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!
@Carrie. We visited on 1/18 and arrived at 9am. They were already letting people in and we went straight to Remys. The ride was already open with a quick line. We were out at 9:35 and went straight to Frozen ( 15 minutes walk) plus 25min. wait. After that,we did World Showcase and later in the afternoon we visited Future world. Rides were shorter.
Thanks for updating this! If we’d like to rope drop Remy +/- FEA, is it worth doing some contortions to do Early Theme Park Entry via the International Gateway? We will have a car but are not staying at one of the boardwalk or skyliner resorts (check into Grand Floridian on the afternoon of our EPCOT day), so would have to do something a bit out of the box to get to IG. Is the advantage to that entry point worth the hassle of making our way there?
I would not recommend doing Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure during Early Entry if you’re coming from the front entrance. You’re at a ~10 minute disadvantage versus those entering via International Gateway, and that’s a lot of guests.
Consider doing Test Track and/or Frozen Ever After instead during EE, and then bouncing to RRA a bit later in the morning a la this itinerary.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your informative articles! We’re visiting next week, and my question is whether your recommended itineraries change much if you are not staying in a Disney resort and thus can’t take advantage of early entry?
Thanks!
Erin
Hey Tom,
Would you change the morning structure at all if you’re entering through International Gateway? Or would you still go straight to Ratatouille after Frozen?
Presumably you’d be arriving during Early Entry (since you’re staying on-site), so I’d do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure first in that case. You’re right by it and should be able to beat the bulk of crowds. I cannot imagine a scenario where the backtracking makes sense or will save you time in that scenario.
(However, I have not personally tested that yet and keep in mind that we only have a couple weeks worth of data. Although I don’t think it will until Cosmic Rewind opens, all of this is subject to change.)
Now that Remy’s doesn’t have a virtual queue, do you recommend trying to got straight to that at rope drop??
My wife and I are going for a single day visit to Epcot on Jan. 9. She’s expecting, so we’re avoiding Test Track. We enjoy Frozen well enough, but much prefer Soarin’ if we have to pick between the two. Would you recommend rope-dropping Soarin’ instead of Test Track or Frozen in that case? Or is Soarin’ just not a good attraction to rope drop?
Since Epcot is now opening at 10 am and assuming we rope drop Test track with the 30 minute early admission for on site guests, would this change the itinerary?
Just to let you know, impressions de France used to be a favorite stop. Air-conditioned, long, it made a great rest stop for tired feet. However, that has been replaced with beauty and the beast sing along. I am a HUGE Belle fan but this was terrible! And unless you have very young kids with you, I do not recommend. I hope they bring back impressions de France soon!!
For what it’s worth, Impressions de France still plays in the last ~2 hours of the day. Like you, we absolutely love it (and have visited many of the real locations in France!) and hate the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along. It’s shockingly bad. 🙂
Hello,
This is helpful! What if we are getting to Epcot in late afternoon? What would you change/do in this scenario? Open to any and all suggestions!
Would you suggest a significantly different strategy if you were staying at a Boardwalk area resort and planning to enter through International Gateway at opening? I hate to have to add more walking to our day by starting at Test Track and then backtracking for Frozen and Gran Fiesta (and the rest of World Showcase), back to Future World for the rest of the attractions there, and finally back to our resort through the Gateway again at the end of the evening.
I love reading your posts. They are so helpful. They always give me more ideas and things to think about when planning our WDW trips. And they also help us navigate the local area as well.
I have a question. We’re locals, and we were long time (20 year) FL state annual passholders and we let our passes lapse during the closure. Since the family is now vaccinated, I called about re-activating the APs and I was told that if I went to Guest Services at Disney Springs that it’s very likely that they would renew the passes. But when I went to look for park passes, there weren’t any. If I renew the passes, do you think I’ll be able to use them? We mostly go to Epcot tbh, and we like to go in the afternoon and walk around and have dinner. I’m worried we’ll not have any opportunity to go. What do you think?
I’d start watching the Park Pass availability calendar at around 2 pm each day–it’s often refilled then, which would enable you to visit same-day in the afternoon. Of course, this is all subject to change, and if the parks keep getting busier this summer, you may end up shut out. I’m somewhat concerned about that, but WDW has also been increasing capacity, so I don’t think it’ll be much of an issue by July.
Hi Tom,
We followed your one-day Epcot itinerary last Thursday, May 20 and it worked beautifully. We did everything we wanted to and didn’t wait more than 20 minutes for anything. Based on another blog of yours, we stopped at Norway on our way out for dessert to-go.
