Ft. Wilderness - Nov 1-8, Part 3
Day 3 - Epcot Day 2
Another bright morning. We can see what the appeal is of this area - of course, it's November and we're loving the weather... while the natives are acclimated to the summer temperatures and probably think it's chilly.
After a leisurely breakfast we headed to Epcot again. Our plan was to spend 2 days at HS, 2 days at Epcot, a day at Universal Studios, a day at Animal Kingdom, and one day at the Magic Kingdom. (I'd managed to snag a dinner reservation at the Royal Table for my lovely bride, and she got one at Sanaa.) There'd be enough time to ride what we REALLY wanted to at the various parks, and everything above that was a bonus.
First into Spaceship Earth - and I remembered something that was missing... Does anyone else recall a two-part scene where a boy was discussing judo with a girl in Japan over a video link? We see the live girl in the video with an audioanamatronic boy first - then a bit later we see the audioanimatronic girl talking with a live boy over video. Funny how cell phones and voice chat have come so very far, isn't it?
I was trying to remember when I last saw those scenes - maybe '03? Guess that got dropped with the last makeover in favor of the computer room scene... Also, I missed the scene in Rome where the charioteers were heading out across the Empire. I know they've delayed another revamp - so it'll be interesting to see what the next makeover brings.
We went through the Seas - a cute ride, but after it was over and we got into the main area I missed the Seabase theming they had before the cute makeover. This was okay, though. It was... okay. I don't have any real problems with the conversion to make it all more 'child-friendly' - but the Epcot I most fondly remembered was about the future, and this... kind of wasn't.
I got a 'Mine! Mine! Mine!' seagull pin as we left anyway... The seagulls in front were the most enjoyable part of the ride, as far as I'm concerned.
We continued through the park, heading towards lunch at the Rose and Crown. My lovely bride wanted fish and chips for lunch, and we got to see a couple of cavalcades as we went along. It was tempting to stop for Poutine outside of Canada... but we resisted and had a great lunch out on the deck behind the Pub. It was fun waving to the boat drivers as they passed by. The cast members throughout are, IMO, unsung heroes that a lot of people just take for granted.
We wandered out of the back of World Showcase and hit the Skyliner. THAT was fun - we did the whole line, all the loops - enjoying a chance to sit and watch the world go by. We were tempted to get off and get something to eat at Hollywood Studios - but no park hopping was allowed so we just got back on and completed our loop.
Back at Epcot, we continued on through World Showcase. The Morocco pavilion was quiet with the main restaurant closed so it wasn't surprising to hear a few weeks later that it'd been taken over by Disney for a bit of a makeover.
The Japan pavilion - we had a good time looking through the store there, and got my son a cute 'cat face' ramen bowl, then we browsed through the Kawaii culture exhibit. It would be interesting to go to Japan and see how Kawaii culture all interacts in its native country - but this is likely the closest I'll ever get to the real thing.
We continued on, and stopped at Germany for some beer. I have a weakness for Schofferhofer Grapefruit beer. It's light, refreshing, and low-alcohol... so my lovely bride and I had two. Next year, we're going to hit the Biergarten. Today, we had a dining reservation for Coral Reef.
After a cavalcade or two had passed we kept going on around. We were starting to wear down a bit, so we bypassed China, also Norway and Mexico since we'd gotten those the previous visit, got in line and went through Test Track again - then around to take the Living with the Land ride and catch Soarin', both of which were practically walk-ons. It took longer to walk through the queue line at Soarin' than we had to wait to get on the ride.
After that we had a leisurely dinner at Coral Reef. I'm feeling mixed about it. I love the theming there - you're eating in a 'humarium' so the fish can watch those crazy humans - but I'm afraid the food was just kind of meh. The waitress was wonderful, but for a grand dinner, it didn't quite pass.
It was starting to get a bit late - so we headed for the exit (after stopping at the Pin Trading outlet - I think I may have a problem...) and a bus back to Ft. Wilderness. Oddly, this was about the longest wait for a bus we experienced - it took close to 30 minutes for one to show up. It didn't seem to be because there were too many people on that route - it was just the two of us. But otherwise? There wasn't any problem at all with using in-park transit.
Our loop was quiet when we got there - and we relaxed and talked about the day for about an hour until my lovely bride couldn't stay awake. I stayed outside, enjoying the evening, until I was about falling asleep myself... then went in to join her.
It'd been a really, really good day.
