Captain_Oblivious
DIS Dad #257, Galactic Salad Dodger
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
- Messages
- 13,456
I can’t prove it, but I am convinced the Disney Imagineers placed the United Kingdom Pavilion and France Pavilion in their precise locations so that, when making the walk from Canada, a visitor can stand on the bridge over the waterway and loudly pronounce, “I see London; I see France.” Tell me I’m wrong.
As you recall, we had been drafted as unpaid interns in the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) to fight crimes alongside Perry the Platypus, otherwise known as Agent P. We were assigned to help defeat one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil schemes in France. So, like all new spies eager to make a good first impression with our new boss and rise up the ranks, we blew off our mission altogether.
Why? Well, we were hungry. It was getting on about 11:30 a.m., and we were still under the impression that summer crowds would be large, and we didn’t want to spend a large part of our day waiting in lines for food and a table. As you know, the World Showcase is a great place to try new culinary delights and expand your palate. No brother of mine eats rejecta-menta in my town! So we kept walking through France, Morocco, and Japan in order to try the exotic cuisine here:
The Liberty Inn. You already know that I’m not the most adventurous eater around, but I still look like Andrew Zimmern compared to my sons. We figured this was the safest place to go for everyone’s tastes. Hopefully we’ll get more adventurous next time.
It turned out that we needn’t have worried about crowds. With the size of Epcot and the fact that World Showcase had only been open for a half-hour to that point, there were maybe 3 other families in the entire restaurant. Which was fine by us. We went up to the register to make our order and found that the CM there was a student at the University of Delaware. Always great to see fellow Delaweenies around. We made some small talk with her since there was no one else in line, and then made our orders. Julie got some grilled chicken-flatbread-pita type sandwich and I surveyed the menu and then ordered…
…deep breath…
…wait for it…
A burger. In my defense, they offered a burger that had bbq pulled pork piled on top of it. How can I say no to that?
We paid for the meal, and then the CM caught us off guard by saying, “Please step to the side. You’ve been selected for a Magical Moment.” Say what?!
We did as told, and another CM approached us and informed us that we would be guided to our reserved seats complete with linens and silverware. Our order would be delivered to us personally. Thank goodness they saved us from the chore of finding a table!
All kidding aside, it was fun. We figured we’d better put on our snooty faces to properly enjoy the meal.
We put this picture on Facebook, and one of my friends commented that the ’12 Coke was an excellent selection.
Scotty made sure proper decorum was kept at all times.
If you’ve been in the Liberty Inn before, you know that they have replicas of the original colonial flags on the walls. We all decided that Delaware’s was extremely lame.
Lunch was actually very good. Julie really enjoyed her wrap-thingy, and the pulled-pork burger was terrific. With hunger satisfied, we were ready to go out for our mission!
Only, we looked at the spy phone and saw that it had timed out. That was a new wrinkle. When we’d had the phone before, you could keep it basically all day, even through meals. Now it timed out after 20 minutes.
Oops. I guess we’d ended up letting evil rule the day just so I could stuff my face with a cheeseburger. Oh well, it was only France.
We wandered past Italy and found the closest spy kiosk, and explained our predicament. The recruiter chastised us for prioritizing lunch over saving one of our allies, but gave us a new mission anyway. Hopefully he didn’t put anything in our permanent file.
Immediately, we were on the clock again as David announced that he had to go to the bathroom. So we were forced to wander around Italy until we found the restroom in the Pavilion. I was glancing at my watch the whole time hoping we weren't going to run afoul of the spy clock again.
After all of nature's calls were relieved, we headed for Germany. We were happy with that choice because a) it was close, and b) it had been one of our favorite missions when we did the Kim Possible missions in 2010.
I can’t decide which picture I like better, so I’m posting both of these here:
I’ve really grown to love the World Showcase. The detail in each pavilion is just incredible.
We started our mission, following the clues, listening close for the jokes, and pressing the buttons where appropriate. Our kids did really well sharing the phone.
