Let’s go to EPCOT: a photo album

3/4ths of our family is California born, so we are really charmed by the novelty of EPCOT. For Dad his earliest exposure to EPCOT is probably the introductory sequence of the Disney Sunday Movie. Mom was a fan of the special episodes when sitcoms would visit Walt Disney World. 

Epcot: WELCOME

It seemed so far off to us and a place we weren’t super familiar with or very likely to go to. But in the 3 years we have been visiting Walt Disney World it has become one of our favorite things about the resort. Teenage Son loves all sorts of 1980’s stuff and Toddler Son loves “The Golf Ball” so there ends up being something for everyone at this park. 

Toddler Son loves the trams and has the toy version

Teenage Son is a Figment Fanatic, and Toddler Son is not far behind. On our last trip Teenage Son was pretty much “Figment” in his T-Shirt & hat.

Follow the footprints to find Figment at the end

The whole family enjoyed our time at Figment’s home : The Imagination Pavilion. Everyone enjoyed the Disney*Pixar film festival. This attraction gets some flak for being something you can do at home if you own the DVD's which we admittedly do. But we don't have a giant 3-D screen at home or any "4-D" effects like rumbling seats or water sprayed in our faces so it does offer something unique! 

Fun at Figment's Imagination Pavilion

Please remember to leave your 3-D glasses in the receptacles as you exit the theater

We had a fastpass for Spaceship Earth and then had lunch at the Garden Grill in The Land Pavilion. 

Spaceship Earth fun

After lunch we visited the remnants of Innoventions and enjoyed exploring the Colortopia exhibit followed by a ride on Mission: Space. We rode the green mission which was still a pretty thrilling trip in low earth orbit. The visual effects have been greatly improved and there is still a nice range of motion without the spinning of the orange mission. Toddler Son enjoyed his time in the after show playground. 

Future World East fun

In the afternoon we went to meet Caballero Donald, something we've wanted to do for a while. Donald gave Dad a hard time for his Mickey Backpack. 

Teenage Son, our very own Agent P decided to play a round of the "Agent P World Showcase Adventure" which took us to France and then back to Mexico.

We worked in a Friendship Boat cruise in there (EPCOT is so enormous it is exhausting traveling back and forth sometimes). We had managed to score a Frozen: Ever After fastpass so we went on that, we all love that ride.

The "Gran Fiesta Tour with the Three Caballeros" called to us next (Toddler Son calls this ride "Little Small World"). The whole family rode together once in the front row, then Mom & Teenage Son went to play another round of "Agent P's World Showcase Adventure" while Dad and Toddler Son rode "Little Small World" 2 more times. "Gran Fiesta Tour" is usually a walk on...which is great but a little surprising as there are not many rides at EPCOT.  We find this boat ride through "Mexico" in search of Donald Duck to be very charming.

France

United Kingdom

Floating Flowers of Future World

Our next stop was "Living with The Land" boat ride, sliding into one of the last boats before it closed for the night. 

Monorail outside of Land Pavilion on the way to The Seas

After that we closed out our day at "The Seas with Nemo". The Seas Pavilion always reminds Mom & Dad of that "Full House" episode where Uncle Jesse & Joey are doing a radio show in the tank.

real live giant sea turtle

The tank highlight for us was seeing the giant sea turtle (the real one not "Crush"! ha ha ha). And that was the end of another great day at EPCOT.

One Man's Dream at Disney's Hollywood Studios

On our last trip to Disney's Hollywood Studios Toddler Son surprised us by how thrilled he was to tour this museum exhibit on Walt Disney. Of course we all love it, but really had no idea how excited the 2 1/2 year old would be to look at the models and displays of Disney art. At only 4 rides (only 1 of which a Toddler can ride) Hollywood Studios is not the most fun place for a little guy. When combined with the lack of an icon that engages the very young (say Cinderella Castle or Spaceship Earth) we could sort of tell he was left without a really strong point of reference. We were there for Star Wars Galactic Nights so missed the toddler programming. But he was beyond excited upon discovering this exhibit and from then on he started having the attitude of someone who found the Walt Disney at this Disney Park. Toddler Son loves old Walt Disney Small World & Carousel Of Progress videos on YouTube so he knows who "Wal Dis" is, and he immediately recognized Walt Disney from the classic photo of Walt & Mickey in a car at Disneyland.

Toddler Son loves castles, having been raised on a generous diet of Disney films/TV and Disney Channel/Disney Junior. So he would get excited at seeing the castle logo before movies. At some point between Disney World commercials and our visits he made the connection that the castle is a real place which only made him more of a fan. He has started to make the distinction between Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland and Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World.  

Disneyland Display - 2018

The exhibit gives some background to the life of Walt Disney and Disneyland, Walt Disney World and beyond. The exhibit used to lead to a film on the life of Walt Disney, but now it is usually a film preview instead (we saw the first scenes of Incredibles 2). Over the years the exhibit has been truncated and an unrelated meet and greet has been added(Starlord & Groot from Guardians of the galaxy were there). Still what is left is still something worth seeing and it certainly made Toddler Son's night.

