Should You Skip EPCOT?
Some Walt Disney World vacation planners question whether they should skip EPCOT due to ongoing construction and upcoming ride reimaginings. This post covers what’s happening, when projects will be completed, and how they’ll impact your experience on upcoming visits.
When it comes to radical Disney park overhauls, there are two existing ‘templates’ based upon recent projects: Disney California Adventure and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Most Walt Disney World fans will likely be familiar with the latter, which sacrificed a lot to get where we are today.
Both of these other park reimaginings significantly impacted guests, albeit in markedly different ways. Epcot’s overhaul will likewise no doubt weigh on the park experience for the next couple of years. The question thus becomes, should you skip Epcot?
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, several attractions closed in order for construction to occur, including flagship and opening day experiences that defined the park, along with other less-popular offerings. There were fewer attractions to experience, but the construction at DHS didn’t significantly impact the atmosphere. Most construction occurred within buildings or out of the way, with walls up at dead-ends but not in main thoroughfares or places creating visual blight.
By contrast, the reinvention of Disney California Adventure was primarily burdensome in how it impacted crowd-flow and in the sea of construction walls throughout the park. The worst of this occurred when the park entrance actually re-routed guests backstage behind Soarin’ while Buena Vista Street was being built. Despite this, there were few “important” attractions taken out of commission for the overhaul. Basically, the divergent approaches are “atmosphere v. attractions.”
Epcot is somewhat of a mix of these two, skewing much more towards the DCA end of the spectrum. The central spine or core of Epcot is currently behind a maze of construction walls, which means the large area between Spaceship Earth and World Showcase is currently inaccessible. Very little current information is known about the scale and scope of whatever is going to happen to what we “lovingly” are referring to as the Giant Epcot Dirt Pit.™️
That’s no exaggeration–take a look for yourself:
Substantively, this area of World Celebration behind Spaceship Earth contains Dreamers Point, a wishing tree in an enchanted forest, natural environments, global design elements, interactive features, and gardens.
Also coming to this area is Communicore Plaza & Hall, which is essentially just Innoventions rebuilt. This will be an area to watch music and other entertainment, with areas to sit, eat, relax, and more. In other words, it’s most landscaping and true park elements–not a single ride will be built here.
CommuniCore Hall and Plaza won’t open until sometime in 2024.
This area also includes Moana’s Journey of Water, an interactive area with fountains and water features. That should be a fun walk-through that’s enjoyable for families with small children, but it’ll be better characterized as a diversion than an actual attraction.
Moana’s Journey of Water is now open.
The good news is that progress is being made at the front of Epcot, and guests are already seeing the fruits of this overhaul. The reimagined park entrance project is finished and looks fantastic. Redesigned landscaping, flags, topiaries, and an iconic prismatic pylon fountain in front of Spaceship Earth have all been installed.
These are further enhanced at night by an upgraded lighting package, including the Beacons of Magic. This is an all-new lighting effect on the outside of the geodesic sphere that debuted for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. It seems like a minor thing, but it’s absolutely mesmerizing.
Along the perimeter of the aforementioned Giant Epcot Dirt Pit, a few locations have already opened: Creations Shop and Club Cool. These were built in the former Innoventions building, where MouseGear was previously located.
On the other side of the building, Connections Cafe & Eatery is now open in the space that used to house Electric Umbrella. This counter service restaurant is nothing special, but it’s better than what it replaced, and its opening also means there’s a clear path from the front entrance to World Showcase.
In front of Mission: Space and behind those locations, Space 220 Restaurant is now open. This highly themed dining experience takes place in a space station offering views of Earth from 220 miles up.
For more info, take a look at our Photos & Video Inside Space 220 Restaurant as well as our Space 220 Lunch Review that looks at whether the food is worth the $55 price tag. Suffice to say, there’s a good reason this is the most popular (and hardest to book) Advance Dining Reservation at Walt Disney World.
In this same neighborhood (World Discovery), the biggest addition to Epcot is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is a hybrid roller coaster. This is the biggest-budget project at Walt Disney World since Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and it is now open.
The debut of Cosmic Rewind effectively answers the titular question for everyone. If you were still on the fence after Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Harmonious, this should settle things for you. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is an absolute must-do roller coaster. It’s a great addition and likely will become the top-rated ride at Epcot. For more read our Spoiler-Free Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind Ride Review.
