More ersatz food for breakfast. America is full of ersatz food. I must have been the last person to find out—ingredient lists are required to be in descending order of abundance. Well, my toast spread lists: corn syrup, apples, grapes, … Ah, ubiquitous corn syrup.
Today is devoted to EPCOT. I'm long past Magic Kingdom sentimentality but I've heard raves about World Showcase and Future World. I reach WD World around noon. Just outside EPCOT, a flying stone cracks my windshield half an inch from the roof. Just my luck. If I'd been going a little faster, it might have glanced off the roof instead. No hole, but several nasty spreading cracks. I don't understand how a stone came to be flying so high in the air. I was following a truck, but with another car in between. Oh well, one of those things...
EPCOT costs $28 a day to enter. A three day ticket allows one to see Magic Kingdom as well and unlimited use of the monorail connecting the two sites but I don't want to spend that much time here. The large multifaceted globe just inside the gates is Spaceship Earth, a display hosted by AT&T. It sits in the middle of Future World, a collection of hi-tech shows.
The line there is intolerable so I saunter off to World Showcase instead. This is the back half of EPCOT, so to speak, and comprises about a dozen national pavilions arranged around a man-made lake. Only a dozen? The countries here are the ones that feel they might get more tourists by having a display at EPCOT. Each display was staffed by that country's nationals, it is authentic that way at least. Wonder if they got hardship money for having to talk to silly tourists?
A glance at the folder indicated the main feature of most pavilions are gift shops and restaurants. Tables can be reserved and many good slots are booked out early. In this warm weather, food is not foremost in my mind and I am more interested in the attractions. Mexico has a boat ride through an animated display of Mexican history.
But it was China that pleasantly surprised me. I had heard of 360 degree film shows before. This is a standing room only theatre where one is surrounded by 9 screens, giving at times full circle vision of a landscape, sometimes from a plane; and at other times used to overwhelm viewers with a barrage of images. The sights and sounds of China were stirring. Many of the scenes in the film had not been seen by foreigners before. I liked this film so much that I came back to see it a second time later.
France had a 180 degree show, which was not as spectacular but equally touching. Perhaps it's because they used the music of Debussy, Saint-Saens and Satie. Canada's 360 show was quite pretty but a little too commercial. Of course they all were but there are degrees of taste. Morocco had a continuous slide display, accompanied by soundtrack, with intriguing images.
I had lunch at the Japan pavilion from the takeout section—teriyaki beef, chicken yakitori and Kirin beer. Tasty and not as expensive as you'd think. They have a display of work by women artists. One objet d'art was a video recording of an inverted pyramid of frozen stones melting and releasing stones, one at a time, to fall through a lattice of cane rods. A strange but very pleasing and relaxing sound resulted. Quite inventive.
The other pavilions were well arranged but I had no desire to spend all day at gift shops. A phone call to the Orlando branch of the hotel chain I was bumped from in DC gathered the information that the free night was for DC only and the clerk had given me the wrong information. So much for that idea.
I did not like Future World as much. Lines were longer here because the displays were snazzy but I felt they were essentially hi-tech carnival rides. In true American commercial tradition, corporations use these displays to plug their products. For example, Kodak hosted the Imagination show, which had lots of flashing lights, colored smoke and such gimmickry but little content. Kids love this sort of thing. Captain EO was a 3-D film starring Michael Jackson where he saves the world with song and dance. I enjoyed it for what it was worth, but one first has to endure a plug for Kodak film. GE hosted the Transportation show, and AT&T the Communications show in Spaceship Earth.
By 7 pm my legs felt like jelly and I decided to break for dinner. I wanted to come back and see IllumiNations, at closing time, when all the pavilions turn into lighted wonders, and lasers and fireworks punctuate the sky. I even got a re-entry stamp. But I never used it. Oh well, I have seen enough fireworks and cities at night in my time.
Some 60 miles south of Orlando I located an inexpensive motel and rested for the night. It had been such a hot day that it took the air-conditioner half an hour to displace the warm air trapped in the room.
I did not like Future World as much. Lines were longer here because the displays were snazzy but I felt they were essentially hi-tech carnival rides. In true American commercial tradition, corporations use these displays to plug their products. For example, Kodak hosted the Imagination show, which had lots of flashing lights, colored smoke and such gimmickry but little content. Kids love this sort of thing. Captain EO was a 3-D film starring Michael Jackson where he saves the world with song and dance. I enjoyed it for what it was worth, but one first has to endure a plug for Kodak film. GE hosted the Transportation show, and AT&T the Communications show in Spaceship Earth.
By 7 pm my legs felt like jelly and I decided to break for dinner. I wanted to come back and see IllumiNations, at closing time, when all the pavilions turn into lighted wonders, and lasers and fireworks punctuate the sky. I even got a re-entry stamp. But I never used it. Oh well, I have seen enough fireworks and cities at night in my time.
Some 60 miles south of Orlando I located an inexpensive motel and rested for the night. It had been such a hot day that it took the air-conditioner half an hour to displace the warm air trapped in the room.
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