Start of the year and we were spending the day visiting the museum – The American Museum of Natural History. It was located next to the Central park that we ice skated the day before. Checked out of Room Mate Grace and went over a street to Broadway at Times Square, affordable one which had some pretty good reviews. Since it was still early, we had to place our luggage at the reception first.
Hopped on the sub and got off at the station with the same name. From there it was a short walk to the entrance at the same level as the subway. We were pretty early and there was already queues at the entrance to get past the security clearance.
Train station.
The museum was huge and we started our tour from the top level, a collection of prehistoric bones of the dinosaurs – this was something that tickled my nerdy side, used to love dinosaurs back when I was younger.
Me in front of ancient bones.The public can feel the bones.T-rex.Triceratops.Woolly mammoth.
There were windows of exhibits showing the different animals available in the US. Placed behind a glass window with a nice backdrop, every of the exhibits looked real.
Bison exhibits.Moose Exhibits.Grizzly exhibits.
There was one segment in the museum that featured space stuff, another one to my liking. There was a huge ass rock that was said to be meteorite. Nice ET stuff.
Tonnes of meteorite.
Some exhibits also feature cultures from the other countries, ok to browse through though we were particularly excited. It had been a long day and the museum was huge, and naturally we became tired.
Aztec Calendar.Replica of Chichen ItzaEmperor penguins of Antarctica.Congo gorillas.
One exhibit that I liked was the huge Dino skeleton (Broncho maybe?) at the main entrance of the museum. That really gave a perspective of how these huge giants used to roam earth and how tiny we are as humans.
Huge dino skeleton at entrance of the museum.
Lastly, we also checked out one segment of the museum that featured creatures of the sea. There was a really impressively huge replica of a whale hanging from the ceiling.
Giant whale hanging from the ceiling.
Time flew and it was time to leave. From there, we didn’t have much time to our next activity, which was to catch a live NBA match at Madison Square Garden, with the Trailblazers taking on the Knicks. Arrived at the stadium while walking there with many people streaming into the place. There were many memorabilia on sale but we didn’t get any. Since we already bought our tickets online and printed them, getting in was hassle free. Got some food for dinner and drinks and proceeded to our seats.
The atmosphere was electrifying and it felt fun to be part of the crowd. Even though it was ages since we last watched basketball, back in the good old days of MJ, and that we didn’t know anyone of the players, it was pretty obvious from the crowd who were the key players for Knicks, and then we were instantly one-day-fan. P
Madison Square Garden.Game start!Sharp shooter Carmelo Anthony.Caught a live NBA game – Bucket list item checked.
There were also half time entertainment, such as baby crawl competition, and also times where staff shoots free tees to the crowd. All these weren’t shown on TV.
We were also given long plastic balloons to create noise by waving and bumping each other. Really good fun.
Half time baby crawl entertainment.
After the game where Knicks lost unfortunately after an intensely anxious try for a turnaround, we left the stadium and headed back to the hotel. Still tired from the lack of sleep the previous 2 days, it was an easy trip to dreamland.
The previous day continued into New Year’s eve early morning with a hurried walk from our checked out hotel to the Union train station in the freezing night. The sound from the rolling luggage was the only sound on the street especially at that time of the day. Having heard some not so good stories from our cruise dinner companions about taking over night buses gave us to goosebumps as we headed towards the bus station which was at the top floor of the train station. When arrived at the Greyhound counter, we proceeded to check in and get in line where there was already a queue. The place was lit up adequately and not as dangerous as described. Looking at the queue, we thought for a moment that we might not make the bus but there were in fact more than a bus going towards NYC.
After boarding the bus, everything else was a blur as we dozed, only waking up some 6hrs later. Brushed our teeth at the station’s toilet before taking the metro to our hotel on 45th Street, Room Mate Grace.
At the bus station waiting for our overnight bus.
Checked in and was unexpectedly given a room. The modern reception designed was sleek and the room was nice too, except for the incredibly small area, given that it costed $780 SGD for that night alone – the steep spike due to New Year’s Eve where accommodations in the area were snapped up like hot cakes. Lazed on the bed for a while due to poor sleep on the bus the day earlier, before picking ourselves up and going for breakfast and explore NYC.
Indoor swimming pool of the hotel.Times Square.Breakfast at cafe.Cafe interior.
Xmas deco dotted the streets of this concrete jungle, a landscape that was familiar since we came from Singapore. Difference was the cool weather that made walking in the streets in nice jackets really pleasant.
