Group: me, DH, DS(7), DD(11), and DS(15)
Epcot Center
We walked to the Transportation Center from the Poly and took the monorail to Epcot. We had breakfast at the Garden Grille (character) which is in Future world (The Land) and slowly rotates in a circle. Breakfast was very good-they bring skillets and dishes to the table and its served family style. The characters visited a few times each. Again this was pricey , as were all character meals, but this restaurant is quiet.
Thank goodness for the thin crowds at this time of year, as we were able to visit just about everything. If you have a computer with email, dont miss Innovations West where you can email yourself and friends a picture of your family right from your vacation. Spaceship Earth (The big golf ball,my kids call it) was the longest line here, but not sure it would be worth the wait in big crowds. We were disappointed in the changes to Universe of Energy and Imagination from 8 years ago. Imagination was pretty much a very long commercial for ATT, when it used to include a cute dragon called Figment(of your imagination). The dragons were for sale in the gift shop, but I doubt anyone knew what they were. Living with the Land was very cool to see, especially in our world efforts for preservation and survival in the future with limited resources. The whole Future World experience (with the exception of Test Track) was primarily educational/technology/environmental awareness type stuff with a dose of advertisements from sponsoring corporations, but we enjoyed it (The kids fell asleep in a few rides though). Test track was down for the day (but read on about it later in this post). The Circle of Life was a touching film pleading for environmental awareness/preservation (but tasteful).
We walked through the entire World Showcase and rode the ride in Norway (which was a little disappointing for the wait). Our direction was counter-clockwise and was not overly crowded (but not sure if this was normal). Each countrys cast members actually spoke the language of that country(impressive), but I found misconceptions to be represented in some that I had knowledge about and found them to be stereotyped instead of true to the countrys current culture. In the Irish section of the United Kingdom they were very busy selling family crests, but when I looked ours up with the girl who worked there, the crest she tried to sell me was not the crest for my particular family name, but a generic of a similar spelling . I happened to know this because our crest has specific symbols of an ancient tale on it, which hers lacked. I wonder if Disney consults with experts from these countries before representing them. In france, we had a snack of french pastries-very good, but very sweet!
Partway through (I cant find it on the map) there is a large playgound for the kids to play and see some interesting bugs or insects. The cast members hand out temporary tatoos of these bugs and are armed with a squirt bottle to apply them for you. If you have time, be sure to catch the mini shows in each country.
Dinner was disappointing. We had a ps for the Villains Dinner at 1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian). The buffet was limited and nothing really inviting (yes, I went to both sides). They served those frozen pizza bites in the kids section, I had to remind the waiter several times to see if he could get the characters to come by our table (they came just as we were leaving). I thought our local Home Town Buffet was better. However, I thought the resort was beautiful and would love to stay there (assuming the rooms were as nice as the rest of the grounds). We did get some cute pictures of Captain Hook with his hook around the kids necks though.
We had checked Test track before leaving for dinner and was told it would open in an hour, but would stay open until 10pm (park closes at 9pm). So, after dinner we went back to Epcot just before 9 and went straight to Test Track. There were virtually no lines and we rode it 3 times! They take your picture while riding too, if you were interested in buying it. Its a very fun roller coaster type ride at the end. Completely exhausted, we retired back at the Polynesian.
Tomorrow would be a more relaxing day (so we thought .) Next is Blizzard Beach........
Epcot Center
We walked to the Transportation Center from the Poly and took the monorail to Epcot. We had breakfast at the Garden Grille (character) which is in Future world (The Land) and slowly rotates in a circle. Breakfast was very good-they bring skillets and dishes to the table and its served family style. The characters visited a few times each. Again this was pricey , as were all character meals, but this restaurant is quiet.
Thank goodness for the thin crowds at this time of year, as we were able to visit just about everything. If you have a computer with email, dont miss Innovations West where you can email yourself and friends a picture of your family right from your vacation. Spaceship Earth (The big golf ball,my kids call it) was the longest line here, but not sure it would be worth the wait in big crowds. We were disappointed in the changes to Universe of Energy and Imagination from 8 years ago. Imagination was pretty much a very long commercial for ATT, when it used to include a cute dragon called Figment(of your imagination). The dragons were for sale in the gift shop, but I doubt anyone knew what they were. Living with the Land was very cool to see, especially in our world efforts for preservation and survival in the future with limited resources. The whole Future World experience (with the exception of Test Track) was primarily educational/technology/environmental awareness type stuff with a dose of advertisements from sponsoring corporations, but we enjoyed it (The kids fell asleep in a few rides though). Test track was down for the day (but read on about it later in this post). The Circle of Life was a touching film pleading for environmental awareness/preservation (but tasteful).
We walked through the entire World Showcase and rode the ride in Norway (which was a little disappointing for the wait). Our direction was counter-clockwise and was not overly crowded (but not sure if this was normal). Each countrys cast members actually spoke the language of that country(impressive), but I found misconceptions to be represented in some that I had knowledge about and found them to be stereotyped instead of true to the countrys current culture. In the Irish section of the United Kingdom they were very busy selling family crests, but when I looked ours up with the girl who worked there, the crest she tried to sell me was not the crest for my particular family name, but a generic of a similar spelling . I happened to know this because our crest has specific symbols of an ancient tale on it, which hers lacked. I wonder if Disney consults with experts from these countries before representing them. In france, we had a snack of french pastries-very good, but very sweet!
Partway through (I cant find it on the map) there is a large playgound for the kids to play and see some interesting bugs or insects. The cast members hand out temporary tatoos of these bugs and are armed with a squirt bottle to apply them for you. If you have time, be sure to catch the mini shows in each country.
Dinner was disappointing. We had a ps for the Villains Dinner at 1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian). The buffet was limited and nothing really inviting (yes, I went to both sides). They served those frozen pizza bites in the kids section, I had to remind the waiter several times to see if he could get the characters to come by our table (they came just as we were leaving). I thought our local Home Town Buffet was better. However, I thought the resort was beautiful and would love to stay there (assuming the rooms were as nice as the rest of the grounds). We did get some cute pictures of Captain Hook with his hook around the kids necks though.
We had checked Test track before leaving for dinner and was told it would open in an hour, but would stay open until 10pm (park closes at 9pm). So, after dinner we went back to Epcot just before 9 and went straight to Test Track. There were virtually no lines and we rode it 3 times! They take your picture while riding too, if you were interested in buying it. Its a very fun roller coaster type ride at the end. Completely exhausted, we retired back at the Polynesian.
Tomorrow would be a more relaxing day (so we thought .) Next is Blizzard Beach........
