Club Cool is perhaps the coolest (ha, ha) and least known facet of Epcot. It can be described in two very tempting, very dangerous words: free pop. All you can drink free pop. Each of the pictured taps dispenses a carbonated beverage made by the Coca-Cola Company and each is distributed in a different country. I decided (for the good of of the blog, of course) that I would drink each sample in its entirety. Easy for most, like Krest Ginger Ale from Mozambique and Manzana Lift from Mexico. But then there it was, staring me in the face, just like my kids in anticipation. Beverly from Italy. I remember once my dad had a toothache and sucked on an aspirin to ease the pain, and every time I've sampled this "popular, non-alcoholic aperitif" which is supposed to "stimulate the appetite" I think of the look on his face, then I lose my appetite. Sometimes almost more. I managed about half of the Beverly, then began to slam Mezzo Mix, from Germany, desperate to rid my mouth of the bitterness. So I managed to drink the entire samples for all but one drink, which turns out to be about 16 ounces in less than 15 minutes. Needless to say, I was experiencing mild to moderate gastric distress for a little while afterward.
Eager to walk it off, we headed to the Kim Possible Station in Norway, a cart just outside of the pavilion. We were given a "Kimmunicator," a cell phone programmed to receive our directives, and walked to Germany to begin our mission on the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure. We were given three different missions to find clues so we could catch the villain, Professor Dementor, from taking over the world with his mind control device - "look at all those people, walking around like they don't have a care in the world. It's like they're on . . . vacation!" Wade gives you tips and shows you pictures of where to go, and when you get to each spot there's a unique treat: the Kimmunicator activates unexpected movements from every-day looking objects. A cuckoo clock will sing a special tune or beer steins will sing. Finally, we stopped Professor Dementor's device and he was caught in a very public, very humorous scene in the town square. After the adventure was over, we put the Kimmunicator in a drop box hidden in plain sight. Our family loves this attraction. Almost every time we go to the World Showcase, we pick up a Kimmunicator, fight over who gets to hold it, go from clue to clue, fight over who gets to hold it, solve the mystery, and fight over who gets to put the Kimmunicator in the drop station. We've argued over this high-tech toy in Mexico, Norway, China, Japan, the UK & now Germany. Good times, good times.
We strolled around the rest of the countries and moved back into Future World pdq - we had Fastpasses for Soarin'! Now, remember my mild to moderate gastric distress? Yeah, so did I, except it wasn't a memory, it was still a very vivid reality. Luckily, I managed to hang on, and boy was I glad. Patrick Warburton (Puddy from Seinfeld fame) greeted us as our captain during the pre-show movie and we were ushered into the first row of seats on our "hang-glider." I love the first row. There are no dangling feet in front of me and I'm then surrounded by the curved-super screen as we're lifted into the air. As we flew over California, swaying and dipping through the air, we smelled the pine trees in the forest, the blossoms in the orange groves, the sea air from the Pacific. Too quickly, our "flight" ended and we were lowered back to Earth. DD, DH & I hurried to the exit to meet up with DS, who gets a tad bit of motion sickness from this attraction.
Speaking of motion sickness . . . my gastric distress was better! It's as if the hang-gliding motion cured me from my post-pop peptic disturbance.
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