EPCOT
The continuation of the Disney World saga - day 2: EPCOT.
While the tone of the Magic Kingdom is definitely whimsical, EPCOT has a more serious tone. Not completely serious, as that would cut into how entertaining it all is supposed to be, but EPCOT is ultimately a park for older children and adults. There are no princess breakfasts. There aren't that many rides, and there are many more movie-type shows. And there are many adult beverages to be enjoyed. EPCOT is a park for people who appreciate atmosphere and feel like learning a bit while on vacation. Not too much, it's not a museum by a long shot, but the mind is engaged and learns interesting tidbits here and there among the Disney hospitality.
When Walt Disney started out with ideas for Disney World, he thought up EPCOT as "Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow" where people would live for a time in his futuristic utopia and enjoy all the most groundbreaking of technology. There would be schools and commercial areas and places for people to work. This did not get built, probably because people came to the conclusion that this would be creepy. Some have pointed out the nearby Disney-designed town of Celebration, but as far I can tell, this is just a planned community of large and very expensive houses with an extremely strict HOA and piped-in birdsong. I'm sure this appeals to a certain number of people, but for the rest of us there is the EPCOT theme park which is hourglass-shaped and contains Future World and World Showcase. The over-arching themes seem to be Humanity and Stewardship.
We traveled to EPCOT via a very stuffy bus with a couple thousand of our new best friends. One can take the monorail there, but for us at Fort Wilderness we would have had to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then a monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then to another monorail...or taken a boat to Magic Kingdom and so on and so fourth. We just took a non-magical or technologically interesting bus, and discovered that this park (as many others do) has a special entry turnstile for Cast Members and their guests. We pushed through and were confronted with EPCOT's centerpiece, which is the big golf ball of Spaceship Earth. Why it's called that is not really clear to me as it doesn't represent Earth other than being round, but it is not only a monument but a dark ride which tells the story of human communication through animatronics and historical scenes. It's a fun ride, but focuses solely on European, Middle-Eastern, and 19th-20th century American accomplishments. Oh well. The golf ball is very large, but not that large. The ride's narration is performed by Dame Judy Dench, though, so that commands some respect. Our ride through the centerpiece completed, we explored the rest of Future World.
EPCOT uses the term "pavilions" instead of "lands", though this makes more sense on the World Showcase side of things, as each represented country has a pavilion as they would at a World's Faire. Over in Future World there is the definite pavilions of The Land, The Seas (with Nemo, apparently), Imagination, and...some general areas dedicated to energy, space, and ...cars? The area to the Right of Spaceship Earth is nicely laid out. The area to the Left is a bit confusing, but still enjoyable. We headed to The Seas next and went on the Finding Nemo ride, which is an omnimover dark ride filled with much of what the Finding Nemo Submarine ride in Disneyland has to offer its guests. The main difference is that the animated characters are from time to time projected into large tanks holding actual fish, which is a nice piece of wizardry. The Seas also includes aquarium-type exhibits, Turtle Talk with Crush (which we didn't see), a manatee rehabilitation exhibit, and a very nice dolphin habitat with some handsome dolphins who wouldn't cooperate for the camera no matter what f-stop setting I used. High-rolling guests can go SCUBA diving in the beautiful coral reef habitats and participate in dolphin interaction sessions (which sadly do not include SCUBA diving with the dolphins, though that could be a logistical nightmare), and can have meals in a restaurant featuring an entire wall of glass looking out into the fish exhibits. It's a very beautiful pavilion and I wish we had spent more time there.
The Land Pavilion was next. This pavilion is contained in a large building that really looks like a multi-level student union. Food court in the middle, and attractions radiating off the sides. Soarin' is the main E-Ticket here, but since it's exactly the same as Soarin' Over California, we skipped it. We instead went on a gentle river-cruise through sparkling greenhouses where new high-tech farming techniques are showcased (some research is also done here, though presentation is much more the goal). Little-used plants are shown as potential cash crops for a changing world, and hydroponic gardens are demonstrated, though this technology is already in use, at least in my apartment.
