Epcot - More Fun, More Adventure, More Rides!
Written: Dec 14 '02 (Updated Jul 19 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: educational and fun at same time, prices, food, lighting and maintenance
Cons: not too many rides & attractions not including World Showcase
The Bottom Line: A fun park with learning in disguise!
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| jetbluefan1's Full Review: Epcot |
On December 4-8, 2002, we took a trip down to Orlando to escape the cold, gray, and snowy skies of Rochester, NY. This was our sixth trip to Orlando, and were excited to go once again. During out visit, we got to visit many places that we had been to before. In this case, this was our fifth visit to Epcot.
Admission & Parking
Prices change constantly; usually increasing. I am a very big money-saver type of person, so I bought my tickets back in July 2000 for only $30 a ticket! This included park-hopping, which means that I can use the same ticket on the same day to go to any of the Disney parks in Orlando. Tickets today are about $50. Sometimes they offer discounts for large groups or for buying more than one ticket.
Parking is $8 and this includes transportation from the lots to and from the park entrance. The names of the lots are such names like C - Creative. When parking in your lot area, a tram takes you to the entrance of the park. The tram ride is less than five minutes as are continuously running from an hour before the park opens to two hour after the park closes.
Rides & Attractions
Rides are mostly educational but are made in creative and fun ways. For example: Test Track is a ride that shows you how GM cars are made. However, you go through all the tests that they put their cars through. So while learning and being educated, you go through many fun tests that the car goes through in real life.
Spaceship Earth is that big while ball at the entrance of Epcot. It takes you through all the different stages of human communication. It starts off with the oldest type of communication with the very first humans, and goes into Egyptian and Greek civilizations. Then you are transformed into future communication ways and are brought back down to present time.
Universe Of Energy starts off when Ellen Degeneres is watching Jeopardy and falls asleep in front of the couch. From there, she has a dream that she is in the show Jeopardy competing against her old room mate, Judy. The topic in Jeopardy is energy. From there, you travel along with Ellen through the dinosaur ages and you learn about energy along with Ellen. Bill Nye, The Science Guy takes you on the adventure and tells you all about energy which includes different types of energy, where energy exists, and why it exists. Visit my complete review at http://www.epinions.com/content_88513154692
Test Track is the main attraction at Epcot. It is a car ride that takes you through a series of tests that all GM vehicles go through. Here is my complete review...
http://www.epinions.com/content_75372334724
Honey I Shrunk The Audience is a 3D show that comes from the two movies: Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. You sit in a big auditorium watching a screen when you and the audience has been shrunk! Everything is very large and many animals in a science lab come on the screen and do some funny yet disgusting things.
Innoventions is a large building located near Universe of Energy. It has over 200 video games and activities to do. There, you can be on a fake show and can test out virtual reality games.
World Showcase
The World Showcase is an area located around a lake in the center of Epcot. This area has rides and restaurants that are similar to those of these countries:
Canada
United Kingdom
France
Morocco
Italy
Japan
China
Germany
Norway
Mexico
Hotel de Canada is a pavilion that puts on shows to show the culture, traditions, and music of Canada. The United Kingdom area of the park has flower gardens, streets made of cobblestone, and small cottages. France has a fake yet small Eiffel Tower replica which people like to admire while walking around in small streets surrounded with buildings that have dormer windows and slate roofs. There is a replica of the Koutoubia Minaret which is a prayer tower located in Morocco. It is also a marketplace with imported items from Morocco. Italy has a Venetian style architecture with striped moorings and gondolas. There is also a replica of Doge’s Palace which was built in Italy in 1309. Japan has a Goju-no-to pagoda replica. There are loomed gardens and a Mitsukoshi department store. China has enchanting lion statues and Chinese architecture with many bright and gold lights. Germany has statues of brave warriors riding on wild horses which are in German legends and myths. Norway has a ride located in the mythical Norwegian Forest which has a population of trolls and water spirits with bad intentions. Mexico has music and traditional dances with Mexican statues carved into the trees.
Illuminations Light & Fireworks Show
At 9:00, the light and fireworks show starts in the lake located in the center of Epcot’s country showcase. There are fireworks shooting out from the water after a globe comes into the middle of the lake from the bottom of the lake. There are fires spitting out from the different little islands and are colored lights surrounding the earth. The light show is spectacular and it is amazing how they do it.
Food
We had two meals at Epcot. We ate lunch at Electric Umbrella which had good prices for chili fries, regular fries, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, fruit cups, and hamburgers. For breakfast, there was sausage, bacon, and burritos for those with a lively taste bud. For dinner, we ate at Restaurant Akershus. There was fish, smoked pork, and other traditional Norwegian dishes. Prices were well overpriced but the service and atmosphere was excellent and makes you feels as if you are really in Norway.
All other countries located in the World Showcase have restaurants.
Maintenance & Lighting
Epcot looked very clean in my opinion. There are many trash cans located all around the park so I have no worries about throwing away my trash. Epcot is also very well lighted, but not only with light polls. There are hidden lights in the ground and some are located in trees. There are additional lights for Christmas.
Overall Recommendations
Little kids would probably not enjoy the park as much since there is not a child section except for Innoventions. There are actually about four major attraction which are Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, Test Track, and Honey, We Shrunk the Audience. There is also the World Showcase which is very interesting and original since you get to learn about so many other cultures without leaving the park!
Visit my Disney World review at http://www.epinions.com/content_89126309508
Read a random Disney review!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Sep - Nov
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