Epcot

Visited: September 12, 2023

Attending: Brian, Steven

Our Epcot strategy went pretty well, and we got through the gates at almost 2:00 precisely, just in time for us to grab a boarding group for Guardians. The boarding group system, while efficient, doesn’t give you any sense of what time you’ll actually get to ride, a problem that came back to bite me the next day. So while we knew that it would be a while, we didn’t know if that was two hours or four or what. Which put us in the position of having to kill time, but in small increments.

Lunch

We stopped at the Connections Eatery for lunch. Definitely not the fanciest place in Epcot, but centrally located, and doesn’t require venturing onto the concrete desert that is World Showcase. In fact, we avoided World Showcase altogether. The food wasn’t anything special, but it was indoors with seating, which was appreciated.

Living with the Land

Continuing our theme of “indoors with seating,” we went over to the Land pavilion for the Living with the Land ride, which we suspected (accurately) wouldn’t have a line. It’s an educational throwback to the earliest days of Epcot, although it’s been updated a few times. It’s basically a boat ride through various agricultural experiments. Interesting, to be sure, but not scintillating.

Soarin’

Soarin’ was actually the primary reason we came to the Land pavilion. It’s a “flying theater,” a copy of the one in California. We went because we thought it might be showing the original “Soarin’ Over California” film that’s only around for special occasions. However, we were a couple of weeks too early for that, so instead we got “Soarin’ Around the World,” which is perfectly nice. It reminded me of a few global locations where I’ve been recently, and several more I’d like to go do. We rode from the third row, which is the lowest once the ride starts, and while it wasn’t bad, I’d prefer to do it from the center row sometime.

Test Track

At this point, it became clear that we would have an extended wait for Guardians, so Steven revised some of his evening plans, and we went to Test Track. Back in 2011, I’d waited in the queue with the rest of my family, and then stepped out with Alex before the ride itself. I didn’t recognize anything from my previous trip, so I suspect it’s been heavily revised. The “design your own car” portion was similar to the “Sum of All Thrills” ride, which is now gone, but I think Steven and I would have appreciated, as enthusiasts.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Finally, our boarding group was summoned, and we got in line for Guardians. Because of the way the virtual queue operates – or maybe just the way it was operating that day – we got to cruise right through most of the queue, which means I missed the bit where Peter Quill enthuses about Epcot. However, everybody gets stopped and bunched together for the pre-show, which includes a trick where all the riders are “teleported” to a Xandarian ship in orbit. Even though I had a pretty good idea how it would be done even before I saw the effect, I found it impressive and well-executed. The ride vehicles are also very cool, and Steven recommended waiting for the front row, which took only a bit of extra time.

The ride itself is heavily story-driven, which I won’t spoil. However, the trains are designed to sync up with the story. The cars can each rotate in position, not unlike Time Traveler, but the rotation is guided, not random. As a result, the front car becomes the rear one just before the initial launch, which is a very cool sensation. The ride itself isn’t too intense, and reminded me a lot of Laff Trakk, with the indoor setting, bright show elements, and spinning cars. They seemed to specialize in rotating the cars to face either the inside or outside of a banked turn, which I’ve learned is one of my favorite features of these spinners. The length also seemed quite good, although I always prefer a ride to be longer. And of course, there’s the music. For our run, the track was “I Ran (So Far Away)” by A Flock of Seagulls, which is one of my favorite 80s-era hits, so I was well satisfied, both with the song in general, and how well it fit the ride. I’d love to do it again, but with the demand, I don’t think that’s going to happen any time soon.

It was now getting fairly late, so Steven took his leave to take care of his personal life. I thought I might wander around Epcot a little more, perhaps eat there, but as I started wandering, I could see one of Florida’s brief evening thunderstorms rolling in, so I decided to return to my car before that happened. Good thing too, because I was plenty tired by the time I got back to my hotel.