Photo TR: Epcot Plus! 10/5 - 10/9

Yes, folks, for the first time in 14 months, you’ll actually get a trip report from me that involves a Disney park! *canned and awkward applause*

…Well, you’ll get even more than that. Downtown Disney pictures from the day before! Shopping! Dining! Semi-entertaining!

As usual, a pic is worth a thousand words. Since I don’t feel like writing a 193,000-word TR, here we go!

Flew with USA3000 again on Friday, a surprisingly good flight all things considered. Always fun to be above the clouds!

I call this, “The Hands of God”. Or “Cumulus Shadow”. Whichever one’s more poetic.

Arrived in St. Pete, picked up my sister from campus and headed up I-275 to I-4. You know where it goes from there.

Now if only I had or could afford an Annual Pass.

Ah, yes, one of the better parts of a Florida vacation shows its face. (It rained for much of the night steadily, but it wasn‘t bad when we… well, I’ll keep going.)

Buena Vista Suites is always a good choice. Think it was $88/night. We stayed here for two.

And they’re a Good Neighbour Hotel, which means they’re in cahoots with Disney, but they won’t ask to borrow your lawn mower or anything like a REAL neighbour. (Just sayin’.)

 

[dandaman]

Regrettably, the lines for the Food & Wine booths were all very long, so I only got a chance to try one: Durban Spiced Chicken from Africa. The chicken was more awesome than having a personal Dole Whip machine in your kitchen, but the “mystery loaf”, which I’ll assume is tofu… ugh. One bite and said loaf quickly made friends with the trash bin.

“Why? WHY?!”

Hmm… random statues and grass roofs…

We must be in Norway!

Never been in the Stave church before.

“VIKINGS… PREPARE FOR GLORY!”

Wonder how much he gets paid to sit there for 12 hours of the day?

Good clothing choice, in any case.

 

[dandaman]

Rocketing back to Future World, if you’ll pardon the so carefully placed and witty pun…

“We’re gonna be IN TENTS?!”

“This part of the show has been brought to you by energy. Energy: You make the world go ‘round!”

Wonders of Life was serving as the Festival Center. Quite sad to see the pavilion in such a state. They did, however, have a free wine tasting seminar which my parents attended. I honestly think it was their vacation highlight. Heck, tasting 5 wines ranging from $40 - $400 a bottle at a cost of $0, why shouldn’t it be?

While they did that for about 90 minutes, my sister and I did a couple of things around here.

I carried on my tradition of collecting souvenir shirts. Debated whether or not to get a retro EPCOT shirt, but I got one with the America Gardens ship on it, Mickeys with all WS countries as sails, and Spaceship Earth as the moon.

It was then that I remembered Club Cool, and the fact that I’d never had the traditional rite of hazing for your mouth, known as “Beverly” around these parts.

I now present to you:

Daniel’s Guide to Properly Enjoying Beverly

1. Pour Beverly into cup and serve.

2. Swish it around in your mouth, savouring the flavour.

3. Purge as necessary.

Moral: There is no proper or possible way to enjoy Beverly.​

I’m going to stagger this day’s events out, to try and avoid an even smaller scrolling bar which you inevitably now have on your screen. Enjoy Part 1, and I’ll be back later tonight or tomorrow with the rest!

 

[H20Babie]

Great trip report so far ... and some awesome pictures! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kristilovesdw]

Wow great pictures!! Thanks for the trip report!

 

[PotteryGal]

Awesome pics Dan! Love the 'Beverly' ones :ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I'm still daring my husband to try it though.

 

[dandaman]

I'm still daring my husband to try it though.

Please, PLEASE don't put him through that. It's all fine for 5 seconds, then the aftertaste hits like a brick to the tongue.

 

[PotteryGal]

Please, PLEASE don't put him through that. It's all fine for 5 seconds, then the aftertaste hits like a brick to the tongue.

:lol: Well, he is having second thoughts after seeing those pics.....

 

[Uponastar]

…Though, they fail to mention the best part of Mexico, for a certain member of the board, at least…

Yay! :sohappy: :sohappy: :sohappy:

Thank you!

Absolutely great report!

 

[nibblesandbits]

Loving Epcot! Can't wait to read more!

