Epcot Day 2
Well, my family left this morning. We had breakfast at IHOP and then they were off to the airport. Sorry to have to see them go -- it was a nice vacation and I haven't seen my family in some time.

After that the three of us came back to the house, had lunch, Mandy played some Playstation, and then we hung out around (in) the pool.

Around 4pm, we headed to Epcot. Teresa had a few rides she wanted to do. We headed for Soarin' first, but it had a two hour wait. We went from there to Honey, I shrunk the Audience, which we waited about 20 minutes for. It was alright -- a 3D movie with interactive props (the feeling of rats running by your feet, the place shaking when "regular" sized people walked by) but all-in-all I thought it a let-down.

Leaving there, it was already dark. I didn't get to take many pictures, but I'll post the few I did take. We went from there to the aquarium, which was different. A few tanks with various "Nemo" type fish in them, and one very large tank which you could walk between containing many fish, sharks, moray, etc. They also had a Manatee research setup where they had two Manatees. That was probably the neatest part of the aquarium. They did a little speil on Manatees and answered questions. I probably should have snapped a picture of the Manatees, but I didn't.

We went from there to Spaceship Earth, which we only went to because it had no wait and was on the way to our dinner reservations. Spaceship Earth was actually impressive. Its inside the famous Epcot "globe". Its a slow cart ride through the globe featuring human communication through the ages. The animatronics are very impressive, and the whole display was nice. Plus it was good to sit and relax on a slow, relaxing ride.

From there we walked to our dinner reservations in the World Pavilion (France) and arrived there around 8:25 for our 8:30 reservations. Teresa had asked for a table by the window when she made the reservations and they said they could accomodate her. They said the same thing at the podium, and a waiter said they would dim the lights (Teresa wanted to see Illuminations, their fireworks display). We ended up a good ten feet from the window with tables in between us and the window. They also didn't dim the lights at all when the fireworks started. Mandy was also tired and cranky having been up late playing with Brittney on her last night here. To be fair, the food was good, and the waitress did a good job with the service. We cut out before dessert (I really wanted to try the Creme Brulee -- I hate to miss out on a Creme Brulee) to catch the fireworks show.

Illuminations was the highlight of the evening. If it had not been for those fireworks, I would have said the trip to Epcot was a waste of several hours. I did enjoy the spaceship earth tour, and the aquarium was okay. Dinner was alright. But the fireworks were just amazing. No picture or video or description could really do them justice. The display was well timed with the music, fireworks came from many points around the lake (including right beside us) and flew way up into the air above the lake. The finale had more fireworks in one shot then I have seen in my entire previous lifetime. I wish I had taken photos, but I doubt they would have turned out, and if they did it wouldn't really convey it. You need to be there. Nobody has seen fireworks until they've seen Disney's display. I normally find all fireworks to be the same -- boring... but I'd recommend these for sure.
- posted by Tim Stewart @ 8:02 PM