WDW: Magic Kingdom & Epcot, Part 2

The last two days of our Walt Disney World trip was spent visiting Epcot on one of those days and Magic Kingdom on the other. I wouldn't consider any WDW trip a success unless the castle is practically the last thing I see on our last night there.

We arrived at Epcot at 8:30 a.m. and speed walked to Frozen, which had a half-hour line. Then we split up -- the boys to Test Track and the girls to a classic movie about France. I sure hated those movies as a kid, but this year I made a special trip to see it since it's only shown a few times a day!

We met up for Soarin', lunch and a final ride on Cosmic Rewind. We've been back from Disney for two months now, and I still think about how great that ride was. It really was my favorite amusement park ride anywhere ever.

Then, air conditioning: indoor rides and movies around World Showcase and over to Soarin' again. Spaceship Earth, of course. Coke samples at Club Cool. (Can you believe that's still around?!) Another walk through World Showcase and souvenir shopping for Atticus.

We ordered food from France just before a downpour, ate in a small covered arcade and waited til the last moment to get in line for the Remy ride before closing, only getting a little wet as we headed for the line. The posted 65-minute wait was only 20 minutes, and we were in the second- or third-to-last "train" to go. The fireworks were just ending as we walked to the Skyliner and headed for the hotel.

On our final day in the parks, we arrived to Magic Kingdom even before the 8:30 a.m. rope drop and stayed until the magical end. It was a great day for rides -- Peter Pan was down (again, just like our first Magic Kingdom day) when we got there, but we took a chance and stayed in line. It was the right call -- it was up in 10 minutes and we rode it twice by 9:05.

Pirates was a 15-minute or so wait -- another good call since it was closed most of the rest of the day. We followed it up by about everything else we could hope to do, except we couldn't convince the kids to ride Haunted Mansion again! We even got on 7 Dwarfs twice during the fireworks, and at the end of the fireworks Peter Pan was basically a walk on. We even got another Small World ride in, plus the last carousel ride of the night.

Leisurely we made our way down Main Street, got Edith's souvenir and took photos. It was the first and only time we walked through the castle all trip! A perfect end to a -- not exactly relaxing, not exactly perfect -- but wonderful trip all the same.