Epcot--Disney World

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I was dead set on letting my family take a taxi to our rental house in Orlando when they arrived at 6am this morning. Glenn, however, volunteered us to pick them up. (He must still be working on some brownie points, but he didn't need to drag me into it :P) So began day one of Disney World, up before 6am to pick up my family. Makena was very excited, hadn’t slept on the plane and argued that she didn’t need a nap—she was ready for Disney now! As we were getting ready for the parks I went into her room and saw the “non-napper” passed out with the TV still on.

An hour or so later the family was ready to go to the “Happiest Place on Earth.” Epcot is designed to replicate a World’s Fair Pavilion. Attractions dedicated to representing different countries around the world encompass Epcot’s center lagoon. You can walk from Norway for a good cup of espresso to Mexico for a margarita and end the day with fish and chips from England, which is exactly what we did. I snickered at the fact that a whole continent was missing (Australia) and yet Morocco was there.

In addition to the countries, Epcot has a number of other attractions to teach children about various aspects of the world: marine life (Finding Nemo ride), space (Mission Space ride), land (boring agriculture ride), and the list continues. Mission Space was a virtual blast off to Mars…Mom was a bit nervous, but since we had told Makena she had to go Mom was stuck too. After three or so videos and a pamphlet warning people prone to motion sickness to leave the ride, mom really began to squirm. To prevent mom from using a little boy’s hat as an “uh oh” bag during the ride, Glenn offered her a plastic bag, which luckily she didn’t have to use. One cool thing they have is “Innoventions.” At Innoventions you can interact with inventions and technology that has yet to be produced in mass. We saw voice activated house controls, fingerprint activated front door locks, and unbreakable TV screens.

As we entered the World’s Pavilion the sky opened and began to piss down rain. Luckily, Dad had zoned in on a margarita stand in Mexico and Mom and I were not far behind! We ran through the down pour with our drinks to the next ride and happily waited in the hour long line dry and with alcohol.

The day was coming to a close, the rain had stopped, and there were still fireworks to be seen. Our five person convoy split up to find food and seating. For the second time today, Dad was our savior as he found a bench with an umbrella—to which he attached a head lamp that he happened to have in his bag so we could see our dinner. Good boy scout.

Finally, the fireworks started. First few minutes were great—what a view we had from the bench. It was great, that is, until is started raining again. We were still dry and we still had a great view, it just got a little crowded under our umbrella. One lady joined our umbrella obliviously standing directly in front of my 11 year old little sister. Dad then decided that if she was going to join our umbrella she should at least meet Makena. “Hi, I’m John, and this little girl behind you is Makena.” Zoom, the lady was gone.

The rain didn’t stop all night. The only benefit was that it made leaving Epcot a lot easier as everyone else hid under shelter making the exit paths clear for us.

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Photos

Margaritas
Yay for Jose Cuervo!

Glenn Meets Dopey
We each picked a dwarf that most fits our personality. I picked sleepy and Glenn picked Dopey. I don't think he understood...or maybe he did?

Our Little Dwarf
Or Princess?

Disney Fireworks
View of the fireworks from our covered bench.

A Bit Wet
Mom & Makena leaving Epcot after the fireworks.