It should be noted, as this will come up time and again within this park and others, that the issue of conservation and future resource management is brought up time and again, though in a very rosy light. A bit too rosy for the likes of my family, who have a rather grim if perhaps accurate view of the challenges facing humankind as we deal with a natural world that we have collectively unwisely used (I should note that I've decided not to have children as I don't want to contribute more people to an over-populated world where the life offered them may indeed be worse than my own). But we have to realize that this is a Theme Park, and while conservation and education are key goals from time to time, if you guilt trip people, they won't find the parks to be very entertaining. This is still about entertainment, after all. This is not Anthropology 235: Humans And Their Environment. There will be no quizzes. What we learned at Disney World about water pollution will most likely not effect how we go about our day-to-day lives. But the theme park is highlighting the natural world, so it's prudent to talk about such anthropological subjects. And they do it fairly well.
The Seas pavilion was very nice. The Land was okay. Imagination was pretty much a flop. They have a Captain EO 3D movie there, but Disneyland has the same thing, and we had little interest. There is another ride there that we foolishly went on, and that I had decent hopes for. Journey Into the Imagination with Figment has serious potential as an idea, but the childish and cheap dark ride really falls flat. A scientist is trying to explain the process of imaginative thought, but a seriously out-dated computer animated dragon, of dumpy appearance and of ugly yellow sweater, keeps interrupting with not-very-imaginative gags, such as turning into a skunk and farting on the poor captive audience who may have escaped if it weren't for the lap bars. Parts of the ride contain just darkness and projection screens, which Shawna calls "the part where they ran out of money". There is a play area with interactive exhibits to explore after the ride lets out, but they are also out-dated (who uses a track ball and single button as a sole method of interacting with a computer exhibit?) and each play the same Sherman Brothers song over and over again. It's not even a very good Sherman Brothers song. We decided that if someone wants an exploration of the power of imagination, one should just go watch Fantasmic. We wasted time here. Okay, not completely - the fountains are kind of cool.
Crossing over to the other side of Future World, we found Test Track and Mission Space. Test Track is a ride designed around prototype car testing, though what it illustrates probably would only surprise children. It is quite a fun ride, though, as the cars (which contain no steering wheels, it should be noted) climb inclines, go over bumpy roads, "slide around" to simulate the usefulness of anti-lock breaks, and accelerate towards a barrier in a surprise scenario that surprises no one, as the barrier looks suspiciously like a door. It is a door, imagine that! The car then races around a circular track in what is the most fun part of the attraction. Sadly, we were only able to ride once, I would have liked to ride again. Mission Space is a simulated journey to Mars in which you are encouraged to sit back and relax, though you are briefed in how to land the space ship in case the auto-pilot malfunctions (well, what do you think is going to happen?). People are loaded into rectangle-shaped boxes seating four people, and the boxes tilt and swing to simulate different aspects of the trip. There are two identical versions, though in one variation, the simulators are arranged as pods on a centrifuge and are whirled around to simulate degrees of gravity and weightlessness. We decided not to go for that version, as apparently the spinning is notorious for causing motion sickness (even the simply swinging pods have a supply of barf bags on hand). My family is simply not suited for space travel, simulated or actual. This side of the park also includes the World of Energy, but we heard it wasn't worth our time, so we avoided it.
We did find the Coca-Cola shop, though, and got the chance to try many different sodas from around the world in a self-serve exhibit which didn't have the crowds I would expect for an attraction offering free samples. Perhaps it's more well-frequented on hotter days. We very much enjoyed the free soda, though we were split in our tastes for the apparently notorious "Beverly" flavor, which is quite bitter. Mom and I really liked it, but Shawna and Dad thought it tasted like licking an aspirin.
By then, we were hungry so we decided to start exploring World Showcase on the other side of the hourglass. The countries represented by pavilions seem to be an odd bunch - Europe is well-represented (Germany, France, Italy, England, Norway), as is Asia (China, Japan), but the only country approaching Africa is Morocco and while the Americas is represented by Canada, the US, and Mexico, that's as far South as they go. With the exception of Morocco, the pavilions don't seem to be sponsored by governments, so there doesn't seem to be a political connection to the choices. Well, there is precious little room for more countries around the large lake in the middle of this part of the park, so I don't expect the line-up to change. We were planning to go to Japan for lunch ("walking to Japan" was a very amusing phrase we uttered a few times) but got sidetracked at Morocco when we smelled the schwarma. After some excellent Middle-Eastern cuisine, we started exploring. Many countries offer a movie to highlight the greatness of their country - Canada and China have CircleVision movies, and China's is especially attractive. Mexico and Norway both have rides, though the 3 Caballeros theme of Mexico's ride was amusing to us who are familiar with that relic of Disney animation, Norway's "Malstrom" was confusing and forgettable (but did offer the chance to travel in Viking ships). All pavilions offered delicious food and drink, and lots of shopping which the ladies enjoyed and Dad tried to avoid. We had pretzels and beer in Germany, wine in France, and a dinner of sushi in Japan (finally made our way over). China offered acrobats, England had an impressive rock band, and Japan had a massive store full of the most adorable merchandise as no one does cute like the Japanese!
