Day 2: Around the World in 13 Hours

 Day 2 of our exciting Disney Adventure, as recorded by Drew Furgeson!

We started our day off bright and early getting on the first bus to the EPCOT Center at 7:30 AM to take advantage of early entry.

Our first task of the day; ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Thanks to our early entry, the wait times weren't terrible. Afterwards, we took a group picture then set out to do our assignment for the day; examining how EPCOT handles its position as both Theme Park and Global Showcase.

 

(I'm the one in the purple shirt! More on that later)

 

EPCOT, in its park incarnation, was proposed to be a permanent World's Fair, showcasing technologies of the future and global cultures. Our assignment for today was primarily focused on the many pavilions that make up the world's showcase, and how they educate others about other countries. A large part of this was interviewing cast members, as the cast members at EPCOT's world showcase pavilions are all from the countries the pavilions represent. Trying to stay ahead of the crowds, we decided to stay together and head to our first stop for the project: Frozen Ever After in the Norway Pavilion.

 

Frozen Ever After is flume-style dark ride that takes guests on a magical (and musical) journey through various scenes that continue the story of the popular Disney movie Frozen. It is very popular among younger park guests due to its theming, often accruing wait times of over 50 minutes. Is it fun? Yeah. Is it educational? Absolutely not.

The Norway Pavilion was once home to a different attraction called Maelstrom, which was later re-themed to Frozen due to low attendance. According to a cast member we talked with at the pavilion, Maelstrom had a much more authentic approach to Nordic culture, drawing on both history and myth to provide an educational (but still thrilling) experience for guests.

Nevertheless, we got our ride photos (Thank you Jenny!) and continued on to the next stop; China!

 

 

 China was much less crowded than Norway, especially this early in the day. This was likely due to the fact that China does not have an attraction like Norway, France, or Mexico. Instead, like many other pavilions, it has a walk-through museum and a short film meant to pique guests interest. The film itself was very dated and, according to a cast member, had not been updated in 26 years! The museum was also lacking, as it was primarily dedicated to showcasing Shanghai Disneyland, rather than Chinese cultural artifacts. It's a shame that Disney has been neglecting their less popular pavilions, but hopefully in the near future they will receive their much-needed updates.

After China, we traveled on to Germany, to talk with the cast members there. While in Germany, some of the group decided to partake in a cultural experience and try German Chocolate Liquor. When talking to the cast members at Germany, they said that the pavilion was very accurate to German culture, but they wished that there was more emphasis placed on Germany's robust public transportation system and technology. I couldn't agree more.

As our final stop as a group, we went to the America Pavilion to watch the animatronic show The American Adventure. The thirty minute show was a very sanitized showcase of American history from the founding fathers to the 1940s. While the animatronics and special effects were very impressive, the show was very patriotic and often brushed over more complicated elements of America's past.

After our American experience, the group split up and decided to travel to different attractions throughout the park and to try different foods. A lot of this time was spent heading back up to the front of the park towards Future World. Technically, the front half of the park goes by a few different names now, but it's just so much easier to call it all Future World. This is where we come back to the shirt.

EPCOT was, as mentioned before, meant to be a showcase of the world and new technologies. An "Edutainment" park, if you will. However, in recent years, Disney has decided that educational experiences do not sell as well as attractions based off of their intellectual properties (movies, television shows, established brand mascots, etc). Many of EPCOT's original attractions have been either slowly eroding over time, or have been replaced by IP (intellectual property) based attractions. Thankfully, several still stand, like Living with the Land and Test Track (originally World of Motion). It's up to all of us to preserve the legacy of "weird" attractions past and support EPCOT's "weirder" modern attractions.

We ended the day off by watching the fireworks show, Luminous the Symphony of Us. The show featured stunning fireworks, light displays, and beautiful music. It was a relaxing way to end the night. After such a long day, we all loaded up into the buses to head off to All Star Sports and get settled in for the night.

 

 Now to rest up for the night so that I can bother everyone with trivia tomorrow.

Signing off, Drew. 

PS - to Brad back at home - we miss you!! Wishing you a speedy recovery!!