Loved the SoAT videos. I’ve never been on it because I’m “too wide to ride”…
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Another great installment! Thanks for sharing your great writing and pictures! 
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Thanks for the new installment.
This is going to be epic when it’s done.
Still looking forward to reading about the family devotions. 
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Do you have a blog that you are also recording these in? I would love to add you to my subscriptions!
Going through old topics and stumbled upon this gem of a topic. What happened on the rest of the trip?
I love your first installment, especially your tips for future planners. I can’t wait to read your next day!
Oh no! I l jumped down the rabbit hole of your vacation on this thread since it was bumped to the top, but now I feel so let down not to get the rest of the trip! Hope it was awesome!!!i
Started reading today as it was on the top of the threads…love your writing style and hope the rest of your trip was magical!!
Hi Liners! It’s been a quick 10 months since I last posted to this thread. I had fully intended to finish this trip report, but life really got in the way. I lost a job and got a new one. DD studied abroad in Germany and came back. DW and DD went on another mission trip to Uganda. I got to go to the World Expo in Milan, and fulfilled a lifelong dream to “Imagineer” a Disney-level attraction for my favorite charity, which will open in early 2017.
This weekend marked the anniversary of our trip, so I pulled out this report to help us reminisce and relive some of the amazing memories. At the same time, facebook started reposting their ‘one year ago’ click baiting on all of our pages. Then, I started getting emails from this forum with some of you encouraging me to start up again and finish the report.
For better or for worse, that’s what I hope to do. Thanks to @bciranow, @BackIntoTheFray, @MiniRif, @Kyla307, and @MinnieWinnie for the kick in the butt.
So without further ado, I present to you the continuing saga of “The Vacation of a Lifetime!”
Dinosaur Soup
Friday, January 9, 2015 - 9:40AM Eastern Time
Wow! When the system works, it really works. We were already twenty-four minutes ahead of our next planned arrival time and I was certain we’d be able to keep that pace—IF we could maintain our energy and not run out of gas.
We ducked into Innoventions East to explore and catch a few exhibits before facing the giants of Future World East
Innoventions East – StormStruck
Apart from SOAT, StormStruck was one of the Innoventions exhibits most highly recommended by liners, and as we rounded the corner into the attraction, the throng of thirteen other guests testified to its popularity.
(youtube screenshot)
StormStruck is a fairly simple, 4-D theater attraction intended to bring awareness to disaster preparedness by simulating a Florida hurricane striking an underprepared home. Guests are given an opportunity to interact with the attraction by voting on the best ways to prepare for a hurricane and then observe the consequences of their collective choices.
It has all the expected 4-D effects that seem to be the standard these days. 3-D glasses, rumbly seats, bursts of air, squirts of water in the face, and push-button panels for audience voting. However, it lacks some of the magic of attractions that use the same gags. It’s probably due to tight budgeting for the sponsor’s sake. FLASH.org apparently wanted all the prestige and marketing benefits of sponsoring a Disney attraction, but approved a much smaller budget than necessary to truly make it memorable. The seats rumble like a phone on vibrate, the bursts of air sound like hydraulic brakes, and the water squirts are less like a simulated hurricane and more like a close talker reciting Peter Piper.
At the same time, I wouldn’t suggest that the attraction was unsuccessful in its mission. We definitely left knowing more about hurricane preparedness. While we may never use the specific tips for our house—not a lot of hurricanes blowing through Los Angeles these days—we were definitely reminded that preparing for a disaster is much better than reacting to one. Our earthquake kit has now been refreshed.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIGRESSION: It was in StormStruck that we clued into one of the significant cultural differences between Disneyland Resort and WDW. It appears that many more of the attractions hosts at WDW are of retirement age than at DLR. I speculate that this is due to a few factors.
