Long story short, I have never been to WDW and it’s been over 20 years since my partner has. We have had this vacation planned and have been rolling it over for 2 years now. All of the upheaval in the parks has thrown me for a loop and I am now lost and confuzzled. I have some specific questions regarding my plans at EPCOT, but can use any advice anyone has since all the new parameters have been set in place. (I understand there are more coming…) I think I have the other parks down, but I am at a huge loss for EPCOT, as well as transportation.
(We are a family of three; 2 adults and our DS6. We will have our own car.)
Are there any specific attractions currently in any of the World Showcase Pavilions? (I see the gallery-type attractions are mostly opened, but cannot really find info on other things.) Any other non-rides open that aren’t on this park map from WDWinfo? Do you have a more recent map? lol.
How much time, now that so much stuff is closed, would you recommend spending in each Pavilion?
Which Pavilions are good right now and which are not so good?
We can do the Extended Evening Hours (DS is a night owl) and we can do the Early Theme Park Entry. Any predictions on how those will play out in each park, since I have never experienced any of the past scenarios? (Specifically, I was thinking about changing our EPCOT days to M/T from T/W in order to include the evening hours.)
How long does it take to get to Disney Springs and park…or should we take a bus instead and how long does that take (from Poly)?
Anything peculiar up with Disney Transportation right now?
The pavilions are all amazing. Lots of detail that should not be missed. You should plan up to 30 minutes in each. Although, this might prove boring for DS6. Then again, you could always have him search for Hidden Mickeys. There are cool ones in most of the pavilions.
The train village in Germany is pretty awesome. I also love the green spaces in Japan and UK, but all the pavilions are great. The only real rides are Three Cabelleros in Mexico, Frozen in Norway and Remy’s. If you are looking to get to DS straight from Epcot - I suggest walking to one of the Boardwalk resorts and jumping on the bus. Bus from Poly will take 15-20 mins not including wait times. I believe there is a chart on this site that include the travel times.
This will really depend on what you are trying to get out of WS (and what time of year you are going)
Are you planning on eating/drinking around the world and stopping at each pavilion to do so? Or are you just wanting to walk through them, enjoy the setting and move on? Is it a festival season where there are more booths open to eat/drink at? Are you interested in shopping in the various pavilions?
I can personally spend a whole day just in the WS. I love it. There are so many details in the pavilions that its fun to just take the time to explore the nooks and crannies. Plus the eating and drinking can’t be beat.
But if you just want to do the loop to see them all and ride the three attractions, its much quicker.
To me, the only pavilion thats just…okay, is Canada. Especially with the show being closed at the moment. But you’re walking by it any way so its quick to detour and walk through it.
My favorite pavilions are Mexico (so cool inside and La Cava is a must-do), Morocco (you can walk through the various gorgeous paths and it is easy to forget you are in a theme park), France (Les Halles is delicious and if Remy’s is open when you go there’s a lot to see), and the UK (again, the bar, Rose and Crown, is a must-do for me, but the whole pavilion is delightful)
There are also scavenger hunts if you are going during a festival which makes things fun for DS6 to explore as well.
Some people view Epcot as a half day park, but I could spend days there and be happy. But I do mostly adult only trips, so the eating, drinking and taking in the general ambience are my favorite parts. Hopefully others can chime in on how their kids enjoy it.
ETA: In my opinion, there isn’t a ton that is closed in the pavilions at the moment. The exception being some of the performances (Voices of Liberty, Mariachi band, drummers in Japan, etc) but some of those have moved into the amphitheater in the America pavilion.
This will depend on the timing for you of when the bus comes versus when you get to the bus stop. If you have a car with you (and driving doesn’t take you out of the vacation bubble feeling), that would be my personal choice to get to DS, because I like to be more in control of things. It takes 10-15 from the Poly, parking is SO easy there, and then you don’t have to worry about how long til your bus shows up.
Also Morocco is cool to explore, with a small museum and market / souk.
There are some gorgeous shops especially in Germany and France. Beautiful gardens in Canada (check out the totem poles and views from the waterfall), U.K. and Japan.
The Stave Church in Norway has an exhibition inside (I think it might be about Thor) but is also a true replica of the traditional churches in Norway.
For reference my wife and I spent 7-8 hours this past Sunday going around WS. We rode 3 Caballeros and Frozen (Remy was not open to general public), got something to eat at each country and looked through the shops. Also watched American Adventure show.
There are also the kidcot stations. When we were there in June, it was cards/stickers for the kids to collect in each country. Pre-Covid they were little activity centers.
It’s really going to depend on your family. Our family has always loved WS but some kids might find it boring. (We love to travel and explore other cultures in general.)
My kid is the type that memorized the flags of most of the countries in Africa when he was 4…I am currently overwhelmed thinking about trying to squash everything in to a couple days. (/cry) I was secretly hoping half of Epcot would be magically taken off the table. (Not really, but it would certainly simplify things for this Libra mama.)
The Morocco pavilion was closed for construction in June, not sure if it’s open again. So was Canada, but the movie was playing (which DS13 thought was super boring and it made me dizzy). But I adore the pavilions. Definitely do Norway and the UK. DS also loved japan but he’s into anime. Ashamed to admit we skipped the American pavilion entirely, but I prioritized the countries we don’t get to see. It could take many hours to do it all.
Morocco reopened and is looking stunning from photos that have been posted.
I got dizzy from the old Canada movie, I guess the new one still uses the surround screen so it’ll probably be the same for me. It’ll reopen once Food and Wine finishes.
They have Kidcot tables set up in each World Showcase pavilion. I’m sure this is probably a little different than pre-Covid times but they seem to be set up with like postcard size cards that have info about each of the countries. I’m sure some of the others can explain more about Kidcot. But I saw those tables in most countries.
There’s also a Remy scavenger hunt as part of the F&W festival where there are Remys hudden in the pavilions that you have to find. I saw several children doing this when I was there a couple of weeks ago. There’s a cost for the scavenger hunt but you get a prize when you complete it.
The Stave Church in the Norway pavilion has an exhibit on the Norse gods (not just Thor), with Viking artifacts and such. It was interesting and it’s not that big so worth checking out.
The Mexico pavilion has an exhibit about Dia de los Muertos that was nice.
The Morocco pavilion is beautiful and if you go way to the back Marrakesh has seating in AC so it’s a good place to eat your festival food (I highly recommend the food at Tangierine Cafe btw) and sit in AC. Also, the Morocco bathrooms were recently redone and are very nice.
And I know you didn’t mention AK but the Wilderness Explorers scavenger hunt there is a lot of fun. You go to places throughout the the park, learn about the different animals, and collect a sticker at each stop.
I was wondering about the Wilderness Explorers, too. Thanks for including that! Those are the types of things my little guy loves. I wasn’t sure if those were still going.
Yes! Wilderness Explorers is still going. I even did it myself! There’s a booth right as you get over the bridge to enter AK where you can pick up your booklet and get introduced to how it all works. Some of the experiences are modified a bit from what is in the booklet (one of the the things you’re supposed to do at the flamingos is look through a viewer the WE guide has but that’s not available now, for example) but it was a lot of fun and very informative!
Don’t forget KidCot stations in each WS pavilions. If you are there during F&W, there is also the scavenger hunt. My grown up children even got a kick out of WE at AK