2026 Dates & Details for Behind the Seeds Glimmering Greenhouses Christmas Ride Tour at EPCOT

Walt Disney World has announced the return of Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses during the 2026 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays. This offers a rundown of this Christmas-time tour that takes guests backstage in Living with the Land, plus why we love both this seasonal ride overlay and the behind the scenes tour of the attraction.

Let’s start with basics. Living with the Land: Glimmering Greenhouses is the EPCOT Festival of the Holidays overlay of the iconic greenhouse tour. It began several years ago and has gotten bigger and better with each passing year, resulting in smaller-scale spinoffs for the other festivals. The Christmas overlay is still by far the best of the bunch.

Glimmering Greenhouses is a special, sparkling boat ride during which you can enjoy a peaceful cruise and view twinkling holiday light displays throughout the greenhouses. There are daytime decorations, and little vignettes with presents and such, but the greenhouses really shine at night when they’re illuminated with Christmas lights.

Celebrate the beauty of nature with a walking tour of the Glimmering Greenhouses in the Land Pavilion at EPCOT. During this one-hour guided tour, you can:

• Learn about crops that bring festive flavors to many of our holiday traditions.
• Enjoy brilliant light displays.
• Explore hydroponic greenhouses and discover sustainable growing techniques used to bring the Glimmering Greenhouses to life!

The Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour is offered at 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM during the 2026 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.

The Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour will be offered from November 27 through December 30, 2026. Reservations for this tour will open beginning September 24, 2026. We expect demand to be high for this special backstage tour at EPCOT, just as it was each of the last two years.

In its first year, the Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour cost was $45 per person. Given the popularity of the tour, prices shot up to $59 per person last year. That’s what price is still listed for 2026, and we assume it to be accurate, but prices could increase again before reservations open (if not, they might increase in mid-October when tour prices typically increase, assuming there’s still any availability). We’ll update once official pricing and discount info is released by Walt Disney World.

The Behind the Seeds tour is still available during the day. Advance reservations are highly recommended, as availability is limited. Make reservations online or via the My Disney Experience app. Same-day reservations and walk-ins can be made on a limited basis and are subject to availability.

Here’s important information about Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour:

• Valid admission required. A theme park reservation may be required based on admission type.
• You’ll be on your feet for the whole hour of this walking tour. With that in mind, make sure you wear comfortable shoes.
• Riding Living with the Land prior to the tour will give you a preview of what to expect. Please be aware that the tour highlights listed above are subject to change.
• Please check in 15 minutes prior to the start of your tour at the lower level of The Land Pavilion near the attraction exit.
• There is a 24-hour cancellation policy. Full price will be charged/forfeited if the Guest cancels within one day or fails to show up for the reservation.
• Guests must be at least 3 years of age to participate in this tour.
• Guests under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a paying adult.

We Love Living with the Land and Glimmering Greenhouses

We absolutely love Living with the Land. It’s one of the Walt Disney World attractions we do the most. We also absolutely love Christmas lights. Put those two things together, and we are squarely the target audience for Living with the Land: Glimmering Greenhouses. No surprise that we’re such fans–it was basically bioengineered in a lab specifically to our tastes.

Suffice to say, do not miss Living with the Land: Glimmering Greenhouses! It’s the best holiday ride overlay at Walt Disney World, which isn’t really saying much as the Florida parks don’t really do seasonal overlays, but it’s still fantastic.

We further sang its praises in Why Disney World is Wrong About Holiday Ride Overlays. That uses Glimmering Greenhouses as a ‘case study’ to advocate for more holiday overlays at WDW, such as Haunted Mansion Holiday at Magic Kingdom.

Judging by last year’s wait times for Glimmering Greenhouses and the popularity of this tour, other Walt Disney World guests agree. Living with the Land routinely had hour-long waits throughout the evening from Black Friday through December 30th–the longest lines we’ve ever seen for the attraction!

We Love Behind the Seeds

We absolutely love Behind the Seeds at EPCOT. And keep in mind that I say this as someone who hates horticulture of the participatory and am not allowed near our garden due to an unfortunate lawnmower incident over a decade ago. So it’s not like I’m exactly the target audience for Behind the Seeds!

Behind the Seeds is actually the first guided tour we recommend to fellow fans as a “gateway” to behind the scenes tours at Walt Disney World. It’s a great, relatively low-stakes way to see whether going backstage on guided tours is a good fit for you, and worthwhile use of limited and valuable vacation time. (I would say that 95% of fans who do Behind the Seeds end up loving it; most do more backstage tours.)

If you like the Living with the Land attraction at EPCOT, then you’ll probably love Behind the Seeds. This one-hour tour of the fish farm and 4 greenhouses that make up the Land Pavilion is perfect for anyone with an interest in gardening or natural sciences. It’s relatively short and inexpensive, hence it being low-stakes relative to other backstage tours.

Behind the Seeds teaches guests about the latest plant-growing techniques, including hydroponics. It also showcases the hybrid striped bass, tilapia, catfish and freshwater shrimp in EPCOT’s fish farm. Along the way, you’ll behold gigantic fruits and vegetables and unusual crops from around the world.

During Behind the Seeds, you’ll take in the sights and smells of unusual crops from around the world while exploring the future of agriculture. Your knowledgeable guide will help you discover some of the latest plant-growing techniques in use at The Land, including hydroponics, and provide ideas you can try at home in your own garden.

Read and see more in our Behind the Seeds at EPCOT Tour Review.

We Want to Love Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses

We wish we had a review of the Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour. We were so excited about this tour when it was announced, and planned to do it ASAP as one of the highlights of our holiday season.

Then reality set in. Our daughter, Megatron, is yet not 3 years old. She will be by this holiday season, but the problem there is that it means we’ll suddenly be paying $180 or more for this tour, as opposed to the $90 it would’ve cost the two of us two years ago.

So while we love the idea of doing the Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour, it’s probably “not for us” for at least a few more years when she’s old enough to appreciate it.

Nevertheless, I feel obligated to make an emphatic plug for the Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour. Even though I can’t recommend it on the basis of firsthand experience, it’s my civic duty to share these details. (And even without firsthand experience, I’m 99% positive we would love this tour.)

Beyond that, “restoring upcharges” was one of the things we listed in Walt Disney World Could Fix the Guest Experience by Improving These Things. Obviously that’s an unconventional request given that the majority of guest complaints revolve around pricing.

Plenty of guests have complaints about paying more while getting less, and there are two ways to resolve that–only one of which is realistic. Other fans want upcharge opportunities that offer commensurate value for the extra money. These notions are not in conflict; it’s possible to be upset about paying more while getting less, while also having a willingness to splurge on something special that’s “worth it.”

Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour is exactly what I had in mind when discussing Walt Disney World bringing back extras. Spending an hour roaming the Living with the Land greenhouses at night all decked out and aglow for Christmas is the kind of new-to-us experience that sounds special and keeps us coming back to WDW.

This tour is certainly not going to be for all Walt Disney World fans and it’s pricey at $59 per person, but this is tailor-made for our interests. We love the attraction, and know this would be an awesome experience that’s 100% worth it to us–one of the highlights of our holiday season. That might sound extreme, but again, we aren’t everyone. This is the type of thing that ‘speaks to us’ and keeps us coming back to Walt Disney World.

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Your Thoughts

Did you do the Behind the Seeds: Glimmering Greenhouses tour of Living with the Land at EPCOT last year? If so, what was your experience–would you recommend it? Planning on booking this tour for Christmas 2026? Is $59 to walk around greenhouses and look at Christmas lights too steep for you? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!