Epcot Summer 2021 Construction & Crowd Report
Another day, another Summer 2021 park report from Walt Disney World. This time, we head to Epcot for a Highway in the Sky aerial view of construction in Future World, fresh look at crowds, other changes, plus wait times, problem points, and congestion during the heart of summer tourist season on July 23, 2021.
In case you missed it, a good place to start is our Magic Kingdom Crowd Report: Busiest Week of the Year. As discussed in that post, attendance and wait times spiked there due to several Disney Park Pass reservation refills. The capacity increase kept Magic Kingdom mostly green on the reservation calendars, meaning that actual pent-up demand was playing out in that park.
It’s a somewhat similar story at Epcot, albeit with very different results. Magic Kingdom is currently amidst its objectively busiest week of the year and experiencing its statistically highest wait times. By contrast, things at Epcot are decidedly average. In fact, wait times are actually lower now than last month. That may not seem to make sense, but here’s our theory as to why…
For the better part of the last month-plus, Epcot has been the park with near-constant availability. Whereas Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios were regularly unavailable, Epcot was reliably green. We’ve called it the “consolation prize” park on several occasions, and for good reason–you could usually book Park Passes at Epcot when there were no other options.
Many visitors booking last minute reservations might’ve wanted to visit some other park last month or in May, but ended up getting stuck with Epcot. With attendance caps rising across the board, the other three parks are seeing their overall attendance increase because guests previously being shut out are now allowed to visit Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.
At Epcot, the phenomenon is playing out in reverse. The artificial caps that were redistributing attendance to Epcot are largely gone. Demand is settling into more natural patterns, which means fewer people doing Epcot for lack of other alternatives. Additionally, summer is usually the least-busy time of the year at Epcot, so that means somewhat of a slow-down without throttles on attendance at the other parks.
At least, that’s my theory. I think it’s well-supported by the wait time data and no other good way to explain away the discrepancy between Epcot and the other three parks. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the numbers, beginning with average attraction wait times (all graphs courtesy of Thrill-Data.com).
For perspective, the average wait time across all attractions and the entire day at Epcot was 26 minutes, which is actually one minute below average. This made it the 191st busiest day since reopening a little over a year ago.
For context, Magic Kingdom’s average wait was 46 minutes the day we were there this week–and Magic Kingdom has many more attractions, making it harder to finish everything there in a day.
As you can see from the graph above, the wait times at Epcot over the last couple of months are largely holding steady, but dropping slightly. This decreasing trendline can be reconciled with higher tourist numbers at Walt Disney World by the above explanation.
Guests now have expanded last-minute Park Pass options, and those added guests are disproportionately choosing to visit the other three parks in larger numbers. Stated differently, when guests aren’t pushed towards Epcot by lack of Park Pass availability at the other 3 parks, they are choosing to go elsewhere.
You might think that doesn’t track with anecdotal reports of recent “feels like” crowd levels at Epcot. You’d be absolutely correct.
As we’ve pointed out countless times, wait times only paint part of the picture when it comes to Epcot crowds. Even with more Park Pass options, this is still Walt Disney World’s “local’s park.”
Many Annual Passholders treat Epcot as a glorified mall, bar, and/or food court, which is doubly true during festival season. This is why we always strongly recommend avoiding Epcot on Saturdays or Sundays during the fall. Although the wait time data often doesn’t show it, crowds are worse on weekends at Epcot.
This is why quantitative and qualitative info is necessary when it comes to Walt Disney World planning. If you looked only at the numbers, it might be easy to miss this weekday v. weekend discrepancy at Epcot. That’s why we’ve made so many visits to Epcot in the last year, all in the name of “research.” (Sure, let’s go with that excuse.)
With that said, if you asked me to predict “feels like” crowds at Epcot this week after visiting the other parks, I would’ve overshot the mark. My guess would’ve been that the start of the 2021 Epcot Food & Wine Festival plus the high crowd levels literally everywhere else would’ve kept things elevated at Epcot.
That largely was not the case. There were some areas of congestion and long lines at a few Global Marketplaces, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I would’ve expected. However, this was during the week–expect a different scene on the weekends, even during summertime.
During our weekday visits, it seemed like lines for the food booths have gotten progressively shorter since that event kicked off. My best guess here is that this is due to the extreme heat Florida is experiencing.
While tourists are something of a captive audience (causing high crowds at the other three parks), the locals who would flock to Food & Wine are waiting until the weather cools. That’s just a guess, though.
The locations with the longest lines were, unsurprisingly, beer carts and ice cream stands.
Meanwhile, some of the very same Global Marketplaces with ~15 minute lines last week had open registers. I’m as a shocked as you that no real guests want hot bowls of noodles when the feels like temperature is 105º!
Back in Future World, the longest wait of the day continues to be at Test Track.
Our 1-Day Epcot Itinerary (and all of them, really) is in desperate need of an update as it recommends rope dropping Test Track. With the 11 am park opening coupled with the return of ‘regular’ rope drop, this is now bad advice. In actuality, Test Track’s wait time peaks in the first hour of the day, and is shortest in late afternoon.
