I took a half day at work today to participate in one of the
remaining Passholder Previews of the new Journey of Water,
Inspired by Moana walk through attraction. Grandma Terry, Uncle
Steven, and Aunt Erica picked me up at home and we then headed to
pick up Jayden from Riverview High School to make the drive over. We
ended up grabbing some Chick-fil-A (everyone but me) and McDonald's
(me) for lunch on our way out. The drive over wasn't terrible, so we
made decent time to Epcot. Once inside, we headed right over to
Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana. This was a bit of a
different preview than the others we've been fortunate enough to
experience, in that we didn't need to make a reservation for the
attraction itself. Instead, they only allowed passholders into the
queue. It worked out well, as we didn't have to wait long in line at
all. The attraction itself is very cool visually, and the actual
activities are certainly enjoyable. I'm certainly glad we got to
experience it, and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it, but I don't
see this as a must-do attraction on my future visits. If the wait
isn't outrageous, then it'll be worth it, but if there is a wait I
think this is one that I'd pass on in the future.
Since we were close by after completing our walk through of
Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, we decided to hit up the
nearby The Seas with Nemo & Friends. We enjoyed the slow
moving ride, despite a couple of stops along our ride through. We
had discussed checking out the Turtle Talk with Crush show,
but ended up skipping it for today. Instead, we wandered through the
various attractions at SeaBase, checking out the manatees,
dolphins, sea turtles, and more as we made our way through the
different exhibits.
After leaving the underwater attractions, it was time to take to
the sky. Using Uncle Steve's Disability Access Service (DAS) pass we
took our first ever ride on Soarin' Over California. This
attraction is at Epcot on a temporary basis and is usually shown at
Disneyland. After experiencing it, Jay and I both agreed that we
absolutely prefer the normal Soarin' Around the World
experience. The were a few issues that I had with the California
version:
- The abrupt transitions between locations - There was no
entering the ocean mist and ending up in a new location on the
other side. It was just a sudden jump from one spot to another.
- The locations were mostly unknown to me - I guess the
locations seemed mostly generic to me in the grand scheme of
things. The mountains could have been mountains anywhere, the
countryside could have been any countryside. There were a few
locations I recognized, but most were too generic to make an
impact on me.
- The holiday based end location - Like the Soarin' Around
the World version, the Soarin' Over California
version ends in a Disney Park. I didn't like that we ended up at
Disneyland during the Christmas celebration. We could even see
Santa in the park! Seems odd for other parts of the year...
Overall, we were glad we got to experience it, but I know that
for Jay and I we would rather see the regular Epcot show instead.
Since we were close, we hit up a ride Aunt Erica had never been
on, Journey Into Imagination With Figment - Tara's favorite!
Though we enjoyed our journey with Figment, this ride is definitely
in need of an update.
The remainder of our day in the park can be found on
page two! |