EPCOT Center at Walt Disney World

Another of the four Disney parks is EPCOT Center.  It has it's own theme, Disney of course, but a little more along the lines of culture, environmental, and education.  EPCOT has two main areas:  the front of the park is where the famous golf ball is centered (pictured above).  It's surrounded by game rooms and rides such as Spaceship Earth.  It's a slow ride through time beginning millions of years ago to the present.  It takes you through the entire sphere and the technology is pretty cool.  There is also Ellen's (DeGeneres)  Energy Adventure, Mission Space, and Test Track. One of the best rides is The Seas with Nemo and Friends.  You have to go on this with the kids!

There are numerous play areas, photo shoot areas and plenty of gift shops and eateries.  Easily accessible by car or monorail from the park hotels there is also lots of handicapped parking a at all the parks.

When you walk past the first part of the park the area opens up to a large lake surrounded by small replicas of many countries such as France, Italy, China, Japan, U.K. and more.  We ate dinner in Italy and loved it (see next post for details).  All the countries are incredibly authentic and the cast members who work in a country are actually from the country you're in so it accentuates the experience even more.

The lake is fairly large and if anybody has ever been to a World's Fair, I believe it was setup along that line.  Disney creates great detail in replicating these countries and I only hope they add more countries in the future.  You can visit stage shows along the way and there are various street shows as you walk along.  In this  photo

you see a band playing Celtic and Rock music combined.  We were in Canada at the time but there was a flavor of Irish, English, and Canadian flare to their music.  Very entertaining.

EPCOT was a great day but be prepared to walk!  The nice thing is that the kids can run off and do their thing while the parents can walk around the cultural exhibits.  I suggest families coming from out of town  invest in walkie-talkies so they can stay in touch.  We have a couple of cell phones in our house and that works well.  Now is a great time to visit any of the parks because the high volume Christmas season crowds have gone home.  Also, do some research on line and see what deals you can get with room rates, tickets, and meals.