October 4, 2024 • 36 mins
After a little break, we're back to start the month and this time we're exploring how big the World Showcase at Epcot really is!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hey everybody, welcome to whistle while you work podcast.
(00:15):
This is episode 84.
And today's topic is drum roll please.
World showcase is how big?
Yeah, that's right.
I wanted to talk about Epcot.
Epcot forever.
That was a fireworks show, right?
Yes.
Good job.
(00:35):
You got the reference.
That's pretty amazing.
Do you know how big the world showcase is?
I believe I do.
But what did what did Google tell you?
Or maybe you already knew in your head.
I did know.
And then I verified trust but verify.
Yeah, that's what I did.
We'll get into that later.
If we tell them now, they'll just be like, okay, got the answer.
And they're out.
(00:58):
You think people think so little of us in our entertainment value that once we get that
that teaser answer that they're out?
Some people, yes.
Well, I can see why they might because our inconsistency this year is it's been pretty
sad.
September had zero uploads from us.
(01:19):
No content, no new episodes in September.
In September, we sent a child to college.
In fact, our first child to college and we didn't record.
Do you remember the 21st day of September?
Oh, goodness gracious.
There was some weird look on his face and I knew something silly was about to come out
(01:45):
from there.
I wish I'd been there that day, though.
Yeah, they only played that song for guardians.
Yep.
Cosmic rewind.
Yep.
Yeah, that's what you got.
It's a great song.
Not I don't think it's the best one for that ride.
That definitely is.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
But it's pretty good one.
It's probably maybe, I don't know, second or third on my favorite list.
(02:08):
I feel like it's been played often when I've gone on that ride.
I've definitely heard it more than once.
Yeah, for me, I think the conga still remains the most frequently played.
Really?
Yeah, maybe.
That's a great one, though.
It's pretty good.
You know, to tell you the truth, like I didn't really love that song until I rode that ride.
(02:29):
And I'm still not sure I love that song, but I was like I could get into it.
Yeah.
And surprisingly, I knew all the words, even though I didn't love it going into it.
So that's kind of funny.
Do you ever find yourself doing that?
Like you're on the ride and you want to be screaming, but instead like you're singing
the song.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Isn't that amazing?
And I'm dancing, too.
(02:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's pretty it's pretty wild.
We're talking in case you didn't know we're talking about we're talking about Cosmic Rewind,
the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster at Epcot, which, by the way, still has a virtual
queue.
Yeah.
To a year and a half later.
I don't it's not the last one standing because they just added a new one, but it's basically
(03:13):
the last one standing.
I came out Memorial Day and it wasn't I think it's been a year and a half, maybe two.
I don't know.
It's been a very long time.
I think we're going on two years now, right?
Anyways, whatever it is, I didn't look that up and I'm not going to.
But it's been around long enough that I'm glad they've held on to the virtual queue.
I was listening to your Escape to the Magic and you were going on.
(03:35):
I have a very, very serious opinion about this.
We're not going to ever find the answer out to how big the world showcases with all of
your little jokes, jokey jokes.
Well, let's do this.
You know, some of our listeners may not be super familiar with the way Epcot is divided
(03:57):
up.
So I think it'd be good to maybe give an overview of the park itself, starting with, of course,
what Epcot even means.
Like who came up with that word?
Well, I think it was Walter Elias Disney himself.
Yeah.
Walt came up with the word Epcot.
And if he saw Epcot as it is now, he was not the Epcot he was talking about.
(04:18):
He would not be very happy.
No, I think he'd be pleased.
But Epcot, it's an acronym, literally stands for the Experimental Prototype Community of
Tomorrow.
And so hearken back to some of your Iron Man days and you'll notice that there's some
(04:41):
great B-roll old found footage that Tony Stark's watching of his father Howard, who's pointing
at a map and talking about Epcot, basically.
His dad with the mustache that looks similar to...
You just look like Walt.
I mean, you know, all that was on purpose and they did a great job.
But Walt did the same thing.
(05:02):
And there's footage of him pointing to what Epcot is and literally saying, experimental
prototype community of tomorrow.
And he literally envisioned a new type of community.
And I think he was spot on.
I mean, honestly, I don't know if you ever pull it off, but I think he was spot on.
It would be amazing to live in such a place because he was looking for kind of that utopia
(05:28):
where the community was basically kind of self-sufficient.
And you had all the needs that you needed to have all the way down to that the bubble,
literally the bubble.
Yeah.
Like we control the weather.
Right.
And it's like Truman Show.
Remember that movie with Jim Carrey?
Oh yeah.
I remember the Truman Show.
That was weird.
But could be true.
(05:49):
No, can't be true.
And I think it's obviously morphed and changed because Walt Disney was not alive when this
was...
So it opened the year I was born in 1982 and Walt Disney had been passed away for over
a decade at that point.
And so they took what they could and they made it work in a theme park type setting
(06:15):
rather than a community.
Yeah.
And the thought was, how do we become united?
And how do we bring unity into this equation basically on a global scale?
Let's bring the globe to us.
And I think Spaceship Earth is a perfect example of that.
(06:37):
People like to call it the Epcot ball or the Disney golf ball or the globe or whatever
it is, but it's literally a spaceship.
Just so you know, it will blast off one day.
I'll be honest.
It'll be fun.
But it's Spaceship Earth, which as an attraction takes you on a journey through time, throughout
(07:01):
the history of the world, all the way up to where we are.
Yeah.
And communication really is what the storyline is in there.
Yeah.
And for everyone who likes to sing their ABCs, thank the Phoenicians.
That's right.
But Epcot's more than that, right?
I mean, that's just kind of the big introduction of the whole thing.
(07:23):
When the Imagineers kind of said, how do we pull this together?
They said, let's bring the world to us.
Yeah.
And World Showcase particularly really answers that.
And I think the other part of Walt's vision of the community and things was the education
component, like learning.
(07:44):
He knew that that was a big part of how societies thrive.
And so the front half of the park, there's a lot of opportunities to hands on learning.
I think it has been less and less over the years, but I really want to talk about one
hands on attraction that's new, and that's Moana.
It's a Moana journey into water journey of water, of water inspired by Moana.
(08:10):
I like my name better.
Yeah.
Well, journey into water journey into water journey of the water.
Yeah.
Water journeys here.
I think maybe they what's it called again?
Now I forgot.
Journey of water, journey of water, inspired by Moana.
I could have been right.
(08:31):
Water journeys here.
All right.
Let's move on.
I think your brain, I think there's like steam coming out of your brain now or something.
So we I am not very popular on Instagram.
I don't get a lot of views or anything, but I did do a reel of us, me and my family inside
(08:52):
of this attraction, which is a walk through attraction.
You're not sitting or going on a roller coaster.
You walk through and you play with water and you learn about water and the water cycle.
So the first and foremost, it actually is an educational exhibit and they've done some
amazing things to help promote your learning and understanding of water with it.
(09:15):
Yeah.
And so it there were several there's several different sections where you can do different
things and you can hear the music from Moana in the background, which is awesome.
But the my my 10 seconds of fame, what is it?
Fifteen minutes of fame, whatever.
On Instagram, I have like over three hundred thousand views of my child, my youngest child
(09:37):
cutting in line in front of me to do this thing where the water comes down from above
like in a curtain fashion.
And as you get right to it is when the water stops, you don't actually get wet as you go
under it.
It goes to just walk normal speed right through what looks like a curtain of water.
Right.