Huge Xmas tree lighting.Xmas .tree ballsRadio City building.
One of the to-do list was to ice skate in Central park, easily reachable by foot. The ice skating rink was in the middle of the park and we had to queue and pay for usage. We rented the skates and left our bags in the small deposit boxes and rented the locks with keys for a fee. There weren’t a time limit for usage but the one-time fee wasn’t cheap either.
Statue at Central Park.Ice skating rink at Central Park.All set and ready.Beautiful park in the middle of a city.Lovely ducks.Bridge over a pond.Bigger duck.Snow on the grass.
After a trip-filled ice skating experience and a walk through the park, we continued to walk the streets, for sightseeing and shopping to return to our hotel.
Gift wrapped building.Statue at the front of Rockefella center.Giant Xmas tree at Rockefella Center and ice skating rink.One of the tallest, Rockefella center.
We packed lunch back to hotel and also sandwiches for dinner. These had to be brought along to the countdown since we would be expected to be human gridlocked in the crowd and thus unable to get food or drinks. This also meant that going to the toilet would be mission impossible, and for that, we had adult diapers on.
Lunch
The hotel was actually very close to the stage, which was our main reason for getting this room. However, the side streets that the hotel was situated was blocked off from main Broadway. We had to get around the barricades by going in the opposite direction and that brought us many streets away from the stage. At 4pm, we were already stuck in the crowd as crowd controllers control human movement using steel barricades. We ended up packed in a certain section.
Crowded at 4pm.
It was a really really long wait. Thought it would be fun, it wasn’t. People soon got tired of standing and started to sit around. That took up a lot more space and it was uncomfortable. There was even one guy who just laid on the road and sleep.
Being so far away, we couldn’t see the stage though there were some large screens. The music didn’t reach the us and thus the crowd wasn’t enthusiastic. From 6pm onwards, there were mini countdowns shown on the screen for other world cities that were going through their countdown to 2013. Soon I was just looking forward towards the hour mark to see who was countdowning next.
Ate some dinner, talked to a Mexican, watched some pre-recorded shows on ipad and soon, the party on the stage was on the way, with Gangnam style (though the crowd response was still cold like the weather). And the anticipated final hour finally came, the fireworks from the building became more frequent and soon after John Lennon’s “Imagine”, it was 3.2.1…Happy New Year! Confetti snowed and fireworks displayed on both ends of the streets. The streets were alive again with much merry making.
Every now and then, fireworks shoot from the sides of the building.
The electric atmosphere fizzled out pretty quickly, probably tired out by the long hours of standing out in the cold. Like the crowd, we moved quickly back to our hotel where there was a rowdier party going on at the bar. Luckily there wasn’t a need to use the diapers. Countdown in the Big Apple felt a little overrated but heck, crossed this out from our to-do list.
A day was all we had to walk around DC and therefore we had to start the day early. Went over to Union Station where the subway was also located. Similar to the MRT that we were used to in Singapore, just less crowded. First stop was the White House. Alighted 3 stops later at Metro center stop, which wasn’t really close though that was the best. Once above ground, the chill began to bite with the light morning breeze blew. Suddenly we missed the tropical sun of the Caribbean. The streets were quiet on the Sunday morning as we tried to navigate with the help of street maps towards the President’s Residence.
Waiting for the train at Union Station.Not many people on the train.Buildings around the town.Buildings in town.
While around location, we got confused the White House with the Treasury since they were all white and fenced up. It was weird too that there weren’t many people taking photos there and that’s when we knew we made a blunder. The White House building was pretty far away from the fence and I had to zoom in for a shot at it.
White House zoomed.
A towering obelisk stood within sight and it was something useful for us to reference to in order to walk about the huge sightseeing area close by.
Silhouette of the obelisk near White House.
With a map in view, we started southwards across the road to WWII memorial. There weren’t many tourists around but people were out and about jogging in these parks. The skies were clear blue and while we wandered about, we also yearned for the sun to rise quickly for warmth.
Looking towards Lincoln Memorial from the WWII end.Walking towards Abraham Lincoln Memorial.At the WWII memorial.Emblem on the ground.Pond at WWII memorial.Rows of trees on the pathway.Long reflection pool.Obelisk standing at the end of the pool.
