Epcot : day 8

POOL DAY AND EPCOT


I woke up early and was greeted by a beautiful sunrise which I took pictures of from our balcony. I so love the tropical feel of the Polynesian Resort. We all showered and got dressed. We had an early reservation for breakfast at Kona Cafe, our favourite breakfast spot in the whole Kingdom. My son was still so excited about his Mickey ballon that he asked if he could bring it to the restaurant...too cute! Just the walk over to the Ceremonial House was  so pleasant. It was hard not to stop every five seconds for pictures of the architecture and wild vegetation surrounding the pathways. 

Sunrise from my balcony

My son carrying his ballon to the restaurant

Beautiful trees in bloom


Gorgeous vegetation everywhere

We arrived at Kona Cafe 15 min before our ADR and were seated immediately. The waitress walked over to take our order. Of course we had to order the Kona Press and the kids each got their POG juice. We waited for the chef to take our food order. I ended up sharing the Tonga toast with my youngest son while my husband ordered the pineapple macadamia pancakes. I ended up donating my bacon to my husband who was happy to oblige. My eldest son got allergy free Mickey waffles which the chef personally cooked for him. The food was seriously delicious and oh so decadent. I love Kona Cafe.

Kona Cafe


Tonga Toast 
Pineapple macademia pancakes

It was now time for some R&R. My husband wanted to head over to the gym over at the Grand Floridian while I decided to go and enjoy some time by the pool with the kids. The pool was empty that early in the morning which was an added bonus. I found a couple of seats in the sun and watched the kids enjoy the new splash zone. Talk about hours of fun. The lifeguard came over and while he watched my kids we had a nice discussion about his experience working a Disney. It was really interesting.

Cool Splash zone for kids
Hours of fun

As I was talking to the lifeguard, this really rude lady with 4 kids decided they wanted our seats, so they moved all our stuff on the floor (including my beach bag, my book and the kids clothes) and stole our chairs. When I turned around and saw this I was pretty peeved, especially since there were tons of chairs free right next to ours. I walked over and explained that I had put my stuff there because I was actually using the chairs and the mom actually answered that they were a big group so they needed this spot!??  I was not happy but what I could I do? I did not want to start a fight for something so stupid as a sun chair so I grabbed my stuff, gave them a dirty look and moved over to new seats near the bigger pool area. Anywhoo, by that time my husband had come back from the gym and was going to get changed to join us.

Look at all the empty chairs???
Kids Enjoying the Volcano pool

My new seat away from the crazy family
 My husband got back from his workout and joined us at the pool. Then we spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun. It was a perfect day.

My husband back after his workout

Enjoying some pool time with the kids

We started to get hungry, so I went to get some food at Captain Cooks for us to eat by the pool.  I ordered fish tacos for hubby and I, and the kids shared chicken fingers and fries. After lunch we enjoyed a few drinks while the kids had dole whip. I had the "pina colava" and John ordered the Mango margarita. I fought my drink was too sweet and ended up liking my husband's choice much better. Oh well! My youngest was a little tired after his Dole whip so he decided to take a little nap.

Mmmm, mango margarita!

Pina Colava, too sweet for me!

This is the Life!
It was now late afternoon and we decided to go back to the room to shower and get ready to go to Epcot. We planned to spend the evening in the park and have dinner at Via Napoli.

Taking the monorail into Epcot was quite an experience during the Flower and Garden Festival. The views are so beautiful as the monorail zips around the park. We made our way past security and decided to take a few pics with a Photopass Photographer. I think we got some great shots of the family.






We  had time for one ride before dinner so we made our way to Spaceship Earth which I was able to get a FP for. The kids always liked this slow moving ride. My husband on the other hand fell asleep for the majority of the ride, LOL. Afterwards we walked around and checked out some of the more of of the Flower and Garden Festival. The topiaries were really pretty and we even went to see the butterfly Garden.



Now it was time for our ADR. We walked the long road to the Italy pavilion on the other side of the park, where Via Napoli was located. The restaurant is tucked into the the back of the pavilion next to the fake "Fontana di Trevi."




We were quickly seated and the waiter came over to take our order. I started a conversation with our very nice waiter from Italy. He was from Rome just like my mom's side of the family so we continued our conversation in Italian. My husband who is not Italian just waited patiently  for us to finish to order his drink. Poor guy;)

Of course we ordered pizza because apparently they import all their ingredients from Italy to make authentic Napolitano style pizza . We ordered a large which was perfect for a family of 4. We did one half cheese and olives for the kids and margarita with arugula for my husband and I. It was seriously good pizza and very authentic! I have been to Italy over 10 times so I know what I am talking about.
I also had the strawberry aqua fresca which was delicious. We were all too full for dessert. I highly recommend this restaurant.


The wood burning pizza ovens
Waiting for our pizza


Our pizza...yum!

After dinner we headed back towards the front of the park where we had FP for Test Track. I was a little nervous about doing this ride with a full stomach, but it ended up being fine. After the ride we ended up walking around enjoying the lite up topiaries which looked very different at night.


Lion King

Lady and The Tramp

Snow White

Frozen

It was getting close to our final Fast Pass of the evening which we had use for the private viewing spot for Illuminations. The viewing spot was perfect and we really enjoyed watching the fireworks with no one shoving us in the back. My son really wanted one of those light up Mickey hats so we got him one on the way out as a last souvenir. The kids were so tired, they fell asleep in the monorail on the way back to the resort.




I was a wonderful day and the kids had so much fun. I wish I would schedule more pool days like that every Disney vacation. 

Up next day 9 at Magic Kingdom 

Read about the rest of my trip here:






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