secretly and will wrap them up to go with the pile of presents we’ve bought with us to give on Polly’s birthday.

Once purchases were complete we set off for our breakfast. Now Cape May breakfast is one of our favourites. As I said yesterday, I’m not a big breakfast person, but there are so many options here, and the character interaction is always excellent. Plus, it has a really chilled out atmosphere and is never overly full, so it is always a lovely, relaxing start to the day. We were seated by a lovely server who took our drinks orders (I refrained from morning alcohol today even though it is included in the dining plan. I have the mandatory post-plane stinking cold and my throat is so bad that I’ve practically lost my voice. Steve is quite happy about this! Anyway, I decided to dose up on a concoction of antihistamines and Ibuprofen which already make me slightly dozy (dozier?) so adding alcohol to the equation could literally have resulted in me being the first person ever to be locked up for being drunk and disorderly at a Disney family breakfast!) The food was really lovely. I had seafood-hash Benedict which was a mixture of grated potato, cheese and shrimp in a kind of potato cake which was topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce. I had asparagus on the side (mine and Steve’s vegetable of choice since arriving…asparagus wee central in our hotel room!!) and it was so nice I had two helpings. The characters were brilliant and spent ages with the girls. Donald was my favourite today as he spent ages with them and was really dramatic with his actions, but everyone was fabulous.

We finished breakfast around 8.30am and headed straight for Epcot. It’s a really short and very pretty walk from Beach Club (one of the many reasons I love the Boardwalk area hotels) and we were through bag check and in the queue to go in by 8.45am. Once they let us inside the park we headed straight for Soaring and got on within 10 minutes (despite Steve having to go back for his phone!) Now I usually hate simulator rides. I struggle to watch 3d films and IMAX is a definite no (I once took my Year 6 class to the TV museum at Bradford for an end of year treat when I was heavily pregnant with Polly. We went in the IMAX and I spent the whole film staring at my feet…well, as much of my feet as I could see over my gigantic stomach…and I still felt sick!) However, I love this ride. I actually watched the whole thing today without feeling at all sick (maybe the fact that my stomach was so full and the weight of a tonne of lead meant it was not going anywhere!) I love the smells so much, and the girls adore the ride, so it’s one of our happy places.

After Soaring we headed for our Test Track fast pass. This is another ride the girls love (especially designing the car at the start which is usually pink and sparkly with the world’s biggest wheels!) However, Winnie decided she was feeling scared today and dealt with it by spending the whole ride with her fingers in her ears. I have absolutely no idea how that would possibly have helped, but she said it did, so who am I to argue?!

Next was Spaceship Earth. I haven’t done this ride since I first visited when I was about 13 so it was almost a new one for us all. Polly loves history so we thought it would be perfect for her. She loved it and both girls really enjoyed the various activities before you exit the ride building.

To be fair, after queuing in the sweltering fast pass queue for 15 minutes I’d have happily sat watching a black screen for 10 minutes if it meant cooling down and taking the weight off my balloon feet (you knew when balloon modellers twist the balloons to make the different animals, well that’s pretty much what my feet look like where the sandal straps are! And let’s not even go down the cankle path!!!)

We did consider staying longer and visiting World Showcase, but the girls were flagging and we have another Epcot day planned so we called it and headed back to the hotel. I can’t stress enough that if you do feel tired, don’t try and push through, especially with little ones. It will only bite you on the bum at a later time! After looking at their purchases, we suggested the girls have a lie down. Two minutes later they were both fast asleep and didn’t wake up for over an hour (daddy also ‘just closed his eyes’ for the same length of time meaning I wrote most of this blogs sat on the toilet (not literally!) in the bathroom with the world’s noisiest air conditioning (I won’t subject you to a photograph of this!)

We were hoping to time the nap perfectly so that the rain/ storm had passed over and head for a couple of hours at the pool, but it wasn’t to be. The storm was in the area but very slow moving so the pool was closed.

Steve took the girls to the play area which they always love, before I took over accompanying them in Simba’s Clubhouse. This is a room with computers/ arts and craft activities/ board games/ Disney movies playing where you can go at any time (you have to stay with your children). It’s a great place to go on a rainy afternoon.

The plan for tonight was to have a quick service tea, but we decided we fancied something nicer (The Mara which is the quick service restaurant here gets great reviews, but as with anywhere, the food can become repetitive if you eat there too often and I like a bit of variety!) Luckily I found a Jiko reservation for 5pm. Now, although we’ve stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge twice before we’ve never eaten here (mainly as it’s a 2 credit restaurant and the girls wouldn’t get enough value from it). However, after reading amazing review (and being too tired to travel to another resort/ park) we decided to give it a go. Now, in my head I always envisage getting a bit glammed up for lovely meals such as this. In reality it always ends up being a bit of a baby-wipe pit stop with hair that really needs washing put up to look vaguely acceptable! However, thanks to Mr Storm we actually had a bit of time so I managed a shower and a fresh splash of mascara whilst the girls danced to some African drumming in the lobby with Steve (I am assuming Steve wasn’t actually dancing, but I couldn’t swear to that! He could well have been throwing a few dad moves!) It didn’t fully detract from how deathly I looked, but at least it stopped me from scaring small children in the corridor!

Jiko was really lovely. The server was incredibly friendly and really kind (she bought me a pot of honey to help with my voice which has now completely disappeared!) and was great with the girls. Food was really good, despite Polly’s steak being overcooked (it was quickly rectified and I suspect the issue was more with the fact that most children don’t want rare steak than anything else) and the puddings were great.

There was also a really calm atmosphere that made you feel like you’d been on a lovely night out. There was also an African duet (singer and guitarist) who came around the tables singing. The girls loved it when they sang Lion King songs, and Polly got to play the drum the singer was carrying (poor guitarist trying to keep in time with that!) The girls were as good as gold, and entertained themselves drawing caricatures which Winnie then somehow turned into a business, managing to charge Steve $5 for his picture! She’s now come up with a plan to take commissions from school friends (although Polly and I got a free portrait voucher!)

Everyone is tucked up in bed now, and I’m fully medicated ready for an early AKL start tomorrow, although the initial plan for extra early rope drop to sneak an extra Flight of Passage in may well not be happening!

Thank you for reading the ramblings of a jet-lagged, over-medicated woman!