First, Florida is a great place to retire, so it follows that there would be more retirees available to hire for unskilled labor. Comparatively, Anaheim’s high cost of living makes it a rotten place to spend one’s wintering years. Second, DLR is smack dab in the middle of a suburban sprawl. While WDW is so far from the nearest towns that it has its own time zone and weather system, neighborhoods in Anaheim literally back right up to Disneyland. I used to live in the apartment complex across the street and would wake in the morning to the sound of the Mark Twain’s whistle as it chuffed its morning crawl around the Rivers of America. DLR is surrounded by schools, churches, convenience stores, shopping malls, fast food restaurants, and freeways. So it follows that local teens would just as soon apply for a first job at Disney than at Chick-fil-A or The Gap. Therefore, DLR’s attractions host population appears to be largely made up of late teens and twenty-somethings.
Does it make any difference? Well, yes, but it’s not a bad thing—just different. The attractions host who ran StormStruck was a gentleman in his seventies whose flat delivery lacked the excitement or joy one comes to expect from Disney cast members. DS’s first comment coming out of the show was not, “Cool effects.” Instead, he kicked into a spot-on impression of the host, droning through his monotone monologue about tile roofing shingles in a Jersey accent.
It’s not that the host did it wrong. His spiel was by the book with no clear deviation from the SOP. He simply didn’t infuse it with any personality or spark.
I’m not suggesting that attractions hosting should be reserved for the young. In fact youthfulness often leads to trouble of it’s own. Energetic and fun-loving can quickly become obnoxious and self-serving, which distracts from the magic we’ve paid to experience. Not everybody is meant to be a Jungle Cruise skipper, so lets save the untested yuks to the green river.
Of course this is only an observation based on one visit during an off-peak season. The diversity and charm of the people we got to meet at WDW more than makes up for the occasional dud.
Digression over.
At StormStruck’s exit there’s a little hallway leading to the restrooms. Perfect. While the girls were doing whatever it takes girls 50% more time to do in there (I don’t want to know), DS and I wandered down the same hall which connects to the Electric Umbrella restaurant. It wasn’t open yet, but the soda fountain was right there in front of us. Per some liner’s advice, we had our resort mugs clipped onto our backpacks, so we went to the fountain for a water fill up.
Since nobody was around, the temptation to break the ‘refills only at the resorts’ rule was pretty strong, so I decided to test to see if the chips inside the mugs really do prevent you from getting free soda pop in the parks. Out flowed a burst of brown fizzy liquid.
I guess it’s like that thing parents told us about the chemical they put in pools that makes pee turn bright purple to identify the culprit. It’s a myth, but nobody’s brave enough to try to find out. Anyway, that would be stealing, so we filled everybody up with water and set out on our way back through Innoventions East.
Incidentally, we found out then that carrying around resort mugs filled with water isn’t such a good idea after all. Unless you’re happy walking around with your mug in your fist like a hobbit, you’re better off leaving it in the room and bringing along a Nalgene or something else you can fill, close, and stuff into your bag or backpack.
Innoventions East – Character Meet ‘N’ Greet
Deep inside Innoventions lies one of the fun benefits of holding a Disney Chase Visa. In the months leading up to the trip, we made all our purchases on the Disney card and racked up a lot of reward dollars. Ching ching! But because we chose a dining plan, none of the dining discounts applied to us. The only on-site perk we had coming was private time with the head mouse himself at the Character Meet ‘N’ Greet.
Either we were too early, or they don’t get many guests taking them up on this offer because the cast member seemed quite surprised that we showed up. We were their only guests so they led us directly into our private visit with Mickey and Goofy. They were surprised to see us too. They had to quickly put their cigarettes out and put their heads back on to take the picture (jk).
Something special happens when you meet these silent characters in person. Without the benefit of speech, they’re somehow able to communicate a range of ideas and emotions using simple hand gestures and body language alone. If you’re not careful, you might leave their presence believing that you had an actual adult conversation with a giant mouse and a dippy dawg.
Still, we were blown away when Mickey was able to clearly communicate with us that he recognized and appreciated DD’s outfit as a tribute to Mary Poppins without using a word.
If you’re wondering how he did it, take a look at this group picture. There’s a clever clue hidden in the backdrop that helped Mickey convey his precise meaning. While you’re at it, how many hidden Mickeys can you find?
