Half-Life and Times: WDW Trip Report

Thursday, January 03, 2008

WDW Trip Report - Day 4 (EPCOT)

We always seem to have one day on our trips to Disney where we're out of synch or out of sorts or tired or something and things don't go well. That was Tuesday at EPCOT. We both love EPCOT (although I'll admit that J is a bigger fan than I am), in particular the World Showcase, but sometimes how we want to enjoy it is out of synch with the other. But it was certainly not all bad. I managed to make it onto Test Track twice (the single rider line is REALLY fast) and rode Mission:Space for the first time, although I will admit that it left me feeling a bit queasy (which definitely added to the lack of cohesion with J) so I'm not sure I'll try it again next time. J and I also did Maelstrom together (it's SO cheesy!) but I couldn't convince her to do the revamped ride at Mexico (they've replaced the old "Rio del Tiempo" with something featuring the trio of fowl from "The Three Caballeros" - J had done a ride-along on-line and pronounced it unendurable). We had veggie burgers at the American pavilion and probably the best meal we had all week at the restaurant inside the Mexico pavilion pyramid. The food was terrific, the atmosphere of the small town fiesta was really cool and the Dos Equis were quite welcome, if not my favorite brew. I should note here that the old charms of beering one's way around the world at EPCOT are not what they once were. With the proliferation of really good microbreweries across the States, beer here has now far outstripped anything you're likely to get at EPCOT with the various national pavilions featuring their local popular swill. While there's not much better than a Harp's (England), a Blue from Canada is not my idea of great beer and most of the pavilions offer nothing much better. But that's not why I was there...

I'll be honest - I don't remember all that much about the day at EPCOT other than the great meal and discovering that there's a neat place near the end of the Innoventions West plaza to watch Illuminations. You can tell from the gallery that I didn't even take that many pictures (although the sunset when I went to drop some stuff off at the room was spectacular!). Next trip I want to make sure that EPCOT isn't the down day. I had fun, but not the big fun of the rest of the trip.