We ended the day with EPCOT's fireworks show "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" in which the fireworks are accompanied by a large spinning Earth whose continents are curved LED screens showing video of inspiring life on this planet (mostly people and animals, though it was hard to make out). The globe eventually splits open like one of those chocolate oranges people enjoy around Christmas-time to reveal an impressive torch. Other torches around the lagoon also light up to the rousing song "We Go On". It's very...well, the show was written for the 2000 celebration (and perhaps a bit for the Olympics) so it really has the "We're all in this Together" message to it. It's a nice show, though a little hard to tell what was going on. I only learned about the symbolism of the torches when I read about the show on Wikipedia - it wasn't very obvious what they were trying to get across with those, as there isn't one for each pavilion as I would have expected (there are 19, one for each century in the Common Era, and the 20th is in the split-open Earth). The show is pretty good. It's not the best fireworks show I've seen, but it's a very good use of all that water in the middle of the park and it was not hard to get a great viewing space to see the show, as the shoreline is a mile or so long.
Overall, EPCOT is lots of fun, though my enjoyment may have been a direct product of discovering a new park. Magic Kingdom was great, but is a very close cousin to Disneyland park and offered only minor exploration thrills. I went on rides and viewed shows at EPCOT with very little idea of what to expect. And I suppose the thrill of discovery is another EPCOT theme. It's a very fulfilling park and worth another walkthrough, which we enjoyed a few days later.
Stay tuned for Part 3: Animal Kingdom!
While the tone of the Magic Kingdom is definitely whimsical, EPCOT has a more serious tone. Not completely serious, as that would cut into how entertaining it all is supposed to be, but EPCOT is ultimately a park for older children and adults. There are no princess breakfasts. There aren't that many rides, and there are many more movie-type shows. And there are many adult beverages to be enjoyed. EPCOT is a park for people who appreciate atmosphere and feel like learning a bit while on vacation. Not too much, it's not a museum by a long shot, but the mind is engaged and learns interesting tidbits here and there among the Disney hospitality.
When Walt Disney started out with ideas for Disney World, he thought up EPCOT as "Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow" where people would live for a time in his futuristic utopia and enjoy all the most groundbreaking of technology. There would be schools and commercial areas and places for people to work. This did not get built, probably because people came to the conclusion that this would be creepy. Some have pointed out the nearby Disney-designed town of Celebration, but as far I can tell, this is just a planned community of large and very expensive houses with an extremely strict HOA and piped-in birdsong. I'm sure this appeals to a certain number of people, but for the rest of us there is the EPCOT theme park which is hourglass-shaped and contains Future World and World Showcase. The over-arching themes seem to be Humanity and Stewardship.
We traveled to EPCOT via a very stuffy bus with a couple thousand of our new best friends. One can take the monorail there, but for us at Fort Wilderness we would have had to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then a monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then to another monorail...or taken a boat to Magic Kingdom and so on and so fourth. We just took a non-magical or technologically interesting bus, and discovered that this park (as many others do) has a special entry turnstile for Cast Members and their guests. We pushed through and were confronted with EPCOT's centerpiece, which is the big golf ball of Spaceship Earth. Why it's called that is not really clear to me as it doesn't represent Earth other than being round, but it is not only a monument but a dark ride which tells the story of human communication through animatronics and historical scenes. It's a fun ride, but focuses solely on European, Middle-Eastern, and 19th-20th century American accomplishments. Oh well. The golf ball is very large, but not that large. The ride's narration is performed by Dame Judy Dench, though, so that commands some respect. Our ride through the centerpiece completed, we explored the rest of Future World.
