21 Jun 2023
Today, I joined Matt and his sister+family at EPCOT and, since Matt had early entry, we woke up bright and early to take advantage of our extra time in the park. Unfortunately, even though the park was open, most shops weren’t, plus, it was still raining, so we just took shelter under the eaves of Les Halles and waited for it to open.
I was looking forward to eating through today, but honestly, wasn’t all that impressed with the offerings here. The apple crumble pastry I wanted to try wasn’t available so I got a strawberry tart, which was good, but small.
Flower and Garden Fest was going on during our visit, and these Disney character topiaries were everywhere:
Eeyore and Piglet:
Canadian geese:
and yes, even though we started in France, we turned around and went clockwise instead:
I’m a flower!
While Matt and family headed off to their first ride, I hung out at the butterfly garden!
This was the part of Epcot I was most looking forward to! Since it was (still) raining, a lot of the butterflies were stationary, which made them easier to photograph!
White peacock:
This guy was by far the most common, but he was also quite pretty, so I took a lot of pictures of him.
Zebra longwing:
Monarch:
I’ve always just called this guy a Cabbage moth, but I got to talking with a British chap who was also photographing the butterflies and he called it a Cabbage White:
A couple more White peacocks:
Malachite:
This guy’s wings, when open, are a beautiful green with black, but both times I saw him he was closed up 🙁
Julia:
No, seriously, that’s the butterfly’s name!
A whole pack of Julias!
They were also quite common, but pretty, so I took lots of pictures of them too 🙂
White peacock:
A White peacock facing the camera!
and another:
Monarch:
Julia:
Still a Julia, just with darker markings:
Flat Julia:
Polydamos swallowtail:
Basically, a swallowtail minus the swallowtail
Pretty, but not interested in staying still for pictures.
A hidden White peacock:
Butterflies drying off after the rain:
A rather beaten-up Zebra longing:
I don’t know how well he can fly- it looks like he’s at the end of his life 🙁
A still-alive Zebra:
Blue swallowtail!
(though I think his swallowtail has fallen off)
He was way up high and hard to get a picture of 🙁
Swallowtail silhouette:
Finally! a stationary Polydamos swallowtail!
Butterfly feeding:
Not a Monarch! This is a Queen:
Another Cabbage white:
White peacocks:
A folded up Julia:
Zebra:
Zebra:
Zebra + Polydamos swallowtail:
A very beat up Polydamos swallowtail:
Folded up Malachite, again:
Queen:
Injured Monarch:
Intact Monarch:
The back end of a Julia:
Blue swallowtail, but again, he’s way up away high and hard to photograph:
Couldn’t get a good angle on him 🙁
White peacock:
And a pile of milkweed bugs making more milkweed bugs…
By this time, Matt + Family had joined me in the Butterfly House and it was time to keep moving (and find more food!)
The cart/kiosks were finally starting to open so Matt and I grabbed lunch from Mexico: a squash quesadilla for me and beef taco for Matt:
Both were ok, Matt’s taco was probably better than my quesadilla, but I wouldn’t get either again. I was looking forward to snacking my way through the park, but so far, food has been disappointing.
Then we arrived in Norway. The Frozen ride was down, but at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe I discovered eplekake, which is exactly what it sounds like- apple cake! It comes with a caramel drizzle that I would leave off next time, but this is what I was craving, what I tried to get for breakfast, and it was so tasty I forgot to snap a picture of it!
It’s kind of hard to see, but those trees along the water are loaded with white birds:
…it was kind of creepy…
Japan had a bunch of giant bonsais on display, but this baby banyan was my favorite!
One of the things I discovered during my layover in Japan was fun-flavored Kit-Kats, so when we got to Epcot Japan, I went hunting for more fun flavors.
I’ve been using Google Lens on my overseas travels to translate foreign texts, so I tried it out on a Kit-Kat package and got this:
…it may not be the most accurate…
I ended up picking out these two flavors- red bean (top) and chocolate orange (bottom):
Brother-in-law Matt picked up a bag of Cheesecake flavored ones, so I traded him for a couple of those. We haven’t tried them yet, but I’ll update this when we do!
The next ride on the list was Spaceship Earth (the ride inside the Epcot ball), so we looped back around again, this time stopping at the Honey Bee-stro where Matt and I shared this delicious honey-marscapone cheesecake:
It came with 2 fennel meringue cookies, some straight-up honey and a whipped honey cream on the side. This was a tasty find- I’d definitely eat it again!
As we were eating, it started raining again, so we took shelter at Coke world (not its real name) and taste-tested some Cokes:
We had sampled some Cokes during our trip to Georgia, but there were some new-to-us flavors here:
| Product | Country | Becca’s opinion | Matt’s opinion |
| Beverly | Italy | More bitter than I remembered, still meh. | This one has a reputation for a reason. |
| Bon Bon Anglais | Madagascar | Claims to be “tropical flavored” but is most definitely banana. Gross. | Banana runts in drink form. Not bad. |
| Country Club Merengue | Dominican Republic | Tropical cream soda? | |
| Minute Maid Joy | Korea | I remember this one from last time- it’s Lychee-flavored and very sweet, but I love it! | Not a flavor I’m very familiar with, but still acceptable. |
| Royal Wattamelon | Philippines | I’m usually not a fan of watermelon-flavored things, but the sourness of this watermelon was a pleasant surprise | Sour Watermelon. The sour keeps it from being too sweet and therefore it was tasty. |
| Smart Sour Plum Flavor | China | Smells and tastes like BBQ- I have no idea how. Not entirely unpleasant but not a fan of the aftertaste | |
| Sprite Cucumber | Russia | Tastes like someone squeezed a cucumber into a cup of Sprite- not bad, but I’m not sure it’s necessary | |
| Viva Raspberry | Moldova | As the name implies, a bubbly raspberry like LaCroix, but with actual flavor. |
(there were a couple flavors we didn’t remember very well, so I’ll update this next time Matt goes back to Disney)
The rain (finally) tapered off, so we ventured back out. Hey look! It’s us with the Epcot ball!
We had some time to kill before our dinner reservations, so we did the Living with the Land ride, where we got to see how they garden at Disney. I wasn’t fast enough with my phone to get a picture of the vertical tomato plants (whose stems were so incredibly beefy!), but here are some vertical cucumbers:
Rotating plant tables:
And free-range roots (the plants cruised along a track suspended from the ceiling and got their roots sprayed when the entered that white wall on the left):
Weird, but interesting!
Finally, it was dinner time! We had reservations at Space 220, which was definitely a splurge, but a very fun and unique experience:
We got this cool ticket when we checked in:
Elevator to space!
Inside the elevator:
Farewell, Earth!
The restaurant was totally space-themed, with astronauts and spaceships occasionally flying past the “windows”:
I think my favorite part was how Earth got dark as the sun set and city lights appeared.
Dinner was delicious, but large. I made the mistake of snacking on a giant pretzel a couple hours beforehand and wasn’t able to finish all of my food 🙁
Still, an awesome end to a great day!