Around the World on a Segway - Epcot

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I had not even heard of a Segway although I had seen them not knowing what they were! However some friends of my brothers had taken this tour and had really recommended that we go on it. Children must be over 16 years so we left the girls with Granddad.

The tour lasts two hours and the first hour of the tour teaches safety rules and allows you to practice riding the Segway. In the second hour you can go around World Showcase before it officially opens to visitors.

The tour has apparently become so popular that it now takes place four times each day at 7:45, 8:30, 9:00am and 9:30 a. m. You have to check in 15 minutes before the scheduled tour time at the Guest Relations lobby inside the turnstiles.

We went on the 7. 45am tour and were not able to enter Epcot through the International Gateway. My Father dropped us off at the front of Epcot and we went in through Future World.

The cost of the tour was approx $85 and did not include entry to the theme park. This was relatively expensive compared with other tours but we thought it was well worth it. We got a 15% discount because we were AAA members.

We had to go to Segway Central, which is in Future World. They have a training room with about a dozen Segways lined up.

Here you practice going back and forth, turning left and right around some cones and up and down a ramp. They are limited to 5 mph and I had great fun practising my emergency stop, it could stop instantly and you did not fall backwards.

After about an hour of training another instructor joined us and we headed into World Showcase.

We started at Norway onto China and then Germany. In each country the instructor would get us to do a manoeuvre with our Segway that tested our skill. This was difficult in China where we went over a hump-backed bridge and then under a tree as we made our way downhill.

We were very fortunate that as we got to Italy all the Disney characters came out to go into the park. There was Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and several more. We managed to get our photo taken with all of them although our guide told us how lucky we were as he had never seen this happen before.

At the Japanese pavilion they coned off an area for us to go around on our own, this was great fun.

It seemed very strange in Morocco us going around on our Segways in the narrow corridors of the ancient architecture of the Moors!

Our final stop was the garden area on the bridge between France and the UK where our instructor took everyone’s camera and took group photos.

We were all delighted when we got a special “Around the World at EPCOT” pin for doing the tour. It has a person on a Sedgway that can move from left to right attached to it.

I really would highly recommend this tour to you, I cannot wait for my daughter to be 16 so that she can come on it with us.

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