Day 3: Tuesday February 20: EPCOT! (Part 3)
With our Test Track return window in effect, we headed that way. MIL was nervous about this one but was a trooper and tried it anyway. DD4 liked designing a car, didn’t like that we didn’t get “her” yellow one (mom fail that I hadn’t adequately described what designing it meant), and didn’t like the inside, dark part of the ride but enjoyed the outside part.
I forgot to take a picture of our car design but I did get a pic of it being one of the "most responsive vehicles" (our design is the yellow one at the right).
My take on TT: I prefer Radiator Springs Racers at
Disneyland. I’m more of a theming fan and don’t really care about the design part/“road testing.” RSR has really cute ride vehicles and the theming scenery is much more interesting. Still, TT's fine if the wait’s not too long, but I don’t consider this a must-do.
I might’ve gotten us all M:S LLs around now.
Our Guardians VQ had been estimated as 15 minutes to wait when we entered TT. It was still at 15 minutes when we left. They claimed to be boarding up through group 73; we were 75.
Since we were in the area we stuck around a bit, doing bathroom runs (and maybe some got snacks at this point? Can’t recall for sure). However, after 30 minutes of the “15 minute wait” I figured the ride was down and that we should go ahead and do our Soarin LL.
That turned out to be a wise call. Maybe 30-60 minutes later the app changed to “not boarding,” close to 90 minutes after I think the ride had stopped (since they hadn't been calling new BGs for a while).
Journey of Water was on the way, and since we had a good amount of time left on our Soarin' return time, we walked through it. It’s really cool! DD4 enjoyed the interactive water features.
And as I’m writing this at home after a somewhat frustrating day at the museum, complete with an older child shoving his way in front of DH as he held up DD4 to get a better look at a gem exhibit, I’ll mention that all our encounters with fellow guests at WDW were fairly pleasant. At JoW, parents, far from ignoring the poor behavior of their children, were good about instructing their kids to allow DD4 have a turn with the water features. Good job, parents!
It’s also clear that Imagineers have always paid attention to crowd control and management. Thinking of our musuem experience, I’m not sure how much of it was “spring break crowds at the museum” but everything felt so much more noisy and crowded there than at WDW. In general, I don’t mind waiting in full/busy queues—so long as they’re orderly and I’m otherwise feeling good (not dehydrated or hungry and relatively well-rested—more on that when I get to our AK day).
Anyway, I loved JoW and think it’s a prime example of a walkthrough attraction.
Our Journey of Water complete, it was time for Soarin'!
We'd had to park the stroller before JoW, and I think we just left it there as we walked to The Land. While heading up the slope to the pavilion, DH and I each held one of DD4’s hands while MIL and FIL followed behind.
It is VERY GOOD that DH had a hand free, because he caught a runaway stroller with a sleepy child inside it! The family (multigeneration, they all had matching shirts) had paused to consult the map or make their plans or something. I’m sure they felt the ground where they were was even enough, to let go of the stroller, but… it wasn’t!
So DH caught the stroller and stopped it from careening into some of the foliage, or worse, down into the pond/the fence surrounding the pond.
Here's my Very Serious, Very Professional visual aid:
The family was very grateful and some onlookers said something like “Way to go, Dad!” And the sleepy kid was calm the entire time.
All’s well that ends well, but parents/guardians, please remember to put the brakes on your child’s stroller if you are stopping anywhere near a slope! Better yet, make it a habit to put on the brakes whenever stopping, period. (Which I admit I should be better about, but I am always very cautious when near/on slopes.)
PSA complete, let’s get back to Soarin.’
MIL was a little unsure about this ride, probably more so after I’d subjected her to TT, but I said I found it relaxing (which I do). DH and I had seen the CA version when we went to DLR in October 2022 so that was a repeat for us, but it was fine. We were in the bottom row/bottom glider which isn’t my favorite, but I thought it might make DD4 feel more secure. The ride was fine. I think the scent of the orange groves wasn’t working though; none of us remembered smelling it. Soarin’ is another one I’m fine doing if the wait isn’t too long, but it's also not a must-do for me. However no one was traumatized from it, so yay!
DD4 later said she enjoyed this; I’d described it as “a giant swing” and that satisfied her. This was maybe her 2nd favorite EP ride after FEA.
As Guardians was still down and we were nearby Living with the Land, which had a posted 10 min standby line, we went over there. The wait was probably more like 5 minutes.
I enjoy LwtL; it’s neat to hear the little details about how Epcot grows vegetables for the entire resort and some their sustainability efforts like putting fish and plants into a self-sustaining biome thingummy. (Yes I know my terminology is way off, which is why I should probably do that full Seeds tour sometime.) DD4 also enjoyed looking for some hidden mickeys. I apparently failed to take any pictures, though.
Next it was back to World: Discovery for our Mission: Space LL. We stuck with the Green side; DD4 is still too short for Orange. MIL said that if DH and I wanted to do Orange she could watch DD4, but we declined. We wanted DD4 to ride this one too.
DD4 was navigator, I was pilot, and DH was commander. Then I guess it was engineer that was empty? Not many callers for single riders on the green side!
DD4 later said she liked this, though during the ride I had to prod her to try pushing buttons. Navigator had several computer overrides, but we safely circumnavigated the planet or whatever it was we were doing. I think MIL and FIL enjoyed this one all right too, but I don’t have notes about what roles they got.
We got out of M:S and into a spot with decent reception to discover our BG for Guardians had been called 4 minutes ago! I’d been getting worried the ride would be down the rest of the day and we wouldn’t get to ride. DD4 couldn’t last till park closing so there was a good chance that if Guardians stayed down into the evening, we’d miss it entirely.
However, the timing was PERFECT! We were already in World Discovery so just had to walk over. We (meaning me, DH, and FIL) headed toward the side with the most people but soon learned that was the ILL queue. We continued around to the VQ side, which at this point was a far shorter line than ILL. I felt so bad for the ILL people! 3 hours' worth of ILLs who were owed their spot that they paid for, but also… well as DH likes to say, “It’s better to be lucky than good.”
We tapped in pretty quickly. The queue was so empty we could speed through it, which makes it harder to take pictures but I managed a couple.
I’ve seen Disney fairly criticized for the repetition of some of the more recent ride storylines, which tend to go “You, Guest, are embarking on a "mild" but enjoyable activity--until something goes horribly wrong and it’s up to you to help [the Guardians/the Resistance/Spiderman/insert hero] fix it!” And Guardians follows that, what with visiting Xandar and then Eson (yes I did need to double-check his name) interrupting and putting the universe at risk, etc. etc.
You know what? I don’t care.
I loved this ride. It’s my current favorite ride in all of WDW. I love the way the individual cars spin, feeling like you’re really in space, and the music is a cool addition. (We got “September” which wouldn’t have been my pick, but still. Very cool!)
90 minutes is generally the max I’d wait for a ride, and the ride itself then has to be worth it to me. (RotR the first time was worth our 90-minute wait.) I’m super glad we had the VQ for Guardians and didn’t need to wait that long to ride, but I suspect that if I’d had to wait that long anyway, I would’ve deemed it worth it. Superb coaster, though I’m sure the spinning plus the reverse launch make it more complicated and thus more prone to breakdowns.
It was too late for us to get an ILL at this point, but next time I’d seriously consider it, esp. if we’re again only spending one day in Epcot.
Photo limit again! Looks like I'll have a part 4, then should be done with Epcot.
