In general the shops in this pavilion are quite forgettable. While you may find a carving that you admire or other such craft item, you will recognize nearly every item in every store.

Canada does feature a beautiful movie, O Canada!, that shows much of the gorgeous countryside of this vast nation. This movie will be very enjoyable to the adult members of your family but may not appeal to the children of your group.

There is a reasonable restaurant for snacks at this pavilion but the real attraction is the full service steakhouse, Le Cellier. While your food won’t be as good as the extremely high end steakhouse in your hometown, you will be happy with this choice if you crave steak for dinner when in the park.

While this pavilion is not my favorite within the World Showcase, you should make it one of your stops as you circle the lake.

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The largest attraction in The Seas is the very large aquarium. Kids of all ages from 3 to 93 will enjoy watching the fish and dolphins swim around. In a separate pond are manatees that have been rescued from the wild and are being rehabilitated before their return.

It is worth watching the manatees, if only to support the efforts of Disney in this important environmental cause. Disney is a profit oriented corporation and if people are enjoying an exhibit that also is good for the world, they are more likely to continue that effort.  Therefore, please make this exhibit part of your itinerary to this park.

If you haven’t been to EPCOT lately, then you need to go on "The Seas with Nemo and Friends" ride.  It opened in early 2007 and you will board "clam-mobiles" and meet Mr. Ray and his class on a field trip and soon learn that Nemo has wandered off. The journey in search of Nemo includes familiar characters such as Dory, Bruce, Marlin, Squirt and Crush. These deep-sea friends inhabit a variety of vibrant vignettes, including the actual aquarium containing more than 65 species of marine life. In the musical finale, Nemo is happily reunited with his class and friends.

"Turtle Talk with Crush!" is another great exhibit. This interactive show features a computer-animated version of the surfer dude turtle from "Finding Nemo" in 10-minute conversations with visitors.  The technology behind Crush is amazing as he looks at the person he’s talking with and really interacts with people. For example, the host will ask a kid his name and Crush will say "Hello, Sam" He makes jokes and takes questions from audience. The show lasts about 10 minutes and is very enjoyable. Dory also may appear with Crush.

"Bruce’s Sub House" is another newer theme in the pavilion that your children will enjoy. It is a hands-on play area geared to kids. The area features some of other characters from the movie and makes for a great photo opportunity. Kids can learn a few things by lifting the flaps on and reading through the various displays. Younger children may be a little timid of the low lighting levels but there is nothing particularly scary in the attraction.

I also suspect that the pavilion is used for more corporate events where a visiting company or association will rent out the pavilion for an evening after the park has closed.

As of August of 2007, some of the signs in front of Wonders of Life have been removed so the current plans for the facility are unknown and you should not plan on entering this pavilion.

I suggest that you read information from other sites on the web that have reviewed this pavilion.  Here are a few:

http://www.allearsnet.com/tp/ep/e_body.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonders_of_Life

The big reason to make sure your day includes The Land is the attraction Soarin’ which was added just a couple years ago. The attraction sends you on a sweeping flyover above California for a birds-eye view of the rich landscape and topography.  The unforgettable experience combines cinematic artistry and state-of-the-art motion base technology. You are lifted inside a giant projection screen dome and completely surrounded with the beauty and wonder of the state of California as you fly over the Golden Gate Bridge, the Redwood forests, Napa Valley, Yosemite and more. The free-flight experience intensifies as you feel the sweeping winds and smell fragrant orange blossoms and pine trees.

You will likely need to get a FastPass for Soarin’ so plan to stop in by mid-day before they are all sold out. 

Living with the Land also has FastPass capability but you probably don’t need it except on the busiest of days. This is a leisurely and educational boat ride through EPCOT’s greenhouses. While the adventure loving members of your clan may be bored with the presentation, it does offer a good respite from the heat of the day and you will likely learn something as well.

Probably the best part of The Land is the restaurants.  With the exception of the ethnic restaurants of the World Showcase in the back half of the park, The Land has the best menu. If you are only in the park for one day, you should eat at one of the World Showcase countries but if you have a multi-day trip, you will not go wrong in The Land.

