On Wednesday, we headed to Epcot. Eric, Dom, Will, and I had a great time making up horrible 99 jokes inspired by those done in the street show the day before. At one point, we also questioned the name 'Epcot' and decided it must be an acronym. This led to another game where we came up with possible acronyms. Mine was: Every Person Can Order Tacos. Naturally, tacos became the new punchline. Eventually, William declared it stood for: Espresso, Pastries, Coffee Or Tacos. Thus, when we saw a kiosk named: Espresso, Coffee, and Pastries we came to the conclusion that Will had to be pretty close to the actual name. Don't bother googling it. Just go with it.
If I had to choose, I would say that Epcot was my favorite day. Which is pretty incredible as it poured rain for a good portion of it. But, we loved exploring the world with the kids. Our first taste was heading to Norway at the very start of the day to get in line for the most popular ride in the park: Frozen Ever After. The rest of the day, I monitored the wait time for the ride hoping it would drop to a manageable amount, but it was always around 90 minutes. We got lucky only waiting for 40 minutes.
After Frozen, we headed over to the science section of Epcot to learn about the senses, sea life, and Pixar. As luck would have it, we headed into the Pixar shorts viewing just as the rain picked up. When we came out, the rain had ended and we headed back to explore The World some more.
Our first stop was at a kiosk just outside of The World where we signed in with Eric's phone to take part in a Phineas and Ferb inspired scavenger hunt through 6 countries. Agent Perry needed our help to stop Dr. Doofenshmirz from wreaking havoc on the world. A mission Molly took particularly seriously.
We elected to start our mission in Japan as we have family stationed there.
We had no idea what to expect. I thought it would just give the kids certain things to look for to help keep them interested in the countries.
But, it turned out that every time you found the item you were suppose to look for, some special effect would occur. The first one was a lit up figure in a rock. And the special effects grew from there.
This kept the kids (and my) attention for a couple of hours. I would have been pretty happy if we just found light displays at each site. But, it was always something unique. Some were way cooler than others, but it was always a fun effect. And the best part: It was all free!
One effect created a lot of smoke. So much so, that other guests were trying to figure out what was going on.
The kids did a pretty good job of sharing, but there was some impatience on a few of our parts. If you wanted to, each country would take about 30 minutes to watch all of the segments and then find the spots. But, we soon just started skipping over the show and went straight to stopping Doofenshmirz. Molly gleefully went up to two ladies and told them we had saved Japan and were on our way to save Germany. They thanked us and continued on their way. Everyone is so friendly in Disney World!
But, before we could get to Germany, we took a couple of pictures in Italy.
The great thing about this Perry the Platypus game is that if your kids are mature enough, you could leave your phone with them while you sit and just enjoy the scenery. You'd catch sight of them every minute or so as they ran around looking for the next mission. Just a little planning for our next trip. Because, obviously the world will be needing saving again.
After passing through Italy, we called L'Opa at his office to inform him we were entering Germany. Somehow, I didn't get the impression he was that impressed. Probably because he actually goes to Germany each summer. (#protip: You can save a bundle by just going to Epcot. You get all of the fun stuff and none of the stress)
They even had the train...sort of.
I was so happy visiting all of these cultures. It is kind of a homeschooler's dream. I haven't looked into this, but Eric thought that each country was staffed by natives of the countries.
One mission sent us into the clock shop. The special effect was a cuckoo clock cuckoo-ing. John loved it.
We also visited the Fussball store. Bayern was well represented. As were the Jayhawks. (We met at least one other fan every day)
We still had a couple of countries to save, but it was time to head to one of our ride reservations: Soaring. I had heard high praise for this ride and it was all true. You fly across the world and see famous landmarks on all continents. The kids all loved it. We also rode a boat ride that taught us about many of the processes by which Disney grows its own food in sustainable ways. All very interesting. It was almost like we had not taken a day off of school.
We were headed back to Mexico (with a promise to Molly to go back to Germany for a giant pretzel) when the clouds opened. It was sprinkling when Eric stopped to refill our souvenir popcorn container. Perhaps if we had not stopped we would have made it to the covered section of Mexico...but, we'll never know. We got trapped under the monorail hoping the system would pass in a few minutes.
Turned out, the system was pretty large.
We eventually made a run for a building that was simply a place to meet characters. Though we didn't realize that until much later when the rain was stopping.
Instead we passed the time watching Steamboat Willie (the first animated short featuring Mickey Mouse) and checking out a timeline of Epcot.
Oh, and taking selfies.
This also became an ideal time to break out the giant chocolate bar for the day. (I had brought four on the trip). Once the rain dissipated, we headed to Mexico and then on to China. Eric and Molly went to Germany for beer and pretzels and the boys and I saved the rest of the world. Everyone was very happy.
Our next ride was Spaceship Earth. This the ride in the iconic sphere that Epcot is known for. It was a slow ride that went through the history of educational progress. Starting from cave paintings and ending with a computer in everyone's home. At the end of the ride, there was an interactive area where the kids could test their reflexes, driving skills, skeleton building, and power saving.
I did not quite understand what they were suppose to be doing, but they had a good time doing it.
I crushed this game and impressed a guy who came up to watch.
I totally beat Dom, too.
But, he got his swagger back after defeating John in this game...that, again, I do not understand. Kind of a shuffleboard power eating idea. (This just in, Dom is telling me the game is about making a big city using sustainable power sources...L'Opa, one goal was to make a city as big as Munich)
We stayed in the giant sphere for well over an hour. Eventually we ventured out into the rain again for Eric to take Molly and Will on Mission Space! (Dom and I opted out...though after hearing about it, it sounds super cool, so we may give it a whirl next time. Especially knowing there is an option where you don't have to feel like you are blasting off from Earth).
Due to the weather, fireworks happened about an hour earlier than usual. So, once our family was back together, we called it a night. Better to lose one battle than the whole war. And we still had Magic Kingdom ahead! We headed into the rain, made it to the car, everyone took nice warm showers and/or baths, and we ate spaghetti and meatballs. Another great day was had by all. But, man, 7 AM was going to be coming pretty early...
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