 

[haveyoumetmark]

I'd like to propose a Beverly toast to one of the most entertaining TRs I've ever read! :lol:

 

[Nicole220]

Those Epcot pictures are amazing!!

Love the Beverly ones. :lol:

 

[Fantasmic!329]

Please, PLEASE don't put him through that. It's all fine for 5 seconds, then the aftertaste hits like a brick to the tongue.

Sooooooo true.
It's actually not bad for those 5 seconds, but then.... :hurl:
Great job so far, Danny!

(I think I forgot to mention in my TR that I got to see the inferno barge burnoff during EMH. It was so cool. TOTALLY random, I know.)

 

[dandaman]

Well, he is having second thoughts after seeing those pics.....

I don't blame him for a second. (Or 5. That really is how much time you have before it kicks your taste buds in the proverbial groin. :dazzle: )

Yay!

Thank you!

Actual conversation: "Mom, can you get my picture with these sombreros on? Inside joke." Hope it was worth it. :lookaroun

I'd like to propose a Beverly toast to one of the most entertaining TRs I've ever read! :lol:

Good, because burnt toast is about all that could remove the taste.

1. Sooooooo true.
It's actually not bad for those 5 seconds, but then.... :hurl:

2. (I think I forgot to mention in my TR that I got to see the inferno barge burnoff during EMH. It was so cool. TOTALLY random, I know.)

1. I have confirmation on my 5-second rule. :drevil:

2. I saw it once last year only during EMH. Seeing as how there was no EMH tonight (and I wouldn't be a resort guest anyway), I regrettably didn't see it.

Speaking of which, I apologize in advance for the fireworks pics. Try as I might, I can't hold a tripod steady on a flat surface and still try to angle it over someone's head. Seeing as how I'd rather have crappy fireworks pics then crappy pictures of heads, I just held it by hand anyway. :lol:

 

[Uponastar]

Actual conversation: "Mom, can you get my picture with these sombreros on? Inside joke." Hope it was worth it. :lookaroun

It so was!!!!!
Thank you, Tall One! :kiss:

 

[dandaman]

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mom and Dad were still at the seminar, so my sister and I watched the fountain show for a bit, then got a Mickey bar each and went to the 2nd floor of the Electric Umbrella. I swear, it’s like Epcot’s very own Columbia Harbour House; first floor is packed, second floor is dead.

Anyway… 5 days before and I could’ve caught 1100+ board members in this as well!

Hooray for the flower logo!

Despite the glare, I was lucky enough to catch this around 6:00.

More monorail pics? Sure, why not?

Yeah… not today.

And now for something I’ve never done at Epcot before!

…Hard to believe, right? Before this, I hadn’t even been under the big archway leading into the area itself.

They had these stone guys, who were ancient grave protectors, etc.

The film was surprisingly good. Anyone know how old it is? It seemed quite modern (maybe I’m looking for timeless?) to me.

 

[dandaman]

Rain threatened on the horizon as it had for the entire day, but lo and behold, the pyro was set ablaze right on schedule.

 

[dandaman]

Finale time!

You don’t see many pics around here as night shots, possibly for good reason:

One more fountain shot after this, I promise.

So, while the family shopped in Mouse Gear (this took about 45 minutes), I wanted to take some night shots of Mission: Space. I unfortunately didn’t realize the area is roped off after Illuminations (understandably, of course). So I attempted to get the best shot I could. Well, as you can see… not good enough.

Then, a CM on a Segway pulls up from the other side of the rope, sees me attempting and failing to take a good shot, and asks: “Well, if you want, I’ll escort you all the way up to the plaza.”

“Well, I… HECK YEAH, that’d be nice!”

So everything turned out great, not to mention the pictures:

It was so odd to have a completely empty Future World East. It felt like Epcot’s version of a certain Ridley Pearson novel.

NOW this is the last fountain pic.

 

[dandaman]

And now for my favourite photographs of the night. I was extremely happy with how these all turned out. (I’ll save the final one for the end of the entire report, likely finished tomorrow.)

Overall a fantastic day at my favourite place in the world. Thanks for reading, folks!

 

[Uponastar]

Yay!
Love the cloud pic and the great shots of M:S. Nice CM there!
And I never get tired at looking at the "real" SSE now.
Thanks Danny!

 

[Nicole220]

Absolutely wonderful pics!

Great report Dan, thank you!