Silver Anniversary Trip, Day 13

[spencem]

Friday, January 24th, EPCOT and Teppan Edo

Today’s plan was nice and simple with us at Epcot all day, with a break away from the park in the afternoon as normal. We had Fastpasses booked for Spaceship Earth, Frozen and Living with the Land this morning and an ADR for Teppan Edo at 6pm.

That first Fastpass was for 10am to 11am and so we didn’t rush out of the door, leaving the hotel about a quarter to 10. Since Epcot is the closest park to Port Orleans we were parked up and walking in just a few minutes later.


Legally required golf ball photo.

Other than security we found our first queue of the day at the restrooms by Spaceship Earth. Brian and I got off quite lightly, but the ladies waited a fair few minutes to even get inside the restroom building. Back from that adventure we bypassed the sizeable standby line and I took this picture at 10:07.


This is a fantastic bit of art, it’s almost a shame that the queue moves fast at this point and so you can’t pause to take it all in.

Our ride paused a bit as we first got on, then stopped for much longer as we started up the initial hill. A couple of cast members walked past us and obviously did something further up as we then started moving again, only to pause again. The rest of the ride progressed smoothly until we started to descend and we paused again for a fair few minutes. By this time Sandra was getting rather desperate to get back to the restroom and decided as we finally saw the unload station that the quickest way to get off would be to stand up and cause the ride operator to hit the emergency stop button. Luckily, they didn’t whack the button and cause another shut down and rather took the option of shouting at the stupid tourist long enough for the door to open. I checked my watch when we exited at a more dignified pace and it was 11:06. Is 59 minutes a new record for Spaceship Earth?

Once Sandra was back from her jog we made our way around the construction walls and up toward World Showcase. With another bit of amazing navigation we managed to go the long way round and via The Land Pavilion rather than the Test Track side. This error was even more obvious when I said I wanted to visit the Epcot change exhibition and we had to double back on ourselves to get to the Festival Centre.

We had a chat sometime about now and decided that we didn’t want to walk all the way back to do Living with the Land again when we’d been on Frozen as we’d done it the other evening. Sadly, this also meant that we would once again not be doing the Behind the Seeds tour that Julia and I have wanted to do since about 2006. Instead we decided to do a lunchtime graze around the festival booths of World Showcase.


We’d never been in here before.

The presentation is really well done, with a huge projection mapped model lighting up to highlight what the massive circular wall screen is showing. I could have stayed a lot longer, but the others were less interested with Brian staying with me the longest.


Guardians of the Galaxy section.


The full overview.

EPCOT is certainly going to look very different in a couple of years, with I think most of the changes being positive. Obviously access to the new viewing platform thing is going to be an upcharge, but the rest of it should also be a change for the better.


There are not many views of Future World remaining free of construction walls.

With our long voyage on Spaceship Earth and the visit to see all the coming changes our FastPass window for Frozen was well and truly open, so that’s where we headed next.


Some of Norway remains.


Some very excited children, young and old.

I wanted to take a look at the much-recommended bakery in Norway, but in the end didn’t get anything. Julia really liked the look of the ham and apple sandwiches, but on discovering they are not available on the dining plan decided she wasn’t going to pay for food when we could eat for free. Sandra and Brian did get one of the almond Kringla and were kind enough to share a piece, which was lovely, but I didn’t want to start on deserts before my mains and didn’t get anything. I know I could have carried something around with me for later, but couldn’t be bothered with all that faf.


I wandered outside while Sandra paid and found this chap tending his rooftop garden.

Our next food stop was in China where I had the Spicy Beef Shumai, which were delicious and Julia had a Char Siu Pork bun that she really enjoyed.


The beef, you really had to eat these in one bite, which was a bit of a stretch.


Julia’s bun looking a bit lost on the big plate.


As close as we came to China, since their new film didn’t open until we’d gone home.

Next up was an old favourite, the Beef short rib from Germany. Having suffered food envy when Julia had one of these a few days ago I got myself one as well today. I also got one of the Saint-Honore Tarts to share as a desert and then converted a Quick Service credit to pay for the three snacks.


The beef was outstanding.


The caramel tart, the balls are cream puffs.

Once Julia and I had eaten we left Sandra and Brian on the bench overlooking the lagoon where we’d eaten for a while and took a walk around the Steffi shop in Germany. Well we did once we’d found it. First we found ourselves in the crystal area.


For some reasons Brian didn’t want to get this for Sandra, for 9,500 reasons actually.

We realised we were in the wrong set of shops and so took a walk across the plaza. I stopped and took a quick photo to send to the German engineering boss of a customer, I’ll not repeat his reply.


Apparently not a typical Germen town, who’d have guessed?

We found what Julia was looking for, a Steffi rabbit for her friend who also runs a pet sitting service and was looking after some of Julia’s customers. Although they are technically competitors they often refer customers back and forth if one is full or away or ill. Julia also saw they sold Gonks in a different part of the shop and was transported back to her childhood. Needless to say one came home with us.

