Today was to be a real Epcot day. A phrase we now use in our house to describe any day which involves a very high step count.
By 7.45am we were gathering everything together and getting into the car. Much to Neil’s amusement, despite it being the annual Food & Wine Festival, Karen and I still took a packed lunch with us, as I was not prepared to pay out for ‘theme park’ food all day.
We had booked the expensive admission tickets months ago and so, although the eye-wateringly painful cost had almost been forgotten and Neil had volunteered to pay the car parking fee, which lessened the pain a little, I knew though that at some point my mind would wander towards working out the hourly cost for the day. I had made it worse by also asking Neil to book Lightning Lane passes for the Guardians ride, as I really wanted to ride it and knew it would fall far outside my 20-minute self-imposed queuing limit.
The omens for the day were looking good, with it being very warm but cloudy, so no burning sun. We were also lucky with a very close parking spot to the entrance.
There was no queue at either security or the park entrance, but although we were allowed into the park, we still had 40 minutes before being allowed through to anywhere near the rides, as they were only available to hotel guests.
However, for the first time here, we were allowed access to Starbucks within the park. Karen didn’t need any prompting and, whilst Neil joined the already massing crowd for rope drop, we went into Starbucks. Karen was ages waiting for her drink whilst I grabbed a table and chairs next to one of the exits.
To pass the time, I chatted to the cast member who was doing door checks to ensure that non-hotel guests like us didn’t sneak into the park, bypassing the rope drop. She was a college graduate, and I asked about the jobs here and all manner of other things. Equally, she asked all sorts of questions about the UK. We were chatting in between her checking people’s tickets for about 20 minutes.
Without being asked, or me even slightly hinting, she just asked if we would like to be let in early. We eagerly accepted her offer and she told us to message Neil to join us, which we did. Twenty minutes before the crowds, we were wandering towards Test Track. What a bonus! I made sure to send her a ‘cast compliment’ on the Disney app to give her thanks, without saying exactly why, so as not to get her into any trouble.
We bypassed the standby queue, which even for hotel guests was still some 30 minutes, and walked straight onto the ride in the single-rider queue. Even though we were in different cars, we were all in cars behind each other. This new version of Test Track was easily the best yet. It all made sense and is a terrific ride.
It was still not even 9am as we hurried Karen to the other side of the park to ride Soarin’ Across America before the masses were let in, and we made it. There was just a five-minute wait for the ride, although there was a slight delay once we were in our seats as ‘Patrick’ had trouble getting one of the doors closed.
This is a great ride and one for anyone who has never experienced the magic of Disney to try first. I could ride it again and again. It made me want to visit some of the parts of the US again that we had soared majestically over.
Lots of rides and rests followed before Karen & Neil went to ride Mission: Space, which I still avoid as it involves lots of spinning. Instead, I waited for them back in Starbucks after waiting ages to get some hot drinks.
As I waited, I mused over my wilderness career years when I ended up working for HP. I really hated everything about the company, its ethos and how it treated people. However, it did do two things I approved of. The first was giving Neil a break when, with no help from me whatsoever, he secured a place on its graduate scheme. Secondly, it sponsored the Mission: Space ride, meaning we had access to the lounge hidden within the ride.
It was a faff getting access, but it meant we got free food and drink, somewhere to sit and cool down, and then were taken to the front of the ride queue each time. Like everything else HP ‘promised’, the sponsorship and access didn’t last long.
We had intended to ride Spaceship Earth next, but it had broken down, so we went for some free drinks from around the world at the Coke Cool shop, or whatever it is called. I went for the Moldovan Raspberry flavour, which I knew I liked. Whilst in there, Neil saw that Spaceship Earth was just starting again, so we hurried around and walked straight on before any queue had reformed.
Neil then started his purchases from the food stalls with a meaty option as we headed slowly around the World Showcase. Disappointingly, the British band in the UK section have a day off on Thursdays, so we missed them.
In France, Karen was keen to ride Ratatouille, but as it had an advertised 35-minute wait, I found a nice seat and sat it out. They were back within almost 35 minutes, which wasn’t bad.
One of the reasons we had chosen today to visit was due to the ‘free band’ scheduled to be playing today in the outdoor theatre: The Beach Boys.
In the past, we have seen the likes of Sheena Easton, Billy Ocean and Squeeze. I have always wanted to see the Beach Boys play, but every time I have tried, they have cancelled because one of them has been ill or, inconveniently, died.
The band name ‘The Beach Boys’ is owned, as Barry puts it, by the evil cousin ‘Mike Love’. He is now 85 and quite poorly. Until a month ago, he was still performing, propped up on a stool and barely contributing to some harmonies. However, in recent weeks even that has got too much and he has had to cancel.
The rest of the band, led by John Stamos, who is a well-known actor and has played on and off with the Beach Boys for 40 years, including on the hit ‘Kokomo’, which didn’t feature Brian Wilson, are now calling themselves John Stamos and the Californian Sound and are fulfilling the already booked dates.
People were queuing for the performances some five hours before they started and it was crowded, to say the least, around the theatre. There was no chance we would get seats. We decided to walk on to other countries in the meantime and pop back when they actually started, standing at the back, which is what we did.
The band were good but played ‘covers’ from other bands before doing a couple of Beach Boys numbers, including ‘Kokomo’, which were good. They also brought Josh Gad onto the stage with them, who was the voice of Olaf from Frozen, amongst other things.
The crowd were hoping and hollering as though they were the best band ever. They were tight and good musicians, but they were not ‘The Beach Boys’ as I had hoped.
We carried on walking and stopping either to look at things or for the many food and drink stops. We were not rushed, the weather was good and it was all rather lovely. The only other ride we did was The Three Caballeros in Mexico.
Eventually, we made our way back to the Guardians ride, for which we had Lightning Lane passes at 7.25pm. This was as good as I had hoped and remembered. Our soundtrack was ‘September’. I think you should be allowed to ride it twice in a row. The first time you are just in awe of what’s coming up and the second time you can just sit back and enjoy it.
By the time we had finished the ride and all its pre-shows, it was time to amble back to find a spot for the fireworks. We found a spot where we could sit on a fence right in front of the large Christmas tree, which proved to be a perfect central vantage point. This fireworks show is, in my opinion (and that is all that matters), the best Epcot one yet and was terrific.
And with that, we made our way out of the park with the masses. The fireworks ended at 9.12pm and by 9.55pm we were tired but happy and back at the villa.
Karen had ended the day with a step count exceeding 28,600 steps, which was a record for her new hip.
Today was certainly a good Epcot day.
