In which we bid the proverbial fond farewell

Our journey ends on Saturday at Epcot.

We won’t get there at the c of d, but more like 10 or 11. I will shore up a Soarin’ FP because one does need to do this more than once, and maybe we’ll finish off anything else we can think of on the Future World side before moseying over to Mexico and, essentially, drinking strolling our way across the world.

World Showcase is not a lot of rides. If Russia had come through, there would be a coaster. If Japan’s original plans had gone through, there’d be a coaster and a trip through the history of the Floating Kingdom; that latter one is in Disneyland Tokyo. Apparently the back of Germany is also an abandoned ride. Oh, well. Mostly the countries are movies, simulacra, shopping and food. China and France are the best movies, I think, China because it’s about as close as I’ll get, and France because you get to sit down and look at people with berets bringing home baguettes to the accompaniment of Saint-Saens and Bizet. It’s fun to walk through the recreations of world sites and watch the various entertainments like Chinese acrobats, all of whom are about seven years old, and Off-Kilter, the Celtic rock band, and the Pearly People and Japanese drummers and whatever other cliché, twisted or not, that you can think of. And of course there’s the American Experience, which like the Hall of the Presidents, is a real conversation starter or, for some, the best nap on property. Mark Twain and Ben Franklin take you on a tour of American history from day one up to the opening of Epcot, with I think maybe a picture of Obama tossed into a montage at the end to make you think it’s up-to-date. Not to disparage it: I am not one of the nappers at this one. I’m thinking that this will be Richard’s most comprehensive introduction to American history other from what he cleans from trivia night at the local bar in Brooklyn. God bless the Queen!

Lunch will be whatever on valedictory day. Dinner has been chosen to occur at Germany, where we closed the DiDeAd. Tradition, in other words. And very large steins of beer and an oompah band. Following which we watch Illuminations with a tear in our eye, and bid a fond farewell to WDW and the DisAd14.