Captain_Oblivious
DIS Dad #257, Galactic Salad Dodger
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2008
- Messages
- 13,456
Epcot is the largest of the 4 theme parks, and after walking through the World Showcase AND saving Germany and China from almost certain inconvenience, it was siesta time. Don’t believe me? Ask these guys:
If you remember, we were trying to cover attractions that our kids hadn’t seen yet. One such item on our list was the Mexican It’s A Small World.
I actually hadn’t been on this ride since they’d added Donald Duck and the other Caballeros to it. Once again, we lucked out with barely any line and were able to climb right into a boat.
The ride itself was fine. To be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot of detail, and I may or may not have closed my eyes. I think I was just grateful to sit in air conditioning for a while. I do like the atmosphere inside the pyramid, though. And floating past the volcano and pyramid-inside-the-pyramid is cool. After coaxing Dave through the dark parts at the beginning, the kids seemed to enjoy it.
With that one in the books, we had to decide whether or not to go back into Future World or head to the American Adventure. Our kids hadn’t experienced that one yet, so we decided to head back to America from Mexico. We were prepared to have to climb walls or razor-wire fences, or even crawl through dimly-lit tunnels, but instead all we had to do was walk on the sidewalk.
Sarah announced that she definitely wanted to ride Mission: Space again, so I went on a FastPass run while Julie and the kids started walking. They managed to get some nice pictures along the way. Probably because I wasn't in them.
Most of you will realize about now that we’d basically walked the entire park, and I was now heading halfway to the front and then all the way to the back again on my FastPass run. In Epcot, that’s quite a hike. By the time I met up with the rest of the crew at the American Pavilion, I had already reached the stage of the day where my feet felt like they were curling into the fetal position. My dogs were barking, for sure.
We met up outside the American Pavilion and then went inside, where we were treated to a Voices of Liberty performance. If you haven’t heard this group, they really have wonderful voices. They did a gorgeous version of Shenandoah, followed by When Johnny Comes Marching Home. We also noticed that they make funny faces when they sing. But it would be juvenile to point that out, so I won’t bother.
On to the show!
Concentrate on this picture, and then let me know if I succeeded in getting the song stuck in your head. You’re welcome.
We made a quick stop in the gift shop, where Scotty had to fight off a sudden invasion of Redcoats.
Hey! Point that thing somewhere else!
We were getting closer to our Mission: Space return time, so we started walking back towards Future World. Julie wanted to check out the Morocco shops, so she did that while I wandered with the camera.
This one reminds me of Glenn's infamous picture at this fountain.
Making our way back around the lagoon, we found a Photopass photographer who was more than happy to take our picture in front of the Big Golf Ball. Here you can get a good look at the t-shirts Julie had made for us.
While taking this picture, we suddenly realized: we hadn’t ridden Spaceship Earth yet! So we headed for the front of the park. At this point, we'd crossed the longest theme park at Disney World twice. I'm getting too old for this. But Spaceship Earth was necessary--the kids had fond memories of the cartoon at the end where they insert your picture. We remembered to pose for the camera this time around. Julie tried to do the “chipper mom” look:
I went for the “town drunk”. Unfortunately, I had the backup camera and didn’t get a great shot of it.
Another ride in the books! We spent a little bit of time in the post-show area learning all the new ways to phone home, and then went outside. We found someone to take our picture by the Big Golf Ball again, but unfortunately she thought we wanted to see more of the concrete in front of it, rather than the icon itself.
It was time for Mission: Space. Having conquered it in the morning, and declared it “awesome”, I asked the boys if they were ready to do it again! And...they promptly declined. Sigh.
So, we split up. Sarah and I would use the FastPasses while Julie and the boys went to see Nemo.
