Ultimate Disney World Summer 2024 Adventure | Day 1 At Epcot!

This was our first full day of our summer 2024 Disney World vacation. We started off our day attending the Disney Vacation Club Special Character Meet at the Contemporary Resort for the DVC Welcome Home Weeks. So we didn’t arrive to EPCOT until 4:45pm. However, since this was Monday, it was the Extended Ecening Hours for Deluxe Resort guests which ran from 9pm - 11pm. With Test Track closed and having stacked several Lightning Lanes through Genie+ (this was the 2nd to last day of Genie Plus), we felt that this would be more than enough time to do everything we wanted and it was. I will add, we NEVER would have had this successful of a park day with the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

We started off with visiting the newish Mickey & Friends Meet n Greet. We had a Lightning Lane, however, with the new Multipass, character meets are no longer offered, which I think is a real shame. Rider is at the age where he just wants to get the picture and be done (to make Mom happy), so I am not sure we would have waited in a regular line to meet them.

We then went to Cosmic Rewind for our Boarding Group that we had gotten at 7am. Fortunately, they let us ride even though we had missed our window. 

Then we headed to Mexico because it looked like it was going to rain, and rode the Grand Fiesta Tour. However, when we went outside, the rain hadn’t started, so we ran to Norway for our Lightning Lane for Frozen Ever After. Once again, when we finished the ride, the storm looked imminent, so we walked as fast as possible to France to make our Lightning Lane for Remy’s Ratatoullie Adventure. The Skyliner had been suspended, which means lightning is in the area, so we felt we made it just in time. However, when we got out, it still wasn’t raining AND the Skyliner had resumed operations, which meant, we were in the clear.

After hitting the major attractions, we decided to just have Rider tell us what we wanted to do until it was time for the fireworks. So we went of Journey Into Imagination, Livings Seas with Nemo and Living with the Land. We left the Land Pavillon just as the fireworks were starting. Even with the late arrival, we still were able to snag a decent spot to watch “Luminous”. This was our first time seeing it and I thought it was great. However, I was a huge fan of Harmonious.

The Rider surprised us by saying he wanted to ride Mission Space and then again by telling us he wanted to ride Orange. This was a first for him and it was sweet to see him so nervous. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I remember, so I think they must have tamed it down.

Then our Extended Evening Hours Boarding Group was called and we headed to Cosmic Rewind. It was a great way to end our first park day for our Summer 2024 Family vacation. We left the park arund 10:55pm and were park in our Fort Wilderness Cabin by 11:10pm.