Saturday October 28, 2000
Big start
My first stop on most Disney trips is Epcot. Epcot is huge, with an incredible variety of things to see and do, but is generally a slower, easier-going Disney park than the others. I suppose this might be because Epcot is so spread out, with so much space between pavillions. But whatever the reason, I have always found that the relaxed, comfortable atmosphere of Epcot is just what I need to begin my park days.
Mimicing my successful strategy from my last trip, I ran, didn't walk, to Test Track as soon as the park gates opened. I arrived on the scene to discover only a short line, and the attraction was ten minutes from opening. Once it opened, only ten more minutes wait put me into the seat of one of those wonderful thrill-mobiles, and I was off. As always, Test Track was a great ride, and well worth the wait.
Smile, You're on Disney Camera!
Upon entering the park, I had noticed a radical new feature in the entrance plaza: huge stone obelisks with metal plates attached. I went back now to investigate, and discovered that they were part of something called Leave-A-Legacy. Similar to the buy-a-brick program Disney had instituted a few years ago at the Magic Kingdom, Leave-A-Legacy was a part of the WDW Millenium Celebration, a program whereby Guests could leave a permanent, personalized mark on Disney World. A Guest could have a photo taken which would be etched onto a steel plate and affixed to the stone obelisks for display. Thus, on future visits, the Guest could find and gaze upon his image in steel, imprinted on Disney World itself. The cost was $40, or $35 for Magic Kingdom Club members (which I was), and the images were guaranteed to be displayed somewhere on Disney property for a minimum of 20 years. A Cast Member I asked about the program was of the opinion that the obelisks would remain at Epcot for about 5 years, and then possibly move to Downtown Disney. The steel plates could possibly be displayed without the obelisks, but the CM thought that was unlikely. I resolved to have a Leave-A-Legacy picture taken; the concept appealed to me far more than the brick at Magic Kingdom.
I was hungry, so I got some breakfast at the Electric Umbrella.
As I had passed through Innoventions, I noticed another new feature: instant email postcards. Simply stand in front of a webcam, type in an email address, and your photo would be taken and emailed to a friend instantly. I had my choice of backgrounds, but they were all pretty lava-lampish, so I decided to Disneyfy the picture by wearing a set of Mickey ears. I had to traipse all the way over to Mouse Gear, which was the new name of the older Centorium gift shop, to get the ears, then all the way back to send the postcard to my friend Rick, with the admonition to forward it to a bunch of other people. Then I headed back to look through the new Mouse Gear.
No art? No way!
No upper level! My first impression was that the upper level of the Centorium, which had previously housed the Art of Disney, was gone. Where was the Art of Disney? What had they done to the place? I was not overly impressed with the new layout, and I missed the Art of Disney! Eventually I found it; a shadow of it's former glory, it was now located in a totally different building, and had a fraction of the wonderful selection of merchandise it had before. I suppose I understood the motivation behind the change; after all, in it's former location, it had very little traffic, and probably didn't do much business. Still, the old place had class and style, looking out over the Centorium as it had, and the new place was sterile, bland, and lifeless.
Well, now I was ready for some rides, so I hit Spaceship Earth, Body Wars and Cranium Command. I love Cranium Command; I think it's the funniest attraction in WDW.
We waited a thousand years for this?
By 11:00, I was ready for World Showcase. Disney had built a whole new pavillion in WS, the first new pavillion in ten years, just for the Millenium Celebration. They called it, simply, the Millenium Village, and it was designed to house exhibits from several countries that were not part of the World Showcase. I went through Mexico, stopping just long enough to take some indoor pictures of the Plaza de los Amigos, and then went to the Millenium Village.
I wasn't particularly impressed.
Millenium Village had more static displays than anything else. There were a few walk-through displays, and a magic carpet game that several kids could play at once, but I didn't see anything that really stood out in the whole place. Disney went to a lot of trouble to build the place, but they didn't seem to have put much effort into it; certainly, if the rumors that Millenium Village would eventually become a permenant part of World Showcase were true, Disney would need to revamp the place quite a bit just to get Guests to check it out for more than a few minutes.
