Day three started with a quick breakfast in our room (glad we packed those breakfast bars), after which we packed up and caught the monorail to the Transportation and Ticketing Center. Here we switched to the other monorail line and rode over to Epcot. I’m sure there’s cost issues, but I wish WDW would go ahead and build monorail runs to the other two parks. It’s such an efficient and fast way to get around. While the busses work, nothing beats the monorail.

Right away I noticed that the entry lines at Epcot seemed not to move as quickly as they had at the Magic Kingdom and MGM. Cynthia took the kids and went around the bag check lines and went ahead and entered the park, while I waited to have my bags searched. Once we got in, we looked at the “Leave a Legacy” monuments for a few minutes, then moved on towards Spaceship Earth (or “the big golf ball” as we came to call it). Noticing that the line was practically non-existant, we opted to go ahead and ride.

I’m continually impressed and amazed at the ingenuity in the design of various attractions and rides at Disney. One thing Disney is very good at is moving people through processes efficiently. Walt himself had a fascination with mass-transit and it lives on in the design of attractions such as Spaceship Earth. Instead of individual cars and the normal stop/start of the loading and unloading process, SE utilizes an endless train of cars that never actually stop. When you enter the attraction, you step onto a circular conveyor belt and have around 60 seconds to enter the next open car before it disappears into the void. Occasionally the ride has to be stopped to accommodate guests with special needs, but by and large the ride continually moves, increasing the effective “throughput” of people per hour. The exiting process at the end of the ride is similar, but in reverse.

The ride itself is interesting, taking the rider on a journey from pre-historic times to the future, explaining how various forms of communication developed. Along the way the car is turned left or right to show various auto-animatronic incarnations of the scenarios the narrator is explaining in the speakers embedded in the headrests of the car itself. The ride twists and winds its way up inside of the big ball until it reaches the apex, then the car turns a full 180 as it begins its descent back to ground level. All in all an interesting “dark ride”, but unfortunately it’s showing it’s age a little. It would be nice to see the later portions updated a bit to more accurately reflect the impact that the Internet has had on human communication over the past decade.

After Spaceship Earth we were exited near the entrance to Innoventions East. The main focus of this exhibit seemed to center around computer based simulations and multi-player interactions. The boys played a 4-player game of Toon Tag, where each player chooses one classic Disney character (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy or Donald) and runs around in a virtual playground trying to “tag” the other players. Michael was Goofy and Matthew played Mickey. Madison found some single-player more suitable for a 4-year-old and played those while the boys and I looked around.

The next game was called “Robot Challenge”, and was designed to teach about the different properties and uses of plastic while letting players design and race their own virtual Robots. Michael played this one, creating a robot he named “Creepy Bruiser” and came in 6th (out of 12) in the race. After exiting the game area, the kids were allowed to collect pieces and build their own robot character to take home.

At this point we needed to high-tail it to Norway in the World Showcase portion of Epcot to make our lunch reservations at Akershus castle. We were set to have lunch with all of the Disney Princesses, but the problem is we didn’t know where Akershus and Norway were. As it turns out it didn’t really matter that we were ten minutes late for our reservation, as it seemed that everyone else there had the same reservation time as we did. We ended up having to wait 15 or 20 minutes to be seated.

They called our name and led us into the banquet area, stopping for a quick visit/picture with Ariel from The Little Mermaid. The boys weren’t too interested in getting pictures take with her, but Madison was all smiles. We found our way to our table and tried to make out the Norwegian menu to find something to eat for lunch. Michael quickly found Spaghetti and Meatballs on the menu. I went with something called Kjottkaker, which turned out to basically be a traditional Norwegian meatloaf. The deserts came on a single plate for everyone to try. My favorite was the Lingonberry Tart.

During lunch we were visited by Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Prince Ali (Aladdin) and Jasmine, and Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). Autographs were obtained, pictures were taken. Madison wasn’t too sure about Ali, but warmed up when he told her a couple of jokes.

Once we finished lunch, we decided to explore the remainder of Norway as long as we were already there. We found the Maelstrom boat tour of Norway, which included an indoor ride aboard dragon-headed boats traveling among the Vikings and Trolls of 10th century Norway. After the boat portion of the ride we were presented a short film about Norway and it’s people. Of course, after exiting the attraction you’re dumped directly into the gift shop where we saw interesting things such as candy and troll dolls from Norway.

On the way out of Norway back towards Mexico, we passed a full-sized version of a Viking ship and a replica of the Gol Stave Church.

Of course, on our way into Mexico the kids immediately spied the street merchant selling various trinkets, and had to try on the giant sombreros. Each wanted one, but since we couldn’t figure out how to bring them back home on the plane, we decided to just take pictures and move along.

In Mexico we found an Aztec pyramid and wondered up the steps to explore what was inside. Just in the doors we found a Mexican marketplace, with artists practicing their art making various things from pinatas to hand carved and painted animal figurines. We got in the (short) line for “El Rio del Tiempo”, which is a “Small-world”-type boat ride through past and modern Mexico.

After the boat ride we watched a glass blower making a small glass Pluto figurine which the kids really found interesting. Cynthia bought a souvenir while we watched and then we headed back out into the bright sunlight to plot our next move.

We decided to make our way back to Futureworld to see some of the pavilions there, choosing the leave the remainder of World Showcase for another day. As we made our way back across the bridge to Futureworld, we visited a hat stand and Madison picked out a pair of Tinkerbell-styled Mickey Mouse ears and Cynthia bought a Princess visor. Michael bought a flashing necklace with some of his Mickey Dollars.

