Having woken at 4am, a vast improvement on yesterday's 1.30am, I shared our photos of the day before with Flickr and then began the previous blog post.
After breakfast we headed out, at 9.00am, to Epcot which we had planned as our park for today. At 9.30pm we left Epcot and got back to the Grand Floridian at 10.40pm. An 18 hour day with 13 of them out and about. Holidays are fun, but they can be busy too!
Today was filled with fun including the most amazing Fireworks at the end of the day.
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| Disney photo of Epcot Fireworks - 25/07/17 |
Have you been Good? - Who? Drew?
As part of the welcoming atmosphere of Disney the security man checking Drew's bag asked him "Have you been good today". To which he answered: "mainly" leading to the response from the security guy of Good, Mickey likes it when people are good". A surreal conversation, but one which sets the scene for the surrealness of life in Disney World.
Drew's reward for 'being good' was a lovely encounter with one of the Disney characters, when he and Daisy Duck (Donald's friend) met up.These charecter encounters are really part of the fun of Disney, and Drew engages with them enthusiastically. As I guess you can see.
On to the rides
Our first FastPass of the day was for Spaceship Earth, the ride which is inside the 'Golf Ball' which is the Icon for Epcot. The theme we noted on Sunday of ecology and our need to save the world from Climate Change and other disasters were again strong in this presentation.
The ride itself is a gentle journey through the history of technology to prepare us for the world of the future. It seemed a little strange that the talk that goes with the ride should be voiceovered by Dame Judi Dench. Maybe the future is plummy English accents, or is that the past??
A very effective element of the ride was the photos of our faces taken at the beginning of the ride were used in the video at the end showing the potential future, not just for the world, but for Haydn and Drew!
The ride ends in the area called Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future with its range of interactive exhibits about future energy, transportation and medical diagnosis. These were good fun and very engaging.
The Art of Disney
Having emerged from Spaceship Earth we were faced with a wall of heat. The temperature today is going to stay in the 90s and even by this time in the morning it was very, very hot and sticky like only the tropics can be. Drew suggested we go into the, air-conditioned, store called The Art of Disney this is a very upmarket boutique full of paintings, prints and figurines. This is high quality stuff and the store is itself like a gallery, so as well as getting cool we were amazed to see the quality of the items available.
Turtle Talk with Crush
Our next event was the interactive show Turtle Talk with Crush, Crush being the turtle from finding Nemo. This was targeted at children, but still provided plenty of laughs. Like the Monsters Inc show yesterday the principle was that Crush could see us as well as we could see him and the children and young people were invited to ask questions. It was fun to spot the Nemo fans with their detailed Nemo related questions and then those who wanted to ask things like: "What do Turtles eat". Crush interacted with the audience well and taught us a few of his catch-phrases.
World Showcase
We next moved on to the second major part of Epcot: The World Showcase. As one of my friends said when I put the pictures of the World Showcase on Flickr: "What a neat idea: being able to visit all these foreign countries without the inconvenience of having to go abroad, deal with strange money, food and weird languages." And I guess some people might find a 'sanitised' version of The World somewhat odd.
It might also be a question, it always is for me, about what defines The World. In fact the Showcase only shows: Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Morocco, Japan, the United States, Italy, Germany, China, Norway, Mexico. Which is a random selection of countries five being from one continent and three being the place we are now and their northern and southern neighbours. Not then a wide range of locations.
But, let's forget about the critical analysis and get back to the immersive encounter with the wonders of Disney!
Canada
I was particular enamoured by the range of soaps they had on offer, including 'Moose Spit' and 'Dog Team Drool' - lovely.
United Kingdom
Our next stop was good old Blighty, i.e. the UK. But the emphasis was on England rather than the other nations, with thatched cottages and an old world pub combined with buildings that look like royal palaces and Twinings Tea, this was definitely Olde England being represented.
