Time for my favorite Disney World park. We went to Epcot on
three of our days, though one of them was just for lunch, one was for half a
day, and the other we made a brief detour to the Polynesian Resort for dinner
(see part 1 for more on the Polynesian). As such, this will not be
chronological like the posts for the other parks. And it is a lot longer than
the others, so beware.
Although Animal Kingdom is the biggest Disney World park,
Epcot has the most walking ground open to guests. It is divided into two parts.
Near the entrance is Future World, which features pavilions containing rides,
shows, and exhibits focusing on science and technology. Further in is World
Showcase, where pavilions for eleven countries surround a 40-acre lagoon. Each
country’s pavilion features shops, eateries, and live entertainment, and a few
also boast rides, films, and shows (though nothing on an E-ticket level). The
two areas don’t really go together, but the park is so big that visual thematic
jarring is minimized. The circumference of World Showcase’s lagoon is 1.2 miles
according to the Unofficial Guide,
and though Future World looks small on the park map, it still covers a decent
amount of ground.
Future World is divided into two halves, an east side and a
west side. Upon entering, you are facing south (the opposite of Disneyland and
Magic Kingdom where you are facing north), so east is to the left and west is
to the right. Just inside the entrance and past a group of triangular
sculptures is the park’s icon, a giant golf ball that holds a dark ride,
Spaceship Earth (more on this later). On the other side of the golf ball is a
plaza with two large crescent buildings on either side. These structures, which
we did not explore, contain a quick-service restaurant (Electric Umbrella), the
Mouse Gear store, and Innoventions, a collection of high-tech interactive
exhibits (the Disneyland version is in Tomorrowland’s old Carousel of Progress
building). Straight ahead are a fountain and the World Showcase lagoon, while
to the left and right passages in the middle of each building lead to Future
World East and Future World West.
Future World East (to the left) includes three pavilions. Straight
through the passageway is Test Track, Epcot’s headliner attraction and the
basis of the technology for California Adventure’s Radiator Springs Racers.
Although I went on the ride three times, we never waited in the regular standby
line; we either used Fastpass or the single rider line (as an aside, I’ve never
waited in the standby line for Radiator Springs Racers either).
When Test Track opened in 1999, it was sponsored by GM. In
2012, Chevrolet took over sponsorship, and the ride underwent a drastic
re-theming (though the track itself is the same). I haven’t been on the
original, but from what I’ve seen on YouTube, it looked like a much more
informative and less random ride, as monitors explained the various tests as
your ride vehicle performed them. As the ride is now, you basically explore a
rather sparse looking version of TRON-land.
In the queue, you scan a card and use a computer console to
design your own car out of preselected elements. Before boarding, you scan the
card again and throughout the ride, monitors display the ranking of how each
rider’s vehicle performed in the tests. In practice, this doesn’t work too
well; every time we rode, each monitor showed a different set of cars. In
addition, Fastpass guests and single riders aren’t given the chance to design
cars (though I personally couldn’t give a whit about that).
The ride vehicles are, well, cars with two rows of three
with standard shoulder-and-lap seatbelts. The first part of the ride is
completely indoors. After the safety check, the vehicles ascend a ramp (this
used to be the hill test, but now it’s just a ramp. The former block test that
used to follow is omitted). For the weather test, the cars accelerate forward
on a lit track before swerving suddenly in front of projected rain. They then
make a U-turn and accelerate again, slowing in front of a projected lightning
bolt (this used to be the ABS braking test). Aerodynamics are tested as the
cars pass through three chambers, one of which has a mirror that displays a
stream of air moving over the car. In the handling test, the cars move rapidly
through a series of tight hairpin turns, nearly crashing into a truck at the
end. The former barrier test is gone, and instead you accelerate toward a pair
of doors that swing open at the last second as the cars speed outside. There is
a brief straightaway, and then the cars loop around a circle of display cars.
Then there’s another straightaway, and the cars accelerate dramatically back
toward the ride building, then make a deeply banked loop all around its
circumference before dipping back down into the building into the loading
station. And again, on one of our rides, the ride had a minor breakdown right
at the end, though we were not evacuated and thus not given re-ride passes.
