Tips for visiting Disney World: Epcot

Ok, here are my tips on Epcot....

Soarin' is the most popular ride at Disney World. I recommend being at the rope drop when it opens. The Soarin' people come and walk you to the ride so it's less chaotic. We went to Epcot during extra morning magic hrs. With the exception of Soarin, nothing else on that right side of the park was open. We ended up going to the other side and riding Test Track until the rest of the land and seas opened. So, if you go for extra morning magic hrs. do Test track, Mission Space. We split Epcot into 2 days. One day we went to the west side of the park and the other day we went to the east side. That worked well and saved us a few steps. If you are only going one day and want to do Soarin', do it first. Later in the day even its fast past line is kinda long.

If you go to Soarin first, go to Test Track next and then Mission space. These are all Fastpass rides so when you get off of one, whichever one you want, get FP for it so you can come back later and ride it again. I recommend riding Test Track again if you have to choose only 1 out of the 3.

Our favorite ride at Epcot was Test Track. That's 2 adults, and 11 yr. old boy and a 6 yr. old girl that all agreed on that! That doesn't happen with too many rides!

We rode the mild version of Mission Space. I heard horror stories about the spinning version. The mild version has a much shorter line too!

We got to Epcot at opening and we were done with one side of future world right about the time the world showcase opened. So, we basically spent 2-3 hrs. in future world, then about 3 more in the world showcase.

The world showcase was boring for my 11 yr. old. My 6 yr. old was entertained by the characters she was meeting and collecting stamps from around the world on her mask. Make sure you pick up a mask at your first world showcase stop. (There's more about those in my previous posts.)

Characters: We met Mary Poppins in England, Snow White in Norway, I think, Jasmine in Morocco, Belle in France.
There is a character spot in Future world to meet mickey, minnie, donald, and the crew, but its lines were always long. The best place to meet those characters is in Animal Kingdom, I think. The lines were shorter there.

Dining: These are only the places we ate...all are counter service restaurants.

Electric Umbrella in Future world. There was adequate seating and the drinks were fountain drinks that were self refillable which was nice. We didn't see that at many other counter service restaurants. The food was ok. We had basic overpriced hamburgers!

Refreshment Port in Canada: This place serves Mc Donald's chicken nuggets and fries. My daughter and I ate here...what more can I say? It's McD's food.

Yorkshire County Fish Shop in England: My husband and son ate here. They both said it was very good. Not much seating around here though.


Rides I recommend:
Test Track, Mission Space, Soarin, Livin with the land, Finding Nemo (the Seas building is really fun), Spaceship earth. The Ellen's energy adventure is suppose to be good, but it was closed when we were there.

The imagination building is fun and Honey, I shrunk the audience is good, but you have to stand and wait an long time in the preshow area and watch a bunch of Kodak commercials. We had seen this at Disneyland so I wish we would have skipped it. If you've never seen it, go see it though.

There are 2 rides in the world showcase: a 3 caballero boat ride in mexico and Maelstrom in Norway. These were both ok...I wouldn't stand in line for more than 10 min. for either of them though.

Step saving tip: use the friendships to get back and forth across the lagoon. They sail from Morocco and Germany.

Their evening fireworks show is called Illuminations. It's wonderful. You will need to find your viewing spot around the lagoon about an hour before it starts though. We watched from Canada so we'd be closer to the exit.

If you do extra evening hours be aware...Soarin will still have a wait! We watched illuminations in Canada, went to the restroom when it was over, then headed to Soarin, which wasn't that far. When we got there the stand by wait time was 70 min.! Needless to say, we didn't ride it then. We did ride livin with the land which had no wait. It was relaxing and a pleasant surprise. We really enjoyed that one. A good relaxing ride for the end of a long day!

There are several films at some of the pavilions (Canada, France, and a couple others). I hear they are good, but the kids were restless so we didn't watch any. Most of them you have to stand for. We caught the fife and drum thing in America though. We stopped and watched that and the kids were invited up to say the pledge of alligiance. We also stopped to listen to the storyteller in Japan...she was very good!

That's all I can think of for Epcot. Remember, if you want to see any other Disney tips click on the Disney label at the end of this post.