Today was our first trip of the holiday to Epcot. Very often people think it as the park to miss if you are short of time but I love it, though it does take it out of you. Some say that it stands for Every Person Comes Out Tired.
The real excitement about today was Disney’s newest ride, The Guardians of the Galaxy. This has replaced the Ellen Ride over near Mission Space – and unlike many, I did like that. Guardians is, at the moment, unique in the parks as you cannot queue for it: there is no standby line. You need to try and get a boarding group using the app at 7am (if you have an Epcot reservation for that day). We read up on some tips on how to be successful and we tried on two phones, with a third phone counting down the seconds until 7am. At exactly 7am you need to refresh the page in the app and then select ‘join virtual queue’. We got lucky and got group 11 which gave us an estimated boarding time of between 9 and 9.30!
So we then faced one of the most tricky decisions when it comes to organising your day at Disney: when is best to eat earlier in the day to work around later dining reservations. We had a reservation at 3.30 so late for lunch but early for dinner. Ideally we therefore wanted a late breakfast so that it could be a lunch reservation. So we decided to skip eating at the resort and get the bus over to Epcot. Whilst we were on the bus (around 8:10 and the park had opened for resort guests at 8) we got a notification to say that our boarding group had been called! So as soon as we got there we quickly locked in a DAS return for Frozen and then headed over to Guardians.
Now. I had my concerns with this one. The over riding reports I’d read had been about motion sickness. They had even started handing out sick bags at the exit. I took some motion sickness tablets before we left the resort and I figured that I would do it to be able to say that I’d done it. If I felt bad then I wouldn’t have to do it again!
As the park was still only open to resort guests there were no long queues once we got inside – though the ride is clearly built for long queues!
This ride was AMAZING. I will not be able to do it justice in a description but it is basically cars on the track that spin around so that you are looking at different things (not free spinning or spinning like the Tea Cups at Magic Kingdom, but controlled spinning by the ride). It is apparently the longest indoor rollercoaster in the world and is Disney’s first backward launch coaster. There are six possible songs that play and it is random which you get – we got ‘September’ by Earth, Wind, and Fire. Apparently the Imagineers reviewed hundreds of songs till they got their list of 6 which suit the movement and motion of the ride. This was a BRILLIANT song to get and was perfect! Did I start to feel sick? A little bit, right towards the end where you corkscrew down around the moon and then the earth. But would I ride it again. 100%. I think we will be trying for a boarding group on each of our Epcot days!
There was now where much to go from here as we had hit a peak so early on. We used our DAS for Frozen and did Test Track. We then headed over to the Land to do the obligatory Figment ride – what is a trip go Epcot without going on Figment??!! We were also able to get a DAS return time for Soarin’ so while we were waiting for this to come round we had a late breakfast in Sunshine Seasons as it is just opposite the ride. A bit disappointed with this if I’m honest. This used to be a lovely place to get breakfast but it now only does grab and go pastries etc, and doesn’t even list itself on the app as serving breakfast.
So, onto Soarin’. Now this USED to be one of my favourite rides but I have to admit I’m not so keen on the new version of it. For those that don’t know, this is a flight around various landmarks from around the world such as the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and the Taj Mahal. You are suspended in the air on seats that swoop as if you are flying. But it’s still a good ride 🙂
We then spent a bit of time in the worldshow case before heading for our late lunch / early dinner reservation at Space 220. This is Disney’s newest restaurant as is attached to Mission Space. The idea is that you go up in an elevator to a space ship/viewing area far above the theme park and you are gazing out into space while you eat. I have to say that the theming is great, right from the moment you check in and you are given your boarding pass for the ‘flight’.
Inside, it really does feel as if you are not on earth. It is pricy – $55 for a two course set menu. I had calamari and Spaceghetti. The sauce on the spaghetti was amazing.
After lunch we did another ‘must do’ ride at Epcot – Spaceship Earth. My husband finds this boring but I like it as it is traditional. We did however end up with a ride stop on this and we were stationary for about 10 mins – two security guards with torches walked past us at one point. Sadly for us we got stopped within smelling distance of the fires in the Library of Alexandria (if you know, you know)!
Having been in the park since 8.20am I was getting very tired now – as was my daughter. So after a quick time in the main shop to check out the merch, the two of us headed back to the resort.
It was a relaxing evening!