EPCOT uses the term "pavilions" instead of "lands", though this makes more sense on the World Showcase side of things, as each represented country has a pavilion as they would at a World's Faire. Over in Future World there is the definite pavilions of The Land, The Seas (with Nemo, apparently), Imagination, and...some general areas dedicated to energy, space, and ...cars? The area to the Right of Spaceship Earth is nicely laid out. The area to the Left is a bit confusing, but still enjoyable. We headed to The Seas next and went on the Finding Nemo ride, which is an omnimover dark ride filled with much of what the Finding Nemo Submarine ride in Disneyland has to offer its guests. The main difference is that the animated characters are from time to time projected into large tanks holding actual fish, which is a nice piece of wizardry. The Seas also includes aquarium-type exhibits, Turtle Talk with Crush (which we didn't see), a manatee rehabilitation exhibit, and a very nice dolphin habitat with some handsome dolphins who wouldn't cooperate for the camera no matter what f-stop setting I used. High-rolling guests can go SCUBA diving in the beautiful coral reef habitats and participate in dolphin interaction sessions (which sadly do not include SCUBA diving with the dolphins, though that could be a logistical nightmare), and can have meals in a restaurant featuring an entire wall of glass looking out into the fish exhibits. It's a very beautiful pavilion and I wish we had spent more time there.
The Land Pavilion was next. This pavilion is contained in a large building that really looks like a multi-level student union. Food court in the middle, and attractions radiating off the sides. Soarin' is the main E-Ticket here, but since it's exactly the same as Soarin' Over California, we skipped it. We instead went on a gentle river-cruise through sparkling greenhouses where new high-tech farming techniques are showcased (some research is also done here, though presentation is much more the goal). Little-used plants are shown as potential cash crops for a changing world, and hydroponic gardens are demonstrated, though this technology is already in use, at least in my apartment.
It should be noted, as this will come up time and again within this park and others, that the issue of conservation and future resource management is brought up time and again, though in a very rosy light. A bit too rosy for the likes of my family, who have a rather grim if perhaps accurate view of the challenges facing humankind as we deal with a natural world that we have collectively unwisely used (I should note that I've decided not to have children as I don't want to contribute more people to an over-populated world where the life offered them may indeed be worse than my own). But we have to realize that this is a Theme Park, and while conservation and education are key goals from time to time, if you guilt trip people, they won't find the parks to be very entertaining. This is still about entertainment, after all. This is not Anthropology 235: Humans And Their Environment. There will be no quizzes. What we learned at Disney World about water pollution will most likely not effect how we go about our day-to-day lives. But the theme park is highlighting the natural world, so it's prudent to talk about such anthropological subjects. And they do it fairly well.
The Seas pavilion was very nice. The Land was okay. Imagination was pretty much a flop. They have a Captain EO 3D movie there, but Disneyland has the same thing, and we had little interest. There is another ride there that we foolishly went on, and that I had decent hopes for. Journey Into the Imagination with Figment has serious potential as an idea, but the childish and cheap dark ride really falls flat. A scientist is trying to explain the process of imaginative thought, but a seriously out-dated computer animated dragon, of dumpy appearance and of ugly yellow sweater, keeps interrupting with not-very-imaginative gags, such as turning into a skunk and farting on the poor captive audience who may have escaped if it weren't for the lap bars. Parts of the ride contain just darkness and projection screens, which Shawna calls "the part where they ran out of money". There is a play area with interactive exhibits to explore after the ride lets out, but they are also out-dated (who uses a track ball and single button as a sole method of interacting with a computer exhibit?) and each play the same Sherman Brothers song over and over again. It's not even a very good Sherman Brothers song. We decided that if someone wants an exploration of the power of imagination, one should just go watch Fantasmic. We wasted time here. Okay, not completely - the fountains are kind of cool.