We swiped our Magic Bands, to save this awesome moment in our Memory Maker memory bank for later and burst into the light of uncertain skies over Future World East.
Ellen’s Energy Adventure
It was 10:10AM when we stood under the Monorail tracks with Ellen’s Energy Adventure to our left, Test Track to our right, and Mission: SPACE dead ahead. But thanks to the speed with which we moved through our plans during the first hour, we were nearly 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
Our touring plan had us at TT at 10:38, then EEA at 10:54, and finally MS at 11:43. We had back-to-back FPPs on TT and MS, but we still had 10 minutes before we could use the first one. Now, we faced a decision. We could stand still for 10 minutes and stick with the plan, or we could redeem the 10 minutes by flipping the order and going straight to EEA before TT. It seemed like a solid plan. The only risk being that most of our FPP window would be used up, so any breakdowns or long queue waits might forfeit our TT line cut.
We decided to risk it and broke left to see what Ellen and Bill Nye were up to behind that glimmering reflecting pool.
It’s funny how the passage of time breaks things down. I understand that this version of the attraction has been in operation since 1996. That means that the stars of the attraction filmed this almost 20 years ago. While Ellen has aged well, you can easily tell that you’re not looking at the same celebrities you’re used to watching on YouTube every day. Alex Trebek still had his mustache, for crying out loud!
And unlike other classic Disney attractions, the celebrity factor definitely locks EEA in a specific time frame. Do kids know who Bill Nye is anymore? I guess there was once an attraction in Epcot that featured Hans and Franz from Saturday Night Live. It’s no wonder celebrity driven attractions fade quicker than the rest.
Also, I’m surprised that environmental groups don’t boycott EEA regularly. Of course, there is plenty of talk about green energy, but 1996 Bill Nye also shares enthusiastically about the wonders of hydro-electric (salmon and trout killing) power, deep-sea (BP disaster) drilling, and nuclear (mutant mice and dawgs) fusion. For the record, I’m not against any of those energy sources, but I’m guessing 2015 Bill Nye would consider these some of mankind’s greatest sins.
The attraction geek in me was pretty impressed with the ride vehicles. To see the whole theater break up into remote controlled pods was pretty spectacular. It’s also fun to consider how the technology in an attraction like this evolves into some of the modern marvels we love today. You can see in EEA the genetics of projection based rides like Soarin’.
(youtube screengrab)
It was also pretty exciting to see the animatronic dinosaurs from the 1964 World’s Fair used in a different context. Those unfamiliar with Disneyland might not know that the Dinosaurs in EEA are copies of those created for the Ford Pavilion and now reside in the park’s Primeval World diorama. You get to see them when you travel on the Disneyland Railroad from Tomorrowland to Main Street USA. DS said that it was great to see the dinosaurs up close and all around us rather than behind glass. We also thought the tyrannosaurus rex seemed a little silly being painted to look like a Fisher-Price version of a scary dinosaur.
(youtube screengrab)
One cast member seemed to miss the point of the dark theater in EEA. She chose the darkest moment, just before the Big Bang was about to go off, to open a door to a brightly lit hall and have a loud conversation with someone inside. It totally broke up the magic and distracted our attention from the wacky science propaganda. Come to think of it, it was probably a good thing.
To be continued on Test Track…
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I’m so glad you’re continuing your report!!!
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It was the carpetbag!
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Waking up to this made my day! Thank you for sharing more of your wonderful family trip with us
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welcome back! sounds like you have had a whirlwind of a year! Was so happy to see a post this morning with the continuing story! Truly a great read with some laughs while I sat with my coffee this morning. Your family photos are fantastic and your writing truly does capture the magic you all experienced!
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Hooray! I’m glad you’re posting again. Great entry!
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Nailed it!
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Across time and space, together we race…
Friday, January 9, 2015 - 11:10AM Eastern Time
Okay, now that we know where energy comes from (and we have plenty of it after sitting for so long), let’s go see what it can do. We’re in the last 10 minutes of our FPP window for Test Track and it’s right across the plaza. We’d better get going.
