Half Day at EPCOT
Alas, Michelle finally gets a break from school and I get to make my way over to Florida. As usual, we placed our hotel reservation through some hotel booking service. For this trip we used Hotwire and the sorting hat placed us at the Westgate Vacation Villas. Out of the offsite resorts we've stayed at, this was probably the closest to Walt Disney World. Near the entrance to the lobby was a rather tall statue that prominently featured the characters from Alice in Wonderland. After getting our keys, we drove off to find our room. Because the resort grounds was super huge, it took us some coordination to find the place. When we arrived at the door, we found out that our keys were not activated. After an hour later, a phone call, and a drive to the lobby, we finally were able to drop off our non-essentials and drove straight to EPCOT.
We arrived at EPCOT midday, but since we arrived the Monday of a rather random week, crowds were still low. The first ride of the day was Soarin', so we headed straight there from the parking lot. This time, we didn't get row B1. So we had a wonderful view of swinging bare feet. If I were working in Imagineering, I would have stacked the rows on top of each other. Since we were nearby, we went on Living with the Land. On the ride, we spotted a few guests taking a tour of the facility with a castmember. After riding, we inquired about the tour and found out that it's a paid event. Not wanting to pay to see some plants up close, we turned around and rode Living with the Land one more time.
No visit to EPCOT is ever complete without a cup (or three) of artificial flavored, CO2 infused, and sugar saturated water. In my partial desire to temporarily lead a somewhat healthy lifestyle, I limited myself to three cups of the Melon Frosty Fanta.
We then dropped by Spaceship Earth. For the uninitiated, it's the iconic golf ball the is the centerpiece of the park, which also serves to remind you that there are four golf courses at the resort. This ride is Michelle's favorite because it provides many opportunities to take embarrassing photos. Somehow, both of our cameras malfunctioned throughout the duration of this ride.
The high for today was going to be 84°F. Already feeling the heat, we made a detour through Innoventions to get to Mission: Space. Because of this detour, we were sidetracked by the things lurking in Innoventions. While many people will write the area as a waste of time, my curious mind said otherwise. I tend to agree that it is a very lackluster place, but it reminds me of visiting The Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, CA. Even if you don't approach Innoventions with the same perspective at me, just know that the Florida version is better than the one in California. At least the Florida version has a roller coaster simulator. If you do venture into Innoventions, I highly recommend checking their coaster sim. Using an interactive panel, you can design your coaster with various turns, drops, and loops. The kid in me wanted to max out the speed, acceleration, and inversions. Unfortunately, the system has imposed theoretical limits on certain variables to mimic physical constraints in real life. If it weren't for these, I would have designed our ride to match the intensity of Mission: Space - Orange Team.
The last time we rode Mission: Space was in 2007. Mission: Space is a simulator that relies on centrifuge to give you the sensation of accelerating into your seat. Back then, they offered two versions of the attraction. There was the regular and more intense version (Orange Team) and new and less intense version (Green Team). Unlike last time, we took the less intense version. Although we were on the less intense version, it did not prevent the third guest in our crew from having several bouts of loud screaming in the very small passenger cabin. It was like being on the next installment of Alien.
We wanted to ride Test Track, but did not want to wait in the standby queue. If you opt for the Single Rider option on Test Track, you are taken into a staging area to design your vehicle separate from guests in the standby queue. In our case, we had an abridged version of the design process. Instead of choosing individual attributes for the car, we select the emphasis our car should have, such as capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power. I of course, chose power and ended up with the best looking car money can't buy.
It was now time for dinner, based on what my internal organs were telling me. I suggested sushi like I usually do. What better place to have sushi in EPCOT than in Japan? Actually, that's probably the only place one can have sushi. At least we had the choice between Teppan Edo and Tokyo Dining. Since we weren't feeling like having a Hibachi grill type meal at Teppan Edo, we chose Tokyo Dining.
Having a fairly early dinner reservation helped up get seated very quickly. As always, I do poorly when I have a menu full of options in front of me. I do even worse when that menu consists of sushi, simply because I want to try everything. All of my choices were blending together, so I had forgotten the names of my orders.
After dinner, we scouted around for dessert. But before finding a location, we went through the Mikimoto Store in Japan and found some topiaries in France we've missed in our previous visit.
In France, we came across L'Artisan des Glaces, an ice cream and sorbet shop. Of the 10 ice cream flavors, we got a scoop of pistachio and another scoop of hazelnut in a waffle cone. By the end of it, I had wished that we got a third scoop of hazelnut. Maybe next time, I'll top it off with a shot of alcohol.
With nothing else on the itinerary, we just enjoyed exploring areas of the park and revisiting those that we haven't checked out at night.
Around 8:45, we scouted for an area to watch Illuminations. With people already camping out as if it was Black Friday, we weren't able to find an unimpeded view. Since any spot is a good spot to view Illuminations, we didn't mind. Once the show ended, it practically signifies that the park was closed and practically all of the guests vanish. This makes EPCOT the easiest park to linger around at night with very few guests.
Being only 10PM, I wasn't ready to leave. But with everything shut down by the time Illuminations begins, there really isn't much else to do. There is one exception. Disney has recently started their "Epcot After Hours Wind Down", which lets guest dine at one of four table service restaurants. If you really want to be one of the last guests to leave, consider booking one of these late night reservations. With the rest of the trip to get exhausted, we played it safe and rested up.
Next Up, the Magic Kingdom!
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