From the end of the reflecting pool where the WWII memorial was, we walked towards the Lincoln Memorial at the other end, enjoying the serenity of the surroundings that had the occasional choppers flying around. Seated within the pillared buidling at the end of the reflecting pool was the giant statue of Lincoln. View of the where Lincoln was sitting was impressive.
Abraham Lincoln statue.View from the Linoln Memorial.
The area was huge and took a bit of walking from memorial to memorial, though quite easily accomplished with the cool weather. While walking towards Martin Luther King’s statue, we walked past the Korean War Memorial that had a couple of stone statues that looked war weary and had a eerie reflection from the glossy tiled wall.
Korean War Memorial.Martin Luther King statue.View of the obelisk from opposite side of the basin.
Famous leaders of the US given the acknowledgement for their contributions and influence in shaping America, figures from the texts of history books immortalized in the various statues standing around the park. The visit also renewed interest for history.
Franklin Roosevelt statue.
As we walked around the central pond towards Jefferson Memorial, a sudden cold gust came about and hurried us towards the building. Within moments up the steps, a tall silhouette stood in the middle of this building which reminded me of Greek architecture. It was a good hideaway from the cold outside, especially the shop within that had heater – welcomed temporary relief.
Thomas Jefferson memorial with pond with ducks.In front of the Jefferson Memorial.Silhouette of the statue in the memorial.Statue of Thomas Jefferson.
We left the memorials and started heading to our next destination, the National Air and Space Museum. It was not close but manageable distance, and also provided the opportunity to look around this streets of DC.
US Holocaust Museum.Smithsonian Institution.
There were many museums of interest in DC but we didn’t had the luxury of time. Chose this because I was interested in space related stuff. There was already a line waiting to enter the museum, and that was a tell-tale sign that we made a right choice. It was a large area consisting of many flying objects from rockets to planes to Apollo 13. Brought back the childhood interest of space exploration.
Had fast food for lunch within the museum itself, caught a IMAX movie (at a price), read up on the rich history of aviation and touch the moon rock (supposedly). Good time spent at the museum before heading out to Capitol Hill.
National Air and Space Museum.Aeroplanes.Rockets.Something that landed on the moon.
Capitol Hill had the grandeur of “the building” of DC, something like the Eiffel of Paris. In this near perfect blue skies, the view couldn’t be more lovely. Only issue was trying to stabilize the freezing shaking hands while shooting.
Another shot of Capitol Hill and a statue in front of it.Bronze chariot in front of Capitol Hill.
Capitol Hill was still open for visit by the time we were there though the visit was limited to a few places within the building. There was some hearing going on for the day which we went to sat in for a while. There were many people sitting in too, surprisingly. Sat in, waited for a while for people to arrive. Then some people started talking and there were some discussions and I did not understand a single bit even though it was in English. Soon after, we left for our final destination, the International Spy Museum.
Inside Capitol Hill.Statue inside Capitol Hill.Sunset on the streets of Washington.
The Spy Museum was kinda of an interesting visit, where we could get to be an agent, learnt the trades and see all the interesting gadgets that secret agents used. Fun.
Spy mueseum.
That concluded a full day walk around the city of Washington DC. It was actually exhausting since it was really an entire day of walking. The day hadn’t ended exactly, even after having dinner at Union Station. Went back to the hotel to rest before our overnight bus ride to NYC for the New Year 2013 Countdown.
Our 2nd day in Orlando started early too, cause we were going to Universal Studios this time around! What made it different from Singapore’s version was that there was a particular section of the studio made for Harry Porter. After breakfast, we made the transport arrangements over the same counter and we soon we were at a bus stop a few steps from Universal. Rushed through the shopping area and had to line up in a queue that was already there before Universal was opened for business. Once opened, we quickly made a beeline to the Harry Porter section. Of course there were express passes, but these had to be bought and could be used only once per participating attraction., but necessary definitely.
Entrance to the Harry Porter section.Train has arrived.Streets of magic land of Harry Porter.Hogwart with the simulator ride.
So we made our way to the Forbidden journey where we snaked along corridors of Hogwarts that were decorated very nicely and fits the magical experience straight from the movie set. Before we made it to the long queue, there was a place to dump all our loose belongings, including cameras into lockers that were really small. I had to urgently squeeze the bags into one locker in the dark chaos of the little room where everyone else was doing the same. It didn’t help that the lockers were centralised controlled by a computer, even though these were free for a certain time limit.
