Wednesday November 15th 2023

The wet weather continued today. In fact, it got progressively worse as the day went by. Overnight there was no noise on the roof of my RV home. That means it was either dry or a very lite mist. This morning there were intermittent periods of mist. Every time the mist returned it was a little closer to real rain. By about 1:30 the precipitation was continuous light rain with occasional periods of moderate rain with the wind to go with it. Overall it was a rainy day.

I tried to proceed with my plans for the day despite the rain. Last week I made a reservation for today at Disney’s EPCOT. If I hadn’t made the reservation I probably wouldn’t have gone. The hassle of canceling the reservation or just ignoring it never really crossed my mind. Equipped with a rain coat and hat I arrived at the park a little after noon when the precipitation was still in the mist stage. I entered the park filled with a sea of people in plastic ponchos.

I was able to walk through the Journey of Water Inspired by Moana and visit the aquarium at the Living Seas before the rain arrived. When I came out of the Living Seas building it could no longer be called mist. I quickly got into the next building to stay dry. The Living with the Land ride didn’t have more than a couple of minute wait. There is nothing like a nice boat ride in the afternoon. Next up was visit with Figment on the Journey into Imagination with Figment. Crossing the few hundred yards to the Imagination pavilion was my first adventure in real rain for the day.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit EPCOT today was to see the Christmas decorations. Unlike the rest of Walt Disney World, they aren’t all up yet. EPCOT is still in the final week of the International Food and Wine Festival. The Festival of the Holidays doesn’t start until the day after Thanksgiving. The main Christmas Tree at the entrance to World Showcase was put up this week and the Christmas tree at the American Pavilion is up, but most of the country specific decorations don’t seem to be up yet. Although I did see a holiday teapot and teacups at the United Kingdom pavilion. The Christmas decorations in the greenhouse section of the Living with the Land ride were not turned on yet. A worker was in the process of doing some additional decorating in that area.

My original plan was to remain at EPCOT until dark to see the decorations after the lights are turned on, but with all the decorations not up yet and the ever increasing rain that idea was canceled. Once I left the Journey into Imagination ride building the rain was in full force. I walked around the entire World Showcase looking for opportunities to get out of the rain. The crowds of people in plastic ponchos filled the walk ways. My thought that it might be less busy was a complete bust. The wait times at the two big rides were over an hour.

My rain coat and hat were keeping me dry enough, but there weren’t any good places to get out of the rain. I thought about getting Fish & Chips for lunch/dinner at the Yorkshire County Fish Shop, but I would of had to use a trash can in the rain for a table. The rain continued to get harder downgrading the overall experience as the day went by. I gave up and returned to my RV home by 4PM.