click to enlarge - Louisa
and a topiary stegosaurus outside The Universe of Energy. There are lots of thumbnail pictures that link to full size pictures in the page. Scroll down to see them.
Wed 10/25 Thu 10/26 Fri 10/27 Sat 10/28 Sun 10/29 Mon 10/30
We were up
and ready to be at the Character Breakfast at the hotel when it opened. A huge
ballroom was set aside for us with multiple serving lines. Two projection TVs
had been set up in corners of the room and were showing pictures from the 2001
CCAI calendar. We kept meeting up with families that recognized our names.
As a neat
place to meet up with our families, it was great. But as a way of meeting characters
it simply did not work out. There were too many families. Disney realized this
as well and the characters set themselves up at spots around the room and the
kids lined up to meet them. Our girls were not that interested in the characters
so there wasn't too much dissapointment.
Next time
we visit WDW I want to do a real character breakfast where the characters come
around to each table. That would be a lot of fun.
This was going to be a short day because of the Mulan Ball in the evening so we decided to head back to Epcot. There was going to be a group photo of CCAI people in front of the China pavilion at 11 am. I rather doubted we could make that, partly because I knew that World Showcase did not open until 11 and there would be a mad crush just getting in. We would see if we could get there.
We headed over to the Living Seas. The girls were a little cranky and we ended up taking about half an hour just getting from the entrance over to the pavilion what with bathroom breaks and such. We did find the talking water fountains that I had heard of and enjoyed playing with them.
It was really neat to see a diving suit costume from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea while walking through the queue.
The film was too loud, which bothered Julia and scared Mary.
Count me among one of the few die hard Disney fans that was totally unprepared for this pavilion. It was fascinating and I was fooled by the Hydrolators. Obviously they were not going very far, but I had no idea until after we got back and I read some more that they did not go anywhere at all. They are just part of the pre-show exactly like the Haunted Mansion stretching room. Very Very Clever. The construction of the pavilion was such that I was fooled into thinking that they at least had taken us down 2 floors.
Next was the Ride-through-the-tank. The Unofficial Guide calls these "gondolas" which my literal-minded brain interpreted just the way the dictionary says - "An enclosed structure suspended from a cable, used for conveying passengers". Years of reading the description had me expecting something like the elevator cars that ferry passengers to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
Imagine my surprise to find - Ta Da! - Another Omnimover (Haunted Mansion/Spaceship Earth/Journey Into Your Imagination etc. etc. etc.). The "trip underwater" is a journey down a hall with windows looking out into the tank. Don't get me wrong. I did not dislike this. It was actually pretty neat, although short. It just was not what I had imagined. The guidebook should say "Omnimover", not "gondola". (Unfortunately this part of the attraction is no longer operating) .
We emerged into the main exhibit space and were fascinated by the Manatees. The intended audience for this pavilion is not the very young. Louisa and Julia were bored quickly so we only spent about half an hour in the exhibit space. (The girls have since seen a documentary I recorded off the Outdoor Life Network that spent some time looking around the pavilion. They want to visit The Living Seas again.)
We had to wait a few minutes for the hydrolator to take us out. Little did I know we could have pushed through the accessibility door just beside them and walked straight out! (The clue, Holmes, is that if they were real elevators why did they have a separate elevator for the levels in the exhibit area and NO buttons to access those levels from within the hydrolator?)
We could see from the time that we would not make it to the China pavilion in time for the picture. We headed out to see what was in Innoventions...
...But never really made it into Innoventions. We passed through the Pizza restaurant and could not see where there were any exhibits. Then we spotted the vapor coming from Ice Station Cool.
Ice Station Cool turned out to be a small version of the World of Coca Cola exhibit here in Atlanta. I found it to be extremely well done. The "snow" was a great diversion. This got the girls into the spirit of the day. Their crankiness lifted.
The floor in Ice Station Cool was stickier than any movie theatre I have ever been in! Amazing. The girls loved sampling the various drinks. I made a point of sampling Beverly again - having tried it at the World of Coca-Cola over three years before and liking it. Count me among one of those weird people that finds it refreshing. (Or, as my wife puts it - "His taste buds were shot off in the war."). Julia disliked Beverly so much she spit it out on the floor!
We headed back over to the World Showcase. At Norway we stopped by the Viking ship playground for some lunch that we had brought with us. I told Louisa that the Maelstrom ride was there and asked her if she wanted to go on it. Sure!