I was thoroughly impressed with the ride as it gave a immersive experience which I did not understand how that was done. It was a simulator with a huge screen that gave you the feeling that you were part of the action coupled with props when you swing from one area to another. My wife didn’t feel well after the ride, due to motion sickness but I thought it was pretty well done and worth the queuing. After this, we recovered our items and while my wife rested, I went ahead with a roller coaster ride, the Dragon challenge. The roller coaster was pretty good with the twist and twirls while we hang with our legs dangling. This one gave me motion sickness instead and I had to steady myself while making my way back to my wife (must be the age).
We took our time to walk the beautiful streets nicely decorated and also got ourselves a Butterbeer, which tasted like vanilla coke with froth. Entered the owl store to get a Harry Porter wand too.
Well replica that brought fresh water for washing hands.Shops in Harry Porter segment.The Owl Post.Inside the Owl Post.Of course I had to have the Butterbeer.
We left Harry Porter to explore the other sections. There was a Lost Continent section that looked fun but was closed for maintenance. We walked also walked through a very bright and colourful section known as Dr Suess. Mainly catered for young children and thus it was more viewing for us.
Lost Continent.Nicely decorated ATM.Colourful land of Dr Seuss.What a big hat!Looked like a circus in a tent.Car with the Hulk designs and smashed doors.Hulk roller coaster.
So we ended up walking to street where Marvel characters dominate the theme of the section. We queued for the Incredible Hulk roller coaster and it was fun! The sudden surge while the roller coaster climbed the incline was a nice surprise. The queue for this ride was pretty long even with the express pass. There was also lockers available which we had to deposit before boarding the ride. We spent quite a bit of time at the Marvel streets, as I was sort of a Marvel fan myself. Going into stores which sold movie merchandise to comics but didn’t really get anything.
Fantastic 4 cafe.Merchandise store with Ironman center piece.
There were photo opportunities with the Marvel characters and I had to take some with them! There was the Wolverine that had a queue going on, particularly popular with the kiddos!
A photoshoot with Green Goblin.Posing with Cyclops.Wolverine busy with the kids.
There was a simulator ride with Spiderman as the character within a tall building. The simulator actually moved, though not as fast as a roller coaster, and we had to wear 3-D glasses for that in-your-face experience. It was quite enjoyable.
Spiderman ride in the building.Deco along the way to Spiderman ride.Street of the comics.
As we continued on, we saw other comics characters other than the Marvel ones, such as like Betty Boop and Popeye. There was a water based ride for Popeye but we didnt’ take it, knowing that we could end up wet, and it was cold to get wet! There was a huge human air dryer which we saw people got in to dry themselves.
Popeye’s boat.Popeye’s ride.Human air dryer.
There was a Jurassic Park theme section in the studios. Wandered into the main center where there were displays of dinos that made you think you were in a museum. There was an area where dinosaurs were being breed and there was an incubator where dino eggs were hatching. Part of a “live” show actually showed a “scientist” introducing the dino details as the baby dino broke the shell and he recovered it and showed them to the amazed kids.
Jurassic park.Discovery center in the Jurassic Park section.Dino skeleton replica.
Soon it was lunchtime and we went back to Harry Porter section. The restaurant was packed with people and there was a queue to to ordering point. The place was decorated resembling having lunch in the old tavern which was kind of nice. The food sold was ok and there was also butterbeer so I bought one that comes with a memorabilia mug that I could bring home after I finish the drink (at a price). There were people who would try to locate empty tables for the customers but we didn’t know that and went around to chope seats before I went to get the food. The queue went as far as outside the restaurant and we were fortunate to have eaten earlier.
Dining hall of wizards.Lunch at Hogwarts.Stores of tricks.
After lunch we dropped in to catch a show of Sinbad and his adventure to save a princess from a evil wizard. On top of the stunts and the flying around, there were mini explosions and fire to add to the realism. Typical kind of show you would expect from a movie making studio but it was entertaining. The theatre with the fire show allowed for a temporary escape from outside cold too.
Watching Sinbad rescuing the princess with real flames – we could feel the heat!
We caught another show at Dr Seuss that was pretty well recommended online which I wasn’t really interested but had the time to do so. This was sort of a little musical about the Grinch who stole Xmas and we had to queue early in order to get the seats closer to the stage. The show attracted quite a crowd eventually, popular amongst family with children. After sitting through the show that had bright colours and catchy tunes coupled with the elements fitting of a musical, I thought I liked it!
