Animated Meat is all about expanding horizons and pushing outside of the mundane. In my humble opinion, one of the best restoratives is to pack a bag and go wander around.

But let’s face it. Traveling can be expensive. And aside from that, foreign countries are always filled with foreigners that speak in foreign tongues. I mean, they don’t even have the decency to learn English.

So, if you’re the slightest bit xenophobic maybe you should spare yourself the misery of travel to exotic ports of call and set your GPS for Epcot in Florida instead.

Epcot is almost like two parks in one. The front half of the park is committed to the exploration of tomorrow. The exhibits in and around the big silver ball all deal with future technologies. Hopefully in the future we will get a handle on population because the day we went it was crowded beyond all imagination.

Because of the lack of any useable space, we headed straight back to the second part of the park, the World Showcase. The first two lands were Mexico and Norway. After a boat ride in Norway, we were treated to a five-minute film on the history of the country. Really.

China was a hoot. There weren’t any rides here. It was more a place to stop and get a plate of authentic Orange Chicken.

I think that it was when we arrived in Italy that I realized that the World Showcase is basically a big shopping district. Not every land has a ride but every one has a few stores devoted to the wares of the land your in.

Another thing that I realized is that every single land sells alcohol. There are eleven total lands in the World Showcase. It would be quite a game of bar golf to try and have a drink in each one. Maybe Animated Meat will host a tournament here one day.

I feel the need to pause a bit before the tour continues. I really don’t want to come off as one of those turds who hates everything Disney. I really don’t hate Disney. The company fascinates me. Somehow, while everyone else in the world compromises their standards, they haven’t. They continue to deliver a solid product and put customer service way up on their list. If anything, they’re victims of their own success. My primary turn off is that to go to a Disney park is to drown in crowds.

Morocco had to be the best of the lands. It was humming with activity and served really good food.

Another amazing thing about Disney is that they actually import their labor from each of the lands. Japan has Japanese people, Morocco had Moroccans and Mexico had Mexicans. They don’t just have some FSU student wear a fake mustache and a sombrero.