Summary: The crew returns to EPCOT for competition, education, and fun. Part 13 of the REAL World Disney World Marathon.
Thank you for all your amazing support, REAL Worlders!
….
One Competition a Day (A Real World Story by Mari, Sammy, and Ilna)
Epcot Future World
"Dere's the big golf ball!" Angie pointed. "We going inside it today?"
"We're going inside it right now." Steve lifted her to get into the queue. "We're seeing the front part of EPCOT today, it's called Future World."
"Future World," she repeated, leaning back in his arms to see the giant sphere when they climbed the ramp into the ride.
Taking a seat, he slid her next to him as Catherine and DJ climbed into the two seats behind them in the 'time machine' that seated four, and the ride began.
When they moved into a dark area with "stars" twinkling all around them, Angie said, "ohhh pretty!" as touchscreens came to life asking for the riders' hometowns.
While DJ entered the information on his and Catherine's screen and Steve did his and Angie's, a camera flashed and captured their photo. "Cheese!" the four year old said and Catherine chuckled.
"Look a woolly mammoth!" DJ pointed. "And cave people, too."
"They're drawing on the walls to communicate with others," his mother pointed out as they moved forward to see early Egyptians drawing on papyrus.
"Dey drawing pictures, look, Daddy." Angie bent forward to see them.
"They're using paper," DJ said and Steve turned to smile at Catherine. "Great observation, buddy, when people started using papyrus, it was just like paper so they could take what they wrote with them."
"Cool, 'cause you can't take the whole cave wall anywhere if you move," he noted, making Catherine kiss his head. "My smart boy, that's exactly right."
The ride took them through the derivation of the modern alphabet, math and multiple ancientcivilizations.
Rome burned, but the middle ages and scientific ideas were shown as they watched the development of the Gutenberg press, the painting of the Sistine Chapel and were brought into modern times.
The ride rotated them 180 degrees and Angie called "We's going backwards! Are you going backwards, Joanie?" to her cousin in the next car.
The rest of the ride took them through a new field of stars and they used the touchscreens again to answer questions and create a possible vision of their future, which used the pictures taken at the beginning of the ride.
"Dat's us in a rocket, Daddy!" Angie squealed at seeing their images, "And Mommy and DJ in a rocket, too!"
As the ride came to an end, she clapped and said, "T'ank you, dat's so fun," to the cast member monitoring the exit, gaining a huge smile from her parents and brother as they moved into an interactive play area to wait for the rest of the family.
When everyone caught up they tried the interactive games before leaving the area.
Catherine and Gabby laughed at the banter flying between Danny and Steve as they all walked to the next pavilion.
"I'm just saying it's a driving simulation with accident and avoidance systems, it should have levels," Steve said.
"Levels? Like going from kindergarten to someone who chases drug traffickers in actual police vehicles type levels?" Danny waved a hand.
"Yeah. There are a ton of LEOs who come here and I bet they'd get a kick out of it. You're just upset because I beat you."
"Because you even drive a sim car like a crazy person."
"I think you both should have tried the Simon/Dance Dance Revolution combo game," Mary said with a smirk.
"Are you kidding, we'd have been there until tomorrow," Gabby laughed and looped her arm through Danny's. "And one competition a day is plenty."
/
At the Living with the Land pavilion, they took a boat ride that explained the importance of sustainability, and they saw the hydroponic farms where examples of the food for the Epcot restaurants was grown and harvested.
DJ turned to Catherine and said, "I can't wait to tell Ms. Lane about the square watermelons they grow in the boxes," as they stepped from the boat onto the exit area for the educational tour to walk to the next adventure, Soarin' Around the World.
/
"You gonna fly us?" Angie asked the Soarin' cast member whose name tag read, Kenya, Los Angeles, California.
"You're going to fly over some awesome stuff," she replied happily.
"We live in Los Angeles!" Joan said when she spotted her tag.
"Cool! I was born there, but my husband and I retired here a few years ago. You say hi to LA for me when you get home, okay?" She motioned them inside. "Have fun!"
Soarin' Around the World had three rows of seats with areas to stow loose objects and DJ grinned when he sat between his grandparents. "What's it do, Grandpa?"
Joseph helped buckle his seatbelt and explained the ride would lift them into the air but the 'soaring' took place on the giant screen in front of them.
Moments later, the ride was filled with excited gasps as they lifted and the flight took them over landmarks and locations across six continents. As each scene transitioned, the smells in the air did as well.
The orange groves of California, the ocean, the pine forests of Germany, all smelled appropriately and the kids squealed in excitement as they passed a seaplane, a kite and a soaring eagle.
The final scene had them flying over the fireworks at Hong Kong Disney. Everyone on the ride cheered, none louder than Angie.
/
After exploring the rest of The Land pavilion, they moved onto The Seas with Nemo & Friends where they rode in a clamshell through an "underwater" oceanscape on an adventure to find Nemo, experiencing many familiar scenes and characters from the movies. The ride exited directly into the aquarium and the group set out to explore the many tanks and exhibits inside.
They began in the Ocean Life Area with several smaller cylindrical tanks. Angie, DJ, and Joan ran right up to one to see what sea life they could find inside.
"What do you see?" Elizabeth asked.
"That's coral, right, Grandma?" DJ asked.
"That's right."
"Oh, look!" Joan said pointing. "It's an eel!"
"Cool!" DJ said.
Angie spotted something blue at another tank and ran over there. "It's Dory! I see Dory!"
