A Closer Look at Epcot

Today for Walt Disney Wednesday we're going to continue on our closer look at the parks and what Bryan and I are most looking forward to doing at the individual parks.  This will be the last one until next month, as I have something else planned for next week.  There also won't be a Walt Disney Wednesday in two weeks because it's Christmas.  I'll be doing it on Friday instead with Bryan's help (he doesn't know that part yet).  As the title implies, we're going to be talking about Epcot today.

Photo courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epcot

Epcot opened in 1982 and is twice the size of Magic Kingdom.  It focuses on human achievement, both now and in the future.  The park itself has two very distinct areas: Future World and the World Showcase.  As the name implies, Future World focuses on the future of humans and their technological achievements.  This is also home to the "golf ball" for which Epcot is famous.  This is actually called Spaceship Earth and contains a ride inside outlining the achievements of humans since their beginning.  I'll talk more about this ride specifically in a little bit.  The rear portion of the park is centered around a large lagoon.  There, there are 11 pavilions, each one dedicated to a different country: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, Canada.  Each pavilion is a completely immersive experience with replicas of famous landmarks, employees who are from that country, authentic food, shops and art galleries.  You are supposed to feel like you are visiting that country.  When I went with my family in 2000, they also had Millenium Village, which housed smaller pavilions for many more countries.  Although the World Showcase looks incredibly crowded, there's actually room for six more pavilions in case Epcot wanted to expand.

Just like Magic Kingdom, Bryan and I will spend two days at Epcot, although they won't be back to back days.  We also haven't divided up the park like we did with Magic Kingdom, we're just going to play it by ear and eat a lot of food.  There aren't an over abundance of rides at Epcot like there is at Magic Kingdom, but there's still a lot that I want to do.  First and foremost, I want to ride Mission: Space.

The premise of Mission: Space is that you are part of a flight team flying to Mars.  Each person has a different role to fulfill, including buttons to push.  Don't worry, the buttons will light up and tell you what to do.  Even if you don't press the buttons, everything works out, the computer doesn't react or change the story of the ride (I believe there is a similar ride at Hollywood Studios that does react if you don't push a button that you're supposed to).  In order to simulate the G-forces, the ride spins you around at a ridiculously high speed.  This has actually created extreme problems for Mission: Space, including the deaths of two riders.  One was a little boy who was a little too short to ride and also had an undiagnosed heart condition.  The other was a woman who had high blood pressure and died from a stroke.  After both of these deaths, Disney created a less intense version of the ride.  Now, visitors choose between the orange version (the original one) or the green version (the lighter version).  Even though I suffer from extreme motion sickness, I didn't have trouble on this ride in the past.  I'll probably still take some motion sickness medicine before this ride, just in case.

Another ride I've gone on before that I can't wait to do again is Test Track.  On Test Track, you design your own race car and then put it through the tests that cars undergo before determining if they can drive on the road.  It sounds like a nice, calm ride, but it's actually quite fast as you zip around on a track.  When we went in 2005, we were in line forever to get on the ride, then they had to close it for the weather.  We went back later, and the guys in front of us in line were teasing us, saying it looked like it was going to rain again, and the ride would be shutdown.

One thing that is of the utmost importance for me to do is visit the Christmas shop in the Germany Pavilion.  It holds such a special place in my heart, and it will definitely be an emotional trip for me.  When my family visited Disney World in 2000, my grandparents went with me.  At the time, I had extreme issues with fireworks (I'm still not a huge fan of them, but I've gotten a lot better), and there was no way I could sit through the IllumiNations show (I saw it in 2005 and loved it).  My Pop-Pop decided to take me to the Christmas store in the Germany Pavilion instead.  Even though the store was technically closed, one of the cast members, a young woman from Germany, kept it open just for us.  To help keep me distracted, she took me all through the store, showing me different things and explaining the Christmas traditions attached to them.  My Pop-Pop was German (along with a whole host of other things), so he loved it just as much as I did.  For that reason, I absolutely adore that store, and whenever I think of it, I always think of my Pop-Pop.

There are a few new things at Epcot I want to do.  First of all, Frozen Ever After (of course).  I love Frozen so much, and I've heard the technology on this ride is absolutely amazing.  I've purposefully avoided any videos on YouTube that show the ride, as I want to be surprised when I get on the ride.

Image courtesy of: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/04/frozen-ever-after-attraction-set-to-open-at-epcot-in-june/

Just like many of the rides in Magic Kingdom, this ride takes visitors through the story of Frozen as they ride on a little boat.  This ride replaced Maelstrom, which was a ride that took visitors through Norway as they learned about legends and the culture (similar to Gran Fiesta in the Mexico Pavilion).  I remember enjoying Maelstrom, especially the three headed troll, but I'm also glad to see this ride.  Frozen Ever After is Epcot's first attempt to create rides throughout the park that appeal to smaller children.  Some people, however, aren't happy about this, as they enjoy Epcot because there aren't as many small children as the other parks.

Additionally, I can't wait to check out The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  The Living Seas was at Epcot when we went in 2005, but we didn't really check it out.  The Seas with Nemo and Friends is a ride that takes you through Epcot's impressive aquarium.  As you ride, technology superimposes images of the characters from Finding Nemo onto the glass of the aquarium, making it look like they're a part of the aquarium as well.  It looks like a blast, and Finding Nemo is a bit of an inside joke between Bryan and I, which makes this ride even more special to both of us.

