Welcome to the fourth day of our trip. Epcot is a park that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with. As a kid, I absolutely loved EPCOT Center and I guess I was in the minority. I loved the educational nature of the pavilions and it didn’t matter that Mickey wasn’t in EPCOT because Figment was. It was a huge shock when I first returned to Epcot as an adult in 2001. Journey Into YOUR Imagination was an abomination. There was no Figment and the ride was terrible. Horizons was closed and World of Motion had been replaced with Test Track. Innoventions was terrible with no real theme. The only real improvement to me was that they had added Ellen DeGeneres to the Universe of Energy pavilion. It was still really long at 40 minutes, but now it was a little more entertaining.
Over the years there were more changes and it was to transform EPCOT Center from an education theme park to Epcot, just another Disney park. These aren’t necessarily bad changes, but the park has completely lost any educational value that it used to have outside of the World Showcase and even that has been Disney-fied. The final nail in the coffin was the closing of the Wonder of Life pavilion. Unlike Horizons and World of Motion that closed for new attractions, the unused Wonders of Life pavilion still sits there unused and neglected. I was lucky to catch Cranium Command, The Making of Me, and Body Wars a few more times as an adult and wish there was still something in the park that was still like these attractions.
Enough of my old man ramblings, let’s get back to the current trip. We got to Epcot right when they were starting to let people into the park which was great timing. Our first FastPass for the day was Soarin’ Over California at 10, so we weren’t in any rush. We started off the day at Spaceship Earth because you just have to. Everyone else can rush to the thrill rides. We still had plenty of time before we had to head to Soarin’ so we went next door to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. It’s not The Living Seas any longer because none of the main attractions here are alive. The Nemo ride is great and if you’ve already seen the Finding Nemo show at Animal Kingdom, will get Big Blue World stuck in your head again. The real gem of this pavilion though is Turtle Talk with Crush. Cass asked a question this time around, “What’s the biggest wave you’ve ridden?” which led to a lengthy conversation between her and Crush. Due to FastPass timing, we had to do what the majority of Epcot visitors do and skip looking at the fish. Cass and I did get to look at the manatees for a little while Jenne ran to the bathroom, but we’d make up for this later in the week.
The Land was next. While I do love Soarin’, it’s a shame that they couldn’t relocate Food Rocks to somewhere else in the pavilion. Maybe replace The Circle of Life? Cass loves The Lion King, but didn’t want to watch the boring movie about recycling and conservation. Since they’re getting rid of everything else educational, maybe it’s time to replace this film with something else. We used our FastPasses for Soarin’ and waited about 5 minutes. The ride was fun as always, but I wouldn’t mind if they were to update this film as it is looking a little worn. Also, I don’t think that I’ve ever experienced this ride from the front row. I can’t remember for sure. Next trip, we’ll just ask to wait for the front row of the next flight. After pressing some pennies, we made sure to ride Living with the Land because it’s one of the few classics remaining. Sure, it’s had some tweaks here and there, but I love the nice relaxing boat ride through the greenhouse.
We made our way back towards the middle of Future World for our next FastPass, the Epcot Character Spot. The wait time wasn’t high yet at 11 since everyone else was still riding the park’s three thrill rides, but I’m still glad that we had the FastPasses. It turned what was advertised as a 15 minute wait time into about a 5 minute wait time. It can take a while to get through this attraction so any help that you can get is greatly appreciated. We got to see Mickey, Pluto and Minnie. The characters went on break right before we got to Minnie who was in the back snacking on some cheesecake, so it extended our time in the attraction for a little longer than usual. Once we were done, we hopped in line for Chip and Dale who have been relocated outside of the Character Spot after the latest renovation.
This brought an end to our time in Future World for now, but we’d be back later. Since we had lunch reservations in the World Showcase, we figured that we’d make our way there and visit the country pavilions on the way. Now that Epcot is all about rides, I’m not sure how kids react to the World Showcase. I remember enjoying it as a kid, but I don’t think that we spent a ton of time there. Disney is aware of that and has added something that makes kids love the World Showcase. What started as the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is now Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure.
We did one or two missions of Kim Possible on our last trip, but that wasn’t enough to really get a feel for the experience. Since this was rebranded as a Phineas and Ferb attraction, I’m counting this as a new experience. There are three locations in the World Showcase where you can sign up to be a secret agent and help OWCA (Organization Without a Cool Acronym for those won don’t watch P&F) thwart the evil schemes of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. When you sign up, you are given your Field Operative Notification Equipment (or FONE) which is what you use to play the game. You are given a mission by Major Monogram and Karl the Intern from OWCA in one of seven World Showcase pavilions that you have chosen. You’ll view humorous clips on your FONE and get clues leading you to specific areas in the pavilion. The coolest part of this attraction is how all kinds of little things are hidden in the pavilions. You wouldn’t ever notice them if you weren’t playing the game, but they’re extremely awesome once you see them in action. Each mission takes 20-30 minutes depending on how quickly you decipher the clues. I can honestly say that I’ve never had more fun in the World Showcase. You use your brain to figure out some of the clues, you get exercise, you learn about the countries, and you have a ton of fun. This is a huge addition to the park experience, especially if you have kids. (I saw a few adults on missions without any kids in sight.)
