Wrapping Up Epcot
We decided to make one more food stop in Norway. I wanted to try the Kringla Bakeri, which I don’t think we had eaten at since our 2012 or 2013 trips. I think we ordered the Eplekake (apple cake with caramel drizzle) and Lefse (soft flatbread rolled with cinnamon, sugar and butter).
Both were yummy but I especially love the lefse.
A little before 7pm we stopped at the Garden Rocks concert for awhile. We had a dinner reservation at Chefs de France for 7pm and that was all we were mostly just waiting for at this point before leaving the park. I wasn’t feeling well, I was still pretty worn down from the heat, and none of us were hungry. While we were waiting, we decided to at least ask if we could cancel our reservation without a penalty. I walked down to France to ask in person while my family stayed at the concert. If the CM had said no, and that we would have been charged for canceling last minute, we would have gone and just ordered lightly. Thankfully the CM agreed we could cancel without charging us. We really wanted to try the restaurant, so it was a little disappointing, but it was the right call in the moment.
We were all exhausted, but since we were sitting outside The American Adventure and realized it would be a break in the A/C, we decided to see the show inside before leaving for the night. The show started at 7:30pm.
The show probably ended around 8pm and we walked to the international gateway exit to take a boat back to the Dolphin. We thought about staying for the nighttime show which I had really wanted to see. My dad offered to stay with me if I wanted to wait for it, but I was still not feeling well and decided to go back with everyone else.
We waited a long time for a boat, which didn’t come until 8:42pm. However, we talked to a nice CM named Dan who was from the city where my husband and I went to college (which is also where we met), so it was nice to pass the time talking with him.
We got back to the Dolphin at 9pm and still had to wait in line to check-in and ask for our luggage. The wait took a long time, it was 9:40pm before we made it to our room. Some of us were hungry by this point, so my dad and I went down to the food court to see what we could find. I got a Bahn Mi sandwich and picked up items to make a cheese sandwich for the girls with Laughing Cow cheese, and fruit for a side. DD7 was asleep by the time we got upstairs.
It was after 11pm when I realized I had left my purse (and money, ID, credit card, etc.) at the prior resort. I had a memory of hiding it in a drawer while we were there and had completely forgotten about it (thanks to our Magic Bands, I didn’t miss it all day). I panicked and called the resort. Someone answered but told me to call back in the morning. I was sure it would be gone, but very luckily, they told me the next morning they were holding it at lost and found for me. I was able to pick it up the next day and nothing was missing. I was so thankful for that!
A few stats to summarize our Epcot day:
- We walked 24,654 steps / 9.92 miles
- We went on 9 rides/shows
- We used 1 ILL and 3 LLs
- TouringPlans predicted crowd level was going to be 4/10, actual was 7/10
- We spent 161 minutes (2.7 hours) in lines; that’s an average wait time of 19.9 minutes per attraction (not counting The American Adventure which we basically walked into)
- I estimated we saved 133 minutes (just over 2 hours) with Genie+
- For our family of 4, Genie+ cost $60, so that means we paid $0.45 per minute saved or $0.11 per person per minute saved
- We paid $1.87 per minute saved per person for the Guardians ILL (only estimated about 15 minutes due to the virtual queue), so not quite as good value per minute, but it did let us get it done and back to our family quicker
On average we paid $111.45 per ticket to Epcot this day. When divided by the 9 rides/attractions, we paid $8.57 per person per ride. Genie+ wasn’t quite as good value at this park as others, and we only got to use it on 3 rides (plus Living with the Land for my parents and the girls), but saving over 2 hours in line was worth it to us.
Sometimes, you're just going to hard that you don't realize how thirsty you are until that ice cold hits. 
Thank you also for your honest feedback on your kids’ takes on several big/scary attractions. I’ve been watching a ton of YouTube videos with my daughter to ignite some excitement or preparedness for those rides - we’ll see if it works!