When you enter the park you will walk through the required shops and stores. You will have to dodge the photographers that want to catch the magical day on film. Once you have crossed through this wallet-emptying gauntlet, you are confronted by a choice:

• Go left for thrill rides that will rival any park in the US (yes, even Cedar Point in Ohio) OR
• Go right for an area dedicated to the zany and crooked world of Dr. Seuss that is guaranteed to thrill the kid in all of us.

This park features several fantastic thrill rides topped off with The Hulk, Dr. Doom, and the Dueling Dragons. It also has one of the best 3D adventure movies ever made: Spiderman.

The park will let you purchase a pass that will get you to the front of the line. This pass is fairly expensive but if you are visiting on a busy day you may have no choice but to make this investment. Otherwise you will risk not being able to partake in all the park has to offer because you will simply run out of time waiting in line.

The admittance to the park is actually quite reasonable. If you are planning on being in Orlando for multiple days, you may want to invest in a multi-day pass and plan on spending partial days at the park. As with most Orlando parks, if you can get to the park very early in the morning and then late in the afternoon you will be able to maximize your enjoyment while minimizing your time waiting in long lines.

HINT: Arrive at any Orlando park at least 60 minutes before they open. Be first in line for your favorite couple of rides and then leave the park for lunch. While you are out of the park, enjoy some Orlando shopping or go to the pool at your hotel. Then go back to the park at 4 or 5 in the afternoon and you will have missed the biggest rush, the heat of the day, the grumpy parents, and the whiny little kids.

If your family is into collecting autographs from characters, you won’t be disappointed in this park. The theme for most of the park are the Marvel superheros (Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Captain America, etc.) coupled with Duddley Do-Right and the Seuss characters. How can you go wrong?

Islands of Adventure, and its sister park Universal Studios Florida, are on the back side of a large shopping and entertainment district called City Walk that will entice you with many ways to fill your hours (and empty your wallet). Make sure you check out Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant for a margarita and Cheeseburger in Paradise.

If I had to choose one park in Orlando to entertain my family, it would be Islands of Adventure. It allows more fun and laughs per dollar spent than any other park.

Technorati Tags: islands+of+adventure, Universal+studios, hulk, spiderman, Seuss

The main event starts in a large auditorium with multiple theatre screens. During this part, Ellen DeGeneres starts a dream sequence that stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Alex Trebek, and features Bill Nye, the Science Guy. This dream sequence has Ellen traveling back to the beginning of the universe, through the dinosaur age and then back to the present to learn about the creation of our present forms of energy.

While Ellen is dreaming, you have moved from a large auditorium to moving seats that will carry you through a prehistoric forest complete with animatronic dinosaurs. Small children may get a little frightened in this scene but the dinosaurs stay away from the seats so just make sure the youngest are not close to the ends and they should be fine

This is a very enjoyable pavilion. It is rare to have a long line to get in, so save this event for a filler between your FastPass events. The ride lasts about 45 minutes and holds hundreds of people at a time so it is an enjoyable way to beat the heat.

As you enter the pavilion you will weave around a display of automotive test paraphernalia. If you are into cars and have technical aptitude then you will enjoy this wait thoroughly. However, if you don’t care about either of the above, I am sorry to say that you will likely be bored to tears. The good part of this is that since you signed up for a FastPass, this wait won’t be long and you will quickly be into the main attraction.

The main part of the pavilion is the test track. You will be strapped into a “car” and you will take that car over a wide variety of terrain and conditions that is supposed to mimic the efforts the automotive engineers put vehicles through. The culmination of this ride is a brisk spin around the outside of the building going 60 mph (although it will feel much faster than that).

After your ride, you can play around in the display area. This is quite educational,but to be honest, it feels more like a PR indoctrination for the automotive industry. You will likely see some new GM cars on display (they are the sponsor) and some concept cars that will try to convince you that GM is a great company. While I have nothing against GM, you will likely bore quickly.

