1-Day EPCOT Itinerary
Our 1-day EPCOT itinerary has the best order to do everything, including the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster and Frozen Ever After boat ride. This Walt Disney World plan has step-by-step strategy to avoid waiting in long lines, beating crowds, eating and enjoying World Showcase. (Updated February 18, 2024.)
This one-day EPCOT plan has been overhauled several times in the last year, taking into account the partial-completion of World Celebration, Early Entry and Extended Evening Hours, festival crowds, plus paid FastPass–but this itinerary assumes you will not be buying those line-skipping services. If you do plan on spending the extra, consult our 1-Day EPCOT Itinerary with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Then there’s all of the construction and new additions. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure have now been open for a while now, and these big additions plus Frozen Ever After in World Showcase are all big boosts for EPCOT. Which you should prioritize is also dependent upon whether you’re coming from the Crescent Lake resorts or Skyliner gondolas and entering via International Gateway, or the front entrance. We’ll address this in the new single-day EPCOT itinerary for 2024.
Although EPCOT remains in the midst of a massive transformation, most of this is now finished. There are still some walls towards the front of the park around CommuniCore Hall and Plaza, but the gardens area is open and it’s easy to get from the front of the park to World Showcase. Otherwise, the only things that are not done have been delayed indefinitely and may never happen (Play Pavilion, Mary Poppins ride, Spaceship Earth reimagining, and more).
On a positive note, the new Luminous nighttime spectacular and Moana’s Journey of Water have debuted, Figment has also returned as a meet & greet character, and the 2024 EPCOT Festival ‘season’ is now underway. Then there’s the aforementioned Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which opened in the last few years and remain incredibly popular.
With all of that in mind, let’s cover the 1-day EPCOT itinerary…
Fast-Forward to (Cosmic) Rewind – On the morning of your EPCOT day, at least one person in your party will need to be awake before 7 am. This is because guests with a valid ticket and a Disney Park Pass reservation for EPCOT will be able to access the virtual queue system starting at 7 am on the day of their park visit. This is done outside the park–before you leave your resort hotel, or from literally anywhere.
The virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is popular, but not as difficult as it once was. Our How to Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind & Virtual Queue Speed Strategy covers everything you need to know–like increasing your chances of success. (For reasons beyond us, this virtual queue is still in use. However, we expect it to be retired in the near future.)
If you’re unsuccessful, you can try to join the virtual queue again at 1 pm from inside the park. Pencil Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind into this itinerary whenever is convenient after your boarding group gets called. You have an hour to return to the attraction from receiving the notification that it’s your time to ride. The virtual queue is getting easier to enter, so you shouldn’t have an issue–especially with the 1 pm drop.
At this point, we always join the 1 pm virtual queue for Cosmic Rewind instead of the 7 am one, because this puts our return time in the afternoon when we’re going to be in the front of the park. This approach is not without risk, but unless you’re visiting during a peak week–think Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or Easter–the 1 pm virtual queue is usually open for several minutes to several hours.
Early Entry at EPCOT – Walt Disney World is now offering Early Theme Park Entry, which allows on-site hotel guests to enter EPCOT (or any park) 30 minutes before official park opening time. Early Entry is offered at all 4 theme parks every single day of the week. This complicates strategy, especially for off-site guests. Check out our Guide to Early Theme Park Entry at Walt Disney World for more info.
If you can take advantage of this early admission and will be entering via International Gateway, we’d strongly recommend reading our recent Early Theme Park Entry at EPCOT Strategy for how to tackle the park’s headliners via standby, and why this on-site perk is better than Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at EPCOT.
The following strategy is for official park opening and the remainder of the day, meaning that it assumes you are not doing Early Entry. Modify as appropriate if you are eligible for, and taking advantage of, Early Entry…
Navigate to Norway – In the past, we would not have recommended prioritizing World Showcase, which is mostly shopping, dining, and wandering. However, there are several compelling reasons for doing so right now.
