OK, I think I've procrasted on this one long enough, time for the next installment, The next one shouldn't take too long to write after this, since it will be fairly short and mostly pictures. That said, here you go...
Part 12: Well, I THINK It's Still the Future Anyway... (Back to Epcot for more fun and misadventure.)
When I last left off on this trip report, I had spent much of the morning in Downtown Disney trying to take it easy and recover a bit from the past two days of walking. After a so-so lunch (or breakfast, whatever you might call it) at House of Blues I ended up eventually getting to DHS, where I basically wandered around for a bit, then decided to head over to Epcot instead, but not before running into the obligatory 3-o-clock parade. When I finally made my way out the exit, I considered taking the boat, but ultimately ended up opting for a bus over to Epcot instead.
When I arrived at Epcot, I didn't really have any set plans, although I wanted to see the portion of the World Showcase that I didn't make it to yesterday (which consisted of France, UK and Canada,) and try to get a ride on Soarin' in if possible. I did, however, plan to hop over to the Magic Kingdom to catch the Spectromagic parade around 7pm or so (it was around 3:30-4 by the time I made it to Epcot.) Since I wasn't exactly in a big hurry at this point, I decided to take it easy (yeah right) and slow down a bit. Not enough that I would actually do anything silly like actually figuring out where I was going or anything like that, but enough that I could actually stand to walk a bit. Upon arriving in Epcot, I saw that Spaceship Earth had no significant wait, so I decided to take another ride on that (not sure if my future turned out any better this time around than the last one though...)
After that, I headed over to the Land pavilion, where I briefly contemplated getting in the standby line for Soarin' with a posted 35 minute wait, but ultimately I decided to skip the line in favor of picking up a Fastpass (with a return time around 7:30pm.) After that, I wandered around the pavilion for a bit, looking at the selections available at Sunshine Seasons (that steak I had for breakfast was starting to wear off) before deciding to continue on. I did see that the Living with the Land ride was basically a walk-on though, and hopped aboard for... something. I guess I had a vague idea that there were greenhouses somewhere in Epcot, but it wasn't until after I rode this that I figured out that this was the ride they were found in. That said, my occasional tendency toward general nerdiness meant that I found this quite interesting. It's definitely not the most thrilling ride in the place, but given the fact that 80% of the TV I watch these days comes from the Discovery and History Channels, I didn't mind.
If not for the fact that I'd have nowhere to put the thing or even keep it alive, I wouldn't mind having one of these things around. Anyone seen how much they're charging for those things in the grocery store these days?
I think there's some unwritten DIS law requiring that this photo must be included somewhere in every trip report. This requirement has now been fulfilled.
They even managed to find a way to sneak a bit of Christmas decoration into this one.
Having fulfilled my educational content quota for the day (sort of,) I made my way over toward the World Showcase again, but not before pausing for a look at the fountains over by the Imagination pavilion.
Ah, the world-famous jumping fountains, one of the stars of the occasional "kid gets sprayed in the face" montage on
America's Funniest Home Videos. I made sure to keep my distance, lest I become yet another statistic. Incidentally, if you ever make it to Las Vegas and are sober enough to do anything besides lose huge quantities of money on the Blackjack table, the conservatory at the Bellagio has some really cool jumping fountains like this. Not as famous as the ones outside, but cool looking nonetheless. If I ever get around to writing the
Cynic's Guide to Las Vegas project I've had sitting perpetually on the back burner for years now, I'll have to note this. That particular project is mostly waiting for me to become foolhardy enough to actually go to Las Vegas again, but that's another story for another time (and no, that's not nearly as exciting as it sounds.)
After admiring (or staring blankly at, depending on your point of view) the fountains for a few minutes, I continued my journey to the World Showcase, where in spite of my plan to see the side I missed yesterday, I ended up heading in the same direction as the previous day.
I had intended to ride Maelstrom (which I missed yesterday since I basically just completely skipped the Norway pavilion en route to China,) and when I got there it showed a 10-minute wait. In theory this would have been true, but the line was clearly not moving when I got there. After about five minutes of waiting (I probably wouldn't have done so if they hadn't given me one of those red FLIK cards on the way in) they announced that the ride had broken down, and it looked like they were going to have to do an evac.
In order to make it at least look like this wasn't a wasted trip, I wandered into the gift shop for a bit. While I was there I ran into this guy, who seemed to be either a mythical creature of Scandinavian lore, or a typical DIS Community Board poster.
Following the non-ride on Maelstrom (which ultimately ended up on the list of things I missed on this trip,) I remembered that I was getting hungry, and in spite of yesterday's misadventure in line at the Mexico counter service place, I decided to give it another shot, and finding no significant line this time I went and ordered the nachos. In retrospect, I probably should have taken yesterday's misadventure as a hint, since I found the resulting product to be rather disappointing. I suppose some of the other selections here might have been better, but I'm not sure I'd try this place again. I'll probably try to get an ADR for the San Angel Inn next time I go and give it a try, since it seems like they havfe a pretty decent menu.
Following yet another culinary misadventure (there seem to have been a fair number of those on this trip, and this wouldn't be the last,) I continued on another trip around the World Showcase, managing somehow to completely ignore what little plan I had made and travel in the same direction that I had gone in the day before, not bothering to stop anywhere until I reached the pavilions I didn't reach yesterday. After all, whenever you get a great opportunity to do a half mile of extraneous walking when your feet are about to fall off, you've just got to take it, right? Anyway, as I made my way around, the sun began to set, and dusk began to settle upon the World.
By the time I made it over to France, it was pretty much dark. In spite of that, I somehow managed to get this shot to turn out decent.
Unfortunately, I still didn't get a chance to do much more than wander through the France and UK pavilions (more on that when it comes time to wrap up the TR) a bit before I saw that it was getting to be just about time to consider heading for the Magic Kingdom if I wanted to catch Spectromagic. I had to skip Canada (again) and head for the monorail. Ostensibly, my plan at this point was to head to the MK, watch Spectromagic, then come back to Epcot to ride Soarin', then settle in and find a spot for Illuminations.
I made my way out of the park, and to the Monorail to make the ride across. It is from here that I will resume my Trip Report, and I guarantee I won't make people wait two weeks for the next installment (maybe.)
Coming up next: Part 13 - Park Hopping for Dummies (Finishing off day 3 with a Symphony of Blur-o-magic, and even more plans to throw out the window.)
on your TR
Okay that one made me snort out loud and gyrate momentarily. 