Food from many lands
I was hungry by now, so I went back out into World Showcase to find something to eat. This was the time of year for the annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival, which placed booths representing a large number of countries all around the World Showcase, each with a small sampling of food and wine from that country. The portions were small, and priced cheap, so that Guests could walk around WS and sample a variety of foods from a dozen or more countries. I had been to the Food & Wine Festival once before, and was looking forward to trying a few new dishes. I wound up with samples from Mexico and Greece, which together were the size of a typical counter-service lunch, and about the same price, but the food was far better than any of the usual counter-service fare like burgers or chicken fingers.
Boats and hotels
Whenever I go to Epcot, I like to take the boat from International Gateway around to the Epcot resorts and the Boardwalk. After I was finished with my lunch, I headed back to the dock and took the boat to Disney's boardwalk. I liked shopping at the Boardwalk, with it's Atlantic City styling and the wonderful view across Crescent Lake. I bought some magnetic bumper stickers (Disney World: Been There, Done That, Going Back!) and a t-shirt for my niece.
From the Boardwalk I walked around to Swan & Dolphin, one of my favorite places at WDW, and had a slice of fantastic apple pie (ala mode, of course) in teh little soda shop on the lower lever. Since it was a pretty hot day, I decided to continue on with the boat instead of on foot, and sailed over to the Yacht and Beach Clubs for a quick look around and a browse through their gift shops before taking the boat back to Epcot.
Just a casual troll...
I finished walking through the World Showcase, taking a couple of hours to visit each pavillion in turn, until dinner time, when I headed for Norway. As a solo traveller, I often find it easy to get into a restaurant, and Norway's Restaurant Akershaus was no exception. The place wasn't very busy today, anyway, so by approaching the podium and asking, I was seating in about 45 seconds. I took my time sampling the entire buffet, especially the venison stew, my favorite item, and when I was finished (with no room for desert, unfortunately), I left Akershaus. I swung into the Norway pavillion a little deeper and rode the Mealstrom, a terrific little boat ride that tells you something about Norwiegian culture and leaves you in a replica of a quaint little Norwiegian fishing village. The atmosphere here is terrific; I wish the village were larger, but it's really only a waiting area for a well-done documentary film that plays omn the theater next door.
After the ride, I continued around the World Showcase, stopping to watch, and listen to, the Taiko drums in Japan. These are big, booming drums, played by a team of 3 people, and can be heard from across the WS Lagoon, but they are best experienced from a front-and-center spot, so as to see the artistry and athleticism of the performers as they make music on the huge drums.
My Legacy
All day I had been thinking about Leave-A-Legacy. I was impressed with the concept, and although I was sure some Disney purists would absolutely hate the obelisks, I liked them, and thought they fit with the parks existing design quite well. I had decided to purchase a Leave-A-Legacy photo; now that I was done with dinner, I was ready to get my picture taken.
I walked around to the front of the park, where the booth was set up with camera, backdrop, and most importantly, cash register, and paid the requisite fee, donned my Mickey ears once more, and had a photo taken. The photo wouldn't be etched onto the steel plate for a couple of weeks, but a temporary version, printed on clear acetate and layed over a blank plate, would be available for preview in 24 hours. Once the steel plate was placed, I would recieve a package in the mail with a printed copy and a set of coordinates allowing me to find my picture amid the hundreds of others on display.
Once I was finished with my portrait, I wandered back into Future World. I rode Ellen's Energy Adventure, then saw Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. By now it was nearly 9pm, and Illuminations would be starting in just a few minutes, but since I was all the way at the front of the park and had no spot staked out, and I was getting a little tired, I decided to call it a night. I left the park, a quiet trip, since most Guests were watching Illuminations, and went back to my hotel. After a check-in call home, and a little TV to wind down, I actually went to bed a little early, at about 10:30.
JOURNEY 5
Walk miles: u/k
Drive miles: 84