Also in World Discovery, the Play Pavilion will replace Wonders of Life. Maybe.
This was also intended to open “in time for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.” An official date has not been announced for this, and Walt Disney World has been totally silent about this addition for the last 3 years.
At this point, the Play Pavilion project might’ve been abandoned. If not, it won’t open until 2025 at the earliest.
In World Showcase, the newest attraction to open at Epcot is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. This family-friendly trackless dark ride is part of an expansion of the France pavilion. That also includes retail and restaurant additions, most notably La Crêperie de Paris.
There is no other notable construction occurring in World Showcase. It’s possible that there will be minor refurbishment projects and aesthetic refreshes from time to time, but there aren’t any substantive additions or closures planned.
We’ve been addressing this question of whether readers should skip Epcot for the last couple of years, and for a while “it depends” was our answer. We leaned strongly towards “yes” through last summer, and “no” stopped being an answer–at all–with the start of Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.
Now, with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Luminous: Symphony of Us, Space 220, Club Cool, and the overhauled entrance all open, there is absolutely no reason to skip Epcot. Yes, the sea of construction walls is undeniably frustrating and an eyesore. However, skipping Epcot means missing out on Walt Disney World’s newest rides, biggest budget nighttime spectacular, and one of the most ambitious themed restaurants ever. It’s a no-brainer.
To be sure, Epcot still needs a lot of help and could use even more reimagined attractions and improvements as part of its overhaul, but it’s already dramatically improved as of 2024.
Ultimately, the answer to the question, “should you skip Epcot?” is ABSOLUTELY NOT. What’s closed versus what’s open and will be debuting in the very near future skews heavily in favor of the new stuff. Epcot has had some major additions in the last two years, with even more on the horizon in 2024. What we are “losing” to gain all of these new attractions and a visually transformed Epcot is (arguably) not much.
Accordingly, we do not recommend anyone skip Epcot in 2024. The park is going through tremendous growing pains, but it looks worse than it actually is. When it comes to attractions, Epcot will have more to do in 2024 than it did in the last few years. Plus, Epcot has better atmosphere and food options than any other park at Walt Disney World, which is especially true and important as the phased reopening continues.
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Your Thoughts
Will you be following our advice and visiting Epcot in the next couple of years? Do you disagree and think the volume of construction is simply too much to justify paying full price for Epcot admission? Excited about the park’s future? Any other feedback on upcoming changes and how they’ll impact the experience? 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!
Any predictions on when International Cast Members will come back? Their presence is such a huge part of the World Showcase experience.
Our family LOVES Epcot! We still have not seen all it has to offer even with an 8 day vacation and park hoppers for June of 2021. We have several young kiddos who love all of the learning aspects of the park, collecting the cards and stickers around the world was a huge hit with them! We still need to see the trains, and want to do the tea garden tour, hope the soil talk comes back next year during the Flower Festival, and hope we can soon try going behind the scenes at The Land when tours return. We do miss the play areas being open, but were certainly not short of things to do and see while there during construction. We haven’t seen the movies in all of the pavilions yet, have not ridden Remy yet (wasn’t open), but the shopping, food booths, mariachi bands, and entertainment made it all memorable and was a bonus to the rides, the incredible gardens and topiaries, and educational and cultural offerings. Epcot needs to be savored by slowing down and allowing yourself to be caught up in the experience by touring the museums, pavilions, and learning centers. Our kids love Epcot so much that when we scheduled a short three day trip for the following spring (this year ;D) and could only pick three parks to go to we let them choose, both of them (they were asked separately) said they wanted to go to Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood in that order, no MK! A shocker to us, but that’s what we booked and everyone is thrilled!
Is everyone forgetting that 2022 will be Epcot’s 40th anniversary? This fact alone makes Epcot a must-do for 2022!
My husband and I just came back from Disney World in late May 2021. Epcot was a HUGH disapointment. All the characters are gone (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom), there was absolutely no country cultural representatives in any of the World Showcase “countries”, no live cultural performances of any kind, KidCot was pretty much gone, (just collect cards with stamps and then get a post card at the end), and many of the restaurants were reduced service. I have been to Disney World in 2006, 2008, and 2016, and had the best time of all the parks in Epcot with the kids who loved to play at the Innovation hands on attraction which is now gone. Until construction is completed, skip Epcot, not much there in my opinion. Most import, take your own toilet paper to all the parks as Disney World has gone super cheap on bathroom tissue!!!!