As we go, we follow the straight pathways between angular planters and features designed to direct guests toward the park’s two major thrill rides. We’d learned ahead of time to keep our eyes out for clues to the Imagineers’ vision for Epcot, especially the differences between Future Worlds East and West. Apparently the design of FW was meant to suggest the cognitive expression of two halves of the brain—the left-brain’s tendency toward academic and analytic thinking and the right brain-toward creativity and feelings. We wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the difference between the two sections of the park until we’d explored FW West, but with the sharp angles of the pathways and planters, the precise landscaping, and the straight lines of the towering palm trees bisecting the negative space between the perspective enhancing architecture, we were starting to get the idea.
(Google Maps screengrab)
Later, as we looked down on maps of the parks together, DS pointed out the clear differences between the two sides, and it really is plain as day. Three cheers to the Imagineers, “the men (and women) who know and plan.”
(For those of you who get the preceding reference, I’m not suggesting the Imagineers are Monsanto or vice versa. I simply thought it was a clever turn of phrase.)
TestTrack presented by Chevrolet
One benefit of being WDW virgins is the purity with which we are able to experience attractions. DW expressed it well when she said, “I’m so used to knowing what to expect on rides at Disneyland—every turn is anticipated, every sound and song predictable. But everything’s new here!”
We’d never ridden the original version, so we could not know what we were missing. All we knew was that we felt the need, the need for speed.
Thanks to FPP, we were moving through the queue so fast that we didn’t see much of it. There’s so much to look at, I kind of felt sad to miss it. Of course, the people in the stand-by line were so jealous of our speed that they weren’t even paying attention to all the cool exhibits. I guess you always want what you don’t have.
We built our Sim Cars using the super fancy touch screens. I was impressed by the process that allowed every rider time to build his/her own custom car and “ride” it through the test track. What must it have been like to be a fly on the wall when one of the Imagineers thought of that piece of pie in the sky? This logistical nightmare must have had a lot of the experts scratching their heads. But they pulled it off.
Of course DS built a green monster truck and DD created this funky number that Penelope Pitstop would have been proud to drive.
DW and I may have been more conservative with our designs than the others, but what we lacked in sheer imagination, we made up in style.
The design motif inside the ride is quite beautiful. While I agree with those who describe it as Tron-like (I definitely was taken back to the PeopleMover at Disneyland in the 80s), the projection mapping and glowing grids gave me a real sense of entering the minds of the cars’ designers and becoming part of the blueprints.
We’re screamers—high-pitched, full-throated screamers. So each acceleration, tight turn, or unexpected dip produced chainsaw level decibels from our well-equipped kissers. During the acceleration test, I’m sure we believed that our screams somehow pushed our vehicle harder and faster to achieve the best acceleration score possible.
You can see from our ride photo that the single riders who’d “voluntarily” joined our party were clearly impressed by our collective lung capacity.
SINGLE RIDER LINE DIGRESSION: The single rider line is an awesome development in amusement park evolution. When your motivation is to get on as many rides and wait in as few lines as possible, the single rider option is invaluable.
However, when you and your party do get separated for the duration of the ride, something gets lost. Screaming with friends is much more fulfilling than screaming with strangers. In fact, if you’re endowed with the slightest portion of social insecurity, you are likely to forgo expressing your excitement at all.
You may have waited less time in line, but your enjoyment of the ride is significantly diminished by your inability to fully express yourself and revel in the camaraderie with your family or friends.
On the flip side, if a single rider gets placed within your family of 4 or 5, the awkwardness lasts from one end of the track to the other. They’re just there.
And then there’s the ride photo.
Imagine a single rider line for Santa’s lap. You’ve dressed and combed your 4 and 5 year-old kids and prepped them for the inevitable joy/terror of meeting the man with the bag. Their trust in you wanes as they approach the throne of fear, but encouraged by the promise of candy canes, and dreading the possibility of getting footballs rather than bb-guns, they put on fake smiles and mount the knee.
