EPCOT
We adventured to EPCOT the second morning of our insane 2-days at Disney World. For an overview of our trip and tips (as well as links for the other parks), click here. For details on EPCOT, keep reading!
After a very restful night’s sleep following our crazy 20-hour day, we woke up and headed over to EPCOT: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. I remember watching Disney video tapes (yes, I’ve just dated myself—90s kid!) when I was little and seeing promos for EPCOT in all the Disney World ads. I would stare at that giant golf ball-esque sphere and think, “WHOA! I’m going to go there someday.” 20 years later, that came true! Honestly, I was still giddy when we first stepped into EPCOT, and so ready to take on the day.
We had woken up at 7:30am-ish and hopped on a bus around 8:15am to get to EPCOT by 8:30am to start our day. We hung around Future World until 11:00am, which gave us enough time to ride Spaceship Earth (Orlando-specific, Fast Pass), The Seas with Nemo & Friends (Orlando-specific) and grab a Starbucks coffee (of course).
Around 11am, we made our way over to World Showcase, where we spent the majority of our time (and also where most of my Disney Instagram pictures came from). It goes without saying that World Showcase was my favorite part of the park, and honestly probably of Disney World as a whole. I adored the building facades and country-inspired international foods. It’s difficult to choose a favorite pavilion, but we really enjoyed Japan (some bias there), Morocco, France and Canada. We circled the whole World Showcase display twice before lunch.
MEXICO: This pavilion is quite pretty from the outside, and nicely air conditioned on the inside. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time here, but really enjoyed walking around it.
NORWAY: This one was really more of an Arendelle pavilion, to be honest. Almost everything around it was Frozen-themed, and while it was pretty, we didn’t get as much out of it.
CHINA: The Chinese-themed pavilion was fun to walk through, and we really loved the 360 “Reflections of China” film. I’ll confess I’m a little biased since I used to live in Shanghai, but it’s definitely worth a walk-through. Also, fun fact: this pavilion served as the music video location for Christina Aguilera when she sang “Reflections” for MULAN!
GERMANY: This one looked like a cute German town, and has a model village with toy trains to the side of it that my husband really enjoyed. We didn’t spent a whole lot of time here since much of it is a Biergarten and there’s not a whole lot of German food I can eat with my gluten allergy.
ITALY: We didn’t spend much time here, either, but we loved the architecture. This pavilion has recreations of Saint Mark’s Campanile and Doge’s Palace, which give it such a classic feel.
USA: To be honest…we completely skipped this one both walkarounds. I don’t even have a photo to share. From the outside, it sort of looked like a rehash of Liberty Square at MK.
JAPAN: The gorgeous pagoda (again, bias from living in Tokyo), replica of the Imperial Palace and Itsukushima Shrine make the Japan pavilion a standout. This is one of the original pavilions, and has a cute little shop inside that we struggled to resist purchasing anything at.
MOROCCO: Did you know that the Moroccan government actually aided in the design of this one? It shows!!! The architecture at this one was our favorite of all the pavilions, and really added fuel to our desire to visit Morocco someday. There’s not a whole lot to do here, but definitely stop by to take in how pretty it is.
FRANCE: Meant to look like a Parisian town, the French pavilion can definitely make you feel like you’re in a scene from Ratatouille. We grabbed ice cream here at L’artisan des Glace, and really loved it. This area carries so much charm, and I only wish we had enough time to watch “Impressions de France.”
UK: Honestly, we weren’t too impressed with this pavilion. It was fun to walk around and see the Twining’s tea shop, but it wasn’t as rich in culture as I felt it could have been.
CANADA: Truth be told, we really liked this pavilion. We had fun watching the 360 “O Canada!” film with Martin Short, and found the waterfalls to be quite pretty. But most of all, OUR LUNCH AT LE CELLIER was soooo good. We managed to score a reservation there on Canada Day, so the place was packed. Le Cellier has great lunch deals and also has substantial allergy-conscious selections. We were able to have a refreshing poached pear salad, delicious steaks (me a ribeye and him a filet mignon), the BEST truffle-wine poutine ever and a maple crème brulee. Easily one of our top two favorite meals!
After our (long and worthwhile) lunch at Le Cellier, we finally made our way over to Hollywood Studios. We opted to take a ferry boat from one park to the other, and while walking may have been a faster option, it was quite fun and ended up being a nice place for us to nap a bit to recover from our food coma. Plus, it was raining a bit, so it was great to be covered. We finally arrived at Hollywood Studios close to 4pm, and just had a few hours to spend there before our dinner reservation!
For Hollywood Studios, click here.