Sarah and I headed for Mission: Space and saw a disturbing sight when we reached the FastPass Return line: hordes of light blue Tia Eliane t-shirts. The Brazillions were back! Wave after wave of them, as though the guy with teh flag had gathered them and said, "At my signal...unleash hell." And apparently they all had FastPasses. However, since they were all getting into the return line (and would clog it up regardless of whether they were doing Green or Orange), the standby entrance looked virtually empty. It boasted a wait time of 10 minutes. So, Sarah and I made a split-second decision to keep the FastPasses in our pocket and just get in the regular line. It worked beautifully as we walked right past the tour group while they gathered their passes for the CM at the head of the line, and within a few minutes we were reaching Mars—after our dumb pilot flew us into a meteor shower, of course.
Meanwhile, Julie and the boys found Nemo. Dave took this picture—didn’t he do a good job?
We met up with them outside the Seas and spotted Chip and Dale hanging out by Innoventions. These are Scotty’s favorite characters in the whole wide world. Past readers will remember that we’ve met Chip and Dale over the years in various get-ups: Cruise Line Chip & Dale, Tomorrowland Chip & Dale, etc. But here they were simply, as Scotty famously puts it, Naked Chip & Dale.
By and large, Chip & Dale have given our kids the best interaction over the years. I don’t know if it’s the direction they’re given as characters or just the CM’s inhabiting the suits, but they never fail to do a great job. Chip found Sarah’s hair braid and decided it looked good as a snack.
And you can see him pointing to Dave in this picture. Dave had a couple of gaps in his teeth, and Chip kept pointing to him and then pointing to Dale, comparing their dental work. The kids were giggling like crazy.
We were getting close to our dinner reservation time now, but there was one more stop to make: the very best part of the Imagination Pavilion. No, it’s not the Ironically Least Imaginative Ride in Disney World. Besides, that had a 5-minute wait, so there was no way we were getting in that line. No, it’s not the Michael Jackson Movie Without A Plot. It’s the jumping fountains, of course!
Our kids could probably spend all day soaking themselves in the fountains. Yes, it would be a waste of $85 apiece, but they’d still be happy.
I’d say we hung out here for about 10 minutes or so, just letting them get drenched. The pictures didn’t turn out quite as well as our 2010 shots did, but that’s ok. I don’t think the kids cared.
Coming Up Next: We try out a new dinner spot! And then, an incredible amount of work for incredibly mediocre pictures.
If you remember, we were trying to cover attractions that our kids hadn’t seen yet. One such item on our list was the Mexican It’s A Small World.
I actually hadn’t been on this ride since they’d added Donald Duck and the other Caballeros to it. Once again, we lucked out with barely any line and were able to climb right into a boat.
The ride itself was fine. To be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot of detail, and I may or may not have closed my eyes. I think I was just grateful to sit in air conditioning for a while. I do like the atmosphere inside the pyramid, though. And floating past the volcano and pyramid-inside-the-pyramid is cool. After coaxing Dave through the dark parts at the beginning, the kids seemed to enjoy it.
With that one in the books, we had to decide whether or not to go back into Future World or head to the American Adventure. Our kids hadn’t experienced that one yet, so we decided to head back to America from Mexico. We were prepared to have to climb walls or razor-wire fences, or even crawl through dimly-lit tunnels, but instead all we had to do was walk on the sidewalk.
Sarah announced that she definitely wanted to ride Mission: Space again, so I went on a FastPass run while Julie and the kids started walking. They managed to get some nice pictures along the way. Probably because I wasn't in them.
Most of you will realize about now that we’d basically walked the entire park, and I was now heading halfway to the front and then all the way to the back again on my FastPass run. In Epcot, that’s quite a hike. By the time I met up with the rest of the crew at the American Pavilion, I had already reached the stage of the day where my feet felt like they were curling into the fetal position. My dogs were barking, for sure.
We met up outside the American Pavilion and then went inside, where we were treated to a Voices of Liberty performance. If you haven’t heard this group, they really have wonderful voices. They did a gorgeous version of Shenandoah, followed by When Johnny Comes Marching Home. We also noticed that they make funny faces when they sing. But it would be juvenile to point that out, so I won’t bother.
On to the show!
Concentrate on this picture, and then let me know if I succeeded in getting the song stuck in your head. You’re welcome.
