An Apology to Epcot

I first visited the Magic Kingdom in the first year of it being open!  It was a fantastic high school trip following our chorus's success at the State Championship.  We sold Krispy Kreme donuts every Saturday to raise funds for this trip,  at $1 a dozen, you might get a hint at just how old I am!!

It seems to me there was only the Magic Kingdom and that was enough for us.  Epcot opened in 1982 and I first visited this in 1986 when Alan and I travelled to Orlando for our honeymoon.  (I must admit I was a bit jealous of all the honeymooners we saw all over the parks on our recent trip - there are special Bride and Groom Mickey ears they were wearing!  Would we have worn them back then?  I doubt it, but it was a really cute idea!)

Our strongest memory of our first visit to Epcot was Alan having to prove his age at the pub in the UK, sadly this time around, that did not happen.   We were surprised that no one even asked this time!  But, apart from that, I found that trip very disappointing and wasn't bothered if I ever returned.








We also took the kids there when they were very small, and again, Epcot did not ring my chimes.  In planning our recent trip, I had no desire whatsoever to return to Epcot.  But then I heard it had changed and decided "why not go!"

And I am so glad I did!  This park is so much fun and has such a variety of rides, activities and entertainment, plus world wide exposure to food!  Who would not like this park?  So I am very sorry, Epcot, for my rash early judgment!  And I don't think it has changed!  These parks are always updating themselves, but fundamentally, it is the same place!

Prior to this visit, my only positive Disney memory from Epcot was that this was (and still is) the only park I have ever spotted Mickey in an unplanned signing opportunity!  My first one was many years ago, in Japan, when Mickey was wearing a kimono on our first trip here.  Oh, that makes two very memorable events that time!

At this point in our trip, we had still not set eyes on Mickey, apart from shows and parades.  I did wonder if Corbyn's luck would be like mine, and it was!  We stumbled upon Mickey and a few of his friends signing autographs and posing for pictures. But we were too late, Corbyn would have been the last one in the line, but Mickey's handler did not permit Corbyn to do that because it was time for Mickey to leave.  He had this happen to him a few times in this trip with various celebrities, but this was the worst.  So action was taken to position Corbyn in Mickey's path when he was on his way back to his dressing room, or whatever.  And this worked very well, thank goodness!

In the days we had been here, Corbyn had gone from being a bit aloof about the Disney characters, to getting the magic, so we were really hoping the creative positioning would work.












And it did!

But who was more excited?  Corbyn or Mum?

In all the excitement, I was not able to pass on all the messages to Mickey I had been asked to, and I apologize for letting friends and family down.  But I think he knows we love him and are always looking forward to visiting him.

As well as Mickey being around at Epcot, there are 4 distinct areas and I had to look up Wikipedia for a list of attractions to make sure I didn't forget anything!

There are 4 main parts of Epcot with Futureworld the one you enter first.  There is Spaceship Earth where you can take a ride through time and learn how communication developed. This was actually the very last thing we did - on the way out. It is basic, mainly because it is original, but still fun!  Here is a picture of Alan and me in our future home (according to this ride anyway!)

It is a very pretty park, but we walked right through all the futuristic stuff and went straight to the World Showcase because we thought we would get through that quickly. We were wrong!  It was a lot of fun and also very interesting!

Our first stop was Mexico.....we took a boat ride through their history and, finally, I found the skeletons I had told Corbyn to watch out for in Its a Small World!  I guess I got my rides confused!

I imagine this is in reference to Cinco De Mayo. I am just happy to have found it!

The next country was Norway and the section there looks just like the city of Bergen, where we were only last year.  I always thought it was just a generic Norwegian setting, but now I am convinced it is really Bergen!  Here is the link to my blog about our trip to Norway.

There is a passport kids can get, and each country will sign a greeting in the passport in the language of that country and also stamp it.  Here is Corbyn getting his Chinese greeting   It is really a good idea because they learn a bit about each place and hear a bit of that country's spoken language!

 I wonder how many people have noticed St Mark's Square is the mirror image of the one in Venice?  Why was it built that way?

Walking straight through Morocco was impossible with all these wonderful drums for Corbyn to try!

We intended to eat lunch in Japan and seemed to time this just right. It was delicious too!

This was the day before the 4th of July so it was even more special to see the "Spirit of America live Fife and Drum Corps"!





While we were on our own, Alan and I virtually ran to back to Canada to see their 360 degree movie of Canadian cities and scenery.  We remembered this as being fantastic and it still is!

I did try to take a picture, but it didn't really work.  Must be seen in person to be appreciated!

And in France, there were 2 waiters with a table, 4 chairs and 4 bottles of wine.  Without saying a word, they put on a great and really funny show out in the heat and discomfort a pre-storm Florida.

When we caught up with everyone it was to use our Fast Passes on various rides.  The main one though, was the Test Track.  This seems to be the most popular ride on the park, but it was not meant for us to ride it.  There was a lot of storm activity throughout the day and these sort of rides must close if there is any lightning within a 10 mile radius, if I remember correctly.  They kept saying it might open soon, but the queue, even for Fast Pass was just too long.  And this was meant to be our last ride of the day.

Just one more highlight of this busy and interesting park - the Living Seas!  This is one of the largest aquariums in the US.  (I wonder how it compares with the one in Atlanta?)  Corbyn loved this and interrogated the staff member who was stationed there to answer questions. She was very impressed with the caliber of questions coming out of this little 5 year old!


We saw a very interesting 360 degree 3D movie about the life and journey of a turtle which was very educational without being boring.

But the best part for me anyway, was the manatees.  I feel we got a better view of them in Epcot than in Sea World, although the setting for them is Sea World is probably a bit better.  They were being fed when we were there and we learned that they feed each Manatee 100 lbs of lettuce a day!  When Corbyn predictably questioned why they fed them lettuce, he was told that the mineral and vitamin content of lettuce is very similar to seaweed and was good for them.

Here are the pictures I took of this time.  Imagine a little 5 year old boy saying what messy eaters they are!

and a bonus one of a boy in a shark's mouth

Good manners: The noise you don't make when you're eating soup. ~Bennett Serf