Friday, 13 June 2014

Day 13 - Epcot - 9th June 2014

Day 13

Epcot

Our final day of the parks as we leave tomorrow!! Where has the past two weeks gone?!?!?
 
 
Here we are arriving at the sign 'Walt Disney World, where dreams come true' and Amy reads out the sign and says that is true!!

 
Parking fees of $17 next!

 
Woop woop the iconic Epcot ball is approaching, we are nearly there!!

 
Yippee we are in the park now!  Let's get going to our first ride as our first fastpass of the day is at 09.05-10.05am.  We have arranged them online again, good way to do it and semi-plan the day around the times!

 
Time for a quick Selfie though xxx

 
But who do we meet on our way to Soarin, yes Pluto xx


 
Here we are at Soarin our first Fastpass of the day and lucky we had the fastpass as the queue time was already 60mins and it went up to 80mins later on in the day!!  This was a simulated hang glider ride where you were taken over California landscapes, Golden Gate Bridge, Kayakers, Mountains, Navy ship and the sea!  It was cool as you were in a seat but your feet were dangling so when you were going over the bridge you thought your feet were going to bang into it and then with the kayakers you thought your feet were going to get wet, so real feeling!

 
 
Cool water fountain that had a display for on the hour and every half hour, cool displays!

 
Next we headed to Future World to go on .......

 
Mission: Space where you could choose the level of intensity of your simulated ride into Space either Green for mild training or orange for more intense, guess what colour we chose .......
 

 
Oh yeah had to be the Orange Team so we would experience the launch that spins and tilts to simulate speed and G-forces during launch and re-entry to Mars.  When you go in you are placed on circles on the floor then a light above goes on and during the briefing it tells you your role in the rocket and what your task is, I was the Navigator, Amy was the Pilot and Colin was the Commander.  It was cool when you sat in your seat your controls, joystick and screen came in front of you.  At certain points it said your job, gave you your task and then told you to push buttons or when we had to do an emergency landing we had to control the rocket with the joystick!  Wow it was amazing, it was funny Amy and I could feel our cheeks when we came off with the G-force in the rocket!  Such an amazing ride!!

 
Ha ha messing about in the shop after Mission: Space

 
Now back to Future World West to see The Seas with Nemo and Friends

 
Here we are sitting in a clam waiting for the ride to begin, what a variety we are getting today!!  This was the story of Nemo shown in little video clips in amongst a real aquarium, sedate ride but good in a different way!

 
Journey into Imagination so our next thing to do was watch 3D Captain EO

 
The 3D film from 1986 starring Michael Jackson, it was okay but not the best thing that we have seen!
 
 
Now time for our third fastpass saving ourselves 40 minutes, cool!  It is time for Spaceship Earth in the famous Epcot ball, exploring the history of communications from Stone Age to Computer Age
 
 
Not so sure what to expect from this ride but hey ho here we go!
 
At the start of the ride they took your photo so we go through from stone age, Egyptians, Romans, then start of radio, TV and now we were at the computer age and had to answer few questions on the screen that was in front of us.  It said wait a few minutes and then look what sprung up on the screen ……..

 
Cool Amy and then……

 
Me!!  Colin was watching his own photo’s popping up on the screen!

 
Amy and I eating healthy lunch, yummy!!

 
The end of the film it was cool!!!

 
During the film it asked where you were from and then when we came out of the ride there was a massive world map on a screen with our faces on it showing where we were from, not sure where Colin’s face was??
 
 
 
Been on some cool rides this morning but here we are away to design our own ride on either a roller coaster, jetski or bobsled, how cool does that sound! Called Sum of all Thrills!
First stage was the briefing room where we were shown how to design our own ride and then we were let loose for 4 minutes to design it!!  There were only 2 people in the pods so Amy and I went in a pod and Colin went by himself.  Due to Amy’s height Amy wasn’t allowed to design an up and over ride but she was okay with that!  So Colin designed a roller coaster with the highest speeds possible, corners and up and overs as possible.  At each stage when doing the heights and speeds it let you pre-test your ride to ensure it would ride in real life.  Good science lesson going on today!!  So Amy designed for us a bobsled ride with loops, twists and turns!!  
 

 
Now it was time to go in the pod and experience your very own designed ride.  Colin was in first and we saw him go up and down and round and round, we didn’t expect anything else from Colly!!  Amy and I were up next and in our pods I could see Amy’s face on a screen and she could see mine so it was good to see her reactions to her ride that she made for us!!  It was a fast ride, twisting and turning and steep hills.  It was so cool and even cooler as we had designed!!  What an amazing experience!  Colin wasn’t so impressed with his ride he thought it would be more thrilling!!!

 

 
That is all the Future World areas done now it was time to move onto the World Showcase!!

