A few weeks ago, I wrote about the first half of my trip to EPCOT in Disney World. Since I just completed the second half of that trip this past weekend, it’s time to recount that experience as well as reflect on the entire trip as a whole. Let’s explore it together.
The first day started off well enough, largely thanks to all the packing and preparation I did the night before to make the departure smoother. I arrived at EPCOT around the same time as I did on the first half of the trip at the start of May. After meeting Daisy Duck, I then met up with an online friend whom I’d known for many years. We had a leisurely visit while walking around some of the park and took a photo together before I left to have lunch in Japan.
After that delicious lunch, I had a great time listening to the drummers of Matsuriza before taking a lovely walk around the Japanese rivers. Following that, I had some delicious Moroccan pastries for dessert. I then had lots of fun watching Sergio with his incredible juggling in Italy and even got to throw him a miniature soccer ball that he caught in a ladle. What I thought was Impressions de France turned out to be the Beauty and the Beast sing-along. That wasn’t an issue as both were on my list. The awesome rock band Command Performance was up next. They played a number of great songs including “Here Comes the Sun,” which is my favorite Beatles song. After that, I finally got to ride the newest version of Test Track. It was an amazing ride, my second favorite of the three versions I’ve ridden since the attraction first debuted, and the single rider line saved me a lot of time. I had a pleasant, goofy conversation about beards and unicycling with some folks in the gift shop before getting in line for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
Unfortunately, this is where my day took a hugely negative turn. The posted wait time for the ride was eighty-five minutes. From the time I got in line, it took me over two hours just to be within sight of the ride loading area, and even then, I feared that I wouldn’t get to ride that night. At one point, cast members turned off the sound and turned up some lights. After so many delays, it seemed like the ride would be shut down until morning just before I crossed the finish line and with hardly any time to do anything else before the park closed for the day. Fortunately, the ride did finally resume running after another fifteen or so minutes, and I got to ride it after all. I’m glad of that because it was amazing! I’d never ridden a coaster that could turn and move the way this one did, and hearing “September” as we blasted around the track reminded me of when “Sweet Emotion” played while I rode Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster many years earlier. With that ride out of my system and with no plans to wait that long in line for anything at Disney World ever again, I took off for something to cheer me up. Just as I did last year at the Magic Kingdom, I headed toward some character greetings. Meeting Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse and getting some wonderfully long bear hugs from all of them helped me feel so much better. Minnie was so sweet with my Huckle Cat plush. A warm shower and some good sleep at my friend’s house further improved my mood and made for a good start to my final day at EPCOT.
I’m glad to say that that final day was mostly wonderful. The only disappointment was not getting to meet Mary Poppins, the Mad Hatter, or Alice as it seems that none of them were meeting that day. I hope to meet them on a future trip. Despite that early disappointment, I still had a lovely day. The first part of it was dedicated to seeing live entertainment and a few character greetings around the World Showcase. My first stop was getting some lovely pressed pennies featuring characters from Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh. I then had some lovely visits with Snow White and Belle, and one of my friends loved the personalized video message from Belle. Kelly at the Rose & Crown played beautifully and finished his set with my favorite Muppet song, “Rainbow Connection,” which made me tear up. Little Ian, my Plushie Dreadful fawn, enjoyed that whole performance. I felt delighted to learn that Mariachi Cobre still plays Tuesdays through Saturdays! They had a beautiful set, especially when they said goodbye to a fellow cast member by playing him “Remember Me.”
At that point, I had enough time to ride the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and back to see the flowers and topiaries from a bird’s eye view. That was one of the highlights of my day. Shortly thereafter, I enjoyed exploring the butterfly garden, seeing so many beautiful butterflies and flowers in there, and appreciating its message about mindfulness. Dinner came from the African Outpost and dessert followed a few hours later from Norway. Once I saw Impressions de France, I got to break in my new autograph book with signatures from Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy as my last big EPCOT adventure. They all loved Little Ian, as did two cast members at that location who talked about their own Plushie Dreadfuls as well! Little Ian loved seeing most of the World Showcase, Impressions de France, Bambi and friends topiaries, and the characters we met that night. A lovely call with one of my best friends on the drive home brought the best trip I’ve had in ages in for a smooth landing.
It was lovely seeing the International Flower and Garden Festival on both halves of my trip. This half was even better because of the butterfly garden and seeing so many of the flowers, topiaries, and much of EPCOT itself from the monorail up above the park. I’m so glad I decided to do that and also had enough time to enjoy it. I’m also glad that it only rained on one of the four days I spent in EPCOT. That was a wonderful change of pace after experiencing some rain on every single one of the five days I was in Disney World last year. I hope my future visits also have clear weather.
Each of my solo Disney trips has taught me a little more about how the parks work, navigating everything, planning, packing, prioritizing, and time management. This trip taught me that not all characters are available to meet every day. While Alice and the Mad Hatter were both there on at least my first day in EPCOT, they weren’t there on my final day. If I’d known that at the start of my trip, I’d have made sure to meet them early on. In addition to some disappointment after learning from a cast member that Alice wasn’t meeting on my last day, I also learned more from that experience about how to use the My Disney Experience App to find out details about characters, live entertainment, food, and more. I intend to schedule my future Disney trips at least in part around when the characters whom I want to meet will be available so that I don’t have to face this disappointment again.
Even now, several days after getting back from EPCOT and just over halfway through my workweek, I still feel amazing. That trip was overall wonderful, especially the final day that gave me so much time to explore the park at my own leisurely pace and enjoy more of the live entertainment than I have on any single previous day. I wish my dog Sawyer were there to greet me when I returned home. It’s still hard to come home from a big trip without his warm welcome. The fact that the pain is still getting smaller and lighter as I go through different seasons and adventures in life lets me know that I’m doing something right on my healing journey, particularly with regard to bigger trips like this one. Additionally, I’m not aware of any EPCOT rides or shows that I love being closed down forever, so I only felt a bit of sadness at the end of this trip. I look forward to going back to EPCOT someday and hope that everything I’ve learned so far will make for an even better trip than this one. For now, this trip was lovely enough to have me feeling good for quite some time.