Bummer. After getting off, it takes forever to exit back outside, as you walk
through a series of rooms and corridors with Chevrolet-based video games, then
to a showroom with Chevrolet vehicles, and finally to the Chevrolet gift shop
before you get back outside.
Test Track is a lot faster and more kinetically thrilling
than Radiator Springs Racers during the outside portion. However, it is not as
well themed, especially in the newest incarnation where the tests aren’t really
explained. The visuals, reflecting the virtual test theme, are very
minimalistic and almost cheap looking. Sure, the original ride may have needed
updating, but making it “virtual” is almost a cop-out, as basically all the
Imagineers had to do was make everything black, and then add some neon lights.
It’s still a great ride, and the thrill of the outside part is excellent. But a
perfect ride of this type would have the inner theming and racing element of
Radiator Springs Racers and the speed of Test Track.
To the left of Test Track (facing the entrance) is Epcot’s
newest original ride, the notorious Mission: Space. The ride has a reputation
for extreme intensity and potential for motion sickness. Disney now offers two
versions of the ride: the less intense Green and the original Orange. At every
time of the day, the wait time for Green was 5 minutes and Orange was either 5
or 10 minutes. It looked like there were four simulators, but whenever we went
there was just one for each version running.
I haven’t really gotten motion sickness from a ride (The
Simpsons Ride got me the closest), but I do get carsick if I read. We opted for
the Green version first. Now, the Green version isn’t exactly Dumbo; the ride
is still a simulator and it’s comparable to Star Tours. But what the Green
version doesn’t do is spin to simulate the heavy g-forces a space flight
experiences during lift off and landing. After riding, we then opted to try the
Orange version.
At the entrance to the ride building, cast members ask what
version you want, then hand you a “ticket” and show you what line to get in.
The tickets are printed with all sorts of health warning and disclaimers,
especially the Orange one. Inside the building, the queue passes by a large,
round model of a space station module set up on its side, and then passes by a
Mission Control center.
You are then directed into a briefing room, which holds ten
groups of four. Monitors introduce you to Lieutenant Dan, I mean Gary Sinise,
who not only has legs, but also is your team leader for your mission. You are
on a mission to Mars. It might be the first, though there is already a base
there when you land, so maybe not. Anyway, “It is intense,” Sinise warns before
you are admitted into a long, curving corridor that actually surrounds the
simulator itself. Your group of four waits at a door, and Sinise appears on
another monitor where he explains that each of you has a special role:
commander, engineer, navigator, and pilot. Anyhow, there are two lit buttons
that you’re supposed to press when he tells you. Another technician says that
if you start to feel sick, keep staring straight ahead. Do not close your eyes
or look to the side. I’m guessing that doing one of these things could make you
aware that you’re actually spinning, and disorient you even more. Even if there
is no line, like there was when we went, the two pre-shows still take about ten
minutes.
When the doors open, you enter the simulator room. The
simulator itself is not a single cabin like in Star Tours. A central column has
arms that attach to ten small cabins, each of which holds a group of four. You
enter the cabin and bring down the over-the-shoulder restraints, and a cast
member closes the capsule, which brings the controls and viewing screen towards
you. Handy barf bags are provided. There are lots of little buttons, switches,
and a joystick, but they don’t do anything during the ride. In fact, the two
buttons you’re supposed to press don’t really matter either, as you’ll soon
find out.
The ride starts with a launch. In the Orange version, you
can definitely feel the g-forces, and I haven’t been on a roller coaster yet
that pushes you back that hard into your seat for so long. “Gnarly” would be a
good word for how it feels; I could feel my carotid arteries pumping harder,
and though I could lift my hands, it felt very peculiar. It’s an adrenaline
rush, in any case, and a unique experience for those of us who are not pilots
or astronauts.
At various points during the rest of the ride, the voice of
Mr. Sinise tells each person to push a button; the navigator is asked to fire
the boosters at one point and the engineer to send the crew into hypersleep.