For starters, World Showcase is home to both of EPCOT’s most popular attractions that offer standby lines. There’s also the fact that most guests arrive through the front entrance and do EPCOT from front to back, meaning they do World Showcase in the afternoon. Zig when others zag, and work from back to front, which puts you on the opposite track of crowds. It’s like leaving the city during morning rush hour instead of joining the rat race into town.
This is why we start our day by heading to Frozen Ever After in World Showcase’s Norway/Arendelle pavilion. This is tied for the most popular ride at EPCOT right now, and as such, you certainly will not be the only guests heading in this direction–to the contrary, a sizable number of guests will navigate to Norway. However, it’ll be proportionally fewer than other headliners–or that’ll be going to Norway later in the day.
By the time you get back to Norway, there’s a good chance that Frozen Ever After will have a posted wait time of 45 minutes or longer. So long as you arrive right at EPCOT’s opening time, you should do it anyway. Wait times for Frozen Ever After only worsen as the day wears on, as most guests do World Showcase in the second half of the day.
Cross to Canada – Beatles vs. Stones. Coke vs. Pepsi. Orange vs. Lime. Canada vs. Mexico.
Walt Disney World fans have long debated which direction is the “correct” way to start a trek around World Showcase. We’re here to inform you that the best approach is actually both. After finishing up in Norway, double back and head to Canada, continuing around World Showcase in that direction. You’ll understand why when you see the next stop…
Scurry to the Streets of Paris – The other most popular attraction in EPCOT is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which is also the newest at Walt Disney World. Due to this “new ride smell,” it is what most guests race to during Early Entry and at rope drop.
Consequently, we’ve observed an interesting phenomenon with a relative lull in wait times about an hour after park opening until around noon. This gap is basically between when the early arrivers have already finished up with the attraction but before the guests who prioritized the front of the park arrive to World Showcase. It’s still early, so this trend could change, but it intuitively makes sense and our expectation is that it’ll continue.
As such, your aim should be to arrive at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure before lunch. It may not seem like much, but knocking out these two headliners before mealtime is huge, and will set you up for an efficient afternoon.
The World Showcase is Your Oyster – Routinely viewed as the culinary epicenter of Walt Disney World, there are a number of unique restaurants in World Showcase. We think the cuisine at many of these is overrated, but it’s still worth being a bit adventurous and eating somewhere unique. Some of our favorite options include Biergarten, Teppan Edo, Spice Road Table, Via Napoli, and Chefs de France.
If you want something more approachable, one of the best counter service restaurants in EPCOT is Regal Eagle Smokehouse. It has a variety of crowd-pleasing BBQ, plus salad and even plant-based options. (We’ve eaten everything on the menu–read our Regal Eagle Smokehouse: A Review of All Foods, But Mostly BBQ Meats for thoughts on what to order.)
Alternatively, if you have to head back to the front of the park for your Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind return time, dining at the new Connections Cafe & Eatery isn’t a bad option. Both of these have very ordinary menus that are simple and straightforward, but surprisingly good.
American Adventure – Right next door to Regal Eagle Smokehouse is Epcot’s best attraction. American Adventure is a powerful Audio Animatronics show montage stage featuring key moments in American history.
American Adventure is so good that it made our list of the Top 10 Disney Theme Park Attractions. Skipping it would be distinctly unpatriotic.
_______ Around the World – The distance around World Showcase is roughly 1.25 miles. If you follow this plan, that means you’ll be walking at least 2.5 miles (you’re likely to walk over 10 miles in a day at Walt Disney World, so this is nothing), as this is going to call for 2 laps around World Showcase. It’s worth it.
During this first lap, we suggest trying Drinking Around the World or Snacking Around the World. Or try both for a different form of the “Dopey Challenge.” We recommend a snack or drink at every stop for the balanced approach, but hats off if you can do more. Along the way, consider breaks for Reflections of China and Canada Far & Wide.
Around the World Pit Stops – If it’s ‘Festival Season’ at EPCOT (which basically encompasses the entire year save for a few weeks), you should stop to enjoy either the food & drink booths or special offerings during these events.
