Almost 30 years ago, in the spring of 1983, we took a family vacation to Disney World. Our 6 year old son loved the Magic Kingdom but I was enchanted by Epcot which had just opened in the fall of 1982. At that time my travels were pretty much limited to the United States. Making the rounds of the “countries” at Epcot was a tasting menu of the world. I still have a vivid memory of the China exhibit – a theater in the round. You stand in rows and hang on to the railing as you spin your head around to see the countryside of China fly by. I so wanted to see that for real. A trip to China was pretty rare at that time for seasoned travelers, let alone for me. I would never have dreamed that by the time I visited Epcot again I would have been to China and every country featured there, plus many others!
Here is Epcot’s world tour.
Canada
United Kingdom
France
Morocco
Japan – truth, we’ve only been in the airport in Tokyo so it’s still on the list….
U.S.A.
Italy
Germany
China
Norway
Mexico
Where else can you visit 11 countries in one day? Of course the Epcot versions are idealized but the architecture is just right. The fish and chips in “England” weren’t bad either.
A Flower & Garden Festival was going on while we were there. They had a butterfly house!
Some of these floral displays may be around all year….
I just have to include these pictures from 1983.
Can you believe we only took 7 pictures in Disney World? The digital age was still in our future!
This video was part of the Spaceship Earth ride. Your pictures are taken at the beginning of the ride and you answer a series of questions at the end. This personalizes your video and you can email it to friends and family right there – if you can remember their email addresses. I’ve already forgotten what the ride was like but I think the video is hilarious!
If the video doesn’t play properly in the blog you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuAo40w9uEs&feature=plcp
Epcot is a great make-believe trip and, who knows, it may spread the travel bug to others as it did to me. We’re staying home for the summer but I’ll continue to post pictures from real places we’ve visited.
Gracia's Travels - a photo-blog 
I loved the Epcot World Showcase! My favourite was Morocco – and in March I finally realised my dream of going there for real 🙂
That’s so great! Wasn’t it beautiful? My favorite place was the Chellah in Rabat. You can see a few of my pictures from there. Click Travel Destinations at the top of the blog and scroll down to Africa – Morocco.
Thanks for your comment and thanks for visiting my blog!
Fred and I went to Disney world in 1971 with my sister and family who were stationed in Pensacola with the Navy at the time. It had just opened and had a lot of empty land around it. It’s amazing to see how all that space has been filled up. Love your blog. Susan
Susan, you would not believe Orlando – it is amusement park mecca! And I think Disney World has 6 or more different parks! You’d need months of time and a lot of cash to visit all the parks around there. Gracia
OMG the video was a hoot! Always knew you two were a bit spacey! My grandparents lived in Clearwater, so I grew up going to DisneyWorld/Epcot on our yearly vacations…how lucky was that?? Thanks for the memories 🙂 Lisa
Hi Lisa. Glad you liked the video. I laugh every time I watch it!
Gracia
Very nice images. It looks like quite a comprehensive ‘world’ village. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for visiting my blog. I’m glad you enjoyed the Epcot tour!