We made a quick stop in the gift shop, where Scotty had to fight off a sudden invasion of Redcoats.
Hey! Point that thing somewhere else!
We were getting closer to our Mission: Space return time, so we started walking back towards Future World. Julie wanted to check out the Morocco shops, so she did that while I wandered with the camera.
This one reminds me of Glenn's infamous picture at this fountain.
Making our way back around the lagoon, we found a Photopass photographer who was more than happy to take our picture in front of the Big Golf Ball. Here you can get a good look at the t-shirts Julie had made for us.
While taking this picture, we suddenly realized: we hadn’t ridden Spaceship Earth yet! So we headed for the front of the park. At this point, we'd crossed the longest theme park at Disney World twice. I'm getting too old for this. But Spaceship Earth was necessary--the kids had fond memories of the cartoon at the end where they insert your picture. We remembered to pose for the camera this time around. Julie tried to do the “chipper mom” look:
I went for the “town drunk”. Unfortunately, I had the backup camera and didn’t get a great shot of it.
Another ride in the books! We spent a little bit of time in the post-show area learning all the new ways to phone home, and then went outside. We found someone to take our picture by the Big Golf Ball again, but unfortunately she thought we wanted to see more of the concrete in front of it, rather than the icon itself.
It was time for Mission: Space. Having conquered it in the morning, and declared it “awesome”, I asked the boys if they were ready to do it again! And...they promptly declined. Sigh.
So, we split up. Sarah and I would use the FastPasses while Julie and the boys went to see Nemo.
Sarah and I headed for Mission: Space and saw a disturbing sight when we reached the FastPass Return line: hordes of light blue Tia Eliane t-shirts. The Brazillions were back! Wave after wave of them, as though the guy with teh flag had gathered them and said, "At my signal...unleash hell." And apparently they all had FastPasses. However, since they were all getting into the return line (and would clog it up regardless of whether they were doing Green or Orange), the standby entrance looked virtually empty. It boasted a wait time of 10 minutes. So, Sarah and I made a split-second decision to keep the FastPasses in our pocket and just get in the regular line. It worked beautifully as we walked right past the tour group while they gathered their passes for the CM at the head of the line, and within a few minutes we were reaching Mars—after our dumb pilot flew us into a meteor shower, of course.
Meanwhile, Julie and the boys found Nemo. Dave took this picture—didn’t he do a good job?
We met up with them outside the Seas and spotted Chip and Dale hanging out by Innoventions. These are Scotty’s favorite characters in the whole wide world. Past readers will remember that we’ve met Chip and Dale over the years in various get-ups: Cruise Line Chip & Dale, Tomorrowland Chip & Dale, etc. But here they were simply, as Scotty famously puts it, Naked Chip & Dale.
By and large, Chip & Dale have given our kids the best interaction over the years. I don’t know if it’s the direction they’re given as characters or just the CM’s inhabiting the suits, but they never fail to do a great job. Chip found Sarah’s hair braid and decided it looked good as a snack.
And you can see him pointing to Dave in this picture. Dave had a couple of gaps in his teeth, and Chip kept pointing to him and then pointing to Dale, comparing their dental work. The kids were giggling like crazy.
We were getting close to our dinner reservation time now, but there was one more stop to make: the very best part of the Imagination Pavilion. No, it’s not the Ironically Least Imaginative Ride in Disney World. Besides, that had a 5-minute wait, so there was no way we were getting in that line. No, it’s not the Michael Jackson Movie Without A Plot. It’s the jumping fountains, of course!
Our kids could probably spend all day soaking themselves in the fountains. Yes, it would be a waste of $85 apiece, but they’d still be happy.
I’d say we hung out here for about 10 minutes or so, just letting them get drenched. The pictures didn’t turn out quite as well as our 2010 shots did, but that’s ok. I don’t think the kids cared.
Coming Up Next: We try out a new dinner spot! And then, an incredible amount of work for incredibly mediocre pictures.
about pictures. (They were ALMOST good!)
