February 6, 2025 • 33 mins
Epcot, the second park established within the Walt Disney World complex, epitomizes a remarkable evolution from its original conception as an educational city envisioned by Walt Disney to a vibrant theme park that now boasts an array of attractions and experiences catering to diverse audiences. This episode delves into the extensive transformations Epcot has undergone since its inception, highlighting its unique appeal as a destination primarily for adults. We explore the park's rich tapestry of dining options, cultural experiences, and the myriad of festivals that punctuate its calendar, emphasizing Epcot's role as a hub of culinary delights and international celebrations. Additionally, we reflect on the park's historical significance, tracing the shifts in its attractions from the educational focus of yesteryear to the thrilling rides and character encounters that define its contemporary allure. Join us as we navigate through the history, evolution, and current offerings of Epcot, uncovering what makes this park a quintessential component of the Disney experience.
Takeaways:
- Epcot, originally envisioned as a city by Walt Disney, has undergone significant transformations over the decades.
- The park is renowned for its educational attractions, offering a diverse range of experiences for adult visitors.
- Dining at Epcot is unparalleled, featuring an extensive variety of cuisines from around the globe, suitable for all tastes.
- The World Showcase serves as a cultural hub, allowing guests to immerse themselves in the traditions and flavors of various countries.
- Epcot hosts numerous seasonal festivals that enhance the visitor experience, especially during the Food and Wine Festival.
- The park's evolution has led to the introduction of thrilling rides that attract a wide array of guests, including families and adults.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Walt Disney World
- Universal Studios
- Epcot
- Magic Kingdom
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Mission Space
- Soarin
- Living with the Land
- Garden Grill
- Remy's Ratatouille Adventure
- Voices of Liberty
- Festival of the Arts
- Food and Wine
- Flower and Garden
- Jollywood Nights
- Coca Cola
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign episode of the Wandsand Wishes podcast.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Tony Desiri along withLauren Mallard of all the Magic Travel.
And this is the second of ourin depth series as we go over the
parks of Walt Disney World andUniversal Studios.
We did the Magic Kingdom aweek ago, so you can check that out
on the podcast library.
(00:21):
And now we're going to thesecond park that was created at the
Walt Disney World complex, andthat is Epcot, or as I remember it,
Epcot Center.
And boy, that is a park thathas a lot of change.
It was originally thought ofby Walt Disney as a city, not a theme
park, a city.
And he wanted everything to bein an epicenter.
You can still see remnants ofthat idea when you go on the People
(00:41):
Mover Tomorrowland.
You can go through a model of that.
But after he passed away in1982, they opened up Edcot center.
And at the time it was aneducational theme park.
Not a lot of thrill rides.
Not really, really any rides,to be honest with you.
That.
But it was very educationaland there were no characters.
And it had a lot of peoplewondering, what exactly is this?
And over the years, it hasreally changed absolute dramatically
(01:05):
over the years.
And now it has one of the mostexciting roller coasters in the all
of the four parks.
And it also has a lot ofdifferent types of rides that are
just some of the more popularattractions at Walt Disney World.
Hi, Lauren, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you, Tony?
So I thought of this questionas I was preparing for this park
to go over this park, Ithought of this question, and this
is more of as a Disney adult,if I were to have, if I needed to
(01:29):
go to Orlando for businessand, you know, I had maybe two days
of conferences and a free day,and the company that brought me down
there said, hey, for the freeday, we're going to offer you one
day ticket to any of the themeparks in the Magic Kingdom.
Enjoy yourself, have a good time.
What park would I choose?
And I'm thinking to myself, ifI was going all by myself and I started
(01:50):
going, where would I go all by myself?
And the answer was Epcot.
Really?
Okay, yeah, the answer was Epcot.
And I think a lot of it isbecause while Magic Kingdom has a
great fantasy element to itand it's got great nostalgia, I think
this is more of the adulttheme park.
It really is.
And, you know, I've actually got.
Got two sets of clients thatare in Walt Disney World this week
(02:11):
that are just adults.
And the amount of time thatboth of those sets of clients have
spent in Epcot is so muchbigger than my typical client of
a family that's there for a week.
That's right.
And if you're going withchildren, obviously the Magic Kingdom
and the.
And the whimsical fantasy of.
Of that park plus Star Wars.
Yeah.
(02:31):
But while I'm not going totell you that that Epcot's not for
kids, it certainly has frozen.
But this is where drinkingaround the world is.
This is where the real diningexperiences are.
This is where some of the,again, more adult sort of entertainment.
You're going to see festivalsand shows and concerts and nostalgic
(02:52):
concerts of 80s music stars.
Yeah, it's a little bit more,again, on that idea of.
Yeah.
If you're two adults going, orthree adults, or you're going with
a party of adult friends, thisis the park you're probably going
to go to the most.
Yeah, I like to think of it aslike a browsing park.
So, like, if you want to justkind of Meander through the World
showcase, you definitely cando that, especially right now.
(03:14):
And we're going to talk aboutthe different festivals, but you
can go in and see thedifferent paintings that are available
for Festival of the Arts.
You can go in all the shops.
There's some pretty unique things.
It's not going to be allDisney themed, so you can really
use that time to just.
Just kind of sit back, justtake a deep breath and just enjoy
yourself throughout Epcot.
(03:34):
As I mentioned earlier, I'mold enough to remember the opening
of the park.
I was 10 years old, went in1982 and it wasn't open yet.
And everyone was buzzing aboutit, though, even back then, because
it was going to open inOctober of that year and I think
we had gone like a few months prior.
And I remember in 1984, wewent back down again, so I was a
little older and we finallygot to see it and had already been
(03:55):
up and operational.
And I'm not going to lie, Ithought it was incredibly boring.
I thought it was terriblyboring and I didn't know what the
fuss was about.
And, yeah, it was cool to bein the ball and it was.
And animatronics was stillkind of new to me as a kid and seeing
how that worked, that was kindof a new experience.
But I can specificallyremember riding Universe of Energy,
(04:17):
going through the dinosaursand, like, hearing, like, for the
next 22 minutes, we're goingto show you how oil is extracted.
And while my parents mighthave Thought, this is great.
That's not.
I didn't go to.
I didn't go on vacation to goto school.
Yeah, yeah.
And I wasn't interested in anyof that.
It's kind of bad when back inthe day, the most exciting attraction
at Epcot was Body Wars.
Right, Body wars, exactly.
(04:39):
So.
And there were no characters.
And while I.
I thought Figment was a great,cute character, it wasn't an iconic
Disney character.
So this is not what you wereseeing in the original Epcot Center.
And as history, you know,goes, Michael Eisner famously went
to the parks when he took overas CEO of the company.
And he.
And he was walking throughEpcot and he was wondering, where's
Mickey?
And they said, oh, Mickey'snot really here.
(05:01):
And he's like, well, we'rechanging that.
And that's.
It became a place where hecould see some characters off to
the side.
But what he wanted was alittle bit more popular in a.
In a park that didn't reallyhave a lot of pop, other than these
sort of slow moving, dark,educational rides that, as I find
out later, as I've gottenolder, nostalgia has really kicked
(05:21):
in because you can findHorizons T shirts.
Right.
Like people who remember theold attractions and remember when
they were great and rememberthey were awesome.
And that's right.
Boy, that was.
Someday we're gonna be lookingback and someone's gonna go, I can't
believe Guardians of theGalaxy replaced Universe of Energy.
I miss that man.
So much.
Like it' it was.
It's tapping into a nostalgiafrom the 80s for kids who went there,
(05:47):
who all admit it was pretty.
Pretty boring park, but nowit's one of the more exciting, fun
parks to go to it.
Definitely.
Yes, it's definitely evolved.
And we'll talk about, youknow, just the changes.
I don't even know what to callparts of Epcot anymore.
Right, exactly.
Because everything has changed.
But, yeah, it's definitely,definitely evolved.
All right.
It starts with that iconicball as you walk in and you see Spaceship
Earth.
This.
(06:07):
This ride has not changed allthat much other than the voices has
changed.
They've done a little bit morein terms of the interactive game,
but this is a trip through communication.
So if you want to see somereally great animatronics, I mean,
this is some of Disney'sfinest animatronic works.
The one thing about this ridethat I will say is every time I'm
on it again, I.
(06:28):
I like it.
I.
It's one of the rides I go on,I feel dated I feel like I can.
I can see the grinding.
I wish they would just kind of re.
Refurbish this a little bit.
That would be really, reallynice if we could get a little bit
better track that moves alittle smoother.
Everything else the same.
Yeah.
The smell and the fire smell, that's.
That's great.
(06:48):
But, yeah, you can feel like,okay, this one's.
This one.
But the engineering of that is incredible.
It really is.
And if you go through, like,what they.
You know how to windproof thatduring hurricanes?
I mean, it's pretty intense.
Yeah.
But it's.
It's slow moving.
And if you have little kids, Iwould would think that this is a
good place for them to sort ofveg out for a little bit.
Yes.
And I think for kids, this isprobably, like, number one on their
(07:11):
list for Epcot until theyactually get in there and they realize
what it is.
But, you know, I still cool atthe end of the day.
It's one of those things yougot to say.
I went inside the ball at Epcot.
So now I always tell people,don't go right away.
It's.
