Jun 2, 2011

Epcot - A truly diverse world

From Europe to Asia to the Americas, Epcot has about everything covered and fitted into 300 acres of land.

You could see how all the cultures add up to make such a beautiful and perfect planet! The best thing was that in each pavilion, every little detail had been looked after. You couldn't find a single thing that hadn't been altered according to the culture of the pavilion. Even the people working in the pavilions were natives of that country!

There was also a lot of other stuff there, like Future World and The Land.

We started with Future World.

In Future World we went to Spaceship Earth, Universe of energy and Test Track.
Spaceship Earth was a slow ride where you could invent your own future. The showed us some history and development of technology in the beginning and then they zoomed into the future. There were screens in front of us and we were given options, such as 'where we would like to live?' and 'what mode of transportation do we prefer?' And then once we answered all their questions, they created our future and showed it to us.


Spaceship Earth

Universe of Energy was this show of Ellen Degeneres on dinosaurs and energy! It started with her going to sleep and having a nightmare of being beaten by her childhood frenemy in Jeopardy. So along with Bill, AKA science guy who happened to be her neighbour she went on a journey to the land of dinosaurs and to discover different forms of energy. They showed us all about stuff like solar energy, wind energy and the extraction of petroleum and oil. 

Test Track was a thriller ride, in which we went on a bumpy and rash car ride, as we helped test newly built cars in rough conditions. 

We went to the Pavilions next. These were of different countries. Pretty nice ones too. Managed to bring in the entire country's culture into such a tiny piece of land! 

The first pavilion we went to was Mexico. 

Pavilion of Mexico

Traditional Mexican Musicians play in a festival like atmosphere in the Mexican Pavilion

Mexican Hats AKA Sombreros!


Apart from that the Mexico Pavilion also had a boat ride which took you through a kind of an exhibition of Mexican Culture.

Next came Norway.


The Norway Pavilion
My brother tries to copy a viking's pose using an umbrella as the ax and a map of Epcot as the shield

Scary, isnt it?

Viking at peace!


Apart from window displays like these, there wasn't anything else to see here.

So we moved on to the next pavilion, that was Italy. (We kinda skipped China and Germany!)

There were mostly eating places and fountains and shops here.

L'Italia
One of the restaurants in the Italian Pavilion



A fountain of Italy

Standing on a bridge in front of the Italian Pavilion


Next we went to The American Adventure. They had a lot of activity there. They had this band marching and playing the national anthem and a museum and shows. Although we didn't see much there apart from the bad which happened to be playing at that time, it was still quite interesting.

Drum roll!

Singing the national anthem!


After America we moved to Japan.
Japan was beautiful! It didn't have much apart from restaurants and stores, but it was so beautifully built, that we spent our maximum time there. There was a shop there with Japanese Handicrafts. It had all kind of things from accessories to clothes to stationary to art!


The Japanese Pavilion

Shopping area of Japan!

A japanese statue

Japanese art work at one of the stores


After Japan we passed through Morocco to go to France. Now although we didn't intend to go to the Morocco Pavilion, it was so amazing that we couldn't help it.


The Moroccan Pavilion

A band plays Arabic songs 

My brother with Moroccans working in the Pavilion's store

A Moroccan fountain

We site Beauty and the Beast near the Moroccan pavilion!

Morocco also had all these really great stores where they had so spectacular jewelery. I am so going to visit Morocco some day!

Then came along France. Apart from stores full of perfumes and restaurants full of wines, there was a show called Impressions de France (which I did not see- i think it was about the French Revolution and the history of france)
The French Pavilion


Les Vins de France

Lets not forget the art..

...or the food!

My mom next to a woman in a traditional French costume


Sleeping Beauty AKA Princess Aurora

After France we passed through the pavilion of UK to go to Canada. There wasn't anything there apart from stores and restaurants, and those weren't anything great either.

A store at UK

English houses

And of course the old fashioned houses

Canada was really good. They had a waterfall which I'm guessing was to remind us that they have a part the Niagra Falls and a hell lotta greenery and culture. There was a show too which i did not see.



The Canadian Pavilion

Believe it or not-it's a photo booth!

Mini-Niagra

A garden in the Canadian Pavilion

With Canada we finished with all the country's pavilions. Since we still had some time left before the fireworks and laser show at 9 pm, we went to 'The Land' which included Soarin (a ride gave you the feeling  and view of flying over California), Living with the Land ( a boat ride through a built in greenhouse and fish farm) and the Circle of Life (an environmental fable featuring the characters of Lion King)

We couldn't go for Soarin' (which happened to be top priority) because of the 90 minute wait time in the queue. 
Living with the Land was pretty good. They showed us their huge greenhouse and fish farms.

Fish Farming

The greenhouse of epcot

Growing watermelons

and nine pound lemons!

We also went to watch The Circle of Life. It began with some Lion King Characters wanting to stop a river and build a resort in its place. Then Simba (The Lion) started telling the story of humans, how their never ending greed for luxury destroyed the earth and the home of 1000s of species and how they now move towards restoring it.

At the end of the day, we saw the laser and fireworks show, which was really beautiful! They also had this revolving earth structure in the middle, which they projected images and laser lights on. It was only 15 minutes long but it was incredible. And it was so well coordinated with the music in the background. Some of the fireworks were of the kinds I had never seen before.

Having seen about 10 countries in one day and with all the rides and shows and not to forget, the fireworks and laser show to top it off, theres not much left to say!

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