Day 9 - EPCOT

We awoke quite fresh, ready to try and get more magic hours at Epcot today - but we once again slept in and didn't get to the park until 8.35am, but that still meant we got in earlier than the riff raff.

 We quickly moved to the Test Track- a high speed ride through a General Motors testing facility, we test the suspension, braking with and without ABS, heat, cold and "Abrasive" environments (They spayed Acid at us - I think Disney stopped using real acid a couple of weeks ago when the complaints of massive scale death started becoming annoying to the behemoth company) and finally a high speed loop around the outside facility - pushed to 60 miles an hour (96kms to save you reaching for your iPod)

It was a pretty quick line up and the ride was great, Tanya loved it, especially the gorgeous cars awaiting the in the post-ride area.

How much wiggle room is there on the credit card Matty? ... Matty?... Get up, don't pass out at Disney!

 We wondered around the expansive grounds for a little bit, taking in the scenery. We were fortunate enough to be visiting during the International Flower and Garden Festival, the gardens were beautiful, there were topiarys throughout the park in the shape of everyone from Micky to Woody and Buzz, all immaculate and spectacular in their own right. Dorina, Tanya's mum, would have loved to see the gardens. We took lots of photos for her.

There was also a butterfly sanctuary which was very nice to visit. Tanya took lots of photos there too.

The rainbow flowers in the fairy garden.

The Rainbow fairy in the flower garden.

More beautiful flowers.

Matt gets goofy (Goofy not pictured)

Floating Flowers and the monorail.

 We took a trip through the Imaginarium, an adventure through the senses lead by Mr Eric Idle and Figment, a floating annoying dragon, then got to experiemtn with some of the hands on games, Tanya thought I was having a little too much fun conducting Figment in the Virtual Conductor Room, so we moved on, got a fast pass for "Soarin'" , and meandered through the rest of the park.

Some of the funniest men to exist, all on a Disney wall.

 EPCOT is a far flung difference to what Mr Disney originally imagined, the park was supposed to be an actual living community, houses, schools, shopping complexes ect, but always changing to reflect the latest and most innovative ideas in design and technology. This utopia was never realised both due to Mr Disney's unfortunate death before Magic Kingdom was opened, and also the unrealistic nature of creating a themepark/closed community living area. Most believe that with Walt behind the wheel, the idea would have succeeded, but instead the park is now dedicated to showing some of the inventive technology ideas today and is also a showcase for the various nationalities that work at Disney. The park is actually two parks in one, the EPCOT area, with the hands on displays and rides such as TestTrack and Soarin, and the World Showcase in which sections area recreations of the architecture, foods and entertainments from various nationalities. Those nationalities are;

Mexico

Norway

China

Germany

Italy

United States

Japan

Morocco

France

United Kingdom

Canada 

No Australia unfortunately, though I don't know what our signature architecture is anyway.

We walked through them all, the prettiest were Norway, Germany and France. We started at the back with Germany, that was a mistake as we spent most of our time there, it was wonderful, a little town square with a working cuckoo clock in the centre and a gorgeous fountain. There was another Christmas shop, a Chocolate shop, a toys and cuckoo shop, a Bier Hall, a German Buffet (which I was told "No" although I think Tanya was thinking of time more than my waistline), and a Bratwurst shop, which is where we had lunch, it was the best wurst, or the wurst best...whatever... it was pretty bloody good wurst. 

Japan had their Bonsai trees out in force - a marvellous sight - England had a line for their fish and chips that went all the way to France, which by the way stunk of perfume - The United States was grand, we stepped inside the Rotunda and were greeted by a jazz quartet before going inside an enourmous theatre to watch the animatronic presidents deliver a stirring look at American history. - Norway had wonderful thatched roofs and some lovely little shops too - Mexico gave me the runs, typical. 

Tanya inside her second Disney Christmas store in as many days.

A cheap statue, only 3cm tall this Jiminy was one of the cutest jewel encrusted things on the trip so far.

The German Square

The Rotunda with Jazz Quartet - America does two things well, grandiose buildings and fantastic jazz. They probably do other things well I guess...

Belle and the Beast outside of the France exhibition. 

Tanya meets Mary Poppins, she was very excited by the encounter and almost pee'd her pantaloons, Mary that is...

Smilin' on 'er Jolly 'Oliday (say it in you best worst Dick Van Dyke voice)

Tanya being a toff

Matt lost Tanya so he found this Tanya height letter box to lean on.

The Happy Couple - this is what Matt looks like without makeup

A gorgeous sunset.

 We decided at 7.30pm to sit and wait for the fireworks spectacular; "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth". The fireworks didn't take place until 9.30, but we were both struggling to keep our legs working, so we sat and tried to get comfortable, we talked to a couple of lovely American families on holiday, one from Texas, one from North Dakota, in fact all of the Yanks that we have had the pleasure of talking to have been terrific people.

The fireworks were once again amazing. We took plenty of photos, however only this one made it into the blog and it is a simple one at that. We went home and walked around our hotel before hitting the hay, and we hit it hard, I don't think we even had a chance to say goodnight before we fell asleep.

Tomorrow would be Magic Kingdom after we moved hotels. But more of that in the next edition.

IllumiNations - watching more Disney shareholders money literally being blown to smithereens.

Another part of our gorgeous hotel, this is the restaurant overlooking the lagoon.