DAY 5: AN EVENING OF EATING AND DRINKING AROUND THE WORLD 🌎- WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP SEPTEMBER 2022

ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*

Hey there, pals!

First off, Happy Halloween week! The spooky festivities are well under way at work, but that doesn't stop me from releasing a new post for my blog. No, this post isn't about Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party; BUT, that post will be coming up shortly, so you'll have to stick around and follow my social media (@onceuponhannahsdream on Facebook and Instagram) to find out when that post is published! And I promise, it's a great post... I can feel it in my bones 😂

Enough of the Halloween puns, I cannot believe my sister and I are now half way through our Florida trip! The whole trip has gone soooo quick and I don't want it to end!!! For Day 5, all of our action takes place in the evening as we explore Epcot, all its changes since our last trip and celebrate the International Food and Wine Festival 2022!

Those of you who know me personally can vouch for how much of a keen swimmer I am! It's literally my favourite form of exercise and nothing beats getting into a cool pool on a hot summer's day. So, this morning, I decided to take a dip in the hotel's pool and try to make a 30min exercise session out of it.

Image Credit: TripAdvisor

I knew I was going to struggle with the pool being so small, but there were sooo many people taking up all the wall space that it kind of became an obstacle course just to get around! I gave up after 20mins having not swam that far in distance and just soaked up the sun until I could feel my skin burning (I hadn't put any sunscreen on at this point!).

Once I was showered and ready to go, my sister and I got in an Uber to Epcot. We took a huge detour around the Convention Center on International Drive that my sister, the driver and I were all super confused! However, we made it and our driver gave us super clear instructions for how to be picked up at the end of the night! Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard, so we had a feeling we weren't going to get Test Track this visit. Nevertheless, we were going to have loads of fun regardless of the weather.

Our visit to Epcot had to start with a ride on an absolute classic opening day attraction: Spaceship Earth. Like so many others, it's our tradition to take a ride inside the giant golf ball about how time has evolved and the exciting possibilities we have to look forward to in the future. If you haven't done Spaceship Earth before, it's a MUST DO! But if you're reading this as a Disney parks fan, then I'm sure you've already been on this ride already!

One of my favourite parts about the ride is the interactive questions to shape your own future when you're going down backwards in the final part of the ride. I let my sister answer the questions and it made the video hilarious to watch, together with our pictures from the very beginning of the ride! I made a 'monkey' facial expression, while my sister pretended she was under the sea. My facial expression picture came out super clear on the video, but sister looked like she was holding her nose like something stank!

Next up was a visit to another galaxy... No, I do not mean Star Wars before you ask. It's Guardians of the Galaxy. If you have been consistently reading the last few posts from this 2022 trip series, you would know that I mentioned my sister suffering from motion sickness. Even though Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind was a brand new indoor rollercoaster that neither of us had done before, my sister and I didn't want to risk her becoming really poorly and then not be able to enjoy the rest of the trip. So, we gave the ride a miss. But, it is definitely one that I would like to experience in the future! It turns out that we did make the right decision because one of my friends also suffers from motion sickness and she didn't cope too well after riding it!

But our visit to the galaxy wasn't unproductive or a waste. There was a superb Photopass opportunity that my sister and I couldn't turn down, especially as my Mum had told us: "Get as many Photopass pictures as you can!". As well as the Magic Kingdom Main Street pictures from our first day, I think these photos are some of my favourites!

Our next stop going clockwise (it seems) around Epcot was Test Track, which is a popular ride in our household! However, the ride was down for inclement weather and it never came back up during our evening. So, it meant we had to rearrange our plans to make sure we tick off that ride this trip!

Still going around clockwise was World Showcase and we started in the Mexico pavilion with a ride on the Three Caballeros Grand Fiesta Tour - an easily missed attraction, as many don't know that the main part of the pavilion is in the pyramid on the left hand side! There's a lot to look at when you're on the ride and the tune at the end is very very catchy - maybe even more than It's a Small World!

