EPCOT was my favorite of the WDW parks even though it was mobbed due to the Wine & Food Festival taking place.
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What an amazing place! Although I do think it's geared more toward the adult crowd.
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We got there at opening, were about the only ones there that early and before the Disney cast members from all over the world had to start work. The French kids were out playing soccer in front of their pavilion so got to speak with them and they even invited me to play soccer with them. (I think it was only so they could chuckle at my miserable French...but that was OK with me.)
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When you enter EPCOT stop and pick up a World Showcase Passport book.
The passport comes with stickers for each pavilion and a pin (not for pin trading, but it has a picture of Mickey and with all the flags for the countries in the World Showcase). They're available at just about any shop in EPCOT.
They come with stickers for every country.
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When you are in a pavilion, go to the Kidcot fun stop and a Disney Cast Member (that’s what they call everybody that works at Disney World) will stamp your passport, fill in the date and time and write something in their language.
We'll start with my favorite pavilion first - Mexico.
Whoever designed this pavilion was brilliant. It has the appearance of being night out inside. When you enter you walk into kind of an 'open air' Mexican market full of tradespeople selling Mexican products they've handcrafted.
After you get through the market, on your right will be a restaurant (The San Angel Inn) that has the appearance of an open air Mexican restaurant under a starry night sky with a Mayan pyramid in the background. Just beautiful all lit up in the dark.
San Angel Restaurant in Mexico Pavillion
Beyond that, you board The Grand Fiesta water ride that takes you on a trip past different Mexican scenery with cartoons of the 3 Caballeros playing on screens on the wall. We had a bit of a mishap in that our ride ran into technical difficulties and stopped dead in the water - as Disney loud speakers blared "PLEASE STAY IN YOUR BOAT! YOUR RIDE WILL RESUME SHORTLY!"
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We all began joking with one another..."Should we make a swim for it?" "Is anyone here a lifeguard?" We were all perfect strangers to one another but there was a moment of bonding going on there since we were dead in the water for more than a few minutes.
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NORWAY PAVILION
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My next favorite pavilion was Norway - although they've done a touch of remodeling on that pavilion too, changing the water ride Maelstrom to some dumb Frozen ride that has nothing to do with Norway whatsoever.
(Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder what Disney execs were thinking!)
We stopped at the Kringla Bakery to indulge in some Norwegian sweets.
I had the Lefse while Barb ordered Fastelavnsbollar, which is essentially a Norwegian cream puff. Both were excellent.
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One of the most impressive things in Norway's pavilion was the full-sized replica of a Viking ship.
The old Maelstrom ride that was so cool...
CHINA PAVILION
In this pavilion you could watch a movie about China in Circlevision, that showed different parts of China.Of course there was a large gift shop. But what was so amazing about China's pavilion were the Jeweled Dragon Acrobats - who are KIDS! I spoke to a couple of them and they told me they start training to be acrobats when they're only 4 years old.
GERMANY
The Germany Pavilion was pretty much what I expected - lots of beer and German music in the restaurant Biergarten and it was staged to look like an old German town. With the obligatory cuckoo clock.
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UNITED KINGDOM
We had a blast in the United Kingdom because all the Brits from the UK were there "on holiday" as they say. The Brits are just super people to talk to, so friendly. We had reservations at Rose & Crown for lunch so talked to the Brits while we waited for our table.
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We ordered bangers and mash and Scotch eggs.
