4/16/11 – Disney World

Although we were staying at a 1000 Trails/Encore resort in Clermont, we weren’t planning to go to Disney World.  George hadn’t enjoyed Disneyland—the crowds were impossible when we were there in December and it certainly wasn’t the Disneyland I remembered.

Turned out our “next-door neighbors” at the RV park had both retired from Disney World.  In fact, Sally had played the Mickey Mouse character.   When she heard that we’d never been there, she asked George if we’d like a day pass to Disney World.  He waited until I got home from shopping to ask me.  (Well, duh! Are you kidding????)

She suggested we’d like Epcot because it’s more relaxed than Magic Kingdom, but said we should go there on the monorail to see how much bigger Cinderella’s castle is than Sleeping Beauty’s castle in California.  (Wow!  It really is…)

Turned out that HGTV International Flower & Garden Festival was going on, so there were special floral exhibits all over the place.  There were lots of topiaries of the Disney characters too.  I liked it that they weren’t all together in one exhibition, but placed all over the place.  You’d come around a corner and there’d be topiaries of Cinderella or Mickey Mouse.  Lots of wonderful fragrant plants too.  I loved it! 

 We did like Epcot. The atmosphere is quieter, not so crowded and rushed.  Maybe because it’s not so focused on all the rides, or maybe because the International Pavilions seem designed more for adult interests than for children.  George wasn’t as happy with the Circle-Vision movies as I was.  I'd loved the old Bell Telephone "America the Beautiful" exhibit from Disneyland’s Tomorrowland back in the 60's; he got a little queasy­ watching 360 degrees of action. 

It was fun but by the end of the day, I was totally exhausted!  Apparently old ladies get as worn out there as small children do.  I honestly can’t imagine going back several days in a row with little kids!

Link to more pictures at Epcot:  Disney World 
Link to more garden & topiary pictures:  Flowers & Topiaries