Let’s Take A Ride on “Holiday Version” of Living With The Land

In this post, we will be keeping up with the theme of posts that are about 2 weeks too late by taking a ride on the “holiday version” of Epcot’s Living With The Land. This, along with the Jingle Cruise, are the two overlays WDW has to offer. They pale in comparison to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion and It’s A Small World overlays, but its better than nothing I suppose.

One thing this overlay has going for it right off that bat is that the regular version of the ride is already a great experience. I’m surely in the vast minority here, but Living With the Land is my 2nd favorite Epcot attraction, 2nd only to Spaceship Earth. Don’t get me wrong, Soarin’ and Test Track are great, but Living With The Land still holds that original Epcot feel. Its educational, interesting and has a solid duration. If I could only ride this OR Soarin’ during my trip, I’m taking this one every time.

As far as the overlay goes, its fine I guess. It doesn’t add much to the ride really. I suppose it could be nice for kids to give them something extra to lookout for during the ride. Pretty much all of the holiday elements are in the greenhouse portion of the ride. The initial dark ride sequences are unchanged.

The dark ride sections are exceptionally dark for Disney dark ride standards (there is little to no highlighting) making it difficult to photograph. I completely whiffed on both the dessert and prairie sections.

I’m not really happy with the results of the other areas either but they are at least usable here.

As we make our way into the greenhouse, the holiday aspects start to pop up.

If you are thinking to yourself that there doesn’t seem to be much to the overlay, that’s because there really isn’t. Its not in your face at all. Its actually more of a Where’s Waldo type thing where you have to be on the lookout for decorations here and there.

#Hidden Mickeys

Once you get to the 2nd greenhouse area, the decorations become a bit more frequent.

If you look closely at the photo above, you will see that those large hanging melon like things have bows on them… festive.

If you’ve never done the “Behind the Seeds” tour, I recommend giving it a try some time. Its very interesting and a good cheap way to get your feet wet to backstage tours.

#Not So Hidden Mickey

Here it is! The big holiday finale!

And that concludes our ride.

Overall, the holiday overlay really does little to either add nor detract from the ride experience. I am guessing it will make the ride a little more interesting for the kids so in that way I suppose its a good thing. Either way it remains one of my favorite rides in all of Walt Disney World.

Thanks for reading. Bye for now!