Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Epcot and Wilderness Lodge

Thursday, May 25, 2023

Epcot and Wilderness Lodge - Three Day Holiday

Epcot has beautiful gardens

I love this view of our hotel lobby

This China picture looks familiar -
same spot as in 2019

Lulu and I love Disneyworld. We have taken our family there many times. As teachers - we have taken groups of students there. No one can forget the day we chartered an airplane in Pennsylvania and flew 150 kids to the Magic Kingdom - and got everyone home safely by midnight. To us - Disneyworld is the happiest place in the world - and it represents everything good about life in general.

We left our home in Tallahassee on Monday morning at 8 am. We drove our red electric car with just 2 little roller bags - one for each. All we packed were shorts and tee shirts. It takes 5 hours of driving to get to the park from our home. Although we can make it without stopping to charge our car - we stop halfway - to top up - and get out to relax. By 1 pm - we pulled into the hotel parking lot. The gate attendant pointed out the electric car chargers. Although they were slow chargers -we plugged into one of them and got a charge overnight.

They gave us a very nice room on the 6th floor overlooking the main lobby. What a nice room - with a balcony looking north toward the Magic Kingdom. We were able to catch the fireworks at 9 pm - then we tucked into bed to get a good night's sleep.

Tuesday - we got up at 8 am - Epcot opens at 9. When you stay in the Disney hotels - they let you drive your car from park to park. We arrived at the Big Ball at Epcot just as it opened. We were surprised that the crowd was very mild.

TICKETS

It now cost $140 a day for a one park day pass. There are bargains for Florida residents and buying multiple days. We bought two 4-day park hopper passes for $250 each. We only used one day each - so we have 6 passes left now. They must be used before October 1st.

In 1974 - when we took our first school group to the park - it was $8 a day a person. If you stayed in the hotel - there was even a discount from that price. Lulu and I made our first visit to Disneyworld in 1972 - on our first anniversary trip. The park was not open when we eloped to Florida in 1971 - but we passed by on the way to Miami.

Epcot -

Walt Disney planned Epcot to be a community with people living there. But he died way before Epcot was built and they changed his plans. Today - it is like a World's Fair with favored countries having pavilions. You walk into their area and experience a little of the culture.

Canada - England - Japan - France - Germany - Morocco - China - Norway - Mexico. We visited each country on Tuesday. We realized that the only country that we have never visited live is Norway. We had lunch in France and supper in England. Sandi - one of Lulu's former students - came to Disney to have supper with us.

Around 8 pm it started to rain - and we had to wear ponchos to stick it out for the fireworks at 9 pm. There were very few people that stayed for the fireworks - we had a nice location right along the lake - and watched a spectacular show in the rain.

We drove our car back to our Wilderness Lodge - we slept well after being on our feet for 12 hours. In the morning we got up at 9 am and went swimming. Both pools were very warm - with few bathers. Checkout time was 11 am - I put the bags in the car - and we enjoyed the resort for a while.

We left Disney at about noon - had a nice drive home with stops for supper and shopping. We topped the car up at Ocala - and got home at 6 pm.