But if you take too long or if no one’s sitting in the appropriate seat, the
“autopilot” does it anyway. I rode by myself one time, and the other two people
with me didn’t push any of the buttons when they were told to. As a result, the
ride got confused and the autopilot began to do everything, so when I pushed my
buttons, nothing would happen, and then the autopilot would take over.
Anyway, after the launch, the rocket curves around the moon,
justifying some more intense g-forces, and bypasses the earth. We are then put
into cryogenic sleep before the ship emerges in the midst of a meteor shower.
Surviving this, the ship descends to the Martian surface with even more
g-forces, then zooms and twists through a canyon before making a rough landing
on the base. There’s a fake-out as the ground crumbles in front of the ship to
reveal a precipitous drop; alas, you don’t fall and the ride is over.
Mission: Space Green isn’t too different from any other
simulator, though you are in a small cabin with only four other people. But the
Orange version is something else entirely. The g-forces are created by
spinning, but you can’t really tell that you’re spinning and the effect is at
once both exhilarating and almost otherworldly. I myself didn’t get motion
sickness, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I’m sure Mr. Gump would be proud to
see how far his old friend has gone.
To the left of Mission: Space is the closed Wonders of Life
pavilion that used to hold a simulator ride (Body Wars, directed by Leonard
Nimoy), an animatronic show (Cranium Command), Martin Short’s sex-ed film The Making of Me, and other minor
attractions. To the left of that (and actually near the entrance, though it’s
inaccessible from here) is the Universe of Energy, a combination theater film
and ride starring Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Jamie Lee Curtis,
and Alex Trebek (who has a mustache). The whole thing lasts about 30 minutes
not counting the preshow, and the nature of the attraction makes it impossible
to get off outside of an emergency. And Disney does not consider needing to
take a dump or a piss an emergency.
The preshow introduces Ellen on a series of screens, and we
are introduced to her and a dream she has which form the plot of the
attraction. She dreams she’s on Jeopardy against Albert Einstein (who doesn’t
do much of anything during the whole ride) and Dr. Judy Peterson (Curtis),
Ellen’s childhood nemesis. The topic is energy (the attraction was originally
sponsored by Exxon, after all), and Ellen is no match for Judy. She pauses her
dream to ask help from her neighbor, Bill Nye the Science Guy. He invites her
to learn about energy, and then the doors open to the actual theater.
The theater is divided into six large sections (one of which
was covered up when we went) with doors at the end of each row. The seats are
benches and not individual chairs. Once everyone is seated, the sections
immediately start rotating. Bill Nye narrates a brief history of the universe
(nothing to do with Stephen Hawking, though), and a large screen shows the Big
Bang and its aftermath. The pair then travels to the time of the dinosaurs to
explore the origin of fossil fuels. A large door in the side of the theater
opens, and each section then travels through, one after the other, to the ride
portion of the attraction.
The ride is a much more elaborate variation of the Primeval
World exhibit seen on the Disneyland Railroad. The sections pass by several
scenes of dinosaurs doing their thing. An animatronic of Ellen battles a pesky
specimen, though Bill Nye is nowhere to be seen (you can hear him, though). At
the end, the sections enter another theater where a voice narrates radio
reports from various moments in history as we wait for all the sections to get
in (they move rather slowly). Then, another big-screen film starts as Bill
takes Ellen on a journey showing where other sources of energy come from,
including dams, solar panels, and wind farms. The sections then go back into
the original theater as Ellen returns to her Jeopardy game. The Final Jeopardy
question asks what the only unlimited source of energy is. Ellen gets the
predictable Disney-esque answer, which is, of course, human imagination.
Universe of Energy is an interesting attraction with a
unique ride/theater system. The dinosaur ride portion, however, ties very
loosely with the concept of energy, and the attraction doesn’t clearly explain
the connection. It almost feels like Disney had a neat ride segment, and then
tried to build a film about energy around it. The film is fairly amusing,
though you probably won’t learn anything new (at least I didn’t). But again,
the structure of the attraction and the entertainment value from the actors
make it worth seeing.
