Thursday, December 30, 2021- Epcot

    We saved Epcot for the last day, and like yesterday, we got to ride the Skyliner to get there. Scott and Abby walked ahead on the scenic route along the water. They bought Joffrey's coffee for the in-laws while they waited for the others to arrive on the shuttle bus. The scenic route wasn't that scenic today though because there was a fog and cloudy skies. The fog burned off as the morning went on, but it was hard to see from the Skyliner. There is one point that the route makes a turn, and the gondola comes into what looks like a station. We weren't sure if we had arrived at Epcot or not, but the gondola continued on. After maybe ten minutes, the "Eiffel Tower" appeared from out of the fog. The Skyliner approaches Epcot from the side entrance, so we passed over part of France and entered at the International Gateway instead of passing under Spaceship Earth as we usually would. As resort guests, we had early entry into the park. The World Showcase wasn't open, but there was a stand that was selling doughnuts, so we stopped for a bit in Canada and ate there while Abby ran and played. It was a peaceful morning because there were only a few people around.

    We arrived at the Journey Into Imagination just after it had opened so we hopped on the ride there. Actually, Julie's dad was rolled onto it. He would use his wheelchair on several of the rides today. The cast members assisted us onto the special cars built to accommodate the wheelchair, its occupant and the rest of the party. Figment, the playful purple dragon, has long been a favorite of Julie's, and Abby seemed to like him too. She was very intrigued by the ride and had a good time on it. She also had fun playing in the area after the ride, where she could make sounds by stepping on certain spots on the floor.

     We continued on to the Living Seas pavilion where we rode the Finding Nemo ride.  Like Molly at Allears.net has said, any ride that takes you through a Disney movie is a good one, and this is a calm ride under the "sea."  The fish characters are projected in such a way that they look like they are swimming with the real fish in the aquarium behind them.  Abby had been so active that morning, though, that she used this ride for a nap.   After the ride, we looked at the real-life manatees and eels before moving from the Living Seas to the Land.

     Once again, we scheduled an early lunch.  We didn't have a mobile order placed this time, but we like eating in the Land because of the choices we have here and the amount of tables that there are.  Julie and Emma, for example, got stir fry and Scott had an actual lunch of flatbread pizza instead of a bar.

     Our first Lightning Lane was for Soarin' Around the World, and this is certainly one of our favorite rides.  It makes it feel like you are gliding over famous landmarks.  There is a height requirement, though, so Abby had to sit this one out.   Julie's mom, though, doesn't like this ride at all because she bothered by heights.  She has ridden it before and said she did it with her eyes closed.  She volunteered to stay behind with Abby. 

     To finish the front of the park, we went past Spaceship Earth and got our Superzoom photo taken by a Disney photographer in front of the iconic Spaceship Earth.  We took a rest by the fountain and Abby tried very hard to get into it.  Then we used another Lightning Lane to ride Spaceship Earth itself.  Abby was ok with this ride and watched the scenes as we rode up and down the winding tracks.   It has been changed a few times but is still basically the story of the history of communication that it started out to be.  One subtle difference is that we still get our pictures taken when the ride begins, but it doesn't seem to do anything with them.  At one point, the pictures were superimposed into a little customized cartoon about the future that is shown as the car descends at the end of the ride.  You still see the cartoon now, but it uses generic cartoon faces now.  Maybe that's because everyone looks alike with their masks on.

    It's relatively quick for us to finish the front of the park now.  There's a lot of construction happening, with temporary barrier walls placed throughout.  Half of what used to be CommuniCore is gone and construction is happening there, with a backhoe scooping dirt as a we watched.  What used to be the Universe of Energy is currently being redone as a Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  (That seems out of place in the old version of Epcot as sort of a permanent world's fair, but it seems that the trend here is to add as many more trademarked characters on the rides as possible).   We didn't have an interest in Test Track or Mission: Space, so we skipped that whole side of the front of the park.  We went to the new store called "Creations," (which seemed to have lost something of the old "Epcot-ish" feel in favor of being trendy).  The big attraction for Abby a small splash pad play area where she got good and wet but had fun cooling off.  They didn't have any shorts for sale in Creations, at least not any that were her size, so she spent the rest of the day in a shirt and diapers.

     We were ready to go to World Showcase and visit the countries now.  Scott went ahead and found the golden anniversary statues for this park, which means he found all 50 characters.  He then went to Starbucks to get Julie and Emma their usual- two trenta strawberry refreshers, light ice, no berries.

    We went counterclockwise around the countries this time because Scott wanted to make sure that he saw the new movie in Canada.  He has not liked the movie in Canada since they changed it from the original one that featured the music of Stan Rogers and replaced it with the goofiness of Martin Short.  The new version is the third movie shown here.  It is still in Circle-Vision and surrounds you, and we did recognize several shots reused from the earlier films.  There are two generic sounding narrators now with a bland orchestra score.  The movie mentions that the Atlantic provinces have a unique music voice, but doesn't play anything there to demonstrate it.  There are also a number of geographic mistakes that we caught.  The movie says that Toronto is "west" of Niagara Falls.  That's hard to explain and pretty obviously wrong.  A few minutes later, it talks about outdoor activities outside of Calgary, but one of the images being shown is clearly Niagara Falls again.  It was an ok film. but Scott still misses Stan Rogers's song about the Bluenose that was in the original.  At least this new film does keep the song, "Canada (You're a Lifetime Journey)" in a new, but well-done rendition.

