Today was another early start as Karen’s long anticipated visit to her favourite park – Epcot had arrived. We were in a jolly mood and ready to leave the villa at 7.50am. We were parked up in HeiHei 105 parking area and through the park security by 8.30am. We found a seat on the wall of the fountain and waited until the park officially fully opened at 9am.
Neil had managed to secure us boarding group 62 for the Guardians ride which he anticipated would mean we would be called for our ride around 12pm. We had also made the decision to buy lightening lane passes for the other rides. Neil was annoyed that despite doing so that all the slots for Ratatouille had been taken by Hotel guests by 7am. He was not convinced that we would therefore get full value from the extra cost.
When the park opened, we hastened our way to Soarin, a ride which we all enjoyed. I was happy as we were middle row of the middle arm meaning for those in the know that the Eiffel Tower was nice and straight.
As we were in the building, we just walked onto the Living with the Land ride. This is more educational than ride and one that still surprises me as such by being of both our boys.
From here we walked through the new Moana water attraction. It was busy, a bit silly but fun nevertheless. We had fun trying to control the water through waving our hands and arms.
Karen & Neil then went over to ride Mission to Space whilst I sat in the lovely cool and large Starbucks. I waited a while before joining the queue to get drinks and managed to time it perfect when they came back from the ride to re-join me.
From here we joined the lightening lane queue for Nemo. It was still long and slow. In fact, so slow it stopped moving when the ride broke down. I gave it 10 minutes before I suggested we leave the queue which we did. There was a guest relations point almost outside and they kindly reinstated our lightening lane pass to use again later in the day.
Spaceship Earth had been having problems and had just opened for the day so we joined the queue. Bad decision as it broke down again almost immediately. I got out of the queue and within a couple of minutes Karen & Neil did the same thing.
Instead, we found a bench near the Test Track ride that is being upgraded and ate some of the food we had brought with us. Neil had his first food item of ‘Corned Beef’ from the Food & Drink festival.
It was then time to ride Guardians. The queuing worked well although I am always amazed by the length of the walk whilst you are inside the building. The soundtrack to our ride was ‘September’ which kind of worked. I sang along all the way round.
Nemo was now working again and we rode that quickly before walking over to ride the Figment ride. It is a bit of silly nonsense but is probably overdue being redone.
Before starting our walk around the lands, we stopped at a picnic area for Neil to get himself some Yuca fries. I did mention we had a Yucca in the lounge at home that he could deep fry but apparently, they are totally different things. We took the opportunity to FaceTime Barry & Ellie whilst sitting there. It was lovely to see them both even if if the Wifi not strong at that point and we had a lot of background noise.
We started our walk with an immediate stop as Karen purchased a Mimosa flight so we could all have one each. I enjoyed my blood orange version which was very refreshing.
As per tradition we walked around the lands in an anti-clockwise direction starting in Canada. The Canadian film was operating and as it had been many years since we had watched it and sowe went in. The film was new and enjoyable and gave Karen even more impetus in wanting to revisit.
In the UK I sat on a bench outside the pub whilst Karen & Neil got themselves a pint of Harp to enjoy sitting with me. Sadly, it was the British bands day off so we missed hearing them play.
France was very busy. The queue for the ride was 65 minutes and both Karen & Neil declined to wait that long. Instead, we walked onto the Belgium Food stall where Karen got herself the Waffle she had promised herself.
In Germany after looking around the shops Neil had a Bratwurst.
Then we were back in America. I was now in need of more food and so had the Beef Brisket in Garlic Toast from the Smokehouse. As theme park food goes it was almost acceptable.
We went in and watched the American Adventure show. It is so well done that at times you forget the ‘actors’ are all animatronics. I would love to go behind the scenes of this to see how it all works.
Slowly we made our way around the land. In Africa Neil had some Blackberry Apricot Jam Cider to wash down the Chocolate Amarula Mousse he also purchased.
It was then almost time for our ‘Frozen’ lightening lane and we passed the time admiring the prices in the Norway shop. The ride itself shows the skills of being able to reimagine an existing ride.
To complete our tour of the world we went in the Mexican pavilion and rode the Donald Duck ride. Still a bit of a hotch-potch of a ride and one that as Neil said should do either being rethemed as a ‘Coco’ ride.
From here we walked back to Spaceship Earth where now with our lightening lane pass, we almost walked straight on. The screen Karen & I had was not functioning properly and the ride stopped twice whilst we were on it. Once long enough for me to do some internet banking whilst I waited.
Finally, we headed back to the Lake to find a position for the new firework display with less than 15 minutes before it started. We located a great spot. The display was very good and didn’t have a ‘preachy’ message. The finale was spectacular.
Our location meant it was a straight and easy walk back to the car. Back in the villa we had a much-needed cuppa before retiring.
It had indeed been a good Epcot day. Karen had walked over 25k steps notching up 9.8 miles.
