We visited Epcot on Day 4 (Thursday, January 14th) of our vacation. Epcot is divided into two areas: Future World and World Showcase. Today’s blog post is about our visit to Future World.
We arrived at Epcot, via shuttle, around 11:00 AM. The Clarion Hotel, as well as most (if not all) hotels located in the Orlando area, provides free shuttle bus service to Walt Disney World attractions. Parking at Walt Disney World parks would have cost us in excess of $10.00, so the free shuttle bus was a much appreciated service.
The first thing you notice, as you walk into Epcot, is Spaceship Earth. You can’t miss it!
Spaceship Earth
Because the line was short and we had not ridden the Spaceship Earth Ride on our previous visit to Walt Disney World we went on this 13-minute journey through time. The ride explores the continuing search by human beings for more efficient means of communication from the days of cavemen to the future. The attraction has remarkable special effects, and every scene is executed in exquisite detail. The sights kept our heads turning as we journeyed through time.
Journey Through Time
(Please click on image to enlarge)
After our journey through time, we marveled over the 180-foot-tall geosphere known as Spaceship Earth.
Bob and I
It was shortly after we were photographed in front of Spaceship Earth that we learned that our vacation would be cut short. Bob was laid off work temporarily on January 4th. We knew that Bob could be called back to work at any time; however, we hoped that he would be off work until February 1st. We were walking towards World Showcase, when Bob received the call from HR. Employees who were on temporary lay off were to return to work on Monday, which meant that we had to start back home early Friday morning. There went our plans to visit my aunt in Vero Beach and to travel all the way to Key West and back up along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where we planned to visit friends. We had made plans, too, to stop in Georgia to visit one of my cousins on our way back home. The call to go back to work sounds like good news. You would think that work has picked up again. That isn’t the case, though. Work is still slow. Bob’s employer laid off several employees, who have less seniority than Bob, indefinitely. We are thankful that Bob has a job, but we couldn’t help feeling disappointed that our vacation plans went awry. After shaking off the feeling of being cheated of our vacation plans, we did enjoy rest of our day at Epcot.
You may be wondering why we saw only one attraction while at Future World. The focus of our visit to Epcot was World Showcase, not Future World. Let me tell you why we focused our visit on World Showcase. This was not our first visit to Walt Disney World. We spent 4 days at Walt Disney World in April 2001. During our visit to Walt Disney World in 2001 we saw the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios in addition to Epcot. Although we liked all of Walt Disney World’s parks, we thoroughly enjoyed World Showcase. It was the highlight of our visit to Walt Disney World in 2001. We wanted to experience World Showcase again, and this is why we opted to spend most of our time at World Showcase rather than splitting our time between Future World and World Showcase.
Before the call from HR interrupted us, we were on our way to World Showcase. The first country that we visited was Canada. But you will have to wait until my next blog post to read about details of our visit to Canada.
The Beauty Around Us 
