The Jarvii 
I’ve never been to Epcot before, so I was quite excited to be at this park. Mostly because I really like food, and so I was looking forward to having food from around the world. Otherwise I really didn’t know much about this park other than the Guardians of the Galaxy rollercoaster that opened up a few months ago. Needless to say, I didn’t do much research and sadly didn’t adhere to my travel agents guidance.
Before entering the park, I joined the virtual queue for Guardians at 7am. It said that we would probably be called to the ride around 5pm and that it also doesn’t guarantee we would get on the ride (I guess if it breaks down). It made me nervous that I ended up buying Lightning Lane for it, but I never canceled my place in the virtual queue. Best. Decision. Ever. In the end we got to ride twice! Highly recommend.
Next Remy’s was no longer doing a virtual queue, which I wasn’t aware of for some reason. And Genie was being weird because it usually shows return times when you’re looking to book rides. Because Genie was acting weird I just assumed it was only standby. That was totally my mistake because by the time we could book another ride (we booked Frozen first), there were no more lightning lanes and the standby line was 2+ hours. It wasn’t that big of a loss because my oldest daughter really freaked out when she first watched Ratatouille many moons ago.
Anyhoo, we arrived at Epcot closer to 9:30 because our Frozen return time wasn’t until 11am. We decided to ride The Seas with Nemo & Friends first, which was kind of near the entrance. The ride itself wasn’t exciting, but the toddler and grandparents enjoyed it. The real highlight was seeing the aquarium part. There were so many different tropical fishes, sharks, stingrays, and dolphins. All the kids were mesmerized.
After putzing around there for awhile, my husband took the tot to see a show while the rest of us made our way to France. I wanted to check how to get on to Remy’s and I promised my son a crepe while at Epcot (his favorite treat). The crepe place had a super long line, but not quite as long as Remy’s. This is where I found out the sad news about Genie and Remy, but luckily I was able to drown my sorrows with a crepe. And when I say the line was long, my husband was able to see a show with the tot in Mexico and made it back to us in France to join us for the tailend of our crepe eating.
When we were finished we made out way to Norway to ride Frozen Ever After. My oldest daughter is obsessed with Frozen. And we converted my youngest when she saw Anna and Elsa perform at Hollywood Studios. So everyone was excited for this ride, until we were at the entrance and my daughter saw a sign posted saying, “Caution: You may get wet.” She is still scarred from Animal Kingdom, so we really had to cajole her into riding. One of the cast members saw how nervous she looked, and we explained that she doesn’t want to get wet. The cast member told her the ride was like Pirates of the Caribbean, which she hadn’t ridden at that point. So we asked if we would get wet like Splash Mountain wet, and she was like definitely not. So that made her feel better. At the end everyone really enjoyed the ride, including the nervous daughter, tot, and grandparents. It’s not like a normal river ride, which made it quite exciting.
Next my parents took the tot to play in the shade while we decided to ride Mission: Space and did the Mars mission. HUGE MISTAKE! We all had no idea what this ride was about. It definitely was a low grade NASA simulation that made all of us at best feel incredibly uncomfortable at worse incredibly nauseous with the 2.5G force. It just wasn’t exciting and very sickening. Some people do enjoy this ride, but it totally wasn’t for us. My son basically felt sick the rest of the day. I left with my hip feeling wonky. I just finished physical therapy for my hip at the end of the summer and felt really great playing soccer again. But getting up to walk after that ride I was taken aback cause my hip felt out of place. So heed my warning folks.
When we were done with that horrific ride, it was time for our Guardians return time. All I have to say about this coaster is that it is probably one of the best coasters I’ve ever ridden in my entire life–not just Disney. I don’t want to spoil it, but it was just a lot of fun and very thrilling. If you’re an 80s baby, like me, you will love the music. The ride played Everybody Wants To Rule the World by Tears For Fears, so I was just singing along the entire time. It was just a lot of fun. My daughter absolutely loved it as well and said that was by far her favorite ride at Disney. Sadly, my son didn’t quite enjoy it as much and I think that’s largely due to the fact that he was still feeling a bit ill from Mission: Space.
At that point we were all hungry for some food. So we made out way to Canada where the kids had some nuggets and fries and I was able to get some poutine. We were able to find a shaded spot by the lake, which was nice and cool since it was starting to get hot. My husband did not fancy any of that, so he went to Morocco and unfortunately was forced to do the sit down restaurant as their quick service was shut (in preparation for the holiday festival starting the next day).
When we were done with lunch I got a push notification that we were up from the virtual queue for Guardians. I texted my husband if he wanted to go with us, but he was enjoying his lunch and thought it was too soon after eating to ride a rollercoaster. My son was definitely not interested at all as he was still a bit nauseous. So we left my parents and the two kids at a kind of shady playground by the Creations Shop, while my other daughter, brother, and I made our way back to Guardians.
The big difference between the virtual queue and buying a lightning lane is the wait. The virtual queue is nice as you aren’t outside in the heat waiting in a stand by line, but there’s still a long wait inside. When you buy a lighting lane you essentially just walk right in. Ultimately it took us about an hour from scanning in to leaving the building. For some reason I thought the wait would be shorter.
And Guardians was just as good the second time! OMG, I can’t tell you enough how much I enjoy this ride. The coolest thing is that the song was totally different from the first go around. This time they played I Ran by Flock of Seagulls, another great 80s song. When we got off I asked a cast member if the two sides had different songs. She told me that actually there are 6 different songs that are randomized to play. So now my daughter wants to ride it until she hears all the different songs, which I wouldn’t mind helping her accomplish. Haha.
After the ride, we met up with everyone at the playground. And there essentially weren’t any other rides we could book through Genie as they were either out or rides that didn’t interest us. And there was no way we were going to wait 2+ hours for Remy. So we took a boat to Morocco just so we could ride another boat, which my son enjoyed. I also enjoyed some Moroccan desserts my husband got to go.
We had about an hour to kill before our early dinner reservation, so we just meander through the different countries. The kids got gelatos from Italy. My husband had a beer from Germany. If you haven’t noticed, cast members have their name and where they are from on their name tags. And at Epcot the cast members are actually from the countries they were working at. So my daughter was able to use her very very very basic Italian to order her gelato, which tickled the Italian cast members.
We then had dinner at the Teppan Edo, which was entertaining for the kids although they didn’t light things on fire. My husband enjoyed the fact that they served udon noodles. My kids devoured the food, which is always good. And they humored my son with ketchup. By the end of dinner we canceled our Genie for Soarin’ cause we were all pretty tired and went home.
Having said all that, I really want to come back to Epcot for an adults only trip to do the Food and Wine Festival in the fall. I love my food, and I know I will totally love that. I obviously also want to ride Guardians again. The one take away from our day here is that I wish I used Genie better. I don’t know why it just didn’t work as well here. Was it cause Genie was glitchy? Maybe there just isn’t as many rides that Genie doesn’t work well, similar to Hollywood Studios. But definitely don’t skip this park!!!
