There are a lot of people who don't care for Epcot, especially for little kids but Kevin and I are not them. We both have good memories of the park when we went as kids and were excited to take our kids there. It did not disappoint. We started out at Test Track, Lou with Ben; Char with Dad; and Mere with me. First, you design a car and take everything from body type to engine strength into consideration in making the best vehicle possible. I'd like to announce that the pink car with stars beat out the two boy cars!
One thing Disney does well is details, and a place we really saw it was on the Nemo ride. Waiting in line (which, that in itself should be remarked upon: when there is rain like what we've been dealing with, you walk right on to rides. Feel sorry for my kids if they ever go to Kings Island and have to wait 30 minutes to get on a roller coaster!) (and back to the point:) there are such neat effects that give you the impression of being under water with Nemo, but then you see the bars that create queues to walk rough and you realize that they looks as though they've been under the salty water for the past 100 years, all rusted and corroded. Very neat.
Of course our first stop in the World Pavilion would be China! We saw the 360-degree movie that I somewhat remembered from my trip in 1986, and Kevin confirmed when he said that the Shanghai they depicted barely resembled what he knew, at only a fraction of the size. Also, Kevin came up with the idea for this pic, showcasing the beautifully intricate decoration of the theater.
We travel along to some different countries and it gets close to our reservation at Germany's Bier Garten and that's when the downpour begins. Yay for a late afternoon lunch! We had live music, a delicious buffet, and a flight of beers. The kids enjoyed trying different things and we all loved the feel of an authentic Biergarten. That's something I really like is that the employees of each country are actually from that country. Nicolai, our host, gave us some history about Cologne, where he is from, and Lisa, our server, was able to give us advice on the menu based on her hometown preferences.
The kids loved the "Kidcot" stations at each country where they could do an activity, learn about the county, and even get their name written in the language, like here in Japan. Luckily, the rain subsided and we were able to enjoy the countries, albeit it some intense humidity.
This was a fun surprise. We were walking through Morocco and the kids were at the Kidcot I saw Jasmine and Aladdin in a room next to it. We got in the room after a but of a wait, but it was worth it. The boys weren't thrilled with the situation because they believed it was a "princess" experience, but I think they got even more out of it than Mere! Not that Jasmine wasn't fantastic, but Aladdin knew exactly what to say to engage the boys nod they loved it.
We spent the day exploring each of the countries and seeing cool shows like the classic 1986 3D movie "Captain EO" (the kids were blown away when I said I was in 2nd grade when it came out!). Epcot has a night light show called IllumiNations so we decided to get diviner and wait for the show. While I was in line the rains came back full-blast. This was probably the worst moment of the trip so far. We were tired, hungry, there was no place to take cover, so what could we do? The food was ordered so we ate, although Charlie and Meredith were miserable throughout and even though we planned to watch the light show we decided to leave as it was starting. It wasn't a bad thing. We were able get back to our cabin more quickly than if we stayed and basically we had reached our threshold for sogginess. Overall the day was great and I think the kids will remember the good parts. Me, I'm thankful for such a great husband. The rain is pouring, and we're in a sauna in our ponchos, in the second day of rain on our vacation, and Kevin turns to me to clink our plastic cups of Dos Equis and smiles. I am a lucky gal :)
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