Unfortunately, there’s no tremendous upside to rope dropping Epcot. But with the park opening so late, what else are you going to do–sleep until noon? This is a big reason why we recommend buying Park Hopper tickets and reserving 2 days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and 0 days at Epcot.
Starting your morning at DHS and ending at Epcot can extend your day by a couple of hours. This also gives you more chances at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, lower overall wait times, and more fireworks. Read about what to expect and why in our 2021 Guide to Park Hopping at Walt Disney World.
Switching gears, we got our first ride aboard the Epcot monorail in roughly 18 months, giving us fresh glimpses into the massive Future World construction site.
It’s interesting to see, but also a bit anticlimactic. Unless you’re a big fan of dirt piles, tents, and porta potties, I guess.
It’s no secret that all construction was paused at Walt Disney World for several months during the closure. We’ve also mentioned countless times that Imagineering took significant components of the Central Spine redesign back to the drawing board.
Nevertheless, it’s disappointing to see so little taking shape in this gigantic construction zone.
Unlike other projects, this one couldn’t be shelved. Components of it could, like the multi-story festival center that is currently housing what appears to be a break area with picnic tables for construction workers (I certainly hope that’s not the finished concept!), but not the entirety.
Even from the outset of the closure, it was obvious this would need to be completed in some form. So why not quickly make adjustments to scope/scale, leave some question marks for later, and fast-track the components during the closure instead of mothballing the entire thing? For example, Creations Shop and the Electric Umbrella replacement could both be finished by now, with a walkway in front of them cutting through the core of Future World and these mazes of construction walls.
To that point, Creations Shop is wrapping up for its target opening season of this summer. As part of that work, you can see a new construction wall being erected inside the existing construction zone so guests can access the front entrance of the store.
I’m not sure what’s taking so long with this MouseGear remodeling. Of course, those expeditions to Home Depot for rare and exotic flooring are arduous–I get it, I’ve gotten lost in those aisles many times!
There’s no opening date yet for Electric Umbrella’s successor, so the walkway will almost certainly dead-end before the old Innoventions breezeway. Wouldn’t it be nice to walk along this walkway the way from Spaceship Earth to Creations Shop and beyond?
I’m still holding out hope this will be possible by the Christmas season, but I have no clue where that restaurant stands. There has been visible progress since late last year, so crews are actively working on it, which is promising.
Here’s a look at a portion of the future site of Moana’s Journey of Water.
This seems like it has a shot of opening next year. It’s a walk-through water trail–think an interactive play area–rather than a fully-fledged attraction, so work might progress faster now that components of it are starting to go vertical.
Above is a video Sarah shot from the monorail to give you a better idea of how the construction zone looks right now.
When the rest of the Central Spine reopens largely depends upon the ambitiousness of whatever Walt Disney World ends up building. If the replacement for the multi-story festival center is simply some picnic tables under tents, maybe the entire thing will be done in 2022. Personally, I hope this is sufficiently ambitious to the point that it cannot be finished until 2023. While I would’ve preferred the company expedite this project during Walt Disney World’s closure and low crowd portions of last year, what’s done is done. At this point, I’d rather the company give Imagineering a healthy budget and time and do this overhaul the right way–they probably won’t get a second chance on it.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on anything covered in this Walt Disney World park report? Happy to see that Epcot isn’t quite as chaotic as Magic Kingdom, DHS, or Animal Kingdom? If you’ve visited Epcot recently, what was your experience with crowds and wait times? Thoughts on construction progress on Epcot’s Central Spine overhaul? Hopeful that some of this will start wrapping up late this year or in 2022? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Thank you so much Maggie and Tom!
Googled and didn’t see it, but have they released any updated concept drawings for this area? Are you saying that multi-level area with people standing on top of it in the first drawings (that we figured would not be freely accessible to the public anyway) has been nixed? The first drawings were too “dreamy and sparkly” for us to make out much of the actual plan. As I’m sure they intended. lol Or maybe we just didn’t see the right ones.
Disney has not released new concept art–hopefully they’ll reveal it at or before the Walt Disney World D23 event this fall.
The company did say they “will take a different approach” with the festival center, and subsequently removed the model, concept art, and poster from the Epcot Experience. That’ll be the biggest change, but I’d expect more of the plans to be revised.
Here’s more on what has been shelved for Epcot: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/new-wave-disney-world-closures-cancellations-changes/
We were at Epcot on Monday and Friday of last week and had a very enjoyable time. In fact, I was the woman in the poncho that excitedly yelled “Tom and Sarah!” at you while running through the downpour with my kids. Seeing you two after being a regular reader of this blog was a definite highlight of the trip! I had to laugh as well because at the moment I saw you, I was wearing the shoes, poncho and clothing all recommended from this site and carrying a suggested backpack chock full of items from your packing list. During the rest of our week, as we endured the heat under our hats and chilly towels (also procured from links here) it became a running joke that everything we brought along was a “Tom and Sarah” item. Thanks for your ongoing dedication to this site and for making planning a WDW vacation so much easier. We were all extremely prepared! My husband could not have been happier about his dorky floppy hat.
Haha, that’s hilarious–hope you had a great trip despite the weather and crowds!
