[USA Trip] Day 02 in Orlando - Visiting Epcot

Good morning, it's my Day 2 in Orlando, Florida! The Pop Century Resort offered complimentary return-way shuttle buses as well as skyliner services, which are located within a short walking distance from the hotel to different theme parks at Walt Disney World (WDW). 

Prior to my trip to Orlando, Baby purchased the park tickets to both Epcot and Magic Kingdom online. We visited both parks on 2 separate days. 

On our first day, we took the Skyliner to Epcot!

Upon reaching the park, I was greeted by Daisy Duck, so we gave each other a hug before taking a random photo together! 

The Epcot was fantastic, and as a first-time visitor to Walt Disney World (WDW), I didn’t really know what to expect, other than what I had seen on the internet and stories from others that had been there before. I was anticipating really long lines, big crowds, and lots of people. I was wrong, it wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, to my absolute delight!

We only waited around 30mins for the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Ride, which is a dark roller coaster. It is a thrilling, high speed adventure through space with music. Amazingly, I was given the front row, yes, the first row… I’m happy to say that the attraction is the best in Epcot!

For the next ride, there were two versions for the Mission: SPACE attraction, and both were present in the same building. The Orange version is the standard version of the ride, which is an intense simulated trip to Mars. 

The Green version is a similar experience but with less intense motion and with a modified storyline where you travel around Earth. It is substantially less intense, as compared to the Orange version. 

The Flower and Garden Festival was spectacular! The exhibits were scattered all around Epcot. As we were strolling around the park, we got to appreciate all the hard work and effort that the artists put into this amazing festival. 

We waited for 50mins in line for the Frozen Ever After boat ride attraction. It was one of the most popular rides at Epcot. It is a beautiful dark ride, but the ride can be a bit scary for very young children. There are some twists in there on which I don’t want to give spoilers!

At Epcot, there are other attractions, as well, such as the Moana-themed 'Journey of Water', at the World Nature section. It is a walkthrough water-filled attraction which seemed very popular with the kids, especially in view of the Orlando heat!

The Spaceship Earth is a dark ride, and the ride itself is within the icon of Epcot Theme Park, the giant white geodesic sphere.

The Gran Fiesta Tour is a boat ride inside the Mexico Pavilion of Epcot's World Showcase, featuring the three Carabellos, Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and Panchito!

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is a trackless dark ride using a combination of 3D screens. It’s a fun ride, and we went in via the single rider line to shorten our wait times. Amazingly we only waited for 5mins for the ride. Oh yes, we sat separately. 

There are lots of rides at Epcot that are considered as iconic, but they’re not the sorts that are obviously great. Nor do most of them feature popular characters from kid’s favorite Disney films. However we still enjoyed the Gran Fiesta Tour and Living with the Land, while I expect some park-goers might feel like these rides aren’t the best use of their time.

We pretty much made it to everything in Epcot including some attractions, except for 'Soarin', the Test Track and The Seas with Nemo & Friends, as they were closed for maintenance. We did manage to take the six-minute dark ride at Journey into Imagination with Figment the dragon. 

Epcot is known for being one of the best Disney World parks when it comes to dining. Unlike other parks, Epcot is full of great quick service and table service restaurants. Baby made an advance reservation for our lunch at the Garden Grill Restaurant. At the restaurant, one can enjoy an all-you-can-eat Disney character meal. We met up with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale!

Garden Grill is a verrrrry slow rotating restaurant that sits right above Living with the Land, the relaxing boat ride in the pavilion. It is not a rotation that will make you feel queasy or motion sick — it’s extremely slow, so slow that you won't even notice it until you look up and realize you’re looking at a different spot.

As stated previously, the menu offered an all-you-care-to-enjoy meal that almost reflects 'Thanksgiving Dinner', in a way! This means that you can ask for seconds or thirds of whatever you’d like for no additional charge. A point of interest to note that all ingredients were from the organic farm shown at the Living with the Land ride!

The first course that was brought out to us was the Corn Bread, Garden Salad, and Celery & Carrots with Ranch. All the vegetables were super fresh and of a high quality. We especially loved the Garden Salad as we enjoyed the dressing very much. The Corn Bread was perfect and it was served on a little skillet to make it extra warm!

As for our main course, it arrived in a big family-style skillet, and you could ask for more helpings of whatever you wanted! The turkey meat and gravy all tasted pretty decent. I really loved the mashed potatoes though! They were so buttery and so smooth. The seasonal vegetables were also perfectly cooked.  

Baby liked the Mac and Cheese! It was super creamy and super cheesy, and it had Goldfish Crackers sprinkled on top which enhanced the crunch element to this dish!

The dessert was hearty and delicious!

Now we come to the part of Nosh or Not… 

Based on my own personal opinion... Do head down to Garden Grill if you’re looking for a fun character meal or if you are a fan of Thanksgiving food. It is also a perfect dining place for kids or any Disney lovers. Alternatively, do give it a miss if you’re looking for something new and exciting. The food served at the restaurant was very basic and mostly simple comfort food.

Overall, it is a welcoming meal for almost anyone in Disney World! 

Before we ended our night at Epcot, we watched the Luminous: The Symphony of Us! 'Beautiful' is the only word to describe the fireworks show. We left the park right before the fireworks ended to beat the crowd. We took the skyliner back to our resort.

Thanks for reading my experience in Epcot, and do stay tuned for the next post on my Magic Kingdom experiences in Walt Disney World!