AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WAYS

Epcot is arguably my most favorite WDW Park.  It is a massive park square footage wise, 2^nd only to Animal Kingdom.  A large part of that acreage and one of the reasons I like it so much is because of the World Showcase.  For those of you not in the know, the World Showcase is a small lake on the backside of Epcot, surrounded by 12 countries (I count the African Outpost).  Here are some quick fun facts about World Showcase that I just happen to know –

·         Morocco is the only pavilion to be sponsored by its country.  All the rest are sponsored by private companies.

·         Norway and Morocco were the only two countries added to the WS after Epcot’s original opening.

·         There were plans to add pavilions for Spain, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Israel, and Africa, but they never got off the drawing board.  The closest was Africa, thus the Outpost pavilion. 

·         The King of Morocco sent his personal architect to help Disney imagineers build the Moroccan pavilion.

·         The round room before you enter the China movie is acoustically perfect.  If you stand directly in the middle of the room and speak it will sound as if you are talking from all directions.  Move your position in the room and the sound will change.


·         The perimeter around the World Showcase Lagoon is 1.2 miles. 

·         The water fountain at the entrance to WS was originally filled with water from all the major rivers and bodies of water from around the world.

So the rest of this post will be about the best unofficially official thing to do in World Showcase – Drink Around the World.  This little game was an obvious thing to do when walking around the WS, every country INCLUDING THE AFRICAN OUTPOST… rookies… serves food and drinks.  What started out as an underground thing to do has readily become sanctioned by Disney.  They now sell t-shirts with every country and their respective alcoholic beverage of choice on them.  

So before I get too far ahead of myself, let me lay down some ground rules and best practices:

1.       Remember, you’re still in Walt Disney World.  There are children about.  No matter how drunk you get, it’s not cool to scream about it while standing on the temple steps for the Mexican pavilion. 

2.       While we’re talking about Mexico, the tequila bar closes promptly when the fireworks begin.  I know this from personal experience. 

3.       You MUST drink an alcoholic beverage in every country to consider yourself an ATW Champion.  If you pass a single country, including the African Outpost where they most certainly serve beer cheaters, it does not count.  Just like in baseball, if you don’t run all the bases, it’s not a home run. 

4.       Please don’t stand in the beer kiosk line for 10 minutes just to get to the front and then start deciding on what you’d like to drink… you’re killing my buzz.

5.       Eating before you start, usually a good idea. 

6.       12 beers sound too easy for you?  Good, they serve other things besides beer.  Mix it up with hard liquor, wine and champagne.  Tinkerbelle comes by the next day and dissolves your hangover, I swear…

7.       Just like you can mix up the drinks, mix up the time.  If it takes you 8 hours to go around to all 12 countries, you probably just wasted $100+ on alcohol and are just going to walk away feeling bloated and dehydrated.  Knock it out in 4 hours or less (20 minutes per country) to feel like you’re getting something done. 

That’s all I got for now.  Next post will be about stumbling/touring your way around WS and then remembering you still need to make it out to your bus.  Stay tuned.