 
First person we met was Duffy the new Disney Bear

 
The inspiration of Frozen and where the story evolved from inside the house

 
We are in Norway

 
So when we were walking into the World Showcase there were attendants for Fastpass so as we had used all three of our fastpasses we could get some more if any were available.  The only 2 rides we had left to do was Maelstrom and Test Track.  Test Track was unavailable but Maelstrom was free in 5 minutes, let’s go then!!  This is working out perfectly and saved us waiting 25 minutes!!

 
You go in a Viking ship to travel through Scandinavian Seascapes.  The ride went backwards and forwards and then down a dip into a splash of water, mmmm didn’t know that was coming and my booty got wet!!!  I was the only one to get wet though!

 
Next stop was Mexico and onto Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros, on a boat going through sights of Mexico with the Three Caballeros with Donald Duck being one of the three Caballeros

 
China next and we were planning going to see Mulan but the queue was horrendously long and she wasn’t even there!  But just as we were walking out we spied her arriving but Amy decided she didn’t want to see her, phew! 

 
Italy

 
View over the lake to the Epcot Ball.  All the World showcases were all round the lake

 
America area

 
Japan with 2 female and 1 male drummer on big drums, wow that is loud, we stopped for a few minutes but we were starting to melt again so we headed off!  Hard to believe that we are going to China and Japan on our Big Holiday Adventure!!

 
Morocco where Aladdin and Jasmine were hanging out but they weren’t there when we were there but Amy has already met Jasmine

 
France, oh Belle is going to be here but not until later so let’s get some lunch first.  It feels like it was a few years ago we were in Paris seeing the Eiffel Tower, hard to believe that we have been travelling since then!!

 
Gardens over the lake

 
We went over the bridge and who did we bang into but not only Mary Poppins we must be in United Kingdom

 
Mary Poppins, how cool!  As we were leaving she said ‘Best foot forward now!’  Ha ha how funny that all the characters we have met say the little quotes or speak about where they are from.  Ariel spoke about fish and being in the sea but must say that Mary Poppins has been the best with her quotes and she sounds just like Mary Poppins too!
 
 
Topiary Mary Poppins, cool

 
We stop for lunch at the Rose and Crown Pub, good old UK pub grub!!  Thirsty work guys and we are in an air conditioned pub so cooling off as well!!  It is supposed to be 100 degrees F today and with the humidity and trudging round the park boy we are feeling it!!

 
Lizard alert!!

 
Now here we are meeting Alice, few quotes from her too.  Poor Alice had a lot to contend with her eyes were watering with the sun being bright when she was getting her photographs done, then ducks came over beside her and then a squirrel!!  Poor Alice was having a bad session I think.  Colin headed off to do Test Track while Amy and I were seeing the characters

 
Amy and I went back to France to see Belle as the characters have set times for meet and greet sessions.  Well done Belle a few characters ask your name and I presumed they would write that on the autograph book but no!  Belle did she wrote ‘Bonjour Amy’ as we are in France area!  Writing Amy has made up for you not being in your big yellow dress which I was more disappointed than Amy about it!! 

 
Amy and I decided to get the ferry back over to the main area to meet Colin as after waiting for 30 minutes to meet Belle in the sun we are melting!!

 
Amy is happy she has met everyone she wanted to meet and more!  That is it the end of our Orlando adventure!

 
Here is the ferry!

 
Beautiful gardens around

 
Here is Amy in the cool off zone with spray coming from all angles at her!!  She came out certainly cooled off and WET!!  Ha ha!!  Amy and I went into a shop for a cool off in the air conditioning before we met up with Colin, we saw lots of nice Disney things which had lots of nice prices attached to them too!

 
So this is where Colin has been hiding out when we were meeting Alice and Belle.  Colin went on as a single rider so didn’t get to design his own vehicle but he got the ride of a simulated spins and skids in rain and snow and then onto a test track circuit with hills and hair pin turns.  Colin managed two turns on this ride by the time we met up with him!


 
Cool sign

 
We jumped back onto the tram to get back to our car!  So Colin says to Amy ‘Well that is the end of the parks’ Amy replies ‘Good!’  It was funny but we are all done now as we have been non-stop exploring other than our two down days!! 

 
Here is the sticker for Orlando, hope you like it Alison!  We thought it was pretty cool and saved us peeling off a bumper sticker on someone’s car ha ha!
We headed home, jumped in the pool but it was a shorter than planned dip in the pool as another storm came along.  Another tea sitting enjoying the thunderstorm go by!  Time to pack up our things.  It has been great having our own place, being able to unpack and have room to sit, eat and sleep in different rooms!!!  Early start as we are dropping off the car at the airport at 4am with our flight at 6.30am!!!  Alarm set for 2am, wowcha!!  Our flight is Orlando to Houston and then Houston to Vancouver

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