Florida Day Five: EPCOT

Thursday, 10 September, we spent the day in EPCOT. After the usual drill with breakfast and sandwich making at the hotel, we made the short drive to EPCOT. As we tried to access the park, the electronic reader could not recognize our encoded tickets and we were directed to Guest Relations. The women at the window happened to be a lovely German-like Brazilian woman named Kristina from Joinville. We conversed in Portuguese and she asked why I had not purchased Park-Hopper tickets for all 3 days; it would have been cheaper. She had to re-encode the tickets anyway, so she did some accounting gymnastics and gave us a Hopper for the day (which we didn't use) and refunded us $90.00 in a gift card.

Disney has become so high tech! You can make all reservations online and download a "My Disney Experience" app on your smart phone. After picking up the encoded "ticket," a plastic card with a magnetic strip, all the information about your ticket, your dinner reservation and Fast Passes, made a month in advance online, are contained in your card and appear in "My Plans" in the app on your phone. Every time you enter the park or enter a Fast-Pass line, you simply touch your card to a reader at the gate. When entering the park you also give them a reading of your finger print. When you enter your name appears on their screen and they might even greet you by name. All of the information about my party of four is contained on my app but appears magically on their cards. So after we had used all of our initial 3 Fast Passes for the day, I could go to a Fast-Pass kiosk anywhere in the park and get a new Fast Pass for all 4 of us on my card, and it would also appear on their cards. The real Disney-savvy folks have wrist bands that contain all their information, which they touch to the reader. I just used my old lanyard (what a troglodyte!). Anyway, it is all wonderful.

Electronic tickets and Fast Passes, the miracle gift card, and our
1st Visit pins (kind of like an MTC dork dot)

A screen grab of my My Disney Experience app

We spent the morning in the front "lands" called Future World (west and east). This is the portion of EPCOT dominated by the park "weenie," (that's what the focal points are called: Google Disney weenie) the large globe called Spaceship Earth. Future World has the feel of a world's fair, and seems slightly dated, though still impeccably laid-out and maintained. This part of the park has all the whiz-bang rides. After eating our peanut butter sandwiches, we crossed into the rear part of the park, called World Showcase, where we spent the rest of the day and evening. This portion consists of very carefully recreated environments from all over the world. The research and theming is off the charts! This probably would not be appealing to small children or those craving thrilling rides, but for us travelers and world culture lovers, World Showcase was fantastic! Our night at EPCOT ended with a display of fire, water, and fireworks on the huge lake around which the World Showcase is built.

 Spaceship Earth is the "weenie" for EPCOT

 Kris headed to The Land Pavilion to ride Soarin'

 The grounds at EPCOT Future World are beautiful, the buildings

feel a bit like a shopping mall from the 80s

 Inside Soarin'

 Two happy soarers

 Spaceship Earth houses a ride that traces the history of technology as

the ride cars cork screw up inside the sphere past animatronic historic

tableaux: a fun ride

A photo snapped at the beginning of the ride appears on the 

screen of the ride vehicle

 This worlds-fair-like building houses a fun attraction called

Mission SPACE that is like Star Tours, minus the 

futuristic fiction, using simulators

 Happy shoppers with small treasures

 Radiator Springs Racers borrowed the slot-car technology from

this Test Track ride, but here the cars reach speeds of 65 mph

as they race around the outside of the building: inside not as 

fun as RSR, outside a blast!

 We designed our vehicle based on the shape of the VW beetle 

and it had the fastest time in the heat: go us! (all imaginary, of course)

 Accelerating toward the curve

 Lunch time

 Moving into World Showcase, the first stop going anti-clockwise is

the Canadian Pavilion, based on the Château Frontenac in Quebec,

with a nod to Butchart Gardens in British Columbia

 No selfie here

 View across the lake with the Italian pavilion in the distance

 Shades of Hampton Court in the England Pavilion

 The Disney guys are crack themers

 Fond memories of Regency London

 Beautiful formal English garden

 And English goodies for sale

 Thinking of the Young boys

 We did partake

 Good bye to England

 And hello to France

 Attention to detail is striking

 This canal connects EPCOT to Hollywood Studios

 Morocco

 I am convinced they brought craftsman from 

North Africa to execute these designs

 The souk (market)

 Headed to Japan

 The incongruities are intriguing

 American Pavilion

Crack a cappella  group performing a review of American pop music

 Italy in Florida

 Flag twirlers: cast members come from all over for one year

at Disney World

 Americani Italianati

 A very clever mime...

 Made us smile

 More charming incongruities

 A touch of Germany

 Back to France for supper

 The food at EPCOT (and apparently all of Disney World)

is wonderful (at least what we had and saw)

 Delicious mousse, crème brûlée, and profiteroles 

 Site of our dinner paid in part by the gift card

 Back past the Morocco Pavilion as the sun went down

 China Pavilion to watch acrobats

 A lovely end to the day

 Norway

 Mexico

 Fire, water, and fireworks

 A spectacular end to a great day

 Good bye EPCOT

EPCOT is a great park. It gets two thumbs up from all of us. We think the World Showcase with its international shopping, great exhibits, and wonderful food would be less appealing to some binkers, but for old guys like us, it was a real highlight. Disney World is vast and amazing and our company was stellar. What a great experience!