The trains in Germany are our 2 boys absolute FAVORITE thing at any park in Disney World! Is there any talk of if/when they’ll close that up for good? Our little guys always remember exactly where the trains are even if it’s been a year since we’ve been and run straight to them…I know they will be super sad when they’re gone!
Big skip.
My husband and I really enjoyed Epcot when we went for our honeymoon in 2007. It was our favorite Park. Although much of the park was closed in 2007 there were still some things to do.
We went back in December of 2019 and were shocked to see that all of the construction projects that were started in 2007 had not been completed. We were also shocked to see that 75% of the parks attractions and buildings were closed. We were very disappointed and wished we hadn’t gone back because we missed the way the park used to be. Most of what is open is in need of renovations or broken. The fountains no longer play music and have water shows in time to music. The balloons in the eating area no longer move up and down or have music. The playroom for kids the imagination room most of the games are broken or don’t work.
Because so much of the park is closed the wait lines for rides are even longer. I traveled there with my family and we were not able to ride any rides because my 3-year-old could not stand the wait for 2 hours in the fast pass line.
Boycott Epcot until they complete the renovations. 12 years is more than enough time to complete renovation projects.
This post is false. This was such a disappointment, even with free tickets, not worth the time or parking amounts.
With the ridiculous wait times even by noon on Thanksgiving and club cool being removed the previous September, can’t park hop, so it was a waste for entertainment. It would be good for shopping as always, but that’s all.
It makes it worse when there’s so much walled off removing access to the small playgrounds or even general walk ways making it harder to get around.
Oh, forgot to add, there’s nothing to help the long wait lines such as fast pass either, so yeah, enjoy that.
…You went to Disney World on Thanksgiving and were surprised/upset that the lines were long??
You should expect long lines at Epcot. Especially since Frozen Ever After is still a popular hit and besides this it was Thanksgiving so you should expect longer than average wait times. Especially at Epcot.
Thank you all for the help.
Yeah, the question of whether to go to Epcot is a big pass for us. We went on August 30th and it was not good. Tons of mask violations with very little correction from cast members, plus large dense crowds, endless dead ends, and just very little to do (many rides down.) We’ve gone to all the parks except HS and this is the first time we really felt at risk. We didn’t enjoy it. If you’re higher risk like we are, avoid Epcot.
We visited Epcot over Labor Day weekend and were disappointed. There wasn’t much to do and it seemed like so much was under construction. We felt like we wasted our money that day.
This will be my first trip with my family (husband and 2 kids ages 11 and 8). My kids have never been. We are doing a 5 day pass after Christmas into the beginning of Jan. We can visit all the parks for 1 day then choosing to visit a park for a second time. I originally choose Epcot. We live in Southern Calif. so this park as I could remember was the most different, compared to what we can get here from Disneyland. But now with all the construction do you suggest still planning 2 days at Epcot or doing another park?
Just my 2 cents… we’ve been to Disney World a few times and there has never been enough at Epcot to take up an entire day (unless you want to just stroll through World Showcase). You can get through the major rides in less than a day with 2 boys. If I were you, I’d do one day at Epcot and spend the extra day at one of the other parks. We always do 2 days at Magic Kingdom because of it’s size… but Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios (especially with the new Star Wars land) could take up 2 days.
Yeah, I would *definitely* not do two days at Epcot with kids that age. We are big Disneyland fans as well and the park we find the most different is Animal Kingdom. I would do a second day either there or Magic Kingdom. I actually think Disneyland is superior to Magic Kingdom but it’s still a nice park. If you are real Star Wars fans you could look at a second day at Galaxy’s Edge but since that’s pretty much identical to California probably not worth it (unless California never reopens …)
We are those once every two to three year people. We have always done two to two and half days in Epcot. With construction and COVID we barely made it though one day. Luckily we were able to get a second day in Hollywood Studios. It was also very crowded! So many people trying to get to the same food and drink stands because all the stuff we love just wasn’t happening. Epcot is missing all of the great small surprises that made it so interesting and fun to plan in.
