Epcot: International Food & Wine Festival
Today we woke up and we knew this was going to be a full day of Disney. After a quick breakfast at the hotel we left for Epcot. As soon as we arrived at Epcot the first thing we needed to do was getting our tickets to enter the parks. Sander got his premium annual pass and Danielle upgraded her 21-ultimate-ticket also towards a premium annual pass. After getting the passes we headed for the photo services to get our PhotoPass+. And after that our day at Epcot could finally begin.
The first thing we did in Epcot was visiting Base21, the Siemens VIP Center in the attraction Spaceship Earth which is sponsored by Siemens. The lady at the reception desk still recognized us after we visited Base21 during our previous visits. We looked a bit around and drank something before we entered Spaceship Earth through the VIP entrance.
Unfortunately Testtrack was down due to technical problems so we decided to go to The Land. We passed the Character Spot and visited Mickey, Goofy and Minnie here. After that we got Fastpasses for Soarin’ and did the attraction Living with the Land. We walked to the other side of Future World and did the orange (more-intense-version) of Mission Space and our mission to Mars was again successful.
At the time-schedule we saw that Duffy had a meet ‘n greet at the entrance of a World Showcase so we decided to pay him a visit and we got some nice pictures together with him in his Halloween costume. He looked very cute. After visiting the Duffy shop we started walking around at World Showcase.
Always during this time of the year there is the International Food & Wine a Festival in Epcot. A lot of countries from all over the world are in Epcot to let the guests taste some of the countries typical food. Sander started in Argentina with some steak and Danielle got noodles and shrimp in a China. We walked further through World Showcase and got ourselves sushi at Japan and Hoegaarden white beer in Belgium. Meanwhile we got some photos with our Photopass+ taken, there were a lot of characters in the park today.
As we completed our round through World Showcase we went back to Future World where Testtrack was still down so we visited The Seas with Nemo and friends. Then Testtrack was finally working again so we got a Fastpass and entered the single riders line. In 5 minutes we designed our own car and were on the track. We did the single riders line two times and after that it was time to get some food so we went back to The Land and ate at Sunshine Seasons. At 17:30 our Fastpasses for Testtrack were valid and after that we walked directly to Soarin’ with our other Fastpasses. Soarin’ is great and always will be great.
We walked back to World Showcase for the American Adventure and soon after that we found ourselves some nice spots for Illuminations: Reflections of Earth at the German Pavilion. We waited for almost an hour, but this show is so worth it. We enjoyed the show and Sander made some beautiful pictures.
After the show the park closed and we walked to the exit and drove to the nearest Wall-mart to buy some stuff for in our Suite. We got our groceries, saw how somebody was arrested and Sander was asked for his ID for the 2nd time today, I guess he looks very young…
Now we are back at our hotel and writing the blog.
Driving to Greater Orlando…
The time went by quickly and before we knew it, it was already 4 o’clock and we decided to hit the road and eat something on the way to Orlando. We hit rush-hour on the highway around Miami but as soon as we drove on the Florida Turnpike it was not so busy anymore and we could drive closer to the happiest place on earth without any delays.
With 1,5 hours of driving to go we got something to eat at a so-called Service Plaza. We ordered sandwiches at Earl of Sandwich and got a full tank of gas for the last 80 Miles to Orlando. We got 19,07 gallon (72,6 liter) of Shell V-Power (Octane 93) for 3,809$/gallon (1,01$/liter). This is compared to gas in Europe a lot cheaper because it equals 0,74€/liter where as the regular gas in Germany costs 1,51€/liter. In addition we’ve also checked the gas mileage of our car which is 18,8 Miles/Gallon which compares to 8 Kilometer/Liter.