Genie + a must in Epcot for CL 10 day when park opens at 8:30 AM?

Walt Disney World
#1

We are going in 2 weeks, CL is 10 on our Epcot day with deluxe evening hours (which we can’t do) so I expect the place to be packed…BUT Epcot is opening at 8:30 which I think gives people who are willing to wake up that early and get to the parks an advantage if I’m not mistaken. Thinking that I would try for an ILL for Remy, but on fence about getting Genie+ for the day–I was initially going to purchase but then the park is opening earlier than I originally planned for. Kids can wait a little while, but I don’t know if we could go beyond an hour unless the line is super cool. I have built in about a 200 minute break for going back to condo and resting midday if needed.

I tried to peek at wait times today on the MDE app to get some recent data but even on great internet my app is winding and seems frozen…

Must dos:
Soarin’ especially for my husband
TT especially for my son
The seas etc (I am a marine biologist so I’d like to hang out in an aquarium)
Mission Space
Living with the Land sounds pretty cool and relaxed.
Butterfly tent (where is this?)
Shopping in Japan particularly–I think DH and I would really like to tour around the world, DD would be interested, 5 YO son might be a little less interested in this, but we all agree that we need to go shop in Japan.
Harmonious

Less important:
FEA (I’d like to do it, my family isn’t super into princesses so I think they would enjoy themselves but it isn’t a top rated thing)
Figment–but this seems like we should do it?
Mission Space (sounds nausea inducing, we are a little wary)

Also if we end up in Japan before Harmonious, is there a good vantage point around there to watch fireworks? I don’t mind being up hill a little farther away from the action if necessary.

#2

No answers, but i will be there on 4/4/2022, never been at a “10” park crowd. Rethinking going there at all.

#3

Yes, I feel you. I’m trying to temper expectations. I have no idea what to calibrate against as to how a huge crowd feels at Epcot b/c the last time I was in WDW was when I was 10 and there were only two parks.

#4

Okay, so the crowd calendar has nothing to do with how many people are in the park; it’s an average of how long waits are across the day. That said, Epcot handles crowds much better than any other park.

I would imagine that people who are going to attend the extra evening hours would, most likely, hop over to the park in the evening. I could be wrong about that.

Touring around World Showcase can be fun for kids, too. There are KidCot stations at each pavilion, and those have been a lot of fun for my kids in the past. Of course, I used to be a world traveler, so my kids grew up enjoying pictures and stories about other cultures.

Since you mentioned the butterfly tent, I suppose you are there during Flower & Garden? If so, there is probably a scavenger hunt going on that your kids would enjoy.

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#5

So we were at Epcot last Thursday at a 9. Keep in mind it also poured rain that day so it might be different for you but we didn’t use Genie+ and rode every ride with a break and left before Harmonious (also 2 adults so we moved fast). We rope dropped TT and were through really quick but we did wait an hour for FEA and then got stuck at Soarin’ for a good hour because that was when the thunderstorm hit.

I would say if you don’t need to ride FEA and get ILL for Remy then you may be able to get away with no Genie+. Not sure if you are staying in a resort and can get there for 8am opening but if you could you could easily knock out TT without much of a wait and then it’s just finding a good time for Soarin’ (the line is boring but there is a game connected to Disney Play while you’re waiting).

Also the butterfly tent is between Figment and the Land building and if you are unsure but want to try Mission Space I would ride green, I find that one easy and boring but orange is just a little too intense for me.

#6

We are offsite, so no EE. I’m trying to track how the lines are building over the last few weeks for TT. I asked my family if they wanted to do FEA and it was a resounding NO. So that takes at least one long line off the table anyway.

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#7

We were there a few weeks ago and I would buy G+ for TT considering how often is goes down and it’s impacted by weather. While we were in the park, both Frozen and TT went down during our G+ time. We got to ride TT when it went back up but Frozen never came back and since it was end of day, turned into an anytime pass.