Shopping done we returned to Sandra and Brian enjoying their bench in the sun. Sandra had been looking at show times and suggested we walked up to the American pavilion to catch the performance of Voices of Liberty starting soon. Having never seen them that sounded like a good idea and so we strolled in that direction. We of course paused for a restroom by the train set where the village was being overrun by the lizard people.


They are so fast it is difficult to photograph them, but there were geckos all over the display.

When we got around to Italy we discovered they had some special backdrops up for the festival. Let’s just say that my darling wife was never an art student…


I wonder if Leonardo considered this pose before going for the famous one?


Sandra’s attempts to explain the concept while we swapped places were in vain.

Sandra and Brian got some better posed pictures and then we moved on toward the American pavilion. On the way we passed the coffee hut and Brian and I went to get a drink. I asked for a decaf only to get a very blunt “We don’t do decaf” back from someone behind the server. Normally I might have taken a regular drink, but clearly they were not in the mood to serve guests and so I walked away. We still had a few minutes before the show, but already the benches in front of where the group would stand were taken. No matter we took a seat on the ones behind and then I took a slow walk around the room admiring the various pictures. When the group started singing I made my way over in front of them.


Sandra in the background no doubt too busy telling Facebook she’s watching the show to actually watch the show.

Julia and I were going to head back for our afternoon rest, except we were now on the exact opposite side of the park to our car. No matter we set off for the stroll back. Sandra and Brian came with us as far as the UK pavilion where we left them on some benches planning to meet up at the restaurant later.


Paris was its usual busy self.

We left the park about half two and were back at Port Orleans just before 3pm.


It was warmer today, the plants had lost their frost protection.

I booked us all lunch in the Skipper Canteen for our last Disney day on Sunday. I sent Sandra a message asking if they wanted to join us, despite having to pay out of pocket. I didn’t get a reply, but booked them anyway thinking I could adjust it down to two people later if they said no.

Once we had had our nap I went over to reception to sort out our meal credits and collect some of our packages we’d had sent back to the resort. Thankfully there was no queue and I was quickly seen by a very helpful guy. He brought up the Tiffins meal on the system and couldn’t work out how they had managed to take six credits instead of four. He said they sometime see restaurants double charge when wait staff have issues with their terminals and double tap, but this was the first time he’d seen a charge and a half. He poked around a bit and then typed the first 30 chapters of War and Peace, apologising that he had to make copious notes for a refund. For the inconvenience of having to come and sort everything out he actually refunded me four credits and not just the two we’d been overcharged, which I thought was very generous. This meant Sandra and Brian wouldn’t need to pay out of pocket for Skipper Canteen after all.

While I was at the desk I also settled our room bill up until that point with the remaining balances on our gift cards. I then called into the shop and got my mug from our Animal Kingdom shopping a couple of days ago before calling in the Float Works to fill my resort mug with something green and unhealthy from the Coke Freestyle machine.

Julia and I got back to EPCOT about 5pm and with an hour to get over to the Japan pavilion decided to take in the new film in Canada, what had opened a few days ago. I’d seen the old one a couple of years back, but at night and so had never explored the pavilion in daylight. I was surprised Julia came into the film as she’s not great with circle vision and usually falls over, she said that since she was sitting on the ECV she’d have a better chance of staying upright.


Winter in this version of Canada is rather different to the real thing.

We both enjoyed the new film and I think the upgraded projectors certainly improve the image quality. I didn’t know the old film well enough to comment if this new one is ‘better’ but I’d say it is good to see a more up to date version of Canada.

We did think about trying to see one of the other new films in the park, but time was getting on and we needed to get across to Japan.


As close as we came to the new French film.


The World Showcase pavilions certainly look the part.


We’d exchanged messages with Sandra and they were watching for us from the wall under the tower.


I’ve only just noticed the Photopass photographer, I wonder why we didn’t get a picture?

When Sandra checked us in for our ADR she was told there would be a 15 to 20 minute wait and so Julia and I went to explore the department store having never really done so. We’d just made it to the back of the shop when my phone pinged with a message from Sandra saying our table was ready. We headed back, but not before she’d dispatched Brian to hunt us down. I then had to back track to hunt him down as his phone wasn’t on. Apparently the restaurant were a bit grumpy we were not all standing waiting to go in together, maybe they shouldn’t have told us it would be 15 minutes and then called us in 5?

Once we got taken to our table we were put with two couples, one older and the other on their honeymoon, along with a lady on her own. A manager came and confirmed mine and Sandra’s allergies and our drinks orders were taken. Sandra and I both elected to try something very different, a shandy made with Kirin beer and orange juice rather than 7-up. It sounds weird, but tasted really good. The one thing we were not expecting was the fresh orange and juicer to finish making it ourselves.


you know the juice is fresh!

Once everyone had ordered, as I expected the manager re-appeared and said my meal would be cooked out the back as those around me had ordered seafood and everything is cooked on the same surface. None of our table mates were on the dining plan and some of them ordered appetisers, which were quickly served. Our chef soon came over and started cooking the mains while the appetisers were eaten. He was friendly enough and very skilled with his knife, but quite loud banging his implements together and on the griddle. I had the chicken and Julia the beef, I really enjoyed mine, but Julia says hers tasted of shrimp more than beef. I’m sure when we ate here last time the rice was flavoured with something, but tonight it was just plain boiled rice.