That's the first thing peoplejump onto.
It's right there, wait tillthe end, because you can get.
You can pretty much walk on ittowards the end of the night.
So I would skip this and move on.
(07:32):
Yeah.
Now, because Walt Disney Worldis in the spoke.
It's sort of the spoke, thewheels design.
It means that you can, youknow, the shortest point between
two spots is a straight line.
You can find a straight lineway to get to the center and get
to where you're going.
Epcot is a gigantic park.
It really, really is.
I mean, there is just no if,ands, or buts about this.
(07:53):
You are walking.
There are no shortcuts, really.
And especially when all theconstruction was going all along,
you kind of had to go aroundthe world just to get.
Just to get a little bit awaysover to, like, the land, to be able
to do Soarin or something likethat, and that's kind of gotten a
little bit better.
But, yeah, there's no easy wayto tour Epcot, and so you have to
(08:14):
kind of go in with a plan anda strategy so that you see certain
attractions within a timeperiod and then move to another section
of the park.
All right.
I mentioned earlier Guardiansof the Galaxy, and this is the one
you've got to get that virtualqueue for.
You better land this quick.
That's right.
I actually did that thismorning for a guest.
Oh, nice.
So, yeah, so the best.
If you're wondering what avirtual queue is, this is the free
(08:36):
way to experience Guardians ofthe Galaxy.
And so what you do is you goin and pre select your party maybe
by like 6:55 Eastern Time,it's going to drop at 7:00am and
so you can get to a page onthe app that's says refresh at the
bottom.
Once you have your partyselected, you can start refreshing
that at 6:59 until it gets to 7.
(08:56):
And it'll say join virtual Queue.
And you will either get agroup number or you will get.
I'm sorry, the queue is full.
Full.
But so once you're in a group,then when your group is called, you'll
get a little ding on yourphone and you'll head to the line
and then it's.
It works kind of like astandby line at that point.
It's not a lightning lane, butit guarantees you a spot in line.
And this is to prevent a threehour wait, a four hour wait, so you
(09:19):
don't go standing and standingthere and waiting trying to get first
come, first serve kind of situation.
This is, I think this is oneof Disney's great, great coasters.
It's, it's smooth, it's fun,it's, it's unique in that it breaks
away and it goes backwards andspins and.
But on the scale of coastersfor you, especially a mother of little
(09:42):
ones, how do you put itcompared to rock and roll, Roller
coaster, Everest, Big Thunder Mountain.
Yeah.
So before we wrote it, I thinkChris wrote it before I did and he
said, I feel like it's kind ofa hybrid of rock and roller coaster,
Everest and Space Mountain,because you kind of get components
of all three of those.
I find the intensity to besimilar to rock and roller coaster.
(10:05):
I have said before, I can't do Guardians.
I did it one time and I said,I can't ever do that again.
I think it's.
And I can do Everest.
I can go backwards on Everest.
I don't know what it is aboutGuardians that does that to me, but
I will say Guardians is thesmoothest of all of the coasters
in Walt Disney World.
It's got a lower heightrequirement than Rock and Roller
(10:25):
Coaster.
So if you've got a kid that'stall enough to ride it, certainly
give it a go, see if they cando it.
But the intensity is going tobe pretty far up there too.
Yeah.
And I think too, another thingto consider.
And I was, my wife was.
She's brought this up becauseshe Liked the coaster, but it was
very chaotic because there's a.
There's music, it's asoundtrack, there's noise.
It's like Tron.
Yeah.
(10:46):
You know, like, Tron is a loud.
Every rock and roller coaster,same thing.
Hits you with so many different.
It's sensory overload.
Yes.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's so much going on.
You're seeing things.
You're hearing things at aloud volume.
You're moving.
You're moving in different directions.
You don't know what directionyou're going.
And for some people, it's themost thrilling thing.
For some people, there's.
(11:06):
They can only take so much of that.
So, again, if you're one.
If you're prone to saying,gee, I went on rock and roll, roller
coaster, and it just bombardedme too much.
And it was.
Yeah, Guardians, give it a try.
But it may.
You.
I'm warning you, that's gonnabe the same kind of experience.
Yes.
But as I mentioned, thisreplaced universe of energy, which,
again, was a cool, animatronicthing, but it was really more educational.
(11:27):
And now they're trying to getinto the more.
Let's give some real energyand some exciting rides.
And they certainly landed.
And also, to some.
Some ip, this.
This was a park that lacked IPfor a long time, and now they're
doing that.
All right, is there any moreride in all of Walt Disney World
that is as controversial asMission Space?
That's a great point.
(11:48):
And I.
I think you're right.
It has its haters.
I mean, haters.
I'm one of them.
And it has its, you know,people who just absolutely love it.
Yeah.
There is almost no in between.
It is people who, like, I willnever ride that again.
I don't know why.
Blow that thing up.
Start all over again.
To people saying, I think it's great.
(12:08):
I wanted to train as anastronaut one day.
Right.
This is as close as I'm evergoing to get to the G forces, you
know?
And I think it's confusing,too, because if you don't know going
into it, there are two sidesto it.
It's kind of like your.
Your centrifuge ride at a fair.
Okay.
So I did that one time at thefair, and it unfortunately ended
very, very poorly.
(12:28):
And I realized that I couldnever do another centrifuge.
So to that point, I've neverbeen on Mission Space, even the green
version, because I was justscarred for life.
And so it's your centrifuge.
And so the green version isnot going to be as full a full experience.
It's going to be milder.
And then you have the orangeversion, which is going to be a full
(12:50):
centrifuge type attraction.
If you have motion sickness, Ibeg you, don't do this.
But I think a lot of peopledon't realize that going in.
They don't even know whichside should I try?
And it's kind of like.
Like that confusion of it all.
Yeah, yeah.
They.
They're.
It's not a.
I'm glad you brought thatcentrifuge because I didn't know
(13:10):
for years that that's.
That's what it was.
Yeah.
Like, I would go on it as ateenager and a young adult.
I didn't know what made it theway it was.
Yeah.
And then one day I real.
You know, they say, oh, yeah,it spins around like.
Like the county fair.
Yeah.
I'm like, oh, is that what it does?
Oh, okay, that.
Then I'll get it.
This was designed byastronauts with the help.
With the help of astronauts.
Yeah.
(13:30):
To give you a sensation of weightlessness.
To give you the sensation of the.
You would feel taking off.
And for some people, it is athrilling experience to have that.
But for others, it's not.
It's not something that canjust mess you up momentarily.
It can bother you the whole day.
Absolutely.
If it's.
If it's 95 degrees outside,you might be feeling that turn in
(13:51):
your stomach all day if you'renot used to that kind of thing.
This is a ride that replacedHorizons, and Horizons has its lovers.
I mean, people really miss that.
That was a kind of a cool,cool ride.
You got to choose, like, ifyou wanted to go space, land, sea.
It was kind of.
It was kind of before its time.
But I.
I've got.
As I've gotten older, I'vegotten less and less interested in
(14:14):
mission space.
Yeah.
I think they could definitelyuse that space and kind of evolve
that a little bit.
A little more.
Yeah.
Test Track is a cool way, coolthing to talk about because we don't
have any idea what it's goingto be.
Oh, I'm so excited to see testtrack 3.0.
And let's see, you know, let'ssee what we're gonna get.
But I'm really excited it'sgoing to open up later this year.
So your guess is as good asours as to what Test Track is going
(14:37):
to be.
This was World of Motion, andthis was a dark ride that just went
through transportation.
And then it became one of themore Popular rides in the park because
it was a way for you to designa car and then see that car go through
different methods of testinghandling, suspension, speed, etc,
and it kind of thisaccelerating, banked turn that went.
(14:59):
It was the only thrill ride.
It was the only thing.
You're right.
It was the only thrill ride.
And it was.
It was a very cool change fromWorld of Motion to that.
Now we'll see what they're.
What they're going to do.
Super fun.
Well, you got that track, soyou better do.
You better keep that.
That's right.
That's right.
So again, we.
We don't know is.
It'll open later on in 2025.
(15:20):
So let's go over.
If you're walking into Epcot,and let's move over to the right
side.
Journey under the Sea with Nemo.
Simple Disney kind of ridewith a little cartoon Nemo and friends.
Yes.
Giving you a.
A sort of a fun ride.
Yeah.
This is a good spot for ifyou've got little kids, if you've
got toddlers, start them here.
It's a dark ride, but it's nota scary ride.
(15:42):
So go ahead and take them in there.
They'll be able to see Nemo.
And then when you come out,you can go in the aquarium.
And there's gonna be somelittle Nemo and Dory fish in the
aquarium.
Yeah.
That's cool.
A lot of people don't realizethe aquarium, it's.
There's a.
It's rather big.
It's got a lot of different fish.
A lot to see in the aquarium.
I mean, yeah, it's not SeaWorld, but it' was trying to bring
an element of that to.
To Epcot Center.
(16:02):
Now we're going to go over tothe Land Pavilion.
The Land Pavilion has tworides, Soarin and Living with the
Land, which is one of the morepopular rides for people.
Living with the Land is kindof a cool ride.
I really enjoy it.
I.
I like it.
Lori thinks it's boring.
I think it's fascinating.
I find it fascinating everytime I go on it.
