The Right Way to Tour Epcot’s World Showcase

Posted on October 13, 2017 by greenlisa9989@yahoo.com

Hang around with enough fellow Disney fans and you’re bound to notice one hotly debated topic: Which way is the right way to circle World Showcase? One camp swears by the Mexico Pavilion route as the only acceptable way to go (Looking at YOU, Nick Maglio). The other camp adamantly believes the only way to kick off a World Showcase visit is to begin in Canada (Hello, Dave Hodges!). Of course, I have my own opinion (no big surprise, right?) and I’m certain my way is best. (Want in-depth arguing on this topic? Listen to The Disney Exchange!)

The Right Way to Tour Epcot’s World Showcase

The answer is simple. Enter World Showcase wherever you like! Our plan is always to go towards whatever is first on our agenda if we have one. If we’re there simply to wander (a favorite family activity), we go to the side that appears to be less crowded at that particular moment.

If there for the rides, we enter on the Mexico side and hit the Gran Fiesta Tour on our way to Frozen Ever After in Norway. When looking for a bite to eat, the direction we take is solely based on whatever we’re craving at the moment. In search of a cold beverage, we’re headed to the Canada side to make our way to the UK Pavilion for an Innes & Gunn (Scotland’s finest beer, IMHO). See how this works?

On of the very best and most charming aspects of World Showcase is that it can be completely different from one visit to the next. Seasonal festivals, holiday decorations and special events, and slower times of the year – all game changers.

For example: During Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival, the World Showcase can be packed! Between guests and the extra food booths and kiosks, it has a certain party atmosphere unlike other time of the year. If we’re there for attractions or visiting particular pavilions to shop, we go at park opening. If we’re there for the food, we prefer to be in and out by late afternoon.

When there are no special events, World Showcase begs to be explored at a leisurely pace. This is when we love to visit every pavilion and stop here and there to speak to Cast Members or watch a performance unique to a particular country. Drummers in Japan, acrobats in China, Mariachi band in Mexico, performers in Italy and France – we’ll take in whatever happens to be going on at the moment. Of course, there are always snacks and drinks to try!

Don’t fall for the arguments! There is no one correct way to tour World Showcase – no matter where you start, there are amazing sights, sounds, and flavors to explore.

What’s your World Showcase touring strategy?

Disney’s Pandora – World of Avatar – First Impressions

Posted on July 6, 2017 by greenlisa9989@yahoo.com

When I was growing up as a city girl, 12 acres was a lot of space. Having spent the last (almost) 30 years surrounded by Louisiana farmland, 12 acres now seems pretty small. It’s about the size of 9 football fields and also the size of Animal Kingdom’s new land.

Disney’s Pandora – World of Avatar – First Impressions

Exploring Pandora was the basis for our Mother/Daughter Disney Summer Road Trip and we made sure we’d have plenty of time to see and do everything this new area has to offer. Okay, except the face painting. We’re not exactly into face-painting (unless you count Snapchat filters). Add the June Florida heat and face painting was definitely off the table. Aside from that, we managed to at least sample all Pandora had to offer.

What we noticed immediately was that in Pandora, there’s a lot going on. The land is wild and overgrown around a collection of worn down buildings and abandoned equipment. Lush and colorful landscaping, water features, and pathways surround Pandora’s attractions, gift shop, restaurant and beverage counter. Nothing feels mass-produced. In fact, the accessories and decorations are decidedly handmade. There are a variety of interesting lanterns and light fixtures that add to the natural feel of the area. Plants unique to Pandora are interspersed with more recognizable foliage. In the Disney way, large and small details work in harmony to create a stunning effect.

Aside from the amazing visual impact, Pandora offers guests a symphony of sound. The abundant waterfalls create a constant background for the unfamiliar sounds of what I’m guessing are the (unseen) insects, birds, small and large animals of Pandora. This particular detail, the unusual sounds, enhances the impression of being on a foreign planet. It’s pretty darn cool! There’s also a drum circle with several different drums and other percussion instruments for guests to play and those sounds add even more depth to what guests hear in Pandora.

