After a long set of flights involving a red-eye to Newark, the Browning family arrived at Orlando. We met up with Nina and Papa at the resort we are staying at (Wynndam Cypress Palms), had some lunch, and were off the the days adventure.
EPCOT was the target for today. It is the one Disney experience our kids had not done before, and I felt that they were at a good age to enjoy it. A few weeks ago when I suggested it, they generally thought it sounded boring. However, after showing them a few of the attractions, the kids became interested.
By the time we got the park, it was 1pm (part of a travel day). We focused on the key attractions in the future part of EPCOT first. The TestTrack was a big hit. Both Noah and Katy wanted to do it, and they both had fun with the opportunity to design and test their own car. They are about the perfect ages to be mature enough to understand it, and young enough to not think it was lame. The kids really took to it and focused on tuning and experimenting with their cars. Not to mention they enjoyed the actual test drive part of it.
Next up we did Soarin'. A little bit of a longer wait (kids got bored), but they really like the ride. I think it was a fun visual and sense-filled experience, and they enjoyed the relaxed (instead of thrill) nature of it.
We finished up the future part by seeing the Living with the Land and The Sea. The was mildly interesting, with some interest perked when seeing all the different kinds of crops were being grown, many of which the kids have never heard of.
The Sea was pretty interesting for the kids. Outside of the general "cool aquarium" stuff, the kids were really awestruck by the Manatees. They thought it was pretty amazing of how easily their big bodies could move through the water. They were very touched that they were endangered, and really connected to them.
The rest of the day was spent in the world showcase checking out the different countries. We started out by having a quick dinner in "USA", as it had the most kid friendly option.
For our kids, we didn't even stop in several of the countries. Since they have been to UK, France, Italy and Germany, the Disney mock-ups of the countries and sights paled in comparison to the real thing and they didn't seem interested in them. It did reinforce that the kids got a lot out of our Europe trip last year.
We ended up spending a good bit of time in Morocco. It was the most novel places of any to the kids. They enjoyed checking out the different clothes and products in the stores. They even got their names written in Arabic.
Towards the end of the day, Noah decided he wanted to do the Agent P Secret Agent mission. It seems that Disney has a high-tech scavenger hunt in the park. It is a really great idea and really well implemented. They give you a "cell phone" that gives you clues and the story line through video clips. When you find a clue or secret location, pressing a button on the phone will sometimes activate a nearby noise, open a hidden door, light up a secret map, or cause a hidden animatronic event to fire. Again very well done in true Disney flare. At one point we had some other tourist just watching what we were doing, as they were enjoying the hidden surprises as much as we were. I think this was a great activity for someone Noah's age and he really go into the mission. There are a bunch of different missions which last about 30 minutes.
The evening ended with us watching the Illuminations light show done in the lagoon in the world showcase. It was also very well done. I was really impressed with Noah's reaction. He is normally doesn't like fireworks and sometime doesn't want to watch them. However, we want in rapture watching this show. Total fixation. About half way through, I looked over and he was literally jaw-dropped and entranced by the show. I'm so please he had such a magical and memorable experience.
Overall, the day went much better than I expected. The kids enjoyed almost all of the activities and will have good memories of EPCOT. Noah gave it 5 stars (out of 5) and 2 thumbs up.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment