April 26th, 2017

We finally made it to Epcot!  We have now lived in Florida for nearly a year and it was time that we did what Florida residents do, take advantage of the Florida Resident Disney Discount! 

You may recall that when Hurley and Jessie visited, we all went to the Disney Hollywood Studios park and had a great time.  That's when we bought our annual pass.  We have the offical little wristbands  now and everything.  Tim's is blue, mine is orange. Cool!

The last time Tim and I were at Epcot was at least 15 years ago.  Probably longer.  We were tickled to go again and to see visit our old Epcot memories.  As soon as we walked in, there was the big old geodesic dome that we both remembered. Just as cool looking as it ever was.  And as it turns out, that was about the only thing that was familiar to us.  Either Epcot has changed a lot, or both of us are developing memory issues.  I am choosing to believe that Epcot has grown and changed.

For starters, there was some special event garden thing going on that was gorgeous!  Everywhere we looked were the loveliest gardens. There was even a butterfly pavilion !!

It really was a perfect Disney Day.  It was a dab overcast with a prediction of rain, which seemed to have kept some of the crowds away.  But the usual relentless sun was not beating down on us and in fact there was a bit of a breeze. All very nice.  And while, as I said, there weren't the maddening hordes of people that we feared, there were still a lot of people, all in lines for the rides that Epcot offers. Some of those lines were quite long.  We were able to do a few of the rides but we made a note for the next visit, to think ahead and do that Fastpass thing.

I always am a little overwhelmed at first when I'm at Disney or a Disney-like place. So many people, so many buildings, so much to see and hear and smell and so very much to do.  I prefer to walk around a little a first and kind of get my bearings.    There was a big aquarium there that was pretty awesome, we spent a good deal of time in there.  That building did have one ride, something about Nemo. I don't recall the exact name but what the heck, we stood in line for that ride.  The line moved fairly quickly and there were interesting things to look at while waiting so that part wasn't too bad.

And now I am going to sound like an old grump.  I was rather annoyed to note that once we climbed into our little clamshells (yes clamshells, what a hoot!)  and the ride commenced, people did not, for one second, throughout the entire ride stop talking!  And not quiet conversation In fact, the conversations around us were so loud and so continual that we couldn't understand all of what the narration was. Some of the conversation was on cell phones. And much of the incessant talking had absolutely NOTHING to do with the ride, Epcot or even Disney!  Seriously?  Very frustrating.  I realize that I'm being petty and I know that the Ride Narration probably wasn't very important, but it's part of the experience, and well I wanted to experience it.   All of it.  In fact,  the overriding noise to chatter was so pervasive that any instructions that the Disney Staff gave was also unheard. I saw lips moving but only heard all the yakyakyakyakyak!!  Initially I thought it was just me. After all, I know that my hearing is less than ideal.  But Tim, who has better than perfect hearing had the same issues.

As I said, we only went on a few rides (all of them with the constant loud conversations.....crazy!) before we moved on to the countries.  That part had a few things that were a little more familiar to us but even then, lots of new stuff to enjoy. Which is awesome.  I don't think we had one favourite country there, we enjoyed them all equally! I marveled over the buildings, the food, the shops, the decorations and the entertainment offered for each country. It's like a whirlwind trip around the world.

Here is one photo from (I think) each country.   I leave it to you to decide which country each photo represents!

So two Disney parks down and two to go!  Actually there were a lot of things we didn't see or do at Epcot on this trip, so I wouldn't mind doing there again too.  Other than that one complaint, I have only good things to say about Disney.  It's an opportunity for adults to be kids again and kids to be themselves.  Easily half of the people we saw wearing some version of "Mickey" ears were adults and it looked perfectly normal.  All reality is suspended for a little while. We didn't just travel the globe, we were also under the sea and up in the sky!

The only place we weren't for those few hours, was living our ordinary, boring, normal lives.  And that is what makes Disney a place worth going.