Miss Day 1? You can find it here.
For our second day in Orlando, we decided to go to EPCOT.
Some of our favorite rides at EPCOT are Soarin and Test Track.
Now would probably be a good time to mention my love for the Fastpass system. The Fastpass is a ticket that you can get at most of WDW’s most popular rides to go to essentially the front of the line at a certain time later time in the day. Both Soarin and Test Track are rides where the Fastpass definitely comes in handy. Instead of waiting 45+ minutes in line, we got through the line about 10 (sometimes even less). Its pretty awesome. And even though you don’t get to experience the attraction at that second, it will save you loads of time in the long run. If you are like us and like to pack your days full to the brim, the Fastpass system is something that is essential to use. While you are waiting for your Fastpass time slot, you can experience other area’s of the park that are less crowded instead of waiting in line wondering if you will have time to do everything that you want to.
Anyways.
One of my personal favorite attractions at EPCOT is Living With the Land. This is not a fast thrill ride, and there is really nothing adventurous about it. It is a simple boat ride showing how the land we live on developed through time. At the end (my favorite part) they display all of the unique techniques that Disney is using to harvest plants without the use of chemicals, and new ways to growing crops without using the resources of the land. This is super interesting to me – but if that doesn’t sound interesting to you, you probably think this is the lamest attraction. Anyways, here is a glimpse of what you can see:
If you are like me and love this attraction, there is a tour you can take to go “Behind the Seeds” and learn more about the processes they are using and see the plants close up! We did this tour too 🙂 I had been on the boat ride before, but had never done this tour so I was excited!
We learned on the tour that one of the things they use as a pest deterrent is ladybugs. I even got to release some ladybugs on to one of the plants!
Did I mention already that when you are at Disney World, your Birthday lasts all week? This is proof of that fact. (although, I suppose it helps that I was wearing a pin that told every one it was my birthday) 🙂
And just in case you forgot that we were, in fact, in WDW, there was a hidden mickey in the cherry tomato plant.
The cherry tomatoes actually make pretty good Mickeys on their own, but they also have plastic molds that they can put around other fruits and vegetables (like cucumbers or pumpkins) that will shape them like Mickey as they grow!
I have tons and tons of other photos of the different plants they grow in the greenhouse, and the different techniques they use but I will spare you a horribly long and photo filled post.
Some of the techniques that they use are ones that most of us have heard of like hydroponics. Others are new and different (and kind of odd) – like open air root systems that get rotated and sprayed periodically with water and nurtients. (You can see this in the above photo with the brussels sprouts plants dangling in the air.)
One other thing that I thought was interesting was they had planted a tea garden. This included things like Lavender and Jasmine, which I have seen in plant form before, and also things that I hadn’t seen before – like Stevia and Chamomile plants! I’ve never thought of planting my own tea garden and making my own teas!
Over all it was a really cool tour. If you are interested in gardening techniques, or clean or unique food growing techniques, it is definitely a must do.
During the tour not only did we learn about all kinds of crazy systems that they are using to grow plants, but we learned that a lot of the produce that comes from the greenhouses goes to the restaurants at EPCOT. The produce that is not quite good enough for people to eat gets sent to the animals at the Animal Kingdom, and anything left over after that gets composted. How cool is that?!?
All things considered, this tour was pretty inexpensive as well. It lasted a little over an hour and I believe was around $16 per person.
After conquering part of EPCOT, (don’t worry, we will come back!) we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our dinner date at the castle.
Next up: our dinner experience at Cinderella’s Royal Table. aka: my REAL Birthday dinner 🙂
that looks like The Coolest tour… I would LOVE it.
I think maybe I’ve heard of it before, or at least I’ve heard of the molds to make Mickey Shaped things… which is awesome…
This is neat! I like how you made your Disney trip educational! 😀