Wednesday October 26th 2022

The temperature climbed a few degrees into the upper eighties today. We are officially above the seasonal normal temperature now. At least the humidity is only moderate and the temperature cools off overnight. The next few days are forecast to be similar.

This afternoon I went to EPCOT in Disney World for Fish and Chips. The Yorkshire County Fish Shop in the UK pavilion serves pretty decent Fish and Chips. I’ve been looking forward to having them again all summer. Of course there are a lot of other good things about a trip to EPCOT.

I headed to the park shortly after 1PM. With the traffic and the long walk in from the parking area I arrived in the park around 2PM. My first stop was a ride in Space Ship Earth. The history of communications ride needs some maintenance. I think there were lights out in some of the areas along the ride and the newsboy audio-animatronic seemed to be missing. Disney had planned to update the ride, but the closure associated with the pandemic delayed or eliminated those plans.

After Space Ship earth I stopped in the Creations shop on my way to the Land Pavilion. This is the main merchandise store in the park. It is fun to look at tall the stuff, but I didn’t buy anything. At the Land Pavilion I wanted to ride Living with the Land. This is my go to ride at EPCOT. I try to checkout what they are growing on every visit. Today the wait was exceptionally long at 30 minutes. I chose to view both of the other attractions in the building first. I expected the wait time to be shorter after watching the Awesome Plant movie, but it wasn’t so I road Soarin’ Around the World which only had a twenty minute wait. The wait for Living with the Land never got below thirty minutes while I was in the pavilion. I’ll have to give it a higher priority on my next visit.

My late lunch or early dinner of Fish and Chips was next on the schedule. It was very good as usual. My slightly early timing also made it possible to find a table and seat to enjoy my meal. For company I had a number of Ibis birds watching me carefully for any dropped or leftover food. The birds can be real pests.

Next up was a ride in the Mexico Pavilion. The Gran Fiesta Tour had a posted wait time of ten minutes. It took that and a little more to get on the ride. I think it is the longest I’ve ever waited to see the three caballeros tour Mexico. Still it was a fun boat ride.

My next stop was indented to kill time on a bench, but it turned out to be really entertaining. I stop at the American Gardens Theater to watch the Eat to the Beat Concert. Every night during the Food and Wine festival a band performs three concerts. Tonight it is a local 80s tribute band called the M-80s. They put on a good show. The concert series has more well known artists Fridays through Mondays. Some of the upcoming acts include Hanson, Boyz II Men, Kenny G and Sugar Ray.

My last ride of the night was in the France Pavilion. I waited in a line with a posted wait of 50 minutes for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. The line looked a lot shorter than a posted 70 minute wait I stood in back in April. MY assumption was correct after 45 minutes I was through the line and the ride. As expected the little rat was able to prepare his feast for his friends.

My original plan was to stay for the Harmonious night time show at 9PM. It was not to be. I was feeling all the walking in the late afternoon heat. With an hour and a half to kill, I sat on a bench and almost fell asleep. It was time to go home. I’ll catch the night time show another night. Getting home through all the traffic and construction proved challenging enough.