Monday June 4th, 2012.
Suitably refreshed by our pool day, we intend to do another park today. It’s another hot day, and Jack and Amy decide they can’t face the miles of walking that is Epcot. So we abandon them – Epcot it is!
But first – and I’ve realised as I type this that we do seem to be somewhat preoccupied with food in our family - we hit Golden Corral just in time to get an all you can eat breakfast buffet. The bus needs feeding too, with gas, and so once again I’m beaten by the technology that is an American petrol pump. As always I push things, pull things, insert credit cards, press more things, then give up and go into the garage to admit defeat. Then I get the question I fear most – “how much do you want?” Now this always baffles me, I have no idea how big the tank is, what sort of mileage I should get to a gallon, although I presume very little, and it’s usually at this point that my ability to do arithmetic in my head fails me completely too. “erm, fifty dollars??” I proffer as my best guess. “what sort of car?” asks the lady. “A bloody big fifteen seater” I tell her. “Eighty should do it” she knowingly advises, and do you know what, she was bang on.
So, eighty dollars lighter we get to Epcot, and begin our World Tour.
We get the map and show schedule, and plot our route around the World. It’s a bit to and fro, but there’s no rush. I definitely want to watch the British Revolution band in England, having been thoroughly impressed with The British Invasion band last time we were here. I also spot on the schedule Off Kilter, a Canadian Celtic Rock band that I think sound like they’ll be worth a listen. However, first show on our list is in China, so off we go:
I expect they do different shows at different times of the day, and we all agreed that the show we saw today was not as good as shows we’ve seen on previous visits, which have included the acrobats juggling tables and chairs on their feet. Still, impressive though.
It’s extremely hot, so I suggest we wander over to Germany, with an ulterior motive:
Suitably quenched, we carry on our way and do the boat ride in Mexico featuring Donald Duck and friends, which unfortunately seems to be out of sync with our boat so as we enter each section we see the end of each film, followed by the beginning of that film as we are on our way round the next bend. It reminds me a bit of The Two Ronnies and their famous Mastermind sketch. Another boat gives us a quick tour of Norway, but I confess we skipped the film after the boat ride, it was far too nice to be indoors.
We arrive in England in good time, and grab a bench with a good view of the band stand ready to watch the band. Mrs Dad’s Taxi decides that fish and chips would be a good idea, and so she wanders off to the “Yorkshire” chippy, and comes back with fish and chips that would be rated as “poor” after six pints on a Saturday night, and so don’t rate at all well when sober and hungry. Oh well, what did we expect. Any Yorkshiremen purchasing over-priced fish and chips this bad would be reet flummoxed I fear. Still, the band are good, and their set finishes far too quickly, so we carry on walking, and pass Alice, who is in a rush, and can’t stop to talk
I assume she’s late for a very important date.
Mary Poppins however has time to pose for photos, and does her best at an English accent whilst telling us about her friend Bert.
Our World Tour concludes in Canada, where I’m dumped on my own to watch Off Kilter, who are extremely good and well received by the audience.
There’s a few things we want to do yet, so we head for the golf ball and do the Spaceship Earth ride. Test Track was on the wish list, but wouldn’t you know it, it’s closed for refurbishment. Maybe next time. The kids go on Soarin’ and then we go to have a look at Turtle Talk, which is absolutely brilliant. How these “live” animations work is a mystery to me, I really must look it up, and the guys that voice them are extremely talented, and excellent at thinking on their feet, or in this case flippers. If you haven’t seen it, Crush the turtle, from Finding Nemo, chats to the audience about being a turtle, and kids can ask him questions which he answers with a great sense of humour. He’s very cool.
Epcot is a great place for meeting characters, so there are lots of photos taken today, including ones with Daisy, who poses with the girls:
We stroll back to Canada to watch the IllumiNations show, and get a great spot (because we’re so early!). Once again Disney blow us away with a fantastic display, and another great day is declared over.
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