We made a bee line for the big ball. After all there is a ride inside of it. The ride is called Spaceship Earth. It's a ride through time, a very slow moving ride about 10 minutes long, showing everything from how electricity was invented to how life in general has evolved. My son enjoyed this ride. It's pretty amazing how this entire ride fits in that ball. We exited the ride and headed to the World Showcase.

As we approached the lake I felt myself start to tear up. It's just so breathtaking. A Coca Cola exhibit caught our attention as well as looking cool and refreshing since it was a really nice 100 or so degrees outside. So we entered and were amazed to see real SNOW all over the floor, it was like a giant freezer, we walked through to see a person (fake) frozen in the wall, and a few other odds and ends, we were excited to reach this room where there were sodas from all over the world to try free of charge.

They had soda flavors from China, Japan, Italy, United States, Norway, just about everywhere. They were interesting tastes to say the least. My son wouldn't stop filling his cup with the soda from China, it was strawberry flavored. This place was our new favorite spot, we made up our minds whenever we get to hot, this was the place to be! We headed out, I wanted to move onto the World Showcase and lunch.

So to Mexico we went. We went into the Myan temple and rode the river of time. This ride was based on the story of Mexico, and you ride it slow in a boat. Very nice ride. We then proceeded to lunch. We decided it would be nice to eat there in Mexico so we chose the San Angel Inn. It is very similar to the Blue Bayou in Disneyland. However it serves all Mexican food.

Since we had our son who was 3 at the time the host sat us right at the waters edge. The restaurant has the same feel as Blue Bayou as well, very dark. The food was excellent. I must say it was one of the best meals we had on the trip and surprisingly, was not over priced, about $35.00 for the three of us.

After that we were excited to check out the Kidcot fun stop stuff. This is a spot in every country your child can add stuff or create stuff on a paper mask; you attach items and such from each county. You also can collect small cut outs meant to resemble a wish for the parade that night. More on this when I get to the parade.

We then moved on to Norway. Now we only wanted to ride the ride Maelstrom. This ride is all about Norway and the legend of the trolls. This is a boat ride with a nice sized dip at the end. I noticed they had changed the ride a bit since last time I rode it in 1993. Still a great ride.

At this point we made our way around to all the countries allowing our son to do all the Kidcot stops and we shopped. We then headed over to what would become the ride of misery! Now don't get me wrong, Journey into Imagination with Figment is one of my favorites. However my son put a whole new meaning to let's go again! There were no lines so we managed to ride this ride 5 times; yes I said 5 in a row. Oh my gosh, every time we rounded the part where Figment made smells come out of what appeared to be a large slot machine, my son would laugh hysterically as if it were his first ride. After this we hit up Imageworks by Kodak and played around there and moved into The Land.

We watched the show Circle of Life, hosted by Timon, Pumba, and Simba. The show is great; it was about a 15 minute show. We then decided to ride Living with the Land since this ride is downstairs from Circle of Life. You ride this in a boat; it is very slow moving and takes you through all manmade gardens full of everything from flowers to fruit, and fish to alligators. It was about another 15 - 20 minutes. Interesting but not fun for a 3 year old.

We decided to skip Honey I Shrunk the Audience since it is the same as in Disneyland we also passed on The Wonders of Life exhibit. We decided to go to The Living Sea's. Where you descend into sea base alpha. I was so disappointed to see the actual ride gone. This is now a walk through only exhibit, full of huge fish tanks with dolphins, sharks and fish. We were very pleased to see the manatee exhibit. They are so cute. After about a half hour we took the sea base elevator back to the top, headed for dinner.

We had a 6 P.M. reservation for the Garden Grill. This is a rotating restaurant on an upstairs level, this is where we had our character dinner. Now this was not the same character dining we were used to in Disneyland. This was different. You looked at a menu chose what you wanted and they just kept bringing you plates of the same thing. We were a little shocked, who wants to keep refilling their plate with the same thing over and over. And it was not a buffet, it was a sit down dinner they called a buffet because they would keep bringing you a plate of the same stuff. Wow a nice $80 later, and swearing we would not eat chicken again we headed out. I must say it was a sort of country style theme, the character interaction was great, the table service was equally as great, but I wanted a buffet a real buffet.

Anyhow it was starting to get dark and I wanted to get on Test Track. As we began our walk there was a little sigh from our son, he has seen a Figment stuffed animal he had to have, this then led to another 3 rides on none other than Figment! We then decided to hit the parade.

The Tapestry of Dreams Parade. It was beautiful all the lights and music, now it started to make sense the little items my son had pinned to his masks were supposed to resemble his dreams. As the narrator told us he then explained to remove the dreams and make a wish as placing it into the dream catchers net. So I helped him to remove one, and he placed it in the dream catchers net as she danced by. This is what the magic is all about, the look on my son's 3 year old face as it filled with excitement when he put his dream in her net. There I was.....crying. It was great!

After the parade we winded our way to Test Track. O.k. we all know Epcot has some E ticket rides, but this one is outstanding! You are in car in what appears to be a large garage, you test the brakes, your turns at different speeds, your terrain in all different weather condition and finally speed! You race towards a wall and right before you hit, it opens and out to the track you go reaching speeds of 60mph! Greatest ride in the park!!!!!!

As the night came to close we realized another day of Epcot was in order, upon leaving my husband discovered a small cart in Mexico serving $8.00 Margaritas, so he had one as we walked toward the gate. He did say it was one of the best one's he'd ever had. I was pleased to hear that since it was $8.00. What an incredible night.

The very next day we came back to cover Universe of Energy, to ride Ellens Energy Adventure, very cool ride/movie about a half hour long. Due to the dinosaurs and mixture of action and the movie sequence my son really loved it. We did some repeats of our favorite rides and yes that included a few more go a rounds of the Figment ride.

We decided to have dinner in The Living Seas, the restaurant is the Coral Reef. I still declare this is the BEST restaurant in Epcot Center. However very pricey. You are seated sort of like a casino show room style, in booths facing a huge wall top to bottom is all glass the length and width of the restaurant filled with sharks and fish. As we ate we watched a scuba diver go in and feed the sharks as we ate. It was so cool. My husband loved his grilled Mahi Mahi, I had teriyaki Chicken, my son had a personal pizza. To drink my son had a smoothie, I had Diet Coke, my husband had none other than a Margarita. And we had nice bill of $95.00. I must say though well worth it, at least once.

Later on that evening we watched illuminations over the world showcase lagoon. This is the laser and firework show. It is really neat. When it ended we headed to the Disney transportation bus. Back to the hotel room only to wake up and do it all over again. 9 days of Disney!

Epcot is my favorite park. We were very impressed, the park is huge, beautiful and nicely kept up. I just wish I could forget that Imagination song from the Figment ride. But the park truly takes 2 good days to complete, but worth every minute!