Then the pimply-faced photographer gestures for a single rider. You hear him before you see him—a terrified banshee of a boy dripping with tears and oatmeal-thick boogers, and bawling like ten-thousand leaf blowers, is shoved into the frame of your perfect family memory.
I’m sorry to say that I’ve been the awkward single rider in somebody else’s family memory. Back in ‘91 or ‘92, I visited Disneyland by myself—nothing wrong with that. It was fun. But when I saw the picture below, I knew I’d made a social faux pas.
I doubt my temporary family bought the photo, but part of me hopes they did. I hope that, when they open up the memory box and look at this picture, they are inspired by the sheer gall with which this loner expressed his joy. I also hope they mistake me for their cousin Roscoe and blame him for the $15 picture he doesn’t remember wrecking.
At least the kid was smelling what I was cooking.
You’ve paid $150 extra for the Memory Maker photo package, only to have a couple lonely dudes take up the prime real estate in your photo. Next time, if a single rider gets corralled with your family or friends, offer him the opportunity to step into one of the lesser-photographed seats. It might save his dignity, and your photo.
Digression over.
When I first visited Epcot in 2013, I had very little time, so I had to make some tough decisions on what attractions to skip. I’d read that TT’s ride system was what made it unique, but because I’d enjoyed Radiator Springs Racers at Cars Land in Disney’s California Adventure, which employs the same ride system, I felt safe to skip TT. But now that I’ve tasted its power, it has jumped up my list of my Epcot must-dos.
For those who’ve never been to Disney’s left coast to experience RSR at DCA, I must tell you, that it takes what TT started to an entirely different level. The track may even be identical to the TT track, but the theming, story, and mind-blowing special effects are Disney’s greatest theme park accomplishment yet. Truly.
And when the wait is over an hour, I take the single rider line.
Mission: Space
My DD hates needles. Hates. Needles. Routine doctor visits have resulted in gushing tears, swoons, and bruised nurses. She’s twenty now, and still gets physically ill when facing the possibility of a pathogen preventing prick.
Oddly enough, she’s a fashion major, which means she has to do a lot of sewing. I guess there’s a big difference when she’s the one doing the poking.
But the truth is, it’s all in her head. Somewhere along the way, via fairy tales, urban legends, and now horror stories of her own, she has built up a false perception of the potential pain and finds it nearly impossible to rise above her fear.
That’s what it’s like to get on Mission: Space Orange for the first time.
Everything I’d read about this ride convinced me that its claustrophobia and nausea inducements have the potential to literally flush a fun day down the toilet. I feared that one of us (especially one of us parents) might be sidelined for the rest of the day with headaches and dizziness.
Leading up to the trip, I warned my family about M:S. I told them all the horror stories. I laid out its day-destroying potential. What if you get sick? What if you stay sick? What if we can’t snack around the world?!?! The consequences would be devastating. Why don’t we just take M:S Green, huh?
Despite my hand wringing, the loving family convinced me that the certain regret of opting out trumps the fear of uncertain queasiness.
I put on my big boy pants and followed the orange line.
I imagine that one of Epcot’s key challenges is maintaining a balance between reality and fantasy. Elsewhere on property, the dreamers and designers have the freedom to invent whatever seems true to the story they’re telling. The fantasy is what makes those places cool. But in Epcot, many of the exhibits and pavilions are expressing facts about the real world. They can’t simply make it up. In M:S, they have an obligation to present science fact over science fiction, so NASA’s contribution of real vehicles, robotics, and equipment in the queue vividly bring the space facts to life for we, the earthbound masses.
Inside the mission briefing room, we were greeted by the unmistakable, nasal drawl of Gary Sinise. “Welcome to the International Space Training Center,” he said with the authority of a trustworthy space pilot. “Lieutenant DAAAAN,” we cooed in response.
While Gary’s character doesn’t drive the narrative in M:S like Ellen does in EEA, it’s still a risky move to cast real celebrities in Disney attractions. Sure, I can’t think of any star, other than Sinise, who immediately exudes the experience and confidence you’d want from a space commander. But his most famous role as Forrest Gump’s bitterly legless buddy is going to always be the first thing that pops into most adults’ heads when they see him, instigating the inevitable whispers and giggles with every new group of passengers.
