Hey everyone! Time to pick up where we left off on our day at Epcot.
After leaving The Seas, we headed to the Imagination Pavilion and rode Journey into Imagination, which is…you know…what it is. An odd ride on a very small scale, but hey there’s a couple fun moments.
Keep an eye out for the "One Little Spark" sheet music in this scene. That oddly shaped silhouette on the right page is that of the Dreamfinder and his Dream Mobile, the host of the original Journey Into Imagination.
It was past 10:05am so we were able to go and use our Mission Space Fastpasses.
We debated between going down the green side or orange side for a bit. Scott is always down for the orange side, and I enjoy it, but I was scared of getting sick (as was our friend). Scott had actually never done the green side of Mission Space, and he’s on a never-ending quest to do every single thing at WDW, so he wanted to see what the difference was.
When Epcot first opened, each pavilion (Land, Sea, Imagination, World of Motion, etc.) had their own symbol. Sort of a logo to represent what each pavilion stood for. Before Mission: Space moved in, this space (get it?) was occupied by the Horizons pavilion. This pavilion was all about living in a future that was inspired by years of technological innovation, and the original Horizons logo can be seen at the center of the giant wheel in the M:S queue.
Since we were a party of three, we got our own little pod, which is always fun. I love Mission Space and flipping lots of switches and pushing buttons. However, some of the pre-videos they play are funny. For instance, when you’re standing on your number waiting to load, they play that video where it’s showing you loading your battery/cell/something like that. It just shows each of the ten cells charging up for a solid minute. It’s not that weird or goofy, it’s just like…couldn’t you think of ANYthing else for people to stare at?
After Mission Space, we were after a refreshment. Club Cool had just opened for the day, so we headed there.
Scott went in to Starbucks to get the Epcot You Are Here mug. Like many others, we’ve stared collecting the Starbucks You Are Here mugs from the Disney Parks and other trips and travels.
Anyways, I remember being really excited when it was announced that Club Cool was getting new sodas. That excitement wore off about five minutes after I tried them.
I guess I’m just not a fruity flavored soda drinker. The old flavors, with Mezzo Mix from Germany and the super powerful lemon lime soda etc were just way better, in my opinion.
After Club Cool, we decided to take a little break. A long break actually. A long sitting break in A/C. So yeah, we went to the Universe of Energy to ride Ellen’s Energy Adventure.
It’s long, but it’s not a bad attraction. However, Ellen was noticeably absent from the ride. Her usual animatronic was gone. I’m guessing it was just taken for a cleaning, but that scene felt very odd without it.
After our little nap, we headed to Spaceship Earth for our Fastpass at 11:40. I…love…Spaceship Earth. It’s educational, which I am all about, it’s relaxing, and it’s nice and long.
Here’s a tidbit for you: Have you ever closely looked at the faces of the animatronics throughout the ride? You might see a few familiar ones. Id say that at least 90% of the animatronics in Spaceship Earth are recycled from other attractions, and probably about 30% of those are ex-Presidents of the United States. That's right, everybody. The Hall of Presidents is slowly taking over Spaceship Earth. Seriously. They're everywhere. John Adams plays one of the monks, Teddy Roosevelt is the Roman senator, but our favorite has to be this one….
The gentleman on the left is none other than John Kerry. Although Kerry was never a part of the Hall of Presidents, his animatronic was still built in preparation for the 2004 election. When 'Dubya' took the win, the Kerry animatronic needed a different home, and Spaceship Earth is always accepting new tenants.
After leaving Spaceship Earth, we headed for the World Showcase. We needed a bit of a boost, so we picked up sodas from the Promenade Refreshments stand. We were surprised that this was still there, since it used to only be up for the festivals and it’s right next to Refreshment Port anyway. But we got our fountain sodas (the only good kind) and talked to the Cast Member because she was from our area.
Sodas in hand, we walked around Canada and through the shop and falls.
Then, crazily enough, we walked all the back to The Land for our Soarin’ Fastpass at 1:15. Soarin’s queue sucks (the sound effects from those interactive games are BRUTAL) but the breeze on the ride is unbeatable. Funny story, we once witnessed guests call out in terror to the Cast Members because they were scared that their feet were going to hit the railing when the seats moved up. Yup…thousands of people a day ride this but YOUR feet are the ones that are gonna be severed by the hand railing.
