Epcot, Walt Disney’s futuristic world of peace and happiness, stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow and incorporates laboratories and museums in a theme-park style. Epcot is environmentally advanced with it’ organic gardens, solar energy fuelling most of the park and rainwater lagoons and ponds filled with rainwater. Adults and children will enjoy Epcot as it is a place that suggests and explains but always entertains.
Epcot is divided into two worlds: Future World and World Showcase.
 FUTURE WORLD
With its pod-shaped plants, angled walkways and umbrellas resembling spaceships, Future World’s forecasts are comprehensive and believable. It delves into subjects of travel, transportation, communication, biology, agriculture, sea life, energy and the human imagination. Guests can interact with the exhibits, experience internet zones and visit the home of the future.
Spaceship Earth: The “big silver golf ball” is Epcot’s chief symbol. It is visible from an aeroplane on either Florida coast and is called “the world’s biggest geodesic sphere” by engineers. The ride is a journey tracing history of human communication. Parents enjoy the fabulous special effects and all the colour, movement and music captivate children. Being a popular ride, the lines can often be long. You can avoid this by riding between 8:30-9:00am or after 7:00pm.
Mission Space: Trip to Mars: Epcot’s newest attraction. Given the thumbs up by NASA astronauts, the ride consists of four-man pods, where each person is given a job (navigator, pilot, engineer and commander). The pods are “launched” into space and gives a realistic trip to Mars experience. The adults especially love it.
Wonders of Life: Is the ultimate playground for kids. It is a fun and informative fitness playground with gadgets and games that whiz, whirl, bleep and blink.
There are also three attractions offered:
The Body Wars: Provides a bumpy ride through the human body (children under 3 and expectant mothers are not allowed in the ride)
Cranium Command: enlists the audience to help “pilot” the brain of an adolescent boy.
Test Track: where you are dummies used to test cars before they hit the road.
WORLD SHOWCASE
A far cry from Future World, World Showcase is a magnificent blend of ancient pyramids, painted pagodas and even the Eiffel Tower. Eleven pavilions celebrate the architecture and customs from different cultures throughout history and was designed “so that no one country would stand above others”.
World Showcase is a place for exploring and listening or simply sitting on a bench and taking in the surroundings. Definite attractions in World Showcase are the different street performers from each of the eleven countries.
There are two tours offered at World Showcase for an additional coat of $US49. The Hidden Treasures of World Showcase gives details on each pavilion and its intricacies and Gardens of the World delves into the variety of flora across World Showcase.
Following are the eleven pavilions located clockwise around the promenade:
MEXICO: offers and authentic marketplace full of sombreros, papier-mache, flowers and pottery. Its featured attraction is El Rio del Tiempo: The River of Time, which takes you on a boat ride through Mexican history.
NORWAY: is a rugged, complex and stunning pavilion featuring the Maelstrom, a voyage through time from a 10th Century Viking village.
CHINA: is a visual feast woven with symbols of life, death, virtue and the environment. Reflections of China is a Circle-Vision 360 film, which takes the audience to 7 cities in past and present China. (Parents please note that there are no seats in the theatre and strollers are also not allowed. Children must be held up in order to see the film.)
GERMANY: does not have any formal attractions but there is plenty to see with gingerbread houses, turrets and wooden balconies, beer gardens and blond men yodelling in the streets.
ITALY: is a place of romance and beauty reminiscent of a Mediterranean vista, with gondolas, Byzantine mosaics and a replica of Venice’s Doge’s Palace.
USA: with its magnolias trees and red whit and blue panorama, the USA pavilion isn’t hard to miss. It features The American Adventure, which showcases important moments in US history.
JAPAN: features five-story pagodas which each of its levels representing the five different elements (earth, water, fire, wind and sky) and spectacular gardens. There are also displays of delicate Japanese art and a replica of the 18th Century Shirasago-Jo feudal castle.
MOROCCO: most of the pavilion is a gift from the Kingdom of Morocco, where Moroccan artisans spent months recreating intricate and colourful tile masterpieces.
FRANCE: is set at the turn of the 20th Century, when architecture took on a delicate and romantic flavour. It features Impressions de France, which takes you on a tour through the cities and countryside of France.
UNITED KINGDOM: though it has no main attraction, there is plenty to explore, from the cobble streets lined with shops, the Queen Anne room and various flower gardens.
CANADA: has bagpipe band to entertain the family and features a Circle Vision 360 film title O Canada! which takes you through some of Canada’s most picturesque regions.
WHERE TO EAT
The restaurants of World Showcase offer authentic cuisine from around the globe, from traditional Italian at L'Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante in the Italy showcase to chicken couscous in Morocco's Restaurant Marrakesh. Guests can make priority-seating reservations for nearly two dozen restaurants through Epcot Guest Relations or at the individual restaurants.
In Future World, restaurants feature regional American favorites from gourmet pizza to fresh seafood. All Epcot restaurants have children's value meals and can accommodate special dietary needs with advance notice.
USEFUL INFORMATION
· You can get to Epcot by the Epcot monorail from the Ticket and Transportation Centre. Most hotels not situated in Disney World provide shuttle buses. These, however are run on the hour every two or three hours so it will be better to drive.
· If you have a car, take Route 4, look for Walt Disney World exits and take the Epcot exit. Parking is free for guests of Disney World Hotels and there are trams to take you to the main entrance.
· There are lots of parking spaces at Epcot but you should get there early to avoid hours of standing in line.
· Spaceship Earth, Guest Relations and surrounding areas open 30 mins to 1 hour before the rest of Future World. This is a good opportunity to for World Showcase restaurant reservations, picking up maps and strollers and riding Spaceship Earth.
· Stroller and wheelchair rentals are located at the eastside of Spaceship Earth and at the International Gateway in World Showcase.
· Baby services are located in the Odyssey complex in Future World. Baby Services include most of you baby needs.
· Lost children are to be reported at Guest relations or Baby Services.
· Lost and Found is located on the west side of the Entrance Plaza.
· Package pickup, locate west of the Entrance Plaza, is a free service where you can tell Epcot store clerks to forward your purchases to Parcel Pickup. However, there are lengthy lines between 5:00-6:00pm so it is ideal to pick up your purchases out of these times.
· It is ideal to get a FASTPASS in order to avoid waiting in lines. The FASTPASS enables you to insert their ticket into the machine and be given a time to come back for the ride. In the mean time, you can go on other rides. When it is time, you got directly to the FASTPASS entrance and proceed unto the ride with little or no waiting time.
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