And literally every time I mean, I'm saying don't slow down and be hesitant.
(10:00):
Right.
Just do it.
It'll stop.
You won't get wet.
Yeah.
And I you had my phone and you were doing a video and I was like, OK, let's do a cool
video of this.
And so I'm all set to go.
And then here comes one of my children and cuts me off and goes in front of me.
And the look on your face was priceless.
Yeah.
I think that's why your video went semi-viral.
Yeah.
And I said, you don't get too upset because you're at Disney World.
(10:22):
But the the the thought in my head was I wanted to go through and I wanted to look up like
I really wanted to like, you know, test, you know, put my faith in this curtain to the
test.
And I did.
I looked up and didn't get wet.
So anyway, it would have it would have been not very exciting if it had not been for the
quirky child cutting in front of me.
(10:44):
Otherwise it would have just been my pretty little face smiling at the water, not hitting
me.
Yeah.
So anyway, there is my 15 minutes of fame.
If you want to find that, you can go on my Instagram and find that amazing reel.
So one more thing I'll say, I mean, we can talk more about the whole journey of water
comma inspired by Moana.
(11:05):
But if you need to go, that Disney likes doing that.
If you need to use the restroom, there is a restroom in that area, but it has like one
to two stalls per gender.
Right.
So it's like not very much availability.
So look, but look, this is genius.
This is genius.
It's a water attraction.
You're in there.
(11:26):
You're playing with water.
Right.
A lot of people, a lot of forget little children, adults, right?
The second, some of them even here running water, they're like, oh, I got to go.
And so you're going to be in luck.
You don't have to go too far.
It's right there.
This episode brought to us by depends or I promise you, we have listeners that are like,
hallelujah.
Thank you, Randy, for bringing us the good news.
(11:48):
I know where another bathroom's at.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would just say that I waited in line with a couple of our kids to use the restroom there.
And we finally abandoned the whole or like, we're just going to hold it because well,
I didn't say they were reliable restroom, but they are there.
It was smart.
Maybe they should be smarter and expand them.
I don't know.
It's kind of like the size of the bathroom when you go to Pandora flight of passage,
(12:10):
you know how there's like a bathroom inside the line, you know, like, you know, there's
a bathroom in the queue there.
No.
Yeah.
If you need to go to the bathroom while you're waiting for that ride, you can is it in that
big room?
No, it's the big square water fountains.
It's kind of when you go from the cave to another section.
You know what?
I didn't know this.
But again, that's really smart because that that queue is like seven miles long.
(12:34):
Yeah.
It's bigger than the World Showcase.
Is that giving us a hint?
Give you a hint.
It's about seven miles big, at least a walking path.
OK, all right.
OK, well, what you've done, you've done it in Journey of Water, comma, inspired by my
own.
I have to it's just funny to me now.
(12:55):
I think it was inspired by Maui.
So what I think it was inspired by Tafiti.
You've experienced it in the daytime and the nighttime.
Do you have a preference?
Yeah, the nighttime is amazing.
Seriously, it's pretty amazing just because I always love how they light things up.
They make it so it's appealing.
The downside is you kind of can't see what you're doing.
(13:15):
So if you if you want to if you want to do kind of the educational part and experience
it and have fun playing with the water, because that's what you get to do.
You literally get to play with water.
There's things that you know, there's cues that tells you what to do at a particular
stop and the water responds to you individually, which is really amazing.
(13:36):
If you want to do that, you need to do it during the daytime.
I think at nighttime you're mostly and the other part about nighttime is especially if
it's just a little bit cooler outside, it tends to fill up with a lot of mist and fog.
So then it's really hard to see.
It's not just that you can't see because it's dark, but you can see cool pictures.
Yeah.
But if you wear glasses or other things like that, it gets it gets to be kind of it gets
(13:59):
the and you know, cameras, it gets to be kind of tricky at nighttime.
It's beautiful to walk through.
It's not when I would recommend that you do a lot of playing.
I think it's a good time to see it.
But you know, you'll have fun either time.
Yeah.
And if you're wondering where this is exactly located, it's close to the aquarium, you know,
(14:20):
where Nemo and right outside of Nemo.
Yeah.
And they have it situated.
Of course, you know, they're so good at making sure sight lines and pictures do well.
So when you are with the photo pass, there is a photo pass photographer in this attraction.
There's to Fiti and in the background, you can see the Epcot ball.
Should I call it that?
(14:41):
Don't do that.
OK, well, you can see one professional, you can see.
Spaceship Earth.
So anyway, super cool.
I wish I was at Disney World right now.
I would be playing in there and I would say what do you say most people should plan on
20 minutes?
I think 20 minutes is absolutely fair, especially if it's pretty busy.
(15:03):
If it's not super busy.
I've been there both when it was kind of crowded and when it's not crowded.
It's not super busy.
You can do it in less than that for sure.
Maybe even half of it.
Ten minutes is fine.
But it's a lot of fun.
Great.
Now, you know, be aware some of the interactive exhibits like anything that they can break
down or they can not function the way you'd hope.
(15:25):
So last time we were there, we brought the kids.
I was so excited to get to the end and be like, this is the best part.
We got over there and it was not working.
And that was sad because that is the best part.
I know it's the part that especially our youngest son who cut you off would have had the most
fun doing.
I didn't say which son it was.
Now you've narrowed it down a lot.
(15:45):
Well, he's on the Instagram.
It's pretty obvious.
Shortest one.
OK, so I knew that kid was going to make me famous one day.
Yeah.
OK, so we had a few different topics.
The other topic we will get to how big the World Showcase is.
But I wanted to talk about the fact that you can get in to Epcot two different places.
(16:06):
And this is the only park to entrances.
There's two entrances.
This is the only part that you can do that.
If you had to just pick one entrance that you can only use the rest of your life, which
which one would you pick?
The front one where the parking lot in the monorail is?
Or would you pick the the one back in the World Showcase area, the International Gateway
(16:27):
entrance?
Well, if I had to pick only one for the rest of my life, I have to take the front entrance
because I got to be able to get.
Back to the Magic Kingdom and from the International Gateway, you're only going to get to Hollywood
Studios.
So that that's a little bit tricky, I think.
You know, this is I think this is actually a really interesting topic.
(16:48):
You could spend some time on it.
I don't know what you'd say, but I love the International Gateway.
It's back there.
You could spend a lot of time on it and then you would say, yeah, but I don't know what
I'd say.
I never know what I'm going to say.
You're going to come up with something.
Well, I'm saying it right now.
So the thing is, the thing is, I love that International Gateway because it's the first
(17:11):
of all, it right there at the Skyliner.
So you can take the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios.
You can take it to a couple of resorts, a number of different resorts, right?
Obviously in some instances, you got to have a connection change and stuff.
But Skyliner is right there.
There are boats available also to take you to some of the resorts on the water or even
(17:33):
all the way down to Hollywood Studios.
That's there.
You could even walk all the way to Hollywood Studios.
We've done that before.
We've walked the whole distance from Epcot at the International Gateway to Hollywood
Studios.
I really recommend it on a hot day, particularly.
Really, I don't recommend it at all.
It's a pretty long walk.
Yeah.
I think it took us 45 minutes minimum.
(17:54):
I don't think I was with you when we did that full.
I think I've walked from the boardwalk to Hollywood.
Well, honestly, that's basically the same thing because right there at the entrance
is the boardwalk.
So it's a pretty long walk.
I can't believe you picked.
