DisneyWorld

This is the first weekend of the Epcot Flower & Garden Show 2026 and we headed down to take a look at the flowers and try some of the food choices; here are some photos:

We headed to Magic Kingdom to celebrate our wedding anniversary, arriving about 10am and staying almost till the park closed to regular ticket holder at 6pm (it was then open for a separate and expensive Christmas event – which seemed to give us the benefit of being quieter than expected during our day!)

We took advantage of shorter lines to meet Disney characters – Mickey Mouse of course, but also Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and Pooh & Tigger!

We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (replacing Splash Mountain!), Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, It’s a Small World, and the Mine Train (longest about 50 minute wait for that one) … we additionally saw a very small parade, watched the Country Bears and Mickeys Philarmagic, and had good but $$$$ lunch at Be Our Guest!

A busy, fun, day!

We just gave Disney about $2,500(!) to have annual passes again, and our first visit was to Epcot getting there at about 5:30pm already nearly dark – our first stop was the Chinese restaurant Nine Dragons, always a favorite of mine!

We did the Spaceship Earth ride, which is always better at night because our eyes aren’t swamped with sunlight before going in! My iPhone 18 Pro did a good job of taking photos (even without night mode which is useless on a moving ride):

We also got to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Ride which was “temporarily closed” but apparently opened just before we went to check it, and we got in with a less than 20 minute wait! The ride has changed since we last rode it – you don’t wear 3D glasses any more, and it makes photos better because there’s no longer the dual image blurring effect (compare with this photo from two years ago):

We finished our evening watching the fireworks, enhanced by being across the lake and getting reflections!

To finish, here’s some video of the fireworks: