Our Perfect Day at EPCOT!
One does not simply sleep in on the first day of a Walt Disney World vacation; as it happened, we were ready to hit the ground running, and our first gate was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow…more conventionally known as EPCOT. Our first order of business was to meet up with our good friend and Florida local, Dreamfindingwithfrances, who secured our travel party a spot on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. This is my favorite coaster in Walt Disney World (Tim is still on team TRON, pray for him) and despite having operated for 2 full years now, the ride still remains on Disney’s “virtual queue” system, meaning that there is no standby line. A member of your party must utilize the WDW app to request to join the virtual queue and receive a boarding party position. This platform has been utilized for the past several years to control crowds at newer and popular attractions, but the lottery system is quite competitive…so we owe Frances a debt of gratitude for snagging the pass early that morning!
After our morning ride on Cosmic Rewind, it was time to explore the World Celebration Gardens. The last time that we visited EPCOT, most of the constructions walls around this area were still up, and we had to detour around much of the areas still under renovation. This time, we could walk behind Spaceship Earth and see the park for all its glory. The gardens were beautiful and we really enjoyed the new sound loops. We also couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of the newly installed “Walt the Dreamer” statue. Our next destination was also new to us, the Moana walkthrough attraction called Journey of Water. Despite all of the media coverage, we had tried our best to avoid spoilers for this attraction, and we were definitely surprised by what it had to offer. You are immersed in learning about the water cycle through various demonstrations and activities, all themed to the Polynesian culture and climate as featured in the film. We could tell that some top-tier Imagineering went into this experience, and we found it to be both clever and fun for children and adults. The path offers both wet and dry options - but there was no path that would spare you the humidity of the Florida summer! One thing that I really enjoyed was looking for the characters hidden amongst the rock work and foliage. The main event was definitely the large-scale Te Fiti, which often has a Photopass photographer posted nearby. Overall, we thought it was a really well-themed addition to the park in the spirit of “edu-tainment” that EPCOT has been known to promote for decades. Even Tim, who has been known to hate getting wet, had a blast walking through this new area!
Desperate to escape the heat, we made our way to the Seas with Nemo and Friends, one of the best air-conditioned offerings in the park. The ride is cute, and I can never resist saying a quick ‘hi’ to the manatees in the adjacent aquarium. We also decided to check out the temporary DVC Lounge in the Odyssey Pavilion. Although we had hoped that our visit would coincide with the opening of the newly refurnished DVC lounge in the Imagination Pavilion, as the projected reopening date was the very day of our visit, this renovation was extended to the beginning September 2024 - so we would not see that lounge on our trip. The temporary location, though not very glamorous, did provide us with air conditioning, complimentary snack, and beverages.
Next, we temporarily parted ways with Frances for our dining reservation at Shiki-Sai at the Japanese pavilion. This restaurant serves Japanese fair and is themed to the four seasons - which is to say the phases of nature, not the luxury resort. We were seated in the sunroom area and had a fantastic view of the park and lagoon. The menu was extensive, featuring multiple cocktails, mocktails, appetizers, sushi, and entrees. We decided to try the Gari Gari Sour Ramune soda, which is basically a Japanese soda with a Japanese ice-pop. It was sweet and tart so refreshing on such a hot day. For appetizers, Tim ordered the Rock Shrimp Tempura and it did not disappoint. For our entree’s, Tim got the Beef Omu-Udon, which was basically a huge plate of udon noodles covered in an omelette; I got Unagi (eel) Nigiri. After our delicious meal, our server handed us a “stamp” card for a future return visit. If you visit at least once during each of the four seasons, you will earn a secret prize! We can highly recommend this restaurant if you enjoy Asian cuisine, and will be back in the future for another stamp as soon as we can.
After lunch, Frances was able to rejoin us for a couple more rides, Frozen Ever After and Grand Fiesta Tour, but then it was time to say a proper farewell to our friend. Our next stop was Club Cool, because I was really craving some Beverly (IYKYK). We also grabbed a Coca-Cola float because it was still very hot and we were desperate to cool down. We then headed for the Land Pavilion, and enjoyed relatively short waits for both Soarin’ Around the World and Living with The Land. At this point, we were finally past peak heat of the day and were just trying to keep ourselves busy until our dinner reservation. As guests of a deluxe resort, we wanted to take advantage of “Extended Evening Hours”, which allowed us to enjoy some attractions extra late after the park closed to day guests. Tim discovered we would still have an engage with the virtual queue system to ride Cosmic Rewind during this event, which would open in the WDW app for a separate, EEH-only lottery beginning at 6:00PM. Luckily, he was able to secure us a second ride through the virtual queue….but we can’t possibly understate how much we would love to see Cosmic Rewind come off the virtual queue system!
The skies started to look rather heavy after our Land Pavilion activities, so we headed for France to get a ride on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure before dinner. At least we were prepared with our rain gear, because the skies did indeed open up while we were in the outdoor queue. We were hoping that the rain would taper off by the time we were done with the ride, but in fact, it got much heavier. As we often say when visiting the Orlando area, ‘Florida gonn’ Florida’. After a rather soggy walk from France to Mexico, we made it inside our dinner destination, La Hacienda de San Angel. This was our first time officially dining at this restaurant, but we always heard many good things. I tried, for the first time, the famous EPCOT specialty, the Avocado Margarita, which was dangerously smooth. We shared an appetizer of Queso Fundido and we both got Tacos for our entrees. Dinner was great and very filling, we definitely did not have room for dessert.
When we booked this reservation, we had in mind that the fireworks show would pop-off towards the end of dinner and we would have a nice indoor view from the restaurant. However, as the rain continued, we figured that this was unlikely to happen on time. EPCOT operations rolled into Deluxe Resort Extend Evening Hours, so headed for our second virtual queue reservation for Cosmic Rewind (Everybody Wants to Rule the World, for the second time that day, if you were wondering). The rain was lessening, but the fireworks were still delayed. Since night had fallen, we decided to check out Journey of Water again to see the night vibes, and they were immaculate! As we were walking through, we could hear and see that the “Luminous: The Symphony of Us“ fireworks show had finally started; but by that time, we were happy where we were, and we were OK taking a pass on the show for the day. Despite still having a few hours of park left at our disposal, we were exhausted and figured we had done everything we set out to do and more. Overall, it was a fantastic day checking out all the updates and new attractions from our last visit, and we got to hang our with our buddy Frances as well. Check out our vlog for a firsthand take on our day, and be sure to catch up on our other Summer 2024 adventures at Animal Kingdom, Seaworld, Discovery Cove, and more.