(16:23):
Yes, it's a boat ride thatwill go through the ag.
This is going to soundterrible because this is the way
I'm describing it sounds boAgricultural advancements in Walt
Disney World.
But I think it's so neat wherethey tell us, you know, this is where
a lot of the food from therestaurants comes from in Epcot and
all across Walt Disney World.
And you can see how they'regrowing it there.
(16:44):
And it's really interestingwhat They've built just to be able
to manufacture just for themselves.
Exactly.
Just for themselves.
You're right.
And the way they have allsorts of different, you know, the
tomatoes, the trees for thedifferent fruits and vegetables and
all of that, that I find it great.
I think it's a fun ride.
It's relaxing.
I think it's one of the besteducational rides at the park.
(17:05):
Yeah.
And while we're in the land,one of my favorite restaurants at,
at Epcot is in there calledGarden Grill.
And so you can actually kindof get a little sneak peek into living
with the Land, because thatrestaurant rotates very, very slowly.
You don't even realize you're moving.
But you get to see parts ofliving with the land while you're
dining.
And then all the food that youeat there, all the vegetables, at
(17:26):
least all the produce comesfrom living with Land.
And it's a character Dexperience too.
Yes.
So you want to check that outif you're looking for character dining
experiences.
Garden Grill is fantastic.
And then there's Soarin.
Yes.
This came from California.
California had it in itsCalifornia Park.
And then they brought it toDisney World.
They brought it to Epcot Center.
And if you're afraid ofheights, this is not going to help
(17:48):
you whatsoever.
Even if you don't go high up.
Right.
It's just the opticalperception that you're high up.
It's a hang gliding ridethrough various parts of the world.
Very cool, very relaxing.
I love this ride.
I want to do it every time I'm there.
I love it.
I think it.
I.
There.
There's something about thetechnology of this.
It's great.
I.
I thought, when I, I wrote itat Disneyland years ago, and I thought
(18:09):
it was soaring overCalifornia, which is what they had
originally before they changedit to Soarin.
Around the world.
I think the technology is great.
It's so fun.
They've done a little bitbetter with the projection because
I know the famous leaning,Leaning Eiffel Tower.
I think they fixed that alittle bit.
But again, you.
I've done this with my wifewhere she goes, I'm afraid of heights.
I'm like, well, you're notreally that high up.
(18:30):
Yeah.
But she's like, it doesn't matter.
I feel like I'm high up.
Yeah.
And I didn' that until I didvirtual reality goggles.
And when I.
When I'm high up on something,I go, hey, I know I'm standing in
my office.
Yes.
But yet I feel like I'm 90ft again.
So I get the feet wobbling thing.
Yeah.
So she doesn't ride it.
I ride it.
So there you go.
And then there's water with Moana.
Yes.
(18:50):
Which is a very coolwalkthrough experience.
I think it is awesome.
Again, a great area for little kids.
If you've got toddlers, takethem through this.
Even if you don't havetoddlers, this is kind of neat.
It's interactive.
The water will kind of playalong with you.
And then, of course, Moana isalso there to meet.
And GRE outside of Journeyinto Water with Moana.
And then there's the last one.
Figment.
(19:10):
Journey into your imagination.
Yeah.
Now, we talked a lot aboutsome controversy that's gone on with
Epcot, and anytime you changea park, it doesn't matter.
There's going to be peoplethat will scream about the old days.
They'll scream about whatyou're doing with it.
This one.
This one is the weirdesthistory of all the attractions at
Disney World, because when itfirst came along, was sponsored by
(19:31):
Kodak, and it was a ratherlong ride.
Yeah, it was a big ride.
It was a long ride.
It featured Figment and Dream,Dreamfinder, and it was one of the
more technologically great experiences.
It was the best part of goingwhen I was 12.
Sure.
Like, that was the coolestride I remember.
Yeah.
And then cuts came and theytrimmed the ride, and now it just
(19:55):
doesn't have an identity.
It doesn't know what it wantsto be.
It's done a number of iterations.
The one now, Journey into your imagination.
With Figment, it's.
If you.
If you're new to it, that's great.
But if you're old to.
If you've been to everyiteration, it's not the best iteration
of.
Of them all.
But Figment is an original IPof Epcot Center.
(20:16):
So I tell people all the time,go to it.
I'm not going to tell youyou're gonna have.
It's the best ride in thepark, but at least you're gonna get
to experience one of the greatcharacters of the park.
Park, yes.
People line up for two hoursfor a popcorn bucket because of Figment.
That I'll never understand.
They love Figment, so.
But that.
That is the one that you'llsee in the front of the park.
Now we go to the World Showcase.
(20:37):
Yeah.
Once again, as a.
As a kid, I got it.
But as an adult, I got it even more.
How cool this is.
This is one of the cool experiences.
So do we have to go to.
We have to go to Mexico, right?
Well, you know, I guess ifwe're over here at Figment, I guess
we can start at Canada if we must.
So we can go either way.
We can walk all the way overto Mexico.
That's we always recommendwalk to Mexico.
(20:58):
Do it clockwise, don't do it counterclockwise.
I always see thecounterclockwise people.
I don't know what they're doing.
Yeah, Mexico.
There's a couple of thingshere that I.
Grand Fiesta Tour is myfavorite ride.
I love it.
I think it's great.
I just love the music.
I love the silliness of it.
I love the cartoon on the wall.
My.
My family thinks I'm crazy.
(21:18):
I love it.
I just think it's a great ride.
You gotta do it and youtypically don't have to wait but
maybe five minutes to ridethis one.
So go ahead and do it.
It's gonna be the style ofIt's a Small World.
Boats are gonna be the same.
But it's.
It's a nice way to cool offbefore you walk the rest of the way
around the world.
And all of the stuff is withinthe temple.
Most of the stuff anyways.
Within the temple there's ashopping center, there's a restaurant,
(21:40):
and then there's the ride.
So it's kind of a coolexperience to walk in, get a little
cool and see all sortsdifferent things you can do to do
and buy.
We'll get to some of therestaurants down the road, but I
want to get over to Norway.
And this is where you're goingto find Frozen ever after.
Get in, get a lightning lanefor this one or you're going to be
waiting a long time.
That's right.
You either want to rope dropthis one or get a lightning lane
(22:01):
for it.
And most of the time what I'mseeing now is if.
If this is not the attractionthat you choose for your Tier 1 attraction
with lightning Lane, which Itend to gravitate more for, Remy's
Ratatouille Adventure for yourtier one attraction is I'm finding
that there are no lightninglanes available same day for Frozen
ever After.
So it's going to be one thatif it's a priority, you got to get
(22:23):
there early.
You better get there early.
Right.
This used to be Maelstromagain, another controversial change.
But Disney nailed this onebecause I don't.
I've never saw a line outsideall the way to China for.
For Maelstrom.
Like when I see images ofpeople on vacation and they go.
The line For Frozen goes allthe way to Germany.
Yeah.
And I go, good Lord.
You know what I mean?
Like, that never happened on Maelstrom.
(22:44):
So, fun fact.
I actually had a text from aclient yesterday.
I think they listened to thispodcast, and he texted me and said,
hey, here's where the end ofthe Frozen line is.
And it was China.
And I said, how long did theysay it's gonna be?
And he said, the cast membersaid, It'll be about 50 minutes.
I said, okay, that's doable.
That line moves pretty quickly.
(23:05):
The queue is actually kind ofneat and kind of fun and.
And believe it or not, yes.
He texted me, and it was about40 minutes later, he said, I can
see the boat.
We're almost there.
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
So get in that.
Get a lightning lane for that.
And it's.
I.
I think if.
Especially if you have kidswho like the movie and like the characters,
you got to do it.
Don't leave Epcot withoutdoing it.
Yeah.
The line may be long if youdon't get a lightning lane, but it's.
(23:27):
It's a cool frozen IP experience.
All right.
China.
Reflections of China.
Do they even still have that?
I haven't seen that in years.
I have no idea.
I have no idea.
That was like a 360 movie backin the day.
It was never my favorite.
Right.
Then you go to Germany.
I always tell people, get a pretzel.
Yes.
Get a pretzel.
Delicious.
Or a brat or a Br.
(23:47):
If it's Food and wine festival.
That's always my favorite thing.
The pretzel brat.
Italy.
There's no attractions, butVia Napoli is a great place to eat.
Must do.
Must do.
And if the pizza place is openon the outside, get a slice of pizza.
Yes.
All right.
The United States, if we'retalking about like a clock and it's
going from like 7 to like5:30, the noon is where you'd find
in the United States.
(24:07):
Yeah, that's right.
And my favorite thing at the U.S.
pavilion is the Voices of Liberty.
If you don't know what thatis, they are an incredible vocal
group that you can hear.
I want to say it's about everycouple of hours.
It's a great way to cool offand listen to them because they are
phenomenal.
There's also the AmericanExperience, which is an animatronic
show about the history of America.
(24:29):
Mark Twain and Ben Franklinkind of go over the United States.
The history.
They.
They kind of gloss over someof the dark history of the United
States.
But nevertheless, it's a cool.
It's a patriotic tribute tothe United States.
Then Japan, which is noattractions, but very.
Some unique goods over there.
A really cool shop.
My kids love going in there.