As mentioned before, the huge golf ball near Epcot’s entrance
holds Spaceship Earth, a dark ride with constantly moving vehicles like in the
Haunted Mansion. Its theme is the history and development of human
communication with narration by Dame Judi Dench. As the ride starts, you’re
told to look at a monitor, and a picture is taken of your face, which will be
utilized later. The ride spirals up the interior of the golf ball, passing by
animatronic scenes including early humans making cave paintings, an Egyptian
noble dictating to a scribe, the fall of Rome, Gutenberg’s printing press,
Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a television broadcast
of the moon landing, and the development of the personal computer. Now at the
top of the dome, the ride enters a huge planetarium-like area, with stars projected
all around and the Earth right in the center. The vehicles then turn around and
descend backward through a blue-lit tunnel. There is no scenery, but
touch-screens in the cars ask several multiple-choice questions about how you
would like to live in the future (only one screen per two-seater vehicle, so no
squabbling). At the end of the questionnaire, the screens show a video of your
future, with your heads grafted onto cartoon bodies. At the ride’s exit, you
can use computer consoles to find your ride photo and email it to yourself. The
email also contains a link to your video (download it as soon as you can
because it’s apparently taken off the server after a few days). Spaceship Earth
is a fairly edifying ride with some impressive scenes. The descent is visually
sparse as you’re supposed to be focusing on the questionnaire; the previous
version (1994-2007) narrated by Jeremy Irons had much more visuals as the cars
went back down to ground level.
Future World West also has three pavilions. Closest to the
World Showcase lagoon is the Imagination pavilion. It has a theater, a ride,
and an interactive area. The theater for many years showed Honey I Shrunk the
Audience, and it was showing Captain EO Tribute when we went. The ride is the
bizarre Journey Into Imagination With Figment. Fittingly, the ride vehicles are
slightly strange as well. A train of four large cars travels along the track.
But the cars can rotate, and the train stops at several points as it comes to
different rooms. The ride is a whimsical ode to imagination, starring Eric Idle
as Dr. Nigel Channing of the Imagination Institute. He is trying to show guests
several experiments in an attempt to quantify imagination, but this purple
dragon named Figment keeps messing things up. For example, in one room,
Channing tries to demonstrate something with smell, but then Figment enters and
creates a literal stink. Near the end, we travel through Figment’s upside-down
house. The finale takes place in a room that starts out fairly nondescript,
then there is a flash and it transforms into a saccharine phantasmagoria of
rainbows, stars, multiple Figments, and other bright objects. Again, it’s a
very bizarre ride. Throughout, Figment sings a song called “One Little Spark,”
an excessively charming earworm.
The ride’s exit leads to a room of interactive exhibits. One
uses motion sensor technology where you wave your hands around to play virtual
instruments. Another is a game where colored panels light up in a specific
sequence, and then you try to copy the sequence as it gets progressively
longer. There are computer terminals where you can design your own Figment.
Here is my masterpiece (the name is an in-joke that literally two people will
get, so don’t worry about it. I will say that it has to do with Build-A-Bear
Workshop):
To the right of Imagination is the creatively named The
Land. The doors open into a large, well-lit atrium with two levels. The upper
level contains the full-service Garden Grill restaurant and the Circle of Life
show. The lower level has the Sunshine Seasons food court, Soarin’ (identical
to the original Soarin’ Over California and thus something we skipped) and
Living With the Land (a boat ride).
Circle of Life is a large theater that shows a rather
prosaic film starring Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa from the Lion King. Timon and
Pumbaa want to build a real estate development, but Simba reminds them of the
circle of life and the responsibility that everyone, especially humans, has in
protecting the environment. Honestly, this is a very slight show and more like
something one would see on TV or playing as a preshow in another attraction.
It’s as far from Animal Kingdom’s Festival of the Lion King as you can get.
Sunshine Seasons is a nifty food court with no burgers,
pizza, hot dogs, or French fries in sight. There are several food stations,
including a salad bar, made-to-order sandwiches, Asian selections, and a grill.
The salmon I has was delectable, and I’d put it up there with salmon I’ve had
at some other full-service restaurants.