My sister and I actually hung around in the Mexico pavilion a lot more than we thought we would because it started absolutely hammering it down with rain ⛈️

The finale scene is one I treasure dearly. Picture credit: Andrew Long from Flickr

Once the rain had calmed down to a drizzle, my sister and I legged it over to Norway to ride Frozen Ever After

(a personal favourite of my sister's). So far, we had been incredibly fortunate that queue times were pretty much to an absolute minimum. This continued as Frozen Ever After was posted at 75mins and we actually waited 25mins. We did have a frustration where there were a group of us queueing outside under the umbrellas and a family of 12 used the Lightning Lane to push past, in order to get their group under cover from the rain. My sister and I hadn't had any bad experience with waiting in the regular lines until this point! It may have caused frustration at the time, but we all got on the ride and we certainly didn't let it dampen our spirits.

After a stroll through China, Germany, Italy, Morocco and Japan, it was time for a brand new ride in the France pavilion for both my sister and I! It was quite possibly my sister's most anticipated ride in the whole of Walt Disney World as it comes from her all time favourite movie. We were ready to walk behind the France pavilion to ride:

I had seen absolutely nothing about this attraction, so I had no idea what to expect. The posted wait time was 75mins and I'd say we waited around that time. My goodness, the level of detail in the theming was exquisite that the time spent in the queue went rather quick! I was just observing everything that was all around me whilst in the queue line.

Even the wallpaper had patterns shaping the Eiffel Tower! Picture Credit: micechat.com

The ride itself was so cleverly done and I had no idea of the magic behind it, so kudos to Disney for creating a fully immersive experience (even if you can see a green warehouse from the Disney Skyliner 🥴). Overall, the ride itself was okay; I wouldn't do more than once in a trip. On the other hand, my sister absolutely LOVED IT! I think we'd both agree in saying that Remy's Ratatouille Adventure is now her new favourite ride in the whole of Walt Disney World.

We then took a bit of a break from riding rides by exploring the UK pavilion and its stores, so I could show my sister what treats they had that we could easily find in a supermarket at home. It was so nice to actually see that the stores had UK cast members earning their ears and that makes me so excited for anyone aspiring to do the program, as everything slowly (but surely) returns to normality.

Whilst walking past the Canada pavilion, we stopped for a couple minutes to watch a live band that were performing some groovy tunes that guests could dance to. The atmosphere was electric for such a small crowd. I really wish I knew the name of the band or the songs they were playing to shout them out on the blog, but the names have completely escaped me!

Next stop on our trip around Epcot was the Land pavilion to ride Living with the Land, as my sister and I needed a long sit down plus we both really enjoy this ride. We were placed in the front row of the back boat, so got to see plenty as we were going around the greenhouses. Also, my sister and I found it fascinating that for the International Food and Wine Festival, there were specific labels identifying ingredients featuring in a dish at one of the booths. I can honestly say this ride on Living with the Land was one of the most enjoyable. Again, I feel it's one of those that you can appreciate more as you get older.

Like Flight of Passage from the Animal Kingdom post, our plan was going to be skipping Soarin' because of my sister's motion sickness. However, my sister said she was happy to ride it! Thankfully, we were not placed on an end where you would get a bent Eiffel Tower. We were on the central set of gondolas on the bottom row, which meant having a pretty decent ride on Soarin'. I had to warn my sister of the jump scares while the video changed scenes. Equally, I had to mention some of my favourite smells on that ride - the Taj Mahal, India and kayakers in Fiji being two examples. If only Disney made candles with these scents then I would buy them on an annual basis for the Fall and Winter months!!!

Our final ride of the day was the Seas with Nemo and Friends, which again was a walk on to complete the set of Epcot attractions we wanted to do (except Test Track). Normally this ride makes me feel super queasy, but this time I was actually okay! It's the tunnel with the screen of bubbles going up and over, as well as the turtles swimming, that make me feel very motion sick. But for a change, I actually enjoyed riding it - maybe because my car is named Dory that I now have more of a connection to Finding Nemo?

It was time for dinner and the part that I was most looking forward to was exploring all the different booths for the International Food and Wine Festival! With my sister being vegan/dairy free, options for her were very limited. However, she did spot a Mac 'n' Cheese booth near Test Track, named Mac 'n' Eats, so we both got a dish from there.

