Epcot

I didn’t really know what Epcot was. It kind of made me think of the ‘80s – a theme park based on the future, as perceived by some Disney staff in 1980. Actually, the vibe of this park isn’t too far off. I did know, however, that they have that big silvery ball as it’s theme image and that I was going to discover it for myself, today.

The weather in Florida continues to be a dirty lie. Despite the palm trees, that dangnabit northeasterly wind continues to blow, blow, blow and freeze my bones. I think America hates me.







This park was finally looking like a more reasonably-sized population had gathered, rather than the body-on-body mess of the last two days. I had to run for the Fastpasses today as my parents were lazy and complaining (what? You know it’s true Ma.) It’s always difficult to try and get on a ride early, but the line up for Nemo wasn’t too daunting. But you know what appears outside is just a cruel joke as you weave for 10 miles yet once you are inside. Sigh. Such is Disney.






Mission: SPACE – you launch in a space shuttle and then connect with the space station. It was pretty fun, releasing junk into space.

Epcot is, of course, also home to the pavilions representing many countries around the globe. They are spread out around a giant pond, so there is buttloads of walking ahead.




Oh I recognize that one – it’s Italy (well, mostly Venice, from the looks of it)…let’s start on our trek.

We first come to Mexico, which makes sense, considering it’s proximity to America. I didn’t exactly think about an homage to the Mayan ruins of the country, though I suppose that’s better than my idea = a giant sombrero and maracas. And possibly offer some cheap dentistry to the visitors.






Frankly, I don’t which part of Mexico looks like this. Where’s the kids with trays of Chiclets for sale? Where’s the rows and rows of ugly lawn statues? Whateva, Mexico. Go on and continue in your lies.



Welcome to Norway, patrons! I gotta say, some of the strapping young fellows who worked at this pavilion were…not hard on one of the five senses; I’ll let you guess which. To top it off, they had names like Arnbjørn, Sveinbjørn, Nilsmund and Holmkjell. Yeaaaah boy! You know what I’m sayin’. This pavilion also had a ride called Maelstrom, which was kind of cool and kind of only a minute long, with a – yep, you guessed it – 45 minute wait. What.



I was hungry, so we went to China.







Next up was some Germany! I took this opportunity to try and indulge in some German chocolate. What I thought was an elegant German dessert turned out to be a rice krispie square covered with melted chocolate chips. Whatevs. I ate it happily anyway. The Germans who worked here appeared to have a bit of some Krönung Kaffee stuck up their butts – man did they seem sour!



Eventually, we made our way into Italy. For a small replication of some of their top tourist draws, it wasn’t too bad at all. In their mini piazza, they had a some street performers and a little shop selling Venetian masks at 4000% markup – perhaps this is close to the real thing after all.



Um, we skipped over the American pavilion because, to be fair, we are already in America and I may be at my limit of what I can handle already. Though I realize it probably showcased some famous American things, I’ve already taken in my share of New York, Washington, LA, etc, in person. I’m good, thanks.

After America, comes my adopted second homeland. Can you guess?



Yeah, I’m sure everyone knew that. Japan’s pavilion is the only one with a department store (naturally, considering the high level of consumerism on the motherland), but not much else. I ended up buying a bowl of dried soba and some packages of miso soup for Matthew *rotfl*. How ridiculous – buying food halfway across North America to eat at lunch sometime, just because it’s cheaper than in Vancouver. Also, I must mention how fun it was to watch an awkward teenage girl trying to practice her Japanese with a store clerk who was trying to stock shelves. There was lots of tucking hair behind ears and nervous giggling. I’m so mean.




Ooh, what country is this? Um, America? Yes, this is on the other side of the lake, back on the Epcot fun ride side. We had Fastpasses, so we took the boat back across and then took it again back to resume our travels in Morocco.













Next up was France. It was really hoity-toity here, them with all their French-styled gardens, expensive parfums and whatnot.


I feel like I’m painting the roses red.




Ooh, oui! There’s the Eiffel Tower!

Coming into the home stretch here – next up was Harry Potter’s home country, India. JK! That’s Harjit Potter. Of course, I mean the UK.



And, saving the absolute most beautiful country in the entire world for last, we arrived in Canada…me with a little, homesick tear in my eye.





The circle-vision theatre, where they showed the landscape and major cities of our beautiful country, choked me up several times (remember, this was during the Olympic period). I wasn’t too impressed, however, on the surly girl in a jean skirt and flannel shirt who worked in the gift shop. She was a) wearing along jean skirt (ew), and 2) surly! Not that Canadians can’t be surly, but when we are ambassadors in another country, let’s try to be a little more polite, eh?

Our time had come to experience the much-ballyhooed ride, Soarin’. Papa-chu was psyched to go hang-gliding.



That was really fun! We went hang gliding over southern California. And then came back to DisneyWorld. We then hauled onto “Living with the Land” for the second time today. There is something so relaxing to a ride that teaches you about sustainable farming and the environment.

Epcot closed at the relatively early hour of 8:00, so we hauled our cookies onto the Test Track to test some GM-ish vehicles and then vamoose.





Would it be bad to say that I’m getting a bit Disney’ed-out? All this Mickey crap everywhere is getting to me. I’ll be alright…tomorrow is our last park, Hollywood Studios. I think I can make it.

We ate dinner at a ghetto Chinese buffet tonight. MSG has never been used so heavy-handedly. I’ll probably end up losing my hair from this buffet’s consumption of the additive alone. Boo.


I feel that food should not look shiny.