Medals fully restored around my neck having just finished cheering the back of the pack, I wound up walking around EPCOT many times, in part to get photos of the remaining Fab 50 statues, in part to get into new-to-me venues (Ratatouille and Space 220, even the new Canada 360 movie) and enjoy some other random items. I've been here enough times that I'm not as concerned about getting on some of the big ticket rides like Test Track, Mission to Mars (Orange), or Soarin'. If those happen (and Soarin' did this time), great, otherwise I'm not terribly upset.
I also wanted to get a few shots with the medals, of course. And with no characters being in the park, there were only a few reasonable opportunities.
Setting up the 6 medals to be held this way took a LONG time. Given how large the medals themselves are, the lanyards weren't QUITE long enough to be solely holding the overlapping lanyards. Notice where I'm holding this stack o' medals.
I got lucky that I was right at the Member Experience kiosk in France right at 1pm, when it turned out the virtual queue for Ratatouille opened up. I managed to snag a spot which would let me get in around 7pm, assuming no downtime. (Thankfully, there wasn't any downtime.)
The outdoor queue, and even the first couple of indoor rooms of the queue, are nothing special. At least it moved quickly. Let's jump forward in time a few hours to finish out Remy's Ratatouille Adventure.
The only detail worth note in a couple of the initial indoor rooms was the design on the wallpaper. Cute, but I expect a LITTLE bit more from Disney queues.
These were a pleasant surprise:
Just when you think that the above would have signaled the end of the queue, no, we had more rooms to go through.
Finally, we reached the end of the queue and scurried into our trackless ride vehicles.
Given that we were wearing 3D glasses for the ride, I decided to not attempt any photos or video. If you want to see any more from inside, you'll have to get to EPCOT (or Disneyland Paris - where it originated).
It's a cute ride. And had I not previously gone on Rise of the Resistance, I would have been really impressed by the trackless ride vehicle technology. The theme for this ride is really cute, and the illusion of movement is somewhat impressive during times where the vehicle is actually perfectly still and level. But is this worth the uber-long lines that are often in place? No. And is it worth the extra money that Genie+ (or is it Lightning Lane) charges? No. I'd be willing to wait *maybe* 45 minutes to do this ride again.
The big star of the day, that I wasn't sure I'd manage, was Space 220. I was never able to get an ADR, but I made sure to get there when it opened at 4:30pm in an attempt to get a walk-in spot. Success!
Upon a close inspection of our view of the planet, you'll notice that we are NOT where we are supposed to be -- 220 miles directly above EPCOT. Rather, we appear to be over the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Hmm... That detail notwithstanding, it's still rather impressively done. Shame they couldn't do something to get rid of the reflections of the lights from the restaurant within the view of the spacescape.
While the $79 price tag for the prix fixe menu is expensive, when comparing to typical Disney pricing for appetizer, entree, and dessert, at least with what I ordered, the value was pretty close. And then there is the experience and atmosphere which definitely adds some more value. I was more than happy to pay this price (+ tax + tip). I might not do this EVERY trip, but I will do it again.
The fried calamari was VERY good. If you've ever had it at Mama Melrose's, it's the same here, just different presentation. It's a larger portion than my photo would seem to imply.
The filet mignon was quite tasty, though certainly not as good as the obvious EPCOT front-runner: Le Cellier.
The chocolate cheesecake was also REALLY good. It went FAR too fast.
And thankfully they had a table on the upper level. If you have the opportunity, get one of the tables the tables along the railing on the upper level. Do *not* get sucked into being seated at the window. Where that's a good choice at Coral Reef to be able to see all of the aquatic life swimming around and getting up close, it is not the same thing with video screens. Here, having the more removed view of the full space view allows you to see some of the animations all over the place.
This was a really leisurely meal. They gave me more time than I expected I would have gotten, especially since I was solo, sitting at a table that would easily sit 4, if not 6. But, the meal having finished, and my taking in the vid screens more than enough, it was time to return to Earth and start heading over to Japan to get my spot for the new nighttime spectacular.
Alas, the videos I took are too large to upload them here.
Afterwards, despite needing to go to the Skyliner to get back to CBR, I had to get to the front of the park to take some obligatory photos.
By this point, it was nearly a ghost town in EPCOT, walking back from the front entrance to the Skyliner. But when I got there, boy howdy, it was PACKED! It took about 20-30 minutes at that point to finally board and head on back to the room, for the worst day of any Disney trip -- the departure.
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