The older couple ate quite slowly, but that didn’t stop the server taking desert orders while they were still eating, nor indeed from serving the deserts while they were still enjoying their mains. The younger couple didn’t want desert and so they got given their bill before their plates were cleared even. We very much got the impression the restaurant wanted us gone as soon as possible.

I ordered the ginger mouse cake for desert while Julia just had the vanilla ice cream. When they came out it was obvious our server had noticed our anniversary badges.


Have you ever seen a candle in ice cream?


The more common application of a celebratory candle.

Once we’d finished our meals we signed our bills, said our goodbyes to our remaining table mates and made our way over to the American Garden Theatre to see that night’s Disney On Broadway show. As we made our way to the back of the queue so they opened the seating area up and so we never stopped walking until we got to the cast member who took us down to the disabled area. The show has different performers and presumably different songs depending on when you see it. This evening we had Kissy Simmons and Alton Fitzgerald White, who were both excellent as you’d expect. We also got great seats, as did everyone else there early. There were still people coming into the very back and edges just before the show started, but those of us there at opening got great seats.


Not a bad view at all.


Kissy Simmons, Nala in the US tour cast of Lion King.


Alton Fitzgerald White, Mufasa for an incredible 4,308 performances on Broadway.

The show was excellent. As you’d expect with these two the music was mainly from Lion King but they sang some other things as well. The whole thing was very well done with the band being great also.

Halfway through the show my phone had rung but I’d managed to ditch the call quite quickly. Looking the number up after the show it was probably our insurance company. The same number called me a few times over the next few days, but it would either stop ringing before I could answer it, go dead when I answered it or on a couple of occasions I could hear background noise and then it cut out. It was only because I’d looked the number up and seen it was an outsourced call centre sometimes used by Columbus that I didn’t block it. Eventually someone did speak to me from the number and they just wanted to check Julia was still healthy and out of hospital. It was nice of them to check, but they need to sort their call centre out so they only dial enough customers to actually talk to at any one time.

The show was longer than I’d thought it would be and so by the time it was finished there was only just enough time for one more attraction before the park closed. It says much about the fireworks show that we didn’t find ourselves a spot to watch that and rather went off to see if we could get to the Land Pavilion before park close. I had said about seeing the new Beauty and the Beast film in France, but Sandra and Brian had seen it while we had been napping that afternoon and said a nap would have been preferable.


Time for a quick snap passing Japan, note just a few people waiting for fireworks with 25 minutes to go.

As we passed the France festival booth I saw they did macaroons, but one menu showed the snack credit icon while a different one didn’t. Since there was hardly a queue I stopped and asked to find they were indeed a snack credit. I got a box and they were delicious, but not quite $8.99 for three tiny treats delicious had I needed to pay cash for them.

We got quite tight for time by the time we got all the way down to Future World and I feared Julia wouldn’t make the show when she said she really needed to visit the restroom before sitting. We other three made our way over to the theatre where we had to go inside without Julia as the film started. As it happened the cast member let her in after the film had started since she knew we hade been waiting for her and there were only 3 other groups in the whole cinema.


No wait for the last show of the night, despite being brand new.

This is a good film and the image quality outstanding, if you are there in the summer it’ll make a great attraction in the air conditioning or out of the rain. I doubt the local Republican Party and especially the Trump supporters are big fans since the message is defiantly not ‘we should destroy the planet to make money’.

We got out just as the fireworks finished and so had a head start on many leaving the parks. As we came down the ramp out of the Land pavilion we noticed groups walking down toward Nemo and realised the new pathway must have opened between there and the exit. We’d not seen it open earlier, but I doubt Disney opened it up with guests in the parks so it must have been.


Sadly no monorail put an appearance in.


Our fishy friends were on their way to bed.


Clearly not many people realised this path was open.

We had no issues getting out of the park, or indeed the parking lot and were back in our resort by about 9:50 for an early night.


Back to the index.

[mick]

Another brilliant day


Joan

[spencem]

Originally Posted by mick

Another brilliant day


Joan

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Thanks.

[Ivegottadream]

Munching around the world is the best, isn't it? We didn't love Teppan Edo either, but I'm glad we tried it.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Ivegottadream

Munching around the world is the best, isn't it? We didn't love Teppan Edo either, but I'm glad we tried it.

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Munching around the world has certainly improved our appreciation of Epcot no end.

[Palm trees]

What a great day. Your last three photos (especially the ones of spaceship earth) are really lovely. I wish I was there now!

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

What a great day. Your last three photos (especially the ones of spaceship earth) are really lovely. I wish I was there now!

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Yes it was a good simple day.

I wish I was there as well, so much I found myself looking at flight prices for next year earlier. I'm not going to book until the world starts travelling again, but prices are really low.