This vacation was booked and planned between November and January. So it gained even more meaning when we were suprised that we were pregnant with our first child at the end of January. Meaning that this would be the last trip Kiera and I would take without having any children. It also required some changes to our original plans and a whole lot more required documentation as anyone over 25 weeks pregnant are not allowed to go on cruises. Luckly we would only be about 18 weeks along at the time.
You may have noticed that I did not do a blog about our 3rd Anniversary. This was because we decided to save the money and spend it on this trip by adding a day to go to a theme park. Although we would have loved to go back to the Universal Orlando Resort (especially the Wizarding World of Harry Potter) the fact was that the Universal parks are NOT Pregnant friendly what so ever. So we decided go to a Disney World park instead. Although the Magic Kingdom had more things that Kiera could go on while Pregnant we eventually settled on going to Epcot because it had the LEAST that Kiera would have to sit out. Also 95% of the rides there you can't ride at other Disney parks.
Our trip would start on Thursday April 28th, 2011. Unlike our past trips our flight wouldn't be leaving Salt Lake until the afternoon. It was a different change of pace but was really nice as we had time to get to the airport and get some food before our flight left. It wasn't too cold this day if I recall right but the mountains were still snowcapped. It was neat watching the scenery change from Snow Capped Mountains to flat desert as we flew to our layover which would be in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Or flight from New Mexico would be a memorable one as we had an excellent flight crew that were very nice and extremely funny. What was the neatest thing i've ever seen while flying though was the birthday celebration they did for a young boy who was on the flight. They dimmed the light and called him up to the front where they made him a birthday cake and crown out of toilet paper and cocktail swords. They then sang happy birthday to him while everybody rang there attendent bells. It was so neat to see and be a part of it.
The bad thing about leaving later in the afternoon though is arriving later at night. We finally landed in Orlando at around 10pm. We hoped we would have made it before the Universal store in the airport closed so that we could get some Harry Potter goodies but it was unfortunatly closed already. After getting our luggage we procceded to get our rental car which for some reason took nearly 45 minutes to get. But once we got our little Chevy Aveo we were ready to find some dinner. Which we finally did at a Burger King near the Universal Orlando resort. We did have to drive thru and around the resort as it did feel like home to us as we visited it on our past two trips. It was almost like we had a feeling that we were cheating on it lol.
Our hotel was about 20 minutes away and was just barely off the Disney World property. It was a Baymont Inn and I got an amazing rate on it thru Hotwire.com. We learned not to cheap out on hotels in Florida so we won't book anything under a 3 star. This hotel turned out to be great. It was very nice. The lobby was very classy and the room was quite, updated, and very clean. They even offered a free breakfast which wasn't the best but hey it was free so no complaining here. Of course the timeshare people will try to hound you but thats nothing new as we've experianced that at every Orlando area hotel we've stayed at.
The next morning we would arrive at Epcot. A park that I hadn't been to since 1993 and Kiera since 1997. It was such a great site to see that giant orb known as Spaceship earth as we drove thru the parking lot. After parking we bought our tickets and soon entered the park slightly before the official opening. We got to the furtherest point we could right before whats known as the "rope drop". It was cute as they have the main characters out to like officially open the park for the day.
Upon the park opening we (as long as everybody waiting) made our way to the Land Pavillion to ride Sorin (yes the same Sorin over california ride at the Disneyland Resort). Sorin is said to be the busiest ride in the entire Disney World resort so they say to go on it first thing. We were probably in the first group to ride for the day and we were glad that we did as the line got long really quickly. The ride is exactly the same as the california version. Yes it even ends at Disneyland but its still a fun ride. So fun that as we exited the ride we grabbed Fastpasses to come back and ride again later as it would likely be the most extreme ride Kiera would get to go on all day.
Epcot isn't like your standard theme parks. It really only has two "lands". Theres Future World and theres the World Showcase. The idea was to design it like a permanant worlds fair so each attraction is housed within a Pavillion which has more to offer then your standard ride or film. The Pavilions will have themed interactive areas and also possibly a restuarant or food place of some sort. Epcot was designed to teach you and help you learn about things in additon to entertaining you.