France
One next 'land' in the Showcase was France. If the UK could complain about being just about England, it is clear that most of the French showcase is really about Paris. These include images of the Seine, with its artists, and of signs in the font used by the Paris Metro.Soarin'
We broke our journey around the World Showcase because we had a FastPass for Soarin', a new ride at Epcot, which is based in the Land Pavilion, Soarin provides an immersive experience which simulates a Hang Glider travelling around the world.
Imagination with Figment
We had enjoyed the Imagination ride with Figment the Dragon so much when we were here on Sunday that we decided to give it another ride today while we up this part of the park. It was just as humorous, childish and good fun as it had been earlier. Again we left laughing and joking having got fully into the spirit of the ride.
Back to the World Showcase
Morocco
We also saw Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, but she had disappeared before we had time to take a photograph of her.
Japan
Next to Mexico, naturally(I) is Japan. This area is the one that has changed most since my previous visit to Disney World in 2004. Then it was more focused on the traditional cultures of Japan with Samurai warriors and other images. Today the focus is on modern Japanese culture, so the heart of the display is a big Japanese store full of products sources from Japan including Pokemon, Manga, Saki.
United States
Next we were taken to - The United States - as I mentioned above, this seems odd as we are actually in the country, but there we are.The US area is one of the larger ones, with a big mock State Building with Rotunda in which you can join Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain in hearing the story of The American Adventure. I'm afraid it raised my hassle from the start making the mistake of depicting this countries history as starting with the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. Now I have been to Plymouth and seen the Rock, and even visited the memorial there, but there were people already here with their own history long before that. Rant over!
Italy
As you might guess by now Italy was represented by Roman Statues, Pizza houses and Pasta joints. Indeed the land was so unimpressive we didn't event take a photo here.
Germany
The German 'land' had the things you would expect to reinforce stereotypes of Germany - Steins and Oomppa Bands. Though Snow White did lead us to a fascinating conversation:
Drew: 'Why is Snow White in Germany, I didn't think she was German'
Haydn: 'Have you heard of the Grimm Fairy Tales? Well they were German, and she was in them'
It provided us with some light amusement.
China
Our next nation in the Showcase was China, this was depicted by Chinese Gates, something ubiquitous around the world (I know I have seen them in Hong Kong, the UK, the US, Canada), and Pagodas. There was a lot less about Chinese culture and life here, but perhaps Disney feel that might be too communistic??
Norway
Norway had clearly been taken over by the cult of Frozen. As well as a ride (with 55 minute waiting times) called Frozen Ever After the area was all depicted with images of Arendelle, the fictional town in which Frozen is set. That being said there were a lot of excited children rushing to see Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Christof, so you can understand why Scandinavian culture has been subverted by Disney's version of Scandinavia.
Mexico
So we arrive in Mexico, the last of the 'lands' with its huge mock Aztec Temple, its Cantina, and other eating places. The Mexican Folk Art Gallery was full of cultural artefacts and lead into a large Mexican market full of a wide range of goods including skulls, tequila and jewelry. Drew loved the rich image of the decorated skulls (NB - they are not real ones!)
We also came across a Mexican Donald Duck while we were in this land.Reflections on the Showcase
I read my comments above and they seem very negative, that doesn't give a true impression of what it means to be here. In fact, though the cynic is ever ready to criticise, we had spent about seven hours walking around the 'imaginary' nations and had engaged with each aspect of them. So they were in fact very good fun and we, and all those around us were immersed in their representations of the various cultures. A very enjoyable day.
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
The evening ended at 9pm with the most amazing fireworks and laser show called Illuminations. This used the image of the globe and the buildings from the various lands to represent the harmony of the world.
This ended with a fully illuminated globe showing all the countries of the world. Amazing.
It was a long day today, but we headed back to the hotel via two monorails and tired, but pleased, got to bed at 11.15pm.
Wow! What an amazing, full-on day. Thanks for taking the trouble to share it.
ReplyDeleteI should also add that, while it is a great blog, the co-pilots interjections add a great dash of spice!
DeleteThere have been three full on days. The moral of the story would be to eat somewhere different from where you had been doing things (with a break in the hotel in between) but in practice the long days worked well for us.
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