The other two quickly followed and there was indeed a Blue Tang swimming around. Angie ran in a circle around the tank, following the fish and talking to it. "Hi, Dory! We see you on dat ride. You' very funny, Dory."
"And there's a Yellow Tang like we have at our aquarium!" DJ said excitedly. "They're from Hawaii," he told Sue and Ramon who smiled back.
"Hey, pumpkin, come check out this tank," Aaron said.
"Ohh," Joan said, smiling broadly. "There's a starfish! And seahorses!"
"It says here that seahorses can range in size from a few millimeters to over a foot long," Ramon said, reading the sign on the side of the tank.
Danny whistled. "Imagine a seahorse over a foot long."
"What's over there?" DJ asked, pointing to a large tank.
"Let's check it out," Steve suggested.
The group headed that direction and discovered it was the manatee underwater viewing area.
"Whoa," DJ whispered as one of the large ocean mammals slowly swam by.
"Dey' so big," Angie observed.
"They're all rescued," Mary said after reading a posted sign. "There's minimal training to keep their natural instincts intact for release back into the wild."
"That's excellent," Steve said.
The group walked around to look in some of the other smaller tanks, before taking a break to participate in Turtle Talk with Crush, an interactive show where the animated sea turtle answers real time questions from the audience.
After the show they headed for the large tank which contained all manner of sea life including sharks, rays, and some unexpected creatures.
"Hey, there's scuba divers in there!" Joan exclaimed.
"Can we go in dere, too?" Angie immediately asked.
Catherine smiled. "I'm afraid not, baby girl."
" 'Cause we didn't bring our bathing suits," Joan reasoned.
"Or shell out whatever the ticket price cost," Danny added under his breath.
"Hey, look!" DJ said, pointing toward the bottom of the tank. "Look at the rocks."
Angie followed his finger and gasped. "Dere's Mickey Mouse in da sand!" The others looked and spotted the huge Mickey Mouse outline made out of rocks in the sand. "Who made dat dere? Da fishes?"
Steve chuckled, picking her up. "I don't think it was the fishes."
"But Dory's parents used to make the seashell path for her to find her way home, Daddy," DJ pointed out.
"Yeah," Angie agreed. "Dey made it."
Steve smiled and kissed her cheek, then tousled DJ's hair. "Okay, maybe it was the fishes."
They explored more of the smaller tanks, including one full of clownfish.
"Soooo many Nemos," Angie said, still in Steve's arms. At the next tank, she spotted another Blue Tang. "Dere's Dory again. How'd she get over here?"
Catherine smiled, running a hand over her hair. "Maybe that's one of Dory's family members."
"Yeah, like her cousins!" Joan suggested, grinning.
"Whoa! Look over there!" DJ said, pointing to Bruce's Sub House, an exhibit headlined by a huge facsimile of Bruce, the Great White Shark. The three kids took pictures inside the shark's mouth, showing off their own toothy grins.
They walked through the exhibit, learning about shark anatomy, diet, and other facts while the voices of the shark characters could be heard over the speaker.
"Fish are friends, not food," DJ and Joan quoted along, then dissolved into giggles with Angie.
While looking at the central tank from a different angle, Elizabeth noticed Angie was not focused on the tank.
"Angie, what are you looking for?" she asked. "Did you drop something?"
"I'm looking for dat octopus," she said seriously, squatting down and peering around the side of the tank.
"Octopus?" Gabby asked.
"Oh, Hank!" DJ said, realizing his sister was looking for the octopus from Finding Dory who made a habit of escaping his tank.
Angie nodded. "He's a good hider."
Steve grinned. "Almost as good as you."
"Well, no octopus here, but there's one more tank we need to see," Catherine said. She led the way to another large underwater viewing area where they were promptly greeted by a bottlenose dolphin swimming by.
"Dolphins!" Joan squealed as another appeared.
"Ohh," Angie said, eyes widening. Joseph lifted her up to give her a better view.
Steve put a hand on DJ's shoulder. "How's this compare to seeing them in our backyard, buddy?" he asked with a wink.
DJ grinned. "This is really cool," he acknowledged, "but there's nothing like seeing them at home."
/
"Steve and I talked about this next ride," Catherine said as they approached Mission: Space, "and we decided to just do the Earth orbit and not even mention the mission to Mars option."
"What's the difference?" Gabby asked.
"They're both flight simulators." Catherine looked around to make sure Angie was out of earshot. "The Mars mission one spins and dips and if she hears about it she'll want to go but after the big lunch she ate, and then the ice cream, I don't think a centrifugal force ride is a great idea."
"I think I'll pass on the idea of any flight simulator," Gabby said.
"I can skip it too," Danny offered.
"No. You go," Gabby insisted. "My assistant is crazy about space so I'm gonna hit the gift shop and get her something."
"OK then," Danny told her. "See you when we get back from space."
When they met up after the ride the kids talked a mile a minute about how each member of the 'flight crew' had a duty to perform during the flight and how awesome the Earth looked from outer space.
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As they made their way out of the park they stopped to watch the Imagination Fountains.
The kids had fun trying to "catch" the jumping water at first but predictably began running amongst the fountains squealing with delight in pretty short order.
What was unexpected was that all four grandparents eagerly joined in with them immediately.
As Catherine watched both her children and her parents run through the water laughing and smiling she leaned over to Steve and said, "This place really is fun for all ages."
….
TBC tomorrow when we have lunch with the princesses!
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