Crossing over to the other side of Future World, we found Test Track and Mission Space. Test Track is a ride designed around prototype car testing, though what it illustrates probably would only surprise children. It is quite a fun ride, though, as the cars (which contain no steering wheels, it should be noted) climb inclines, go over bumpy roads, "slide around" to simulate the usefulness of anti-lock breaks, and accelerate towards a barrier in a surprise scenario that surprises no one, as the barrier looks suspiciously like a door. It is a door, imagine that! The car then races around a circular track in what is the most fun part of the attraction. Sadly, we were only able to ride once, I would have liked to ride again. Mission Space is a simulated journey to Mars in which you are encouraged to sit back and relax, though you are briefed in how to land the space ship in case the auto-pilot malfunctions (well, what do you think is going to happen?). People are loaded into rectangle-shaped boxes seating four people, and the boxes tilt and swing to simulate different aspects of the trip. There are two identical versions, though in one variation, the simulators are arranged as pods on a centrifuge and are whirled around to simulate degrees of gravity and weightlessness. We decided not to go for that version, as apparently the spinning is notorious for causing motion sickness (even the simply swinging pods have a supply of barf bags on hand). My family is simply not suited for space travel, simulated or actual. This side of the park also includes the World of Energy, but we heard it wasn't worth our time, so we avoided it.
We did find the Coca-Cola shop, though, and got the chance to try many different sodas from around the world in a self-serve exhibit which didn't have the crowds I would expect for an attraction offering free samples. Perhaps it's more well-frequented on hotter days. We very much enjoyed the free soda, though we were split in our tastes for the apparently notorious "Beverly" flavor, which is quite bitter. Mom and I really liked it, but Shawna and Dad thought it tasted like licking an aspirin.
By then, we were hungry so we decided to start exploring World Showcase on the other side of the hourglass. The countries represented by pavilions seem to be an odd bunch - Europe is well-represented (Germany, France, Italy, England, Norway), as is Asia (China, Japan), but the only country approaching Africa is Morocco and while the Americas is represented by Canada, the US, and Mexico, that's as far South as they go. With the exception of Morocco, the pavilions don't seem to be sponsored by governments, so there doesn't seem to be a political connection to the choices. Well, there is precious little room for more countries around the large lake in the middle of this part of the park, so I don't expect the line-up to change. We were planning to go to Japan for lunch ("walking to Japan" was a very amusing phrase we uttered a few times) but got sidetracked at Morocco when we smelled the schwarma. After some excellent Middle-Eastern cuisine, we started exploring. Many countries offer a movie to highlight the greatness of their country - Canada and China have CircleVision movies, and China's is especially attractive. Mexico and Norway both have rides, though the 3 Caballeros theme of Mexico's ride was amusing to us who are familiar with that relic of Disney animation, Norway's "Malstrom" was confusing and forgettable (but did offer the chance to travel in Viking ships). All pavilions offered delicious food and drink, and lots of shopping which the ladies enjoyed and Dad tried to avoid. We had pretzels and beer in Germany, wine in France, and a dinner of sushi in Japan (finally made our way over). China offered acrobats, England had an impressive rock band, and Japan had a massive store full of the most adorable merchandise as no one does cute like the Japanese!
We ended the day with EPCOT's fireworks show "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" in which the fireworks are accompanied by a large spinning Earth whose continents are curved LED screens showing video of inspiring life on this planet (mostly people and animals, though it was hard to make out). The globe eventually splits open like one of those chocolate oranges people enjoy around Christmas-time to reveal an impressive torch. Other torches around the lagoon also light up to the rousing song "We Go On". It's very...well, the show was written for the 2000 celebration (and perhaps a bit for the Olympics) so it really has the "We're all in this Together" message to it. It's a nice show, though a little hard to tell what was going on. I only learned about the symbolism of the torches when I read about the show on Wikipedia - it wasn't very obvious what they were trying to get across with those, as there isn't one for each pavilion as I would have expected (there are 19, one for each century in the Common Era, and the 20th is in the split-open Earth). The show is pretty good. It's not the best fireworks show I've seen, but it's a very good use of all that water in the middle of the park and it was not hard to get a great viewing space to see the show, as the shoreline is a mile or so long.
Overall, EPCOT is lots of fun, though my enjoyment may have been a direct product of discovering a new park. Magic Kingdom was great, but is a very close cousin to Disneyland park and offered only minor exploration thrills. I went on rides and viewed shows at EPCOT with very little idea of what to expect. And I suppose the thrill of discovery is another EPCOT theme. It's a very fulfilling park and worth another walkthrough, which we enjoyed a few days later.
Stay tuned for Part 3: Animal Kingdom!