Spaceship Earth, Terrible Look at the Brave Thing, Japan Fruit Ice Pop, Spirited Beasts, Pearl Settings

Heading over to Epcot on June 16th.  This is probably as skippable of an “update” as I’ve ever written.  Not that they aren’t all skippable, mind you.  But this one is in particular.

Still somewhat relevant as we look down at Test Track from the monorail.  Even more of the pavement is torn up out front now.

Arriving precisely when we mean to at 6:27pm, only a couple of turnstiles are open, causing waits to be a few minutes.

Look further down to the left and you’ll see the GUEST and CAST entrance, which may have a much shorter line.  If this family of five hadn’t just arrived, the line would only be four people long.  People down here are more likely to remember which finger they used last time too.

More Christmas lettuces popping up all the time.

No line for Spaceship Earth at this hour per usual.

A few shots for no reason:

Using the 50mm F1.8 lens.  Oh 35mm 1.4L I want youuuuuu.

We’ll take a (bad) look at the Brave Highland Games Tournament while we’re in the neighborhood. It’s located near Imagination Pavilion along the walkway up to the Canada Pavilion.

The training ground should look familiar, since it’s the same one used for the Flower & Garden Festival.

But the shade provided by the tents is a nice bonus.  Very Scotland(?).

Kids can spin the wheel.

And learn how to shoot a bow and arrow.

This officially runs through July 8th.

After the archery lesson, you move down to the next table where you hit this launcher thing with a hammer to launch a projectile in the general direction of a basket.

“Cornhole” is all the rage these days.  Then you get a button upon completing the tasks.  It’s not exactly earth shatteringly fun, but it’s a nice little activity for the kids.  They have a lot of fun on the playground and you only paid $95 to get in.

Meet Merida.  Just not here.  Speaking of which, lines continue to be manageable at her Meet and Greet.  In the afternoon, they’re in the 20 to 30 minute range, compared to a solid 40 to 90 for Ariel, Tinker Bell, or Rapunzel.  Brave opens tomorrow.  It’s predicted to pull in 65 million dollars over the weekend, which is a similar amount that Madagascar 3 brought in a couple of weeks ago.  Reviews are good, but not overwhelmingly positive.  We’ll see what wait times look like next week when the movie is released.  With the heavy marketing campaign, I can’t imagine that people are going to suddenly realize she exists, but there may be increased desire to meet her from girls that have seen the movie.

Outside Yakitori House and the new-ish Sake stand in the Japan Pavilion sits a cart that sells these ice pops.

This is apparently the only picture I have of them.  Told you this was skippable.  These things are not the easiest to eat as far as I could tell.  Cutting the top evenly with a pair of scissors would have made it much more enjoyable.  While it mentions “cutting the stub off,” the cast member didn’t offer and I neglected to ask at the time.  But this was also the same cast member that told us the pink pop was “apple flavored.”  It was strawberry flavored as one might expect from a pink freezer pop.  Apple doesn’t, in fact, exist as a flavor.  Otherwise, it’s similar to what you might expect an ice pop to be.  I had a heck of a time eating it though because it’s difficult to really make a clean opening at the top with just your sticky fingers.  Somebody smarter than me might be able to interject with a more sane approach.  As usual, I’m sure I was doing it wrong. I would probably stick to a kaki gori if I was in the mood for a frozen treat.  Easier to eat, less sticky, and more of it for not a lot more money.

We’ll pop into the Japanese culture exhibit while we’re here.  It’s located in the back of the Japan Pavilion near the sake/food section of the Mitukoshi Department Store.  Basically, you’ll see it through doors before you arrive at that room inside the Mitsukoshi.

Change is coming. BIG, SPIRITED change!

We’ve taken a look at this before, just not quite in as much depth.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan1.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan2.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan3.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan4.jpg.

Best Mario:

Though there’s something to say for Frog Mario.  And when you can pick up the shoe/sock and hop around.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan5.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan6.jpg.

In case you want to get one of those Cozy Cone Cabanas over at Art of Animation Resort, just bring this guy along.

With those wings?  Can you imagine having that at your house?  I’d have a heart attack every time I saw the thing.  Not to mention the fact that sticking one of these in your house is a little hypocritical in the first place, ya bunch of show offs!

Inside the Mitsukoshi Department store, I found the best invention.

Less sure about what you do with this one.

Here are some of the Pick A Pearl settings:

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan7.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan8.jpg.  Note the carriage on the bottom row!  Not sure why I cut off the price.  It’s $49.95.  Probably not as nice for $5.  Somebody might have a recommendation in the comments.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan9.jpg.

Bigger: http://www.easywdw.com/reports4/japan10.jpg.

Along with the pearls that run about $16 each.  A lot of people seem to purchase settings on eBay as they’re less expensive.

The Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar took my advice regarding their door.  I reviewed it in depth back in May here.  Now, they have one door that’s always open.  It can create a bit of a traffic jam at times, but it does help with the ambiance inside.

This is the old menu:

The new menu:

Everything went up a dollar about a week after they opened.  Someone has to pay those creepers that spend their hours staring at you while you eat.

Epcot wasn’t too busy all things considered.

We’ll finally get to Flying Fish next.