Chapter 16:Communication, Sea, and Pixar

We climbed aboard our blue train and made a journey through the classic Spaceship Earth. It's one of those rides that is always enjoyable to ride, and it's also one where you'll walk out learning something. The ride takes you through the world of communications, from beginning to end, and beyond. We start off in the stone age, where language was first being developed. The ride continues to take you through numerous scenes illustrated through Audio-Animatronic figures, until we reach the likes of today. Once you reach the top of the sphere, you rotate backwards to return to the station. This is where you'll get a glimpse of what the future of communication has in store. Overall, this attraction is a classic and always one of my favorites. It's educational, relaxing, enjoyable, and fun. It's one of those attraction that I could never see Disney touching, or at least I hope so. I think the ride itself could use a nice rehab, it's due for one. Fixing up some of the AA's and fixing the special effects would be excellent for this attraction. Anyway, my expert advice for this attraction? Next time you're at EPCOT, you must give this ride a whirl. It's one of the few educational theme park attractions in existence, and the fact that you can walk out of the attraction having learned something is refreshing. The attraction is slow-moving and tame, so just about everyone has the chance to experience this classic ride. Once again, this is a MUST HIT on your next trip. Anyway, after the ride, we walked down the ramp and saw that they were doing work on the post-show area. I remember some really cool things being in the post-area on my last visit, so I hope they can bring that area back to life again. I believe it will re-open this spring at EPCOT.

Moving on, we all enter the central hub of EPCOT at last. The Tip Board is straight ahead, so we decide to check it out. Lines are moderate, only Soarin' seemed to have much of a line. Since Soarin' was an attraction everyone was going to go on, we decided to head over to the Land pavilion and pick up a FastPass. So we made a right and headed towards the Land, situated between the new Seas and the Imagination! pavilions. I always felt like the Land needed a big attraction...and Soarin' delivers. That's for later, however. Anyway, I entered the Land for the first time in 3 years. The place looked pretty different, as they changed things around a bit when Soarin' opened. The lower area looked all different to me...they re-did the entire eating area, adding new theming, put in a new sign for Living with the Land, and the area itself looked nicer. Anyway, we had to go downstairs for our FastPass, so we went down and into the new Soarin' area, previously occupied by Food Rocks. The area is now themed to an airline terminal, complete with a ticket counter and ticket machines near-by, aka the FastPass machines. We went over to one, and inserted all 5 of our Park Hoppers. Then...SURPRISE! We got a surprise FastPass for Living with the Land! This was excellent for us, as all of us were going to do that attraction as well. Well after that, it was time to leave the Land. Our LwtL and Soarin' times weren't until later, so we decided to check something else out before returning back to the Land. Overall, the Land looked quite impressive, but there were a TON of people in there. On our way back up, there was a QUEUE for the ESCALATOR! I just went along and walked up the stairs...wow people. Anyway, we made our way back out, and decided what would be next on our agenda. We decided to check out the Seas with Nemo and Friends, which was going through a current transformation when we were at the park. A certain new attraction to spring up there, Turtle Talk with Crush, would be next on our hit list.

We left the Land and made our way over to the Seas, which when we were there, had the big blue wall around the entrance. To get inside, we needed to use the back door. We went around back and came inside the big blue pavilion that is the Seas. Once we walked in, mostly all of what we saw was a huge queue line in the middle of the pavilion floor. We checked out the scene, and realized it was for the pavilion's current big hit, Turtle Talk with Crush. I was interested to do this attraction, as I have heard very good reviews of it, and it seemed to be a great interactive, educational attraction. So, we decided to check it out first. We got in the queue, which was totally out of place. Fortunately, the queue and attraction have now moved to a new area, so the main floor is queue-free! Anyway, the queue was pretty crowded, but it only took about 10-15 minutes to get inside the theatre. Inside, there are many long benches to sit on, and an area up front for the little ones who want to talk to Crush. The theatre isn't large at all, but it ended up packing in a decent amount of people. Everyone took a seat around the large screen of the sea, and soon the show began. Crush comes over to us and introduces himself to us. He wants to find out information about the human world for his son Squirt, and in return he will tell us about life in the sea. The fun-filled show lasts about 15 minutes, and is full of jokes from Crush, tidbits of information, and interaction with the guests. It's hilarious when Crush talks to the little kids! I really enjoyed this attraction. You will definitely be entertained throughout the entire show. The information Crush reveals about the sea is interesting, and the interaction factor is hilarious. Overall, it's a good rounded show, and very entertaining to say the least. I still love how this technology works and how it is put to use in this attraction. My expert advice for this attraction? Sea it! This is a show everyone in the family can enjoy. It's not drawn out, or too short to feel ripped off. It's a great enjoyable experience, and a definite hit in the new Seas pavilion. It's very popular, so this could be the pavilion to hit in the morning hours, especially with no FastPasses available.

After Crush, we made our way back out into the pavilion. Since the main attraction of the pavilion was still being worked on when we were there, we decided to go upstairs and discover the exhibits the Seas has to offer. We went over to the manatee exhibit first. They're always enjoyable to watch, and we were fortunate to catch them at feeding time. Since these creatures are endangered, it was nice to sit back and watch them for a couple of minutes. After that, we checked out the other fish exhibits the pavilion had to offer, which were great as well. I then began thinking about how well the movie was used throughout the pavilion. It was used where it could be used to their advantage. Turtle Talk is an excellent attraction with the perfect character, and the many sea life exhibits are brought to life through "Finding Nemo" theming and educational films. I was disappointed I didn't get to go on the Undersea Adventure, but it'll have to wait. I'm concerned with the Pixar overload inside WDW, but to me, this was a great addition to re-brand this dying pavilion. This is an example of how WDW used their Pixar characters to their advantage, and it is obviously working. Turtle Talk, in fact, had one of the biggest queues for our entire time in EPCOT, for a pavilion which was basically half-open. The pavilion at full capacity should be a huge success for the park. Anyway, after viewing the exhibits, we made a quick bathroom break and headed out. Once again, I really like this what WDW did with this attraction. They've just got to learn where to use Pixar and where not to use Pixar.

Well, after a great time in the Seas, we stopped outside, found a bench, and enjoyed the beautiful Florida day. That sun was so strong that day, I remember chugging a water bottle as we all sat. After some nice relaxation, our FastPasses weren't just ready yet. So, for our next attraction, we decided to journey into our imagination, with a certain purple dragon. After that, it's time for Land, Land, and more Land...with Living with the Land and one of my stand-out attractions of the trip, Soarin'.