That downpour on Monday was a curveball. When we left home, it was beautiful and there was no rain in the forecast (at least according to my weather app). By the time we got to the park, it was pouring. Luckily, we keep about a half-dozen umbrellas in the car–always plan on rain during summer in Florida!
We were in EPCOT the same day as you and completely agree – crowds weren’t bad and we had a great day. Had plenty of time to walk back to the Yacht Club for some pool/nap time.
Magic Kingdom the next day was a completely different story. Disney is going to have a problem on their hands if they don’t get fast passes up and running ASAP. The lack of fast passes creates stress and unnecessary crowding as everyone scrambles to hit the same big rides early. Rather than enjoy the “other” rides, shops, etc it was a constant rush to wait in line again. Don’t get me wrong, we were happy and grateful to be back in the parks, but miss the pacing of having a fast pass.
I’ve got the following from digitalspy.com from an article on 22/07/2021, three days ago.
“”It was finally confirmed by Marvel that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 will be released on May 5, 2023, so you can now officially start your countdown.
Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista have both said that filming is set to start in November 2021 for around six months in Atlanta. The shoot will also include filming for the upcoming Holiday Special too, according to Gunn.
“I’m going to shoot that at the same time as Guardians 3. So we’re using some of the same sets. I think it’s going to be a good holiday special,” he confirmed.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special is set to air on Disney+ in December 2022″”
It’s a pity one can’t see the view at the other side of the monorail in the video above. One would see that the construction of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is 90% complete on the outside. Maybe it’s the same positive picture on the inside. It’s possible this inside attraction is closer to being finished than general public may think !! Anyone suggestions about an opening date given this information?
My understanding is the big remaining work to be done there is the queue, pre-show, and video footage, which won’t be recorded until they shoot the third film and holiday special.
The attraction could be ready to open next spring or summer. Whether it will is a different story.
Some answers to questions below:
Julie-
You don’t need to have a park pass to make an ADR. I have made several reservations just to test out the system without even having any Disney tickets purchased. That said, many ADRs are harder to get than the park pass itself so if you book a rare one and don’t have a park hopper that might end up deciding your park for you that day.
E. –
If you keep Epcot I’d actually do the opposite for the day…start out at Disney Springs late morning when its a little less crowded and you have lots of air conditioned shops to enter, then pop to Epcot in the evening when its cooler and less people are going on the rides. If you’ve got two days booked at HWS to get a Rise pass, I’d even say plan on making one of those your Epcot day. But park hopper is so handy if you feel like the splurge…
Obviously I’m not Tom so take those recommendations as you will, and good luck!
Do you foresee Disney doing anything special for Epcot’s 40th next year or with all this construction, do you guess they’ll keep it a subdued celebration?
I’d be surprised if it’s anything more than a single day or long weekend event, perhaps through D23. That would be consistent with the 25th, 30th, and 35th anniversaries of Epcot. The major celebration will still be Walt Disney World’s 50th. No clue, though–I haven’t heard anything.
Wow. Epcot looks like a disaster area. We have 2 days planned there and I don’t even think it is worth going to for even the food & wine by that video. What a shame !!
We have 2 days bookmarked for Hollywood Studios and one for Epcot. Should we get park hoppers, then, and not bother with our Epcot reservations? Epcot is my favorite but seems like such a shadow of itself with all the construction. We’d talked about rope dropping (lol) at 11 when it opens, hitting up some rides, and going back to the hotel for pool time or going to Disney Springs…
It probably in part depends upon when you’re going. I’m surprised Epcot is still opening at 11 am, and cannot imagine this keeps up in October and beyond. However, it might for August and September.
At present, there’s little advantage to doing Epcot first thing. You’d be better off doing Disney Springs first, as Maggie suggests, or the pool and then arriving (and staying) late. Or Park Hopping to Epcot.
We are hoping to get ADRS for dinning in Epcot. So, we need to have a park pass to make an ADR. My question is, At the 60 day mark when I can make my ADR for Epcot, can I then change my park pass to another park without losing my ADR? I hope I explained my question well enough. Thank yo for any help.
Maggie is correct–the two are not connected in Disney’s system whatsoever.
Can I just offer some advice? Don’t force a trip at this time! We just got back from a horrific trip to Disney and I feel like I ruined the magic for my family. Well, I guess Disney ruined the magic but I didn’t help by scheduling a trip when I knew it was super busy and Disney wasn’t ready to handle the crowds. I just don’t want anyone else to be disappointed…
I love some hearty noodles on a 100 degree day. Builds character.
Okay, Calvin’s dad. 😉
The real reason attendance is low at EPCOT. Porta potties in 105 Degrees.
WOW! that is a huge chunk of space under construction! thank for the video to really put it in perspective!
Thanks, Tom! Photographer, data scientist, and blogger! Beer carts and ice cream stands. Love your posts!
I am on pins and needles for you to redo the itineraries! T minus six weeks before our trip and I gotta wrap my head around what a crowded September might look like!
Great report as always. Seems like they may be “watering down” the concept? I hope not. Bring Epcot to its former glory or new glory I should write. I’m excited about the new concept so hope it comes to fruition.