Excellent! A pub stop is a must then!! hehe

Thanks all for the additional advice. It's all coming togeather... somewhat! :)

Doing that one with the significant other this year and the fireworks.

Skip Illuminations, did it last year and it is very overated.

I STRONGLY disagree about IllumiNations. It's the best nighttime show at WDW (if not the best show).

Um, I think Alfredo's (Italy) is gone .... never had a bad meal there. Um, for decades, it was THE most popular restaurant in the entire United States.

Chefs de France is usually delicious. The Biergarten is fun, but the food is so-so (imo). Nine Dragons sucks.




Oh, the monorail will get you between the Tragic Kingdom and Epcot. That is all. And especially considering you might want to go off-property (cough*Islands of Adventure*cough), you cannot beat the convenience and time-saving of your own (albeit rented) vehicle.

Ditto on the "do Illuminations." Knowing your taste, I think you might really like it. (I sure do.)

I regret not seeing all of Illuminations. See it!

We like Illuminations a lot. BT doesn't like fireworks at all, really, and he liked Illuminations.

We also like having our own car while we're there. We haven't done the buses at all. My brother likes them, but I like knowing I won't have to stand and that I can crank up the A/C. If you get there early in the morning you don't end up parking that far away, usually. We do take the monorail between EPCOT and MK, if we're park hopping, but for the rest of the time we like the car. Gets us away from the unwashed masses that much faster.

Chefs de France probably has better food than Biergarten, but for me the Biergarten was more comfortable. Plus, my last name doesn't confuse them.

We did the table service place in Morocco and I have mixed feelings about that. The food was great, but the price seemed too high for what it was. The belly dancer was only out for a minute or two and wasn't really that good, frankly, and I generally felt...unwanted. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but I felt like I was bothering them or intruding somehow. You know how sometimes when you go to an "ethnic" restaurant that isn't normally frequented by WASP types and they're really suspicious of you until you've demonstrated that you really like their food and them and aren't going to be a problem? That's how I felt at Morocco's sit-down place. And to me it seems like at WDW people who look like me would be more expected and not "zomg! white girl approaching! no one make direct eye contact and maybe she'll go away!"

The counter service was almost as tasty, much cheaper, and less interaction with the staff -- so I'd recommend that.

Illuminations is the best Disney show I've seen (in America. Ask NA and €uro about BraviSEAmo).

Since you've never done EPCOT, the best way to really appreciate and enjoy Illuminations is to spend the whole day at the park, from opening to closing. Be at Future World as soon as the park opens - get your fast pass for Mission:Space right away and do your single rider Test Track. Enjoy the Kodak-sponsored show in their pavilion (the live one, of course) and dig on Nemo in The Living Seas. Have a light but healthy lunch in The Land. Once you've done all of Future World, head into World Showcase and don't look back. Pick one side and explore the park in an orderly fashion. When you're halfway done, you'll be exhausted - so it's a perfect time to get refreshed in the air-conditioned patriotism of The American Adventure (you'll be so raw by that time that you might need to hide your tears at the sappy but effective theme music). You can graze through World Showcase or pick a nice place for dinner (plenty of good suggestions already in this thread) - but make sure you're outside at least 30 minutes before Illuminations. If you follow these directions, you'll have had at least a dozen hours of the not-so-subtle messages of EPCOT being drilled into your head: a message of national pride and international friendship and cooperation, a message that with a global vision, anything is possible. At this point, you'll be primed for Illuminations. It's the perfect punctuation to the message. And when it ends and you slowly make your way back through Future World, past the shining sphere that is Spaceship Earth, you will understand why EPCOT is the best American Disney park.

ooh, MousePod's getting me all gitty about it!!

Honestly from my POV Epcot seems always seemed so low in expectation. The ol'e "Educational" blah!!

For IOA - someone in the MiceScat crew has transportation for all, so that's a load off.

Thanks for being so helpful everyone!!!

EPCOT is my favorite park in WDW, despite it's non-thrill nature.

Maybe you can head back next year when Spaceship Earth is reopened.