We saved Mexico and Norway from Dr. Doofenshmirtz before it was time for lunch (with a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour thrown in there as well). We finished our second mission and then got to Biergarten in Germany just in time for our lunch reservation. We love this place and come here every trip. The food is delicious, you sit at a long table with other people, and there’s an Oompah band. I love that this is a buffet because there’s always so many delicious things to eat. I know that I’d have a hard time deciding on just one thing if I had to pick from a menu. We shared a table with two couples. One was local and not very talkative while the other were taking a Disney vacation without their kids for a change and were as awesome couple to share a table with. Cass was happy once the band came out since she had been looking forward to dancing for the whole meal. Ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy! Oi oi oi!
Once we were finished with lunch, we picked up a new FONE and took a Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar break. After a ride on the Maelstrom, we saved China and Germany from various –inators. We were a little delayed between China and Germany due to the bridge opening for the inferno barges. I wouldn’t have minded as much if it was the opening for the lighted globe, but the barges are nothing to look at. I hope that I never get stuck at the bridge opening again. I’d rather wait in line 30 minutes for a ride because at least then there’s a payoff for your time spent. All we got was to witness the worst of Disney tourists as everyone rushed the bridge as it was about to open back up. You would have thought that they were giving away unlimited FastPasses on the other side.
After finishing our Germany mission, we hopped on the boat back to Mexico so that we could return to Future World. We had FastPasses from 5-6 for Test Track and were looking forward to seeing what they did with the ride refurbishment. The previous version was looking pretty shoddy on our last trip with many of the effects not working. Once they stopped having the other car full of crash test dummies crash right before you “hit the wall” this ride was ruined anyway.
We got into the car design area pretty quickly thanks to our FastPasses. Cassidy was in charge of designing the car so we ended up in a big, pink speed machine that did really well in the metrics that are measured during the ride. I like the look of the new ride a lot. It’s still basically the same ride, but they’ve managed to improve the overall experience which is great. The biggest addition to this ride is the experience once you are done racing around the track. You can check how your the car you designed rates against all of the other cars designed that day and you can race your car against other people. My favorite thing was the automated photo opportunities that they have set up. You tap your MagicBand, pick what you want your picture to look like, and then get in line. When it is your turn, you tap your MagicBand again and proceed to the picture area. The camera takes three pictures which are emailed to you. You end up with great pictures unless some neglectful parent allows their child to climb into the car while your pictures are being taken.
Our next stop was Innoventions East. My main reason for going there was the two new pressed penny machines that had been placed, one in each side of Innoventions, but we ended up having a great time. We beat up on things for a little while at the Test the Limits Lab. I skipped The Sum of All Thrills this time around in the interest of time. I enjoyed it last time, but Universal’s Kuka Arm attraction is a much better experience. We did check out StormStruck which was a lot of fun. You watch a 4-D video of homes getting wrecked by a storm and then are asked to make choices to improve the durability of the house. Another storm comes through and you get to see how your choices improved things (if you chose correctly).
Across the way in Innoventions West we found some great attractions as well. We played Where’s the Fire? which is a fun game that teaches fire safety. Next up was The Great Piggy Bank Adventure which was also a lot of fun. We skipped the Videogame Playground because we didn’t come to Disney to play videogames. I really wish that they’d get rid of this, but it’s one giant commercial for all of the Disney videogames out there. We had a great time and I got a bunch of new pressed pennies so I’m a huge fan of Innoventions now. I’m bummed that you can’t ride the Segways any longer without paying for the tour, but everything else we saw were big improvements over three years ago.
At this point it was getting close to 7 PM and not only was Innoventions closing, but we had a 7:30 reservation at Teppan Edo that we had to make. We had to skip O’ Canada for now, but I know that I’d visit with Martin Short before the end of this trip. While we didn’t have time for the movie, we did have time to pose for some fun pictures.
We once again got to Teppan Edo right on time. We made the most of every single minute on this trip. No waiting around and wasting time. Teppan Edo is another restaurant that we try and visit on every trip. Teppanyaki cooking is always fun, but they take it up a notch at Disney. I had steak and scallops and loved every bite. While we were eating, Cassidy noticed that a girl we had met at a Wilderness Explorer activity the previous day was at the other table in our room. They chatted for a bit when we were done eating. Dinner seemed to go a little slower than we planned and we didn’t get out of there until 8:50. We had already planned not to watch Illuminations and that plan was reaffirmed by the fact that Cass is going through a phase where fireworks explosions really bother her. The booms started right around France and then paused right around the United Kingdom as the globe took center stage. There were more booms on the way out, but by then we were far enough away that it didn’t bother Cass. We beat the crowd out of the park and called it a night.
One thing that I’ve got to say about this trip: We didn’t do any of the parades or nighttime shows without a FastPass. On past trips, we lost hours and hours just claiming spots for these shows. What a waste! By skipping all of these things on this trip, we had so much extra time for other things. We also didn’t have to deal with the ridiculous crowds getting out of the parks after these show. It might sound sacrilegious, but this approached really worked for us this trip.
I also wanted to mention that I’m finally very happy with the status of Epcot. It was in a state of flux for a while, but they’ve done a good job of making the park kid friendly while also putting some of the educational experiences back into the park. It’s still not the park that I loved in my youth, but it’s the best it has been since then. Now they just need to bring back the original Journey Into Imagination along with the Figment meet and greet and I’ll be completely happy.
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