    While we were in Canada, we started this year's version of the "Beers and Desserts Around the World" tour.   Scott enjoyed a Belgian-style ale from Quebec called Blanche Chambly. Emma started her deserts with a maple Bûche de Noël (Yule log).  Later, she said it was her favorite desert of the day.

    Our next stop was the United Kingdom, where Scott first got a Bass ale.   Emma couldn't find anywhere for a desert here, so she and Scott went into the Rose and Crown Pub together.   The very British sounding barkeep said that there really wasn't any deserts available and she should try France.  He did mention a sticky toffee pudding, though, so she got that.  Meanwhile, Scott noticed the souvenir mugs, so he got a second drink here, a Harp lager.  For some reason Emma pudding seemed to be forgotten but we finally got it.  She and Julie said that they liked the custard part of it better than the toffee part.

    We had been trying to time our arrival in France to correspond to the Individual Lightning Lane that we purchased for the new Ratatouille ride.  It's only a few weeks old and was sure to have a long line.  Like the Rise of the Resistance ride, it one of the "Fancy rides" that you have to pay even more for a Lightning Lane spot.  We probably lost our money from the Rise of Resistance yesterday (although Julie still plans to complain about it), she was excited enough about Ratatouille that she paid for a spot today.  Imagine our concern when, as we were arriving here in our time window, a crowd of people was leaving and saying that the ride was down.  Were we about to lose that money too?  

     While we were wating, it was approaching 4:00, so Julie decided to take her parents down a few country to the "Regal Eagle" at the American pavilion and make sure that they ate.  Emma and Scott went instead for beer and desserts.  This time, Scott got a Kronenbourg 1664 (which he's gotten here before) and Emma got a Crème Brûlée and a Napoleon.  They took that to the American building and joined up with everyone else again.  There was a large musical presentation happening on the stage in front of the American building.  It was a formal Christmas program, with a narrator reading Biblical passages about the Christmas story while the large choir sang familiar carols.  Later that evening, Pat Sajak of the Wheel of Fortune was the guest narrator, and we saw him on the stage briefly.

      We went back to France and were relieved to see that the Ratatouille ride was up and running again.  As a ride, it has a lot in common with the new ride at Hollywood Studios, Mickey and Minnie''s Runaway Railway.  Both have state-of-the-art vehicles that run without tracks and can move independently in many directions.  Both use that technology to create a feeling of chaos and excitement.  In the case of Ratatouille, it is to make you feel like you are the size of a rat and running through the kitchen and restaurant.  Even though she was ok with the Mickey and Minnie ride, Abby did NOT like this one and screamed through it.  Maybe she was ok with the other one because she knew Mickey and Minnie,   Or maybe she just likes mice better than rats.

     Continuing on through the countries,  in Japan, Julie and Emma shared a Mont Blanc Tart which is described as a "Matcha mousse tart with a sweet red bean center sprinkled with konpeito sugar candy."  Both Julie and Emma hated it, but Abby liked it and finished it off for them.  Scott got a 6 oz rice lager.  He figured that getting a 6 oz one was OK because he had doubled up in Britain.  

     Morocco was next.  Scott got a beer called 1906 which doesn't seem to have anything to do with Morocco specifically.  He found out later that it is from nearby Galatia in Spain, so it's not that far removed and still foreign.  He had a choice of light or dark and went with light.  Emma chose an almond spice cake.

     We were now back at the American pavillion.  Julie and her folks went inside to got in to the theater while Scott and Emma sought out their treats.  Scott found Bell's Bright White Ale from Comstock, Michigan, and Emma got a pumpkin gingerbread cheesecake.  She said it tasted and felt like eating pumpkin pie.  They finished their treats and went inside to join the others for the American Adventure show.  The half-hour show is a favorite, hosted by animatronics of Ben Franklin and Mark Twain and featuring many moments in American History.  Even so, there were very few people in the theater.  We're not saying that anyone there used the time for a nap (but they probably did).

     After the American Adventure, Julie and her folks decided to turn towards the Skyliner and head back to the Carribean Beach Resort to call it a night.   Emma and Scott continued on their trek through World Showcase, but it couldn't last long.  It was already after 9:00 and the official close time for the park was 10:00.   They skipped Italy and went directly to Germany where they wanted to do some shopping.  Scott got a König Ludwig Weissbier, but Emma regretfully decided that she had enough.  She cried "uncle" because the sugar was starting to give her a stomach ache.   Scott said he was done then too, for similar reasons.  Neither wanted to actually throw up.  That meant Scott had a beer in 7 out of the 11 countries this time leaving Italy, Norway, China and Mexico undone.  Emma pointed out, that's 64%.  Since Emma hadn't done Germany, her official count was 6 out of 11, or 55%.  

    Scott and Emma each did some shopping then.  Scott got something for Noah before leaving Germany, and Emma went back to the Creations store at the front of the park to pick up somethings she had seen earlier, including a Pizza Planet sweatshirt for herself.  They met up again by the Skyliner and went back to the hotel too and got out of the park before the fireworks started.  Scott wanted some real food, so they ordered a pizza from the restaurant at the resort.  Scott started to walk the half-mile to pick it up, but half way there, he realized he made the same mistake he did a few nights earlier and  had left his mask in the room.  A bellhop gave him one he could use and then offered him ride back to the room so that the pizza would arrive warm.  Scott thanked him and tipped him, and ended up eating most of the pizza himself.  It's been long time since Scott ate so much pizza.  He wasn't hung over the next morning, but he did feel the effects of eating so much.