I mean, I guess I would want to go to Magic Kingdom too on the monorail.
Yeah, you got the buses, you got the monorail.
(18:15):
In the parking lot, compared to Magic Kingdom, you can actually get to your car relatively
quickly.
Correct.
And that's where the cars are.
So if you're driving, the other one's really not an option for you.
But it does give you some access back there.
What's so cool is this is, in my opinion, Epcot is most like Magic Kingdom in terms
(18:37):
of you have resort access right there.
Magic Kingdom and Epcot are the only places really where you can walk out of your hotel
and pretty much walk into a park.
You're at the boardwalk.
If you're at the beach club, the International Gateway takes you right there.
You know, Magic Kingdom, if you're at the Contemporary or even if you're at the Grand
Floridian, it's a little bit longer walk, but you could walk there on an easy path now.
(18:59):
But the Contemporary, it's like five, 10 minutes or whatever it is.
Right.
It was not a Seinfeld reference.
But I love that part about it.
On the other hand, you know, that does preclude you.
If you're going to Hollywood Studios, that's the way you're going to go.
You're going to use International Gateway.
You're not going to go out the front and take a bus.
If you do, you've messed up.
(19:19):
OK.
Well, maybe I should post this question.
I'm going to answer it.
So I have a lot to say.
I didn't know what any of it meant, but I got a lot to say.
OK.
Let's just talk about pros and cons with each entrance.
I want to say a few pros about the main entrance.
So I talked about the parking lot.
You got a jaw freeze that's rarely used.
You can almost what?
(19:40):
Not a pro.
It's just to me.
I can get my donuts for my breakfast right there.
And it's usually we're going to do a whole episode just on Joffre's.
OK.
It's going to be the most contentious episode anyone's ever listened to.
I mean, yes.
Probably.
All right.
Let's keep talking about pros of the main entrance to Epcot.
(20:03):
I got a lot to say, too.
So just buckle up.
Everyone's like this is why they didn't do one for a whole month.
That's not why we're just busy.
Oh, I wish we were at Disney World.
That's why we didn't do it.
Now I'm having too much fun.
OK.
So OK.
The other pro is when you go on the monorail, especially at nighttime.
Do you remember that time we waited for the monorail at Epcot at the main entrance and
(20:28):
we got to see Spaceship Earth like the light show.
And there was even music and like a whole like there was an American flag right there.
It's actually a show.
I don't know that people realize that.
If you walk by and you see Spaceship Earth doing something funky, if you get closer,
there's music that's actually part of the show of what you're watching.
I didn't know that until one night when I was leaving.
(20:51):
And all of a sudden I stopped and I looked up and I'm like, wait a second, that music
is in sync and in time to what's happening.
I just thought they were doing some fancy lights up there.
There's a lot more to it than that.
And you're right.
Up on the monorail platform, you could watch that and listen.
I mean, I would say a con for that entrance is it's cold.
(21:12):
It's very dated 80s.
It looks like Tomorrowland.
It's like to me the opposite of like when you enter Magic Kingdom, it's this cozy, comfortable
like train station, like just homey feeling.
To me, the entrance at Epcot is stark and...
It's like Tomorrowland.
(21:33):
But the nice thing is that there is plenty of space.
There are a ton of turnstiles.
There's a lot of room to accommodate all the people.
International Gateway, that is the opposite.
There is not a lot of turnstiles.
There is not a lot of space back there.
Even as Quaint...
I think there's three.
No, there's more.
(21:54):
I think there's three, maybe four turnstiles, but there's only two potential lines to walk
through security.
I think you need to double that at least.
I think your memory is not serving you well.
There's not more than two of the metal detectors for security.
I can tell you that.
Oh, metal detectors.
Okay, I see what you're saying.
You got to walk through that before you get to the turnstile and they're right next to
each other.
So there's not many more turnstiles than the metal detectors.
(22:17):
So anyway, just what are your pros and cons?
I mean, you kind of listed convenience to resorts.
Well, obviously access in and out is a big one.
The main entrance...
There's Joffreys.
There is a lot of pro in terms of there is space.
(22:37):
That's also a con.
You get off the monorail, you're walking forever until you can finally get over even just to
security.
Talk about coming from the bus.
You're walking forever from the bus area.
Yeah, the bus is even further away than the monorail.
So to me, I always find that just a little bit funky.
It seems a little strange that you're there, but you're so far away.
(22:58):
Even after you get past security, it's actually a pretty long walk from security to the turnstile.
And the pass holder turnstile is at the very furthest end of it.
So you're walking even farther away than that.
I guess they assume mostly pass holders, probably a lot of them are local so that they're driving
and they're parking there.
It's closer to the parking lot than it is to monorail or bus access.
(23:23):
But there is a lot more space up there for you to get people through.
That's a big pro for the front.
Big pro for the back is the same thing, but the opposite.
You don't have to fight usually really huge crowds.
And the resort guests tend to be, I don't know, there's not a ton of rope droppers from
(23:47):
back there for instance.
Yeah, it's just a different crowd.
It's just a different experience, different crowd, right?
It's very casual, easy ride.
But if you are rope dropping, Remy is right there.
And I will say like when I have clients that are wanting to ride that.
And L'Eau de Boulangerie Patisserie.
That's right.
Ryan is laughing right now.
It's delicious, you know, good food found here.
(24:09):
But yeah, like strategically, if you want to make the most of your time and not wait
in a lot of lines, Remy is a good place to start.
But if you're at the front of that park, and we've done it before, where you start at the
front of the park main entrance and go all the way back to France.
That's a really long walk.
I would say if you're power walking, you're not allowed to run.
(24:29):
Like they really, it's against the rules.
I would say 12 minutes minimum, maybe 15 is probably more realistic.
Yes, yes.
And that is like, that is Olympic power walking to hit it in that kind of pace.
It's a long walk.
Right.
And it's not super convenient.
Now, this is kind of a teaser into our answers to our question.
(24:52):
Maybe a disclaimer on that.
The last few times we did that, there was still a lot of construction walls up.
Most of those construction walls are down.
So it could be slightly shorter, but it's still not super convenient to get back.
It's a long walk, much longer than you think it is.
Well, and to me a little bit, especially if you've never been, I think you lose the charm
(25:14):
of discovering the countries as you go, you know, rather than rushing through them.
So like if you've been many times, maybe it's not a big deal, but if that was my first time
going I wouldn't want to have to rush back all the way.
And from the front to get to Remy.
Now, if I'm in the International Gateway starting at Remy, that makes a lot of sense.
(25:35):
And I guess I'll say my last pro for the International Gateway is it's got the theming is the French.
It's the French theming because the Skyliner comes from the Riviera, which is French themed.
And then since this one flies over France and the World Showcase, it's just it's got
(25:57):
that it's really charming.
So I like that.
Yeah, it matches.
If you go back into the France Pavilion there and you get near Remy, the metalwork and everything
like that is pretty similar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you going to answer our question?
The name of our podcast episode World Showcase is how big?
(26:19):
You don't know.
I mean, I've run it when they actually let us run for the.
How many countries in the World Showcase?
I think there's 11, right?
11.
That's right.
Yeah.
And then there's a bunch when they do.
How many should there be in the World Showcase?
I don't know.
15.
I think 15 or 16 personally.
Anyways, there's 11 heavily European.
(26:42):
So when you say how big are you saying when you do a big circle, the whole circle?
How big is what's the distance from end to end of the World Showcase?