For thrill seekers, Kings Island doesn’t compete with Cedar Point or Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure but it does offer a few gems of excitement. The biggest attraction in the park is The Beast which still holds the record as the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. This ride regularly tops any list of wooden roller coasters and it is a treat for coaster fans. KI tried to build on this draw by building Son of Beast which allowed the rider to go upside down on a wooden coaster but numerous technical challenges have put this ride at risk and it may eventually get shut down.

The new owner of the park appears to understand that thrill rides drive attendance and they have introduced new attractions to pull thrill seekers into the park. The Firehawk that was introduced in the summer of 2007 is a testimony to this.

Kings Island has one of the best kids parks and water parks attached to the thrill park. These additional venues are included with the main ticket admission and make the park almost impossible to enjoy in only one day. You would be wise to spend 2-3 days in Cincinnati and make it a mini-vacation (perhaps time it with a Reds game).

Unlike Cedar Point, Kings Island has many great choices for hotels in a variety of price ranges and features. This is the benefit of being close to Cincinnati where hotels can attract business travelers as well Kings Island vacationers. The main Kings Island website has links to local offerings and you can find many more by just searching for northern Cincinnati hotels.

While you are in Kings Island or staying in the surrounding Cincinnati area, make sure that you partake of some of the local eateries. The two most famous are Montgomery Inn ribs (arguably the best ribs in the country) and the very unique Cincinnati chili which is featured at Skyline and Gold Star Chili.  Both Montgomery Inn and Skyline have stores within Kings Island as does local pizza chain, La Rosas.

Here is some related reading for you to enjoy:
Beast @ Kings Island | Roller Coaster Reviews

The inside of the ball is a continuous slow moving ride that takes you through the history and possible future of communication. For this reason the pavilion is sponsored by Siemens AG. It is a very interesting ride and quite uplifting. Most people will leave the show feeling that the human race has accomplished a lot and optimistically has many more great things to do.

The line for the pavilion is usually quite reasonable and should be half or less than some of the other big attractions in the park. Also thanks to the location of the queue under the ball of the pavilion, it is usually very comfortable even on the hottest days so a good tip is to save this ride for the heat of the day.

This is a favorite event for any family and you really need to enjoy it. While you won’t buzz around at 60 mph, you will definitely learn a few things and you will have a general feeling of good will.

At the time of this writing, this pavilion is closed for remodeling. I am sure the new version of the pavilion will be wonderful and exciting. The picture included in this post has the Mickey Mouse hand beside that sphere and that hand has been removed in the remodeling.

The park is a little hard to get to. It is located on Lake Erie and is a fair drive from either Cleveland or Toledo. Due to its location, many people will have to take long drives to the park and spend the night either before or after. There are dozens of affordable hotels and motels to stay at and here is a link to a few of them.

The owners of Cedar Point also own a few hotels and some of these are attractions to themselves. The Hotel Breakers is actually on the grounds of the park and is a magnificent hotel. You may be interested in staying at the water park based hotel, Castaway Bay, and turn your trip to Cedar Point into a multiple day mini-vacation. You can find other Cedar Point Resorts here.

At the park, you really must try the turkey legs which are a bit of a local treat. And aside from the  many thrill rides and roller coasters, make sure that you take the Sky Ride from one end of the park to the other, it is a fun way to travel and see all of the sites.

No trip to the park is complete without purchasing some of its taffy. Save your purchase for the end of the day so you can have a sugar high on the drive to the hotel, home, or airport.

Mission: SPACE is located on the left hand side of Future World as you enter the park. The main attraction is a simulated launch and trip to outer space. There are two versions of this attraction since there have been some injuries and complications in the past. The more aggressive version has the “astronaut” feeling several Gs during the flight. The less aggressive version doesn’t put the “astronaut” through this experience but still allows them to play a part in the trip with a very specific duty. You are well warned before entering the attraction and several people have been taken to the hospital due to health concerns that became aggravated in the aggressive ride.

After the trip, you can spend a large amount of time in the interactive game area that has team play for a large group of people. Emphasis is on working fast and teamwork. This area is one of the better multi-player games in the park and you should spend the time enjoying it.

