Land & Seas Tours Returning to EPCOT
Walt Disney World has announced the return of select guided tours in the Land and Living Seas pavilions at EPCOT in 2022. This post will offer a rundown of the returning options from the Enchanting Extras Collection, plus the behind the scenes tours that we’re hoping also make a comeback.
These are the latest behind the scenes offerings to return to Walt Disney World. Earlier this year, a number of tours returned to Animal Kingdom: Up Close with Rhinos, Caring for Giants, Savor the Savanna, and Wild Africa Trek. Over at Magic Kingdom, Keys to the Kingdom returned, which is arguably the flagship tour at Walt Disney World.
Beyond that, there have been a number of options from the Enchanting Extras Collection to return in the last few months. That includes everything from H2O Glow Nights at Typhoon Lagoon to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom. Now, a trio of tours are returning to the World Nature section of EPCOT…
Here are the official details from Walt Disney World: EPCOT truly offers something for everyone. With the park transforming and preparing to celebrate EPCOT’s 40th Anniversary on October 1, 2022 – it’s an exciting time to experience and explore the park’s pavilions.
There will soon be three more reasons to visit! Additional fan-favorite tours from Walt Disney World’s Enchanting Extras Collection are returning to EPCOT beginning October 2, 2022 as the latest tours returning to the parks.
These experiences offer a glimpse behind the scenes, offering guests the unique ability to experience EPCOT by land and by sea…
If you like the Living with the Land attraction at EPCOT, then you’ll 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.
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.
We absolutely love Behind the Seeds at EPCOT, and it’s actually the first Walt Disney World tour we recommend. Read and see more in our Behind the Seeds at EPCOT Tour Review.
The (Living) Seas with Nemo & Friends is home to more than 2,000 sea creatures representing over 90 aquatic species including sea turtles, angelfish, dolphins, eagle rays and sharks.
With the return of EPCOT Seas Adventures – DiveQuest, guests once again can dive right into this 5.7-million-gallon saltwater environment and immerse themselves into the sea life surrounding the coral reef. This experience offers SCUBA-certified guests guaranteed calm seas, unlimited visibility, no current and incredible marine life.
If you aren’t SCUBA-certified, there’s also an aquatic tour at the Living Seas pavilion for you.
With the return of EPCOT Seas Adventures – Dolphins in Depth, guests can meet the bottlenose dolphins at the Living Seas to learn about their complex undersea behavior and talk with the experts who work with them every day.
These guest-favorite tours return to EPCOT beginning October 2, 2022.
Advance reservations for the tours are available beginning August 22, 2022 on DisneyWorld.com or via the My Disney Experience app. Due to the popularity of these tours, advance bookings are highly recommended. The Behind the Seeds tour requires a valid theme park admission and reservation for EPCOT.
This is a welcome update, and addresses several more of Walt Disney World’s most popular tours among fans. Behind the Seeds, in particular, is beloved–and a great way to spend more time in the Living with the Land greenhouses.
Now that the Merry & Bright overlay is an annual thing that seems to get bigger and better each year, I’d love to see Walt Disney World offer nighttime Behind the Seeds tours at Christmas-time.
Other tours likely face other impediments to returning (like the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour) or will need to be overhauled prior to making a comeback (like the unDISCOVERed Future World Tour).
While the latter wasn’t my favorite tour that we’ve ever done, I’d love to see the Steam Trains Tour return (since that means the Walt Disney World Railroad would be back in action!), as well as Marceline to Magic Kingdom, Yuletide Fantasy, and a few others.
With that said, Behind the Seeds and Keys to the Kingdom are Walt Disney World’s “biggest” tours from my perspective. Having that duo back plus all of the niche animal offerings in the Living Seas at EPCOT and Animal Kingdom is big win.
It’ll be interesting to see whether more Enchanting Extras have return dates announced later this year. I’m somewhat surprised there were no After Hours events in the parks this summer–that had to be a matter of staffing, as it’s hard to imagine Walt Disney World leaving that money on the table by choice. Villains After Hours at Magic Kingdom was starting to gain popularity pre-closure, and an After Hours event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios would do well there given everything that has opened there in the last few years.
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of this news about behind the scenes tours returning to the Land and Living Seas pavilions at EPCOT? Planning on booking any of this? Excited for the return of Behind the Seeds? Would you do a nighttime ‘Merry & Bright’ Behind the Seeds Tour? Hoping more gets announced soon? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!
Looking forward to trying Behind the Seeds tour as have never done it and my wife is super keen to try it every time we visit The Land. We are returning hopefully before Christmas (from the UK!) and am trying to book this.
Has anyone tried to book it yet? I keep trying via the app but just get a loading spinner overlaid onto another screen where I can see it says bookings are available on the app… Tried on the website too.
Just wondering if there is another way, or maybe I need to call up!
Thanks
Any idea if they will be bringing back the other dove tour in The Seas, the one that doesn’t require Scuba certification? My 11 year old was disappointed to learn that it hasn’t returned yet and we go in November.
Behind the Seeds is one we really want to take. We did Wild Africa Trek yesterday and it was really fun and exciting. That’s definitely a must. Where else can you get a picture of your feet with 5 alligators beneath them? And don’t worry about that rope bridge they show in the promo material. If you can get across the barrel bridge on Tom Sawyers Island you can do this one no problem.
I love Behind the Seeds, and I might have done it again, but I just checked the price, and at $35 per person I think I’ll pass. The last time I did the tour it was around $20. I know things are more expensive, but that’s a pretty steep jump, and more than I’m willing to pay for a 1-hour tour. I would still recommend it for first timers, because it’s really unique.
DO you know how much these tours will cost?
Another strong recommend on the Behind the Seeds tour (especially for all LWTL fans). You won’t regret it. Personally I think there could a post of favorite scenes in LWTL: I love the “bison” scene.
Hi Tom
Any idea when Disneyland will have “A walk in Walt’s footsteps”? We have done the Keys tour and loved it. Wanted to see the difference between the two parks as far as tours go. Thank you
Good news! I loved the Behind the Seeds tour! I am hoping to do the Keys to the Kingdom on my next visit, which will, sadly, probably be a while from now.
You have totally sold us on trying the Behind the Seeds tour — so excited for this to open back up! Fingers crossed for our October visit!
This is great news! Any idea on when these reservations will open up on August 22nd?
done both divequest and behind the seeds. highly recommend both!