Here are the various events along with their approximate annual timeframes:
- EPCOT International Festival of the Arts – Mid-January through Presidents’ Day
- EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival – Beginning of March through Independence Day
- EPCOT Food & Wine Festival – Late Summer through Saturday before Thanksgiving
- EPCOT Festival of the Holidays – Black Friday through December 30
World Showcase Atmospheric Acts – It should be obvious from the above entries, but we cannot overemphasize the importance of slowing down and taking your time to enjoy World Showcase. There should be no sense of urgency for the middle portion of the day. Lines for attractions at the front of the park are at their longest, making this a great time to kill time–explore the nooks and crannies, engage with the architecture, browse shops, and–as discussed above–eat!
Most importantly, take some time to stop and see the atmospheric entertainment acts. Among other performers, this includes Voices of Liberty (American Adventure), Matsuriza Taiko Drummers (Japan), Command Performance (United Kingdom), Les Raftsmen (Canada), Sergio the Italian Clown Juggler, and more. Note that performers can (and do!) change seasonally, as do showtimes. For schedules, we highly recommend consulting the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit.
Maneuver to Mexico – Around mid-afternoon, you should notice crowds starting to build in World Showcase. Now is the time to double back towards the front of the park. On your way out, make a stop inside the Mexico pavilion to do the Gran Fiesta Tour boat ride.
If you’re planning on enjoying a drink or few, now is also a good time to stop at La Cava del Tequila or Choza de Margarita for a drink. Both locations might already have lines, but those will only be worse later.
Back to the Future World – Once you’ve “finished” World Showcase, bounce back to the front of the park, formerly known as Future World. This is the counter-intuitive approach. Most guests do EPCOT from front to back, meaning the wait times for attractions at the front of the park are longest at the beginning of the day and decreasing in the afternoon.
Order of attractions doesn’t make a huge difference in Future World (with a couple of big exceptions), but our recommended approach is:
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Meet Figment
- Meet Minnie & Mickey Mouse
- Spaceship Earth
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends (make sure to check out the aquatic life, especially the majestic manatees)
- Living with the Land
- Soarin’ Over California
- Moana’s Journey of Water
- Mission: Space
- Test Track
That involves a bit of backtracking; feel free to reduce that if you want to minimize steps.
The first important thing is to make sure Soarin’ Over California and Test Track are towards the end. Those are the two attractions that will have the longest lines earlier in the day. By early evening, both lines should be much shorter than they were in the morning.
Moana’s Journey of Water is typically less busy in the evening, and it’s a great spot to watch the sunset and see day transition to night at EPCOT. Even if you stopped by earlier in the day, it’s worth taking a few minutes for a sunset stroll.
Dinner – After returning from the red planet in Mission: Space, head above Earth for dinner at EPCOT’s newest restaurant. See our Photos & Video Inside Space 220 Restaurant as well as our Space 220 Restaurant Review that looks at whether the food is worth the price tag.
In an ideal scenario, you’d book an Advance Dining Reservation in World Showcase about 2 hours before the fireworks, with dinner wrapping up shortly before that starts. If orbiting above Earth isn’t your speed, there are great options in World Showcase.
Spice Road Table is our top pick in World Showcase right now for cuisine and open air atmosphere. If this sounds outside your comfort zone, we’d encourage you to try it despite that–there are some surprisingly approachable menu options. If Spice Road Table doesn’t sound appealing to you consider Via Napoli, which serves the best pizza in Walt Disney World.
Impressions de France – This is the attraction we experience most in EPCOT, and is one of our picks for “Underrated Walt Disney World Experiences.” The score is hauntingly beautiful, and the imagery as you swoop through different parts of France is stunning.
There are several EPCOT films, but this is the only one that’s truly a must-do. (Be sure to check out the “Tale as Old as Time” exhibit in the lobby beforehand, too.) Unfortunately, it only is shown the last 2 hours of the day, so you might not have time for both Impressions de France and the fireworks.
