After visiting Universal Studios, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom, we had saved a fan favorite for our last day- Epcot! We decided the night before to let our crew sleep a little bit more, but my bro and his crew stuck to the rope drop plan.

Epcot Rope Drop Strategy

• Park opens: 8:30 (8:00 for on property guests)
• Leave hotel: 7:00 AM (fireworks at 9:00)
• Mode of Transportation: walk to back entrance (go to the pool, turn left)
• No Lightning Lane
• ***7:00 AM on second phone, “Join Virtual Queue” for Guardians of the Galaxy (42”)
• Genie+ selection: Frozen
• Rope Drop: Remy’s
• Other Rides: Test Track (40”), Soaring (40”), Mission Space (40”) , Living with the Land
• Stay for Epcot Fireworks (or walk back to hotel for down time then come back- easy to do with walking)

With the plan, my brother and crew rocked it- being first in line and into the park again! I think we’ve solidified the fact that my family thinks I’m nuts for implementing this early morning craziness. Can I say though, the proximity of the back entrance of Epcot to Disney’s Beach Club (more details on our room here) is absolutely incredible! It truly is less than a 5 minute walk. Crazy convenient!

We told the fam we’d meet them at our first Genie+ which was Frozen at around 9:30. I’m lucky we snagged that because both Remy’s and Test Track were having some issues that morning and were down, so people flooded Frozen. We walked right into the magic of Arendelle at 9:30!

From there we headed to my favorite area- The Land! Why is this my favorite? Historically it’s because of the ride Soarin’, which Hailey and I absolutely adore. However, we had never been on the Living with the Land ride, but got to walk right onto it after Soarin’ with no wait… and fell. in. love.

Everyone enjoyed the relaxing boat ride talking about our human history with growing food, but when we floated into the working greenhouse mom, Hailey, and I absolutely geeked out. It was SO neat! They were growing a wide variety of plants and herbs, some we had never seen before and others growing in beautiful ways, like tomatoes growing high up and dropping down through netting. It was a wannabe gardener’s happy place!

After exploring the land, we rode the cute Nemo ride and explored the aquarium, getting to see manatees enjoy their romaine lettuce lunch. We were approaching mid-day at this point, and I decided it would be best for my crew to have some down time out of the sun if we had any hope of making it to fireworks.

My bro and his crew decided to stay, and I’m so glad they got to see Mickey and explore the countries. For us, a couple hours hanging in the room was a great idea. We played Monopoly Deal, hydrated, and just relaxed.

We headed back into the park around 4:00 feeling refreshed and ready to rock. We headed back to the Land to ride Soarin’ and Living with the Land again (told you we loved it…) then scooted across to redeem our Genie+ at Test Track. We were a little behind my brother, so we told them to go ahead. They were loading onto the ride as we were scanning our bands. Then 5 minutes later, the ride halted. They were stuck midride!

We waited for a few minutes but then heard whispers that the ride was not going to re-open so we left the line. I’m so glad we did because by the luck of the mouse, a Genie+ spot opened up for Remy’s and I was able to grab it, allowing us to skip the 70 minute wait for a ride we really wanted to go on.

Kris, Cara, Kyla, and Lacey were all stuck on Test Track and had to be personally escorted off the ride; an adventure I’m sure they won’t soon forget.

We hustled over to France, which is adorable by the way, and walked into Remy’s. The ride is new so we hadn’t ridden it before and it was such a delight! You shrink down to the size of a mouse and get chased, sprayed with mop water, and more. The kids loved it!

When we got off of Remy’s we spent some time wandering the countries and tried a bite to eat from a Brazilian food cart (which was very good).

We all met up together after the other half of our group rode Guardians of the Galaxy (and said it was incredible!). Though we were a tired bunch by this point, it was evening and we were hungry. We were able to get a table at Spice Road in Morocco, which David and I loved on our first Disney trip. See all our Disney experiences here.

I feel like it’s a hidden gem because it isn’t crowded, the food is very good, and you have a great view of the lake. The kids were thrilled to have their own table next to ours. We ordered what felt like one of everything on the menu while we debriefed each other on our days and reflected back on the week, and all the craziness and joy we packed into it.

It was such a perfect way to tie up the trip with our favorite thing- chatting, laughing, eating food, and just getting to be together. Originally our server asked if we’d be staying for the fireworks and we said no because we were too tired. But chatting and snacking stretched our timeframe and before we knew it we were seeing colorful explosions through the windows.

We paid our bill, and stepped outside for the full experience. We ended up watching the whole fireworks spectacular, soaking in the sounds and sights of the kids’ wide eyes and giggles as they watched it all. It was the perfect ending to a chaotic and magical week!

Mom wanted one last picture as the show ended and we headed back to the hotel; one showing that it was time to stick a fork in us because we were DONE. The kids pushing the dads that had both been such troopers all week long fit the bill. Thank you Disney for all the memories; I know we’ll look back on them fondly and with laughter!