They have everything fromhello Kitty to Pokemon to just whatever
(24:52):
you can find in their little trinkets.
Junk.
So in some.
In some instances.
But things that my kids loveto look through.
Then there's Morocco.
I have to admit, I just sortof walk by Morocco and I know I don't
really do anything there, but they.
They now have like apassholder lounge there that you
can hang out in and they thinkyou can get your picture taken with
Genie.
Yes.
Which is there.
(25:12):
But I don't really.
I just kind of buzz rightthrough them.
Yeah, me too.
It's kind of too bad.
France, it used to just haveimpressions de France.
Yes.
Which was just a cool littlemovie about France.
Now it has one of the morepopular rides in Epcot Center.
That's Remy's Ratatouille Adventure.
That's right.
And get on Remy's RatatouilleR in one of the newer attractions.
I love it.
(25:33):
My wife thought it was just okay.
Like, she didn't say it wasjust okay.
She was like, all right, it's cool.
Like, I thought it was wonderful.
I have to close my eyes at times.
Remy.
But I do think it's a.
It's a really cute ride.
It is.
It is worth the wait.
Cuz it is new.
You are shrunken down to thesize of a rat and you're running
through the kitchen and Iwon't spoil it, but there's all sorts
of different sensory thingsyou can feel.
(25:53):
And it's kind.
It's.
It's a very cool experience.
So I highly recommend it.
Again, get a lightning lanefor that.
Although if you're going on a.
On a day where it's not asbusy, the line does move pretty quickly.
Yes, it does.
It's one of those lines where I.
I like.
Like your client saw it waslike 70 minutes and it was really
like 50.
Yes.
So it was.
It wasn't that bad.
And then there's GreatBritain, Great Fish and chips, great
(26:15):
stores.
If you're a Winnie the Poohfan, you can go to Christopher Robin's
room.
Get.
A lot of people don't knowthat, but there's.
It's kind of in the back.
Ask a cast member where it isand you can get your picture taken
with Winnie the Pooh atcertain times.
In Christopher Robin's back bedroom.
Yes.
And then there's Canada.
Oh, Canada, the 360 film.
Yes.
I haven't seen that one inyears either.
Did you recently see that?
(26:36):
I haven't seen it probably in20 years.
I think it was narrated byMartin Short.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that was.
That was it.
But I don't know if they'vechanged it or not.
I.
I don't do the films anymore.
We don't either.
You know, my.
My.
When I was younger, my dad was a.
We're gonna do everything atthis kind of person.
Yeah.
You know, And I was like,okay, we're not leaving until we
get everything done.
Yeah.
And I think my dad goteverything on vhs, too.
(26:58):
Yeah.
Right.
All the shows.
Ex.
The last time, I probably was.
I do know I have a story about O.
Canada.
My sister and I went to Epcoton a family reunion trip, and we
did go into that filming.
This was like 2003.
And we did go into thatfilming, and as we were standing
there, the guy said, my sisterasked how long the movie was, and
(27:19):
he said, 28 minutes.
And my sister faked anemergency, and we got out.
I didn't mind staying.
She was like, I ain't staying for.
I'm not staying for 28 minuteswatching a movie about Canada.
I was like, oh, that's too bad.
I was like, okay.
I missed.
Missed it.
So.
All right.
You mentioned earlier, the festivals.
This is where you're going tofind some great festivals at Epcot
Center.
Depending on when you go.
Festivals such as Festival ofthe Arts.
(27:41):
Food and Wine, which is mypersonal favorite.
Food and Wine.
Feels like it goes on forever.
It really does.
It's getting.
I feel like it's getting alittle shorter.
It was really too long for along time.
And I think they've kind oftried to shorten back down.
Back down off of that a little bit.
Flower and Garden.
Yes.
Which is really great.
I love that one.
That's a great one.
One.
And then if you go during theholidays, they have a very unique
(28:02):
one that doesn't get talkedabout a lot because Jollywood Nights
at Hollywood Studios, of course.
Mickey's Christmas Party.
It's Festival of the Holidays.
Yes.
It's the shortest festival, actually.
Yeah.
And it's.
It's great because you get togo around the World showcase, and
you get to hear stories aboutthe way the countries celebrate the
holidays and some of thetraditions in the holidays and.
And some of the folklorearound the holidays for each country.
(28:24):
Yes.
Which I think is just afascinating, cool, cool experience.
Candlelight procession isvery, very popular.
Be careful about that one.
If you, you got to get therereally early and whatnot.
But this is where this is.
Festivals are tricky.
And, and here's why.
What I mean by that, if you'replanning a trip and you, and you
say, we're going at a non peaktime, right.
(28:45):
And you go, okay, like maybegoing in September, there might be
a festival and Epcot may beabsolutely slammed.
That's right, Great.
Avoid the weekends.
Avoid the weekends.
We went, when we went inSeptember, we went on Saturday to
Epcot for food and wine and it was.
All the locals are there totry all the booths.
So definitely, if you want toavoid the crowds in the fall, avoid
(29:07):
the weekend.
I agree with you.
If, if you're, if you'replanning this, and this is why it's
good to have a planner whoknows when these are.
If you're going, all right,we're going to plan our trip.
If you know that there's afestival there, try to pick a week
night, weekday to go.
Make your Epcot day like aThursday or whatnot.
Because again, Saturday iswhen people around Florida, especially
pass holders, are like, whatdo you want to do today?
(29:27):
Absolutely.
Let's go to Flower and Garden.
This is great.
Hang out.
Yeah.
Get some, get some good stuff.
But the, the last part ofthis, or maybe not the last part
of this, but I.
One of the things I brought upearlier was the fact that Epcot,
I feel like, is an adult parkbecause I think it has the best dining.
Oh, it absolutely does.
Oh.
And it's not just the WorldShowcase, but it, it has some of
(29:48):
the most, from cheap eats atkiosks to fine dining.
You can find everything at Epcot.
Absolutely.
So I've said before, myfavorite quick service in Epcot is
the fish and chips over at uk.
But if you're not feeling thatthat day, you can have anything from
sushi to tacos to Moroccanfood to fish and chips.
(30:08):
Or you can go back over intothe world formerly known as Future
World, and go to Connections Cafe.
Connections Cafe, somethinglike that.
There's, there is so much toeat at Epcot.
That is really good.
And so places like NineDragons, places like San and Helen,
which doesn't get greatreviews, I wish they would bump that
up a bit.
That's the restaurant or GrandFiesta tour passes by.
(30:31):
I've had so many people say, Iwent there and it was just okay if
that seems to be almostuniversal from people.
So I hope Epcot or DisneyWorld is listening and bump that
up A little bit.
Just like they've done toother restaurants that used to get
bad reviews and now havereally turned the corner and become
great places.
But places like Lelier, whichis expensive.
M.
Paul, which is expensive, butit really.
If you want fine dining andyou want.
(30:53):
Don't mind dropping a fewbucks on a really good meal, they've
got those kind of restaurants, too.
That's right.
But some of the kiosks outsidethe World Showcase where you can
get, you know.
Oh, is it Joy of Tea?
Yes.
You can get some really great stuff.
Yes.
Excellent things and uniqueofferings at Epcot for sure.
So that, that we really.
And then we brought up GardenGrill earlier.
Again, if you're looking for acool charact experience with Mickey
(31:16):
and Chippendale and Goofy andwhatnot, Garden Grill is a great
place to go because the foodis delicious and you're going to
get a great.
Get a great character experience.
So that is Epcot Center.
Anything to add on your pointabout this very large park?
Bring your.
Make sure your shoes arebroken in.
That's right.
Make sure that you have yourwalking shoes on.
Don't try to wear shoes thatare cute to Epcot.
(31:37):
Wear shoes that are comfortable.
There are a lot of charactersin Epcot.
You're going to find a lot ofprincesses along the World Showcase.
Look at the map.
Map.
You will see the little Mickey heads.
That's going to indicate wherethere is a character.
It won't always show you whatcharacter is there, but if you see
a Mickey head on the map,that's to tell you that there is
a character to meet there.
So be sure to look out fordifferent ones.
And don't forget the Coca ColaCool Zone.
(32:00):
Try everything.
Try everything.
Including Beverly.
I know, I know, I know.
But try everything.
That's always fun to do atEpcot Center.
But I think the.
One of the overriding pointabout that, about that park, and
I think you brought it upearlier, is that you spend four or
five days and find something new.
You can find something uniqueif you're really looking for it.
If you spent a whole day andyou said, I'm just doing the World
(32:22):
Showcase and all I want to dois go into every shop and every nook
and cranny and try a glass ofwine in Italy or some sake in Japan.
You can make a whole day ofjust that alone.
That there are so manydifferent unique things to do just
in the World Showcase.
And it was kind of the overall point.
Point of the World Showcasewas to bring that country's culture.
(32:43):
You can go in and find thingsthat they sell in that country that
you can't find in the United States.
Yeah, I remember gettingGerman gummy bears when I was a kid.
Like, it was so.
It was great.
So neat.
It was so great.
So, by the way, I forgot tomention there are two ways to enter
Epcot Center.
Yes.
Go through the front gate.
You can also go through theback end by France and Great Britain
if you're staying in one ofthose resorts.
Or you take the monorail tothat area.