Disneyland Castle Model- 2015

Walt Disney World Castle Model- 2015

Disneyland Paris Castle Model - 2015

For Toddler Son he loved the castle displays and the It's A Small World exhibit as that is his all time favorite ride. He also was very intrigued by the Jungle Cruise model. At home we have a lot of toys of castles and monorails so he likes to recreate the Disney experience at home in between visits.

Small World Exhibit -2018

Small World Exhibit- 2015

World's Fair/Small World Exhibit- 2015

We've been to this exhibit 3 times (photos have the date they were taken), although it has shrunken in size over the years we are very glad it remains in some form. Highlights are always the castle art and the wonderful Imagineering models. 

Disneyland Concept Rendering- 2018

Spaceship Earth- 2015

Peter Pan's Flight Model- 2015

On our first visit there was a wonderful mockup of Walt Disney filming the EPCOT film, but sadly this has been removed.

Walt & EPCOT- 2015

Years ago we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and there was a large mural of the Ryman concept painting of Sleeping Beauty Castle...the one before the castle had been "turned" around. Dad took a picture with Teenage Son when he was a toddler in front of this mural like we were "walking" into the mural. A few years ago we recreated the photo at this exhibit...and on this trip we recreated the picture again this time with Toddler Son joining the fun.

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Hollywood Studios- 2018 

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Hollywood Studios 2015

At the Ryman Sleeping Beauty Castle Concept Art Mural, Disneyland Hotel Lobby- 2006

Pirates & Pals Fireworks Cruise at Walt Disney World

We recently went on the Pirates & Pals Fireworks Cruise at Walt Disney World and it was an incredible experience.  Your evening begins in a ballroom at the Contemporary Resort where there is a meet & greet and dessert party.

The lobby in front of the ballroom has pirate statues you can pose with and a coloring table for the kids. Each member of your party is given a pirate bandana to wear as your ticket.

Inside the ballroom there is an endless supply of treats while you wait to meet Captain Hook & Mr. Smee. There are treasure chests of gold coins, cupcakes, cookies, popcorn, pretzels, soft drinks, tea & coffee and chips & salsa.  In a refrigerator there is a generous stockpile of Mickey & Disney ice cream treats. The menu is all you care to eat.

Meeting Captain Hook & Mr. Smee was delightful...they were very generous with the time they spent with each family. Toddler Son enjoys sharing toys with the characters...in this case he presented his Duplo Lego Captain Hook figure and the good Captain seemed to appreciate the gesture.

Teenage Son has a vintage Figment Plush he likes to take pictures with and the pirates were very accommodating. The ballroom was relatively dark presumably in keeping with a "pirate atmosphere" and they played lots of music from Jake and the Neverland Pirates television show.  The hosts of the party were two pirates named Patch and Patch...respectively. Of course they issued orders to all of us (we were their pirate crew) to which we were supposed to reply "Aye, Patch!". Once everyone had met the Captain & Mr. Smee and gorged themselves on endless Mickey Bars Patch and Patch led us to the boats! The group was split up into 2 groups....Hook & Smee.

We then walked out to the Bay Lake dock (Captain Hook saw us off) and boarded the boats for a wonderful cruise from Bay Lake over the water bridge to the Seven Seas Lagoon. We were in the "Hook" boat on the Port side (that would be left to a landlubber) of the boat.  Our cruise led us by the beach of the Polynesian Village and over to the Grand Floridian.

Patch had all of the lights turned off and had us attempt to scare the folks on the Grand Floridian Dock. We cruised up to them then turned on the lights and proceeded to shout "Arrrggh!"....they seemed mildly amused but mostly disappointed that we were not their water taxi.

At one point we got a water view of the Electrical Water Pageant. Patch led the crew in classic Disney songs ("Yo ho...a pirates life for me" and others) before the ship anchored in a position just off the Magic Kingdom dock. Since we were on the Port side (left) we were on the Magic Kingdom side of the boat and our view was unobstructed. The canopy of the boat is very high so the view is acceptable form the other side but you will be looking over people to see the Magic Kingdom. We did not make a request one way or the other but did end up getting some of the best seats on the boat and we were thrilled.

The view of the Fireworks was spectacular and the music was piped into the boats. At one point there was a torrential monsoon down pour that lasted mere minutes, it was remarkable to watch...the show just continued through the rain without missing a beat.  The fireworks would light up the night sky and you could see the enormous rain drops splashing into the lagoon! The boat had a canopy so for the most part we did not get too wet. The considerable rain passed quickly and took some of the heat out of the air. After the Fireworks ended the boat returned to the Contemporary Resort dock. Patch was very high energy and hosted a trivia contest among the crew to pass the time. Our boys both won pirate hooks.

When we returned to the ballroom Peter Pan was waiting for us. Again Toddler Son presented Peter with a toy to which Peter joked about keeping. Of course Toddler Son did not want to lose his toy but Peter was very sweet about it. This was a marvelous experience, we have never been much for camping out for a Fireworks viewing spot so this was right up out alley. And the view from the Lagoon is just breathtaking with Main Street lit up in the distance, the Monorails passing by and the Fireworks reflected in the water. It is one of those very uniquely Magic Kingdom moments where it really shines above the other Disney Parks...a real example of "The Magic of Walt Disney World".