Memory 245 – Transportation to Epcot

Take a virtual audio trip in this installment of the WDW-Memories podcast, brought to you in immersive binaural sound, as we enjoy another magical memory from Walt Disney World. In today’s memory, you will join my family as we begin our second day at Walt Disney World, leaving our room in the Port Orleans Riverside Resort, hopping a bus to Epcot, and making our way into the park.

Well hello and welcome to the WDW-Memories Podcast where together we relive that Walt Disney World Magic. My name is Lou and I’ll once again be your host on this magical adventure.

I’m so excited. In another week, we’ll be headed north to Vermont to visit some old friends and enjoy the Fall foliage at some of it’s best. Years ago, when Susie was little we visited here for the fall, and loved it, and have promised the kids that we would go back, so since our Walt Disney World trip fell through, we quickly realized this great opportunity might have just fallen into our laps. What better way to spend a COVID vacation than hiking through the forests of Vermont. And at least we have new memories to tide us over until our trip in the spring, like the one we have today.

In today’s memory, we will begin our second day in the parks. It’s a beautiful summer morning in September 2016. Today just Traci, Susie, Mikey, and I going to the parks. As we wake in our room, we’re filled with the excitement of a new day. We dress and hurry out the door in record time, with hopes of getting to Epcot for rope drop. Our plan today is to reverse the previous day, doing some of our favorite attractions, and hopefully introducing the kids to some new ones they haven’t been on before. We’ll join the memory as we walk out of our ground floor room, and head for the bus stop. The thinking is that we will be hopping from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom and take advantage of the transportation ease and speed… this was a mistake in hindsight. As we get to the bus stop, we realize we just missed the bus to Epcot and end up waiting for about 10 minutes for the next Epcot bus to arrive. Finally, the next Epcot bus is here and we’ll get our pick of the bus seats since we’re on the first stop in Port Orleans Riverside, but we are good and move all the way to the back. The bus however will fill by the time we reach the front of the resort before heading out on the open road to Epcot. Because we choose the back of the bus, there won’t be much to hear because it’s just pretty much engine sounds back here. After arriving at the parking lot, we unload and begin the long walk from the Epcot bus depot to the entrance of the park. We pass through security with no problems, no extra screening selection, and then on through the gate. We have an early lunch reservation at the Garden Grill Restaurant, and knowing it’s all you care to eat, we are choosing to eat light and thought we’d try to grab something in the park, maybe from the countries, but we can’t wait to ride our first ride, so we opt to grab a banana and coffee at Starbucks before heading off to our first attraction.

Like I said, taking the bus was a mistake. From the time we left the room, to the time we entered into Starbucks was about an hour in realtime, I’ve trimmed it down to the interesting stuff that you’ll hear though. We probably lost over 30 minutes by not driving, and that’s just the morning. As we leave in the evening, we’ll end up spending over an hour waiting for our turn to catch a bus back to our resort from the Magic Kingdom. With crowds as low as they were, this was just not worth it for us since we had a car already.

Today’s memory is in binaural once again, so I’d suggest putting those headphones on to fully immerse yourself in the memory.

Now join my family as we begin our second day in the parks and embrace the building excitement of the new day.