One thing I love about the World Showcase is how immersive the experience is.  Disney really goes the extra mile to make sure visitors feel like they are truly in that country.  For that reason, they always have a wide array of performers at each pavilion, and I want to see so many of them.  British Revolution is a rock group that does a wide range of cover songs from British rock history.  Since that's the type of music Bryan usually likes to listen to (me too), it seems like a fun place to just relax and sit after walking around the park all day.  As you can probably figure out, it's in the United Kingdom Pavilion.  Also in the United Kingdom Pavilion, I'd like to see Quickstep.  They are a quartet that plays authentic Scottish, Irish and English songs.  I absolutely love Celtic music, it's actually a bit problematic.  I've been asking Bryan to go to an Irish pub with live music for a while, but we haven't had a chance to make it to one yet.  If we don't in the near future, at least we'll be able to see this.  I also want to check out the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats.

Photo Courtesy of https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/entertainment/epcot/jeweled-dragon-acrobats/

In college I was fortunate enough to see another Chinese acrobat group in college, and I thought it was absolutely magical, not to mention terrifying to watch.  It reminds me of the abilities people have when they really push themselves.  The amount of perfection is astounding as well.  It makes all other gymnastic acts look like child's play, which is saying a lot.

Matsuriza is another musical group I want to see.  They are a Japanese drumming group.  I've never seen one before, but apparently you can hear them playing from quite some distance.  Additionally, in the Morocco Pavilion, I want to hear Sahara Beat perform.  Sahara beat is a Moroccan band that plays traditional and more modern Moroccan music.  I've never heard Moroccan music, so I'm interested to hear them perform and what the music sounds like, although I imagine it sounds very similar to Middle Eastern music.

Of course I want to see characters in Epcot as well.  Most importantly, I want to meet Anna and Elsa.  I'm a little bit torn, however, because now Anna and Elsa are in their costumes for Frozen II.  I think the costumes are absolutely gorgeous, but I had an image in my mind of meeting them in their outfits from the first movie.  I do have to admit, however that the new wig for Elsa looks beautiful, much better than the original wig.  I also love Elsa wearing her hair down in general, but I talked about that in my Frozen II blog post last week.

I do want to brag a little bit right now.  The one thing Bryan has not been able to get on board with is meeting characters.  I'm so excited to meet them, get autographs, take photos and talk to them.  He, on the other hand, keeps arguing that they're just people in costumes, not the actual characters.  When talking to Bryan today, however, I was teasing him about meeting Anna and Elsa.  After we saw Frozen II last week, he started referring to Elsa as the Avatar, just like Avatar: the Last Airbender, and he said he's always excited to meet the Avatar.  I wondered how Elsa would react if he referred to her as the Avatar, and he said there was only one way to find out.  This is the closest he's come so far to being interested in meeting the characters in any capacity.  Hey, if that's what it takes for him to get excited about meeting the characters, I'll take what I can get.

I'm also excited to see Mulan.  The only place you can meet Mulan is in the China Pavilion.  Like Anna and Elsa, Mulan costume has been updated in the past few years, and I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  Her costume doesn't look anything like her outfits from the movie.  I remember there was quite a bit of an uproar after the costume change.  In Disney's defense, the costume is more accurate and closer to traditional Chinese dresses.

Of course, no trip to Disney's Epcot would be complete without seeing Belle.  When it comes to the Disney Princesses, Belle is definitely my favorite.  She doesn't need anyone to save her, she's willing to stand up for herself, and she's a bookworm just like me.  She's definitely one of my favorite Disney characters and is my favorite Disney princess (maybe with the exception of Kida from Atlantis).

Rumor has it Stitch can also be found near the entrance of Epcot.  Of course I plan on meeting Stitch at Magic Kingdom, but there's no such thing as too much Stitch.  I absolutely adore him, but I already talked about that in my Magic Kingdom post last week.

When it comes to the last three characters I want to meet, I'm not entirely sure if they'll still be there when we go in February.  The Future World part of Epcot is undergoing a lot of renovations right now, so some things won't be open or available.  This includes the meet and greet for Joy and Sadness from Inside Out.  I wasn't a huge fan of the movie, but I love Sadness so much.  I think I relate to her because I've struggled a lot with depression, especially in the past year, and Sadness reminds me the importance of expressing my emotions and the fact that it's perfectly fine to be sad every once in a while.  I'll also admit that the movie Inside Out has grown on me since the first time I watched it.

Photo courtesy of https://hiveminer.com/Tags/baymax%2Cface

Finally, I want to meet Baymax from Big Hero 6.  This movie was definitely not what I expected, but I loved it because I love superhero movies so much.  Also, it's technically a Marvel movie, which makes it even better.  Baymax is so adorable and pure.  My favorite Baymax moment, however, is when he's running low on battery.  It reminds me so much of a drunk person, and I find it absolutely hilarious that Disney included it in the movie.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'll be able to meet Joy, Sadness and Baymax, as their meet and greets are closed, and I haven't heard anything about them moving to another part of the park during the renovations.

Just like last week for Magic Kingdom, I asked Bryan what he's most looking forward to doing at Epcot and made him do a little bit of research.  He said he's most looking forward to riding Mission: Space.  I don't know if he wants to ride the green or orange one though, I'll have to talk to him about it before our FastPass day next week.  He also wants to check out the Mission: Space Advanced Lab Training, which I didn't even know about until he mentioned it.  When I looked it up, it looks like a hand's on activity center for all ages where you can participate in more interactive simulations like when you ride Mission: Space (minus the spinning) and send digital postcards to families and friends.  Bryan also said he's interested in (and this an exact quote), "All the coral reef stuff".  I'm assuming he means The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush, which is similar to The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor where they use similar technology to project Crush on the tank where he interacts with the audience just like Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.

Tuesday is our FastPass day, so I figured Wednesday would be a good day to talk about the process and what FastPasses we got.  Everyone cross their fingers for us for Tuesday so we get all the FastPasses we want for our trip.