Naturally, Sinise is clearly a better choice than Pee Wee Herman, but Disney would never make that mistake again… would they?
Once strapped into the ride, all the talk and warnings from Lt. Dan and the rest had my family sufficiently jittery and nervous for the flight. As the monitor panels leaned forward pinning them into their seats, they suddenly understood my hesitancy to ride. But in the words of Master Gracy, “there’s no turning back now.”
The g-forces were incredible, the sights and sounds, believable. It really wasn’t as bad as all the hype (although, I might be getting a little to old for spinning rides). However, the most fun was hearing the overlapping orders from each of my type-A personality family members shouting at me to “Push the Button!!” Regardless of our actual ability to affect the mission, I know we all felt the pressure to time our button pressing precisely as ordered.
Once we were safely landed on Mars, we shuffled through the Advanced Training Lab past all the cool activities. DS would have loved to spend a half hour exploring, but we were only 10 minutes ahead of schedule at this point, and I was sure we would need that little bit of cushion later when we finally hit World Showcase.
We made a quick potty stop at the restroom between Electric Umbrella and Innoventions East, then headed west toward the right-brain side of Future World.
To be continued in Future World West…
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@ejj, @vpillers, @JustKeepSmiling I’m sorry it’s taken so long. I started posting the family devotions today here: Disney World Devotions for Christian Families
Blessings
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Surf and Turf
Friday, January 9, 2015 - 12:10AM Eastern Time
After skirting the JAMMitors’ crowd, we burst through the doors of the Land Pavilion with eyes wide, and hungry tummies. There’d better be more to eat here than organic habanero peppers and string beans.
As discussed above (way above), my TP strategy was to front load the day with those attractions that tend to have the longest lines. I created and optimized one TP from opening ‘til noon set to “fast walking speed” and “minimize waiting,” and packed it with our FPP and long-wait attractions. Then I optimized another for the rest of the day set to “relaxed walking speed” and “minimize walking.” Treating the day as two separate days (one frenzied and one relaxed) ensured our leisurely enjoyment of World Showcase.
It worked quite well, with a few small regrets. But as we’ll see later, it’s exceedingly good that we did it that way. Without that creative variation, there’s no way my family would have followed the plan as long as they did.
So with all of the long lines and FPPs out of the way, we’re ready to dial it down, switch to the second TP, and begin our tranquil day in Epcot.
Sunshine Seasons
Whether due to my own nostalgia, or a strong urge to protect Epcot from undue judgment, I quickly became defensive when one in my party described the Land Pavilion’s atrium as a “mall from the 80s.” The others giggled their agreement.
Could they not see the optimism expressed in the swirling pathways leading upward into the natural light? Were they not impressed by the flowing banners conveying the synchronicity and warm reassurance of the seasons? Would not their post-modern hearts be set free by the undulating spectre of…
Aw, forget it. It looks like a mall from the 80s.
We followed the signs and smells down into the depths of the pavilion to the cafeterial chaos of Sunshine Seasons. Baffled at first by the system, but safe in the knowledge that our Disney Dining Plan would see us through, we reviewed our choices, spread out to the counters of our individual choices, and placed our orders.
Stepping up to “The Grill” to order my pork chop, I looked down at the cast member’s nametag. I wish I could remember her name, but what stood out most to me was where she was from—Sao Paulo, Brazil. I felt like Buddy the elf as I thought to myself, “Sao Paulo. That’s fun to say!”
I asked her about her home and her face brightened. In the brief time we had together, she shared a little about her hometown, when she came to the U.S., and what she misses the most—the food.
FUTURE PLANNERS NOTE: Talk to your cast members. In this world where we often collect into our own little cliques and ghettos of race/creed/color/religion, Epcot provides an incredible window into the beautiful diversity of the world at large.
