With it being Mother’s Day and the Flower Show going on at Epcot, we expected some crowds. Just as was the case at Magic Kingdom, we headed to the park to be there at opening and got in nice and early. And as was the case at Magic Kingdom, we went with touring plans – Fastpass at Soarin’, then off to Test Track and Mission Space.
My mom hadn’t been to Epcot since 1996; that meant that virtually everything in Future World had changed since then. Horizons and World Of Motion were gone, Universe of Energy, Journey Into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, and Living Seas all got heavy rethemings, Wonders of Life closed, the Land lost Kitchen Kabaret/Food Rocks and got Soarin’ – man, that’s a lot of change to take in. And for the most part, I think she was more than OK with the changes. She really enjoyed Test Track, had fun on Mission Space in spite of her fear of being ill from the spinning, got a kick out of Spaceship Earth’s new ending, and proclaimed that we could have left her on Soarin’ for a couple hours and she would have been OK with that (minus the need for a smoke break). The only thing that was largely unchanged was Living with the Land, which my mom said was still her favorite attraction there. And yes, I know that there’s an auto-spiel now instead of a live person. The rest really isn’t much different.
For us, there was very little new. But what was old is sometimes new again, which best describes the full theater for Captain EO, Yes, it is dated. I can’t argue that. That is the appeal after all. I don’t know how long it can last in that theater and still get an audience willing to see it, but I’m willing to bet its a good long time now that nostalgia has set in and the park has such an immense turnover in terms of people going. Frankly, anyone in the 12-34 demographic when Michael Jackson was a star will be interested, and that’s a huge and still relatively young demographic today. I can see it hanging on for many years before a new permanent replacement comes along. In the meantime, its a strange and entertaining look at yesteryear.
Once most of Future World was knocked out, we headed out to the World Showcase and did Norway and Mexico’s rides as well as the films in Canada and France. Damn those promotional films and how they lure us into looking at airfare to Nova Scotia and Nice! Lunch was had at the newest restaurant on Disney property – Via Napoli. We scarfed down a large mushroom pizza and family style salad and even made sure to leave some room to share ice cream and tiramisu. Gotta try to pull out all the stops for Mother’s Day, you know? And my mom seemed to really enjoy herself. The nice thing about Epcot is that even though there’s a lot of walking, a lot of attractions are long “inert” sort of things where you sit down and look at stuff for awhile. You know, like Universe of Energy.
We skipped a few pavilions in the World Showcase but got done pretty much everything we wanted to do and got in some new things too. We made sure to use our Disney Visa card for the free 5×7 picture offer as another Mother’s Day gift and even got in a round of a Kim Possible mission in France, which was somewhat hampered by the fact that every available space outside seemed to have been filled with a table that we’d have to walk around or behind. We also got a decent snack at the bakery in the France area – I can’t say it was too mindblowing. There’s a better pastry place within walking distance of my house and its cheaper too. But for the average person who doesn’t have access to that sort of thing in their small suburban midwestern/southern/east coast town, I can see it being an exciting thing.
Back we went that evening to the hotel where we hung out and did lots of nothing. Eventually we decided to order from a pizza place (Broadway Pizza?) that had left us fliers under the door and purported to have 1lb pasta dinners and fast delivery. 1 hour and 10 minutes later, we got food – my mom’s hot wings weren’t that hot, and my wife and I’s one pound of cheese ravioli consisted of four average size ravioli weighing maybe 1/3 that. I gave her most of the food and supplemented the ravioli with left over Shrimp Lo Mein from Yak and Yeti a couple days before. We sat on the deck and discussed the day and watched a hawk hunt in the local pond followed by a relaxing evening in the jacuzzi tub for my wife and I. With the toilet fixed, we really didn’t have any sort of negative issues with the room and we could finally start to relax. Unfortunately, the trip was nearly over and we already had to start packing.
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