The Whos walking in the street.Heartwarming Xmas show for the whole family.
By then, we had explored the Island of Adventures. We weren’t really into the thrill rides especially those that had to do with heights but there were a few of them there. We exit the theme park and do a little shopping along City Walk, a street with a few merchandise stores that included a NBA official store and a Hard Rock Cafe. I bought a Bubba Gum tee from the Bubba Gum company – familiar company from the famous Forest Gump, played by Tom Hanks. Then we took a cab to get back to our hotel.
Panoramic of the City walk.Hard Rock Cafe of Orlando.NBA stores selling NBA related products, along city walk.Forest Gump Company – Bubba Gump.
When we arrived back at the hotel, it was already dark. We made our way across the main road from the hotel where there were some restaurants along the main road. One caught our attention and we went in only to find that it was selling Chinese economical rice, but named as Panda Express. The food was expensive too! We had takeaways back to the hotel.
Panda Express store.Packed Chinese dinner.Fortune cookies attached.
It was actually still early after dinner and so we decided to go visit a Premium outlet mall to satisfy our shopping desire. There was one pretty close by and easily accessible by taking a bus that was at the main road. There were a few bus stops and we had to check which one the bus actually stopped to board. Bought some cold were stuff from Northface which was put immediately to good use. Couldn’t buy too much since we were only at the beginning of our 2 weeks tour. Went back in a cab after the shop closed and packed the new stuff into our luggage for a flight out the next day.
Our flight was scheduled to fly off at night to Dubai where we would continue on with a connecting flight to JFK. After that, we would board a Jetblue flight to Orlando and start our journey in the America. But it all didn’t start well, we boarded the flight but it was slightly delayed in taking off from Changi Airport. When we landed in Dubai and made our way to the connecting desk, the staff told us bluntly that it was too late and we had to take the next flight as it was slightly one hour before the next flight. Left with no other choice, we made our way to the customer service counter, at this time where there was a already a queue formed for various enquiries, including a few passengers like us who missed the connecting flight too.
At the counter, it became really frustrating. There were just 2 staffs serving the customers but there were more staffs that seemed to be doing nothing but moving around. When we became the next one to be served, I approached the staff behind the table whom was just ignoring us. I greeted her and asked about the next available flight and she just told me to wait as she did not know how to handle it. Went back to the queue to wait somemore. When we were called by another personnel to the counter, he didn’t even apologise and told us that the next flight was some 6hrs later. That was the last straw when I just told them off that if it was not for them, we would have make the connecting flight and that we were going to missed the Jetblue flight to Orlando. He mentioned that Jetblue was their partner airline but he wasn’t able to change the flight because we purchased directly from Jetblue. We tried to ask for alternative routes such that we might be able to make up time but he does not seemed to know his geography well. We had to take out our Ipad to show him the possible other states’ airport but as he checked back, there were any other available airport. We asked for what they could do for us and they unwillingly offered some F&B vounchers which was pretty limited in choice at one of the cafes. Talked about customer service.
We waited out the the 6 hrs coupled with free wifi in the airport and having some not-so-delicious food and then we were on our way to JFK. The morning flight landed some 12hrs lately at JFK and we made our way to the Jetblue counter and told them that we missed the flight. They were kind enough not to charge us for another pair of tickets but a USD100 no-show for the first flight and then we were off to Orlando, the 7pm flight and another 2.5hrs hour. By the time we arrived at Orlando, it was late and we huddled to get a taxi in the balmy night to Quality inn, some 20 mins away.
Free mealPepperoni pizza was the only pizza option for claim.Was given vouchers from Cosi.
Check in was effortless and we made our way to our room, which was away from the reception area on the 2nd storey. It was a welcomed hideaway from the winter night and since we were also hungry from the long flight, we went to the so-called world’s biggest MacDs that was 3mins walk from the hotel and take away our dinner to our room.
Xmasy feel in JFK.Spacious roomComes with a tub!Festive cheer with little treats!3 mins walk to our first dinner in US.World’s biggest Mac?Dinner take away.
By the time we settled for sleep, it was almost 1am.
Day 3 Epcot Theme Park
Started out early as it was necessary to get the best of the available time in a theme park. Had breakfast at the hotel and it was a buffet spread. After which, we went to the tour arrangements counter we booked tickets for transport that brought us to the theme park train station, a short drive from the hotel. The central train station served the various Disneyland theme park and this was the link for people intending to hop from park to park. We chose Epcot as this was theme park was exclusive only to the one in Orlando, whereas Disneyland was available in various places (like Hong Kong). We only got the one day pass as were thinking of park hopping as we didn’t really knew if we could cover the park in a day and even if we didn’t like it then we had to stick to it as we had made reservations for a restaurant by the central lake to watch the fireworks and have dinner.