(33:05):
That's right.
So again, large park.
Park.
Bring walking shoes.
And if you have a reservation,they don't take reservations on the
15s.
I got told that.
So don't lie and say you havea 7 to 15 reservation when you had
a 7 reservation and you're 20minutes late.
That's the one my family keepsbringing up.
That's so fun.
All right, so please like this podcast.
(33:26):
Subscribe to it.
We are going to be doing ourin Depth series all the way through
for the next.
We got.
We got about seven more.
Eight more episodes to do ontheir in depth series as we go through
Walt Disney World andUniversal Studios.
If you need to reach Lauren,please do so.
Lauren at all the MagicTravel, you can reach me travelwithtonydeet
at gmail com.
We would love to hear from youand please share the podcast if you
find it informative enough foryour friends and neighbors.
(33:48):
I'm Tony Desiri, that's LaurenMallard and this is the Wands and
Wishes podcast.
Foreign episode of the Wandsand Wishes podcast.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm Tony Desiri along withLauren Mallard of all the Magic Travel.
And this is the second of ourin depth series as we go over the
parks of Walt Disney World andUniversal Studios.
We did the Magic Kingdom aweek ago, so you can check that out
on the podcast library.
(00:21):
And now we're going to thesecond park that was created at the
Walt Disney World complex, andthat is Epcot, or as I remember it,
Epcot Center.
And boy, that is a park thathas a lot of change.
It was originally thought ofby Walt Disney as a city, not a theme
park, a city.
And he wanted everything to bein an epicenter.
You can still see remnants ofthat idea when you go on the People
(00:41):
Mover Tomorrowland.
You can go through a model of that.
But after he passed away in1982, they opened up Edcot center.
And at the time it was aneducational theme park.
Not a lot of thrill rides.
Not really, really any rides,to be honest with you.
That.
But it was very educationaland there were no characters.
And it had a lot of peoplewondering, what exactly is this?
And over the years, it hasreally changed absolute dramatically
(01:05):
over the years.
And now it has one of the mostexciting roller coasters in the all
of the four parks.
And it also has a lot ofdifferent types of rides that are
just some of the more popularattractions at Walt Disney World.
Hi, Lauren, how are you?
I'm good.
How are you, Tony?
So I thought of this questionas I was preparing for this park
to go over this park, Ithought of this question, and this
is more of as a Disney adult,if I were to have, if I needed to
(01:29):
go to Orlando for businessand, you know, I had maybe two days
of conferences and a free day,and the company that brought me down
there said, hey, for the freeday, we're going to offer you one
day ticket to any of the themeparks in the Magic Kingdom.
Enjoy yourself, have a good time.
What park would I choose?
And I'm thinking to myself, ifI was going all by myself and I started
(01:50):
going, where would I go all by myself?
And the answer was Epcot.
Really?
Okay, yeah, the answer was Epcot.
And I think a lot of it isbecause while Magic Kingdom has a
great fantasy element to itand it's got great nostalgia, I think
this is more of the adulttheme park.
It really is.
And, you know, I've actually got.
Got two sets of clients thatare in Walt Disney World this week
(02:11):
that are just adults.
And the amount of time thatboth of those sets of clients have
spent in Epcot is so muchbigger than my typical client of
a family that's there for a week.
That's right.
And if you're going withchildren, obviously the Magic Kingdom
and the.
And the whimsical fantasy of.
Of that park plus Star Wars.
Yeah.
(02:31):
But while I'm not going totell you that that Epcot's not for
kids, it certainly has frozen.
But this is where drinkingaround the world is.
This is where the real diningexperiences are.
This is where some of the,again, more adult sort of entertainment.
You're going to see festivalsand shows and concerts and nostalgic
(02:52):
concerts of 80s music stars.
Yeah, it's a little bit more,again, on that idea of.
Yeah.
If you're two adults going, orthree adults, or you're going with
a party of adult friends, thisis the park you're probably going
to go to the most.
Yeah, I like to think of it aslike a browsing park.
So, like, if you want to justkind of Meander through the World
showcase, you definitely cando that, especially right now.
(03:14):
And we're going to talk aboutthe different festivals, but you
can go in and see thedifferent paintings that are available
for Festival of the Arts.
You can go in all the shops.
There's some pretty unique things.
It's not going to be allDisney themed, so you can really
use that time to just.
Just kind of sit back, justtake a deep breath and just enjoy
yourself throughout Epcot.
(03:34):
As I mentioned earlier, I'mold enough to remember the opening
of the park.
I was 10 years old, went in1982 and it wasn't open yet.
And everyone was buzzing aboutit, though, even back then, because
it was going to open inOctober of that year and I think
we had gone like a few months prior.
And I remember in 1984, wewent back down again, so I was a
little older and we finallygot to see it and had already been
(03:55):
up and operational.
And I'm not going to lie, Ithought it was incredibly boring.
I thought it was terriblyboring and I didn't know what the
fuss was about.
And, yeah, it was cool to bein the ball and it was.
And animatronics was stillkind of new to me as a kid and seeing
how that worked, that was kindof a new experience.
But I can specificallyremember riding Universe of Energy,
(04:17):
going through the dinosaursand, like, hearing, like, for the
next 22 minutes, we're goingto show you how oil is extracted.
And while my parents mighthave Thought, this is great.
That's not.
I didn't go to.
I didn't go on vacation to goto school.
Yeah, yeah.
And I wasn't interested in anyof that.
It's kind of bad when back inthe day, the most exciting attraction
at Epcot was Body Wars.
Right, Body wars, exactly.
(04:39):
So.
And there were no characters.
And while I.
I thought Figment was a great,cute character, it wasn't an iconic
Disney character.
So this is not what you wereseeing in the original Epcot Center.
And as history, you know,goes, Michael Eisner famously went
to the parks when he took overas CEO of the company.
And he.
And he was walking throughEpcot and he was wondering, where's
Mickey?
And they said, oh, Mickey'snot really here.
(05:01):
And he's like, well, we'rechanging that.
And that's.
It became a place where hecould see some characters off to
the side.
But what he wanted was alittle bit more popular in a.
In a park that didn't reallyhave a lot of pop, other than these
sort of slow moving, dark,educational rides that, as I find
out later, as I've gottenolder, nostalgia has really kicked
(05:21):
in because you can findHorizons T shirts.
Right.
Like people who remember theold attractions and remember when
they were great and rememberthey were awesome.
And that's right.
Boy, that was.
Someday we're gonna be lookingback and someone's gonna go, I can't
believe Guardians of theGalaxy replaced Universe of Energy.
I miss that man.
So much.
Like it' it was.
It's tapping into a nostalgiafrom the 80s for kids who went there,
(05:47):
who all admit it was pretty.
Pretty boring park, but nowit's one of the more exciting, fun
parks to go to it.
Definitely.
Yes, it's definitely evolved.
And we'll talk about, youknow, just the changes.
I don't even know what to callparts of Epcot anymore.
Right, exactly.
Because everything has changed.
But, yeah, it's definitely,definitely evolved.
All right.
It starts with that iconicball as you walk in and you see Spaceship
Earth.
This.
(06:07):
This ride has not changed allthat much other than the voices has
changed.
They've done a little bit morein terms of the interactive game,
but this is a trip through communication.
So if you want to see somereally great animatronics, I mean,
this is some of Disney'sfinest animatronic works.
The one thing about this ridethat I will say is every time I'm
on it again, I.
(06:28):
I like it.
I.
It's one of the rides I go on,I feel dated I feel like I can.
I can see the grinding.
I wish they would just kind of re.
Refurbish this a little bit.
That would be really, reallynice if we could get a little bit
better track that moves alittle smoother.
Everything else the same.
Yeah.
The smell and the fire smell, that's.
That's great.
(06:48):
But, yeah, you can feel like,okay, this one's.
This one.
But the engineering of that is incredible.
It really is.
And if you go through, like,what they.
You know how to windproof thatduring hurricanes?
I mean, it's pretty intense.
Yeah.
But it's.
It's slow moving.
And if you have little kids, Iwould would think that this is a
good place for them to sort ofveg out for a little bit.
Yes.
And I think for kids, this isprobably, like, number one on their
(07:11):
list for Epcot until theyactually get in there and they realize
what it is.
But, you know, I still cool atthe end of the day.
It's one of those things yougot to say.
I went inside the ball at Epcot.
So now I always tell people,don't go right away.
It's.
That's the first thing peoplejump onto.
It's right there, wait tillthe end, because you can get.
You can pretty much walk on ittowards the end of the night.
So I would skip this and move on.
(07:32):
Yeah.
Now, because Walt Disney Worldis in the spoke.
It's sort of the spoke, thewheels design.
It means that you can, youknow, the shortest point between
two spots is a straight line.
You can find a straight lineway to get to the center and get
to where you're going.
Epcot is a gigantic park.
It really, really is.
I mean, there is just no if,ands, or buts about this.
(07:53):
You are walking.
There are no shortcuts, really.
And especially when all theconstruction was going all along,
you kind of had to go aroundthe world just to get.
Just to get a little bit awaysover to, like, the land, to be able
to do Soarin or something likethat, and that's kind of gotten a
little bit better.