The first Futureworld pavilion we came to on the west side was the Imagination pavilion, where we were just in time to catch the next showing of “Honey I Shrunk the Audience.” This turned out to be a 3-D movie type attraction, very similar to Muppetvision 3-D. They took things a few steps further, shaking the whole audience seating area during the “shrinking” process. There was a snake sequence that was a little scary, but the thing everyone remembered was at the end when the huge dog “sneezed” on the audience. We walked out a little damp from the dog snot. Eww.

Next was the Land pavilion, where we took one look at the line for Soarin’ and immediately went and got a fast pass. As we were about to leave the building to go on to the next thing, I happened to stop by the Land Grill restaurant and checked on reservation times, and as luck would have it they had an open slot for 6:00. I put us down, since we had a great time there last trip and didn’t currently have plans for dinner.

Everyone wanted an icecream walking to the next building, so we bought a snack and sat on the freshly mowed grass to enjoy it. The day had begun to warm up and it was really nice outside. The kids ran around a little after finishing their icecream while Cynthia and I rested on the lawn.

The next building we came to was The Living Seas. This building was still being renovated, so the main entrance was closed off, but there was a temporary entrance around to the side (through the obligatory gift shop). We saw a line forming for Turtle Talk with Crush, so we decided to go ahead and queue up, knowing that it wouldn’t be getting any shorter. While we ended up having to wait about 15 minutes, it went fast and they funneled us into a small theater. The kids went to sit down front will all of the other younger viewers and Cynthia and I stood in the back.

The theatre was modeled as though you are looking into a large fish tank, although it ends up being a projector screen. When the crowd finally got settled, Crush the Turtle (from Finding Nemo, computer generated on the screen like in the movie) came out from behind some seaweed and said “yo”. There was a Disney cast member with a handheld microphone down front that ran the show and interacted with Crush, seemingly from a script, when suddenly Crush asked if anyone had any questions. He pointed out kids by the color of their “shells” (shirts) and actually answered their questions and joked with them. He taught them all how to say “dude” and told them that they should say it as much as possible for the rest of the day (ha ha). The whole show was very well done and very entertaining; the kids really enjoyed it.

After the Crush show, we spent 45 minutes or so walking around the various aquariums looking at many varieties of fish, sharks, jellyfish, sea horses, manta rays, etc. There was an interactive area for kids to explore and play around in, and an upstairs level for seeing manatees, turtles, and other sea life.

On our way back towards The Land pavilion, we wondered through Innoventions West, another interactive area with various displays. We saw exhibits on the land, played new computer games, saw displays on fire safety and played on a real fire truck.

The time for our fast pass on Soarin’ was up, so we headed quickly across the walkway to The Land and went to the head of the line. Fast pass is the way to go on the more popular attractions; while the normal queue was at 70 minutes at that point, we waited less than 5 minutes for our turn.

Soarin’ was by far one of our favorite attractions at Epcot, if not the whole trip. First you sit in seats where your feet can dangle free, then when the ride starts they swing you out in front of a giant IMAX screen that completely fills your range of vision. It simulates hang-gliding over 12 different areas of California, from a stream in a forest, to an orange grove, to skiing down the slopes of the Rockies, to sailing over the waves off the coast. As you go from environment to environment, the ride gently swings left and right, wind blows in your hair and the smells match the screen. The orange grove was my favorite.

The ride culminates in flying down Main Street USA of Disneyland and over Cinderella’s castle during the fireworks show. Absolutely exhilarating!

After our flying experience on Soarin’ it was almost our time for our reservation for Dinner, so we rode the escalator upstairs and checked in at the counter. Ten minutes later we were seated at our table. The Land Grill is a rotating restaurant that slowly revolves over the Land’s boat ride below. There are various scenes, from the fields of a farm to the desert and a jungle.

The food at the Garden Grill is almost exclusively grown right on site in the special hydroponics areas of the Land pavilion, and was some of the best we had all week. It was served family style, and included fresh catfish, chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, etc. Very, very tasty, and all you could eat. During dinner, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale came around for autographs and pictures. Just as we were finishing dinner the restaurant completed its revolution bringing us back to where we started.

Leaving the Land, very full, we stopped at a souvenir stand so that Matthew and Madison could follow Michael’s earlier lead and get flashing necklaces, since it had started getting dark. We knew the fireworks show wasn’t too far off, so we wondered back to World Showcase to find a good spot before the crowds started getting big.

We went to the right this time, into Canada, and took up seats on the shore of the lake. Michael, Madison and Cynthia held our spots while Matthew and I went exploring Canada. We saw the totem poles and wondered through the gift shops (lots of hockey stuff, eh), and then walked on towards the UK. We ended up finding a slightly better spot to watch the fireworks show, so we radioed the rest of the crew to meet us there.

Illuminations, the fireworks show at Epcot, was spectacular. It included lots of music, lasers, fireworks and exploding things over the lake, dancing fountains, and a large Globe on a barge that showed images from around the world before opening up and showering the sky with fireballs and more fireworks. It was neat being around a lake and having the whole show take place in the center rather than far off like at a traditional fireworks display.

After the show the park was officially closed, and the mass of humanity made its way towards the gate. Once we exited, we hopped aboard the trusty monorail and made our way back to our hotel, where the kids promptly crashed. It was a very full, very fun day, and we were exhausted. And there was still so much in Epcot we hadn’t seen!