Last day at Disney

Today, we went back to Epcot and went straight to Soarin' to fly again.  Here are some pics of where we went:

In the last post, I told you that we boarded a large ski lift to soar.  Today, I was intrigued to find out how it works and how they manage to get so many people to have front seats while soaring.  The screen is really big.  The chair lift that each person sits on sits 11 people.  There are 3 chair lifts across there are 3 levels of lifts.  So the giant machinery that lifts us and sways us left and right as we soar, is actually carrying 9 chairs and 99 people.  While soaring you're unaware of the other 8 chair lifts that are right next to you.  This is replicated on the other side of the building, so they're able to move 198 people though the ride every 15 minutes or so.

Then we went on a boat trip through a green house which was a educational ride about green farming techniques and watched a movie with the Lion King characters talking about conservation.  Awesome huge digital screen (they've been a lot of those) with fabulous breath-taking pictures of our gorgeous blue planet.

We boarded a giant clam to go under the sea with Nemo and then we got into a human tank right up close to a fish tank with Crush, the turtle from Nemo in it.  Crush did a live totally cool "stand up" comedian show with questions from the little kids sitting right up close to the tank. 

You'll probably think I've gone bonkers now - what Turtles can do a comedian show?  Crush can at Epcot!  It was hysterical, dude.

A couple more flower beds during their flower festival...

 

Then we went on a 45 minute ride to learn about Energy with Ellen De-Generes.  Below, you can see the seating - each of these 'cars' carries 100 people and there were 5 of them in a very large room. 

We moved from one room to another and then through a jungle with the dinosaurs (we had to go right back in time to the big bang to understand where oil comes from).  The content wasn't any thing new, but the way that it was presented was incredible.  More huge digital screens surrounding us so that we really felt the big bang and felt that we were in the jungle.

 

Then Ali designed her own roller coaster in the Innoventions centre. Here's a pic that didn't come out very well because it's taken through glass.  But you can see Ali and Luke's feet in the air as they loop-the-loop while taking a ride on the roller coaster that Ali designed.  You too can see her design.  Go to www.mathmovesu.com and register.  Her design's code is UJJJTA7.  I've tried this and didn't get very far, but it's late.

 

 

Then we took a flip around the world and stopped off in Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France and the UK.  Here's Ali and Luke in Italy: 

This is Epcot's World Showcase where they have 11 countries each with it's own area.  All the buildings look exactly like the countries that they are from.  But the incredible thing is that the atmosphere feels like the country too!  In each country's area, they only employ people to work there if they are actually from the country.  Because there are so many people here, there are bound to be many visitors from each of these countries and they gravitate to their own country's area to check it out.  So China had loads of Chinese people walking around.  We sat down for a proper lunch (thanks Mum) in Japan and were served by a Japanese lady who spoke Japanese English.  It was quite funny when we asked for water for the table and she didn't understand us until I said "wudder"!  This was only the second meal that we've had since leaving SA that we ate of a proper plate and drank out of a glass.  For every other meal, our cutlery and crockery have ended up in the bin.

 

We finished up in Epcot with Michael Jackson's Captain EO.  I didn't see this in the 80s and wasn't much of a MJ fan when he was alive so I didn't know anything about it.  They've managed to make the moving in 3D which is intriguing because the footage was shot in the 80s before they had 3D technology.  Wow - that man can move!  The music was wonderful.  It seemed like normal 3D movie until about half way through when our chairs started shuddering with the intensity of the dance.  The kids loved it.

 

When we got back to the hotel, showered, did our laundry and had one of those yummy steak salads and then we went for a 1 hour nap.  My plan was to wake up in time to go back to Hollywood Studios to see the fireworks there at 10 and then enjoy 2 Extra Magic Hours doing the Toy Story, Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror rides again and I was hoping to get the kids to see the Little Mermaid puppets.  But the alarm clock didn't work (actually, I forgot to turn it to 'on' after setting it) and I woke up at 22:30.  The kids will be disappointed I think, but sleep is valuable and it's too late now.  I really have messed up with these Extra Magic Hours and I could kick myself.  But, despite the fact that we are constantly in a World Cup-type crowd of people, the longest we've waited for anything was about 45 mins for the build-your-own-rollercoaster.  These Americans have mastered moving large crowds and these huge crowds of people move swiftly onwards.

 

So, that's the end of Disney World!  I can't believe that we're not even half way through our trip and this time last week, we were still in SA.  We have really managed to jam pack so much into 6 days.  Things should slow down a bit from now on, but we've still got some awesome days planned up ahead.  Tomorrow, I've rented a car to get us to our next hotel... via some shopping for me.  I went to the concierge to ask if they had a local area driving map for me so that I can find my way around tomorrow.  She gave me a 'Driving Directions From All Star Resort' brochure printed on thick paper complete with a detailed map which shows me everything that I need to know - including local shopping centres.  It is exactly what I need.  I guess I'm not the first person to ask for such a thing, but I'm blown away by how organised these people are and what detail they've gone to to make sure that every aspect of our trip is easy.