Florida 2011: Epic EPCOT/A Better Kingdom

Day 253

Tuesday February 1st - Our last full day in Orlando, Florida was spent at Disney World; in the morning we visited EPCOT; in the afternoon we visited the Magic Kingdom.

EPCOT is an amazing part of Disney World - just reaching the main entrance and seeing the giant “golf ball” immediately puts you in a state of awe and wonderment!

Anyway, after taking some pictures at the entrance and wandering around for a bit, the five of us went on a ride called Soarin’ - this is a fantastic ride, as you ride in a little compartment with your feet dangling while moving in front of a huge screen that displays video of various locations, from the sky looking down. And soon you feel like you are flying over these various areas: mountains, oceans, cities, fields, rivers, forests, etc. And you really do feel like you are flying because wind is blowing on you. In fact, at one point you soar over an orange field and you can actually smell the oranges! Like I said, it was fantastic! And this ended up being the one ride that all five of us enjoyed; no issues of vertigo or nausea, just a relaxing, one-of-a-kind, epic experience!

After that ride we went on an educational ride that discussed vegetation and the new techniques being developed to utilize our land resources in a better way. It was quite interesting to ride, although not necessarily to write about (you had to be there), so on we go!

Enough with the learning - let’s get to having some more fun! So the five of us went on another favorite ride, called Test Track. On this ride you are in a car that goes through a series of tests: endurance in hot and cold temperatures; tests with the brakes; and at the end there is a speed test and you are whisked out of the building onto a long track that is on a ledge! Then the car progressively speeds up until you think you will zoom right off of the track! So cool!

Well, we were warned about the bitter-tasting Beverly soda from Italy!

One of the last things we did at EPCOT was visit a little soda store that offered “flavors from around the world” from countries such as Costa Rica, Japan, China and Italy. And you could taste the different sodas for free, so the five of us had our own taste test. The soda from Italy was so gross - absolutely bitter with an even worse after taste! Yuck! Funnily enough, at one of the soda stations was this sign:

I guess we should have taken it as a literal sign, because it was the worst-tasting soda there! And the best? Since this is my blog I would say that the best flavor was from Germany, called Mezzo Mix, which tasted a lot like Orange Crush! A real thirst-quencher!

At lunchtime, we left EPCOT and made our way to one more place in Disney World - Magic Kingdom, and it was a much better kingdom than Animal Kingdom (no offense!) Although, I must have been carried away by everything because I took just one picture, this one:

Heading down Main Street

We rode Splash Mountain and got quite wet from the ride, but it was nice because it was particularly hot outside at the time! I needed to be cooled down and this ride did the trick! Dad actually got the most wet on the ride! Right after this we all needed to dry off so we rode the train roller coaster (the name just escaped me!), and that was a fun, bumpy ride!

Up next was the Jungle Safari, but unlike the safari at Ani-DULL Kingdom (which wasn’t a dull ride), this safari was more silly and funny and on a boat. No real animals, though, just lots of animatronics. But we had a very comical (in a cheesy, vaudeville-like, manner) tour guide.

Then as a tribute to Mom (and her crush on Johnny Depp) we rode The Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a fun ride and featured Captain Jack Sparrow (AKA Johnny Depp) at least 3 times during the ride - Mom loved that!

Jordan, Erin and I rode one more ride together at the Magic Kingdom - Space Mountain. I decided that in order to continue conquering my fear of roller coasters (which at this point seemed ridiculous because I’d been on a few and always survived and never threw up once!) I needed to ride this popular one. Jordan and Erin assured me that I could handle it, so I put my faith and trust in them, and of course they didn’t let me down! It was an awesome, fun experience!

This was our last day in Florida. The next day we packed up and left the warm, perfect weather of Florida and returned home to Colorado and its freakishly freezing weather! Nice homecoming. But the memories of the entire Florida trip will keep me warm in my heart…HUH?! What the flip was that all about?!

OK, now I’ve made myself throw up a little in my mouth! What was up with that schmaltz?! Sorry about that!