The Disney Dynasty

I feel the need to expound (vent) a bit on our visit to Epcot. I had been to Epcot (and Disney World) with my family when I was about 13--the summer after 8th grade, I think. Despite the fact that I was past the age at which you might think Disney related activities would be enjoyable, I remember loving Epcot. I loved the World Showcase side of the park where you were able to visit a miniature version of so many different countries. You could see the native architecture, purchase their wares, eat their food, and be entertained with the music and dance of their culture by various street performers. While all of the World Showcase is still at Epcot, and while I still enjoyed it, I have to admit that it's become more like one big gift shop. Each "country" was mostly just a couple of restaurants and about 5 little shops full of knick-knacks. The educational displays in some countries didn't look like they'd been updated or spruced up in the 22 years since I was there the last time. Some of the the countries had an "attraction," like the "viking boat voyage" in Norway, and then a few others had a short "Circle-Vision 360 degree" film (we didn't actually see any of those), but most of it just seemed like shops encouraging to you spend more money. Granted, Chad and I were functioning on 4 hours of sleep and it was late in the day, so maybe if we'd been more rested and awake it would have been a little more enjoyable!

The other side of Epcot, called Future World, was so fascinating when I was a kid. I remember feeling like I'd learned so much--like my eyes had been opened to worlds I'd never dreamed of. Let's just say that now, Future World isn't quite as futuristic as it was 22 years ago. The "Innoventions" attractions were especially suspect, consisting of some sort of robot building activity for kids and some run-down gadgets that clearly hadn't been updated in a really long time. The "Spaceship Earth" exhibits were pretty much just a bunch of video games sponsored by Siemens, with another section that said it was closed until February 2008, even though it was opened by the end of the day. There were a few of the major attractions in Future World which had been updated, such as the "Universe of Energy," hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, which might have been more interesting and educational if we hadn't been so darn tired--Chad and I both dozed off during the 45 minute movie!

One of the most disappointing updates of the old attractions to me was what is now the "Finding Nemo" ride. It used to be this amazing and educational ride through "The Living Seas" that made me want to be a marine biologist. Now you basically stand in line for an hour to watch a long trailer for the movie while riding in a clam. That wasn't the only part of the park that felt like an advertisement either. Every single exhibit was sponsored by some huge corporation: Nestle, General Motors, Hewlett Packard, etc. The "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience" 3-D film was quite cute and entertaining, but in the waiting area before the movie you were subjected to a 30 minute commercial for Kodak. Even the hand washing tips in the rest rooms were "brought to you by Brawny"! As if Disney doesn't make enough money on their own? They need other companies to pay them to make ends meet? It was really kind of annoying.

There were actually a few really cool, newer attractions at Epcot, but unfortunately the lines were so insanely long for these we were only able to ride one! They have these special tickets for the most popular rides called "Fast Passes" which get you into a priority line so that you don't have to wait as long, because they issue just a certain number of them for each hour of the day. It sounds like a great plan, but unfortunately we didn't realize how quickly they'd been gone. We picked up our first one just after noon (about an hour after we got there), but then weren't eligible for another Fast Pass until 2 p.m. When we went back to the "Test Track" racing ride that we were hoping to get on, all of the Fast Passes for the entire day had already been given out. We went to the other big rides to find the same problem, with the regular lines being 2-3 hours long. Clearly we didn't have the patience for that! The one I really would have loved to do was the hang-gliding simulating movie/ride called "Soarin'." The only cool one we did get to do was the "Mission: SPACE" adventure that simulated us blasting off in a rocket (experiencing some serious g-forces) and then landing on the surface of Mars. It was really fun, and because we had a Fast Pass for the attraction, we only had to wait in line about 30 minutes!

All in all, I guess I'm glad we actually went to Epcot, even though it wasn't really our cup of tea. It would have been way worse had the Disney Dynasty been our only destination in Florida. At least we didn't plan an entire vacation around a bunch of theme parks we ended up not liking!