So if you're going to go from basically Mexico to Canada and then back to Mexico and it's
actually a little bit beyond Canada, right?
(27:02):
So there's the entrance to the World Showcase is one big long walkway.
And the very center of that is a Joffre's.
And it's actually the worst Joffre's by the way, I'm just warning you.
You've waited in that line.
That's one is probably actually the one up at the main entrance.
There's no line.
You're right.
But I'll pass.
So and then there's two gift shops on the opposite sides of that.
(27:25):
And then one direction takes you to Mexico, one direction takes you to Canada, and then
you start walking.
Total distance.
My guess is one mile.
Is that right?
It's really close.
It's really close.
It's 1.2 miles.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
So now I read in one spot someone said 1.3 miles, but I haven't really found any support
(27:45):
for that.
I found most support say 1.2 miles.
And that's what I've always heard.
So maybe if you walk the inner rim, it's 1.2.
And if you do that, you know, if you don't cut corners.
Well, during Food and Wine Festival, you might be zigzagging a lot.
So you're going to get some extra steps and there's your extra.
And yeah, people are going to they're going to stop and look at stuff along the way.
And so that was kind of the whole reason I wanted to do this episode anyway, was just
(28:07):
kind of helping people have their expectations on how much time, energy, efforts to expect
in the World Showcase.
Now, obviously, not obviously, but if you didn't know, we don't drink alcohol.
And so that is definitely going to tack on quite a bit more time.
We have to zigzag, but we're not stopping to wait in lines to get alcohol, which there
(28:32):
is a lot of in the World Showcase, which is appealing to many travelers.
So it obviously depends on what your taste is and your group and your.
But I guess I would just say.
I don't like I envision a trip in my future where I get to slowly walk through the countries
(28:53):
rather than go from Remy all the way over to Guardians to and I, you know, more focused
on the attractions and being able to just be in the countries and enjoy them more.
So I agree.
I think one of the things kind of let me just tell you, one point two miles.
When you get a lot of people in there, it's really not enough.
(29:15):
Right.
And that's kind of it's kind of an interesting thing.
It really is not quite enough.
There are certain pinch points where it's very, very congested.
And that side that we're talking about over there, the Canada, UK, France, Pavilion section,
especially very narrow.
It's a huge pinch point.
It's almost the exact opposite of what you find in front of the American Pavilion, where
(29:40):
there's huge, huge walkways, lots of room to maneuver Mexico also.
So it's ironic that I think the biggest pinch points are actually right there at the entrance
to the World Showcase.
And you could make the same argument about the International Gateway to write.
It's basically pretty narrow and can become a pinch point.
So that can be difficult.
(30:02):
I love I didn't always love Epcot for a long time.
Epcot was, in my opinion, pretty boring park.
It was not my kind of thing as a kid.
I just didn't I didn't find the appeal.
Now you know me and my personality and it's not changed since I was six.
I'm a thrill seeker.
So I want to I'm looking for thrill attractions.
(30:24):
I'm looking for a lot of things to do.
And back then in the 80s, you know, the 1900s when we were born, it didn't have a lot of
that to start.
They really were focused on this kind of global educational sort of thing.
That was the model.
Learn about these other cultures and countries.
And then people would go on the Maelstrom in Norway and they'd go, whoa, what was that?
(30:48):
Yeah, because that one was more thrilling than the rest of the park.
Pretty much right.
That was the thrill of the park.
You know, so but I think you have to go in with the expectation of like, hey, this isn't
thrill seeking day, although Guardians for sure.
But I see.
That's the thing I would today.
I would say the exact opposite.
I think there's plenty to do at Epcot that can help you feel that from test track to
(31:12):
even mission space.
Right.
I mean, look, I'm going to tell you right now.
Here we go.
This Epcot's the only park that has an attraction designed to make you throw up.
Yeah.
That's mission space.
That's the line.
Right.
Yeah.
So pretty much it's a thrill seeking sort of a thing.
Even eating is a thrill seeking adventure at Epcot at space to 20 where you're going to
(31:36):
go up this giant elevator into outer space.
You're going to eat, you know, miles above the earth.
You want to talk about the World Showcase is how big?
Whoa, that's way up there.
It's true.
That's not really part of the World Showcase, but it's right at the fringe edge of it.
So maybe I'll count it anyhow.
And you know, those Epcotians, those Epcotters.
(31:58):
Yeah.
People of Epcot.
People of Epcot.
They all go there.
Epcot Terrans.
That's right.
Welcome.
So I think there's a lot to do that you got guardians, you know, Spaceship Earth is a
chill ride, but I think it's an enjoyable one.
But test tracks a thrill and it's undergoing a huge update right now.
(32:19):
Test track 3.0 coming out.
Very much looking forward to that.
You know, Ratatouille is a fun ride.
Frozen is a great ride.
You know, they took Maelstrom and they made it into something coherent.
Yeah, that was great.
You know, you've got Soarin over on the other side.
So I think there's a lot to do there now.
There could still be more.
(32:40):
And I think there ought to be more countries as well.
But the models changed.
You know, when these countries originally came to the World Showcase, they were financed
by their country.
Yeah, so the dynamics have changed now.
The business models changed.
It makes it a little more difficult to do that.
If you ever go through Morocco and you're like, how come this place isn't great?
(33:02):
It's because the financial model of really owning your country there and promoting it
for whatever purposes you have changed as well.
And that makes it hard.
I think as the park continues to grow and evolve, you know, they're always looking for
new ways.
There's a lot of empty space still at Epcot.
There's a lot of opportunity for growth from both attractions to educational opportunities.
(33:29):
Figma Journey into Imagination.
We've got too many journeys too close together right there.
My see they got to change that name, but they should have the band journey, you know, do
something over there now.
That would be interesting.
I would say I just I think I appreciate the fact that when you take a Disney World trip
and if you are willing to stay long enough to do all four parks, you're going to get
(33:50):
a different flavor each day, like each park.
And I think Epcot might especially be the furthest outside of the the rest of the mold.
And so just open your mind to it.
And I would again say, take your time.
It might be it might be a park that's worth taking two days of your trip at just for the
(34:13):
sake of eating.
Like if you want to eat and try lots of things.
Good luck trying to do that in one day there.
And the other thing is, I really think that if you're going to do it justice, you take
a lot of time and really soak in all the all the different countries in addition to all
the attractions and everything else that's there.
(34:34):
I've talked to a lot of people who over the years have tried to tell me don't waste your
time with Epcot or don't spend more than a half a day at Epcot.
And I'm going to tell you right now Epcot is more than just a one day park.
If you're really going to do it well, it's more than a one day park.
And so I think there's a lot of value to be found there.
It's only going to keep getting better.
(34:56):
Now the nighttime the nighttime show, I think stinks.
We need to give it another try.
No, no, I'm out.
Made up my mind.
I wish you had more like strong opinions.
The World Showcase is how big?
Oh, my gosh.
Anyway, I wish I was at Epcot right now when we were trying to come up with what we wanted
(35:19):
to talk about.
I was like, I want to talk about something that gets me excited and and just brings me
joy.
So I'm ready to go to Epcot whenever you are.
I'll go right now.
OK, let's get in the car.
It'll be close probably by the time we get there.
Anyway, thanks for thanks for sticking with us.
And again, sorry that we didn't have anything in September.
(35:42):
But do you remember the twenty third day, twenty first day of September?
Twenty first day of September.
I do remember.
And I remember that we did not record that.
Well, you all take care and and go visit Epcot.