So, how are the new Agent P spy missions, you ask? (Yup, I could hear you right through my monitor.) Well…they’re an awful lot like the Kim Possible missions. Basically, they wrote the new stories to fit in with most of the already-in-place electronics, secret items, etc. Which makes sense from a cost standpoint. But it forced them to really stretch their “plot” in each country, in order to make the gags fit into a new story. The seams showed a bit in the story, and they didn’t always make a lot of sense. And if you’ve seen the mission before like we have, there weren’t many surprises. Of course, we’d talked to someone inside Treadstone, someone who was there from the beginning. Anyway, my kids really enjoyed it. And I still think the Imagineers did an amazing job hiding things in plain sight, so that you’d never know it was part of the attraction if you weren’t looking for it.
The original cast of Phineas & Ferb did the voices, and they did a good job. There are some good jokes here and there. And not everything was a repeat.
So, your enjoyment of the missions will depend on how much you enjoyed Kim Possible, because it really hasn’t changed much. If your kids loved the missions before (as ours did), they’ll love them now. And if they were bored before, that probably won’t change, either.
After saving Germany (you’re welcome, Magdalene), the kids wanted to do another mission. So we moved on to China. The kids took care of the spy stuff while Mom and Dad enjoyed the scenery. And shopping. Or at least one of us did.
Obligatory ceiling shot:
While we were in the big rotunda thing (ancient Chinese term), a CM showed us a neat acoustical trick. If you stood in the exact center of the floor, you could speak and achieve an echo around the room, as though you were on a microphone. Any other spot, and your voice would sound dull (insert wisecrack about me always being dull here). It was pretty cool. At first, our kids were too shy to try saying much. I broke the ice by stepping into the center. Would you be kind enough to tell me what it was that I said?
All right, I’ll tell you. “Now batting for the Philadelphia Phillies, #26…Chase Utley…” The kids laughed. The Chinese CM did one of these:
Here’s Scotty trying it out:
We also found the Terra Cotta Warriors display, and I found Glenn’s favorite guy, Smiley:
And the kids completed their mission, although not without some trouble on the way.
This mission seemed to take a while, but we let them do it till the end. I thought one less bomb maker in the world would be a good thing.
Coming Up Next: New experiences, and a tribute to mostly America!
As you recall, we had been drafted as unpaid interns in the O.W.C.A. (Organization Without a Cool Acronym) to fight crimes alongside Perry the Platypus, otherwise known as Agent P. We were assigned to help defeat one of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s evil schemes in France. So, like all new spies eager to make a good first impression with our new boss and rise up the ranks, we blew off our mission altogether.
Why? Well, we were hungry. It was getting on about 11:30 a.m., and we were still under the impression that summer crowds would be large, and we didn’t want to spend a large part of our day waiting in lines for food and a table. As you know, the World Showcase is a great place to try new culinary delights and expand your palate. No brother of mine eats rejecta-menta in my town! So we kept walking through France, Morocco, and Japan in order to try the exotic cuisine here:
The Liberty Inn. You already know that I’m not the most adventurous eater around, but I still look like Andrew Zimmern compared to my sons. We figured this was the safest place to go for everyone’s tastes. Hopefully we’ll get more adventurous next time.
It turned out that we needn’t have worried about crowds. With the size of Epcot and the fact that World Showcase had only been open for a half-hour to that point, there were maybe 3 other families in the entire restaurant. Which was fine by us. We went up to the register to make our order and found that the CM there was a student at the University of Delaware. Always great to see fellow Delaweenies around. We made some small talk with her since there was no one else in line, and then made our orders. Julie got some grilled chicken-flatbread-pita type sandwich and I surveyed the menu and then ordered…
…deep breath…
…wait for it…
A burger. In my defense, they offered a burger that had bbq pulled pork piled on top of it. How can I say no to that?
We paid for the meal, and then the CM caught us off guard by saying, “Please step to the side. You’ve been selected for a Magical Moment.” Say what?!
We did as told, and another CM approached us and informed us that we would be guided to our reserved seats complete with linens and silverware. Our order would be delivered to us personally. Thank goodness they saved us from the chore of finding a table!
