Welcome To The Future

4 Jul

Being our last day at Disney World today we felt obliged to make the most of the day and we were up with the sparrows and getting set to visit the fourth park in the Disney World Floridian Empire: Epcot. As we were approaching the huge gates, along with a steady throng of other keen Disney revellers, Maisy exclaimed what we were all thinking, “Whoah! Check out that humungous silver golf ball!” You certainly can’t miss it and let’s face it, when we think of Epcot, we think of that giant ball. It is massive alright!

Despite warnings to the contrary, Maisy had decided she’d wear her sandals yesterday instead of her comfy sneakers and was now nursing a substantial blister on top of her toe. It was now suitably Band-Aided but she made an announcement in the car that due to the soreness of her toe, she “probably wouldn’t be able to go on any adrenalin rides today.” Yes, I can see how a sore toe might hinder your abilities in that regard!

We made our way to the FastPass kiosk to try to lock in some of the most popular rides at Epcot but to our disappointment most of them were already full! It turns out you can book your FastPass selections online. That was not good information to obtain on our last day! It seemed a little more crowded here than it had been at the other parks and our trusty Disney app was telling us wait times on some of the rides were already up to 75 – 90 minutes! Oh well, we decided to keep an eye on them throughout the day and hope the wait times lessened.

Our first ride was to actually venture inside the iconic futuristic silver ball and we boarded little “space ships” that took us on an historical journey through the communication of mankind down the ages. At some stages it was pitch black inside with hundreds of twinkling stars dotting the roof above our heads. We lost ourselves for a moment, thinking we were back at Warriewood Cinema. No, but the atmosphere in there was quite surreal. Each little ship had a screen in it, designed to help us interact with the ride and they superimposed photos of our heads on the bodies of little cartoon spacemen, giving us all a good laugh and some tips about what to expect in the future.

Keeping with the futuristic theme (it was Futureworld after all) we climbed aboard the Living With The Land ride for an educational look into the world of agriculture, from the past to the present. It reminded me of those American black and white science films we used to watch in the weather shed at school, with images of combine harvesters and tractors out in the fields, spliced with vision of little blonde haired children in striped t-shirts at the dinner table, eating the fruits of the land. Made me quite nostalgic! We sailed through greenhouses of the future, displaying plants from all over the world being successfully grown in all sorts of innovative ways and without soil. There were fish farms, aquaponics, hydroponics and genetically engineered vegies – even pumpkins with Mickey Mouse ears! Apparently Disney serves this produce in all of its restaurants. Pretty impressive really.

That was about as much education as Toby could take in one morning and he was keen to go on some RIDES! There was a fantastic build-your-own rollercoaster experience where you can use computers to design your own rollercoaster ride. You then sit in little pods operated by giant arms that let you “virtually” ride your own creations! It was amazing! Maisy was at a height where she was restricted to not being able to go upside down so I took one for the team and sacrificially (read: full of relief) volunteered to go with her. There were 3 levels of excitement you could seek, each with a slightly higher adrenalin potential. You could design a bobsled, a rollercoaster or a supersonic jet path. No prizes for guessing which one Maisy and I chose. We were heading to Jamaica. Our bobsled path, we thought, was pretty radical with a figure 8 at the end and a steep descent to the finish line. Maisy daringly even cranked up the speed. Molly and Toby designed a stomach-churning, upside down, loop-the-loop, breakneck speed jet ride for themselves and Ross and Sam chose a nauseating loop-laden, screamer of a rollercoaster ride. We were all set. The space-suited Disney cast member gave us a quick rundown on how it all worked and showed us the large red button in between our seats that was the panic button and would shut the ride down with one push. Maisy and I climbed into our seats and then a huge pod came down over our heads and locked into place with a loud click. We had little screens in front of us and I could see Maisy’s little face. She could also see mine and the sheer panic that crossed it the second we were locked in. I didn’t even realise I was claustrophobic – is that something you can acquire in old age? I started freaking out! I reached for the panic button and started bashing it like there was no tomorrow but the commentary and countdown kept forging ahead! “Five, four, three, two….” I started to hyperventilate and thought I was going to pass out and Maisy said she could see my panicked face on her screen wailing, “I wanna get out!!” What a wooss I am! At the eleventh hour, the Space Suit was back and unclipped our pods. He looked at Maisy and said “oh darlin’ was it all too much for you?” Maisy had to tell him, “well actually, Mum just freaked out!

The others, on the other hand, came back with tales of soaring through the skies almost breaking the sound barrier and screaming through upside-down loops and drops. They loved it! We were all given a card that will allow us to watch our reactions back on the screen. Mine’s going to be a barrel of laughs!