I’m not just talking about the World Showcase pavilions. As this lady from Sao Paulo illustrates, there are unimagineered lands available to experience in the eyes of every CM you meet. Our bus driver the night before was an Irishman. Our celebration buttons were prepared by gals from Perú and Japan. Our rooms were prepped by a gent from Haiti. When you chat with cast members you can encounter El Salvador, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Honduras, Thailand, Uganda, and New Jersey!
So be gregarious. Strike up conversations with your CMs. Ask them about their homelands. You’ll soon discover one of WDW’s best-kept secrets hiding in plain sight. Each CM is a pavilion of his/her own, representing their exotic homelands in the beating hearts, just behind their nametags.
One-by-one we slid our trays past the grinning CM, Elancie by name, before swiping my Magic Band and typing my PIN. I know I paid for all this food ahead of time, but it’s a delightful self-deception to look upon a Disney receipt for four meals, including drinks, snacks, and desserts, bearing a grand total of $0.00. “Have a magical day,” indeed.
We hovered over, then snagged a table in the middle of the busy dining corral, balloons representing each of the four seasons floating above our heads. DW got the turkey focaccia, DD, the rotisserie chicken. DS and I both had pork chops and mashed potatoes.
Our budget for this trip was very tight, so to save a little change, we’d planned to keep our quick-service desserts from this meal and save them for breakfast the next day. Sunshine Seasons featured some pretty tasty looking cinnamon rolls and cheese Danishes, so we grabbed one each and stowed them away in the backpacks.
I took this opportunity to re-explain to the fam our plans for using up our snack credits. The dining plan allows for one table-service meal, one quick-service meal, and one snack per night of stay at the resorts. Because we’d arrived so late on our first day, and were leaving after breakfast on the last day, we had 20 snack credits to use in four days.
Our plan was to snack around the world, picking up a snack in each pavilion and sharing it between the four of us. Everybody around the table agreed that the plan was solid, but it wouldn’t be until our arrival in Germany that we’d find a few cracks in its shell.
Living With The Land
With full tummies and tomorrow’s breakfast stowed away in our backpacks, we hopped on queue for LwtL. This was the first line of significant length we’d encountered thus far. Zigging and zagging through the silvery maze, we read aloud the hopeful quotes on the walls, made faces at a cute baby while her parents looked the other way, and largely enjoyed the warmth of community formed when dozens of strangers are spontaneous corralled together in an amusement park queue.
Remember those educational films we used to watch in elementary school? Those pink-tinted, authoritatively-narrated marvels of cinematic propaganda were a daydreamer’s respite from the labor of times tables and worksheets. No matter how boring their subject, these films offered flickering freedom from the day’s drudgery. If you were lucky, the film starred Jiminy Cricket.
LwtL is an educational film in a boat.
Visions for a utopian future are the heart and soul of Epcot, and the ingenious ideas expressed on LwtL stir our hope in mankind’s potential. I never got to experience Horizons, but I’m aware that many of the farming advances displayed in LwtL are implemented perfectly for that extinct attraction’s futuristic family.
Still, as we rode, I couldn’t help but think how impractical these innovations are. Hanging gardens and fish farms seem just as out of reach for our mobile-home dwelling family as rocket packs. I’m as supportive of sustainable agriculture as the next guy, but honestly, they’ve been pushing these ideas on heat-stroking guests since 1971, yet none of them have materialized.
Or have they?
Come to think of it, they sell hanging strawberry gardens at Home Depot. And I have eaten some massive seedless watermelons in my day. I even installed a handy drip system to keep my outdoor plants healthy and green.
Recently, I started following the work of a friend from my high school days. She and her family have made it their life’s mission to go around the world and install sustainable fish farms that provide food, fertilizer, and income for suffering communities. Contrary to my first impressions, these Epcot ideas are saving and improving lives right before our eyes!
I’ve heard that Soarin’ is so much of a must-see for Florida visitors that they’re willing to race there at rope drop or wait in triple digit queues to fly over Yosemite and sniff orange trees. But my family is spoiled. We’ve ridden Soarin’ so many times at DCA that we were able to enjoy the unique experience of walking right on by with no regrets. In a moment, we’d left The Land behind and set sail for The Seas.
