So today is my birthday, and I am totally excited. I’ve been awake since 4am, and knowing it’s the first day of Festival of the Arts at Epcot, and knowing they are releasing the Figment popcorn bucket via mobile order I decided to see if I could if I could order it. I registered at 4:31am and was the 868th order, so I wasn’t the only one getting in early. My arrival window time was 11:05am-11:35am.
Unfortunately due to the excitement of scoring a bucket, on their release last year people had to physically queue for more than 7 hours to get one, so happy they are doing it by mobile order this time, and it being my birthday in Disney I was unable to get back to sleep.
I was dressed just after 8am in my new Mouse Marketplace tee and some custom Festival of the Arts ears I had ordered on Etsy and we were queuing for the Epcot parking lot at 9:11am, the park opened at 9am. We quickly got a parking spot and headed into the park for its colourful delights. Figment plays a part in Festival of the Arts.
To be fair to Beans I agreed that our first ride of the day could be Soarin so we headed there and had a nice flight around the world.
Now tiredness was starting to kick in so I felt a caffeine kick was in order so we heading to Connections Cafe, the on park Starbucks location, where I got a coffee and the newly released for the festival Figment waffle.
It was then time to head to the Odyssey building, or as it’s called for Festival of the Arts Figment’s Inspiration Station where I checked to collect my popcorn bucket.
Inside the building Figment was everywhere, there was also themed food and drink and also loads of art you could purchase.
We were both excited as an artist known as JLed, Joe Ledbetter, was there for day one of the festival with his new Disney x JLed Vinyl collection. We walked towards Canada where he was set up and decided to buy four of the six coloured figures he had created. There was also the black and white versions available. Some of the coloured ones contain a chase, unfortunately we didn’t manage to snag one. Beans got one of the boxes signed.
As we continued around World showcase we found some of the added artwork, my favourite is the Lucas fountain.
By this time it was nearly lunchtime and the tiredness had properly kicked in, plus it was a bit grey weather wise so we decided to head back to the hotel for a break.
We returned to the park around 6pm, just as it was starting to get dark. Spaceship Earth was just starting to light up with its new Festival of the Arts lights, and we got to see out Magicband+ sync and light up with it.
We decided this evening was going to be relaxing so we went for a ride on The Seas with Nemo and Friends, then had a look at the sea life swimming around.
Next up was a nice boat ride on Living with the Land, this is one ride that often has really short wait times but is so nice to do. You sit in a boat while learning about farming, and you get to see the plants Disney grow, all of which they use in their restaurants. Disney have really up to date growing techniques and also like to try new growing techniques.
As we were heading towards World Showcase we stumbled upon the cast members setting up the light picture magic shots, so we queued and got our picture taken. These are some really cool pictures.
We decided to walk by the paint by numbers mural wall to see how it was going after its first day of being painted on. Loads of it had already been painted. They have multiple paint by numbers murals during the festival and you can purchase some paint and get given a number to paint.
It was now time for our dinner reservation, and being my birthday I had reserved a table at my favourite restaurant in all of Disney World – San Angel Inn Restaurante. The food and drinks, a Black Magic (created by Neil Patrick Harris. Ojo de Tigre mexcal, blackberry purée, black currant liqueur, lime and mint. Served frozen) for me and a Sprite for Beans.
One we had had our starters and mains we were asked if we wanted desserts, we both declined as we both felt full after our food. However the cast members weren’t going to let the celebration go unnoticed and came back with ice cream with a candle in it and started singing Happy Birthday, which was a lovely bit of Disney magic.
Once we had finished it was time to leave the park as it was past park closed, the Harmonious barges were still lit up after Harmonious and looked really pretty.
Being full from dinner, and having had such a good day I was super tired so was so pleased to fall into bed at the hotel to get some sleep.
TTFN, Titch
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