EPCOT - part 1

We got up a little early this morning to arrive at EPCOT before the park opened at 9 am because we had to exchange our 4-day resident pass receipts for our actual tickets. We parked around 8:15 am and wandered to the will call booth to get our tickets before standing in line at the turnstiles where we waited to enter EPCOT. It was so cool to see Spaceship Earth (the big silver “golf ball”) again after more than 5 years! Eventually we were let in, watched the opening ceremony, and followed the crowd towards the Land pavilion to ride Soarin’ (probably one of my favorite rides). We walked right on and waited for the front row. After riding Soarin’ we got some fast passes for later before we rode another one of my favorite rides: Living with the Land. I really like seeing all the plants and fish on this ride – it is also really relaxing and quiet! After riding Living with the Land, Carlos and I ate a small “breakfast” at Sunshine Seasons (also in the Land pavilion). I had a healthy breakfast of vanilla crème brulée and Carlos had some coffee.

We left the Land and rode Spaceship Earth (really fun and updated since our last visit a few years ago) then we wandered to the Living Seas pavilion. We rode the Seas with Nemo and Friends and visited the aquaria while waiting for our fast pass time for Soarin’ to roll around. I especially liked seeing the manatees and cuttlefish in the aquaria.

We rode Soarin’ again (in the third row – not as fun as the first row!) then walked across Future World to Test Track to grab some more fast passes for after lunch.

At this time the World Showcase was open, so we walked to Mexico for lunch at the San Angel Inn (~noon). Lunch here was very good and the ambiance was awesome – it was like we were sitting inside a cool Mexican village in front of a Mayan temple at night! I had tostadas de tinga and Carlos had the traditional Mexican lunch with sopa Azteca, skirt steak, and flan. My favorite food from the lunch was definitely the sopa Azteca. After lunch, we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour (with the three caballeros) in Mexico then headed back to Test Track.

I had never ridden Test Track before and it was pretty fun, though there was one big curve that we took really fast that was a little intense! Next we rode Journey Into Imagination. I used to like this ride (and my sister LOVED it), but now it is really lame! At least the little purple dragon (Figment) is cute, but Carlos and I decided that this was the worst ride in all of Disney World.

With that, we had finished everything that we wanted to do in Future World and it was time to venture into the World Showcase – tune in next time for part 2 of our EPCOT adventure!