Fireworks Finale – EPCOT has had three different nighttime spectaculars in the last few years, with the latest being the brand-new Luminous: The Symphony of Us. This debuted late last year and should remain incredibly popular for the entirety of 2024 and into 2025. It will be much more competitive than viewing EPCOT Forever, so we recommend staking out a spot at least 30 minutes in advance.
For planning purposes, consult our Best EPCOT Fireworks Viewing Spots posts for a list of the best spots and other tips for viewing the nighttime spectaculars.
EPCOT Post Show: World Showcase Stroll – Since the restaurants in World Showcase make dining reservations until park closing and it takes some guests over an hour after park closing to finish their meals, you have over an hour to linger and slowly make your way out of the park after the park closes. Take full advantage of this with a leisurely walk out of the park. Trust us, it’s worth it.
If you’re able to do even 75% of the things on our single-day EPCOT plan of attack, you are pretty much assured of having an excellent day in the park. If you do have two or more days to enjoy EPCOT, or want to experience other attractions besides those we’ve listed, make sure to check out our EPCOT Park & Attractions Guide, which rates and reviews all attractions.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
Your Thoughts
What would you include in your ideal day in EPCOT? Any tips of your own to add, or things you’d recommend that this itinerary is missing? If you haven’t visited Walt Disney World, what do you plan on doing? Any questions? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
This is a great plan. My wife and I did basically everything on your list (except for the Canada and China movies) in one day during Christmas break. Even during that super-busy time, this is still very do-able without much stress.
Hey Tom.
Do you think that Soarin’ will still be a higher priority for a rope drop strike (as opposed to Test Track) now that they have expanded? We’ve never been to the park before so I don’t know what to expect.
Thanks 🙂
It depends upon whether you’re willing to do single rider. If so, yes. If not, I’m not sure. I think the increased capacity will largely be offset by the ‘newness’ of Soarin’ Around the World.
If you rush over to Test Track as soon as you depart rope-drop-Soarin, there’s hopefully only going to be around a 20 minute wait in the standby line. It’s not too bad.
We are currently planning on staying at the Yacht Club, and we are going to be racing for Soarin in the morning. If we rope drop, should we be able to get to Soarin without TOO long of a wait? The main worry is how much closer those near the main entrance are.
I was just here this weekend and Epcot had extra morning hours. LEAVE EXTRA TIME FOR BAG CHECK. COMPARED TO MY LAST VISITS, THEY ARENT AS CURSORY LOOKS AS BEFORE. THEY OPENED EACH POCKET AND NON CLEAR BAG IN EVERY BAG THEY CHECKED. No guarantees this is the norm but here’s what I noticed: I got to the park a bit later (monorail wait) around 8:20 but it was about 45 mins wait for Soarin’. After bag check, walking back to Soarin, I saw it was an 80 min wait (all resort guests). So I decided to wait for sadness and joy photo op. I finished that at about 9:20. Decided to look at wait times for Soarin’ and it was 20 MINS!!!!! Score! I think they only open 1-2 ‘tracks’ for extra magic mornings. They must have opened another track (or 2) once the park opened to all guests. Good luck!!
I arrived early today and all the good rides in Epcot fast pass was unavailable
Not good
Needs to be better planned and organized for customers
Hi Tom,
Any suggestions or must see and do attractions for my wife and I doing a split day – morning / afternoon — EPCOT, afternoon – evening Magic Kingdom? Going 19 July
Thanks!
I know this article is pretty old but I was wondering if you have any advice for splitting Epcot into two days? I’m planning an 8 night trip with 7 days in the park and I’m just not sure how I would split Epcot the most effectively.
We are working on a post that offers a 2-day Epcot plan!
My husband and I are longtime DisneyWorld fans who are now in our 60’s. We now split Epcot into 2 days. We enjoy future world one day and world showcase on another. We do this because walking back and forth between the two is too much these days. When visiting future world we sometimes catch the monorail over to magic kingdom Resorts for an afternoon meal to escape the heat and come back to low crowds as many move to world showcase for second half of the day!
