The last time we visited Walt Disney was during the Christmas break in 1989!
It was more than twenty years ago; our children were young and they totally loved those rides and were mesmerized by the Disney cartoon characters.
We did have a great time as a family; this is why we are returning with the next generation!
However, what I remembered well was the long line ups for rides and exhibits at Disney.
This time we were pleasantly surprised to find that the lines seemed to be much shorter. We were glad to learn that we could get a FastPass to avoid the long waiting time in line which allowed us to jump on more rides than our last visit.While we were waiting patiently in line, we were either entertained or were engaged in interactive plays sometimes on giant screens.
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| Who could resist taking a picture with Goofy and Minnie? |
There were quite a number of floral sculptures made in honor of the
Disney 's famous cartoon characters.
Kids, people young and old squealed in delight when they first saw these familiar cute adorable characters.
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| Mike - the One Eye Monster |
I wondered how many students will be enrolled at the Monster University next fall?
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| The Toy Story Floral Sculpture at EPCOT |
Besides visiting the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot, there were many things to see and do and it could have easily taken us another day to visit and see what we really to see. We did a number of rides and the following were really worth the wait:
The Sum of All Thrills - where we designed our own roller coaster ride and rode in it in later in an enclosed cabin with our feet dangling in air and the cabin moved and jerked by a robotic arm vibrated according to the design we put into the roller coaster. This ride was similar to the one we did at Disney Quest but even more exciting as by now we were familiar with the design process.
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| Lining up at EPCOT to get to our favorite ride - Soarin` |
Soarin’ - We waited for a little while in a long hallway. The lineup was long compared to the other rides we just got on.
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| An interactive screen eased the boredom of a long lineup |
After about 40 minutes of waiting, we went into a theater and were strapped down in our seats.
When the ride began, all the seats started to move and the screen in front of us opened up to a huge wide angle -270 degree movie screen. It gave us a real world experience of someone flying a hang glider over mountains, swooping down a river valley and skipping over the sea coast. As we moved up and down through a moving and ever changing landscape, we felt as if we were riding on the back of these graceful and magnificent flying birds, gliding through fields and farms, hanging cliffs and roaring waves.
For a few brief, exhilarating minutes, we felt we are
eagles spreading our wings and flying high above all the creatures below! It was great seeing how excited everyone was and the screams of delight from our family as they were enjoying this ride. This was one ride worth waiting for!!!
Another great ride was riding in a simulated rocket ship - Four of us filed into a simulated
space pod and were strapped in our seats. Each one of us was assigned a
particular role with different responsibilities: Pilot, commander, navigator and another one. With our hands on the space
ship control handle, we took off from earth and blasted into space experiencing
the thrill and super speed of space travel.
There were two choices for this ride - the Green Team which was milder in speed and the Orange Team which allowed you to experience the G-force and more physical motions. Our group chose the Green Team as one of our members was prone to motion sickness. But we still had fun and had a tiny little taste of the speed and sensation of what a real astronaut might have experienced blasting into space from earth!
EPCOT Centre, Orlando, Florida
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