We were at EPCOT in October/November and again in February and the construction was AWFUL. They would have been better off doing small areas of construction, instead of taking on such a huge project all at once. We were there for dinner three different evenings and stayed for their night show which was amazing. I can’t imagine going there for an entire day with the mess of the construction and no street shows or evening shows. We have reservations for November which will be cancelled.
We visited EPCOT earlier in August – I don’t like being critical because I’m happy it is open but what was a bit magic-breaking for me wasn’t the mask-wearing, temp checking, no-sipping-while-strolling, maze of construction walls or even the fireworks, it was the lack of country cultural representatives. The flavor of the World Showcase just wasn’t the same. The palpable camaraderie among Country-Mates was missed. Cast members that were filling in were bored and not afraid to admit it as it was an especially slow day. I will certainly appreciate them more (and will be sure to tell them) when they can return.
I was at Epcot 2013, August 2019, March 2020. It was and still is my favorite park. The 6 years between 2013 and 2019 was too long for me to really feel any difference at the park. Definitely more construction walls up during the 2020 trip than 2019 trip, but it did not affect our enjoyment of the park at all. However, it is an unpleasant walk through Future World to leave the park at the end of the day. We took the Skyliner to the Riviera, strolled around, and had an Uber pick us up there. It was lovely. I would definitely go back within the next year.
I was there today with my two kids (13y girl & 15.5yr boy) and we all had a great time. Yes, there are a lot of walls in Future World and yes, you can get stuck in a dead end or go the wrong way but there are signs painted on the walls for the various attractions so navigation really isn’t all that hard. In fact, unless you’re already familiar with the park, you don’t even notice that anything is missing. The real troubles were the spotty WiFi, a poorly implemented App, and $10 for a slice of mediocre cheese pizza (pack in your own lunch).
We spent from 9-4 at the park and definitely weren’t bored. We didn’t even have time to do all the attractions (get your FastPass+ well in advance) or pavillion shows. Just remember that EPCOT is a demonstration, not an amusement park, and don’t expect the same kinds of things you’d find at Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. But there’s a real chance to learn something here!
EPCOT is terrible with all this construction. I am not going back to EPCOT until 2023!!!
We are visiting this summer with some friends who do not go very often. They have a limited amount of time and based on some of the comments regarding how difficult the construction is to navigate, I sort of regret telling them to purchase the discounted 4 day Magic tickets, as they may not want to goto EPCOT with all of this
EPCOT yesterday. So much construction and construction walks that it was an actual maze with sudden dead ends and NO SIGNAGE to point you in the right direction. We entered by International gateway, but tried to exit through the main gate. It took forever. We asked a cast member for directions and were told, “That way.” But, we still ended up stuck in the maze for a while walking way too much when it could have been avoided with signs. The only other construction issue was that entry to France was closed from the Great Britain side. You would have to go all the way around the lake to get to the other side of that bridge. Other than trying to get to the exit, we had a fun time.
I’m sitting at Epcot right now looking up articles to convince me to stay since after 2 hours, I’m incredibly bored. I grew up in California going to Disneyland all the time, I’m a big fan of the parks in general but this is my first time at Disney world and for my 3rd day to come to Epcot thinking it was going to be my favorite park, I’m pretty disappointed. Looking forward to things being complete in a few years and I’ll be back with high hopes of redemption.
Milla,
I echo those sentiments. I was there late Sept early Oct and planned for 2 days at Epcot. Barely made it through one as the kids kept saying they were bored. We went to HWS and AK instead and the kids were thrilled. I realize Epcot was designed differently than other theme parks but the place is in state of decay right now. It hasn’t aged well. Hopefully, we the new design it will be reinvigorated as long as they don’t screw up the Showcase which IMO should be left alone with minor upgrades only. Right now its so big with so little substance.
Large areas of the park sit stagnant with so many changes taking place. The 2016-2019 transition period proved worthwhile at HS, no doubt the same will hold true at Epcot. For now the park flow at Epcot suffers but there’s plenty left to fill one day. If you really are bored, maybe take a Skyliner exploration break.
I’m confident that by fall 2021 Epcot will once again knock our socks off and be worth the current sacrifice.
How will the construction at Epcot effect t the International Flower Show in 2020?