An evening at Epcot

After 3 Disney parks in 3 days, we decided to take it a bit easier on the Thursday.  It was the 4th July, so we knew every park would have fireworks, it was just a case as to which park we wanted to go back to.  We thought we had done every park the best we could, and did not have one we really wanted to go back to.  We decided to try Epcot in the evening.  I had read it is generally the quieter park, so thought it would be the best to visit on the evening of one of the busiest holidays in the States.

We kicked around the house in the morning.  It was nice to not have to rush out the door.  We relaxed around the pool, and enjoyed the house.  This enabled Seb to have a good nap.  We ended up leaving the house about 4.30, and headed to Epcot.  As we drove in, we noticed that the Magic Kingdom was signposted as being full.  We parked up, after paying the usual $15 for parking.  Isaac had fallen asleep on the way, so we put him into the buggy, and let Seb walk down to the entrance of the park.  It was busy going in.  The park was very busy.  We walked into FutureWorld, and headed straight to Test Track.  This was a ride we had scoped out on the app.  It looked good for Oliver.  Unfortunately, it had a 120 minute wait, with no fast passes left.  We obviously decided to leave it.  We headed into a couple of the Innovations buildings.  Oliver got to play some Disney games on the Playstation, and Isaac eventually woke up.  There was not much for the us in FutureWorld.  Let me rephrase that- there were too many people to even contemplate trying to go on any rides or see any shows.

We headed down to the World Showcase.  We started in Canada, and made our way around the countries.  We stopped in the United Kingdom for some food. Fish and chips x3, 2 Harp lagers in commemorative steins, and a diet coke, possibly the most expensive fish and chips ever.  Very tasty though.  The boys needed a bathroom break, so I took them off, while paul waited with Seb.  The heavens opened again, but not too badly.  We then headed on to France, Japan, Morocco, Italy, Germany (the boys loved the model trains) , China, Norway and Mexico. 

         

One thing we noted about the World Showcase.  It is a drinking game.  Have a drink from each country in each country.  There was beer in Canada and the UK.  Wine in France, sake in Japan, more beer in Germany and Norway, sake again in China, and margaritas in Mexico.  I hope to go back to Epcot in about 10 years time.  The boys can go and do the rides, while Paul and I get steadily drunk....

Any who, by the time we got to Mexico, it was 8pm.  We still had 2 hours till the fireworks,but people were already starting to claim their spots on the side of the lake in preparation. As much as we didn't want to, we felt it necessary to go and find a spot.  We hunkered down near the Showcase Plaza and waited.  We got a good spot.  We were near to the restrooms, but far from beer.  It's times like this I am grateful to Apple for iPods and iPhones.  The boys were happy playing, while we waited.  We had a nice Floridian couple settle in next to us.  She was happy to chat away which helped.  Her husband worked at AK driving the trams.  

10pm the fireworks started. They were good, but not as good as I thought they would be on Americas birthday.

       

The display finished about 10.15.  We had also been able to spot some other fireworks going off at the other parks.  We headed out with the crowds, back to the car.  We walked back, rather than wait for the tram.  We were not too far which was good.  

We loaded the boys, and headed out of the car park by the directed route.  Unfortunately, as we were so near the front of the park, it took ages for our line of cars to move.  So long in fact that the boys all fell asleep before we had moved 3 foot.  I noticed that the cars at the back of the car park were going out a different way, and people retuning to their cars were choosing to go across the car park to a feeder lane further back in the car park.  We sat in the row, not moving for about 30 minutes, before we decided to drive across the car park and go through the feeder lane.  We were out in seconds, though still got stuck on the interstates going out.  There was an accident further up the road, but an hour and a half to get from the car in the car park to the house (usually takes 20 minutes), was completely unacceptable. There was not a cast member to be seen directing traffic or even assisting people on leaving the park.  I know this is a public holiday, even still, procedures should have been implemented to allow the good people spending their hard earned cash to celebrate 4th July at Epcot. It left a slightly sour taste in our mouths regarding Disney, and I wrote some strongly worded criticisms on their twitter feed, and a nasty message on Facebook.

Yesterday was spent relaxing around the pool.  We went to Five Guys for lunch (review to follow), and spent more time around the pool, feeling like a proper holiday.