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
We wound quickly down through the beautiful beach themed queue, practically skipping as we echoed the “Mine! Mine! Mine!” seagulls with a bevy of high school students, the only other guests with us in line.
An empty queue is an exciting thing, but if you speed through too rapidly, you could miss some of the amazing Disney details. This beautiful queue winds you back and forth from the edge of the beach, over and around dunes, past lifeguard stations and down to the shore before taking you under, beneath the waves, and into the coral reef where you board clamshell themed omnimover vehicle. Lovely.
Of all the attractions at WDW that share cloned attractions with DLR in California, TSwNaF’s twin possesses the most unique adaptation. At Disneyland, the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage uses the same projection technology to feature the characters from Finding Nemo with breathtaking success.
For fans of MK’s lost but not forgotten 20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea attraction, the left coast’s version perfectly blend its real diving subs with the impressive animation of TSwNaF. As you look through the portals of the subs, you see the animated fish seamlessly swimming among the physical reef structures.
It’s an incredible illusion that blows my bubbles every time.
Because of this, Epcot’s version falls a little short of DL’s. DS would say it falls a lot short. Still, there’s one feature that Epcot’s has that DL’s doesn’t—real fish! When we rounded that last corner to see Marlin, Nemo, and Dory reuniting in and among hundreds of real live fish, my jaw dropped. Once again, the imagineers made the impossible plausible.
SeaBase
We were ahead of schedule by about 15 minutes, so we kicked back to enjoyed a little unhurried time exploring the cool blue glow of the SeaBase aquarium. We marveled at the otherworldly splendor of sea dragons and cephalopods. We laughed at the real life Nemos and Dorys. A young, blond CM stood near the dolphin tank and showed us how they train the magnificent mammals to recognize symbols—squares, stars, circles, and even Mickey heads.
Of all the wonders in SeaBase, the one that captivated me most was the manatee tank. I’ve been to a lot of zoos, so I stood there dazzled in the realization that I have never seen a manatee in real life before. These beautifully massive creatures are mesmerizing in their gentle movements and simple grace.
I think I could have stood staring at these merfolk for hours if the touring plan clock wasn’t ticking quietly in the back of my mind. We resurfaced at 1:40, 20 minutes ahead of schedule and set forth to visit two more spots in FutureWorld.
Innoventions West - The Great Piggy Bank Adventure
Innoventions West held little of our interest at this point, but desiring to at least peek at everything, we zipped through the doors. We decided to give The Great Piggy Bank Adventure a try. I think we’d hoped to give the kids a lesson in making wise financial decisions, but that was a mistake.
Part way through the cute displays about budgeting, avoiding debt, and saving for luxuries like vacations, DW and I felt the cold dagger of guilt recalling some of the decisions we’d made to get us where we were standing. Gulp. So, like all good Americans, we shook the dollar signs and red ink out of our heads, and set off down the road to keep a’spendin’.
One memory we all kept from that experience had nothing to do with the attraction itself. The CM who helped us get started (Jerry, I think?) was a gentleman with developmental disability. His sweet demeanor and chatty nature charmed us from the start. His slow response seemed to frustrate the other CM working the attraction, but to those with us in the queue, he was an inspirational friend quickly made.
Club Cool
Our final stop in Future World was Club Cool. We enjoyed tasting soda pop flavors from around the world. And Beverly really isn’t that terrible. In the end, however, the reputation built around this merchandising outpost far exceeded our actual experience. Free soda pop is cool. Sticky floors are gross. From door to door, it was an effort to keep my shoes from being pulled from my feet by the micro layer of high fructose corn syrup. Needless to say, DW was not impressed.
To be continued in World Showcase…
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Have really enjoyed reading your trip reports and I will make sure to chat more with the CM’s on my next journey to the World. As much as I appreciate all that the CM’s do I find I am always too shy to strike up a conversation.
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You can do it! Just read the name tag and say, “Oh! You’re from Brazil? I bet it’s beautiful.” They’ll do the rest. 
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