These are just my opinions.  Other people may have other opinions and here are some:
Mission Space at EPCOT
EPCOT MISSION SPACE VIDEOS

In the “play area” of the attraction, you will see a variety of stations that use light. Some of these work well and many do not. If the attraction is crowded, you will not get the same experience because some other kid will invariably run up and do something. The area also includes a place to take a picture of yourself and then do image manipulation and place stickers on your face. While this is appealing, it is not novel anymore since many people can do the same thing with their digital camera and their home computer. Also, the imaging stations are very large and since they take up a lot of room, there is never enough to go around.

The pavilion also includes a ride that was much better years ago. It used to feature some other characters (namely Dreamfinder) that were quite enjoyable and Figment was much more prominent. Now, Figment plays a lesser role and the tune that used to be so addicting, is less so. It isn’t a terrible ride, just could be done better. Even though, I say the tune is less addicting than it used to be, you may still be singing it to yourself for the next hour. The old ride was probably a 7 or 8 on a scale of 10 where the new one is now a 5 or 6 so it is still worth your time but if the line is over an hour long, you may want to skip it. You only get a certain number of FastPasses during your day, don’t waste one on this ride.

The 3-D movie in the pavilion is really seen its age. If you have spent a week in Orlando, you will have seen at least a half a dozen 3-D movies and you will probably rank this one close to the lowest. The effects are not that bad, it is more the movie plot itself. It is based on the “Honey, I Shrunk” movie series with Rick Moranis and at the time of its filming it was quite relevant. However, the last Shrunk movie was in 1997 and that was for “Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves” and it was not exactly a box-office buster! It is quite likely that anyone under the age of 12 will not be familiar with the series or at least won’t be impressed since there have been so many really good movie concepts since then. Kodak and Disney need to pick a new movie theme.

You can read about the entire Epcot park here.

Other bloggers may have different opinions and here are a few for you to read.
Day 7 – Rediscovering Epcot
The Return of Dreamfinder?!?

Technorati Tags: Epcot, DisneyWorld, Imagination!

A full brochure of the map is available here and a high-level map is available below.

At the bottom of this article, you will find links to reviews the individual locations within Epcot. This list of reviews is constantly under construction so some of the links will take you to other sites.

You really need to budget a full day, if not 2 days, to enjoy this park. On busy days, the lines for the Future World attractions could be over an hour long and if you enjoy each building then your first day will be spent just in this park.

The World Showcase requires a more mature intellect and many children will be tire of the cultural barrage. If shopping in distant countries, eating ethnic cuisine and seeing architecture from other lands is interesting to you then you will love this half of Epcot.

Throughout the park, you will find Disney characters signing autographs for youngsters and posing for pictures. If you want to enjoy this activity, you can easily spend the entire day going from one location to another looking for more costumed characters.

Several hints that will allow you to enjoy your day at the park:

• Arrive early and go directly to the attraction that interests you the most. Mission Space and Test Track are currently very popular and will force you into long lines later in the day.
• After you have been on either Mission Space or Test Track, get a FastPass for the other one. You will likely have time to enjoy other activities while you wait and the line will be much more enjoyable using the FastPass.
• There are a lot of great places to eat at the park but the most enjoyable and unique will be in the back at the World Showcase. Plan to eat there for lunch and dinner – most of the restaurants take reservations and it is encouraged that you take advantage of this service.

Future World

Imagination! Pavilion
Mission: SPACE Pavilion
Spaceship Earth Pavilion
Test Track Pavilion
The Land Pavilion
The Seas with Nemo & Friends Pavilion
Universe of Energy
Wonders of Life Pavilion

World Showcase

Canada Pavilion
China Pavilion
France Pavilion
Germany Pavilion
Italy Pavilion
Japan Pavilion
Mexico Pavilion
Morocco Pavilion
Norway Pavilion
U.S.A. Pavilion
United Kingdom Pavilion

Technorati Tags: Disney, Epcot, Florida, Orlando, DisneyWorld