Walt Disney World 2004 - Page 2

Today we visit Epcot, where the annual Flower and Garden Festival is in full swing. Large character topiaries greet guests at the entrance to the park in front of Spaceship Earth, standing in a colorful flower bed. These add a lot of life and color to the area, especially with the silver and brown Leave A Legacy monuments around.

The characters from Finding Nemo have been added to a small planting area near The Living Seas. And displays inside the pavilion showcase some of the different fish species found in the movie. There are rumors of more additions themed to the movie, but only time will tell. This little addition has become quite a popular photo spot.

One of the fun things about visiting a park right at opening time is the lack of crowds, as can be seen in this shot of The Land. Plus, I liked the way this picture turned out. Inside the pavilion, there were short waits for all of the attractions. I'm sure they are hoping the crowds will grow with the addition of the under-construction Soarin' attraction, the entrance to which replaced Food Rocks.

A jaunt around to World Showcase brings us to Canada. Again, this was before the actual opening time of World Showcase, which explains the lack of people in the garden area. This part of Canada always showcases excellent gardening, and it receives even more attention, both from the horitculture staff and from guests, during the Flower and Garden Festival.

Another shot of a deserted World Showcase, this time in the United Kingdom. Although World Showcase didn't open until 11:00, you could go all the way to the bridge to France on the west side. This was to allow access to the park to those coming in through the International Gateway. However, the main areas of Canada were roped off, and all the doors in the United Kingdom were closed. Still, it was fun to be able to walk through the virtually empty streets.

Once the rope was dropped, the traffic through World Showcase was pretty light. Here is a shot from Morocco, which offers many great photo opportunities. I always find several places to take pictures in this pavilion. The artistry is superb, thanks to all the craftsmen brought over from Morocco to help during the construction.

My main reason for being here - a band concert. This is the Harding Academy band from Memphis, Tennessee, and they performed at the Future World West stage in Epcot. They attracted a pretty good crowd, including complete strangers who would stop to take their picture. A large part of the crowd was made up of those of us who had traveled there with the band, but some others stayed for the whole concert as well.

Moving back to World Showcase after the band concert, the first stop was Mexico, one of my favorite World Showcase pavilions. And of course, I had to stop for lunch at the cantina across the Promenade from the main building.

Italy is another World Showcase country that offers many good photo locations. This photo almost looked like a postcard to me, and it is one of my favorites from the trip. The comedy players were gathering an audience for their show, so there was lots of commotion while I was taking pictures.

Here are Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain from the opening scene of the American Adventure. No flash photography was used in the taking of this picture. Because of the light crowds of the morning, everyone was able to sit wherever they wanted in the theater, instead of the usual procedure of choosing a row and moving all the way down. I was the only person on either of the first two rows.

That afternoon, the rain set in, and it stayed around for the rest of the day, including a rainy performance of Illuminations later in the evening. I used the opportunity to do some exploring before heading to Downtown Disney and then back to Epcot. This shot of the Epcot Monorail entrance shows how wet everything was.

The rain was pretty light when I got back to Epcot, so it allowed for a few more pictures. This one shows that the Tinker Bell topiary installed for the Flower and Garden festival had lights, which of course were only visible at night.

Here is a rainy-night shot of Test Track. I love the different colors of light that are used at night here. The different colors on the underside of the canopy particularly help to set it off, and then the blue glow from inside adds to the atmosphere.

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