I was once a Disney aficionado. When I was as a child I remember going 6 times in one year and knew the parks like the back of my hand. Fast forward 20 years and now I’m on my way back in a few short months for my honeymoon with my now wife who has never been. First and most important thank you, the guide you have written has become my go-to for information and so for has saved me close to $2,000.00 by my calculations. In fact without this guide I may not have been able to afford the trip. One thing that would be truly awesome is a resource list, checklists of your DTB’s, photo spots and other cool things you have written about. As a thank you for your hard work I may translate your thoughts and plans into something people can download and send them your way. Thanks again.
Noah
Hey Tom, my fiance and I will be down there in April of 2016, we are staying four nights, Friday the 8th – Tuesday the 12th. We have started tenatively planning our days already. We took a trip in February of ’15 with the kids, and this time we are lucky enough to go alone. We will be staying at Bay Lake Tower on DVC points and want to try to do Animal Kingdom Saturday, Epcot Sunday, and Magic Kingdom Monday. Now we have never attempted Drinking Around the World, mainly because we have had the kids the last two times we went, however I can tell you we already have our team t-shirts printed for this go round.
Anyway, to get to my point, we want to spend a day in each park, but also want to ride Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller Coaster, and I love Star Wars so hopefully we could do that as well. We want to fit those attractions in, and really see no reason to spend anymore time in Hollywood Studios than is neccesary to do so. But we are still trying to figure out the best way to cram them in. We know we want to stay at AK until close, and Epcot as well, and Magic Kingdom even though we have experienced most of the attractions several times, could still take the better part of the day. Animal Kingdom closes early the whole time so maybe afterwards would be best. But we really had our hearts set on checking out all the other DVC resorts, and more if possible. Ugh we want to do so much in so little time lol. Any suggestions?
Great suggestions! Just want to say how much we love the Boardwalk resort. It’s actually only a boat ride from the Studios too. My daughter would add the boat ride at Norway to this list, but they’re refurbishing to make it more “frozen” so she may change her mind. Our fave table service is the hibachi dining at Japan and counter service is in Mexico. Food and wine fest is the best time to drink…um eat…your way thru the world!
Tom I agree Captain EO needs to go away. Very boring.good time for a nap.
Don’t forget catching a performance from the Voices of Liberty on your way to the American Showcase! They are truely one of the best groups of singers that I have ever heard, and should not be missed during any trip to Epcot!
whoops. I meant American Adventure. That’s what I get for multitasking. lol.
You mentioned that you grew up near where Bell’s brews in Kalamazoo. Just wondering where. I live in South Haven, not far from there. I’m continuously amazed at the amount, and quality of, craft brewers here in Michigan. Presently hung up on Greenbush.
Grew up in Plainwell, MI.
You’re pretty consistent in your criticism of Captain EO, and I don’t really agree. The theatres are pretty nicely themed, it’s got a great song and finale, and the pre-show is pretty nice too. Plus, it’s never got any wait times – anywhere! I’m sure you don’t need reminding of the ‘dream team’ talent behind it, and the $23m budget (in 1987 dollars) it got – and while I agree money spent is no guarantee of quality, I think you’re ever so slightly downplaying the effort that went into it for its time. It’s cheesy, but I’d argue that is part of the attraction – I’d also argue that it was probably intentionally so at the time – and I would further contend that all theme park attractions (even the top E-tickets of today!) are a little cheesy to an extent. If you don’t enjoy the irony of a bit of ‘cheese’, then, well, you’re probably in the wrong place being in a theme park.
I’ve noticed you have a tendency to dismiss fans of Captain EO as ‘old timers’ who rued the day it disappeared and wanted to see it back… but I wasn’t around while it was in the park, so that certainly doesn’t apply to me. Given some of the other stuff you enjoy, I’m just a little surprised it doesn’t get a pass from you guys! Maybe you (and other critics) should give it another try sometime with an open mind. You may just find yourself enjoying it and following along with the many quotable lines. It clearly won’t last much longer, and I doubt it’ll be revived again. And besides, although I have never seen “Honey I Shrunk The Audience”, the fan community is hardly particularly warm to it… at least Captain EO is something that has some positive reception (although it’s mostly in people referencing other people’s positive view of the show before proceeding to criticism it themselves – I’ve rarely seen it mentioned directly).
