THROUGH THE GATES

8:30 A.M. At Epcot they generally open the first section a half hour before the stated opening time, meaning you can walk right into Spaceship Earth and Innoventions while the rest of the crowd is still out on I-4. It's a blast to start the day on Spaceship Earth, surely the most easily recognizable Epcot icon. On the first ride of the morning, you spiral upward 13 stories through "the big ball," passing scenes illustrating the history of communication. At the top, a planetarium sky unfolds before you.

RESERVATIONS

8:45 A.M. Stop by the Worldkey Information System, to the left of Spaceship Earth, for dining reservations. Leigh insists on dinner at the San Angel Inn Restaurante in Mexico because "there's a boat ride, so you have something to do while you wait for your food."

TIP: If you're staying at a Walt Disney World resort, you can make dining reservations from your room by pressing the "Dining Reservations" button on your phone. From anywhere else, call 407-WDW-DINE.

START YOUR ENGINES

9 A.M. Ride Test Track (in the pavilion of the same name) first as this automobile adventure is bound to be mobbed by midmorning. Kids have to be at least 40 inches tall to ride Test Track. If your children are smaller, head for Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, in the Journey Into Imagination pavilion. Honey strikes the perfect balance between funny and scary, and the finale is not to be missed.

TIP: Nick advises preschoolers who find the special effects of HONEY, I SHRUNK THE AUDIENCE a bit too intense to lift their feet off the floor and take off the 3-D glasses. That way they won't feel the puffs of air that simulate mice running up their legs, and without the glasses, the snake seems decidedly less menacing.

BODY LANGUAGE

9:45 A.M. Hit a couple of pavilions early, while the kids are fresh and the park is relatively uncrowded. We like WONDERS OF LIFE, which has Cranium Command, my vote for funniest show at Epcot. Here, General Knowledge taps an unfortunate recruit named Buzzy to pilot "the most unstable craft in the fleet," the brain of a 12-year-old boy. Buzzy's mission is to guide the lad through a typical day of junior high school without overloading his system.

Nick is a big fan of Body Wars, in the Wonders of Life pavilion, though this stomach-churning motion-simulation trip through the bloodstream is a little too realistic for Leigh's taste. While we ride, she hangs out at Coach's Corner, where you can have your baseball, tennis or golf swing filmed, played back in slow-mo and analyzed by Gary Carter, Chris Evert or Nancy Lopez on videotape.

GET CHARGED UP

11:15 A.M. When your own energy is flagging a bit, head for the Universe of Energy. This 45-minute presentation starts out as a show in which Ellen DeGeneres dreams she's on Jeopardy! and loses to smarty-pants Jamie Lee Curtis. Bill Nye the Science Guy appears and offers to teach her a little bit about the history of energy, at which point the theater breaks into sections and becomes a train moving through a land of dinosaurs. Since they were toddlers, my kids have loved these huge Audio-Animatronics beasties, although I must confess that I'm still unclear on exactly what the prehistoric creatures have to do with the history of energy. No Final Jeopardy for me, I guess.

Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated June 2005.