My dish (I think it was called the Cowboy Mac 'n' Cheese?) was so flavourful and filling that it was so much better than I expected it to be. Contrarily, my sister said that her vegan Mac 'n' Cheese with chilli was bland and had more chilli than Mac 'n' Cheese. My sister was gutted that her dish didn't live up to her excitement for it.

While we were on our way to find a spot for the Harmonious fireworks show, I wanted to get myself my first proper alcoholic drink in America now that I was over the age of 21. There was a booth called Shimmering Sips that had a mousse that I wanted to try, as well as some Proseccos mixed with different flavours. However, when I got to the booth to place my order and presented my UK driving license, the cast member asked did I have a passport. At first I was puzzled, thinking was he asking about the International Food and Wine passport or my actual passport that I use to travel. It turns out he meant my actual passport (which of course was at the hotel), so I couldn't get the alcoholic beverage that I was craving ☹️

Picture Credit: Disney

The mousse was vegan so I asked my sister if she wanted to try it, but she didn't want to. It was flavoured with guava, which tasted a lot like coconut and was quite refreshing. I couldn't help but be a bit sulky that my driving license didn't work for buying alcohol in America... I really thought it would be exactly the same process as in the UK.

My sister and I then trekked back across World Showcase to the France/Morocco pavilions to watch the Harmonious fireworks. We had two lovely American families stood either side of us and their kids were full of energy, playing around with bubbles and saying hi to everyone. Of course they heard our accents, so immediately asked about the Royal Family and our opinions on the current news before the show began.

Again, I hadn't seen this firework display before, so I kept it a huge surprise and hoped that these eyesores in the middle of World Showcase Lagoon would actually turn into something magical during the evening. If you haven't seen the fireworks before, check out the video below from 4K WDW.

Now for my review... personally, nothing will compare to the emotions of seeing Illuminations (the fireworks show that proceeded Epcot Forever). However, I really didn't mind Harmonious! Having now read around different blogs and watched videos on what people think about the fireworks, it's very much like Marmite - you either love it or hate it. I thought the show was incredibly colourful, enjoyed the transitions from segment to segment, and really liked how the show featured a lot of Disney movies relevant to each pavilion and/or symbolise coming together in harmony.

And so it was time to head out of the park, but my sister and I quickly stopped off for several Photopass pictures under these adorable fairy lights in the UK pavilion. We honestly thought it was a picture perfect setting in a place we love to call home.

Then, we made our way into the Creations Shop because this had been completely refurbished from MouseGear (the original Epcot gift shop). And can I just say how modern and artistic Creations shop looks now! I am so glad Disney had done up the merchandise shop and it makes me super eager to see the rest of the construction walls come down for a fully finished Epcot rebrand. My sister and I didn't buy anything, we were just looking around. The best part for me was seeing the different murals displayed all across the walls.

Our final stop before heading back to the hotel was Guest Relations to find out what form of ID Disney accepts to buy alcohol now that I'm over the age of 21 because my interaction with the cast member at Shimmering Sips really threw me off. When I explained the situation to the Guest Relations cast member, she was really confused too after looking at my form of ID because she couldn't understand why I was refused the order. After speaking with her leader, it looks like international driving licenses were not accepted. It was no biggy, however I did auggest that it should be clearer to guests what forms of ID they accept for both domestic and international visitors. It means for the next Epcot visit I have to pack my passport! And any international readers, remember to take your passports with you to Epcot if you want to purchase an alcoholic beverage.

We grabbed several pictures outside the entrance of Spaceship Earth with its beacons of light glowing brightly. You never actually realise how many pictures you take of Spaceship Earth (and Cinderella's Castle for that matter) until you look at your camera roll because there are just so many variations! We got into our Uber and were ready to crash out after all that exploring around the world.

And that brings us to the conclusion of our evening at Epcot for the International Food and Wine Festival 2022. Because we didn’t get Test Track in this post, we did make another trip to Epcot, so you will have to look around for when another Epcot post goes live on my blog. As always pals, stay healthy and happy and I shall see you in next week’s post!

Have a magical day!

-Hannah

DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