Hope that doesn’t come across the wrong way – I’m not trying to say your opinion is wrong, I just thought I’d write something in defense of it. I’m a great fan of your site and agree with a lot of your other opinions (especially your “underrated attractions”)… (that said, are you sure you want a fan of your site who thinks Captain EO is worth watching? ;-))
Thank you for this thorough and eloquent argument. I love this site but I totally agree with you as it’s nice to see this attraction defended for once!
Oh, I definitely don’t want Captain EO fans reading this site! 😉
However, explaining my opinion is probably a fair thing to do at this point…
Given the other things I like, you might think it would be a given that I like Captain EO. Most of my friends love it.
There are a few reasons why, the first is the controversy around Michael Jackson. Regardless of whether he was guilty or innocent, he was undeniably creepy in a way Disney, a family company, should not be celebrating. People seemed to forget about this when MJ died, and I think Disney wanted to cash in on his new popularity just as much as they did honor him. Even though he shouldn’t have been honored. (If Bill Cosby dies in 5 years, I certainly hope Disney doesn’t add a tribute to him.)
Setting that aside and assuming for the sake of argument that Michael Jackson was the perfect human being, I think bringing an attraction back that is so dated and off-theme for its land just for the sake of paying tribute to an entertainer is inappropriate. Had Captain EO never left, I probably wouldn’t be so hard on it. Honey I Shrunk the Audience was also really dated and off-theme when it left, but it didn’t catch my ire in the same way. I viewed it as something that needed to go, but it didn’t actively irritate me.
I think that Captain EO has not aged well. Yes, at one point it was a big budget attraction that worked well in Future World. A little self-aware humor, but overall an ambitious and imaginative sci-fi adventure. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been that since the mid-1990s. I think that bit of (at the time) 80s kitsch now can be construed as “laughably bad” for a land that’s ostensibly about the future.
I cut it a little more slack in Tomorrowland (at Disneyland) because I view that as “Future Fantasyland,” but Future World is more geared towards our optimism about the future/science fact. In fairness, Captain EO wasn’t a realistic/science fact take on science fiction even when it debuted, but it was sure a lot closer than it is now.
I think it’s different than other “classics” like Country Bear Jamboree and Carousel of Progress in that those are still on-theme in their respective lands, and have aged fairly well (with the exception of the final scene in Carousel of Progress, which is pathetic). At least, I think they have. Maybe I’m just biased towards them.
Finally, hatin’ on Captain EO has become somewhat of a running joke for me. I do hate that it’s in Future World, but I don’t hate the show itself so much as the circumstances surrounding it and where it’s located. It’s a product of the 1980s, fun for nostalgic purposes and a good laugh.
Hope that helps clarify and makes a little sense out of my opinion… 🙂
Great post. I did the FP+ for Illuminations in September and it was really worth it, but I found that you still need to get there early to get a good place on the FP queue.
I can’t go to Epcot without visiting the Norwegian bakery at least once. The waffles are fantastic and I LOVE the school bread.
I think it really depends upon the day. When I did FP+ for IllumiNations, one time there was barely anyone there, the other time the best spots filled up early, but there was still a ton of room.
There needs to be a grass roots campaign. No more ticket price hikes until EO is replaced. Although I wouldn’t voluntarily see it again it was so bad I ended up giggling through the whole show.
I have to admit that I actually enjoyed Captain EO the one time we saw it in Tokyo Disneyland. The first time Michael Jackson did a hip thrust, there was an audible “ohhh” from the Japanese audience. Very funny, to say the least! 🙂
We (my gf and I) did restaurant Marrakash kind of by accident (they didn’t have a wait and everything else did) and we were very happily surprised. I’m not that adventurous of an eater, and there was plenty on the menu that I would have enjoyed. The belly dancing was cool, too.
