Just Back 3/1 -3/13 Epcot Yays & Nays

Lady Hiss

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 14, 2000
4 adults with PH passes, no kids

Yays:
Flower & Garden Festival - makes this park even more beautiful than it usually is - so many lovely flowers throughout if you stop and smell the roses LOL; picture ops with topiaries; butterfly area is fun; one problem this year: no central festival headquarters :guilty: to ask questions, take workshops, etc.

Soarin' - We rope dropped once, FP several other times; love the new theming (miss the orange grove scent though).

Pixar Short Film Festival - loved it; films were great; seats are comfy

Living w. the Land - an interesting ride especially when it goes through the garden areas, needs some updating of the beginning film portion of the ride.

Japan QS - friendly, smiling CMs, good food, quiet area (don't tell anyone, please).

LaHacienda de San Angel - ADRs for dinner; great waiter, delicious food; allowed us to move over to better Illuminations view once it started.

Illuminations - my absolute favorite, great show, lots of good viewing areas without feeling like a sardine in a can.

Future World Fountains - love the show that syncs the music and the fountains, esp. at night.

Lights in the sidewalk - a little thing, but something that always brings back memories of our kids running around this area at night, fascinated by the colorful patterns; wish they'd do more of this kind of stuff.

IG - love this quiet, pretty entrance area; fear that it will be like all park entrances (busy & crowded) once the gondolas are up & running.

British Invasion music, all the other 'Country' entertainment - always enjoyable music, pretty settings, love to sing along to old Beatles songs, etc.(quietly), many talented performers (Japan, China, etc).

English Garden Tea Tour - loved this on an early morning; took the $18 tour and the guide was charming & knowledgeable, all British CMs we encountered were friendly & helpful; scones were fabulous as was the Twinings tea.



Nays:
FEA - I'll get some heat for this but we just didn't enjoy it (and I love Frozen!); used FP; to us, it's another boat ride through some movie scenes with the music added; as with Maelstrom, you might get wet.

World Showcase on Friday/Saturday nights - lots of bachelor/bachelorette parties; lots of people blocking the walkways; too crowded for us to enjoy it (worst areas were around Mexico and France).

The Monoliths at the entrance - Again, I'll get some heat, but these detract from the beauty and flow of traffic into the park, IMHO; are they being moved eventually?

Lack of benches - Wish there were more around the fountain area so we could sit comfortably and enjoy our Starbucks :coffee:

Epcot is usually our favorite park, but the award goes to AK this time (see my post on AK greats, good, and meh). Maybe once a few more attractions are added and they do a little more with F&G Festival (and I don't mean more food kiosks), it'll go back to the top of our list.





 
Our favorite spot in Epcot is the garden area out behind the UK shops. On our last trip we stopped into the Rose and Crown pub and picked up some drinks and then strolled over to the back garden area. The sun was just starting to go down and we sat and enjoyed our drinks and listened to the music of Epcot. We actually sat there for almost an hour and the only other guests that visited with us were a couple of rabbits. So peaceful and calm for our last night at Disney.

Thank you for your review.
 
Wonderful review of my favorite park! Thanks for the great rundown.

I'm glad you mentioned the lights in the sidewalk. A small detail, yes, but it's the kind of unexpected thing Disney does so well. I agree--more of this, please.

I did like FEA, but my husband missed Maelstrom, and I can see how people might find the ride anticlimactic in general. Our kids were glad to experience it for the first time, but they weren't chomping to go back.
 


Great review, I'm not a fan of FEA either but that is just because I loved Maelstrom and I dislike just about anything Frozen. I'm not a fan of Illuminations, that big ole globe creeps me out and I'm height challenged so rarely get to see all the projections. I'm not a fan of the new Soarin either, unless you get in just the right spot, everything is bent. We do love F&G, I can spend hours just looking at the displays and the booths are great. We don't mind it on weekend nights but we don't have small kids (it's me and my grown son) and in all our years of going we really haven't seen any out of control drunk people. Not saying they aren't there, just haven't noticed them or have been aware of them. We love Living with the Land but liked it better when it was Listen to the Land and there was a person who drove the boat and actually talked.
 


I pretty much agree with all of this! We did not get to do the tea garden tour and I really wish we would have. However, this trip we did do the paid Behind the Seeds tour and it was fantastic!
 
I like FEA, but I agree that it’s just like many other boat rides. Splash and POTC are way better. I would never wait 5 hours for it like people did on opening day!
 
I loved FEA. I thought it was beautiful, with amazing AAs (I love the way Olaf "skates" and follows our boat). Much better than Maelstrom. I haven't even seen Frozen, and at one point resented how that movie invaded the parks. But FEA is a home run, especially considering that it's not a big, expansive E Ticket.
 
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Great review. Are you doing one for DHS? Would be curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks! I did a review for each park and they all got moved to Trip Reports board - guess they're too long for Theme Parks Attractions board? I tried to keep each review brief so they might stay on TPAS board (I find most of the posted TRs too long to read in one sitting), but my plan didn't work! LOL! ;)
 
Great review! I loved the structure, very easy to read and lots of great information!

~ DVC Greg
#dvcrentals
 

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