All along I thought that Epcot Center was the golf-ball building and, eh, nothing else. Parking, probably? My entire life was spent where, in my imagination, "Epcot Center" was the golf ball shaped building in Orlando. "No, it's...a park," both Corrie and my mom would say. An amusement park. A huge one, at that.
Discussion came up at some point during the day that Epcot was the biggest park in the Disney conglomeration. Norm and I even spoke to, eh, no way is this bigger than even Disneyland in Anaheim.
That's about when we noticed the swollen-tic part of the map. A huge lake is bound in by countries. More than half of the Epcot had yet to be explored by us.
The ball after a very thorough search:
The ball itself is a ride, the Spaceship Earth ride. With such a cool name, and the fact that mom hadn't ever ridden it, on account of the line, meant that riding it should be a priority.
Cass was very cute with his cousins on this trip. Following and copying as much as would be expected.
One ride went through greenhouses and growing zones, both aero- and hydroponic. At the end, Holly and my mom took a backstage tour, while Norm and I had the boys for a while. One of the main areas at Epcot is basically a huge mall, with a ride at the bottom:
Imagine Sunrise Mall, or Arden Fair, with a main hallway where one end had an anchor like Sears or Nordstrom, only here there'd be a ride, like Pirates of the Caribbean. People would get onto a boat and putter away from view, into a warehouse-sized area for the content of the ride.
We had to get the hell out of there.
We left and headed in a straight line to the Nemo ride. I'm not sure what that looks like on the map, but that's how it went for us.
The Finding Nemo ride was like Peter Pan at Anaheim, maybe, with a clam-shell that slowed as got inside. The ride went around underwater curves, with screens hidden seamlessly with rocks that made it look like Nemo and Dory and Marlin and Bruce and the rest were part of the fun.
The coolest part was that it let you out in an aquarium.
The boys were having a great time. And then we made it to the manatee enclosure. We'd scoped them earlier, from beneath. But up an escalator (big jump!) had us at the top, with one of the manatee caretakers.
Norman and Simon talked to this young lady for quite a while, and it was awesome to be a part of, to be a witness and observer.
When we met up with the ladies again we'd all pretty much had enough. Dinner was in Japan in a few hours, and we felt like heading back to the hotel. The return trip, if we were committed to dinner, proved too daunting, so we stayed, but broke up for a time. Norman and my mom and me went walkabout, meandering our way around the lake until we hit Japan, nearly at the far end.
Norm and Holly took the sleeping Simon and Cass to a shady corner and then walk, in the stroller, and met us at dinner. It was a sushi joint, because both Norman and Simon, along with Norm and Holly and I, love sushi. Cass, depending on his mood and hunger level, would eat it. My mom---not so much.
After dinner, we even rode Spaceship Earth! Before, dinner, I think...
You get in a car-ish thing it takes you off in an generally upwards spiral. Everyone is in a car that can hole up to three people, like an adult and two kids. Cass and I were in our own car. Each of these cars is equipped with a touchscreen, and this screen allows you to choose the language that will be piped in through the speakers behind your head, explaining what you see on the ride.
Cass spent the entire available time with the screen pressing buttons and tapping ovals, until it ended, and we'd chosen German as the language of the ride.
I remember guffawing and wishing that at least it could be in French, which may make your ears feel massaged and relaxed afterwards.
The car goes up; it passes animatronic cavefolks hunting mammoth; it passes Egyptian pharaohs; it passes Greek antiquity; you see the first printing press. I did what I could with my German knowledge to piece it together
Near what feels like the apex of the world's longest right turn, you come into a computer control room, like from NASA in Houston, only updated to a future based on the reality in Houston. Then the car pivots and sets you down. Your position is reclined, like a fancy living room chair. The screen has activities to do, make postcards and video grams and the like, but outside there's quite a static light show.
This picture explains more than I could with words:
I took one last picture of the golf ball, only now it was night and the colors were pretty neat:
You, Norman and I went into space....and I think maybe if we had more time a couple of days are needed to explore Epcot.... there are rides in the countries too....thank you so much for finding my cane after I lost it somewhere....
ReplyDelete