DAY 3 – EPCOT – 19,078 steps

We couldn’t even get into EPCOT till 10:30 on this fine Monday morning, so thankfully we were in less of a rush. The night before, on our way out of Animal Kingdom, we stopped by and picked up “1st Visit” badges for both kids and a birthday badge for Ian and they had them on today. We made it easy on ourselves and just had breakfast in the Pop Century restaurant. The kids were delighted with their plates full of Mickey waffles and bacon. This wasn’t really the place for adventure, so I’m sure Sean and I just had plain old breakfast. I don’t honestly recall. [Sean: I had a breakfast bagel sandwich and it was meh.]

We took the Skyliner to EPCOT, which I think the kids got a kick out of. We were there for rope drop and cut a path straight to the Norway portion of the World Showcase to get in line for the Frozen Ever After ride. I recall the line not being too terrible – maybe 30 minutes. The theming while in queue was kinda fun. At one point, we happened upon Oaken of Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna fame. He was hiding out in the sauna and drew snowflakes on the steamy window.

They always warn you on these water rides that “you might get wet.” This one was a certainty because there was a puddle of water in the seat that I promptly plopped my ass directly into. Oh well. The rest was just gravy. The ride itself was colorful and musical with portions of it being sufficiently crystalline and lovely to suit the Elsa fans in the room.

Before leaving Norway, we stopped at Kringla Bakeri for school bread, one of the many snacks on Sean’s must-have list. He and the kids mostly ate it. I gave it a try, but I’m not crazy about shredded coconut, so it wasn’t worth it to me, especially when I wasn’t particularly hungry. [Sean: Maya and I both really loved this.]

We moved on to Mexico next and took part in the Gran Fiesta Tour attraction. This is a meandering boat ride throughout the Mexico pavilion and features the antics of the Three Caballeros, one of whom is Donald Duck. The Three Caballeros film was apparently released in 1944 – I’m kind of impressed with this attraction’s staying power.

Finally, at the kids repeated request, we rode a “real” ride. We went to check out Test Track. Maya and Ian loved it! They enjoyed taking the time to each design their own car and then getting to drive it on the track (not really, but they did tell you how your car would have performed in the various “tests” based on your carefully selected design parameters). The cars whip around and get all the way up to 65 miles per hour. Apparently the running joke is something like: Hey, this attraction is great! It shows you exactly what you had to do to get here to Disney World – drive a car at 65 miles per hour. Whatever, naysayers; we all had fun.

Next up was Mission: SPACE. This attraction offers a choice. You’re in the facility training to be an astronaut, and you can choose one of two missions. The gentler Green Mission takes you on an orbit around Earth. The more intense Orange Mission takes you to Mars. Since it warns of motion sickness and we hadn’t given anyone any Dramamine, we elected to try the Green Mission out first. Our four person crew were each assigned roles: commander, pilot, navigator, or engineer. I can’t honestly recall what anyone was, but for lots of mystifying reasons, the job each of us had was of critical importance to Maya and my recollection is that she very nearly didn’t get to ride the ride for the meltdown she was having over it.

Ultimately the Green Mission was still pretty cool. And it must have been convincing, because Ian asked Sean in all seriousness whether we were really in outer space. This was a theme that was to repeat itself over and over again. Ian is apparently so certain of Disney magic that he’s convinced we made several journeys to “actual space” over the course of our weeklong vacation.

We moved onto Spaceship Earth next, known to me as “the ride inside the big EPCOT ball.” This is another non-thriller dark ride kind of thing. It walks you through the history (and potential future) of communication. This is all well and good except the selection soft-buttons weren’t working very well. Ian and I were getting frustrated because it wasn’t registering our screen touches, and so our photos in the ride look very frustrated. The ride itself was enjoyable though – we got to listen to Judi Dench tell us all about the history of communication, which was oddly relaxing. Sean and Maya had a rougher time of it – they listened to the entire ride in German. I’m not kidding. Surprisingly, Maya wasn’t super-engaged, so afterward, Ian and I puttered around playing games in the post-ride area while Sean and Maya took another spin, this time in English. At least they let them skip the line of the second time around. Maya reportedly found it much more interesting on a second run, and Ian got to run his sillies out a bit, which he desperately needed.

Next we stopped in at Club Cool to sample sodas from around the world. There were an interesting variety, and not every flavor was a winner, of course. But there were a few unexpected gems in there. [Sean: Most people dislike Beverly (it is very bitter) but I rather enjoyed it.]