Enjoying the luxury of having lots of time, Megan and I took a leisurely approach on our explorations. We were able to meander along the different walkways and bridges. Looking up and down as we walked along, we thought the floating mountains looked most impressive from the area directly beneath them and managed to locate at least one Hidden Mickey. We rode both the Na’vi River Journey and the Flight of Passage, we had breakfast in the Satu’li Canteen, tried the green beer from Pongu Pongu, and gave the Windtraders gift shop a good bit of our attention (and money).

Pictures don’t do it justice! Pandora is a feast for the senses and did not disappoint. Fans of Avatar, the movie, are sure to be pleased by the overall experience and fans of Animal Kingdom should be satisfied by the new land’s conservation and preservation messages. If you haven’t seen Avatar, I recommend you watch the movie before you go to Pandora if for no other reason than to appreciate how the Na’vi people, plants and animals from the movie are duplicated in the land.

Have you been to Pandora yet? What did you think about the area’s details and attractions? What do you want to hear about next? Na’vi River Journey? Flight of Passage? Let me know and I’ll get right on it.

Disney Summer Road Trip Recap

Posted on July 5, 2017 by greenlisa9989@yahoo.com

The Epic Mother/Daughter Disney Summer Road Trip has come and gone. 800 miles to Walt Disney World for four park days and home again. Did we have a good time? Oh, you bet we did! After all the planning and anticipation, we couldn’t have asked for more.

Disney Summer Road Trip Recap

We shared our plans in this post a few weeks ago. When we hit the road at 8:00 am sharp on June 24th we were excited about our girls-only adventure. We had our favorite Newk’s chicken salad sandwiches and plenty of drinks in the cooler. Those snacks I’d bought at the Japan Pavilion back in April were within easy reach in the car. We had a new podcast recommended by my friend Kelly about Unsolved Murders queued up in iTunes. Suitcases, rain gear, GPS directions…we were ready!

The weather was great for the drive down. In Mississippi we saw Lightening McQueen and Mater by the side of the road! We thought this was both hilarious and appropriate so we stopped for a picture. After that, it felt like we were on The Autobahn! Nobody in Mississippi or Alabama seemed to care about the speed limit at all and we had to go kinda fast to keep up with the crowd. We never once saw any troopers or other law enforcement watching for speeders…vastly different than in Louisiana.

I figured 9-10 hours of shared driving would be the maximum we could handle on day one. I’d booked a room at the Hampton Inn in Lake City, Florida for Saturday night. We could get a good night’s rest and tackle the last 2 1/2 hours of the drive on Sunday morning. Everything went exactly according to plan. I’d had a recommendation from someone on a Facebook forum to stop in Tallahassee for ice cream at Lofty Pursuits. We cheered ourselves on by looking forward to stopping there for an afternoon snack and were delighted with the restaurant’s huge menu and quirky décor. Guinness ice cream is a thing and it is spectacular. I had warm chocolate ganache on mine, Megan had hers in a cone.

Our room at the Hampton Inn was perfect with super comfortable beds. After polishing off the last of our sandwiches, we sipped wine and watched a couple of episodes of Outlander before turning in. Hey, girl trip means we get to do girly stuff. The next morning’s drive was a breeze and before long we’d arrived at Saratoga Springs. Our studio was great and very close to a bus stop. Full review coming soon.

As per our plans, we spent Sunday afternoon and evening in Magic Kingdom with a quick dinner break at the Wilderness Lodge’s new Geyser Point Bar and Grill. We capped off the day with Happily Ever After and loved it!

Monday was my favorite day of the trip. We left Saratoga Springs at 6:30 am and didn’t get back until 11:00 pm. We spent all that time in Animal Kingdom and had a blast! I’ll write individual posts with more details about Pandora and the Caring for Giants tour, but those were both amazing. We had FastPasses only for the Na’vi River Journey in Pandora that day with a FastPass to experience Flight of Passage booked for the next morning. You cannot get FastPasses for both on the same day.