After Sorin we went and saw there characaters and then to the first of 2 rides that Kiera would have to set out on due to being Pregnant. It was also a ride that she missed the opening of by a matter of weeks back in 1997. That ride is Test Track and boy is it an amazing ride. Being a fan of automobiles I think makes me love and appreciate the ride more then the average person. The ride is basically you going thru an automotive testing facility and doing certains tests. It all ends with a high speed test that travels outside the building reacing nearly 70mph and the fastest ride in the Orlando area. It is an amazing ride that I loved so much. Its about to get even better too as Disney will be closing the ride this April for nearly 5 months to referb it. The Test Track Pavillion also has a car show area where theres many different GM vehicles on display to look at.
The next ride was once again another Kiera would have to miss. This one being Mission: Space. A ride so extreme that they had to tame it down and create a mild version as so many people got sick on it. The ride is a motion simulater that simulates an actual space ship launch and travel to Mars. You are in a very small and confined cabin and even have tasks that you must perform. The G forces you experinace on this thing are unlike anything i've ever experianced before. So if you get motion sick very easily or get clostraphobic then this ride might be one that you'd want to skip. Although the ride is really neat and unique so if you can stand it then go on it.
With Kiera back by my side we trecked back across Future World back to the Land Pavillion. Here we could now use our Sorin fastpasses so thats what we first did. After that we did the 2nd ride contained in the Land which is called living with the land. This boat ride teaches you about agriculture and then takes you thru the greenhouses where Disney grows the majority of the stuff that they use in the Resort restaurants. It was really neat to see how they grow everything. There is also another film showin in the Land but we didn't watch it.
We next made out way to the Seas Pavillion which features Nemo and his friends. The ride here is similar to the Nemo Submarine ride at Disneyland but instead of being in a submarine your on a typical standard dark ride passing the the scenes. Although the Epcot version did have some different unique parts such as the nemo characters appearing to be interacting with the real fish in the aquariaum we still thought the Disneyland version was better. The rest of the Pavillion is an aquarium where you can see hundreds of differnt types of sea life. You can even pay to swim with dolphins and scuba dive here. Theres a play area for little kids and the Turtle Talk with Crush show which is amazing for little kids and adults.
We next went to the icon of Epcot. Yes that big white shere. Spaceship Earth. This ride takes you on a ride thru history as you see how communications have changed our lifestyles thruout the ages. Yes thats right. There is a ride in the white ball. I'm still blown away buy it just as much as I was when I was a kid. The ride is long and animatronic heavy and is a classic like the Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean. It is the ride that makes Epcot what it is. Although not thrilling by any means it is a not to miss when at Epcot.
Getting hungry we decided to start heading towards the World Showcase and stopped at another Future World Pavillion on the way. This being the Imagination Pavillion. This was probably the most changed that I could remember (of those still there since 93). The ride wasn't as good as I remembered and the interactive areas afterwords are nowhere as good as they use to be. The ride diffenitly needs an updating although there were still some cool effects inside. The Captain EO show also plays here but we didn't see it at this time.
Awe the World Showcase. This is what really makes Epcot amazing. There are no thrill rides here. In fact theres only 2 rides in the 11 countries. But what Disney has done is simply amazing. Each pavillion represents a country. And each pavillion is athentic to its respective country. So everything from the food to the things you buy in stores are athentic. Even the employees are from those countries.
With how hungry we were were skipped over the first countrywhich was Canada thinking that we would make it back to it later. We found ourselves in Great Britain. We happened to be in Epcot the day that the Royal wedding happened so there were a few minor celebrations taking place because of that. For food we decided on some authentic Fish and chips which were amazingly good. They were even wrapped in newspaper.
We still didn't really look thru the Britain pavillion at this time though and even skipped the next country which was France thinking that we were still hungry. After France though was the first pavillion that we actually took time to explore. This country was Moracco. We wanted to try some Moraccan food but it seemed to expensive for our taist.
Next up was Japan. In addition to probably the largest shop of all the countries it also had a typinyaki style japanese grill and is beatifully landscapped with a coy pond. You can even pay to pick a clam and you get to keep the pearl thats inside.
Next up was America. Here the major attraction is called the American Adventure which I guess is a animatronic heavy show that talks about Americas history. I hear its pretty good but we didn't watch it as we didn't want to wait around for the next show time.
We next found ourselves in Italy which really didn't have a whole lot going on. Theres a Pizzaria restaurant here but other then looking pretty that was really about it.