Finally, at long last, we stopped by Creation Station to pick up Maya’s Figment ears. They were exactly what she wanted, and they looked great on her. And hooray for having one’s patience rewarded! Sean even took her photo with the special 50th anniversary Figment statue. For WDW’s 50th anniversary celebration, they have installed new golden statues throughout the four parks featuring 50 different Disney characters. I know we didn’t manage to capture all of them, but whenever we (read: Sean) noticed them, we tried to grab a photo.

Next up: food. Sean went to Refreshment Port and came back with chicken nuggets for the kids and some traditional poutine for us. He also scored a coquito and spiced rum drink for the grownups, which was divine. He also stopped in at Mele Kalikimaka to field test some kailua pork and an order of haupia, both of which were excellent.

While Sean was running around, I hung out by a table with the kids, letting them play around and rest a bit. They started a conversation with a teenage (probably?) girl. After chatting back and forth with her on the finer points of Pokemon and lizard catching, she offered to make a drawing for them! She drew them the heads of their favorite Pokemon characters – Charizard for Ian and Mewtwo for Maya. They were spellbound.

Refueled and ready for action, we headed to the France pavilion to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. The ride was cute. You are meant to be the size of a rat and your little rat car scurries about the floor through Gusteau’s restaurant. You smell the smells as you zing around, which is fun. Maya’s a fan of the Ratatouille movie, so she seemed to really like it. I think it wasn’t “wild” enough for Ian.

On our way out of Remy’s we happened upon Pere Noel. At Epcot, during the holidays, each of the eleven countries in the World Showcase features a storyteller. They are wonderfully costumed and charactered and tell holiday tales related to their country. So of course, Pere Noel is hanging out in France, looking magnificent and telling stories to a crowd of onlookers. Had Sean had his way, we would have partaken of more of these chances to hear stories told from around the world, but we had to balance that with a tight schedule and antsy children.

We next visited the Journey Into Imagination with Figment attraction. Figment is a mischievous dragon who accompanies us as we learn about how the five senses can trigger our imaginations. During the holidays, Figment gets to wear a delightful little “ugly sweater,” and I think it only enhances his charm. As you meander along this dark ride, Eric Idle plays a scientist who’s trying to keep things serious all while Figment bounces around causing all manner of mayhem. Maya loved it because Figment is a dragon and she loves dragons (also, he was a troublemaker). Ian was a bit bored, I think – though I caught him laughing at Figment too. Sean wound up feeling a little disappointed because the attraction had been scaled back so much. [Sean: In the early days of EPCOT the Image Works area was huge and was basically a mid sized science museum. It was great. It got moved down stairs and scaled back to almost nothing and is now sad.  Also, they need to bring back Dreamfinder.]

Next, we did the Soarin’ Around the World attraction. This thing is like the mother of all IMAXes. Once you strap into your seat, you’re lifted up with your feet dangling, and there is some movement and airflow to go along with the visual of you soaring over the wonders of the world. If you’re in the wrong spot, some of the pyramids can develop an unexpected curvature. And wherever we sat on this day, we managed to see lots of shoes dangling down, though if you avoided looking up, the illusion was kept alive. I think we all enjoyed the ride.

Living with the Land was a gentle boat ride through various greenhouses and such, showing us various forward-looking farming techniques. What I found most fun was that everything was coated in Christmas decor. Maya had fun hunting up hidden Mickeys. I had fun not standing up.

We went on The Seas with Nemo & Friends next, another dark ride. Afterward, we spent a little time exploring the aquarium and a lot of time letting the kids run around the little play area. They needed to make their own choices about what they did for a little while. Mom and Dad were happy to sit down on the floor in a corner and watch them.

We ended our visit with the Turtle Talk with Crush show. You sit down in a theater that looks sort of like a window to the ocean and Crush is your host. He talks about life in the ocean, conservation, and his fellow ocean-dwellers. He answers the kids’ questions in real-time, which both Ian and Maya got a kick out of. He referred to the kids has having different colored shells (their t-shirts) and noted that Maya had swim goggles (her glasses). It was honestly more fun than I was expecting, especially after a long day.

After a Skyliner ride back to our hotel, once the kids were settled in for the night, Sean and I had to pack, because tomorrow, we’d be moving to our second hotel of the trip. While the kids rested, we sorted everything into the right suitcases and backpacks so we could hit the ground running the next day.

[Sean: We not only had Genie+ this day but also bought an individual Lightning Lane for Remi’s.  Genie+ definitely saved us more time today, 60-90 minutes on Test Track alone plus 15-20 on most other rides. All in all it was worth the cost.]