Epcot, Day 2

Planning out our day in Epcot, we basically knew nothing. We had looked at a map, saw that there were lots of countries to be visited, we knew we wanted to see the Illuminations show, we knew Soarin' Over California was there, and we had heard about this Norwegian ship ride that we were really excited about, and we had made reservations for a Chinese restaurant that we had heard great things about.   But overall, we had no idea... no idea on how to attack the park, when we should get there, so this will be what we did and what we learned...

We started the day off sharing an omelet from our hotel. It was tasty and left room for us to drink tons of Coke before catching the bus to Epcot. It seemed like a lot longer ride than the one to Magic Kingdom.

The set up to get in to the park was different than we were expecting, but once we got through the line, we saw that large golf ball, gleaming in the sun... We grabbed a map, and decided to go on Spaceship Earth--we did not know there was a ride inside of the golf ball! Harrison loved it because he loves history, but it was pretty exciting to see how they talked about history. Then you get to a point where they talk about the future... and boom, there you are, a part of the ride!

We did not expect this ride to be what it was, but we highly recommend it. There are also some games you could play.

Our next stop was to walk the countries and see what Epcot was all about. We turned to the left and entered Mexico. Seeing that there was a boat ride, we  jumped right on! It was a little less than exciting. I thought it might be a little about the history or even major cities... but not so much.

Norway is right next to Mexico, so once we left we saw that we could experience Maelstrom, the epic Viking styled boat ride... We passed through a part of Norway that had some of the history behind Frozen. Finally we find Maelstrom!  I was surprised to see Trolls, and see some of the history of Norway's legends, but also that Frozen also takes part of that so much. The ride itself was better than the boat ride in Mexico, but not as thrilling as Splash Mountain.

Leaving Norway led us to China, the decor was such a difference between the two countries, so that was neat to see it change. We walked through, saw where the 9 Dragons was so that we knew where to go back for dinner. We looked on our map and saw that there was a 360 or Circle movie experience that talked about China. We decided to stay for that. It was a very interesting way to film, but sadly there were no seats.

After China, we found Germany and were hoping to find some amazing pretzels to eat because we were starting to get hungry. But, what they had did not seem to be what we were looking for. We left Germany and walked into Italy, again, it was so beautifully designed and really made you feel like you were in Italy but we felt like there was nothing to do there.

Next was America! We watched the half hour American Adventure which featured a song that we heard last year at Disneyland with Abraham Lincoln, so it was weird knowing the words. haha! After that, we found what we had been looking for.

 

Jalapeno Cream Cheese filled Pretzel! 

 I was so happy! And boy was it delicious. We ate those while we walked through Japan, Morocco, and then France. We looked around but didn't see anything for us to do, so we kept walking through the United Kingdom where we stopped to look at family names and their coat of arms. We passed through on to Canada and it was neat for me to see the Totem Poles and made me think mainly of Alert Bay and the little museum they had on that island dedicated to the natives and totem poles. I don't think I would have thought that was the iconic thing about Canada, but I am glad for the memories it brought.

At this point I was getting quite thirsty, and we had heard about trying all of the different Coke from around the world, so we walked around trying to find it. After passing it once or twice... we walked in and were a little disappointed that it was not different Coke from countries, but different flavored sodas.  But that sure didn't stop us from trying them all!

Italy: Beverly: a bitter soda. And let me tell you. YES it is bitter and NO you should not try it! Blech!
Greece: Pineapple Fanta: totally normal, and just fine.
Thailand: Melon Frosty Fanta: I like this one, it is a melon flavor and was not too strong, but sure was sweet!
Japan: VegitaBeta: an Apricot and Passion fruit non carbonated soda, not bad.
South Africa: Bibo: I remember trying this one, but I do not remember anything else about it.
Zimbabwe: Sparletta: a Raspberry flavored creme soda, also not bad.
Peru: Inca Kola: tastes like bubble gum! Harrison did not like how sweet it was.
Brazil: Guarana Kuat: a type of berry. I think I enjoyed this one too.

We decided it was time to sit down for awhile, so we went to the Circle of Life film... it was quite political about conservation. We went downstairs after that to wait in the line for the Living with the Land. It was a long line! But it was a really neat boat ride, especially when you go through the greenhouse.

After that we decided to check out The Seas with Nemo and Friends. It was a moving ride similar to Little Mermaid, telling the story of Nemo. There is a neat part where they project Nemo and Dori in the an actual fish tank. After the ride we happened to see a scuba diver giving an example of what she does. And finally we heard some commotion over at the dolphins...

We decided that Turtle Talk with Crush was not going to be as exciting as we wanted, so we left and went over to Test Track!

This was the car that Harrison and I created to race "against" the car, thus test track.  It was a pretty fun ride, you go 65-70 mph!

Harrison calls this my "Barney Stintson" photo, because I look amazing! Shortly after that we wanted another afternoon snack, so I tried a cronut! It was a tasty treat. We met a neat lady who had worked in Epcot with her husband and the thing I loved about her is how she said during her lunch breaks she would walk around and ask people if she could take their picture so that they could get one together. She is the kind of person Harrison and I believe that Walt would have been so proud to have hired.

We walked around for a bit longer waiting for our dinner reservation, we jumped in front of the Epcot ball, Harrison blocked a soccer goal from Goofy, and we went on Spaceship Earth again! This time we knew to make the most ridiculous faces...

The lady we had met had also told us that the video in France is incredible, so we went back over that way and enjoyed some lovely music and watched the Impressions of France and it was charming.

Finally it was nearing time for dinner, so we walked back to China and saw a fun show with some Chinese dancers.  We got our table and the service was so fast! We shared an incredible orange chicken and spinach noodle.

Waiting for IlluimiNations

I hadn't even noticed the Eiffel Tower until waiting for the show!

We found a nice spot next to a vendors cart and a nice couple who was at DisneyWorld for their 45th anniversary.

We decided after the show that we were done, but that we should try to catch Soarin' before we left, and because the park had closed but we had magic hours, we were able to jump on!

All in all we had visited about 20 attractions, walking somewhere between 4 and 8 miles.

What we learned was that we would next time sleep in and arrive at the park a little closer to noon, and then stay til closing. We felt that there weren't as many rides but a lot of walking and that we ran out of things to do, we ended up sitting down and just watching others while we rested our feet. We do recommend fast passes for Test Track and Soarin'. We were not interested in going to Mission: Space, we had heard some intense stories about motion sickness.