Hey everybody, welcome to whistle while you work podcast.
(00:15):
This is episode 84.
And today's topic is drum roll please.
World showcase is how big?
Yeah, that's right.
I wanted to talk about Epcot.
Epcot forever.
That was a fireworks show, right?
Yes.
Good job.
(00:35):
You got the reference.
That's pretty amazing.
Do you know how big the world showcase is?
I believe I do.
But what did what did Google tell you?
Or maybe you already knew in your head.
I did know.
And then I verified trust but verify.
Yeah, that's what I did.
We'll get into that later.
If we tell them now, they'll just be like, okay, got the answer.
And they're out.
(00:58):
You think people think so little of us in our entertainment value that once we get that
that teaser answer that they're out?
Some people, yes.
Well, I can see why they might because our inconsistency this year is it's been pretty
sad.
September had zero uploads from us.
(01:19):
No content, no new episodes in September.
In September, we sent a child to college.
In fact, our first child to college and we didn't record.
Do you remember the 21st day of September?
Oh, goodness gracious.
There was some weird look on his face and I knew something silly was about to come out
(01:45):
from there.
I wish I'd been there that day, though.
Yeah, they only played that song for guardians.
Yep.
Cosmic rewind.
Yep.
Yeah, that's what you got.
It's a great song.
Not I don't think it's the best one for that ride.
That definitely is.
Everybody wants to rule the world.
But it's pretty good one.
It's probably maybe, I don't know, second or third on my favorite list.
(02:08):
I feel like it's been played often when I've gone on that ride.
I've definitely heard it more than once.
Yeah, for me, I think the conga still remains the most frequently played.
Really?
Yeah, maybe.
That's a great one, though.
It's pretty good.
You know, to tell you the truth, like I didn't really love that song until I rode that ride.
(02:29):
And I'm still not sure I love that song, but I was like I could get into it.
Yeah.
And surprisingly, I knew all the words, even though I didn't love it going into it.
So that's kind of funny.
Do you ever find yourself doing that?
Like you're on the ride and you want to be screaming, but instead like you're singing
the song.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Isn't that amazing?
And I'm dancing, too.
(02:50):
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's pretty it's pretty wild.
We're talking in case you didn't know we're talking about we're talking about Cosmic Rewind,
the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster at Epcot, which, by the way, still has a virtual
queue.
Yeah.
To a year and a half later.
I don't it's not the last one standing because they just added a new one, but it's basically
(03:13):
the last one standing.
I came out Memorial Day and it wasn't I think it's been a year and a half, maybe two.
I don't know.
It's been a very long time.
I think we're going on two years now, right?
Anyways, whatever it is, I didn't look that up and I'm not going to.
But it's been around long enough that I'm glad they've held on to the virtual queue.
I was listening to your Escape to the Magic and you were going on.
(03:35):
I have a very, very serious opinion about this.
We're not going to ever find the answer out to how big the world showcases with all of
your little jokes, jokey jokes.
Well, let's do this.
You know, some of our listeners may not be super familiar with the way Epcot is divided
(03:57):
up.
So I think it'd be good to maybe give an overview of the park itself, starting with, of course,
what Epcot even means.
Like who came up with that word?
Well, I think it was Walter Elias Disney himself.
Yeah.
Walt came up with the word Epcot.
And if he saw Epcot as it is now, he was not the Epcot he was talking about.
(04:18):
He would not be very happy.
No, I think he'd be pleased.
But Epcot, it's an acronym, literally stands for the Experimental Prototype Community of
Tomorrow.
And so hearken back to some of your Iron Man days and you'll notice that there's some
(04:41):
great B-roll old found footage that Tony Stark's watching of his father Howard, who's pointing
at a map and talking about Epcot, basically.
His dad with the mustache that looks similar to...
You just look like Walt.
I mean, you know, all that was on purpose and they did a great job.
But Walt did the same thing.
(05:02):
And there's footage of him pointing to what Epcot is and literally saying, experimental
prototype community of tomorrow.
And he literally envisioned a new type of community.
And I think he was spot on.
I mean, honestly, I don't know if you ever pull it off, but I think he was spot on.
It would be amazing to live in such a place because he was looking for kind of that utopia
(05:28):
where the community was basically kind of self-sufficient.
And you had all the needs that you needed to have all the way down to that the bubble,
literally the bubble.
Yeah.
Like we control the weather.
Right.
And it's like Truman Show.
Remember that movie with Jim Carrey?
Oh yeah.
I remember the Truman Show.
That was weird.
But could be true.
(05:49):
No, can't be true.
And I think it's obviously morphed and changed because Walt Disney was not alive when this
was...
So it opened the year I was born in 1982 and Walt Disney had been passed away for over
a decade at that point.
And so they took what they could and they made it work in a theme park type setting
(06:15):
rather than a community.
Yeah.
And the thought was, how do we become united?
And how do we bring unity into this equation basically on a global scale?
Let's bring the globe to us.
And I think Spaceship Earth is a perfect example of that.
(06:37):
People like to call it the Epcot ball or the Disney golf ball or the globe or whatever
it is, but it's literally a spaceship.
Just so you know, it will blast off one day.
I'll be honest.
It'll be fun.
But it's Spaceship Earth, which as an attraction takes you on a journey through time, throughout
(07:01):
the history of the world, all the way up to where we are.
Yeah.
And communication really is what the storyline is in there.
Yeah.
And for everyone who likes to sing their ABCs, thank the Phoenicians.
That's right.
But Epcot's more than that, right?
I mean, that's just kind of the big introduction of the whole thing.
(07:23):
When the Imagineers kind of said, how do we pull this together?
They said, let's bring the world to us.
Yeah.
And World Showcase particularly really answers that.
And I think the other part of Walt's vision of the community and things was the education
component, like learning.
(07:44):
He knew that that was a big part of how societies thrive.
And so the front half of the park, there's a lot of opportunities to hands on learning.
I think it has been less and less over the years, but I really want to talk about one
hands on attraction that's new, and that's Moana.
It's a Moana journey into water journey of water, of water inspired by Moana.
(08:10):
I like my name better.
Yeah.
Well, journey into water journey into water journey of the water.
Yeah.
Water journeys here.
I think maybe they what's it called again?
Now I forgot.
Journey of water, journey of water, inspired by Moana.
I could have been right.
(08:31):
Water journeys here.
All right.
Let's move on.
I think your brain, I think there's like steam coming out of your brain now or something.
So we I am not very popular on Instagram.
I don't get a lot of views or anything, but I did do a reel of us, me and my family inside
(08:52):
of this attraction, which is a walk through attraction.
You're not sitting or going on a roller coaster.
You walk through and you play with water and you learn about water and the water cycle.
So the first and foremost, it actually is an educational exhibit and they've done some
amazing things to help promote your learning and understanding of water with it.
(09:15):
Yeah.
And so it there were several there's several different sections where you can do different
things and you can hear the music from Moana in the background, which is awesome.
But the my my 10 seconds of fame, what is it?
Fifteen minutes of fame, whatever.
On Instagram, I have like over three hundred thousand views of my child, my youngest child
(09:37):
cutting in line in front of me to do this thing where the water comes down from above
like in a curtain fashion.
And as you get right to it is when the water stops, you don't actually get wet as you go
under it.
It goes to just walk normal speed right through what looks like a curtain of water.
Right.
And literally every time I mean, I'm saying don't slow down and be hesitant.
(10:00):
Right.