But, yeah, there's no easy wayto tour Epcot, and so you have to
(08:14):
kind of go in with a plan anda strategy so that you see certain
attractions within a timeperiod and then move to another section
of the park.
All right.
I mentioned earlier Guardiansof the Galaxy, and this is the one
you've got to get that virtualqueue for.
You better land this quick.
That's right.
I actually did that thismorning for a guest.
Oh, nice.
So, yeah, so the best.
If you're wondering what avirtual queue is, this is the free
(08:36):
way to experience Guardians ofthe Galaxy.
And so what you do is you goin and pre select your party maybe
by like 6:55 Eastern Time,it's going to drop at 7:00am and
so you can get to a page onthe app that's says refresh at the
bottom.
Once you have your partyselected, you can start refreshing
that at 6:59 until it gets to 7.
(08:56):
And it'll say join virtual Queue.
And you will either get agroup number or you will get.
I'm sorry, the queue is full.
Full.
But so once you're in a group,then when your group is called, you'll
get a little ding on yourphone and you'll head to the line
and then it's.
It works kind of like astandby line at that point.
It's not a lightning lane, butit guarantees you a spot in line.
And this is to prevent a threehour wait, a four hour wait, so you
(09:19):
don't go standing and standingthere and waiting trying to get first
come, first serve kind of situation.
This is, I think this is oneof Disney's great, great coasters.
It's, it's smooth, it's fun,it's, it's unique in that it breaks
away and it goes backwards andspins and.
But on the scale of coastersfor you, especially a mother of little
(09:42):
ones, how do you put itcompared to rock and roll, Roller
coaster, Everest, Big Thunder Mountain.
Yeah.
So before we wrote it, I thinkChris wrote it before I did and he
said, I feel like it's kind ofa hybrid of rock and roller coaster,
Everest and Space Mountain,because you kind of get components
of all three of those.
I find the intensity to besimilar to rock and roller coaster.
(10:05):
I have said before, I can't do Guardians.
I did it one time and I said,I can't ever do that again.
I think it's.
And I can do Everest.
I can go backwards on Everest.
I don't know what it is aboutGuardians that does that to me, but
I will say Guardians is thesmoothest of all of the coasters
in Walt Disney World.
It's got a lower heightrequirement than Rock and Roller
(10:25):
Coaster.
So if you've got a kid that'stall enough to ride it, certainly
give it a go, see if they cando it.
But the intensity is going tobe pretty far up there too.
Yeah.
And I think too, another thingto consider.
And I was, my wife was.
She's brought this up becauseshe Liked the coaster, but it was
very chaotic because there's a.
There's music, it's asoundtrack, there's noise.
It's like Tron.
Yeah.
(10:46):
You know, like, Tron is a loud.
Every rock and roller coaster,same thing.
Hits you with so many different.
It's sensory overload.
Yes.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's so much going on.
You're seeing things.
You're hearing things at aloud volume.
You're moving.
You're moving in different directions.
You don't know what directionyou're going.
And for some people, it's themost thrilling thing.
For some people, there's.
(11:06):
They can only take so much of that.
So, again, if you're one.
If you're prone to saying,gee, I went on rock and roll, roller
coaster, and it just bombardedme too much.
And it was.
Yeah, Guardians, give it a try.
But it may.
You.
I'm warning you, that's gonnabe the same kind of experience.
Yes.
But as I mentioned, thisreplaced universe of energy, which,
again, was a cool, animatronicthing, but it was really more educational.
(11:27):
And now they're trying to getinto the more.
Let's give some real energyand some exciting rides.
And they certainly landed.
And also, to some.
Some ip, this.
This was a park that lacked IPfor a long time, and now they're
doing that.
All right, is there any moreride in all of Walt Disney World
that is as controversial asMission Space?
That's a great point.
(11:48):
And I.
I think you're right.
It has its haters.
I mean, haters.
I'm one of them.
And it has its, you know,people who just absolutely love it.
Yeah.
There is almost no in between.
It is people who, like, I willnever ride that again.
I don't know why.
Blow that thing up.
Start all over again.
To people saying, I think it's great.
(12:08):
I wanted to train as anastronaut one day.
Right.
This is as close as I'm evergoing to get to the G forces, you
know?
And I think it's confusing,too, because if you don't know going
into it, there are two sidesto it.
It's kind of like your.
Your centrifuge ride at a fair.
Okay.
So I did that one time at thefair, and it unfortunately ended
very, very poorly.
(12:28):
And I realized that I couldnever do another centrifuge.
So to that point, I've neverbeen on Mission Space, even the green
version, because I was justscarred for life.
And so it's your centrifuge.
And so the green version isnot going to be as full a full experience.
It's going to be milder.
And then you have the orangeversion, which is going to be a full
(12:50):
centrifuge type attraction.
If you have motion sickness, Ibeg you, don't do this.
But I think a lot of peopledon't realize that going in.
They don't even know whichside should I try?
And it's kind of like.
Like that confusion of it all.
Yeah, yeah.
They.
They're.
It's not a.
I'm glad you brought thatcentrifuge because I didn't know
(13:10):
for years that that's.
That's what it was.
Yeah.
Like, I would go on it as ateenager and a young adult.
I didn't know what made it theway it was.
Yeah.
And then one day I real.
You know, they say, oh, yeah,it spins around like.
Like the county fair.
Yeah.
I'm like, oh, is that what it does?
Oh, okay, that.
Then I'll get it.
This was designed byastronauts with the help.
With the help of astronauts.
Yeah.
(13:30):
To give you a sensation of weightlessness.
To give you the sensation of the.
You would feel taking off.
And for some people, it is athrilling experience to have that.
But for others, it's not.
It's not something that canjust mess you up momentarily.
It can bother you the whole day.
Absolutely.
If it's.
If it's 95 degrees outside,you might be feeling that turn in
(13:51):
your stomach all day if you'renot used to that kind of thing.
This is a ride that replacedHorizons, and Horizons has its lovers.
I mean, people really miss that.
That was a kind of a cool,cool ride.
You got to choose, like, ifyou wanted to go space, land, sea.
It was kind of.
It was kind of before its time.
But I.
I've got.
As I've gotten older, I'vegotten less and less interested in
(14:14):
mission space.
Yeah.
I think they could definitelyuse that space and kind of evolve
that a little bit.
A little more.
Yeah.
Test Track is a cool way, coolthing to talk about because we don't
have any idea what it's goingto be.
Oh, I'm so excited to see testtrack 3.0.
And let's see, you know, let'ssee what we're gonna get.
But I'm really excited it'sgoing to open up later this year.
So your guess is as good asours as to what Test Track is going
(14:37):
to be.
This was World of Motion, andthis was a dark ride that just went
through transportation.
And then it became one of themore Popular rides in the park because
it was a way for you to designa car and then see that car go through
different methods of testinghandling, suspension, speed, etc,
and it kind of thisaccelerating, banked turn that went.
(14:59):
It was the only thrill ride.
It was the only thing.
You're right.
It was the only thrill ride.
And it was.
It was a very cool change fromWorld of Motion to that.
Now we'll see what they're.
What they're going to do.
Super fun.
Well, you got that track, soyou better do.
You better keep that.
That's right.
That's right.
So again, we.
We don't know is.
It'll open later on in 2025.
(15:20):
So let's go over.
If you're walking into Epcot,and let's move over to the right
side.
Journey under the Sea with Nemo.
Simple Disney kind of ridewith a little cartoon Nemo and friends.
Yes.
Giving you a.
A sort of a fun ride.
Yeah.
This is a good spot for ifyou've got little kids, if you've
got toddlers, start them here.
It's a dark ride, but it's nota scary ride.
(15:42):
So go ahead and take them in there.
They'll be able to see Nemo.
And then when you come out,you can go in the aquarium.
And there's gonna be somelittle Nemo and Dory fish in the
aquarium.
Yeah.
That's cool.
A lot of people don't realizethe aquarium, it's.
There's a.
It's rather big.
It's got a lot of different fish.
A lot to see in the aquarium.
I mean, yeah, it's not SeaWorld, but it' was trying to bring
an element of that to.
To Epcot Center.
(16:02):
Now we're going to go over tothe Land Pavilion.
The Land Pavilion has tworides, Soarin and Living with the
Land, which is one of the morepopular rides for people.
Living with the Land is kindof a cool ride.
I really enjoy it.
I.
I like it.
Lori thinks it's boring.
I think it's fascinating.
I find it fascinating everytime I go on it.
(16:23):
Yes, it's a boat ride thatwill go through the ag.
This is going to soundterrible because this is the way
I'm describing it sounds boAgricultural advancements in Walt
Disney World.
But I think it's so neat wherethey tell us, you know, this is where
a lot of the food from therestaurants comes from in Epcot and
all across Walt Disney World.
And you can see how they'regrowing it there.
(16:44):
And it's really interestingwhat They've built just to be able
to manufacture just for themselves.
Exactly.
Just for themselves.
You're right.
And the way they have allsorts of different, you know, the
tomatoes, the trees for thedifferent fruits and vegetables and
all of that, that I find it great.
I think it's a fun ride.
It's relaxing.
I think it's one of the besteducational rides at the park.
(17:05):
Yeah.
And while we're in the land,one of my favorite restaurants at,
at Epcot is in there calledGarden Grill.
