Epcot Center

Left for Epcot Center around 11am even though Alberto was threatening to bring in a lot of rain. Just before leaving home Mythili remembered some Disney rain ponchos she had and threw them in the car at the last minute. That was the best decision we made that day cos even tho it was only a bit cloudy when we left home, by the time we got to Epcot Center, it was raining cats and dogs. Not the steady rain we have been used to in Seattle, but an absolutely blinding torrential downpour. Even tho we had on our bright yellow raincoat ponchos, by the time we got to the ticketing booth from the parking lot (about 3 minutes), we were all soaked to the skin. So we all crawled into Epcot like wet rags, along with all the other gazillion drenched tourists who were there. The good thing is that the temperature was a balmy 85 degrees, so even tho we were all wet, it was not cold and uncomfortable.

Epcot is spread out over a pretty large area and despite it being a weekday with Hurricane Alberto had lurking around, there were hundreds of tourists. Lots and lots of kids. So we really had to pick and choose what we wanted to see and were willing to wait in line for. Again, i thought the admission price was shockingly expensive - $65 for an adult day pass! That's about $200 for a family of 4, not to mention the food, shopping, gifts etc! The first attraction was the AT&T exhibit in the Spaceship Earth Pavilion, about communication over the ages. Fabulous! You sit in a tram - 4 to a tramcar - and are taken 140 feet all the way to the top of the dome, and all along the way there are stages and props explaining the evolution of communication over time. Not unlike Treasure Island in Disneyland.

From there we moved onto the Exxon exhibit which explained the concept of energy. Most of these are geared towards educating kids, but its fascinating for us adults too. Then after a quick - well, maybe not so quick - lunch break at Living with the Land pavilion - we headed to the "Honey, i shrunk the audience" show. This was by far the best show. You sit in a theater and wear 3D glasses, and they show you a movie similar to "Honey, I shrunk the kids", only in this you feel like you're in the movie and part of the experiment. There was this one scene in which the inventor dad creates this machine that can duplicate anything, and his son accidentally uses it to create another pet mouse, only something goes horribly wrong and he cannot get it to stop. So he recreates hundreds of mice...so they show all these mice scurrying around on the screen, then the lights go off and a voice says "Now, where did all the mice go" and then suddenly as you're sitting in the audience you fell mice running around amidst your feet....FREAKY!!!!!! Then their dog sneezes and the audience feels the spray on their faces....!!!

Our next adventure was on the Test Track. This is sponsored by GM and you get to sit in a car - 6 to a car - and they test the car like they do for real in the GM motor factory. The car goes through loops and spins at 65 miles an hour, including a sideways track, breaking sharply and suddenly at corners, thru different temps. from hot to freezing cold and at one point, looks like its going to crash thru a barrier and then at the last minute, the barrier lifts. At least thats what Raga told me....i was so petrified at this whole thing, i pretty much had my eyes closed...! Quick side note - R's cousin Mani, who we are staying with, worked at GM in Michigan for years, and even tho the lines for this were huge, we got on thru a special backdoor entrance in 5 minutes! Unfair i know, but cool!

Next, we took the ferry across the water and visited World Showcase. These are basically small cities recreated to look like the real thing - for example, France has an Eiffel tower, a creperie and a pattiserie exactly like you would find in France, Japan has pagodas, Morocco has minarets, etc....you really feel like you're in the city and all the people working are from that particular nationality. We ended with Mexico....by then it was 8.30pm and we had walked a thousand miles and were exhausted. Fortunately the restaurant Cantina, was alongside the lake where the 9pm fireworks were to be held.....so we watched a spectacular show eating burritos and salsa and chips. For families with kids, I wonder how much they really get to see after paying $65 for each ticket. Summer is not even here and still some shows had wait times of 70 minutes...i cannot imagine what this place must be like in the height of tourist season.

We left Epcot at 10pm...as we were leaving we asked one of the park attendants what EPCOT stood for and he said "Every Person Comes Out Tired"...but really it is "Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow".....! The attendant's answer is more accurate! We literally came home and tumbled into bed! Raga and Mani stayed up late to watch the Miami/Dallas basketball game - Miami won with one second to spare!

More pics at Epcot