Epcot - the giant golf ball in the sky

Epcot, we found out, stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and was based on Walt Disney’s idea for a future full of innovation and then combined with the idea of a World Fair. Kind of strange combination but it was definitely a fun and interesting place to visit.

We like it a lot as it was Disney without being too ‘Disney’ – we didn’t want to wait in line for hours to meet Elsa or Cinderella but wanted to be entertained and learn something. Epcot felt more like a festival than Disneyland (well that’s what Mum said anyway).

We were at Epcot from 10am to 10pm, there was so much to do. The first thing we did was watch a movie about sustainability in living and city design (presented by Timon and Pumbaa of course) followed by a boat journey showing the work Epcot is doing in developing ways of growing food sustainably. Mum loved their hanging cucumber and tomato tree setup.

The lines were long but always moving. We had to wait the longest for one of the highlights of the trip so far, Soarin’ Around the World, a flight simulator that takes you on a hang-gliding journey across the planet. It was amazing flying over landscapes and animals and they used wind and smells to make it super realistic – as we flew over a herd of elephants in Africa we could smell the grass they were running through.

Evie and Max, Ollie and Josh – we took this video for you of some little seagulls you may recognise, we thought it was really cute:

They had some gorgeous gardens and flower setups, and Mum decided Floriade should use Epcot for inspiration. Jami, the red ones are your next Oberon project! 

Evie - do you like the butterfly made out of flowers?

Once you’ve visited the technology and future parts, you do a big circle visiting different countries. They have built mini cities to represent different places in the world and there are activities, food and drinks from those cultures. Countries included Japan, France, Canada, UK, China, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Morocco and Norway (where the Frozen ride was broken – we didn’t care, but there were lots of sad children).

Mum had a frozen slushy made with champagne from France, we ate some amazing felafel from Morocco, noodles from Japan, Mexican chicken and some Chinese.  We were really excited because the food was real, cooked and served by people from each country and way better than any other food we’ve had so far!

My other favourite bit was a test car track where you designed a car and then got to test it out on the track. We by passed the designing part because the wait was too long, but slotted straight into the test driver seats of someone else’s race car. It threw you around the track testing cornering, braking and celebration and then shot you outside to do a fast lap like being in a race car. It was awesome! It was sponsored by Chevrolet of course, so we also got to look at and sit in some of the giant American utes. They’re huge on the outside but not that big on the inside.

And finally, the squirrels. Most Americans think that they pretty unimpressive, sort of like how we think of kangaroos in Australia, but we saw a few and thought that it was cool how they run up the trees with their long, bushy tails and how they are quite tame.

Oh, and I did see a Disney character I like....Bruce the shark is pretty cool!