We watched the wait time for Flight of Passage throughout the day and it quickly became 250 minutes before declining during the afternoon hours. After Caring for Giants, we decided that if the wait time got below 100 minutes between then and our Rivers of Light FastPass, we’d wait in the standby line so we could ride Flight of Passage twice on this trip. Normally, we will not wait longer than 30-40 minutes for anything except our most favorite attractions and only then if absolutely necessary. While we were enjoying our Flame Tree Barbeque dinner, Flight of Passage’s wait got to 90 minutes and we had just enough time to do it. I’ll tell you all about in another post soon, but we were so happy we got in that long line!!!

Tuesday we split between Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We got to eat lunch at La Cantina de San Angel in the Mexico Pavilion which we hardly ever get to do because we’re the only ones in our family who love Mexican food. It rained quite a bit that afternoon, but we were prepared. We rode out the worst of the storm listening to Voices of Liberty in The American Adventure rotunda. They are so talented and put on a wonderful show! Once the rain let up a little, we made our way back to Saratoga Springs and then on to our dinner at Paddlefish in Disney Springs that night.

Wednesday we split the day between Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot. The weather was gorgeous and the Studios didn’t feel as crowded as usual. We did all our favorite attractions, saw all the characters in the Star Wars Launch Bay, and had time to enjoy a cold beer before we headed to Epcot. By 4:30, it was time to get back to our already-packed car at Saratoga Springs and head back to the Hampton Inn in Lake City for the night.

The drive home on Thursday was a lot more challenging than on the way down. We left extra early since we’d seen a sign outside of Lofty Pursuits that they were now serving breakfast. Strawberry pancakes and coffee…delicious and just the fortification we needed. We’d been averaging 5 hours of sleep a night since Sunday and were exhausted. We drove through what felt like a monsoon for hours along the Florida panhandle. After we got through Mobile, things got better and we made it home safe and sound with lots of souvenirs for Raymond, Joseph, Grant, and Lyndsey.

Success! We had an excellent trip and accomplished all we’d set out to do. Plus, we now know about literally dozens of unsolved murders around the world. Megan and I took on the challenge of a 1600 mile drive to have a mother/daughter adventure. We rarely get much alone time these days, so having each other’s complete and undivided attention while enjoying our favorite vacation destination was like a dream come true. And we’d do it again!

Epcot – World Showcase’s Drawbridge

Posted on May 26, 2017 by greenlisa9989@yahoo.com

Clearly no matter how many times I visit Walt Disney World or how much I read about my favorite vacation destination, there will still be things I don’t know. Remember when I found out about the collectible transportation cards? Discovering there’s a drawbridge in World Showcase was a lot like that…an unexpected Disney surprise!

Epcot – World Showcase’s Drawbridge

It’s okay if you’re thinking, “How did she never notice the bridge over a waterway between Africa and China?”. Truth is, I never noticed it before because I was never trying to get from France to Norway when the bridge went up. I don’t know about Raymond and Joseph, but I was cruising along looking forward to using our Frozen Ever After FastPass, minding my own business, focused on the crowd ahead. The crowd that wasn’t moving! Then suddenly I was all, “Whoa! What the heck! Check it out, y’all! There’s a drawbridge!” Me being me, I sort of eased us up to the front of the crowd for a better look.I seriously had no idea what the deal was. Turns out, the globe used in Illuminations is stored backstage and moves into the World Showcase Lagoon via this little waterway-with-a-drawbridge. I was a little surprised at how unassuming and kind of small the globe looked. During Illuminations it’s the amazing centerpiece of all the action. Arriving at the “theater” it looked rather like an unadorned actor heading for make-up and wardrobe. Or a super hero as his or her alter ego maybe. The crowd around us was boisterous and having fun. I was even enlisted to take a photo for a group of young adults clearly celebrating something (or just having a really great time involving lots of adult beverages). When the globe moved on and the drawbridge lowered, we were on our way to what we would soon find out was a closed Frozen attraction. I was happy anyway – I’d learned something new about Epcot and got to see the famous Illuminations globe up close in the light of day.