I left Marie with the other girls and Louisa and I were able to ride with no wait at all. It was great! The troll and the section in which you travel backwards were very well done. Louisa wanted to do it again, so I took over watching Mary as she climbed on the Viking ship while Marie took the older girls through the ride.
There we were at China again. Marie did some more shopping while the girls took advantage of the craft activity. The cast members asked for the girl's names to write in Chinese characters on the sticks holding up the masks that the girls would decorate. I gave them the girl's Chinese names.
Marie didn't want to do any more shopping, so we headed back into future world. I suggested visiting the Universe of Energy for the Dinosaurs. I was intrigued by the descriptions I had read about the traveling theatre as well. I wanted to see this in action.
I was not
disappointed. I enjoyed the "new" show with Ellen Degeneres and Bill
Nye the Science Guy. I was amazed by the gyrations the theatre cars went through.
I was convinced there were more theatres than there really were. The attraction
was so well designed; I had no idea that the last section was part of the same
room we had started in. For some great diagrams on how the ride is laid out,
see the Yahoo Club Epcot's Universe of Energy and look in the photos section.
Julia was sitting next to me and was alternately amazed and scared as we went
through the attraction. Louisa loved the dinosaur that spit at the ride vehicle.
Julia hated the dinosaurs. They were entirely too real to her, although I kept
reminding her that they were robots.
click to enlarge - Louisa
and a topiary stegosaurus outside The Universe of Energy.
The Universe of Energy was my favorite attraction in Epcot. (With the Dinosaur! ride in Animal Kingdom and the Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom being my favorite attractions in the other two parks we visited.)
Marie wanted to see The Land pavilion so we skipped over there, passing a neat group of performers on stilts. With again virtually no wait we got on the Listen to the Land boat ride. It was very interesting. Julia liked it much better than the Universe of Energy. Louisa was bored. No dinosaurs and no excitement. Mary just went along with everything. Marie managed to shoot at least a full roll of film in the greenhouses.
We had to cut the day short again to get ready for the Mulan Ball at the Hotel. The girls were very excited about getting in their costumes. Louisa was dressed as Little Brother (Mulan's dog), Julia was Mulan and Mary was Mushu (the dragon).
The girls were bored by much of the after dinner activity. Madame Qin gave a speech, which was received very warmly by the adults in the audience. The kids liked things a lot better when the entertainment started, complete with dancers and a demonstration of Chinese yo-yos.
As we left we discovered that another ballroom had been set up with carnival games and cotton candy. The Disney Mulan characters were wandering around in there as well. Louisa and Marie gave up early, as they were tired. Julia and Mary partied on!
click to enlarge - Julia and Mary
in costume
click to enlarge - Julia
with back toward camera, Mary and Louisa
click to enlarge - Louisa with
her dog bone
Julia as Mulan,
Mary as Mushu, Louisa as Little Brother
click to enlarge
click to enlarge - Julia is looking
at the fold out screen on my video camera.
click to enlarge - Mary (or is it
Mushu?) still likes lemons!
click to enlarge - Out of hundreds
of little kids there were only two Mushus. They both got up on stage and played
around with the microphone. That's one of the Chinese yo-yos that Mary is carrying.
click to enlarge - Mary's tail blocking
Louisa's way (unknown other child)
Sometimes
Mushu's tail gets in the way!
click to enlarge
Chris Owen
and Lea (group 73), Marie and Mary (Group 136b)
click to enlarge
Lily of CCAI
being interviewed by CCTV (China Central TV)
click to enlarge - These dancers
were part of the evening's entertainment
Fan Dancers
click to enlarge - For some reason
Captain Shang from Mulan was the only character of all the ones we saw that
intrigued all three girls. Julia was fascinated by all the characters, as can
be seen from her expression in the photo.
Captain Shang
and admirers
Mulan!
click to enlarge - Julia was afraid
of Mulan at first, so Mulan beckoned Julia to come over. Mary looked on.
click to enlarge - Mary took to Mulan
right away. That was enough for Julia. Her attitude toward the characters changed.
She was still a little hesitant with them, but would approach them from this
point on.
click to enlarge - Julia meets
Mulan
click to enlarge - Julia with
Chip and Dale
click to enlarge - Julia
passes her Passporter to Mushu
for his autograph
click to enlarge - Julia then
gets a hug from Mushu
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Last modified 05/2/02
This document copyright © 2001/2002 Kirby A. Bartlett-Sloan