The Munchkin in Future World at Epcot Part I - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Now we are getting to the meat and potatoes of Kid-dom at Disney World.

Epcot....

What???? I know that this post is going to send my esteemed colleague Epcot82 over at Epcot Central through the roof. While I am not a park purist, I do miss the old attractions and I always enjoy reading his posts about the EPCOT that was and how it could be better. We disagree on Epcot not being for kids. The Munchkin...loved Epcot.

When we were planning our trip, as we always do, we started with what is most important to us...Fireworks. So we had planned several evenings at Epcot but we hadn’t really planned on spending as much time during the day here, as on past trips. It is my husband’s favorite park and typically in the past there was one night of Fantasmic and then as many Spectromagics as we could fit in and then the remainder of evenings were reserved for Illuminations. When we were planning this trip we thought most days would be spent at the Magic Kingdom as that was for kids, right? Yeah, its definitely for kids but the Munchkin fell in love with Epcot. So much so that I had only planned two days of posts here for Epcot...once I started writing about it I decided that each of the Future World’s attractions needed some love.

The Seas with Nemo and Friends is Disney World to the Munchkin. While there were several things that she could have done over and over again at The World, "Meemo-Nemo" as she calls him, was where it was at this trip. We spent more time here than any other attraction or activity, much to my Haunted Mansion loving disappointment. I lost track after we went on the ride 7 times.

The Munchkin was mesmerized by the Christmas Ornament like Nemo and Friends sculptures welcoming guests to the area. We had her picture taken here and will on each subsequent trip to mark her growth. She was psyched here and could have played around the sculptures for a while then she heard the sea gulls. A small side note, the Munchkin does not like water at all. She doesn’t like to get wet and hates taking a bath, just one of those weird toddler quirks. She loved the spray that emulated waves hitting the building and the seagulls that shout “Mine, Mine, Mine...” The building is decorated with plain fish, turtle, shark, and ray shaped cut outs, they are not decorated and do not look like the characters but she thought that these were way cool. I would have taken a quick note and kept walking but we spent five minutes talking about the simple fish cutouts.

Once inside, the queue area was lovely and calming. The lights dim as you make the transition from the beach setting to being “under the water”. The Munchkin also really liked the lights that were shaped like fish and darted around the room. There were almost no lines here, so we felt like we could tarry a bit. The Munchkin loved the clam mobiles and called out to “Nemo” throughout the ride. Turtle Talk with Crush was also a hit. Although she didn’t quite get that there was something special about Crush talking to the people, she just liked that there were other kids on the floor with her and that they were interacting with her and the big turtle on the screen.

The aquarium areas were also a source of enjoyment. The display with the clown and tang live fish was really nicely lit and she could see “Nemo” well. The carpeted areas with the large sections of glass looking into the big tank were also a lot of fun. First, they weren’t crowded and she could run around without us worrying about other guests. Second, the glass came down low enough to the ground that she could stand unassisted and look in at the fish. It was somewhat difficult for her to follow the fish, she couldn’t grasp the concept that the windows looked into one large aquarium instead of individual aquariums but this did not diminish her enjoyment. If there was a low point to this attraction it was the manatee exhibit. She just didn’t get much out of it. The manatees were big and not moving much so I think that they just didn’t hold her attention.

It is worth noting that the Munchkin had relativly little exposure to the characters prior to the trip. We have a some board books with a few of the characters but she didn’t watch TV or DVDs so she had no idea who Nemo was. She discovered Nemo, and others, at the parks. There is a down side to all of this...all of the new friends that came home with us from the gift shops. More on souvenirs later.

I have read, understand and respect what others have expressed as concerns about the dumbing down of Epcot to aim it at a younger audience. While we were "adults only" guests we shared some of these concerns but now that we have seen how much our own child really enjoyed this attraction, we could only come to one conclusion - it is pure magic.