Florida Jan 2006

[mandymouse]

Another great trippie, I look forward to your visit to Epcot (my fave park), thanks for sharing

 

[Dobbo2006]

Sorrys its taken so long coming, i have been busy with work! heres part 3 of 5

Part Three

Wednesday 25th January

So our second Disney park was to be Epcot, a park I had passed through briefly last night but now could see it in true day light. It was the easiest park to get to for us because our coach dropped us off the Epcot transportation centre which is literally a 2minute walk across a car park to the entrance. The famous Space ship earth or “Golf ball” as most guests like to refer to it as fills the sky line. I was quite interested to look on the monuments / big blocks of stone on entering the park, with hundreds of people’s names and faces carved into plates from over the years. We told Morgan one of the faces was him from last time he came but I don’t think he believed us! Our first ride was spaceship earth; this is a slow moving train journey telling the story of time. I was very impressed with this attraction and how well it fit inside the ball. It makes its way up and down in a very unique way, interestingly it has no safety restraints keeping passengers in their seats, so all of the declines are taken backwards as the cars revolve around.
Next we headed onto Universe of energy. We start our journey in a pre-show room with the American funny chat show host Ellen and a story about her nightmare of knowing nothing about energy in a quiz show she enters. At this point we are told it’s a 45minute ride, to which many people in the audience were quite shocked, we had to laugh at the old people behind us who were complaining that they were going to miss “the rest of the world” because of this eating into their day! In fact it was well worth 45minutes of my time; it was not only very educational and reminded me of a lot of school physics but also was an entertaining and funny journey! You begin the journey in a large capsule, six of which are arranged in a cinema layout, then we pass through different rooms and these capsules form a line. It is really impressive with how the whole thing is put together!

Next we did Mission Space, which we did twice in the day! This was probably my favourite ride at Epcot if I am honest. The first time I went in I was given the role of Pilot, which gave me certain responsibilities and a sequence of buttons I had to press in order to successfully complete our mission to mars! Four of us board a flight sim, which in reality spins at quite high speeds to create G Forces, unless your closing your eyes you don’t feel your spinning though, as the screen in front of you tricks your mind into you thinking you are being launched forwards and pressing back in your seat for this reason! It is a very realistic effect! Afterwards we spent some time in the advanced training lab where we completed some simple tasks on screen but I got very competitive and motivated to help our team win – which we did, also sent an email from space back home !

We then made our way around the showcase of different countries, starting on the Mexico side and through countries like Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan and ending over near the UK set. Enjoyed about 8 different cultures in a matter of hours, favourites included Maelstrom boat ride in Norway and just seeing all the different buildings and side shows! The British area was very quaint but seemed quite exaggerated, with a Twinnings Tea Shop and Ye Old pub which was quite like the queen Victoria inside!

We headed over to Soarin’ which was one of the latest attractions to open (from California!) and so one of the most popular! Luckily we arranged our fast pass entry which helped us get on in just under 10minutes. Again another simulator experience, this time to give the impression we are flying across many of the earths most stunning landscapes, unfortunately I had the lower side seat which meant the edge of the screen was just in my view. This lead to the experience not being quite up to my expectations, but still a nice addition and something I would like to re-ride in a middle seat.
“Reflections of Earth” is the Epcot firework display set in the middle of the lagoon. It has a really catchy soundtrack and some excellent quality fireworks, but I discussed this with Gareth and he still argues to this day with me, but I really don’t like the globe feature. Fair enough it is ok for a minute or two, but it seems the globe projection takes up half the show and didn’t particularly interest me! Maybe others will disagree, but it is not as re-watch able as something like Wishes!

Epcot has a lovely atmosphere throughout, it’s very clean and is set out so its not too crowded. There’s modern architecture and buildings displayed next to lovely grass areas and flowers. Again there were smoking designated areas to control litter and smoke and we enjoyed several meet and greets throughout the day including space Goofy and Aladin and Jasmin!


Thursday 26th January

Me and Gareth waited at the trolley stop for way too long but finally made our way to the supermarket, for beer and doughnuts mainly! Hehe! It was a very interesting experience in the supermarket, with a million brands I didn’t recognise! When I pick up a milky way… that’s what I want, not a mars bar! Oh well!

We returned to the hotel we spent the rest of the day in the hotels outdoor pool and Jacuzzi which is right outside our balcony. I didn’t put any sun cream on which was very silly of me and I paid the price for it! 5hours in he red hot sun and I was toasted! At night we went to Ponderosa for an all you can eat buffet, wow! I want a ponderosa back in England!

Friday 27th January

Today we headed to south side of International Drive to a shopping village with loads of discount outlet stores. We found loads of bargains including some new trainers for everyone, a nice t-shirt and some Disney pins. We dreamed of our dream life I nthe Bose shop and watched the presentation of how Bose sound systems can change your life and now I’m saving up for some! Tomorrow we’re heading for Magic kingdom!

 

[PChef]

I'm enjoying your trip report. Thanks for putting it together. Sounds like you had some good weather!

Michelle

 

[Desire 2b a princess]

Really enjoying your Trip Reports.

See if you can amend your title to say "updated" so that people know you are writing your report under the same title as some people might be missing out thinking you are writing your report under a separate title
Hope that made sense!!!!!

 

[cazzie]

Really enjoying reading your reports; I wish we had gone into the Bose outlet last year I would love to hear the difference in the sound.

 

[SusanEllen]

What an excellent job you are doing with your trip reports, Wayne. Thank you for them. I'm enjoying seeing things through your fresh eyes and reading your professional observations of the parks. Although everyone looks happy in your photos, I think happiest of all must have been Morgan snuggled next to Jasmine with arms crossed like Aladdin. That's one satisfied Disney guest.

 

[bells]

Really enjoying your trip report Wayne

 

[ely3857]

Wonderfull photographs & Excellent reports Wayne




Jodie