Just do it.
It'll stop.
You won't get wet.
Yeah.
And I you had my phone and you were doing a video and I was like, OK, let's do a cool
video of this.
And so I'm all set to go.
And then here comes one of my children and cuts me off and goes in front of me.
And the look on your face was priceless.
Yeah.
I think that's why your video went semi-viral.
Yeah.
And I said, you don't get too upset because you're at Disney World.
(10:22):
But the the the thought in my head was I wanted to go through and I wanted to look up like
I really wanted to like, you know, test, you know, put my faith in this curtain to the
test.
And I did.
I looked up and didn't get wet.
So anyway, it would have it would have been not very exciting if it had not been for the
quirky child cutting in front of me.
(10:44):
Otherwise it would have just been my pretty little face smiling at the water, not hitting
me.
Yeah.
So anyway, there is my 15 minutes of fame.
If you want to find that, you can go on my Instagram and find that amazing reel.
So one more thing I'll say, I mean, we can talk more about the whole journey of water
comma inspired by Moana.
(11:05):
But if you need to go, that Disney likes doing that.
If you need to use the restroom, there is a restroom in that area, but it has like one
to two stalls per gender.
Right.
So it's like not very much availability.
So look, but look, this is genius.
This is genius.
It's a water attraction.
You're in there.
(11:26):
You're playing with water.
Right.
A lot of people, a lot of forget little children, adults, right?
The second, some of them even here running water, they're like, oh, I got to go.
And so you're going to be in luck.
You don't have to go too far.
It's right there.
This episode brought to us by depends or I promise you, we have listeners that are like,
hallelujah.
Thank you, Randy, for bringing us the good news.
(11:48):
I know where another bathroom's at.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would just say that I waited in line with a couple of our kids to use the restroom there.
And we finally abandoned the whole or like, we're just going to hold it because well,
I didn't say they were reliable restroom, but they are there.
It was smart.
Maybe they should be smarter and expand them.
I don't know.
It's kind of like the size of the bathroom when you go to Pandora flight of passage,
(12:10):
you know how there's like a bathroom inside the line, you know, like, you know, there's
a bathroom in the queue there.
No.
Yeah.
If you need to go to the bathroom while you're waiting for that ride, you can is it in that
big room?
No, it's the big square water fountains.
It's kind of when you go from the cave to another section.
You know what?
I didn't know this.
But again, that's really smart because that that queue is like seven miles long.
(12:34):
Yeah.
It's bigger than the World Showcase.
Is that giving us a hint?
Give you a hint.
It's about seven miles big, at least a walking path.
OK, all right.
OK, well, what you've done, you've done it in Journey of Water, comma, inspired by my
own.
I have to it's just funny to me now.
(12:55):
I think it was inspired by Maui.
So what I think it was inspired by Tafiti.
You've experienced it in the daytime and the nighttime.
Do you have a preference?
Yeah, the nighttime is amazing.
Seriously, it's pretty amazing just because I always love how they light things up.
They make it so it's appealing.
The downside is you kind of can't see what you're doing.
(13:15):
So if you if you want to if you want to do kind of the educational part and experience
it and have fun playing with the water, because that's what you get to do.
You literally get to play with water.
There's things that you know, there's cues that tells you what to do at a particular
stop and the water responds to you individually, which is really amazing.
(13:36):
If you want to do that, you need to do it during the daytime.
I think at nighttime you're mostly and the other part about nighttime is especially if
it's just a little bit cooler outside, it tends to fill up with a lot of mist and fog.
So then it's really hard to see.
It's not just that you can't see because it's dark, but you can see cool pictures.
Yeah.
But if you wear glasses or other things like that, it gets it gets to be kind of it gets
(13:59):
the and you know, cameras, it gets to be kind of tricky at nighttime.
It's beautiful to walk through.
It's not when I would recommend that you do a lot of playing.
I think it's a good time to see it.
But you know, you'll have fun either time.
Yeah.
And if you're wondering where this is exactly located, it's close to the aquarium, you know,
(14:20):
where Nemo and right outside of Nemo.
Yeah.
And they have it situated.
Of course, you know, they're so good at making sure sight lines and pictures do well.
So when you are with the photo pass, there is a photo pass photographer in this attraction.
There's to Fiti and in the background, you can see the Epcot ball.
Should I call it that?
(14:41):
Don't do that.
OK, well, you can see one professional, you can see.
Spaceship Earth.
So anyway, super cool.
I wish I was at Disney World right now.
I would be playing in there and I would say what do you say most people should plan on
20 minutes?
I think 20 minutes is absolutely fair, especially if it's pretty busy.
(15:03):
If it's not super busy.
I've been there both when it was kind of crowded and when it's not crowded.
It's not super busy.
You can do it in less than that for sure.
Maybe even half of it.
Ten minutes is fine.
But it's a lot of fun.
Great.
Now, you know, be aware some of the interactive exhibits like anything that they can break
down or they can not function the way you'd hope.
(15:25):
So last time we were there, we brought the kids.
I was so excited to get to the end and be like, this is the best part.
We got over there and it was not working.
And that was sad because that is the best part.
I know it's the part that especially our youngest son who cut you off would have had the most
fun doing.
I didn't say which son it was.
Now you've narrowed it down a lot.
(15:45):
Well, he's on the Instagram.
It's pretty obvious.
Shortest one.
OK, so I knew that kid was going to make me famous one day.
Yeah.
OK, so we had a few different topics.
The other topic we will get to how big the World Showcase is.
But I wanted to talk about the fact that you can get in to Epcot two different places.
(16:06):
And this is the only park to entrances.
There's two entrances.
This is the only part that you can do that.
If you had to just pick one entrance that you can only use the rest of your life, which
which one would you pick?
The front one where the parking lot in the monorail is?
Or would you pick the the one back in the World Showcase area, the International Gateway
(16:27):
entrance?
Well, if I had to pick only one for the rest of my life, I have to take the front entrance
because I got to be able to get.
Back to the Magic Kingdom and from the International Gateway, you're only going to get to Hollywood
Studios.
So that that's a little bit tricky, I think.
You know, this is I think this is actually a really interesting topic.
(16:48):
You could spend some time on it.
I don't know what you'd say, but I love the International Gateway.
It's back there.
You could spend a lot of time on it and then you would say, yeah, but I don't know what
I'd say.
I never know what I'm going to say.
You're going to come up with something.
Well, I'm saying it right now.
So the thing is, the thing is, I love that International Gateway because it's the first
(17:11):
of all, it right there at the Skyliner.
So you can take the Skyliner to Hollywood Studios.
You can take it to a couple of resorts, a number of different resorts, right?
Obviously in some instances, you got to have a connection change and stuff.
But Skyliner is right there.
There are boats available also to take you to some of the resorts on the water or even
(17:33):
all the way down to Hollywood Studios.
That's there.
You could even walk all the way to Hollywood Studios.
We've done that before.
We've walked the whole distance from Epcot at the International Gateway to Hollywood
Studios.
I really recommend it on a hot day, particularly.
Really, I don't recommend it at all.
It's a pretty long walk.
Yeah.
I think it took us 45 minutes minimum.
(17:54):
I don't think I was with you when we did that full.
I think I've walked from the boardwalk to Hollywood.
Well, honestly, that's basically the same thing because right there at the entrance
is the boardwalk.
So it's a pretty long walk.
I can't believe you picked.
I mean, I guess I would want to go to Magic Kingdom too on the monorail.