Have you ever looked closely at the face of the man who hits the golf ball? It’s Michael Eisner, past CEO of Disney. I’ll spare you all my feelings about that.
After Soarin’ we walked back to the World Showcase, this time on the Mexico side and rode Gran Fiesta Tour.
I don’t remember this ride at all before its reimagination, but it seems like they could’ve made sure the actors’ eyes were on the animations in the video clips. But hey, it’s a nice little ride and there’s never a line.
After we left Mexico, we headed to pick up a snack. We decided to try the Lucky Combo from Joy of Tea.
The Lucky Combo includes a pork bun, chicken pocket, an egg roll, ice cream, and a canned soft drink for $9.98. It seemed like a really good value so we wanted to try it out. You have two options on the ice cream and we went with the caramel ginger ice cream. The pork bun wasn’t my favorite. It was mostly bread and the sauce on the filling inside was very sweet in my opinion. I don’t like sweet sauces on meat so I wasn’t a fan. The egg roll was standard but delicious, the ice cream was nice and gingery, and the chicken pocket I don’t much remember. If you’re looking to try something new in the World Showcase, you get a lot for your ten bucks!
After passing through the shops in China, we headed to get one of our favorite things: a grapefruit beer from Germany. We first tried the grapefruit beer during the Flower and Garden Festival in 2013. Man, if you’re looking for something refreshing, this is the ticket. Even if you’re not a beer drinker (which we definitely are) I think you would still really enjoy this.
Favorite alcoholic beverage acquired, we headed on to Japan.
Japan is probably my favorite World Showcase destination. Probably partially because it’s the country I haven’t visited myself yet that I most want to (helloooo Tokyo Disneyland) but also because Mitsukoshi is just the best. There are simply endless things to ogle over. I love kitchenware and there are many small dishes to appreciate, as well as tons of other eye-catching merchandise.
Our friend picked up a Beef Udon bowl from the quick service in Japan, which she swears by and always has to get. We took advantage of the new seating area in Japan, which was very nice and…empty. I loved sitting there because we had a really nice view of the pavilion but you could also people watch.
After that, we headed into the food/treats/kitchen shop in Italy. My mother’s side of the family is Italian and I’m a big fan of torrone, which is a treat we always used to get around Christmas. I must say, I like the packaging of the gift sets of torrone my family finds around the holidays, but it’s really nice that they have it in the Italy shop. The difference is that it’s served in one very long piece, so you have to slice it to eat. If you haven’t tried torrone before, it is a chewy nougat candy with almonds. I picked up a package for us and a package for my parents, which I stowed away in my backpack.
We were interested in getting a treat to enjoy right then, so we went back to Germany to Karamel Kuche. Our friend picked a chocolate covered s'more and we got a chewy caramel bar.
I had seen several complimentary posts about this treat so I was interested. It was a sizable snack for the price, but the flavor wasn’t on point for me. It wasn’t decidedly sweet, or salty. It’s thick caramel layered on top of a shortbread like cookie that crumbles easily, so we found it a little hard to eat as well. We ended up at the standing table in the wine shop in Germany. If you’re someone who does not like treats that are very sweet, this might be more of a winner for you. I probably would’ve dipped it in chocolate or added another component to me, but maybe I’m just expecting something decadent.
After Germany, we went to adventure around Morocco. I love how far back the little streets of shops go. We ended up sitting at a table all the way in the back of the pavilion and just talking and taking a rest.
The skies were looking dangerous, so we had to make one last important stop before heading back to the hotel. Our ultimate favorite World Showcase meal of all time! Wait…our ultimate favorite World Showcase meal of all time that isn’t the filet mignon at Le Cellier (though they changed the recipe since we last ate there, so we’re not positive that it’s still as amazing). We had to stop into Les Halles in France.
It’s a popular spot, so the seating is tight, but we’ve found the most scrumptious combination: the Roule Lard and Fromage and Bisque de Homard aka cheese roll with bacon and lobster bisque.
Rip pieces off the roll and dip it in the soup and you can thank me later! Ask to have the roll heated up. We have probably eaten this combination 10 times or more. We can hardly enter the World Showcase without it, so we HAD to have it on this trip!
After our classic meal, we left Epcot to take a break at Pop Century. We had done and seen everything we wanted to, and just about everything there is to do!
Thanks for reading, and we’ll see ya real soon!