{"id":12441,"date":"2014-10-01T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T00:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12441"},"modified":"2014-09-30T18:31:52","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T18:31:52","slug":"carys-adventures-in-the-magic-kingdom-part-1-epcot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/01\/carys-adventures-in-the-magic-kingdom-part-1-epcot\/","title":{"rendered":"Cary’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Part 1: Epcot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"EPCOT<\/a>Hey folks. Last week I went on vacation to Disney World with my dad\u2019s side of the family, and I took tons of pictures and did lots of things.\u00a0 So I decided to share them in a week-long blog series!\u00a0 Since Epcot has always been my favorite of the parks, and we did that first, we\u2019ll start with that.<\/p>\n

Now keep in mind that I didn\u2019t take pictures of EVERYTHING there. Just the stuff that was new and interesting to me.\u00a0 We all know what Spaceship Earth looks like (the ball), or the castle at the Magic Kingdom looks like.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t, you\u2019re on the internet so you can do a search for them after you read my articles.\u00a0 Plus, one of the bad things about the trip is that it rained every freaking day we were there, so I didn\u2019t have my camera out at all times to take pictures.\u00a0 Now, it\u2019s not as bad as it sounds.\u00a0 It only rained for a small part of each day, and it did cool things off.\u00a0 But I did get tired of having to mess with a poncho all the time and have wet shoes and soggy socks at the end of the day.\u00a0 But oh well, let\u2019s get started!<\/p>\n

The cool thing is that since we stayed on campus, we were in walking distance from our hotel to Epcot. So we walked right into the middle of the park near World Showcase.\u00a0 See, Epcot has two parts: Future World has a lot of science-type rides, and World Showcase has pavilions representing various countries.\u00a0 I always liked World Showcase because even though it\u2019s been criticized as being simulated culture, it\u2019s still fun to see the buildings and eat at the restaurants and see the shops.\u00a0 For example, here\u2019s a picture of the outside of Mexico.\u00a0 The inside is cool, too, as they made it look like a nighttime marketplace with a restaurant and little boat ride.<\/p>\n

\"MEXICO\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Norway is one of the newer countries to be added to the showcase (well I remember when it was new), and it has a fun boat ride called the Maelstrom. I liked the part where it looks like you\u2019re about to go over a waterfall, so here\u2019s a picture of that.\u00a0 But that\u2019ll be the last time I get to ride that one, because I hear they are changing it to be a Frozen ride.\u00a0 Too bad, but as much as I like the Maelstrom, it is certainly in need of an update.<\/p>\n

\"NORWAY\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For lunch we ate at the German restaurant there. I took German in high school and college, and I used to be able to talk to the waitresses and waiters in German then, but I don\u2019t remember as much now.\u00a0 On stage they had an Oktoberfest style band.\u00a0 At one point they played those horns you hear in those Ricolla commercials.<\/p>\n

\"HORNS\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think my favorite country this trip was Japan, though. They had a neat shop with video game and anime items, and they didn\u2019t jack up the prices, either.\u00a0 They had a ton of Studio Ghibli stuff, too.\u00a0 They also had Taiko drum performances, but I missed that, unfortunately.\u00a0 There was also a neat museum of Japanese mythical monsters and creatures, and I took a picture of the tanuki exhibit because they had a plush toy of Tom Nook from Animal Crossing in there!\u00a0 And if you look nearby, you can kind of see a shirt that has Tanuki Mario on it, too!<\/p>\n

\"TANUKI\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One special event they had going on during our stay was the Food and Wine Festival at the World Showcase. I wasn\u2019t really impressed with that, though, because who wants to spend 6 bucks or more for three bites of food and a drink at each station?\u00a0 I did take a picture of a cool Mickey topiary, though.<\/p>\n

\"MICKEY<\/a><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s really all the main things we did in the World Showcase. We did see the Illuminations fireworks show one night, and they did have concerts for the Food and Wine Festival, and we heard The Pointer Sisters and The Commodores for a bit.<\/p>\n

