Walt Disney once said "It's kinda fun to do the impossible," and after spending the day at Epcot, not even seeing every country or riding every ride, I can't help but wonder if he was talking about doing all of Epcot in a single day: that would be the impossible!
But that doesn't mean that we weren't able to get in all the things we really wanted to do and see (or taste!) a lot of great things, too!
We started the day by hitching a bus from the Fort over to Epcot, and our Genie+ Lightening Lane was already stacked with a few rides so that we could hit the ground running. We went over to Soarin' first - a simulated hang-glider ride that all three of us thought might be our favorite of the day.
Walking back across the front of World Celebration, we stopped to take a few pictures. The spring Flower and Garden Festival is taking place right now (this is the first weekend for it) and so the landscaping is in tip-top condition, with fun topiary sculptures all throughout the park as well. RDB and I will probably take our second park day this next week to just walk around and enjoy the beauty of it all!
Next up was Mission: SPACE - there are two different experiences in this same ride - the green path, which is less intense, and the orange path, which is more thrilling. We went for the orange route, and whoa, y'all! You pull some serious G's in that rocket ride! It's not a roller coaster in the traditional sense (you don't move along a track) but it will definitely disorient you in that fun-not-so-fun kinda way.... when the ride has sick bags beside every seat, boy, you know they know it's going to be interesting!
When you think of Epcot, you likely think of one very visible feature: the big round 'ball!
But did you know that it has a name? Spaceship Earth! And did you know, there's actually a RIDE inside that ball?! It wasn't until I was planning for this trip that I realized that and you can bet, I wanted to check it out! We did standby for this one (traditional get in line and wait) since it had just come back on-line from being down for the majority of the morning, it was nearly a walk-on experience for us.
Like many of the older generation of rides, this one isn't a thrill coaster, but more of a sit back and relax educational adventure.
The ride takes you way back in time on a journey of how the world has evolved from the time of cave dwellers, to modern day computers, narrated by Judy Dench. As a writer, you know I was tickled when we moved into the section of the first printing press:
Once you make it to the top of the ride/ball, the cars turn themselves backwards and you slide back down to where you started, all the while imagining what your own great big beautiful tomorrow will look like!
Three rides, including a rocket launch and g-forces, then a slow upwards twirl around in the dark had us ready for food! We dropped into the shortest (and closest!) line we could find in the first country we came upon in the World Showcase: La Cantina in Mexico. The tacos were tasty, but finding a table was a trick! After that Mr Polo and RDB and I went different directions - I wanted to visit the Norway section of the Showcase, because I had a specific treat in mind: schoolbread.
RDB doesn't eat many sweets these days, but I can remember when one of his favorite desserts was Boston Creme Pie - this slightly-sweet bread has a creme filling, and is covered in coconut (another of RDB's fav flavors) and I thought this would be a great treat for him! I was right! He loved it!
While we were in Norway, we stopped into the chapel of the Gods of the Vikings for a moment. I just happen to be wearing my Loki on the Frostbridge shirt (which warranted a few compliments thru the day) and have a friend who has a 'thing' for Thor. The carvings and details inside were exquisite!
From there, we walked over towards Germany for the snack that I had my eyes on: Werther's caramel covered popcorn.
It smelt delicious, the whole case looked delicious, and the popcorn was.... ok. I was hoping that it would be one of those life changing kind of vacation treats, like Pineapple DoleWhip, because I loved Werther's hard candies as a kid, but I think I was recently spoiled on incredible good caramel popcorn. Oh well, it was worth the try!
We were making our way back to the front of the park for our Lightening Lane for Test Track and got sidetracked by Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico section. It's another boat ride (I really like those!) that starts in the back of a restaurant!
We met back up with Mr. Polo at Test Track; he'd already ridden it once, and went thru another two times as a single rider while we went thru it for the first time. It's a interesting mix of build-your-own digital car and physical indoor ride that ends with an outdoor roller coaster!
Genie+ in this park can certainly have you running all over for your Lightening Lanes.... and so we huffed it back over to France on the far side of World Showcase to make our Remi's Ratatouille Adventure.
It was a neat use of the new rail-less ride technology along with 3D screens and psychical scenes. I'm not sure it's worth as much of the hype it's received, though - it would be a really long wait for a really short ride.
After the ride, we split ways again; our dinner reservation for Le Cellier in Canada were only for two. From what everyone told us, it's a miracle we were able to get in (at all) and we should buy lottery tickets since we got in our on our first trip! (No miracle or magic here - it's just that we have an incredible vacation planner in Heather!)
Our server, Amanda, was absolutely amazing, and the recommendation of the cheddar cheese soup (which has been on the menu for as long as I've been alive) was 100% the right way to start out the meal! Unfortunately, both RDB and I were exhausted from the heat and running around the park (we downed what felt like gallons of water with that meal) and since we had snacked after lunch, we weren't in the mood for a full meal; however, thankfully, the restaurant had no issue with us splitting a steak!
I wish I had pictures, but trust me when I say: don't miss out on the maple whiskey roasted Brussels sprouts and the mushroom risotto with the truffle butter. I know why everyone raves about this steakhouse now- it was delicious! One last thing that made this so magical - we opted out of dessert but Amanda was determined to do something special for my birthday: she brought over a light-up cube for me to take home, with the biggest smile on her face!
By the time we finished dinner the sun had set, and Epcot had a completely different, magical feel to it. RDB and I took advantage of the PhotoPass photographers around Spaceship Earth and took several different pictures and poses.
We got a silly idea (is any idea at Disney silly?) and decided to jump on the monorail and ride it over to Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks; we knew we couldn't go into the park, but just wanted to sit and ride around for a bit.
We made it back to Epcot and decided it was time to head back to the camper, we were beat! I texted Mr Polo to let him know we wouldn't meet him over in Japan to watch the Epcot fireworks, and gave him directions on how to catch the bus back to Fort Wilderness and RDB and I followed those very directions and took our last ride back to the campground.
It was another wonderful day at Disney!
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