Also: WHY is Captain EO still playing anywhere?? So, so bad.
Manatees rule! Caption EO…drools? Is absolutely terrible?
Last visit my husband was like, “Let’s do Captain EO! It can’t be that bad!” and I said no, that’s a terrible idea. But we did it anyway. And I glared at him the entire show. It IS that bad. So bad. Seriously, this is up there with the Star Wars Christmas special bad, and George Lucas had a hand in both.
“The sight of Audio Animatronics dinosaurs should fully energize you…” Tom, you are a man after my own heart. A little disappointed Club Cool didn’t get its own paragraph, since everyone should try a little Beverly each trip.
What an excellent guide to Epcot! 🙂
Hey, back it up! Nothing is as bad as the holiday special. Nothing. Itchy haunts my dreams. Even with Rifftrax it’s hard to watch. 🙂
Haha, I think George Lucas would respond, “It was the 1980s, man. Everyone was doing it!” 😉
Club Cool is there!
BEVERLY! Our family always goes to Club Cool for a hit of Beverly. It reminds us how lucky we are that we don’t have to drink it any other time!
Tangierine Cafe is a great call for dinner. It’s reasonably priced and is quick service, but has the quality of a great sit-down meal. It was a revelation when I ate there a few years ago. I feel like touring EPCOT has become a lot easier, but the sad reason is the lack of as many signature attractions that draw crowds. The only real trick (unless you go at a busy time) is to find a way to do both Test Track and Soarin’. Your plan seems right.
Yeah, with any reasonable amount of planning, both Test Track and Soarin’ are pretty easy to accomplish. Once the Frozen boat ride opens, I think this plan will become significantly more complicated.
Interesting comment about the Illuminations FP+. It seems like a bit of a wildcard (as in I’m not sure anyone else would voluntarily ‘waste’ their FP on this either!). I’m wondering – how feasible is it to take Soarin as the early AM fastpass, work through the other two as quickly as possible, and then rush to the booths to grab Illuminations as the 4th FP+? It seems less likely to have disappeared by mid-day than, say, Soarin and Test Track (and also people in the market for 4th FP+s at mid-day might be more tempted to choose something they can benefit from immediately, for the chance at a 5th FP+, rather than something which freezes them out until the end of the day).
I haven’t tried this strategy though, so I may be talking out of my behind here!
What you’ve described is our plan for our next visit (Fall 2015). We never did see Illuminations properly during our last trip (Fall 2014). We saw it from restaurant windows and other sub-optimal viewing areas. On the other hand, we were routinely able to get 4th and 5th FP+ for TT, Soarin’, etc. I’m hoping a 4th or 5th FP+ for Illuminations viewing will improve our experience in 2015!
On the day-of, I’ve always seen IllumiNations sold out–I think it usually sells out well in advance. I don’t check regularly, but I don’t think it’s possible, sadly.
I’d love to be wrong, so if anyone else has insight, please share!
Unfortunately, it does seem that IllumiNations tends to get booked up ahead of time. When I was checking for our trip in 11/14 that was the case and then when we were there, we were only able to get a 4th FP+ for it on a day when it was cold and rained ALL day – I assume that was only because everybody else decided to get something else and leave early. I have to admit that despite tending towards the “commando” touring style myself, it was so cold and miserable that day even we ended up changing that FP+ for something else too and left early!
I’m really glad that you guys enjoy Restaurant Marakesh as much as we do. The flavors are so unique, unlike anything we can get at home, and we live in a pretty cosmopolitan area. Plus, you can’t beat a place with a belly dancer.
My wife and I conclude our final evening with the post-Illuminations World Showcase stroll. Honestly, it might be the best part of trip. This certainly isn’t a knock on the parks, which we love! We’re commando-style vacationers by nature, so this is a great way to make the trip last just a little bit longer…