DisneyWorld: EPCOT

EPCOT is where we spent our Wednesday. We seem to be establishing a pattern on theme park days: kids, particularly Miss M, don't want to get out of bed, don't want to get dressed, don't want breakfast. Jay and I spend a lot of frustrating time begging, cajoling and threatening them from one step to another.

Finally we get two limp rags (jellyfish, Jay calls them) to the shuttle bus stop. They bicker about nothing in particular. (Yesterday, to be fair, they found two boys they had been playing with at the pool on our shuttle and we all spent a happy journey chatting with the family - from Chicago - during the short trip. It never ceases to amaze me how much easier it is when the kids make a friend of someone outside the family - defuses the sibling squabbling one million percent.)

At the park, as previously, Will refuses to go on the first few rides despite many assurances of fun and safety and non-scariness. Usually he decides this when we've already been standing in the line for a while (sometimes when we are literally about to board the ride, like yesterday with Mission: Space). Around lunchtime he warms up and starts enjoying some rides.

EPCOT is a combination of Future World and World Showcase. The former areas have all the rides including the almost impossible to get on (we didn't) Soarin' which is by all accounts amazing and Mission: Space which was fun and Ellen's Energy Adventure which was fun and funny.

I really liked Living with the Land which was lame but informative. Jay loved Test Track and we all enjoyed Re-imagined! Spaceship Earth (except Will who wouldn't go).

The World Showcase area is replicated areas of various countries like Canada, Norway, England, Morocco. The attention to detail is mind blowing. We really enjoyed wandering around this part of the park - especially the 360 degree tourist movie of Canada hosted by Martin Short (beautiful and funny) and the cover band playing all music British in the little park near the pub.

If we weren't so tired by then we could have explored in much more detail but we were stuffed and hot by 6:00 pm when we decided to head home.

EPCOT was hosting the Disney garden festival and looked incredible with the stunning gardens, especially the Disney themed topiary. We were speculating on the numbers of staff required to keep things looking so magnificent; there literally isn't a blade of grass out of place...and it would need to be maintained at night because you never see maintenance or gardening people (apart from basic rubbish collection) during the day.

The kids always enjoy themselves in the afternoon (the morning is when Jay and I curse ourselves for being so stupid for taking two ungrateful brats on a trip like this and swear never to take them anywhere more exciting than Woy Woy Caravan Park ever again).

We got "home" in time for a swim and a drink by the pool, then showers and room service dinner with a family movie (something about a talking dog, I was finishing "A Tiny Bit Marvellous" on the Kindle - loved it BTW).

This is where hotels like this come into their own. Tired after a big day out there's nothing like someone else taking care of dinner and a cosy bed to snuggle down in.