Epcot the last 2 weeks or so... (part 3)

Here is to my favorite night park in Florida...

Soarin:

Catch a front row seat and this baby is as good as Disney gets. Get a back row on the side and this thing sucks. Identical to the Cali version... It is indeed an E ticket regardless. It has completely packed "The Land." A much bigger hit than I expected.

Giant Golf Ball: (Spaceship Earth)

Has there ever been a signature attraction this boring? I used it twice to put my fussy son to sleep. The second time I fell asleep too.

Anybody else envision a launch coaster in this spot?

Test Track:

They've let the theming rot like KI's Adventure Express. It doesn't matter though as the last spin is the whole ride.

Mission Space:

I still think it is a bore. My 9 year old nephew loves it. To each their own.

Figment Ride (?):

My son loved this "Journey through the imagination." We did it 5-6 times through the week. Too bad this about sums up Epcot's children rides. The song still haunts me.

Living Seas:

It is all torn up for a new Nemo ride. You still see the fish. I've scuba dived the tank a few times, so dry visits do nothing for me. The talking with the Turtle gig is out of control. The line for this thing takes up the entire first floor.

World Showcase:

This is where I role on those hot summer Orlando evenings. Great icees between Japan and America. This is nice since the funnel cakes and fried ice cream are right there too. Avoid the French chocolate cake and crepes. Morocco has a great pop/rock/native band playing in front these days. Nothing like belly dancing with the Moroccans. There was a nice Eagles cover band in America. World Showcase is the place to be.

Overall:

Epcot has always been less an amusement park than anything in the area. I used to hate the place. At about age 30 I began to appreciate World Showcase as a great place to unwind after a day of riding. I would NEVER consider going there first thing in the morning as there is just not enough to make a day. I will however, continue my evening pilgrimages to suck up the atmosphere.

*** Edited 7/16/2006 12:03:45 AM UTC by Jeffrey R Smith***

Jeffrey: Great TR. One comment of yourscaught my eye. According to imagineers (and backed up by some leaked concept art): For a proposed remake of Epcot that was supposed to be done a year or two ago Future World would have gotten a complete re-do, re-name, and re-theme. As part of it: space ship earth would have been a launched coaster called "Time Racers". They did a lot of work on it but it stalled when engineers revealed that the track system and it's supports are crutial to the support of the structure. If they gutted the ball of it's innards it would be structurally unsound, and impossible to be a coaster.

Anyway, it's neat you had the same idea. But, I was actually against it when I heard it. I'm tired of the cheap thrills that wear with time like Test Track and Mission Space. I miss the immersive, story and animatronic driven attractions Epcot used to have.

The only good news is that there's STRONG rumor that a third (and supposedly final) re-do of Journey into Imagination is about to happen. It will be returned to a lot like the original one was. Word is now that John Lassiter has control of imagineering's purse strings he's given the green light for it to happen.

I figured there was good reason that they kept the attraction basically the same when the "re-did" it! Instead of going back to the original ride...I may suggest they at least figure out some cool effects to make it interesting. It is such a long ride to begin with...it will take a lot of "imagineering" to get it up to speed.

Come on, Spaceship Earth is a timeless ride. However, a lot of the cool lighting effects were off when I was there in March.

The cool lighting effects you speak off were STILL off last week. This should tell you that either the ride priority is quite low...OR Disney's overall attention and effort with respect to theming maintenance is on the decline. I'm afraid it might be the latter as I noticed a lot of this type of stuff across the spectrum.

Luckily...Disney was so far ahead of the pack that they can afford to slack. Only us true geeks really notice this stuff.

"Imaaaaaa-ginaaaaa-tion! Imaaaaaa-ginaaaaa-tion!"

Yep. Ick.

We love The Big Golf Ball, though, because it has become our traditional first ride when we arrive for the week.

To each his own I suppose. On my 1 visit to WDW, I was 10, and my favorite park was actually EPCOT (nowadays, it might be IOA if I ever get to go again). Interesting that EPCOT is also my girlfriend's favorite park. But we liked it for 2 different reasons--I liked Future World, and she liked World Showcase. *** Edited 7/18/2006 5:14:32 PM UTC by rablat5***

Jeffrey: I agree...in FL the upkeep has definately been lacking of late. They have fallen WAY behind CA in that regard!