Epcot is one of the original Disney parks along with Magic Kingdom but isn’t a fully-fledged rollercoaster park, and instead focuses on discovery and knowledge. We began our day by riding on Journey into Space, a space travel simulator which offers two options, a gentler “green” experience for those who prefer not to be spun around too much in confined spaces and the fully loaded “orange” version which threatens to leave you feeling extra crispy as you exit the ride. We rode the green queue first and Charlotte and I sat in the family area while the others queued for the orange (fully loaded) experience which worked out well as the capsules only hold a team of four. The green line travelled in an orbit around the Earth, and the orange simulated a journey to Mars. 

As Epcot is centred around a lake with no bridges, so we decided to ride each attraction in turn as we encountered it whilst walking around the lake, rather than spending ages walking back on ourselves. The next ride we stumbled across was the Chevy Test Track. For those who’ve never been to Epcot, the aim of the game is to design a car and balance the power, aerodynamics, efficiency and speed using a touchscreen virtual studio. The designer is guided by the software to draw the shape of the roofline, add power and then fine-tune until you’re happy, but you need to be quick as the whole process is time-boxed to three minutes. Moving to the next section you’re offered different paint colours, decals and accessories e.g. rest spoiler and alloys. Dan was in his element whereas Tim and Sophie were slightly less concerned but their competitive need to achieve the best car at the end of the process was clear.  After we’d ridden the test track where the computer puts each configuration through its paces over different terrain, a winner emerged by literally 1 point!   And the winner, to Dan’s disgust was…. Tim. Dan came in second and Sophie last, which for Dan was little conciliation.

Wanting to ride Guardians of the Galaxy, we arrived at the entrance to discover the queue was virtual and we needed to book tickets.  While we were waiting to be notified it was time to return to the ride, we walked around the lake, visiting a host of countries from around the world. For example, there’s a huge section themed to look like Canada. And dotted around the park was a festival of flowers and gardens which was related to the country we were walking through. 

Aside from the wonderful topiaries, the planting was bold and colourful. A few highlights would be the lovely orchids, Amarilis and gorgeous canna. I also spotted a ton of plants which we grow in our gardens.  Comment of the day from Charlotte was recounting a memory of her mum and auntie stopping to look at plants. Briefly renaming her to Maggie, (her aunties name) we enjoyed looking at the flowers and especially the topiary characters

Guardians of the Galaxy was amazing but we thought it was going to be based around a VR-style ride so Liz was very keen and I was a tad apprehensive due to my propensity for motion sickness. Unfortunately for her, it was more heavily a rollercoaster ride with a bit of spinning so you were facing the VR scene relevant to the section of track you were on. With its sudden backwards motion you really felt the strain on your neck )but not in a bad way). 

A surprise was waiting for all of us when we entered one of the stores and discovered it was a Christmas store!

Now I’ll return to the topiary and gardens, so if you’d rather not learn any more don’t worry you’ve already covered the highlights of our day.

Disney had thought long and hard about the gardens, how they’d be planted and what trinkets or other items would be for sale and would compliment the theme. E.g. in Morocco the theme was spice. The garden contained black pepper, mint, chillis and the items for sale contained the spices.

We saw a few unusual things in the gardens, which we’re not able to have outside in our English gardens – orchids and amaryllis.

Here’s a selection of Disney topiary. There were others but for the sake of brevity, I’ve picked some of the characters I think you’ll be able to identify more easily.

There were also a number of wonderful topiary which fitted into the regional/country themes like the dragon we spotted in the Japan exhibit, the geese we saw in the Canadian-themed gardens and the Pandas in the Chinese garden.

Due to the length of time it takes to grow a classic topiary from yew or maybe box plants, many of the above examples used a skeleton which formed the required shape and compact plants to provide the desired effect. But then we spotted Mickey Mouse and an elephant which had a sign beside them stating it had taken around ten years to grow.

And the final thing to share is the butterfly garden where we saw some beautiful butterflies. We’d already seen a couple outside the exhibit, so I guess there were many escapees since the only barrier to their freedom was a bead curtain – (you can see it in the doorway of the photo below behind the lady in pink).

That’s all folks!!
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Hi David and Doreen, I’m thrilled you’ve been reading and enjoying the daily updates and they’ve allowed you to get a feel for the adventures Sophie, Daniel and the rest of us have been having each day. I’ve only included a snapshot of each day and am sure Tim or Charlotte will be able to recount more stories and share a ton of other photos with you when they see you next. Our warmest wishes to you both.