Epcot famous ball
To get the most out of a visit to the theme park, one must study the type of rides and activities that were present and check the popularity, since the more popular the rides were, the more likely the queue was going to be horrendous. It was really not about the queuing since we were all used to it as Singaporeans but more of having more bang for buck in the theme park. We made use of apps (yup, there are simply apps for almost anything) to help us prioritized the fastpass and normal queuing sequence and just followed that since it could get confusing balancing the were rules to obtaining fastpasses and queuing and looking for the ride at the same time.
Nemo.Stingray.The Seas with Nemo and friends.
There were already queues forming for the more popular rides and we were glad that making it early to the theme park was totally worth it.
Spaceship Earth ride.One of the exhibits in Spaceship Earth.
Spaceship Earth was a easy going history lesson ride where you get to see exhibits showing different periods of time of man and then towards the future. Not to my liking though.
Test Track – the top 2 most popular ride.The other ride which was popular.Fast passes, issued from machines near entrances of the rides.
So after securing the passes, we went around to visit the other parts of the theme park. Went into Capt EO 4D experience, hosted by Michael Jackson (image). Other than the 3D effects that was prevalent everywhere already, there was also the element of feel with air blowing and water droplets splashing onto our faces.
Soaring is an immersive cinematic experience atop a simulator that brings the participants high up to provide the flying feeling. It was definitely one of the better rides though it was not terribly exciting compared to a theme park roller coaster. A must do in this park.
Capt EO.View of the glass pyramids where Capt EO theatre was.Someone wrote something in the sky.
The park had 2 sections, one was more science-ty and the other was a world pavilion showcasing architecture from 10 countries around the world (see map). While waiting for our time go for our rides using the Fastpass, we moved to and from the 2 sections based on proximity to the next attraction. We went over to the Mexico and the Norway section before our next due attraction at the Test Track.
Mexican pyarmids.Old buildings of the Norway Pavilion.Buildings that resembled the Scandinavian Norway.Viking ride.
Vikings were the main theme in Norway segment and in there was another easy ride on a boat with exhibits showing stuff that was encountered by these pioneer seafarers.
The Test Track was a place where you given opportunity to design your own vehicle and get to test drive them (virtually). There was a photo session available too where you get to pose with your design with superimposed photo of yourself and this would be emailed to you. There was also a model of the Camaro for photoshoot, popular for being Bubblebee of the Transformers. The highlight of the visit here was definitely the beautiful corvettes on display and the thrill ride (but short) during the “test drive”. Definitely a must do too.
Futuristic Concept car by Chevy.2 really wicked rides, corvettes! You don’t see these in Singapore.The Orange ticket to Mission space!Inside the crowded Mission Space waiting for our turn.
Missions Space was a ride that offered 2 choices – one was the extreme and the other mild. We didn’t know what to expect and since there were really much excitment in the rides for the whole day, we thought we would try the extreme one. Furthermore, the queue was much longer and that would probably meant we made the right choice. It was a ride that provided the feeling of weightlessness and it felt really amazing! I think the ride made use of a centrifuge to spin at 2Gs – you could feel first the pressure and then the weightlessness. However, after that we didn’t feel good and a little light headed and nauseated. Sat down at the exit for a rest to recover. I would still attempt it though if I were to visit again!
We started to explore the world pavilion after the last ride. Started off with the Canada and ending with Mexico for our dinner.
Nice flowery garden.Buildings in the Canadian pavilion
There were basically streets that were designed to give you the feel of being in that country. There was one shop in the UK section that sold soccer related products.
UK street replica.
France section gave the visitors a feel of being in Paris. There was even an Eiffel Tower in the background. We chose a French Boulangerie to have some delicious pastries and just chill.
French style design.Having coffee in the streets of France.Boulangerie where we got delicious pasties.French pastries.
We then went over to Morocco that had a more contrasting design. It appealed to me a little more since I had not visited that country before.
Mosaic tiled fountains.Morocco styled architecture.Like in the middle east.Internal of the building.Interesting architecture.