Yeah, you got the buses, you got the monorail.
(18:15):
In the parking lot, compared to Magic Kingdom, you can actually get to your car relatively
quickly.
Correct.
And that's where the cars are.
So if you're driving, the other one's really not an option for you.
But it does give you some access back there.
What's so cool is this is, in my opinion, Epcot is most like Magic Kingdom in terms
(18:37):
of you have resort access right there.
Magic Kingdom and Epcot are the only places really where you can walk out of your hotel
and pretty much walk into a park.
You're at the boardwalk.
If you're at the beach club, the International Gateway takes you right there.
You know, Magic Kingdom, if you're at the Contemporary or even if you're at the Grand
Floridian, it's a little bit longer walk, but you could walk there on an easy path now.
(18:59):
But the Contemporary, it's like five, 10 minutes or whatever it is.
Right.
It was not a Seinfeld reference.
But I love that part about it.
On the other hand, you know, that does preclude you.
If you're going to Hollywood Studios, that's the way you're going to go.
You're going to use International Gateway.
You're not going to go out the front and take a bus.
If you do, you've messed up.
(19:19):
OK.
Well, maybe I should post this question.
I'm going to answer it.
So I have a lot to say.
I didn't know what any of it meant, but I got a lot to say.
OK.
Let's just talk about pros and cons with each entrance.
I want to say a few pros about the main entrance.
So I talked about the parking lot.
You got a jaw freeze that's rarely used.
You can almost what?
(19:40):
Not a pro.
It's just to me.
I can get my donuts for my breakfast right there.
And it's usually we're going to do a whole episode just on Joffre's.
OK.
It's going to be the most contentious episode anyone's ever listened to.
I mean, yes.
Probably.
All right.
Let's keep talking about pros of the main entrance to Epcot.
(20:03):
I got a lot to say, too.
So just buckle up.
Everyone's like this is why they didn't do one for a whole month.
That's not why we're just busy.
Oh, I wish we were at Disney World.
That's why we didn't do it.
Now I'm having too much fun.
OK.
So OK.
The other pro is when you go on the monorail, especially at nighttime.
Do you remember that time we waited for the monorail at Epcot at the main entrance and
(20:28):
we got to see Spaceship Earth like the light show.
And there was even music and like a whole like there was an American flag right there.
It's actually a show.
I don't know that people realize that.
If you walk by and you see Spaceship Earth doing something funky, if you get closer,
there's music that's actually part of the show of what you're watching.
I didn't know that until one night when I was leaving.
(20:51):
And all of a sudden I stopped and I looked up and I'm like, wait a second, that music
is in sync and in time to what's happening.
I just thought they were doing some fancy lights up there.
There's a lot more to it than that.
And you're right.
Up on the monorail platform, you could watch that and listen.
I mean, I would say a con for that entrance is it's cold.
(21:12):
It's very dated 80s.
It looks like Tomorrowland.
It's like to me the opposite of like when you enter Magic Kingdom, it's this cozy, comfortable
like train station, like just homey feeling.
To me, the entrance at Epcot is stark and...
It's like Tomorrowland.
(21:33):
But the nice thing is that there is plenty of space.
There are a ton of turnstiles.
There's a lot of room to accommodate all the people.
International Gateway, that is the opposite.
There is not a lot of turnstiles.
There is not a lot of space back there.
Even as Quaint...
I think there's three.
No, there's more.
(21:54):
I think there's three, maybe four turnstiles, but there's only two potential lines to walk
through security.
I think you need to double that at least.
I think your memory is not serving you well.
There's not more than two of the metal detectors for security.
I can tell you that.
Oh, metal detectors.
Okay, I see what you're saying.
You got to walk through that before you get to the turnstile and they're right next to
each other.
So there's not many more turnstiles than the metal detectors.
(22:17):
So anyway, just what are your pros and cons?
I mean, you kind of listed convenience to resorts.
Well, obviously access in and out is a big one.
The main entrance...
There's Joffreys.
There is a lot of pro in terms of there is space.
(22:37):
That's also a con.
You get off the monorail, you're walking forever until you can finally get over even just to
security.
Talk about coming from the bus.
You're walking forever from the bus area.
Yeah, the bus is even further away than the monorail.
So to me, I always find that just a little bit funky.
It seems a little strange that you're there, but you're so far away.
(22:58):
Even after you get past security, it's actually a pretty long walk from security to the turnstile.
And the pass holder turnstile is at the very furthest end of it.
So you're walking even farther away than that.
I guess they assume mostly pass holders, probably a lot of them are local so that they're driving
and they're parking there.
It's closer to the parking lot than it is to monorail or bus access.
(23:23):
But there is a lot more space up there for you to get people through.
That's a big pro for the front.
Big pro for the back is the same thing, but the opposite.
You don't have to fight usually really huge crowds.
And the resort guests tend to be, I don't know, there's not a ton of rope droppers from
(23:47):
back there for instance.
Yeah, it's just a different crowd.
It's just a different experience, different crowd, right?
It's very casual, easy ride.
But if you are rope dropping, Remy is right there.
And I will say like when I have clients that are wanting to ride that.
And L'Eau de Boulangerie Patisserie.
That's right.
Ryan is laughing right now.
It's delicious, you know, good food found here.
(24:09):
But yeah, like strategically, if you want to make the most of your time and not wait
in a lot of lines, Remy is a good place to start.
But if you're at the front of that park, and we've done it before, where you start at the
front of the park main entrance and go all the way back to France.
That's a really long walk.
I would say if you're power walking, you're not allowed to run.
(24:29):
Like they really, it's against the rules.
I would say 12 minutes minimum, maybe 15 is probably more realistic.
Yes, yes.
And that is like, that is Olympic power walking to hit it in that kind of pace.
It's a long walk.
Right.
And it's not super convenient.
Now, this is kind of a teaser into our answers to our question.
(24:52):
Maybe a disclaimer on that.
The last few times we did that, there was still a lot of construction walls up.
Most of those construction walls are down.
So it could be slightly shorter, but it's still not super convenient to get back.
It's a long walk, much longer than you think it is.
Well, and to me a little bit, especially if you've never been, I think you lose the charm
(25:14):
of discovering the countries as you go, you know, rather than rushing through them.
So like if you've been many times, maybe it's not a big deal, but if that was my first time
going I wouldn't want to have to rush back all the way.
And from the front to get to Remy.
Now, if I'm in the International Gateway starting at Remy, that makes a lot of sense.
(25:35):
And I guess I'll say my last pro for the International Gateway is it's got the theming is the French.
It's the French theming because the Skyliner comes from the Riviera, which is French themed.
And then since this one flies over France and the World Showcase, it's just it's got
(25:57):
that it's really charming.
So I like that.
Yeah, it matches.
If you go back into the France Pavilion there and you get near Remy, the metalwork and everything
like that is pretty similar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
Are you going to answer our question?
The name of our podcast episode World Showcase is how big?
(26:19):
You don't know.
I mean, I've run it when they actually let us run for the.
How many countries in the World Showcase?
I think there's 11, right?
11.
That's right.
Yeah.
And then there's a bunch when they do.
How many should there be in the World Showcase?
I don't know.
15.
I think 15 or 16 personally.
Anyways, there's 11 heavily European.
(26:42):
So when you say how big are you saying when you do a big circle, the whole circle?
How big is what's the distance from end to end of the World Showcase?
So if you're going to go from basically Mexico to Canada and then back to Mexico and it's
actually a little bit beyond Canada, right?
