Saturday, March 26, 2011

Epcot in a wheelchair

Last Saturday was the Honors College's annual spring trip to Orlando and this year we went to Epcot! With the way my heart (and leg) have been bothering me, I opted to do this trip in a wheelchair. It was a hard choice to make but I decided that I was up to taking pictures and riding some of the rides; why not make the chair a bonus ride?
I was slightly heartbroken--although not really surprised--to discover that when I was in the wheelchair, I was either invisible or judged by strangers who couldn't be bothered to let us through, let alone talk to me. Thank goodness the cast members were all super nice.

Moving on... the first thing we saw as we came through the gate were Toy Story topiaries. This month is the garden festival and I was so excited.
Epcot Toy Story topiary
Since we were all geeking out about the plants anyway, we decided to start at the Land. And then I talked the boys into doing the Living Seas first. I think this may have had something to do with it.
Epcot Finding Nemo diptych
Epcot Finding Nemo strip
The awesome marine life also may have helped my case.
Epcot Living Seas collage
Epcot Living Seas diptych
Epcot Living Seas dolphin triptych
Make no mistake, we also enjoyed the Land.
Epcot the Land balloons
Dave is our resident land-based genius and wanted to do the behind-the-scenes tour. He had to settle for skipping to the front of the line for the boat tour.
Epcot the Land blur
Epcot the Land collage


I didn't really take too many pictures in Figment or Innoventions but I did manage to get Dave sprayed by a dancing fountain.
Epcot dancing fountain
I also managed to get one snapshot in line for Mission Space. Green team is go for launch!

I did enjoy some more topiaries as we went but I was counting the seconds until the World Showcase.
Epcot Pooh topiary



This is just a general overview of the World Showcase because I didn't want to bog the blog down too much.
Epcot World Showcase Mexico triptych
Epcot World Showcase Norway triptych
Epcot World Showcase China diptych
Epcot World Showcase China
Epcot World Showcase Germany triptych
animated Germany
Epcot World Showcase Italy diptych
Epcot World Showcase United States
Epcot World Showcase Japan triptych

These photos from Morocco are dedicated to Erin Kotecki Vest, who told me that I could do the park in a wheelchair happily. It's nice to have a friend who understands how much limitations suck and how great it is to overcome them. (Lupus sucks, heart conditions suck, and we rule. Just saying.) Doug decided we needed to rest in Morocco, in part so I could have more photos to send to Erin (whose blog post on doing Disney in a wheelchair prepared me for this trip and encouraged me to actually go).
Epcot World Showcase Morocco diptych
Epcot World Showcase Morocco
Epcot World Showcase Morocco triptych
Epcot World Showcase Morocco diptych details
Epcot World Showcase Morocco triptych details

We continued on after Morocco and visited an exhibit on sustainable outdoor entertaining, where Doug met his new muse.
Epcot garden display
Then, we finished the rest of the World Showcase.
Epcot World Showcase France diptych camera
Epcot World Showcase France triptych
Epcot World Showcase triptych topiary
Epcot World Showcase England diptych

Epcot World Showcase Canada

We spent golden hour admiring more topiaries and killing time until our fast pass was ready and we could ride Test Track.
Epcot topiary diptych
Epcot pixie topiary triptych
Epcot topiary
Epcot Spaceship Earth
Our ride on Test Track was pretty magical.
Epcot Test Track
It was moonrise and a super moon and I don't have a single picture. You'll just have to trust me that it was absolutely gorgeous to zoom around in the car under that giant moon.

We watched the fireworks from a distance because there was no way to fight through the crowd and ensure I had a good view. I think our hilltop, with ice cream for dinner, was the best way to end the day.
Epcot fireworks
Epcot fireworks triptych

I apologize is this post isn't nearly as eloquent or coherent or awesome as usual. It's taken me a week to get the photos together and write this and I am tired. But I had fun, I promise.

6 comments:

  1. I am so so so glad you did it- we can do all these things and more and Disney is the perfect place to start. They are as wheelchair friendly as it gets, even if some of their guests are not. xoxoxoxo

    It really does make me crazy happy that my little blog post and tweets could push you to go. WE CAN DO ANYTHING! !!

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  2. Disney is the perfect place to start. I apparently had a wobbly wheelchair and one of the cast members pointed it out to me when she put me on the Figment ride (I wish I had gotten her name so I could send a nice letter) and told me that if I wanted to switch it out, someone would run for me so I could stay put. And every ride put me at the front of the line, even though I didn't want any special treatment. That totally makes up for the people who didn't see me.

    I'm glad it makes you happy. I had quite a few moments of happy tears myself. I'm even tearing up right now.
    Now, if only I could have made a #suckitlupus sign and gotten a picture in Morocco, everything would be perfect. :D

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  3. Yay! love the clock gif! Looks like you have a great trip. Aloha!

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  4. Thanks Marina. I'm so excited that a) you taught me how to make animated GIFs and b) that you looked at my post.

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  5. Such beautiful photos. You are an amazing photographer.

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