There a place for Japan and the typical architecture was recognizable. We hadn’t visited Japan since Fukushima incident and it was a refreshing visit.
Japan temple replica.Japanese architecture.
USA pavilion had a building that we went into that had sort of presentation of US history. I didn’t last the whole show as I felt asleep – less due to boredom and probably more due to jetlag.
An American building.A replica of capitol hill.A presentation of US history.
Italy’s Pavilion showcase the few noticeable structures of Venice, which looked pretty good, at least from my memory of the visit in 2005.
Familiar statues replica of Venice.Campanile replica.Italian statue replica.
Germany architecture sort of reminded me of Munich town. There was a glass blowing craftsman that was blowing glass balls probably for Xmas trees deco.
A replicate of Munich street?Glass ball blowing artist
China pavilion had replicas of architecture of Beijing, such as the Temple of heaven which looked good.
Temple of Heaven replica.Temple internal deco.
We actually reached Mexico pretty early. Entered the pyramid and there were stalls selling Mexican stuff and a restaurant too. Didn’t get anything though.
Mayan carvings.Inside the Mexican pyramid were restaurants and stalls selling Mexican foodstuff.
Our plan was to have dinner and at the same time enjoy the fireworks over the lake. We had made reservations at the La Hacienda restaurant which we read online that had huge windows that stretched from the top to the table level. These provided good views of the fireworks. The only thing was we were not able to choose which tables we wanted, so even if we reserved, we need to see if we were lucky enough to get the tables next to the windows. And usually people who wanted to have dinner there also wanted to catch the fireworks so when they do get the window seats, then its too bad! So our plan was to arrive early. We went in at about 6pm for our 730pm reservation. However, we were seated at a table beside the ones near the windows. The other tables were either already taken or if not reserved for a bigger group. We then asked if we could move if any of the tables were available and went ahead with ordering.
La Hacienda de San Angel restaurant.Sunset over the central lake.Mexican food served.
Food was new to our taste buds but tasted ok. Portion was huge and since we were planning to stay the long haul (till 930pm) it was sort aligned with our plans. Ordered the recommended Margaritas too though we weren’t really the people who drank. Everything seemed smooth and we even ended up with seats beside the windows after the table beside us emptied. But we didn’t last till the fireworks. The food became too cold to consume and it didn’t help that we felt full from the huge portions. In the end, we gave up and went out beside the lake to watch the fireworks instead. We left the restaurant early and thus walked around some more to experience the park in the dark. Went to the toilet the last time before we finding a location and sat down there to wait till it was time. I even fell asleep while waiting, difficult in resisting the alcohol effect. Soon the crowd started to build and there were people waiting all around. The show started on time and it felt great being so close to the fireworks. The weather made the difference of watching fireworks compared to in Singapore where to need to squeeze with the crowd in hot and humid conditions. Not appealing at all!
Xmas tree shining in the night.Sphere at night.Fireworks!
The fireworks started on time with a storey telling session that slowly built up to a climax of light streaks and booms, within expectations of a great fireworks show. However, the drizzling rain followed soon after that saw a massive crowd trying to get out of the park quickly and also escaping the rain. We donned our rain coats that we had prepared and slowly made our way to the pickup point. It was one of the last transport back to the hotel but there was more than sufficient time from the park to the train then the pick up point. Our tour first day has ended.
Epcot theme park might not cater to visitors who were looking for thrill rides or Disney characters. I felt it had more emphasis on visual entertainment and of course the world pavilions. Those who wanted a glimpse of it could quickly do the first half of the day in this park and park hop to another one for the 2nd half of the day.
Escape Plan to USA and the Caribbean in December 2012:
Total duration 21D19N Singapore is 13hr ahead of New York, USA. Flight time is 18hrs flight on Emirates from Singapore to Dubai and then to JFK. Friday evening flight on 18th Dec and arrival in JFK in the evening of the 19th.
This escape plan was planned to do one of the “to-do” item of the bucket list, which was to celebrate New Year in one of the biggest party in the world – New York Times Square, and also take the opportunity to visit the Caribbean and at the same time escape the freezing cold.
Budget nature: Budget buster
Though SGD gained against the greenback which made the spending just a little less painful, the holiday season plus the cruise with similar thinking Americans (who wanted to escape the cold) really dealt the finishing blow to the budget.
Complexity: DIY possible for the beginners
Since there is already no language barrier (less the accent), and with good infrastructure in terms of roads and public transport, making your way around is very straight forward.
