Day 2a: Epcot!

After watching Ellen soundly defeat Jamie Lee Curtis on the Jeopardy!, we decided to give Spaceship Earth a try. I have always enjoyed SSE (as it will come to be known in this blog) and as it was coming up from a controversial rehab, I was quite excited. Lauren insisted that she touch the 'big ball.' 

She did not.

While waiting in line, we were cut off by this lame old couple. Seriously. By cutting me off, and pushing past, you managed to save yourself a grand total of, like, 15 seconds....or so you thought! The Karma Police came through and we were actually able to board the ride first! And there is once again justice throughout the universe.

So, the first 'new' thing (and keep in mind that I have not ridden the ride since 2005, so my memory may be slightly sieve-like) is that we are asked to face forward as a photo is taken. This would, obviously, come in to play later.

Lauren was thrilled by the Judi Dench narration and I enjoyed it, though I was a big fan of the previous, Jeremy Irons, as well. Upon reaching the main chambers of the ride, things seemed similar, though much smoother animation and everything looking all clean and shiny.

The library at Alexandria still smelled like burning and that lazy monk was still asleep at his writing desk, hidden mickey still on his parchment. It seemed like there were a few new scenes added, including a 1960's family watching the moon landing, a science lab (I think?) with a lady in some decidedly '70s fashions and a scene of a garage in California with the figure inside (being either Steve Jobs or Steve Wozniak) creating the personal computer.

Gone was the scene of the boy talking to his friend in China and the automatic phone translation, but I think I was OK with that. As far as that being a 'future' technology, if there is not something similar available currently, there is something pretty darn close. Plus, personally, I found the new decline to be entertaining.

It was here that the picture taken at the beginning of the attraction came into play. After answering a series of questions ( i.e. "Would you rather travel or shop?") we were treated to video, featuring our lovely faces on some cartoon-type Flash animation characters, illustrating what sort of future technologies would be able to make our particular lifestyle of choice easier. We found it particularly amusing.

I can see how, to the regular visitors, this may grow stale eventually (much as the "What Disney Character Are You?" in the Animation Building at DCA is to me), but as annual visitors (at best) this worked out just fine for us. Yes, I miss the "City of Tomorrow" model on the decline, but this was very entertaining as well and I think kids in particular will get a kick out of it.

After exiting the "big ball," or more appropriately, the "big geodesic sphere" we headed over to "The Land" pavilion.

I had heard good things about "Living with the Land," but had never ridden it, so Lauren and I got in line. Here, we encountered our second karmic offenders. Again, a gentleman elbowed his way in front of us, and then proceeded to bring his large extended family to cut in front of us. And, as in the previous encounter, the Karma Police were on duty and when the Cast Member asked for a group of two or less, we answered the call and got front row seats. 

I wasn't particularly planning to be thrilled by the ride and was mostly riding it to see the home of some of the animatronics designed for Marc Davis' "Western River Expedition" but actually thoroughly enjoyed the ride. As we exited we made very tentative plans to do the "Behind the Seeds" backstage tour the next time that we were in Epcot.

It was slowly getting toward our lunch reservation at the Rose and Crown so we decided to meander toward the World Showcase, but there was an incident that would delay our world traveling. You see, while walking toward the lagoon, I saw an old friend of mine and I needed to go and say hello. He is not a typical friend, we don't really talk when I'm not at Epcot, but where else can you find a friend who is,

"Two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow

Horns of a steer, but a loveable fellow.

From head to tail, he's royal purple pigment.

And there--Voila!--you've got a Figment!"

That's right. Figment. I love Figment. He was standing alone up at his little photo meet and greet place near the exit of the "Journey Into Imagination with Figment." I basically ran up and gave him a great big hug. He didn't really hug back. It's OK though. I was justified later in the trip. 

After having to be dragged away, we were, once again, on our way to World Showcase and our delicious pub lunch.

Day 2: Welcome to Epcot!

The main problem that I have with mornings is the fact that they occur in the morning. If somehow we could make 6 a.m. happen around noon-ish or so, I would be a happy little camper. Suffice it to say that the morning of January 15th was not to be that day. In addition to being early--after not sleeping much the day prior-- annnnnnd that wonderful 3 hour time differential, I was slightly less of a happy camper getting up. More like a bear, being wrested out of a long hibernation. It was OK though, we were going to Epcot!

After somehow getting the both of us out of bed and all 'neat and pretty' as the Mouse, himself used to say, we made our way down to the Boardwalk Bakery, en route to World Showcase. Being hot drink junkies (as will become evident as the trip rolls on) we decided to take advantage of the resort mug offer. One begins by purchasing a mug at a designated location within their resort. These mugs USED to be resort specific, but are now just generic "Million Dreams" mugs. Anyway. Upon purchasing the mug, the bearer is now entitled to unlimited free drinks of the hot variety, as well as soft drinks, throughout the duration of the resort stay. We grabbed the first of many hot chocolates and headed over to the International Gateway to await our entry into Epcot, and first foray into Future World.

