Saturday, April 19, 2014

Epcot's Easter Egg Hunt


Disney World doesn't do much for Easter, but Epcot does have a fun little egg hunt around the World Showcase. The hunt lasts from April 10th through the 20th, so if you don't/didn't catch it, don't worry; I've got you covered. Please, walk this way:
 
While there are no Easter decorations in the park, it does fall during the Flower & Garden Festival, so Epcot is already decked out in its flowery best.
 

Plus, fun fact: Epcot is home to lots and LOTS of wild bunnies. We weren't even looking, but still managed to spot four or five different little hoppers around the park that day:



I overheard someone asking if Disney brought the bunnies in special for Easter. Hee! (Sometimes we like to mess with tourists by exclaiming how lifelike Disney's animatronics are getting - which works especially well with the deer you see along the roadways. Hehehe.)

Anyone can hunt for the eggs in each country, but to get the little map & prize at the end you have to pay $5 - super cheap for Disney, so I say go for it. Here's the map:


You place each sticker in the country where you find that egg. Easy-peasy.

The eggs you're looking for are huge - about two feet tall -  and range from "ridiculously obvious" to "kind of hard to spot" so it really is a game for all ages. Even though it's a little too easy, John and I still had fun with it - and it encourages you to really LOOK at each of the countries, which is nice. There are so many details even we locals walk by without really seeing.

Spoilers ahead, so if you don't want to know where the eggs are, GO NO FURTHER. (I don't know if they change the eggs' locations each year, but they probably do.)



 A good rule of thumb is to look up; lots of rooftop a balcony eggs.


You can only see the front of most of the eggs, so I was delighted to see both wings and back spikes painted on Figment's:


 Thumper's egg was waaaay up high on the water tower over the Cool Outpost:


Here's the most hidden egg of all. See it?


Dooby dooby doo wa dooby dooby doo...

Perry!



Mickey was another tough one; that roof top was really high, so the sun's glare made it hard to spot.

Again, most were pretty easy, though:


Or really really easy:




Whether you finish the egg hunt or not, you still get a prize when you bring your map back:

Sadly you only get one, but for me, the choice was easy.

Then I set out to find the prettiest patch of flowers for my egg's photo shoot:


:D

(There's nothing inside the egg, but it does open.)


Aaand I'll leave you with a pretty flower picture:


Happy weekend, everyone!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Frozen's Elsa & Anna at Epcot

Yesterday John and I went to check out the Easter egg hunt at Epcot - which I'll post pics of soon - but along the way we stopped over in Norway to check out the infamous line for the Frozen princesses. It's easy to spot, since it stretches outside the land's boundaries, and a helpful cast member informed us the wait time - on a Wednesday afternoon, mind you - was about 4 hours. FOUR HOURS. And I'm told that's about average. (!!)

Then he told us you can walk through the side gift shop and sneak a peek at the princesses through a large doorway. Sold!

Of course, that doorway had it's own huge crowd, but after waiting five or ten minutes near the back I managed to worm my way up to the rope. Then I had this view:

The velvet rope keeps the crowd back and to the side, so everyone just leans as far over as they can and sticks their cameras out. Since I was at the back and too short to lean, I just had to zoom through the sea of arms and hope for the best.

Happily I got a few Ok shots, though! Here's the full meet & greet set:



The window backdrop is really lovely, with a view of Elsa's ice castle in the distance.

Elsa and Anna themselves were true to their film personalities; Anna was a little more gregarious, while Elsa was more regal, playing it cool. [pun intended, always]

 

I only stayed long enough to see a few families come through, but it's easy to see why this is one of the toughest jobs on property, making hundreds of "magical moments" for hundreds and hundreds of families - who've waited that long! - every day, on demand. The sisters even took the split seconds between families to throw us bystanders a quick wave and a smile:



 They called this "the sister hug:"

 

 My favorite was when this little girl dressed as Elsa came through:

 

 And my favorite shot:

Look at that face! I bet that expression made the four-hour wait worth it for her parents. 
(Even if I DO think they're crazy to wait that long. Ha!)

Hope you guys are having a great week! I still have SO many pictures to sort & share, but look for the Easter egg hunt & the final FINAL batch (really!) of Megacon costumes soon.