Epcot

 

December 14, 2021

Epcot

Kathy and I traveled up to Central Florida in mid-December to meet our friends Dakota and Andy and their young daughters Sloane and Norah and spend a week at Disney World. It is something that we have been wanting to do for some time now, but with Covid and travel issues etc., we just had not been able to arrange, but finally we were all able to get on the same page and schedule the trip.

Dakota and her family were flying out from their home in New Mexico and Kathy and I drove up from Key West and arrived a full day ahead of them, so we had a full day to enjoy Disney before we were to meet them. Our friend Renae was staying at our house for the week and we drove up and had a full 24 hours on our own.

Our first night after arriving, we headed over to Disney Springs, the sprawling shopping and dining area where we ate dinner at the House of Blues, which was really good and then went to see the new remake of the classic Broadway musical film, “West Side Story”. It is tough remaking one of the most classic musical films ever, but I really enjoyed this new version. Kathy was not quite so enamored, but it made for a fun date night with just the two of us.

It was just us the next morning as we decided to take advantage of the Florida resident annual pass that we had purchased for Disney World and headed out to what is my favorite theme park, Epcot to spend the day. Disney has totally redone just about every aspect of their entry procedure and you now have to book what park you plan to attend in advance. 

They have also totally revamped their ride options, doing away with the Fast Pass option and adding a slightly more complicated Genie Plus option that works through an app on your phone, but that once you get used to, is actually fairly easy to use and actually almost eliminates wait times on many of the most popular rides and attractions if you are able to log in and secure your place in a timely manner.

We certainly had no agenda and were able to ride just about everything we wanted with the exception of the new Remy’s Adventure Ratatouille ride, which we were not able to book. We also were able to secure lunch reservations at what is now my favorite restaurant in Epcot since the Norway restaurant Akerhaus has been turned into a Princess dining experience, the German Biergarten.

Like all the restaurants in the World Showcase area of Epcot, the German Biergarten features authentic food from the featured country and entertainment as well. A variety of sausages, bratwurst, spaetzle, potato salad and more highlight the menu and it is topped off with a selection of German Beer replicating Octoberfest year-round. 

It was beautiful weather and a really fun day hanging out with Kathy and in the evening, we went over to meet Dakota and her family at their hotel Disney’s Art of Animation resort. It was so fun and exciting to surprise the girls by suddenly appearing at their hotel and being able to experience Disney through the eyes of a young child is pretty cool. We shared a pizza dinner at their hotel then headed back to our off property hotel to get ready for a fun week.