We guzzled down the hot chocolates and walked briskly through the deserted World Showcase, which would not open until 11, and somehow were able to navigate our way over to Test Track. We literally walked right on and were seated up front. I had the video camera out the whole time(another theme of the vacation) and got some decent shots. The ride was outstanding. There is nothing like the feeling of 65 mph of wind in your hair as you a zipping and banking around Epcot at 8 in the morning. Upon our departure we found that Test Track offers their ride photos as part of Photo Pass. We were planning on buying the picture CD from the beginning, so we got our first Photo Pass card and picture on that card. 

After Test Track we headed across the plaza to Mission:Space. This was quite the intense ride and I cannot really imagine doing it multiple times in a day. Not to say anything about the ride, it was just...intense. Since it was Early Entry and all of the sane people were in their hotels in the nice warm beds, our Space crew wound up being just Lauren and me. We did our best, but somehow still wound up almost falling into a huge crater. Oh well. We both made it through alive, despite Lauren insisting on doing the very opposite thing that Gary Sinise had warned us about, and looking to the side while we were in space. NASA was taking notes and unfortunately that act of defiance all but ruined her chances to be on the next space mission.

Following our re-entry to Earth, we headed BACK to Test Track. Hey, it was Early Entry, gotta get in those E-Tickets while you can! The line was slightly longer than last time (translation: 5 minutes instead of 35 seconds. Oh, the humanity!) and we still somehow made it through our gig as crash test dummies. 

At this point, it was right about park opening time for the poor schmucks without the Early Entry and we had heard that Spaceship Earth was available for a soft opening, so we hoofed our way over. Turns out it was not. I was kind of bummed out about this, so what could make me feel any better than the ride featuring my favorite TV show ever? That's right folks, Ellen's Energy Adventure...featuring Jeopardy ANNNND Alex Trebek--with real mustache action! The nice thing about this ride, and really all of Disney "edu-tainment" in general is that it educates without being too preachy or partisan. Yes, these sources of energy are wonderful, but at the current time are sort of impractical. However, it gives hope for the future. Note: All protesters, hippies, etc take note. THIS kind of thing is how you reach people. I'm just saying.....

Also, for some reason I remember the dinosaur part being much longer than it was this time. I'm pretty sure it wasn't, but I remember it as such. Plus, the dinos didn't spit on us. 

By the time we had exited and seen a wheelchair that was apparently only dedicated to the ride and the ride only (the logo on the back told us as much) the rest of humanity had entered the park and we were in a quandry as to where to head next.

Tune in next time for the next installment!

Day 1c: Finally in Florida!

Meanwhile back at the room: we just realized that we had not really eaten in several hours, and seeing as we both have food-related issues, decided that remedying this situation would be better than the alternative, dying, so we decided to make our way down to the Boardwalk.

It was cold. It was very cold. Now, I can ordinarily handle temperatures that would make a penguin chatter, but for some reason, the wind was blowing right through me.

We had decided that counter service would be our best bet since time was of the essence for us in this particular instance. We passed the Flying Fish Cafe and the ice cream/candy store before arriving at the Spoodles take-out window. We both ordered a slice and a drink, mine being a cheese slice and Lauren's being pepperoni. When I went to use my Disney ID for a discount, I was rebuffed and informed that they did not give a cast discount here. This would set the tone for the remainder of the trip, where not only would the discount not always be applied, but the amount of the discount, depending on the venue and even individual cast member, would vary greatly. Whatever. 

After we finished our delicious (and full-priced) meal we remained seated outside and debated where our plans would take us next. We had decided that we did not want to try and do a park in the first hours after we arrived, since it would be dark and I did not think that it would be the best introduction to the parks for Lauren. Of course, this was a decision concocted far away from Florida, and here was Epcot, sitting a mere moment's walk away. Suffice it to say, we decided to "only take a walk to look at it from outside the gates." Suffice it to say that we did NOT only look at it from the outside. When one is not paying for one's own admission, it makes one much more cavalier about the use of admission media.

Once we had entered the International Gateway, we began the clockwise loop of World Showcase. We didn't actually go into any of the shops or restaurants or anything like that. Just took a few pictures and a power walk to basically get our bearings for this part of the park, as we would be headed here tomorrow. In addition, I figured I would pull the ever popular move of letting Lauren experience it very very superficially in the hopes that she would gain a tremendous sense of anticipation for the following day. It worked.

Once we returned to the International Gateway, we waved goodbye to Epcot, double-checked the Early Entry time for the following day and returned to our villa, where a warm bath in a jacuzzi tub and a nice warm bed awaited us.