Today we were off to Epcot and had planned to dash over to Test Track first to sneak a quick ride in before heading over to Soarin’ where we had a fast pass. In order to squeeze that in we left home promptly at 08:20 and headed off down the US 192. In the past this road has been pretty stop/start due to the frequent traffic lights (there are 15 sets in a six mile stretch – yes I counted 🙂 ). This morning though we were on a roll and we did the whole six mile stretch without a stop at all – every light was on green!
All this meant that we were nice and early into the park so we shot over to Test Track and started to queue. When we didn’t move it quickly became obvious that there was an issue and, sure enough, there came a tannoy announcement saying that there was a delay. As we had fast passes elsewhere we exited and left what is my favourite ride in the park.
Epcot in April/May is always a beautiful place as the annual flower festival is on and it really does look stunning with both Disney themed displays and stunning colours.
Soarin’ had been updated since the last time we rode and instead of a ride over American highlights this one took in a number of different places worldwide ending in Epcot. However, it was obviously CGI’d but very realistic nevertheless.
We then wandered around the World Showcase which contains stylised versions of about a dozen countries including a very twee version of England.
Finally we went to a character greeting and met up with Mickey, Goofy and Minnie.
In the evening we tried out a new restaurant, the Olive Garden which is an “Italian” (it’s about as Italian as I am), which they were still building the last time we were here.
The food was delicious but, as ever, came in massive portions. To compound matters each main was served with a generous portion of bread and you could choose your main to be accompanied by either a salad or a soup all of which seemed a trifle unnecessary.
Both our boys are now above the legal drinking US drinking age and, until tonight, had no trouble in ordering what they wanted. For some reason tonight they were asked for ID which one of them didn’t have so had to make do with a Sprite instead. Given the beards neither looks under 21 and it’s a shame that the ID laws are not applied uniformly.
With limited days left and a lot still to pack in Helen, ever the project manager, created a chart for us to ponder over our dinner. So it is that the next six days are now planned in minute detail – please let me know if you’d like a copy of the Gantt chart!