We're lifelong Floridians, and our way of spending money when I was little was going to WDW and camping about once a month or every other month for the weekend (we didn't buy fancy clothes or name brand things - we went for generic groceries, &c because my parents were like "okay, we can spend $50 on cable tv OR we can use it for a night at Fort Wilderness" and frankly, the weekend away was worth it) - we rarely actually went to the parks, except for a few years when my dad got good bonuses and was able to get us annual passes. ANYWAY when I was thirteen, my parents separated and we no longer had the ability to go much - I've been maybe 6 times in the last thirteen years, compared to at least a hundred times in my first 13 years (the first time I went, I was six months old, with my uncle! - I've never been able to find out why he and his girlfriend felt like taking a six month infant to Disney, but they did).

So I guess you could say that I think very fondly of it, and the not going much ever after going all the time probably makes me more nostalgic than anything? But instead of being overwhelmed by the ~magic~ the last couple times I've gone, it's been really cool to look at it all meta-like and admire the Imagineers' work and how well they create atmosphere and stories and stuff.

Long story short, that's a lot of the appeal of Epcot's World Showcase, I think, the attention to detail and the stories told in the architecture and art design. The sciencey side has been given a lot more theming without as strong of a science feel, because they were losing visitors to the other parks, and it was too much of a Grown Up place, or nonsense like that (I've always adored Epcot myself).

But also, if you go to Epcot now, you should TOTALLY go during the Food & Wine Festival in the autumn or the Flower & Garden Festival during the spring. The Food & Wine one has these amazing booths all over the World Showcase with different food to try (though you have to pay at each one, which is expensive, iirc), and it's soooo much more fun as an adult who can legally drink the alcohol. The Garden Festival is amazing because they put so much work and creativity into plant sculpture and displays, and it's just fucking beautiful (one year I went there was a butterfly garden and it was the coolest thing ever). That's why I'm going in 3 weeks - for the plants. I'm also hoping to get some cool photos to use as inspiration in my paintings...