And so you can actually kindof get a little sneak peek into living
with the Land, because thatrestaurant rotates very, very slowly.
You don't even realize you're moving.
But you get to see parts ofliving with the land while you're
dining.
And then all the food that youeat there, all the vegetables, at
(17:26):
least all the produce comesfrom living with Land.
And it's a character Dexperience too.
Yes.
So you want to check that outif you're looking for character dining
experiences.
Garden Grill is fantastic.
And then there's Soarin.
Yes.
This came from California.
California had it in itsCalifornia Park.
And then they brought it toDisney World.
They brought it to Epcot Center.
And if you're afraid ofheights, this is not going to help
(17:48):
you whatsoever.
Even if you don't go high up.
Right.
It's just the opticalperception that you're high up.
It's a hang gliding ridethrough various parts of the world.
Very cool, very relaxing.
I love this ride.
I want to do it every time I'm there.
I love it.
I think it.
I.
There.
There's something about thetechnology of this.
It's great.
I.
I thought, when I, I wrote itat Disneyland years ago, and I thought
(18:09):
it was soaring overCalifornia, which is what they had
originally before they changedit to Soarin.
Around the world.
I think the technology is great.
It's so fun.
They've done a little bitbetter with the projection because
I know the famous leaning,Leaning Eiffel Tower.
I think they fixed that alittle bit.
But again, you.
I've done this with my wifewhere she goes, I'm afraid of heights.
I'm like, well, you're notreally that high up.
(18:30):
Yeah.
But she's like, it doesn't matter.
I feel like I'm high up.
Yeah.
And I didn' that until I didvirtual reality goggles.
And when I.
When I'm high up on something,I go, hey, I know I'm standing in
my office.
Yes.
But yet I feel like I'm 90ft again.
So I get the feet wobbling thing.
Yeah.
So she doesn't ride it.
I ride it.
So there you go.
And then there's water with Moana.
Yes.
(18:50):
Which is a very coolwalkthrough experience.
I think it is awesome.
Again, a great area for little kids.
If you've got toddlers, takethem through this.
Even if you don't havetoddlers, this is kind of neat.
It's interactive.
The water will kind of playalong with you.
And then, of course, Moana isalso there to meet.
And GRE outside of Journeyinto Water with Moana.
And then there's the last one.
Figment.
(19:10):
Journey into your imagination.
Yeah.
Now, we talked a lot aboutsome controversy that's gone on with
Epcot, and anytime you changea park, it doesn't matter.
There's going to be peoplethat will scream about the old days.
They'll scream about whatyou're doing with it.
This one.
This one is the weirdesthistory of all the attractions at
Disney World, because when itfirst came along, was sponsored by
(19:31):
Kodak, and it was a ratherlong ride.
Yeah, it was a big ride.
It was a long ride.
It featured Figment and Dream,Dreamfinder, and it was one of the
more technologically great experiences.
It was the best part of goingwhen I was 12.
Sure.
Like, that was the coolestride I remember.
Yeah.
And then cuts came and theytrimmed the ride, and now it just
(19:55):
doesn't have an identity.
It doesn't know what it wantsto be.
It's done a number of iterations.
The one now, Journey into your imagination.
With Figment, it's.
If you.
If you're new to it, that's great.
But if you're old to.
If you've been to everyiteration, it's not the best iteration
of.
Of them all.
But Figment is an original IPof Epcot Center.
(20:16):
So I tell people all the time,go to it.
I'm not going to tell youyou're gonna have.
It's the best ride in thepark, but at least you're gonna get
to experience one of the greatcharacters of the park.
Park, yes.
People line up for two hoursfor a popcorn bucket because of Figment.
That I'll never understand.
They love Figment, so.
But that.
That is the one that you'llsee in the front of the park.
Now we go to the World Showcase.
(20:37):
Yeah.
Once again, as a.
As a kid, I got it.
But as an adult, I got it even more.
How cool this is.
This is one of the cool experiences.
So do we have to go to.
We have to go to Mexico, right?
Well, you know, I guess ifwe're over here at Figment, I guess
we can start at Canada if we must.
So we can go either way.
We can walk all the way overto Mexico.
That's we always recommendwalk to Mexico.
(20:58):
Do it clockwise, don't do it counterclockwise.
I always see thecounterclockwise people.
I don't know what they're doing.
Yeah, Mexico.
There's a couple of thingshere that I.
Grand Fiesta Tour is myfavorite ride.
I love it.
I think it's great.
I just love the music.
I love the silliness of it.
I love the cartoon on the wall.
My.
My family thinks I'm crazy.
(21:18):
I love it.
I just think it's a great ride.
You gotta do it and youtypically don't have to wait but
maybe five minutes to ridethis one.
So go ahead and do it.
It's gonna be the style ofIt's a Small World.
Boats are gonna be the same.
But it's.
It's a nice way to cool offbefore you walk the rest of the way
around the world.
And all of the stuff is withinthe temple.
Most of the stuff anyways.
Within the temple there's ashopping center, there's a restaurant,
(21:40):
and then there's the ride.
So it's kind of a coolexperience to walk in, get a little
cool and see all sortsdifferent things you can do to do
and buy.
We'll get to some of therestaurants down the road, but I
want to get over to Norway.
And this is where you're goingto find Frozen ever after.
Get in, get a lightning lanefor this one or you're going to be
waiting a long time.
That's right.
You either want to rope dropthis one or get a lightning lane
(22:01):
for it.
And most of the time what I'mseeing now is if.
If this is not the attractionthat you choose for your Tier 1 attraction
with lightning Lane, which Itend to gravitate more for, Remy's
Ratatouille Adventure for yourtier one attraction is I'm finding
that there are no lightninglanes available same day for Frozen
ever After.
So it's going to be one thatif it's a priority, you got to get
(22:23):
there early.
You better get there early.
Right.
This used to be Maelstromagain, another controversial change.
But Disney nailed this onebecause I don't.
I've never saw a line outsideall the way to China for.
For Maelstrom.
Like when I see images ofpeople on vacation and they go.
The line For Frozen goes allthe way to Germany.
Yeah.
And I go, good Lord.
You know what I mean?
Like, that never happened on Maelstrom.
(22:44):
So, fun fact.
I actually had a text from aclient yesterday.
I think they listened to thispodcast, and he texted me and said,
hey, here's where the end ofthe Frozen line is.
And it was China.
And I said, how long did theysay it's gonna be?
And he said, the cast membersaid, It'll be about 50 minutes.
I said, okay, that's doable.
That line moves pretty quickly.
(23:05):
The queue is actually kind ofneat and kind of fun and.
And believe it or not, yes.
He texted me, and it was about40 minutes later, he said, I can
see the boat.
We're almost there.
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
So get in that.
Get a lightning lane for that.
And it's.
I.
I think if.
Especially if you have kidswho like the movie and like the characters,
you got to do it.
Don't leave Epcot withoutdoing it.
Yeah.
The line may be long if youdon't get a lightning lane, but it's.
(23:27):
It's a cool frozen IP experience.
All right.
China.
Reflections of China.
Do they even still have that?
I haven't seen that in years.
I have no idea.
I have no idea.
That was like a 360 movie backin the day.
It was never my favorite.
Right.
Then you go to Germany.
I always tell people, get a pretzel.
Yes.
Get a pretzel.
Delicious.
Or a brat or a Br.
(23:47):
If it's Food and wine festival.
That's always my favorite thing.
The pretzel brat.
Italy.
There's no attractions, butVia Napoli is a great place to eat.
Must do.
Must do.
And if the pizza place is openon the outside, get a slice of pizza.
Yes.
All right.
The United States, if we'retalking about like a clock and it's
going from like 7 to like5:30, the noon is where you'd find
in the United States.
(24:07):
Yeah, that's right.
And my favorite thing at the U.S.
pavilion is the Voices of Liberty.
If you don't know what thatis, they are an incredible vocal
group that you can hear.
I want to say it's about everycouple of hours.
It's a great way to cool offand listen to them because they are
phenomenal.
There's also the AmericanExperience, which is an animatronic
show about the history of America.
(24:29):
Mark Twain and Ben Franklinkind of go over the United States.
The history.
They.
They kind of gloss over someof the dark history of the United
States.
But nevertheless, it's a cool.
It's a patriotic tribute tothe United States.
Then Japan, which is noattractions, but very.
Some unique goods over there.
A really cool shop.
My kids love going in there.
They have everything fromhello Kitty to Pokemon to just whatever
(24:52):
you can find in their little trinkets.
Junk.
So in some.
In some instances.
But things that my kids loveto look through.
Then there's Morocco.
I have to admit, I just sortof walk by Morocco and I know I don't
really do anything there, but they.
They now have like apassholder lounge there that you
can hang out in and they thinkyou can get your picture taken with
Genie.
Yes.
Which is there.
(25:12):
But I don't really.
I just kind of buzz rightthrough them.
Yeah, me too.
It's kind of too bad.
France, it used to just haveimpressions de France.
Yes.
Which was just a cool littlemovie about France.
Now it has one of the morepopular rides in Epcot Center.
That's Remy's Ratatouille Adventure.
That's right.
And get on Remy's RatatouilleR in one of the newer attractions.
I love it.
(25:33):
My wife thought it was just okay.
Like, she didn't say it wasjust okay.
