May 3, 2009
We exit the Innoventions pavillion and begin our walk towards World Showcase... and take an extra minute to watch the ending of another graceful display of the mighty fountains in the plaza. I have yet to watch an entire show of those fountains... must place this note in the next itinerary. I pull out the map and inquire as to which side of the world they would like to start from. Since the Showcase is pretty much new to all of us it really didn't matter to DW or DD where we started. Then I mention that we could take a friendship boat over to either Morocco or Germany. We hadn't done that yet... so many choices! DW eventually decides that we will take a boat ride over to Morocco. Excellent choice.
We get up to the boat launch and our luck was good... a boat had just arrived and was taking new passengers. With no one in line, we walk right on board and set sail for Morocco. It was a nice, relaxing ride over to our destination. We disembark and start taking in what Morocco has to offer. Everything was very new and interesting to DD. Our first few pictures were at a small play area close by. Here is DD on top of a "rock":
Then she wants to try her hand at trying to hold up the tower:
We hit a few shops:
This one was of the artwork... not the people in the background. Although the lady in this picture is probably wondering why my DW was taking her picture
:
Japan is next:
Here's a good place to find Bakugans:
I had no idea there was a big display of tin toys in Epcot! They've got a whole bunch of Disney tin toys set in glass cases. Here are just a few of them:
We took a whole bunch of pictures of the garden area around Japan... I won't bore you with them... you can click on this picture to view the other pictures in the album if you're interested:
Next up is The American Adventure. We did not hang out here very long as it was getting late in the afternoon and we wanted to start heading over to The Land to get some dinner.
We decide that the friendship boat was a good way to get back towards the plaza, so we head back to Morocco. Just as we are passing Japan, we notice a gathering around the entrance to one of the stores. Seems there is a lady there who is making candy! She is amazing! She takes a ball of warm candy and then asks someone in the audience to tell her which animal they want her to make for them. Using a few different tools she miraculously transforms the candy into the chosen animal and after letting it sit a while to harden she hands the work of art to the person in the audience. Awesome. Except... now DD wants one. So we try to maneuver into a spot where she might get picked. And after another 15 minutes of waiting... candy lady announces her time is up and no more candy. DD is not happy. But we manage to transform that frown into a smile by telling her we'll stop and get some a Mickey ear ice cream
This is always an accepted form of bribery
Candy Lady:
So... we catch the next boat going out of Morocco heading back to the plaza. Since we have a little time left before our dinner time, we decided to check out Spaceship Earth. I know there are going to be a few of you out there who are going to be completely flabbergasted to know that until this day I had never been inside Spaceship Earth before (dodging spoiled food being thrown at me). It's true... I've been to Epcot more than a hand-full of times, but seemed that every time I went by the ride there was a line going out the door and I just didn't want to wait. Today was different... as we near the entrance we see people walking right on in... so we get in line. Now... all you Disney dads out there are really going to get a kick out of this. Just when we turn into the metal handrail area we see this guy in front of us. He's not just any guy... he is a Disney guy... and I wouldn't be surprised if he is one of the members on this board. These pictures are the inspiration of the title for this installment. I can only imagine what was going through Pooh's mind when this morning began... I doubt he was thinking he'd be part of a braid... he looks like he's calling to me... "Help!"... LOL!
Let's see... what is my take on Spaceship Earth... I'd say this is a pretty cool ride. I mean... It's not a ride that I'd want to do 100 more times, but it certainly was entertaining and informational. My favorite part is all the gadgets you can play with after the ride. The game where you use a shuffleboard stick to move energy units around was really cool. Spent quite a while playing that game with DD. Here are the souvenir shots we got from the ride:
This is from our first time riding... I rode by myself and DD went with DW. If you look closely, you can see a few fingers above DW's head... yep... those are mine.. Hehe.
And then we rode a second time since there was no wait. You can take more interesting pictures when you know where and when the picture is taken:
Dinner time! Over to The Land we go and we eat at Sunshine Seasons. The food was good and the atmosphere was OK. If you pay attention, you can actually tell when Soarin' has just completed another showing. The traffic goes crazy through that area. Just a quick note... this is probably one of the craziest foot traffic areas in Epcot. All it takes is one small group of people to stop in the middle of the first floor and traffic backs up everywhere. It's a challenging place to quickly grab fast passes!
With our bellies full and the sun dropping in the western sky we begin to meander towards the World Showcase Lagoon.
Next up... Day 6, Part 4:
"DD's first viewing of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth!"
I'll have to make a conscious effort next trip to try this one 