Living With the Land is not a thrill ride, but I really
enjoyed it nonetheless. It starts out as a dark ride, traveling through sets
representing different environments, including a jungle, desert, rainforest,
and plain. After going through a corridor with props and monitors showing farm
scenes, the boats enter a real greenhouse. A bevy of edible plants are grown
here and labeled. The boats then go through a fish farm, passing tanks with
fish and other aquatic creatures used for food. Another greenhouse contains
giant versions of plants such as pumpkins and lemons. The final greenhouse has
more specimens planted via techniques like vertical growing, aeroponics, and hydroponics.
Maybe the reason I liked this ride is because it had so many elements; it
starts out as one thing, and then gets more interesting as the ride progresses.
It’s especially nice that there are no barriers between the boat and the plants
(though most of them are far enough away to be unreachable).
The final pavilion in Future World West and the nearest to
the entrance is The Living Seas With Nemo and Friends. To the right of the
entrance is the Coral Reef Restaurant. The entrance leads to the queue of the
Nemo ride. It’s a continually moving ride in clamshells like The Little
Mermaid. The indoor queue area is rather long, but it was empty when we went in
the early afternoon. The clamshells pass by projections of characters and
situations from Finding Nemo, and then go through the pavilion’s massive
aquarium where characters are projected on the windows among the real fish.
They sing the “Big Blue World” song from the musical in Animal Kingdom.
The ride exits into the pavilion, which is basically a small
aquarium, though it features a tank that’s probably larger than may aquariums’.
A viewing area provides 360-degree views of the tank, which includes fish, sea
turtles, and dolphins. Another area has specimens from Finding Nemo in their
own small tank. Especially nice is a two-level manatee tank. We got to see the
handlers feed the manatees romaine lettuce, which they gobbled up. Monitors
throughout inform guests about sea life, narrated by Mr. Ray (Nemo’s teacher).
Turtle Talk With Crush is also in this pavilion. The aquarium pales in
comparison with, say, the massive Monterey Bay Aquarium. But it’s well done,
and even Monterey doesn’t have manatees and dolphins (as of this writing).
There is, of course, a gift shop at the pavilion’s exit.
We didn’t thoroughly explore all the pavilions in World
Showcase, but I will go over what we did see. I’ll start on the east side with
Mexico, and then go clockwise around the lagoon.
Unlike all the other pavilions, Mexico is all inside. The
building is a large pyramid, and right inside the entrance is a small museum.
It then opens up into a nighttime scene in a village square, complete with
stands selling items, other shops, and a restaurant along the banks of a boat ride
(shades of Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean.)
The boat ride is the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three
Caballeros. There are a few Small World-esque puppets, but the ride consists
primarily of large video screens. The boats pass by the restaurant and a
pyramid before passing by screens that show parrot Jose Carioca (the green one)
and rooster Panchito (the red one) as they look for Donald Duck in Mexico. As the Unofficial
Guide notes, only Panchito is Mexican; Jose is Brazilian and Donald is from
Duckburg (which, if you’re wondering, is in the US state of Calisota). The
three are shown interacting with live-action Mexican scenes. Donald, as is expected,
is infatuated with the country’s girls. A room midway through features random
dancing doll figures, and the finale mixes screens, dolls, and fiber optic
fireworks. It’s fairly pleasant, if short, though the ride in Norway next door
is even shorter.
Norway features a troll-obsessed shop, a princess
meet-and-greet buffet restaurant, and a scatterbrained, disjointed, and very
brief boat ride called Maelstrom. The ride had a fairly long (15 minute) line,
which is not justified by the actual ride, which does have some interesting
elements, but is much too short and falls flat. It starts by going up a lift,
and then travels past some scenes of ancient Viking village life. A troll
appears and sends the boats backwards over a drop. The boat, still going
backwards, passes by nature scenes and a polar bear. The boats stop (with a
brief view outside if you look back) and go forward down another drop to a
storm scene with a huge oil rig. Then, the ride is over. Again, there are some
interesting elements that could work given a longer and more coherent ride, but
it doesn’t come together. At the exit, you can watch a tourism film about
Norway.
The China pavilion has a Circle-Vision film (Reflections of
China) that we didn’t see, as well as some restaurants. There is a small museum,
which when we went featured displays on the Terra-Cotta warriors, including an
impressive replica of some of the figures. The large House of Good Fortune
features Chinese items and merchandise.