(27:02):
So there's the entrance to the World Showcase is one big long walkway.
And the very center of that is a Joffre's.
And it's actually the worst Joffre's by the way, I'm just warning you.
You've waited in that line.
That's one is probably actually the one up at the main entrance.
There's no line.
You're right.
But I'll pass.
So and then there's two gift shops on the opposite sides of that.
(27:25):
And then one direction takes you to Mexico, one direction takes you to Canada, and then
you start walking.
Total distance.
My guess is one mile.
Is that right?
It's really close.
It's really close.
It's 1.2 miles.
Wow.
Okay.
Yeah.
So now I read in one spot someone said 1.3 miles, but I haven't really found any support
(27:45):
for that.
I found most support say 1.2 miles.
And that's what I've always heard.
So maybe if you walk the inner rim, it's 1.2.
And if you do that, you know, if you don't cut corners.
Well, during Food and Wine Festival, you might be zigzagging a lot.
So you're going to get some extra steps and there's your extra.
And yeah, people are going to they're going to stop and look at stuff along the way.
And so that was kind of the whole reason I wanted to do this episode anyway, was just
(28:07):
kind of helping people have their expectations on how much time, energy, efforts to expect
in the World Showcase.
Now, obviously, not obviously, but if you didn't know, we don't drink alcohol.
And so that is definitely going to tack on quite a bit more time.
We have to zigzag, but we're not stopping to wait in lines to get alcohol, which there
(28:32):
is a lot of in the World Showcase, which is appealing to many travelers.
So it obviously depends on what your taste is and your group and your.
But I guess I would just say.
I don't like I envision a trip in my future where I get to slowly walk through the countries
(28:53):
rather than go from Remy all the way over to Guardians to and I, you know, more focused
on the attractions and being able to just be in the countries and enjoy them more.
So I agree.
I think one of the things kind of let me just tell you, one point two miles.
When you get a lot of people in there, it's really not enough.
(29:15):
Right.
And that's kind of it's kind of an interesting thing.
It really is not quite enough.
There are certain pinch points where it's very, very congested.
And that side that we're talking about over there, the Canada, UK, France, Pavilion section,
especially very narrow.
It's a huge pinch point.
It's almost the exact opposite of what you find in front of the American Pavilion, where
(29:40):
there's huge, huge walkways, lots of room to maneuver Mexico also.
So it's ironic that I think the biggest pinch points are actually right there at the entrance
to the World Showcase.
And you could make the same argument about the International Gateway to write.
It's basically pretty narrow and can become a pinch point.
So that can be difficult.
(30:02):
I love I didn't always love Epcot for a long time.
Epcot was, in my opinion, pretty boring park.
It was not my kind of thing as a kid.
I just didn't I didn't find the appeal.
Now you know me and my personality and it's not changed since I was six.
I'm a thrill seeker.
So I want to I'm looking for thrill attractions.
(30:24):
I'm looking for a lot of things to do.
And back then in the 80s, you know, the 1900s when we were born, it didn't have a lot of
that to start.
They really were focused on this kind of global educational sort of thing.
That was the model.
Learn about these other cultures and countries.
And then people would go on the Maelstrom in Norway and they'd go, whoa, what was that?
(30:48):
Yeah, because that one was more thrilling than the rest of the park.
Pretty much right.
That was the thrill of the park.
You know, so but I think you have to go in with the expectation of like, hey, this isn't
thrill seeking day, although Guardians for sure.
But I see.
That's the thing I would today.
I would say the exact opposite.
I think there's plenty to do at Epcot that can help you feel that from test track to
(31:12):
even mission space.
Right.
I mean, look, I'm going to tell you right now.
Here we go.
This Epcot's the only park that has an attraction designed to make you throw up.
Yeah.
That's mission space.
That's the line.
Right.
Yeah.
So pretty much it's a thrill seeking sort of a thing.
Even eating is a thrill seeking adventure at Epcot at space to 20 where you're going to
(31:36):
go up this giant elevator into outer space.
You're going to eat, you know, miles above the earth.
You want to talk about the World Showcase is how big?
Whoa, that's way up there.
It's true.
That's not really part of the World Showcase, but it's right at the fringe edge of it.
So maybe I'll count it anyhow.
And you know, those Epcotians, those Epcotters.
(31:58):
Yeah.
People of Epcot.
People of Epcot.
They all go there.
Epcot Terrans.
That's right.
Welcome.
So I think there's a lot to do that you got guardians, you know, Spaceship Earth is a
chill ride, but I think it's an enjoyable one.
But test tracks a thrill and it's undergoing a huge update right now.
(32:19):
Test track 3.0 coming out.
Very much looking forward to that.
You know, Ratatouille is a fun ride.
Frozen is a great ride.
You know, they took Maelstrom and they made it into something coherent.
Yeah, that was great.
You know, you've got Soarin over on the other side.
So I think there's a lot to do there now.
There could still be more.
(32:40):
And I think there ought to be more countries as well.
But the models changed.
You know, when these countries originally came to the World Showcase, they were financed
by their country.
Yeah, so the dynamics have changed now.
The business models changed.
It makes it a little more difficult to do that.
If you ever go through Morocco and you're like, how come this place isn't great?
(33:02):
It's because the financial model of really owning your country there and promoting it
for whatever purposes you have changed as well.
And that makes it hard.
I think as the park continues to grow and evolve, you know, they're always looking for
new ways.
There's a lot of empty space still at Epcot.
There's a lot of opportunity for growth from both attractions to educational opportunities.
(33:29):
Figma Journey into Imagination.
We've got too many journeys too close together right there.
My see they got to change that name, but they should have the band journey, you know, do
something over there now.
That would be interesting.
I would say I just I think I appreciate the fact that when you take a Disney World trip
and if you are willing to stay long enough to do all four parks, you're going to get
(33:50):
a different flavor each day, like each park.
And I think Epcot might especially be the furthest outside of the the rest of the mold.
And so just open your mind to it.
And I would again say, take your time.
It might be it might be a park that's worth taking two days of your trip at just for the
(34:13):
sake of eating.
Like if you want to eat and try lots of things.
Good luck trying to do that in one day there.
And the other thing is, I really think that if you're going to do it justice, you take
a lot of time and really soak in all the all the different countries in addition to all
the attractions and everything else that's there.
(34:34):
I've talked to a lot of people who over the years have tried to tell me don't waste your
time with Epcot or don't spend more than a half a day at Epcot.
And I'm going to tell you right now Epcot is more than just a one day park.
If you're really going to do it well, it's more than a one day park.
And so I think there's a lot of value to be found there.
It's only going to keep getting better.
(34:56):
Now the nighttime the nighttime show, I think stinks.
We need to give it another try.
No, no, I'm out.
Made up my mind.
I wish you had more like strong opinions.
The World Showcase is how big?
Oh, my gosh.
Anyway, I wish I was at Epcot right now when we were trying to come up with what we wanted
(35:19):
to talk about.
I was like, I want to talk about something that gets me excited and and just brings me
joy.
So I'm ready to go to Epcot whenever you are.
I'll go right now.
OK, let's get in the car.
It'll be close probably by the time we get there.
Anyway, thanks for thanks for sticking with us.
And again, sorry that we didn't have anything in September.
(35:42):
But do you remember the twenty third day, twenty first day of September?
Twenty first day of September.
I do remember.
And I remember that we did not record that.
Well, you all take care and and go visit Epcot.
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