OK, now onto Future World! The cool thing is that even though some of the rides are really old, they try and add a little something new to each one.\u00a0 For instance, Spaceship Earth added a touch screen to the ride so you can design your own cartoon future, and they take your picture and put it in the scenes!\u00a0 Universe of Energy (the dinosaur ride) added popular celebrities like Ellen and Bill Nye, although I remember them doing that when I was in Disney World 15 years ago.\u00a0 I\u2019m a little sad they changed Journey Into Imagination, as it\u2019s not as good.\u00a0 But at least it still has Figment, who is one of my favorite Disney characters.\u00a0 As they are both purple dragons, Figment and Spyro remind me of each other.\u00a0 At the souvenir shop I got a Figment comic book!<\/p>\n

One of my favorite rides has always been The Living Seas, as it\u2019s just a big aquarium that you go through, and I like aquariums. They added Finding Nemo characters since I was there last, which I\u2019m cool with because Finding Nemo is one of my favorite PIXAR moves.\u00a0 They had the characters in the trees as you walked past.<\/p>\n

\"NEMO1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I also liked the seagulls on the sign near the entrance. Every so often a wave would come by and you\u2019d hear them go \u201cMine! Mine! Mine!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEMO2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the theme parks, one of the things you can do is find \u2018hidden Mickeys\u2019 all over the place, in areas where you would least expect them. With help from my brother Caleb, we spotted one in the aquarium, so I took a picture of it.\u00a0 Unfortunately you can\u2019t see it as well because a group of fish photobombed my shot!\u00a0 Darn ol\u2019 fish!<\/p>\n

\"FISH\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the brand new rides we went on (new for me anyway) was Mission: Space. They put you in a small little room that simulates being in a spaceship.\u00a0 They give you a joystick and buttons to push, so that was cool.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t like being in small spaces, I recommend skipping this ride as it was pretty cramped in there.\u00a0 I thought the entrance was cool so I took a picture of it.\u00a0 I bet it looked really neat at night.<\/p>\n

\"SPACE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We also rode Test Track, which I loved.\u00a0 I had seen it there before, but it was so new at the time that the line was always way too long.\u00a0 So I was glad to ride it this time.\u00a0 It\u2019s not scary; it just simulated riding in a really fast race car!\u00a0 If I owned Disney World, I would change it to be a Ridge Racer ride!<\/p>\n

And finally we went to The Land, which had a few changes and a few things that had stayed the same. The new ride there was called Soarin\u2019, which put you in seats were your legs dangled down, and put you close to a movie screen so it looked like you were flying.\u00a0 It was neat, but I\u2019m sad they took out my favorite thing from The Land as a kid: Kitchen Cabaret.\u00a0 It was just an animatronic show starring singing food, but it cracked me up as a kid.<\/p>\n

Speaking of The Land, one other night we came back to Epcot to have dinner there at The Garden Grill, which ended up being my favorite restaurant we went to on the whole trip! It\u2019s a round revolving restaurant, so the scenery changes over time, and costumed characters like Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale come out to greet you.\u00a0 Here is Farmer Mickey at our table.\u00a0 The picture of Pluto came out too blurry, sorry.<\/p>\n

\"MICKEY\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chip and Dale have always been my favorite Disney characters, as I used to know someone who helped create them. And Rescue Rangers was my favorite of the Disney Afternoon cartoons.\u00a0 So it was fun to be a kid again and get my picture taken with them here.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Chip:<\/p>\n

\"CHIP\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And Dale:<\/p>\n

\"DALE\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course the best part was the food. They bring platters out to you and it\u2019s like a Thanksgiving dinner.\u00a0 There was salad and bread, turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, and veggies.\u00a0 But the best part was the beef.\u00a0 It was SO GOOD and the waiter said they marinade it for a full day!\u00a0 I ate a ton of it.\u00a0 Next time I go to Disney World, I totally want to eat there again!<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for Epcot. Tomorrow we\u2019ll look at what I did at The Magic Kingdom, and Mickey\u2019s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey folks. Last week I went on vacation to Disney World with my dad\u2019s side of the family, and I took tons of pictures and did lots of things.\u00a0 So I decided to share them in a week-long blog series!\u00a0 Since Epcot has always been my favorite of the parks, and we did that first, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12441"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12444,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12441\/revisions\/12444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}