Germany was next which was much of the same as Italy. Just a restuarant and a huge train set display thing (thats actually kind of neat) was all that was here.
Before you get to the next country you pass thru an area known as the Outpost. Its themed somewhat to an African village with a few African odds and ends for sale. It just seems very temporary as place holder until an actual country pavillion gets built here.
We found ourselves in China next which was fairly large. Theres no ride here but they do have a film about the Chinese culture. Theres also a restaurant and a scalled down display of the tarakata soulders.
Ah Norway was next. Finally one of the 2 countries with a ride. This ride is called Maelstrom and takes you on a ride thru Viking legand with trolls, a backwords section, almost falling off a cliff outside, and finally ending with a drop similar to Pirates of the Caribbean. Dispite having a drop it was still pregnant friendly though so Kiera was fine on it. The line seemed very long but it went by actually pretty quick.
The final country in the world Showcase is Mexico. We joked when we were here that it was interesting that on this trip we would visit Fake Mexico in Epcot, New Mexico on our layover, and Real Mexico on our cruise. The Mexican pavillion is different from the other in the fact that its all indoors. There is a ride here as well thats a mild boat tour thru mexico featuring Donald Duck and the other Caballaros. Its equevilant to Its a Small World. The ride was cute dispite the line taking much longer when the purto rican tour group in front of us that had 5 people in it decided to let there entire 50 person plus group cut in line.
With our walk around the World Showcase complete we walked back into Future World to see the things we missed. We went to Innoventions to see the displays there and I also rode a ride called the Sum of all Thrills that uses the same Kuka Arm technology that the Harry Potter ride uses at Universal. Although here you programed it however you wanted. Including making it go upside down. Needless to say Kiera couldn't do this one ether.
The last pavillion in Future World for us to do was the Universe of Energy. Yeah it was a waist of time. The ride is 45 minutes long and features Ellen and Billy Nye as they talk to you trying to be funny about the energy needs in our world. The ride is unique that it mixes a show with a ride portion, while never getting out of your seat. But it was very bland and even more boring. Kiera was glad to take a good nap on this ride. It was 45 minutes that we wish we would have spent else where.
After riding Test Track again for my second and final time we made our way back to the World Showcase to find dinner and prepair for the nighttime show. We decicded to take one of the boats across though instead of walking which was nice. For dinner I got a brautwirst from Germany while Kiera got a Vegi Burger in America. At this point the area was packed with Cheerleaders which seemed weird but we later found out there was a competition that took place earlier in the day in Epcot.
The night time show Epcot puts on is called Illuminations and it is really cool. It takes place in the World Showcase Lagoon and features fireworks, fountains, fire, and lasers all set to music. We found a good spot to watch the show in the America area and were glad that we saw it. The show was excellent, really cool, and very unique.
Illuminations marks the closer of Epcot for the day. But as with most theme parks the retail locations stay open later. Still having 3 countries to see we now took the time to check them out the most we could. First was France which has multipule different restuarants. They also have a film about there country.
Next was Britain again which really only had a shop and pub but was themed really well. The last one was Canada which oddly enough was completly closed up. No shops were open. Nothing. We still walked thru though and were sad we didn't see it during the day. They also have a nice restaurant here and a show about Canada.
Having seen all the countries of the World Showcase we finally made our way towards the Epcot exit. Of course not without first stopping at the big Epcot shop where we picked up most of our Disney suviniors.
It had been a long day. We spent nearly 14 hours inside Epcot and walked over 7 miles. We were exhausted but it was well worth it. We were so happy we decided to add the Epcot visit to our trip. The park truely is amazing and unlike any other Theme Park out there. Yeah we missed Universal. But it was a very worthy replacement. I can't wait tell we not only return to Epcot but next time we will see all of the Disney World parks.
You'd think our night would be over but it wasn't yet. We made our way to Downtown Disney to see what the big Disney store had there to buy. We ended up picking up a Duffy Teddy Bear for our soon to come baby. Every baby needs a Teddy Bear so we figured Duffy could fill that roll. We also looked all around the store and went by the Lego store too.
Anyways that ends our time in the Orlando area as the next morning we would be making the drive out to the Ocean where we would be starting our "Do Over" Cruise.
1 comment:
Wow!! What an amazing vacation! I loved all the pictures...epecially the ones with your hubby in the different hats. What a good sport, mine wouldn't have let me take pics of him lol!
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