The construction walls were somewhat hard to navigate around however there was always a CM nearby to ask for directions.
This was definitely our best day yet at Epcot. Thank you for this blog and all you do.
Tom, Epcot is our favorite park and we plan to spend 2 days there. We plan to head your advice and go during the week. Do you have a 2 -day itinerary that helps us maximize our visit. We are going Memorial Day week.
Thank you,
Hi Tom,
We will be at DW for 4 days in May. I am curious to know if these itinerary plans are doable on the days when the park hours are shorter (MK 9-6, AK 9-5, HS 10-7, E 11-7 are the current scheduled hours for our dates).
Also, we will have access to DAS for our group of 5 so how would you recommend we best utilize that coupled with the itineraries for each of the parks? I have seen it suggested to not wait for a DAS time if the queue is less than 30 minutes which is great. But should we encounter the need to use it, do you have any amendments to the itineraries OR suggestions on the rides where the DAS would be most helpful? Our first day is at EPCOT and we had originally planned to obtain the DAS first thing. Would it be wiser to head straight to Test Track and perhaps even head to Frozen Ever After and THEN obtain the DAS? If it helps to be ahead of the onslaught of people at rope drop for a ride or 2 then the DAS would not be as necessary until the ride queues are longer. We also figured that perhaps the DAS processing line might be a bit shorter if we aren’t trying to do it right at rope drop. Any other tips using DAS with your itineraries would be really helpful. Your blogs have been so informative! Thanks in advance!
Great itinerary. We pretty much followed the ride recommendations to a T (except test track: the kids weren’t that into it). One thing I will mention about going to the park on Saturday: it seemed to me that although it was quite crowded a good number of the guests were there for food and drink and not so much the rides. The longest line we waited in was Frozen Ever After which was just around 40 minutes. Everything else was pretty much 10-15 minutes until 2:30 and then almost walk-on thereafter. First time I’ve ever been that I didn’t have to contend with a single 90 minute line.
Just curious, do you have a printable version of any of these 1 day plans? I’d like to be able to have this on hand while in the park so i don’t get sidetracked.
We did this plan yesterday! It worked out very well for a long (13-hour) day at the park. We are two adults and we were first-timers! I wanted to take my time through each country, but there are so many countries. We just couldn’t see everything. But we were able to nicely rope drop Test Track and ride every attraction. Thank you so much for the plan. It was important for us to have some guidance!
But what if you are entering Epcot from the Skyliners at the International Gateway? Rope Dropping Test Track doesn’t make sense as it’s on the complete other side of the park….in fact almost everything is! Rope drop soarin? If the Ratatouille ride was open I guess we would do that, but then what? Still head on to future world? Or do world showcase backward? I need an expert!
Hi, Lorryn!
We stayed at Boardwalk and entered Epcot from the back end. Yes, completely on the opposite end of the park, but we were able to ride it before the park officially opened with a 10-20 minute wait when it posted nothing less than 45 minutes the rest of the day. Going to Frozen after Test Track still enabled us to walk on twice in a row. And we did Soarin later in the day with no wait. I’ve noticed evening lines getting longer for the main 3 headliners, but doing Test Track at rope drop and then Frozen, while hitting Soarin midday was a homer for us. Ratatouilee would probably change everything, so I’m no expert there, but just our experience a few weeks ago…
We used this itinerary and your snacking around the world recommendations last week at Epcot and it really saved us a lot of time waiting in line! The frozen ride we walked right on and then later when passed it was 40 minutes. Thank you for that! We tried to snack around the world at every country. It proved to be quite difficult with having to stop to eat each time with masks and not being able to let my girls and the slowest of eaters snack in the stroller we didn’t even make it all the way around the world 1x before our dinner reservation.
Agreed, Heather! We got to test track about 30 minutes before park opening and then rode Frozen TWICE as practically a walk-on, and then Mexico. My kiddos were more interested in the attractions in future world (Space Mountain 3 consecutive times, LOL…), so we ended up coming back to the world showcase in the evening instead, but that morning strategy was spot on…
And if you’re there during the Festival of the Arts, the Voices of Liberty Disney Songbook is a MUST! Brought me to tears.
Also, I would add…when we arrived at test track 30 minutes before park opening, the wait time already said 45 minutes, but we were on in probably 15 minutes. My boys rode it twice (with rider swap) within 30 minutes. So don’t let the pre-park opening “wait” times scare you!