All kidding aside, it was fun. We figured we’d better put on our snooty faces to properly enjoy the meal.
We put this picture on Facebook, and one of my friends commented that the ’12 Coke was an excellent selection.
Scotty made sure proper decorum was kept at all times.
If you’ve been in the Liberty Inn before, you know that they have replicas of the original colonial flags on the walls. We all decided that Delaware’s was extremely lame.
Lunch was actually very good. Julie really enjoyed her wrap-thingy, and the pulled-pork burger was terrific. With hunger satisfied, we were ready to go out for our mission!
Only, we looked at the spy phone and saw that it had timed out. That was a new wrinkle. When we’d had the phone before, you could keep it basically all day, even through meals. Now it timed out after 20 minutes.
Oops. I guess we’d ended up letting evil rule the day just so I could stuff my face with a cheeseburger. Oh well, it was only France.
We wandered past Italy and found the closest spy kiosk, and explained our predicament. The recruiter chastised us for prioritizing lunch over saving one of our allies, but gave us a new mission anyway. Hopefully he didn’t put anything in our permanent file.
Immediately, we were on the clock again as David announced that he had to go to the bathroom. So we were forced to wander around Italy until we found the restroom in the Pavilion. I was glancing at my watch the whole time hoping we weren't going to run afoul of the spy clock again.
After all of nature's calls were relieved, we headed for Germany. We were happy with that choice because a) it was close, and b) it had been one of our favorite missions when we did the Kim Possible missions in 2010.
I can’t decide which picture I like better, so I’m posting both of these here:
I’ve really grown to love the World Showcase. The detail in each pavilion is just incredible.
We started our mission, following the clues, listening close for the jokes, and pressing the buttons where appropriate. Our kids did really well sharing the phone.
So, how are the new Agent P spy missions, you ask? (Yup, I could hear you right through my monitor.) Well…they’re an awful lot like the Kim Possible missions. Basically, they wrote the new stories to fit in with most of the already-in-place electronics, secret items, etc. Which makes sense from a cost standpoint. But it forced them to really stretch their “plot” in each country, in order to make the gags fit into a new story. The seams showed a bit in the story, and they didn’t always make a lot of sense. And if you’ve seen the mission before like we have, there weren’t many surprises. Of course, we’d talked to someone inside Treadstone, someone who was there from the beginning. Anyway, my kids really enjoyed it. And I still think the Imagineers did an amazing job hiding things in plain sight, so that you’d never know it was part of the attraction if you weren’t looking for it.
The original cast of Phineas & Ferb did the voices, and they did a good job. There are some good jokes here and there. And not everything was a repeat.
So, your enjoyment of the missions will depend on how much you enjoyed Kim Possible, because it really hasn’t changed much. If your kids loved the missions before (as ours did), they’ll love them now. And if they were bored before, that probably won’t change, either.
After saving Germany (you’re welcome, Magdalene), the kids wanted to do another mission. So we moved on to China. The kids took care of the spy stuff while Mom and Dad enjoyed the scenery. And shopping. Or at least one of us did.
Obligatory ceiling shot:
While we were in the big rotunda thing (ancient Chinese term), a CM showed us a neat acoustical trick. If you stood in the exact center of the floor, you could speak and achieve an echo around the room, as though you were on a microphone. Any other spot, and your voice would sound dull (insert wisecrack about me always being dull here). It was pretty cool. At first, our kids were too shy to try saying much. I broke the ice by stepping into the center. Would you be kind enough to tell me what it was that I said?
All right, I’ll tell you. “Now batting for the Philadelphia Phillies, #26…Chase Utley…” The kids laughed. The Chinese CM did one of these:
Here’s Scotty trying it out:
We also found the Terra Cotta Warriors display, and I found Glenn’s favorite guy, Smiley:
And the kids completed their mission, although not without some trouble on the way.
This mission seemed to take a while, but we let them do it till the end. I thought one less bomb maker in the world would be a good thing.
Coming Up Next: New experiences, and a tribute to mostly America!
That's the spirit!