She was like, all right, it's cool.
Like, I thought it was wonderful.
I have to close my eyes at times.
Remy.
But I do think it's a.
It's a really cute ride.
It is.
It is worth the wait.
Cuz it is new.
You are shrunken down to thesize of a rat and you're running
through the kitchen and Iwon't spoil it, but there's all sorts
of different sensory thingsyou can feel.
(25:53):
And it's kind.
It's.
It's a very cool experience.
So I highly recommend it.
Again, get a lightning lanefor that.
Although if you're going on a.
On a day where it's not asbusy, the line does move pretty quickly.
Yes, it does.
It's one of those lines where I.
I like.
Like your client saw it waslike 70 minutes and it was really
like 50.
Yes.
So it was.
It wasn't that bad.
And then there's GreatBritain, Great Fish and chips, great
(26:15):
stores.
If you're a Winnie the Poohfan, you can go to Christopher Robin's
room.
Get.
A lot of people don't knowthat, but there's.
It's kind of in the back.
Ask a cast member where it isand you can get your picture taken
with Winnie the Pooh atcertain times.
In Christopher Robin's back bedroom.
Yes.
And then there's Canada.
Oh, Canada, the 360 film.
Yes.
I haven't seen that one inyears either.
Did you recently see that?
(26:36):
I haven't seen it probably in20 years.
I think it was narrated byMartin Short.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that was.
That was it.
But I don't know if they'vechanged it or not.
I.
I don't do the films anymore.
We don't either.
You know, my.
My.
When I was younger, my dad was a.
We're gonna do everything atthis kind of person.
Yeah.
You know, And I was like,okay, we're not leaving until we
get everything done.
Yeah.
And I think my dad goteverything on vhs, too.
(26:58):
Yeah.
Right.
All the shows.
Ex.
The last time, I probably was.
I do know I have a story about O.
Canada.
My sister and I went to Epcoton a family reunion trip, and we
did go into that filming.
This was like 2003.
And we did go into thatfilming, and as we were standing
there, the guy said, my sisterasked how long the movie was, and
(27:19):
he said, 28 minutes.
And my sister faked anemergency, and we got out.
I didn't mind staying.
She was like, I ain't staying for.
I'm not staying for 28 minuteswatching a movie about Canada.
I was like, oh, that's too bad.
I was like, okay.
I missed.
Missed it.
So.
All right.
You mentioned earlier, the festivals.
This is where you're going tofind some great festivals at Epcot
Center.
Depending on when you go.
Festivals such as Festival ofthe Arts.
(27:41):
Food and Wine, which is mypersonal favorite.
Food and Wine.
Feels like it goes on forever.
It really does.
It's getting.
I feel like it's getting alittle shorter.
It was really too long for along time.
And I think they've kind oftried to shorten back down.
Back down off of that a little bit.
Flower and Garden.
Yes.
Which is really great.
I love that one.
That's a great one.
One.
And then if you go during theholidays, they have a very unique
(28:02):
one that doesn't get talkedabout a lot because Jollywood Nights
at Hollywood Studios, of course.
Mickey's Christmas Party.
It's Festival of the Holidays.
Yes.
It's the shortest festival, actually.
Yeah.
And it's.
It's great because you get togo around the World showcase, and
you get to hear stories aboutthe way the countries celebrate the
holidays and some of thetraditions in the holidays and.
And some of the folklorearound the holidays for each country.
(28:24):
Yes.
Which I think is just afascinating, cool, cool experience.
Candlelight procession isvery, very popular.
Be careful about that one.
If you, you got to get therereally early and whatnot.
But this is where this is.
Festivals are tricky.
And, and here's why.
What I mean by that, if you'replanning a trip and you, and you
say, we're going at a non peaktime, right.
(28:45):
And you go, okay, like maybegoing in September, there might be
a festival and Epcot may beabsolutely slammed.
That's right, Great.
Avoid the weekends.
Avoid the weekends.
We went, when we went inSeptember, we went on Saturday to
Epcot for food and wine and it was.
All the locals are there totry all the booths.
So definitely, if you want toavoid the crowds in the fall, avoid
(29:07):
the weekend.
I agree with you.
If, if you're, if you'replanning this, and this is why it's
good to have a planner whoknows when these are.
If you're going, all right,we're going to plan our trip.
If you know that there's afestival there, try to pick a week
night, weekday to go.
Make your Epcot day like aThursday or whatnot.
Because again, Saturday iswhen people around Florida, especially
pass holders, are like, whatdo you want to do today?
(29:27):
Absolutely.
Let's go to Flower and Garden.
This is great.
Hang out.
Yeah.
Get some, get some good stuff.
But the, the last part ofthis, or maybe not the last part
of this, but I.
One of the things I brought upearlier was the fact that Epcot,
I feel like, is an adult parkbecause I think it has the best dining.
Oh, it absolutely does.
Oh.
And it's not just the WorldShowcase, but it, it has some of
(29:48):
the most, from cheap eats atkiosks to fine dining.
You can find everything at Epcot.
Absolutely.
So I've said before, myfavorite quick service in Epcot is
the fish and chips over at uk.
But if you're not feeling thatthat day, you can have anything from
sushi to tacos to Moroccanfood to fish and chips.
(30:08):
Or you can go back over intothe world formerly known as Future
World, and go to Connections Cafe.
Connections Cafe, somethinglike that.
There's, there is so much toeat at Epcot.
That is really good.
And so places like NineDragons, places like San and Helen,
which doesn't get greatreviews, I wish they would bump that
up a bit.
That's the restaurant or GrandFiesta tour passes by.
(30:31):
I've had so many people say, Iwent there and it was just okay if
that seems to be almostuniversal from people.
So I hope Epcot or DisneyWorld is listening and bump that
up A little bit.
Just like they've done toother restaurants that used to get
bad reviews and now havereally turned the corner and become
great places.
But places like Lelier, whichis expensive.
M.
Paul, which is expensive, butit really.
If you want fine dining andyou want.
(30:53):
Don't mind dropping a fewbucks on a really good meal, they've
got those kind of restaurants, too.
That's right.
But some of the kiosks outsidethe World Showcase where you can
get, you know.
Oh, is it Joy of Tea?
Yes.
You can get some really great stuff.
Yes.
Excellent things and uniqueofferings at Epcot for sure.
So that, that we really.
And then we brought up GardenGrill earlier.
Again, if you're looking for acool charact experience with Mickey
(31:16):
and Chippendale and Goofy andwhatnot, Garden Grill is a great
place to go because the foodis delicious and you're going to
get a great.
Get a great character experience.
So that is Epcot Center.
Anything to add on your pointabout this very large park?
Bring your.
Make sure your shoes arebroken in.
That's right.
Make sure that you have yourwalking shoes on.
Don't try to wear shoes thatare cute to Epcot.
(31:37):
Wear shoes that are comfortable.
There are a lot of charactersin Epcot.
You're going to find a lot ofprincesses along the World Showcase.
Look at the map.
Map.
You will see the little Mickey heads.
That's going to indicate wherethere is a character.
It won't always show you whatcharacter is there, but if you see
a Mickey head on the map,that's to tell you that there is
a character to meet there.
So be sure to look out fordifferent ones.
And don't forget the Coca ColaCool Zone.
(32:00):
Try everything.
Try everything.
Including Beverly.
I know, I know, I know.
But try everything.
That's always fun to do atEpcot Center.
But I think the.
One of the overriding pointabout that, about that park, and
I think you brought it upearlier, is that you spend four or
five days and find something new.
You can find something uniqueif you're really looking for it.
If you spent a whole day andyou said, I'm just doing the World
(32:22):
Showcase and all I want to dois go into every shop and every nook
and cranny and try a glass ofwine in Italy or some sake in Japan.
You can make a whole day ofjust that alone.
That there are so manydifferent unique things to do just
in the World Showcase.
And it was kind of the overall point.
Point of the World Showcasewas to bring that country's culture.
(32:43):
You can go in and find thingsthat they sell in that country that
you can't find in the United States.
Yeah, I remember gettingGerman gummy bears when I was a kid.
Like, it was so.
It was great.
So neat.
It was so great.
So, by the way, I forgot tomention there are two ways to enter
Epcot Center.
Yes.
Go through the front gate.
You can also go through theback end by France and Great Britain
if you're staying in one ofthose resorts.
Or you take the monorail tothat area.
(33:05):
That's right.
So again, large park.
Park.
Bring walking shoes.
And if you have a reservation,they don't take reservations on the
15s.
I got told that.
So don't lie and say you havea 7 to 15 reservation when you had
a 7 reservation and you're 20minutes late.
That's the one my family keepsbringing up.
That's so fun.
All right, so please like this podcast.
(33:26):
Subscribe to it.
We are going to be doing ourin Depth series all the way through
for the next.
We got.
We got about seven more.
Eight more episodes to do ontheir in depth series as we go through
Walt Disney World andUniversal Studios.
If you need to reach Lauren,please do so.
Lauren at all the MagicTravel, you can reach me travelwithtonydeet
at gmail com.
We would love to hear from youand please share the podcast if you
find it informative enough foryour friends and neighbors.
(33:48):
I'm Tony Desiri, that's LaurenMallard and this is the Wands and
Wishes podcast.
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