After a small dead area with stands selling African jewelry,
there is the Germany pavilion. There are no rides, but a definite highlight is the
Karamell-Küche store featuring all kinds of scrumptious sweets and baked goods
dipped in caramel. We ate dinner at the Biergarten restaurant, a buffet with
sauerbraten, breaded pork schnitzel, hot potato salad, and a vast variety of
different sausages. The dining space is themed to an outdoor celebration of
Oktoberfest in a village square at night. A stage showcases a German band,
which plays songs from guess-where as well as popular drinking songs (a
surprisingly large number of people joined in the latter songs). Alphorns and a glockenspiel player were
featured when we were there, along with the more traditional brass and
accordion ensemble. Guests are also invited to dance at points. The food was
okay, though it could have used some more flavor. The German pavilion features
another gem: an outdoor model train set with several tracks and intricate
landscaping.
We didn’t really explore the Italy pavilion. The American
Adventure is an elaborate animatronic/film show that we didn’t get to see and
one I hope to get to next time. The half-hour shows are every 45 minutes, and we
got there just as a show started. There’s also an outdoor stage where the
Voices of Liberty perform; for an a cappella group, they could get impressively
loud.
The Japan pavilions has no attractions, but does have a trio
of restaurants, a large pagoda, a garden with waterfalls and a koi pond, and
the sprawling Mitsukoshi Department Store. All manner of Japanese goods are
sold here, from snacks and kimonos to vintage action figures and manga. A
counter sells pearls from oysters. There’s also an impressive liquor selection
along with a tiny bar.
Next is Morocco, which we didn’t really look at. The France
pavilion has a (non-accessible) Eiffel Tower replica, some fancy restaurants,
and a panoramic film (Impressions de France). Down the pavilion’s winding
street is an indoor area with a store and the Boulangerie Pâtisserie bakery,
which sells baked goods and sandwiches. The toasted ham and cheese croissant sandwich
is one of the simpler offerings, but it counts as a snack under the meal plan
and tasted great.
Last are United Kingdom and Canada, both of which we saw in
passing. The latter does have another Circle-Vision film (O Canada!) featuring
Martin Short. Between World Showcase and Future World West was a path that had
promotions for Oz The Great and Powerful, including posters, midway games, and
a playground. I only mention it because we ended up traversing this rather
narrow path several times.
Closing off the Epcot day is Illuminations, a nighttime
spectacle that takes place on the World Showcase lagoon. We got to the area 10
or 15 minutes before it started and still got to stand right in front of the
railing; it was nowhere near the madness of Disneyland’s Fantasmic (neither was
the post-show exit). It’s a fairly short show, but it has fireworks, flares,
flames, and a large, spinning globe with video projections of human achievement
that floats on the lagoon’s surface. The pyrotechnics are impressively close,
and many of them are launched from right in front of you. The proximity of the
fireworks is neat, though most of them go off at the beginning and at a point
about two-thirds through the show. One barge is devoted to flames, and the heat
is palpable. You can pay to have a boat take you out in the lagoon during the
show, and I can only imagine how the heat feels that much closer. As a finale,
the globe opens up to reveal a flaming torch within, which shoots of fireworks
of its own. The story and theme of the show is vague, and much of the show
seems to be nothing but the globe spinning and displaying stock imagery. But as
mentioned, the closeness of the fireworks and the in-the-round nature of the show
take it up a few notches.
Epcot is a massive park, and we didn’t get to see all of
World Showcase. But the variety of the attractions and its difference from the
California parks made it my favorite of the Disney World parks. Disney
admirably mixes entertainment, education, and thrills into a sometimes overwhelming,
but still brilliant amalgamation of science and world culture. On a future
trip, this is undoubtedly the park where I would personally like to spend the
most time. There is nothing at the Disneyland Resort like it. Well, except
Soarin’, but that was copied from California Adventure anyway. And Turtle Talk
With Crush and the Captain EO show, but those are among Epcot’s more minor
offerings. To many others, the Magic Kingdom will be the best Disney World
park, but for me, Epcot takes the prize.
Next: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