There was another space themed ride called Mission:Space which simulates a trip to Mars on the Space Shuttle. There were 2 levels of ride – the green, tamer one and the orange one with higher g-force. As you probably guessed, Maisy and I went green and the others couldn’t wait for the g-force on the orange. I was the Pilot and Maisy was the Navigator and we had specific buttons to press during the mission. The multiple warnings about dark, enclosed spaces should’ve alerted me to the fact that my new found claustrophobia may just rear its ugly head again but they didn’t. Once the harness came down and the control panel squeezed forward I started to get a bit panicky again! It’s was so weird. The cute 10 year old boy from Northern England (a.k.a. the Engineer) comforted me from the neighbouring seat and I made the distance!

The heat of the day was intense and although Molly’s water spray bottle with attached fan was some relief, our Disney stamina was definitely waning. Someone mentioned the idea of going to one of the water parks. This then planted the seed that made it hard for the kids to think of anything else. There were still some great things to see and more rides to go on but the idea of waiting in a queue for 90 minutes didn’t really appeal. I was still keen to see the World Showcase so the rest of the family reluctantly came on what turned out to be a very fast-tracked, whirlwind tour of the world, traipsing through the streets of Disney’s Canada, France, Morocco, Norway, England, Italy, Germany amongst others. It was seriously hot and humid and the kids were almost chanting “water slide, water slide, water slide” as they walked.

On the streets of Italy we spotted a squirrel darting along the ground. We were visibly excited and started trying to take photos of it when a big, burly American guy (part of the beer in every “country” brigade) started cracking up and calling all his friends back to laugh at us. They couldn’t believe how excited we were and told us they were just like rats to them. He was so funny, yelling and laughing loudly “these guys are Australian and they love the squirrel!” It was good to be entertaining!

After some delicacies from the French patisserie, consumed in the gardens of the English village, it was decided that Ross would take the big kids and get them wet at Blizzard Beach. Maisy and I were happy to keep exploring Epcot so we arranged to meet back at the hotel later that afternoon.

Maisy and I decided we would brave the “Soarin’” queue, despite the promised 70 minute waiting time and to be honest, the time went quickly, the best part being the fact that we were in airconditioning! We both absolutely loved this ride with its HUGE screen and elevated plane seats that dip and soar with the scenery, giving you the impression you are hang gliding over snow-covered mountains, giant redwood forests, vast, deep canyons and over the waves of the ocean. We even soared through the Golden Gate Bridge! It was awesome! It was unanimous that it was well worth the wait.

Our day at Epcot ended with some autographs and cuddles from Mickey, Minnie and Goofy and then an up close and personal chat with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo. This was fantastic! The small theatre had a giant screen at the front with an animated scene, including fish and coral and of course Crush, swimming around and chatting to us. He started by talking about his habitat and saying he’d like to get to know us, which everyone in the theatre assumed was a recording and then he actually started interacting with the crowd! It was so cleverly done! He’d say “hey you in the pink, with the pig tails, what’s your name?” The Disney cast member would then come over with the microphone and they’d have a chat to Crush. He asked one little boy from California, how he’d travelled to Epcot from home. He answered that he’d “flown on an aeroplane, which was a vehicle that carried many people and flew over 10,000 feet above the ground”. This kid was only about 4! Crush said “DUUUUDE!! I need to meet your parents”. They were an Asian couple sitting in the shadows and weren’t exactly champing at the bit to chat to Crush. Crush said: “what’s your name dude?” and the dad said in a very non-interested voice: “It’s John”. Crush said, “Well John, you seem really excited today to be talking to an animated turtle.”

He had some other hilarious exchanges with a little girl dolled up – toddlers and tiaras style – complete with a hair extensions, glitter and a full face of make-up (even a beauty pageant sash!). Crush asked her what her name was and she said Rebel! Rebel’s favourite thing about living in California was that her “papa bought her candy every day”! Crush told her he was coloured green because of the sea grass that he ate and asked her if she was the colour of candy. He was a crack up!

Meeting up with Ross and the other kids back at the hotel, we discovered that their Disney World passes hadn’t granted them admission to the Disney water parks after all and they would’ve had to have paid a couple of hundred dollars more just for an hour or two on the water slides. They had decided it wouldn’t have been worth it and came back to the hotel where there is a water slide in the pool (albeit not a very big one!). At least they got to cool down.

We had a fun dinner at the Olive Grove Italian Restaurant where my steak came with a side of soup (huh?) and where we had family lemon eating contests, trying to keep a straight face while munching down a slice of lemon. These are the things memories are made of.

(Sam filmed it if you are interested): https://youtu.be/I1i46bFf_9E